In a strange world as a Doppelganger

Chapter 2

The creature next to me is shivering and it's breath is ragged and shallow. Guilt washes over me, I should have finished it off all things considered. Now I am not sure I can. Even though I cannot see the rat-like thing anymore I can still feel it against my back. My conscience tells me I should do something.

I reach towards where the light is coming from and start pushing the earth out. It takes a moment to do with only one hand. The arm that got bit is pounding and it hurts more than it did before.

Sunlight filters through the canopy at the edge of the clearing and the forest looks incredibly lively this morning. I see small animals every where and colorful flowers all over the ground.

I sit down and take a good look at my arm. It's swollen and miss-colored, most likely infected. I pinch the edge of the wound to let some pus out, I wince at the pain but force myself to do it. I need to find a stream of water to clean this out properly.

I cover the hole once again and pick a direction to move in. The first path I find, I follow. Every now and then I scratch a tree in order to find my way back more easily. Not knowing anything about this forest I just keep walking in the hopes of stumbling onto anything at all.

Lo and behold, I stumbled onto something. On the path I come eye to eye with a snarling... badger. It is similar enough but with an additional pair of legs and boar like tusks. The thing stares at me for a moment and then charges at me suddenly.

I would have thought that most creatures of its size would be wary of me as I stand just over six feet tall. This thing proved me wrong. As it charges it lowers its head, most likely coming to gore me with the tusks.

Considering how quickly it decided to engage with me it must believe it has a chance to chase me off at least. I bend down and jump as high as I can as it comes bounding towards me. The badger rears its head but misses me as I curl up in the air. I turn around quickly and run up to it before it can halt its charge and face me. Just like before I push my fingers together and thrust towards it backside.

The skin is slightly thicker but I still feel it break. Not much of an impact but I feel proud in landing the first hit.

Spinning around it flails its head wildly and forces me to take a step back. It's awkward trying to fight this thing when it's so low to the ground.

A few seconds of back and forth with no one gaining the upper hand I decide to go on the offensive in order to change the pace. I simply kick it hard in the face as it starts charging at me. Ouch! I exclaim loudly as my foot starts throbbing, though the sound that escapes me sounds more like a wail than anything.

The creature seems disoriented by the strike and is shaking its head back and forth. I take the moment to clench my fist and slam it down on the top of it's head. It rears back from the hit and lets out a loud screech.

Its eyes lock on to me and it starts another charge. Angry but somewhat confident I wait until the last moment to side-step it and kick it in the side.

It staggers to the side and in the moments it take for it to compose itself I step around to its back and do my best to take in its current condition.

The creature is bleeding slightly from its back and the mouth, it seems to be having an issue keeping focus and its right, middle leg is being held off the ground.

I steel my mind to finish this off quickly. Even if it charged me first it doesn't deserve to suffer unnecessarily.

The creature stares me down and looks no less determined. Fine, I think, let's finish this.

I jump the creature before it can start to charge, using my length to my advantage I manage to wrestle it into a choke hold. I plant my feet in the ground, stand up and tighten my grip as hard as I can.

I don't realize that I am holding my breath until I am convinced that the creature has stopped moving.
I drop it and look at it for just a moment. I can't leave it like this.

Carrying the badger with me was a hassle to say the least but I did find a river just a little bit further. I had hoped to see if I could get a look at my own face in the waters reflection but it was moving too much.

I cleaned the sore on my arm as best I could and started heading back, following my own marks it didn't take too long to find the clearing.

I set the badger down and looked it over. What to do? I don't think my claws are sharp enough to skin this thing. While pondering my options the earth started stirring near the hole and the rat poked its head out.

The rat seemed to be smelling the badger by the looks of it. Rat was sniffing around the badger for a moment and I took the opportunity to just peek at the wound in its neck.
It was caked with mud and dried blood and rat was still shivering, though it did seem to breathe easier.

I made a quick decision, purely out of selfishness. I pick the rat up before it had time to do anything and did my best to push the badger into the hole with my feet. After that I carried the rat to the river and held it firmly in place while I washed its wound. It resisted a lot at first but I could tell it was still weak.

I carried a wet rat back to the clearing and I am pretty sure it fell asleep in my arms on the way.