The legend of Zaphratos

Henry's future

The next morning comes around

Henry awakens with a wince and a shiver at the feeling of raindrops dropping on his face and arms, he opens his eyes seeing it's still fairly dark out but it's now raining pretty heavily.
Luckily the trees offered some protection but not a lot, he looks around and cracks his neck with a yawn as he stands up. He feels a bit lightheaded and hungry "When was the last time I drank or ate" he says to himself softly sounding not all the way awake yet, he reaches out his hands making a cupping motion watching as they fill up with water. After around 2 minutes a decent amount of water has accumulated so he brings it up to his mouth taking a long sip and closes his eyes as he does so, he lets out a sigh opening his eyes again with a slight smile on his face. "That's a little better," he says his head feeling better already and his energy returning as well. He looks around again this time carefully observing what's around him, he begins to smile as he leans down noticing many worms seem to have come up to enjoy the rain as well. "I guess some things stay the same," he says with a slight smirk watching the little worms move around on the wet soil below him, he looks ahead of him and narrows his eyes as he notices a huge mole the size of a house cat "what the heck is that thing?" He asks himself in confusion. He watches closely as the big mole slowly and gently moves around on the soil sniffing with its snout and tapping the ground with its longer than "normal" claws, "huh, I guess that's how they hunt" he says with interest as the moles continues slowly moving around until it taps one of the worms and with quick reflexes impales the worms with its long sharp claws before sniffing it with its snout. It then begins to slurp it up chewing very quickly as the worm completely disappears into the mole's mouth, after consuming the worm it resumes its feeding ritual continuing its hunt on the unsuspecting worms coming up for moisture. Henry watches for a few minutes before shivering again deciding it's time to look for some kind of better shelter, he walks through the long grass looking carefully at the area around where he walks trying not to anger anything. He approaches the mole getting one last look at its big body, somewhat long snout, and long claws. "I think il call you a long-clawed patter mole," he says happy to have learned about a new creature, as he gets closer the mole feels the vibration and sniffs looking Henry's way before scurrying off in the other direction. Henry smirks lightly with a laugh "Goodbye to you too" he says before walking away through the tall grass, Henry keeps walking getting colder and occasionally shivering from the cold rain now covering his body. He lightly shakes and shivers rubbing his arms "I gotta find somewhere out of this rain soon" he says looking around with high hopes. He continues walking seeing more worms and passing another mole, "hmm, no luck yet" he says disappointed while rubbing his arms. He keeps on walking intent on finding something at least partially out of this dreadful rain, after ten to fifteen more minutes go by his eyes light up and he lets out another shiver looking straight ahead noticing a new rocky area that appears to have some kind of dark cave. He starts speed walking while trying to avoid tripping and moving across the chunks of rocks under his shoe-covered feet. After around five more minutes and one painful fall onto his right knee causing a small amount of bleeding he limps into the cave and immediately lies down on his back with a small groan glad to have some relief from the rain and more importantly from walking. He rubs his leg wincing at the touch and sits up looking at where he fell, the front of his knee and a bit below it has a decent-sized wound with a few scratches and more blood coming from it than he would like "damn, that hurts" he says with a pained voice. He lets out a breath and tries to ignore it looking around the cave, his eyes widen as he notices glowing starfish covering pieces of blue fungi growing from some of the more mossy parts of the cave floor. He scoots over to it and looks closer "Woah I didn't know starfish live in caves" he says sounding excited, his eyes and lips reflecting his interest as well. The starfish are the size of his hand some a bit bigger and they seem to come in different colors, some are yellow and some are blue and a few are green. "Wow, I wanna stay here," he says with a smile, he watches closely as the starfish eat the blue pieces of fungi. He notices a trail of water going from the starfish so he scoots in the path beside it hoping to find where they came from. A few scoots later he finds a small cave pool that goes down deeper than he can see with a few starfish climbing up the walls in it. He smiles and takes a sip from the water sighing in enjoyment before taking a couple more sips, he sighs again happily with a smile "But what can I eat?" He asks himself looking around the cave. He looks at one of the starfishes eating the fungi and narrows his eyes "I mean.. maybe?" He says unsure knowing damn well fungi is far out of what he would normally eat. He shrugs his shoulders and reaches towards it picking off a small piece of the fungi and slowly popping it into his mouth hoping for the best, he slowly chews then swallows. "Not too bad I guess, kinda like a mixture of broccoli and a mushroom," he says not loving it but not hating it either, "I'm way too hungry to be picky," he says before ripping off a couple more bigger chunks and eating them as well. These chunks were the same but a bit slimy, he makes a face of disgust "Ewww, the starfish got that one nasty" he says wishing he was smarter before. "Like a frickin slug climbed over it," he says scoffing at the starfish, he sighs "but hey I'm full now so that's a plus," he says lying back down on the cave ground finding a spot near the fungi with the most moss "honestly this isn't bad at all," he says with a sigh. "I got food, water, and cool starfish and fungi to look at. "Definitely could be worse" he says contently. He notices the cave has a nice warmth to it making him feel much more comfortable, he stretches out on the moist moss and yawns "Alrighty, I'm gonna pass out for a bit" he says softly before closing his eyes.

