A goliath

Gray eyes opened after a dreamless sleep.

With a groan, their owner rolled over and surveyed the area. He was lying on bare stone, in a cave that was little more than a nook. A very familiar nook. He rolled over and splashed his face and let the water fall still. Gray eyes stared back at him, under a ridged brow, set on a square face that could be unkindly described as “brutish.” His face was a gift from his ancestors, the mighty giants. They also gave him his skin: a lighter gray than his eyes, run through with dark specks like granite. He rose to his feet, towering to his full height of…

Seven feet. Okay, so he was a _distant _descendant of giants.

Goliath Brute, Level 4
Monster, Giant, Human, Explicit

He was also completely naked. Well, except for a simple ragged loincloth, barely enough for modesty. He looked around at his cave, noticed it was bare, and scratched his head in thought.

I thought I had… things… in here. Not much, some crude bone tools, some rancid skins to sleep on. He certainly remembered what felt like countless hours hunting, followed by even more hours painstakingly working the carcasses into objects of use or comfort.

All gone. He tried to remember. Did anything happen recently? I don’t think I died. I’ve died so often that it all runs together. But when I die I just lose my… what I’m holding, not the things in my cave.

His craggy brows furrowed in thought for a moment longer, until he was brought back to the present by a painful rumbling in his midsection. It doesn’t matter. What’s gone is gone. I need to go hunting. Standing up, his eyes noticed a part of the cave wall where a sharp, squarish section had a weakness in the stone. It looked like one good tug would break off a nice, sharp, hand-sized piece. That would make a decent tool, he thought, and reached out to snap it off.

Dee-oo. A tone rang out from nowhere, one of those boxes appeared in front of him and, most importantly, the rock failed to move even the slightest bit. He tried again. Dee-oo. He growled. Despite only being connected by a tiny sliver of weak stone, the wall refused to give him a tool. Giving it no more thought, he turned to start his hunting trip, leaving the window filled with incomprehensible symbols to hang in the cave until fading away:

You have not claimed this land. You cannot change it. To claim land, find a Claimant Crystal.

—-

The goliath stepped outside, blinked in the midmorning sun until his eyes adjusted, then set off downhill, easily finding footing in the rugged landscape.

Soon the rocky ground gained a thin layer of soil, the bushes became less scraggly and he started passing the occasional tree. A far-off cry saw him diving under a rocky outcropping before he even realized what he was doing. Once his brain caught up with his instincts, an image of a large feathered predator flashed through his mind, and he was filled with the certainty that he had died to this creature before. More than once. He squeezed himself as small as he could and prayed the creature hadn’t seen him. A minute passed. The cry didn’t repeat. Another minute passed.

Maybe it’s gone?

Heart pounding, he eased up to his knees and looked up at the sky. No sign of whatever had made the noise. No **** on silent wings ready to descend on him. His muscles slowly unclenched and he stood up. The mountains towered in the distance, craggy and imposing, and before them were the rocky foothills he had spent hours traversing.

Another cry, closer this time. He hit the ground again, harder than before, and lay there another few agonizing minutes. A short wriggle and a peek around the other side later, he finally saw a tawny creature with large feathered wings flapping away towards the mountains, with some unfortunate creature clutched in its paws. He took what seemed like his first real breath in minutes, stood up, and resumed his trek downslope.

“I hate this walk.”

—

Jackalope, Level 1
Monster, Beast, Rabbit

He watched the creature carefully as it nibbled on the sparse grasses. He was crouched behind cover, waiting for the perfect moment. It had to be facing away from him; he was far enough away to not be considered a threat, probably, but he still didn’t want to spook it. Not to mention that he wanted a clean hit, so the wicked-sharp antlers on the rabbit’s head needed to be pointed away from him. He hefted a fist-sized rock and judged the distance. The creature took a little hop. “That’s it. Just a little more.” A sandy blur flashed in front of him, and his target disappeared. He looked around frantically, and finally saw his prey. It was being carried away by a large cat, its wings flapping mockingly as it gained altitude.

Winged Bobcat, Level 3
Monster, Beast, Cat

“Oh come on!” In frustration, he hurled his rock at the feline thief. The creature was easily a hundred feet away by now, but as he watched the arc of his airborne tantrum, his eyes widened. The bobcat, blissfully unaware of the danger, flew directly under the path of the projectile. The blow was glancing, but the cat took an airborne tumble and fell half the distance to the ground before it could right itself. Its prey wasn’t so lucky.

Knocked loose from over thirty feet in the air, the top-heavy rabbit fell antlers-first and landed with a crack. The sound jolted the goliath into motion, his long powerful legs bringing him into view of the kill even as feathers gently landed on the corpse. Without slowing, he reached down to grab the rabbit. He grinned as his fingers closed around it, just before a pile of wings, claws and teeth slammed into him. Sharp pain blossomed all over his head and shoulders.

Claws ripped through his skin, pulling him off-balance as his attacker’s flight carried it past him. He lost his footing and hit the ground hard. Again.

