Found

A Normal Day

       He was lost, very lost. It had felt like years since the boy had been forgotten. His dusty and dirty brown hair was caked with mud which made it appear much lighter than it truly was. His emerald green eyes searched through the trees for any signs of life and for any food that might be edible. His skin appeared dusty and cracked with occasional splotches of a crimson red that came from previous fights with animals and cuts from running through thorn infested underbrush.

        It had been almost a week since he had last eaten and my stomach had begun to hate him. It growled and growled clearly unsatisfied with his horrible attempt at getting it food. The animals had grown more sparse since winter had enveloped the dreary forest. The forest had been my prison for about four hundred and ninety-two days, though I may have been unconscious for a few days throughout the time.

        Suddenly, there was a rustling of dead leaves under the deep snow about 20 feet ahead of me. The boy couldn't see what made the noise, but he knew whatever it was would be his dinner soon. My mouth began to water as he thought of the juicy meat he was about to get. As he inched closer, he saw two large white ears pop up above the layers of snow and leaves and immediately knew it was a rabbit. There was no weapon in my hands, but he was prepared to catch it, for the boy had done this many times before. Once he had crept close enough to the rabbit to grab it, he reached out and seized its ears without a second thought and was able to get a good grip on them. Then lifting my dinner from the ground, he stared into its tiny black eyes which seemed to stare back at him terrified of what he could do. The boy grabbed its head and body and violently twisted its body till he could hear its bones cracking under the force he applied. It squealed and squeaked until life finally drained from its eyes.

        When the boy had first done this he had felt so bad for the cruel end the bunny received, but now he felt no remorse, for this was the natural order of things. You must not feel bad for your food or you yourself will become food. The boy learned this after almost dying to a large wyvern that patrolled the forest at night because he was too tired and hungry to find a place to hide.

          When he had finished killing the rabbit, he turned to find the path he had taken to get here and quickly followed it back to the cave the boy had found to live in. The cave had become his home and was littered with things he needed to survive. A large ring of stones in the middle supplied a makeshift fire pit where he would cook his delicious bounty. To one side of the fire pit was a layer of sticks covered with leaves which he used as a bed. On the opposite side was where a large stack of firewood was usually present, but his supplies had dwindled so the boy reminded himself to go out and get firewood tomorrow.

           The boy made the last of the firewood into a teepee in the fire pit and struck some rocks together till he had fire. Then he grabbed a stick that he had placed next to the pit. The stick was covered in a fine layer of dried blood from previous uses and the tip of the stick had become charred from being too close to the fire. He also grabbed a dull stone that he had tried to sharpen into a knife and used it to skin the rabbit. The rabbit was very lean and there wasn't much meat, but it would last a few days if only eaten a little at night each day. The boy cut the meat into sizable strips that he would eat once per day and stored the meat in a cold recess of the cave which he used like a fridge. He grabbed a single strip and skewered it with the stick. He swung the stick over the fire and made sure to cook the meat well enough that he would not get salmonella.

          After eating, the boy's stomach seemed finally satisfied and sleep began to pull at his eyes. The bed next to the fire looked so comfortable and that feeling seemed to pull him into its thrall. Finally, as he fell onto the slightly more comfortable than the rocky ground bed, his eyes closed for the night as his exhaustion slowly faded away.