[CENTER][h3][color=lightseagreen]S A I T O[/color]
Cave >> Forest[/h3]
[i][b]Beginnings, Weapons, and the Hunt[/b][/i][/CENTER]
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[i]This...is not right. I do not understand, but I know it is not as it should be.[/i]

Slowly, he flexed his fingers. The young goblin clenched his fist tight, and looked at the hairless green arms. Too small. Too smooth. Too soft. Where were...his scars? Did he have scars? And were his fingers and knuckles supposed to be calloused?

[i]I...died? And now I am this...creature. A...A yokai?

Yokai. Oni. Do I know what that is? My memories are unclear.[/i]

He tried to recall something from before. How did he know he had died? How had he come to be in this new body? He looked across the cave at those like him. They bashed rocks together, or slept, or wandered about like children. Just like when his little ones had learned to walk...[i]What?[/i]

His lip twisted and his stomach rumbled. He had awakened, after what seemed like a long time of drifting in and out of consciousness, and upon finding himself in a cave full of odd creatures--like that older one that marked his forehead--had moved to put his back against the wall. But as time passed and none of the others showed any hostility--except for that one that bit another's ear, but that seemed like play--he had begun to observe them...and it wasn't doing much good. He was too hungry to think. These memories were too foggy to grasp. It frustrated him. As if his own mind, like this clumsy and frail body, was not entirely under his own control.

[i]"The real purpose of...to purge oneself...to obtain control of one's own character." I didn't say that. Someone else did...someone I knew?[/i]

He pushed away from the wall. He placed a hand on his belly as it rumbled. His eyes darted from side to side when he heard a strange whisper...but none of the others were speaking to him. He couldn't understand any words, and he was not currently in danger.

[i]"Do nothing which is of no use." That one is much easier to remember. Now, what is useful?[/i]

If he could not remember his past, then it should be put to the side for now. If he was hungry, then he needed to eat. The cave served as shelter. Survival was the priority.

The goblin stopped just short of the cave's mouth. He pressed himself against the nearest wall, and crept slowly to the rocky edge. As his eyes squinted against the bright light, he poked out his head. There would be food outside, he felt, but there might also be danger. Where was he? What was the environment? Were there boars or bears here? It would be easier to find edible plants than it would to hunt, but if the creatures of this place were like Yokai, there was no telling what kind of plants he would encounter either. Rather than risk eating poison or making himself sick, it would be better to find meat. If he found an animal, even if he couldn't catch it, maybe he could see what kind of berries or roots it ate and take some for himself.

Outside the cave, sunlight shone through the trees revealing a luscious forest. He bent low to pick up a rock from the cave floor, and once he was certain there didn't seem to be anything in the immediate area he walked outside. For the first time he realized the cave had been unusually bright, despite no lamps, candles, or other light source. And if the cave was unusually bright, then the sun was almost painful. His already narrow eyes squinted even more. He closed one and then the other, careful to never close both at the same time while he waited for them to adjust, as he walked over to one of the nearer trees. He picked the one that had the lowest branches within reach, and tried to break one off with the rock. It had no sharp edge, and this body did not seem very strong, but after scoring one limb around its base he managed to climb up and come down on it with both feet, using his body weight to finish the job. As the broken branch fell, the goblin caught himself on another and hung there for several moments. On a whim he did a pull up, and grunted in satisfaction before he dropped back to the ground unharmed.

This body was weaker, but it wasn't [i]weak[/i], in a sense. Proportional to his size, he felt his muscles were fairly dense and elastic. Like a chimpanzee. [i]...I suppose, if that's what my memory thinks.[/i] But his size and weight did not give him great leverage to use whatever strength he might have.

Weakened, small, in unfamiliar territory, on the hunt. So it came naturally to seize a weapon. He picked up his broken branch, snapped the last two tapering, twiggy feet of it off, and began to bash off any smaller growths with the rock. Soon he had a short, rough, but functional staff in hand.

His guts seemed to roar and roll inside his body. Spending time to make this weapon had cost him time that he could be hunting...but, as little as he knew, something told him having the weapon would be better than not at this moment. As for [i]what[/i] he could hunt...

He crouched low, and began moving into the underbrush. Just before he left eyeshot of the cave, he marked the dirt with his staff and tried to remember what the landscape looked like here. Then he traveled in a straight line, away from the cave, and watched the forest floor.

Whether by instinct, or his hazy memories, he knew that any animal would likely smell or hear him long before he saw them. As much as he tried, he couldn't silence himself completely...although, he felt his breath naturally slowing, and his steps stopped coming straight up and down on the ground. Instead his feet made a sort of sliding motion, using the side of the foot to take his weight at first and distribute it more evenly across the ground. With this method, his steps didn't thump, and he could brush leaves or sticks out of the way before coming down on them. [i]Crescent Step...is that what it's called?[/i]

But the fact remained, animals would have sharper senses. So what he looked for were the signs they left behind, rather than the animal itself. Tracks? Droppings? Places where trees or grass had been rubbed frequently or trampled?

Saito the goblin gripped his staff, put aside all thoughts save the immediate present, and hunted in earnest.