“Ow.” He looked around and saw the dead rabbit, which he had lost his grip on, and then on the bobcat that had made a sharp turn in the air and was somehow already back for another flyby attack.

Unable to do much in the face of such overwhelming speed, he rolled over onto his back, covered his face with one arm and used the other to bat blindly at his assailant. He didn’t get a grip or even a solid hit on the thing as it flew past him, though it got its claws into his arm for his trouble. Red blood welled freely out of the gouges in his arm as he scrambled to his feet.

The cat, rather than come back for a third round, had spotted the rabbit on the ground. Two beats of its powerful wings and it had reached the bloody prize.

Just before it got its claws into it, the goliath slammed into the bobcat’s side, sending it tumbling across the ground and reminding it of the disparity in weight between them. He stood, chest heaving, head and forearm bleeding freely, between the winged cat and the contested meal as his opponent painstakingly got to its feet.

“Had enough yet, asshole?”

The cat’s eyes burned, and it gave a deep snarl in reply. It crouched down.

“I guess not.”

The goliath stared at the coiled spring of a cat, and it stared back. It blurred into motion, and in what seemed to him like an instant the cat had closed the distance.

Sharp claws gouged his forehead. Eyes squeezed shut against the blood, the goliath felt the breeze from the wings carrying the bobcat past him towards his meal. Pivoting on his front foot, he spun around and, extending his long arm, grabbed blindly. By luck his hand found the back paw of the airborne feline, though it was moving fast enough that it immediately pulled free of his grip. However, he had arrested most of its momentum, so as it desperately tried to regain altitude he blinked the blood out of his eyes, then stepped forward and caught its leg again, this time in an iron grip.

After a few fruitless flaps, the cat looked over its shoulder in confusion, only to be yanked downward to meet a swing of his meaty fist.

*THWACK*

The punch bloodied the fur where it landed. The bobcat yowled and beat its wings in panic. Its captor allowed it to gain a few feet before yanking it down again.

*THWACK*

The second punch sent blood droplets flying. In desperation, the bobcat gave up on escape and twisted around to bring its claws to bear. The third punch never landed as a whirling ball of feathers, fur, and claws fell into him.

The cat’s motions were a blur. Feeling his health dropping rapidly, he released the cat and pushed it up and off of him. His offhand shove pushed the cat high into the air, then it twisted its body in midair and snapped its wings open. The goliath took a few unsteady breaths as his opponent flew away.

He opened his eyes blearily. He was lying on his side, something sharp digging into his side. He pulled it out from under him and peered at it. It was the dead jackalope, fairly mangled from the fight, fur matted with blood.

_How did it even have that much- oh. That’s my blood. _With a grunt, he sat up, snapped the antlers off at the base, and jabbed one into the rabbit’s fur.

Foraging - No applicable skill, -50%. Tool penalty, -20%. Dexterity Bonus: +10%. Final work speed: 44%

A progress bar appeared. He worked at the corpse, trying to use a pointed antler to separate the fur and bones from the meat. The progress bar climbed slowly but steadily.

Foraging success! Tool penalty. Reduced yield. You have found:
(2 lbs) Raw rabbit meat, food. Common.
(4) Small bones, crafting material (bone). Common.

The goliath eyed the two hunks of cold, raw meat for the briefest moment before tearing into them. He was ravenous. When he finished, he sat back with a sigh. The hunger was still there, gnawing at him inside, but he could manage it. He always did.

—

Woodworking failed. Raw materials have been ruined. Raise your Skill level or use higher quality tools to increase your chance of a successful craft.

The goliath looked at the cracked piece of antler, tossed it over his shoulder and picked up another.

Antler, crafting material (bone). Common.

He started scraping it against the mildly-sharp edge of the boulder in front of him and a window appeared.

Woodworking - Applicable skill, +10%. Tool penalty, -60%. Dexterity Penalty: -20%. Final work speed: 25%

He ignored it as he always did, but the progress bar made sense to him. He glanced at it occasionally as he worked, watching it creep along one agonizing sliver at a time. He focused intently, eking as much precision as he could out of his big meaty hands.

An eternity later, a triumphant trill sounded.

Woodworking success! You have created:
Crude bone knife, tool. Common.

Finally! This was the first step in the long journey ahead of him to rebuild his tools and comforts, as modest as they had been. The next animal he killed would yield more meat, and maybe even some fur, which could become clothes or could provide an alternative to sleeping on the cold floor of his cave.

Smiling with satisfaction, he tapped his waist. A window popped up, displaying a two-by-two grid. Three of the four squares were empty, the fourth showing an icon of a round rock with a small (9) in the corner. The goliath placed his new knife into an empty square, and it disappeared from his hand and a knife icon appeared in his inventory. He did the same with his last piece of antler, then waved the window closed.

A glance at the mid-afternoon sun told him he’d spent all day toiling. The blood from his fight with the bobcat had long dried to his skin, though some had started to streak with sweat. At least his health had mostly regenerated.

Now to head home, he thought as he turned his feet back towards his cave and safety.