Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Silver gingerly opened his eyes; they burned with a metaphorical fire, watering and stinging as they tried to take in the morning light. His entire body felt like a raw mass of pain, particularly his head. He felt like he had been dropped out of the window of his second story apartment and landed head first.

He could feel something was pressing into his lower back. Still less than half awake, he turned his body to look at the offending object. It didn't feel like anything that was supposed to be in his bed, but he also slept with a bowie knife under his pillow, so who knows. As his mind became more alert, he noticed a few things weren't quite right with this situation.

Blinking his eyes as he looked around, he felt his heart speeding up. He was not in his apartment. He definitely did not live in a forest. His bed was nowhere to be found, and he had more sense than to assume this was a dream. He was a vivid dreamer, but he could always tell the difference. Dreams always seemed to have a border, a haze. Like viewing an old movie on an older VCR. He'd never mistake this wet earth and humid air for a dream. He had woken up in some sort of temperate rainforest.

He glanced down. A root? He thought, rising to his feet, looking at the gnarled piece of wood that had been under him. His knife wasn’t there with him, but from the sounds of the forest, the growls and loud animal calls, he wished it was.

He didn't remember a forest like this near the city he lived in. He was sure he'd remember, considering he'd lived there his entire life; trapped in a small town.

He examined his surrounding as calmly as he could, refusing to give in to the rising fear in his chest.

"Don't think, just move. Slowly," he told himself. He picked a random direction and did just that. The sun was high in the sky. Both of them, the red and the...blue one. Silver froze and slowly raised his head again, staring directly into the sun.

"Suns!" He self-corrected. He could feel his panic rising. The world was wrong, an extra sun had decided to grow in the sky, his butt was moist, and there was an odd lemur creature with red scales in a tree some distance away that seemed to be laughing at him. He glared at it and the creature belly laughed again and leaped off further into the trees. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad. Hopefully it wasn’t going to return with its friends.

Silver decided to turn around. Head away from the lemur thing. Monkeys were usually communal on...Earth. Or worlds with only one sun. He wasn't sure, as much as he knew he should be, but he was close to certain this wasn't Earth anymore. He'd work out the logistics when he knew he was safe from red monkeys and possibly magical thrown poop. He'd read enough books and played enough games to know that any world that wasn't Earth had a fair chance of being magical. And deadly.

He tried to convince himself he wasn't panicking as his feet gradually picked up speed. He kept panic jogging amongst the dense trees hoping to hear another person nearby. Or run across a road, or even right into another person. Instead, he ran straight out of the forest and almost off a cliff. His legs gave out. He dropped to his knees and began to suck down air as he stared into the abyss below. It was the middle of the day and yet he couldn't see the bottom of the cliff below the inky darkness.

When his lungs no longer felt like they were burning, and the dark terror that had clouded his mind began to die down, he took the time to examine his surroundings again.

Cliff. He got that. Forest behind him. Noticed that also. Assessment done. He looked along his sides and noticed that the forest intersected the cliff drop about 20 feet on either side. He'd just gotten lucky and found the one spot that let him stop before running himself into an oblivious death. He looked back at the forest as he thought about what he needed to do. He didn't want to die. He needed to find shelter, water, and food; And following that, find civilization.

Maybe he could find a nice cave like in the movies. He took a moment to consider then began towards the tree line again.

"Hello!" His voice roaring into the open forest, and he hoped a monkey wouldn’t respond. Nothing. There was plenty of noise, but none of it human. He continued to walk as he thought, occasionally calling out for help, scanning his surroundings for a cave, a rocky outcrop, a sheltered cluster of trees, or even some form of wreckage from an alien civilization. A crashed star cruiser? He continued walking like this for a few hours, stopping occasionally to rest his tired legs and weak body. He wasn't athletic and had always been very thin. He wasn't made for this. He continued to move on, only stopping occasionally to cower when some nightmare creature slunk by too closely for comfort. He'd long since realized that a tiny red lemur was the least of his problems the first time a giant feline-esque monster the size of a small house prowled by tracking a large pangolin creature.

Neither creature seemed to give a shit about a tiny human, though the feline monster had glanced dismissively at his hiding spot briefly before turning back to it’s hunt, entirely aware of Silver the entire time and wanting him to know that it knew. Silver didn’t like how intelligent some of these beasts seemed to be.

He eventually noticed that the trees ahead were thinning. He picked up his pace and broke though the sparse brush. Ahead of him was a clearing with small plant growth. Shrubbery was everywhere, bushes with colorful berries, small trees, buzzing insects, and he could hear water from near the trees on the far side of the clearing directly across from him.
He carefully glanced around, but seeing nothing giant or threatening, and his hunger and thirst driving him, he powered forward towards a bush with large cherry sized berries. They were a neon purple and their round surface had small bumps, but he ignored that. His rational mind told him to test the berries on his skin first, or maybe find a small animal to force feed, but his stomach told him it'd be okay. His stomach won. He started scarfing down berries by the handful, eventually making his way to the sound of the water, a river cutting through the forest, and once again ignorantly sticking his face in the water and gulping mouthfuls of the sweet, life-giving liquid.

