Stranded

Chapter 2

After what seemed like hours, Toshinori was sitting against a gigantic tree, panting and wheezing.

"I don't know if I can do this." He frowned. "I'm so weak, and using One for All takes even more of my energy." He leaned his head back against the tree. A colony of ants were preparing to make their descent to the ground below them.

"Forward, march!" The leader screamed to the lineup of ants, and began to lead them down the tree trunk.

"SIR! There's a yellow obstruction blocking our path!" An ant scurried toward the leader and pointed one of his six legs towards Toshinori's wild hair. The leader smirked.

"NO MATTER! We will use it to climb down. EVERYONE MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE YELLOW OBSTRUCTION!" The leader marched forward, taking a step onto Toshinori's hair.

Toshinori sighed. "If I don't find some drinkable water soon I'll be way too weak to even move." He sat there, thinking about what he was going to do when he noticed his head was a little itchy. He reached up to scratch his scalp. The ants suddenly stopped in their tracks when they noticed a humongous hand nearing them.

"ABORT MISSION I REPEAT ABORT MISSION!" The ants all began to scream and run back to the tree, but they weren't quick enough. Toshinori began to scratch his head, when he felt little specks of something he couldn't quite name on his fingertips. He pulled his hand back to take a look when he noticed a few ants clinging to his fingers.

"ANTS? GROSS!" Toshinori jumped up and used both of his hands to try and get all the ants out of his thick hair. Ants went flying left and right, some landing on the tree, most landing on the ground. "I can't tell if I got them all. I need to find water so I can wash them out." He shuddered at the thought of creepy crawlies sitting on his head. He walked off, scratching his head and grumbling.

Meanwhile, the ants were also not having such a great time. The leader was limping on three of his six legs, walking around and watching as his comrades and soldiers died left and right.

"Sir!" An ant came scurrying toward the leader. "That human decimated us. Our numbers have drastically reduced. We must retreat."

The leader sighed. "Yes, alright. Soldiers, MOVE OUT!"

~~~

The sun was beginning to set by the time Toshinori found the same lake from before, only now he was on the other side of it. He sat at the edge of the water and dunked his head in, shaking it all around to try and get the dead ants out. Eeewww, he griped internally. He brought his head back out of the water and shook as much water out of his hair as he could.

"Damn." He looked at the sunset. It's so beautiful. The sky was a beautiful mixture of orange, pink, blue and purple. "It's gonna get cold, and my hair is all wet. Way to go, idiot." He sighed heavily. He stood up. "I need to figure out where I'm gonna sleep too. Maybe I could make a fire? How do you do that again?" He placed his hand on his chin and thought. Something about rocks.. And twigs...

"Aha! I'll use a stone to create a spark and light up some twigs. At least then I could keep myself warm, and maybe even dry my hair somehow." He looked towards the forest behind him and spotted some twigs by a tree. He walked over and picked them up, and began to search for some stones. The only ones he could find were submerged underwater.

"I'll dry them off with my shirt." He started to take his shirt off, but he hesitated. It's not like anyone is around, no one will see my scar. Right? Toshinori took a quick look in all directions, and then decided to remove his shirt, exposing his bony torso to the land before him. His scar throbbed in pain, and he coughed a little bit. He used his shirt to first dry his hair, and then dry off two small rocks. He sat on the ground once again and began to dig a makeshift fire pit.

"Sooo... hmm." Toshinori scratched the back of his head. "How exactly do I do this?" He reached over to the two rocks and started mashing them together. "This doesn't feel right. Maybe if I grind them into each other?" He tried that, but that failed as well. "Frickin'... jeez. I don't know what to do. I'm a city boy, dammit! I don't know how to create fire from rocks!" He angrily swiped the rocks across each other a couple of times when suddenly a large spark flew onto his hand.

"OOOWWW!!" He exclaimed, dropping the rocks and scrambling over to the lake to dip his hand in the cold water. "Ow.." He sat still for a moment, when he realized how dark it had suddenly become. He looked up and saw the full moon. His eyes widened in awe of its magnificence, his bright blue eyes shining. He pulled his hand out of the water and looked it over. It was a little bit red, but there was no swelling or blistering. He sighed, and turned back to the rocks. "It hurt, but I know how to make a spark now." He took a gulp of air, and then tried to recreate that spark, only now he was trying to direct it at his pile of twigs.

"H-here we go," he said a little shakily.