My right shoulder was hurt bad. Really bad. Walking was painful, sitting was painful. Overall, it just sucks. I was now laying under the tree where all my stuff sat. I had dragged the beaver over under the tree with me. It had stopped leaking blood at this point, but the smell was starting to get a bit disgusting. Sometimes I would look at it in disbelief. I managed to kill this thing. How I was going to eat it had yet to come together, but I at least had some ideas now. I now had many options open up to me. Having a new tool and renewed perspective on how dynamo worked only made my life easier.
"Damn I am thirsty." I suddenly thought. The leather taste in my mouth had become too overwhelming to ignore anymore. I shakily stood up and inched my way over to the river and drank from it. As I stared at the water I remembered my initial plan here, which was to get some fish. For now it was out of my reach because I was fresh out of energy. Even ignoring the dynamo I have yet to regenerate, I myself haven't had time to recover yet. I finished drinking and retreated to my tree. My mind was now filled with countless possibilities of the future. How many of these creatures existed? How are they also able to use dynamo? If I can produce ice what else can I do? Countless other questions and possible answers flooded me. As I tried to give all these thoughts consideration, I grew tired. And I drifted to sleep.
The sound of grass rustling nearby set my brain on high alert. My mind was sluggish but did its best to jolt me awake. My eyes shot open and looked out across the area nearby. I frantically glanced to every shrub to see if any of them were moving. Since the trees were sparse, the only real place to hide was these bushes. But as I swept my gaze around me, I found the source of the sound. A group was walking towards me.
"A group of people?" I said in awe.
I had no conscious ability to notice, but I can only assume my jaw was on the floor. I hadn't seen a human in weeks. It was a sight for sore eyes. I could finally be free from this hell. I could take my new found powers back to civilization and live out my power fantasies. Everyone will bow down to me, or something like that. I don't know what I'll do yet but that will be up to me when I do things again. Maybe I'll make a killing as a magician. But enough with the fantasies.
"Hey are you guys a rescue team or something? I'm so glad you made your way here! Its been weeks since I showed up here!" I practically shouted.
Only now did I take a good look at the people. It was a group of four. Three men, one woman. They weren't dressed like any sort of rescue service that I've ever seen. But who cares about something like that. Although they did appear to have some sort of armor on. Each of them had hunks of metal strapped to their body. It didn't look refined or have any real craftsmanship. Something felt strange. They stopped around 10 feet from me tree. The person leading the group spoke.
"Its good to see someone else survive. Did you kill this thing?" he gestured toward the dead beaver. His voice was deep. He looked to be around mid 30's. His hair was around shoulder length, a dark brown. He had sunken tired eyes and high cheekbones. His beard was unkempt. He had an ax strapped to his hip. He looked intimidating. Like a hunter, or maybe a barbarian. He wore an unreadable expression on his face.
"I did" I boasted "It came at me while I was trying to get some fish, It thought it could get the better of me I'm guessing. Have you seen anything like it before?" I questioned.
The man looked at the beaver for a moment, then turned back to me.
"I've seen lots of things. Not this exact creature but I've seen similar things. Where are you traveling from?" He looked at me, his face refusing to give me any amount of information.
"I came from the mountain back that way." I held up my hand with my thumb aimed behind me.
"And how did you come into dynamo?"
I froze.
'How does he know about something like that? well he does have armor and an ax so I can't call him a simple person. It seems like he has been privy to this information for a long time, considering the way he was unsurprising by the beaver.'
"I saw what I thought to be a piece of coal on the ground, so I went to grab it. After that I've had access to it and have been studying it ever since." I said.
Although this was true, I made sure to hide anything about the lab as best I could. In terms of lucky encounters, I had no idea how valuable that place was. At the very least it was really cool. Not something that I should give up voluntarily. Especially if these guys already know about dynamo, the lab would be much more valuable to them than me.
"That's lucky, I'm impressed you learned to conjure with no real knowledge." He said, his cold eyes ever fixed on me.
"learned to what" I responded in confusion.
"Oh right, you don't know about these things. Conjuring is the act of using dynamo to create something. Whether that be fire, ice, or anything else similar. It is pretty difficult to do even if you know what you have to do for conjuring. To figure it out on your own without knowing the process is even more difficult. So naturally I am impressed." He explained.
"Ahh I see what you mean, I guess I am pretty impressive. My street name was 'Mr. Quick Wit' back home." I joked "and I was wondering, why are you guys way out here in the wilderness?"
He paused for a long second. For the first time I saw emotion appear on his neutral face. A loot of pity. "I feel I should let you know everything about our situation from the start. I regret to be the one to tell you this…"
"but Earth no longer exists."