A couple of hours pass and it's now midday

Henry opens his eyes with a yawn and stretches, he sits up and looks around the cave. It's gotten much warmer in the cave now and Henry can't see the starfish anymore, "huh, I guess they don't like the heat" he says to himself as he stands up he bends down and picks a few pieces of the fungi up and pops them into his mouth before chewing and swallowing. "Much better without the slime," he says with a smirk as he walks over to the cave pool and takes a couple of sips before letting out a sigh "Ah, much better," he says content with his hunger and thirst now satisfied. Henry walks to the front of the cave and looks out seeing it's no longer raining and the sun is bright shining down with its warm rays. He steps out of the cave and basks in the warmth, "mmm, not bad at all" he says closing his eyes for a moment before looking around the area outside. He sees a wide range of chunks of rocks with grass growing between them and no animals or bugs that he has noticed so far, he remembers that the area where he saw the snake and the mole is pretty much straight ahead from the cave entrance so this time he'd like to see what's to the right. Henry turns right and starts walking while being extra careful not to fall, as he walks he remembers his knee and looks at it. "Oh great, it looks and feels much better," he says noticing there's barely any pain from it and it's scabbed over, he then carries on stepping across the rocky terrain. "This is good exercise at least," he says with a slight smile, he walks for a few minutes till he gets to the edge of the rocky area where it meets another open field-like area. He crouches down and looks for any small bugs, he notices a small snail is slowly moving across the dirt under the cover of the grass above it. "Oh, that's cool I guess there are a few different creatures that are just like I remember after all," he says happy that he's not completely ignorant of how this strange place works. He stands up and walks around the small snail trying his best to be careful not to step on it, he notices there seems to be a beach in the distance straight ahead. He smiles and his eyes light up "Oh wow, a beach!" He says starting to walk faster towards it, as he walks he realizes the beach is still pretty far away and he doesn't really feel like going all the way there and back yet "I'll just look around here and explore that later" he says stopping and slowly sitting down enjoying the nature around him. As he sits there for a couple of minutes he suddenly hears a loud buzzing from behind him and he quickly turns around his heart beating faster, as he turns he looks up having to use his hand to block the sun, and sees a huge reddish-brown insect with big wings flapping extremely fast and an armored body other than its large sac on the back end of its underbelly. "What the hell is that thing?" He says not as scared anymore but still very interested, it appears to be around a hundred fifty to two hundred feet (based on Henry's perception) up in the air. He studies the creature as best he can noticing it's descending at a fast rate and lands about two hundred feet ahead of Henry with no apparent intention to have any interest in Henry. The creature rests for a moment before hopping into the air and then starting to flap its wings wildly again like a hummingbird carrying its heavy body for another short distance into the forest ahead. "Look at that," Henry says amazed shaking his head "That one's definitely interesting," he says to himself watching where it entered the forest, he takes a moment thinking about the creature before deciding it's time to move on "Okay, I think I've had enough excitement for now," he says looking around "I'm not sure what else is out here and right now I don't really wanna stick around to find out," he says starting to walk back towards the cave. Henry lets out a breath and makes the walk back through the grass then through the rocky chunks all the way back to the cave, Henry finally steps into the cave with a sigh. He goes back to his spot on the previously moist now dryer moss and lies down not ready to sleep but very ready to relax.

He turns to his side and looks over at the cave pool seeing some of the starfish at the top, "oh yeah I didn't name you guys yet did I?" He says. "Hmm.. how about glow stars? Simple but accurate and easy to remember" he says happily "Yeah that works great, glow stars it is," he says with a smile as he lies on his side watching the starfish move around the top of the cave pool. Henry stretches and continues watching them with a slight smile, "il just watch you guys for a while" he says quietly to himself enjoying his entertainment.