A few moments later, belly full and not feeling immediately poisoned, Silver sat with his feet in the water, watching a large rock in the water bob up and down, slowing drifting toward the shore he was on. A bird swooped low and dropped a rock onto it and the rock swiftly submerged itself with a roar, startling Silver back to his feet.
What was that? He thought. That wasn't a rock at all. It was so close, and with that speed...it could have snatched my legs and dragged me under in a second.

"I've got to find somewhere safe," He said aloud. He needed people, houses, walls, weapons. He needed information. He ran back to the clearing, stuffed more of the odd, brightly colored berries in his pocket, then turned to leave.

A very large shadow fell over Silver. Unwillingly, he felt his eyes pulled upward, as he witnessed a gargantuan bird that wouldn't be out of place in a prehistoric exhibit fly over him and drop something large before continuing into the distance. It seemed apathetic to the escape of its prey, with a tendril of some grotesque meat still dangling from its gleaming, metallic talons. The wet, bloody ball of meat rolled until it crashed into the trees by the river, knocking several over before coming to a stop. It looked like a very large eye. The aberrant meatball was bigger than he was, so if it was an eye, he didn't want to meet whatever creature the bird had ripped it out of.

He started to move closer to the disgusting thing when suddenly its surface split vertically and opened, revealing a giant golden eye that blinked at him. Or rather, glared. He felt it unleash an almost tangible aura of power on him; powerful beyond his imagining. The force of it pushed him back, briefly lifting him from the ground, and he whirled his arms in an attempt to regain his balance as his feet hit the soft earth below, barely succeeding. It was just an eye, but it was more than capable of expressing itself. He tried moving closer and the eye seemed to become more enraged the closer he became, and the pressure growing stronger. It got harder to breathe. It felt like a crushing weight weighing on some part of him he couldn’t seem to fathom. Something intangible to him. He was more afraid of this seemingly sentient eye than anything else he had seen thus far. Its very presence whispered death to him. He could feel it, as he examined its strange alien form, a prickling at the edge of his sanity. Something whispered to him, a promise of death, a countdown to his own demise spoken in a language he couldn’t understand. But he continued still, inexorably drawn along by some base instinct he had never felt before; a primal hunger from a core he had never known existed within himself. The creature was injured; bleeding from many open wounds. He couldn't tell exactly what made them, maybe the giant nightmare of a bird.

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He walked around the giant aberration, a living mockery of a living eye. It's flesh splitting and reforming to reveal the ever-present gaze of the eye. Always keeping him in sight. The lids protruded like lips, and it had teeth instead of lashes. Its ‘skin’ looked like the bloody exposed muscles of a skinned human, just…roiling. Splitting, reforming. It was slight, but noticeable as close up as Silver was. The eyeball itself seemed to be solid gold, though not pure, absolute gold. It was grainy and textured, and the different parts of the eye were different shades of gold. Keeping his hand away from the teeth, he reached out. Some primal part of his inner being seemed to be urging him on.

Slowly...slowly, until. *Pfsh*!

"Oww!" He leapt back, away from the creature. It had burned him. There was no trace of it on his skin, but when he touched the monster, he had felt like every inch of his very being had come alive with mind flaying pain for a moment. The humid, moist air brushed his skin, sending a tingle down his spine.
When he pressed his hand against it, he became aware of a stream of information being imparted. Images, feelings, thoughts, had flooded his mind, threatening to overload it. This creature, it was a kind of sentient eye race. It was condescending, narcissistic, xenophobic, and powerful. Very powerful indeed. It wasn't supposed to be on the surface world but was driven away after losing a fight with another creature for territory in the dark tunnels below the surface of the earth below his feet. It had somehow found its way to the surface, still injured, and was attacked by the bird that he had seen. While it carried him, it sacrificed a chunk of its flesh to struggle free and landed here.
And it was regenerating. He somehow knew he still had hours before he was in danger, but if he could trust the visions in his head, which he assumed were the creature’s own memories, senses, and thoughts, he didn't want to be around when that time came. This creature at full strength, could bend reality. And while that was cool, he wasn't keen on finding out how well a human body handled being bent.
The creature seemed infuriated at being touched by a lesser being, but still couldn't do anything. Silver knew he was safe as long as the teeth didn't bite him. Its abilities were essentially nil in its current condition.

His curiosity got the better of him. Gingerly, he reached toward the nightmare again. He could feel the feedback again, but less intense. He had an instinctive feeling that he should be able to do...something. He could feel the creature. It's body, muscles, even its incomprehensible DNA, he could somehow understand it all. He felt it's power, dormant, pulling energy from outside it's body to heal itself. He could feel it's anger, it's shame at not being able to crush him, its fury at its own shame, and confusion at what he was doing. Then he could feel its abilities. They felt enormous to him. As if they were physical bodies, towering over him. Mountains of power.

