Henry opens his eyes and stands up in confusion, he doesn't remember much from before, only his name and a few of his interests. As he looks around he sees he is in an open field with long but not excessively so grass, as well as colorful flowers here and there. he looks up and suddenly sees a strange man making him jump back in surprise, his heart beating in his chest, the man slowly turns towards him with a gentle smile on his wrinkled face. Henry begins to notice the man's long colorful cloak and his long light gray hair on his head and beard, "welcome Henry" the man says, Which only makes Henry more afraid and confused. Henry gulps and finally asks "Where am I?". The man then smiles and slowly says "I call it Tafall" and as he does so he waves his hands causing Henry to become dizzy falling back onto the ground and quickly opening his eyes jolting up in surprise. He looks around again and notices he's now alone in a forest with the somewhat hard dirt and dry brown leaves below him as well as trees and bushes surrounding him, "was it all a dream?" he thinks. "It must be, but even so where am I now?and why can't I remember anything?" He continues asking himself. So many questions flooding through his mind all at once and yet for some reason he is calmer, there's a certain peace to being alone in this seemingly empty forest.
He brushes off the leaves, clumps of dirt, and small twigs from his arms and clothes, and continues looking around before turning his gaze upwards. This sun is bright and hurts his eyes, all he can see around him is dirt, leaves, and trees other than the occasional small bush. He stretches and sits back down accepting his place in this new land and begins to rest peacefully whilst enjoying the sounds of the birds singing around him.
As time goes by while he sits he notices the sun is going down, he begins to worry about what may come out during the darkness of night as well as when or even if he can eat or drink again.
As the darkness of night creeps over the sky above engulfing everything he can see around him his worries intensify. Minutes pass and he hears the buzzing of flies and other small insects around him, as time passes further he begins to notice a light blue light nearby. His heart begins to beat faster at the sudden appearance of this strange light but he stays where he is and backs up a bit keeping his eyes on it, as it gets closer he sees the light blue light is surrounded by some strange large black scaley creature. His heart begins to beat even faster but this time he stays still, hoping and praying the creature doesn't notice him, he carefully watches in fear as the large black scaley creature seems to stay where it is with its wide mouth open. The insects in the area fly around its mouth in interest buzzing while they do so, Henry suddenly becomes less afraid and much more interested as a memory lights up within his mind of being on a back porch with a bug zapper. Henry begins to smile as he watches in interest as the creature waits while many bugs fly into its mouth getting stuck in the glowing gel like substance and the creature suddenly chomps down. Henry lightly jolts back in surprise with his shoulders down to his arms as the creature chomps down, he then slowly moves closer getting a better look. "It must be an insectivore, it's so much like a bug zapper" he thinks with a slight smile, "but how does it get that weird glowy slime in its mouth?" He thinks. The creature continues waiting for enough bugs to get stuck in its glowing saliva before chomping down once again, Henry watches in interest while this occurs and his smile grows as he mentally jots down what he learns. "Hmm what should I call it?" He thinks, "it hunts in the cover of night and its hunting method is like a bug zapper.. ooh how about the shadow zapper" his expression lightens further with a smirk "that's it, il call it the shadow zapper" he smiles to himself as he continues watching the creature. The creature closes its mouth and slowly walks away receding into the darkness, the buzzing seems to quiet down a bit and Henry is left a bit disappointed but begins to relax once again and yawns. Sleep is starting to get to him, he stretches and lies back against the ground moving some twigs and small pebbles as he does so. He rests his arms at his sides and closes his eyes hoping nothing will bother him in his sleep.
Morning comes and he awakens with dry lips to the bright sun shining through the holes between the leaves of the trees above, he licks his lips and lifts his arm blocking the pestering light with his hand and sits up looking around with a yawn. The area appears to be the same as before, the ground is still covered in brown leaves and twigs with the dry hard dirt below him and the same trees surround him. He then hears a strange noise from the trees above him, the snapping of a twig and a light grinding against the bark of the tree. The hairs on the back of his neck and his arms stand up as he hears it, he slowly turns in fear looking up at the noise. it's a large reptile with light brown bark like skin and spiky thorn like objects attached to its body. As he sees it eat the leaves he begins to relax, the creature is resting on the tree eating leaves from its branches. Henry notices this creature seems to be friendly and slow, his gaze wanders over the creature as he notices wings that seem too small for its body and a long tail where the thorn like spikes end. Henry smiles as he watches the creature, "amazing" he thinks seeing its majestic body latch onto the tree with its claws, allowing it to climb as high as it needs and stay on the tree with ease. Henry moves closer lightly shaking with nervousness as he approaches it and reaches out to touch its bark like skin, the creature watches him approach eyeing him with interest and caution. as he touches the rough hard scales it flaps its wings scaring Henry and causing him to fall back, it then uses its legs to jump backwards off the tree clumsily falling onto the ground before flying away in a mostly straight path. Henry's heart is still pounding but he smiles watching the creature fly away "wow" is all he can think to utter breathing heavily with a smile. Henry lays back against the tree for a few moments catching his breath before hearing his stomach growl in want, he licks his lips again and decides it's time to look for something to satisfy these needs. Henry stands up and walks away walking for a couple minutes looking for any sign of food or water, after a while he notices a creek with a few berry bushes surrounding it. He smiles his face lighting up with joy knowing he can finally eat and drink although he doubts the water is safe. He walks up to the creek and crouches down to look at it "hmm, well I've got nothing better so here goes nothing" he says pulling a yolo, Henry scoops up the water with his hands and takes a sip. It's not amazing but it tastes amazing to him right now, he greedily drinks sip after sip until he is beyond full and lies back "ahh" he says taking a breath "that hit the spot for sure" he happily says before turning to the berry's. He notices there's 3 bushes, 2 of them are covered in red berry's and one is covered in purple, he thinks for a moment before taking a red berry and slowly biting into it. He carefully chews then swallows savoring the berry, "mmm, sooo sweet" he says with a grin proceeding to eat around a dozen more before lying back against the ground. He moves the twigs under him and relaxes with a sigh. "Not a bad day, this place is great" he says happily thinking back to the creatures from before, "what should i call that forest dragon looking one?" He thinks to himself. "Hmm.. he has thorns and looks like a tree, so how about the thorned logger?" He says, "Yeah that sounds good, the thorned logger it is," he says smiling. he stays lying on his back against the ground "Dang, I wish I had something to write all this down, i guess il just have to make do with what I got." He thinks resting against the forest ground, "il just rest a while, then we'll see where the day takes me" he gently says his eye lids becoming heavy and his arms weak.
YOU ARE READING
The legend of Zaphratos
FantasyA story of a mythical place called Tafall, a massive land filled with creatures like no other in which creatures evolved in very different ways. Come with me and watch this legendary story!