Teleportation, reality bending, spacial warping, phasing. He felt like he was inside of it. A small, powerless, spiritual form in the core of a creature that should only exist in the mad mind of a Lovecraftian nightmare where the power resided. It wanted to tear him apart. He couldn't even get near the powers deeper inside. He just knew instinctively what they were.

His spirt form approached the source of its phasing ability. It wasn't so much a mountain but a small hill. He gently placed his hand on it. It felt like he should be able to do something to it. He pulled back and moved on. Floating through what felt like lesser abilities. Utilitarian or ignored. Less powerful, and therefore less useful for this godlike entity. He looked through them as he passed. Sometimes when he felt one call to him, he’d place a hand on it and examine it before retreating to resume his search. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for.

He passed the seemingly magical abilities. He could feel the thing’s body. The way it writhed, pulsed as it manipulated itself at will. The teeth in its eye maw. Its supernaturally thick hide. It’s very eye, the source of some of its powers.

Then he felt it again. Its eye. Its core. There was something there that he didn’t feel with the others. Something more. Its eye was the key to many of its abilities. If he had the same eyes…

He reached out. Not sure how this time. There was no illusory mountain or mound of power. He just felt it there somehow. Instinctively. He pressed against it, almost intimately.

PFSHHH! The fire was back! His entire body was in agony, but he couldn't move. His spiritual body was glued to the core it was in contact with. The very essence of the creature. He felt the creature's confusion suddenly turn from fearful realization to horror as its power was siphoned off into the tiny Silver inside of it. And with the power came knowledge and memories that threatened to swallow Silver's tiny human mind.

The creature used what little strength it had to thrash around and try to pull its spherical form away from the human pressing against it, but even though Silver wasn't in control, his body reacted on its own to stay connected. After a while, the small spiritual Silver started to feel bloated. Then the pain set in. His eyes in particular. They burned. He felt like they were melting behind his closed lids. Molding and reforming like the flesh of the aberration he was straining to stay connected to so desperately. The pain was intense, seemingly never ending. He could feel them peeling, itching like millions of ants were swarming over his eyes simultaneously, burning, all while having nails driven through them. It was terrifying. He wished for nothing more than for it to end or for unconsciousness to claim him. For a brief moment, his mind even entertained the idea of breaking; escaping into oblivious insanity. But no. He was forced to remain conscious and sane by another force that he didn’t yet understand. His frightened mind had time to wonder if his soul form would explode from the bloating, and what would happen to his body outside.

There wasn't much left to drain and finally, mercifully, he was done and jettisoned forcefully back into his body. He gasped loudly and dropped to his knees. His entire body aching again, feeling bloated and full to bursting with newfound power. His brain struggling to process all the new information jammed inside of it.

The eye. He had it. He could feel both of his eyes transformed. He looked up at the writhing beast. It’s golden eye cracked like glass in many places. It was bloodshot, bleeding all over, and more importantly, it’s brilliant golden color was now a muted, faded yellow. He knew instinctively that his own eyes would have stolen its former lustrous golden light. He wasn’t sure how, and that frightened him. But somehow, he felt safer. He could feel the potential of the eyes. How they could grow. How they alone would be able to have more growth than any of the powers he saw previously. And this power was his now. He had stolen it from the monster.

He glanced over at said monster as it writhed in pain. Having a piece of it's very being ripped forcefully from it was a brutal experience. Its eye was almost stolen from it. Copied violently and ruined in the experience. It would never be the same. It’s eye nearly blinded. The powers its eye held dominion over would never answer it’s call again. It was like a human that had suddenly had its arms violently autopsied and dissected while it was very much alive and still attached to them. The creature doing it not caring for the damage it caused as it brute-forced it’s way down into it’s very DNA and copied it and made it its own, leaving the arms crippled and lame as it left triumphantly with its own brand new arms.

And as much as he wanted to play with his new ability, he also knew that once the eye was done being in pain, it'd be very, very angry. So, he turned and ran for the river again. As he ran, he heard a roar from behind him as a large creature burst from the forest, drawn by the noise and the smell of the bloody creature he had just left behind.
"Fuck," he cursed "Run faster, run faster."

He pumped his legs as hard as he could, hearing more growls and roars. He guessed more creatures had shown up to the party. A dark shadow burst from behind a tree to his front left, a towering red scaly ape. Almost instinctively, new power still fresh in his mind, he glared at the creature. His new eyes only had three powers currently. He had a petrifying gaze, he could slow anything before him within eyesight, or cause blindness. He chose to slow the beast. It had moved much too fast, and was coming directly towards him. His eyes briefly flashed a noxious green over his brilliant gold and the ape suddenly found itself moving in slow motion. Its mind too slowed, unable to process the world moving past it too quickly. Silver easily ran past the stagnant beast.

He turned to look, but the beast still had not moved, not even realizing Silver had run past. He turned back and ran.
He made it to the river and kept running. He had to get away. Before the eye got up. Or before something strong enough to kill it arrived. From his new memories and instincts, he knew, nothing that had shown up would be able to injure it severely. Not before it regenerated.

So, he ran. Hoping for salvation.

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