MNUC: Mammoth Nation Unleashed Chronicles; Chapter 1 - The Cloaked Player; Original Edit

Chapter one of the MNUC. This is the first trial run for my story so far

PXL + Mammoths [b]Chapter 1 - The Cloak/b]        

I had to be getting nearer, I was so close I could smell the sandy beach, but the waves worked like rocks, crashing against the side of my makeshift vessel, and the hurricane before me was urging ever closer, the waves continued to grow at an alarming rate, growing, growing still, until my light wooden craft capsized, throwing me over the side and towards the depths of the salty deep. The force threw me flying with such a force that when my head met the side of a rock face, all I felt was a pinch. I could feel my body shifting, swishing from side to side, a rough texture caressed my back as my limp and lifeless body floated along the now gentle wave crests. Then nothing, no movement, no feeling, no emotion, no control, total blackness.

        When I awoke, I was sprawled out across the beach. I tried to move my neck, only to find that I could not. I tested each of my limbs individually, with the same reaction, so instead, I laid there, staring up at the sunrise cresting the ocean horizon. A little while later, a man whose face I could not quite identify for I could not entirely open my eyes, gave me a sip from an elixir that he pulled from a pocket, and then layed my head back on the ground. Straining and pain immediately filled my body and I let out a deadly scream as this elixir slowly ate away at my body from the inside out, immediately followed by a numbness that covered my skin and all my senses. My eyes finished their mission to closing, and once again I was in a state of ignorant bliss.

        In my next connection with reality, the sun was directly overhead. I had been drug nearer to a cliffside. I remembered where the sun was when I woke last, so I knew that I had only rested for just a few hours. Another change I observed when I moved each of my limbs, that they did not feel any pain or fatigue. I did notice that I was quite exceptionally hungry at that time however, and gazed around hastily; Their existed around myself nothing but a bottomless ocean before me, and an endless beach to my left, but when I looked to the right, I saw a man standing at the edge of the beach, looking outward, feet just below the water. He wore a dark black cloak, dark in such a way that the shadows cast upon itself where no darker than the material itself; it seemed to move and convulse, were it even possible that the cloak could be alive?

Just before I tried to speak to the man, my chest became irritated and I ran over to ocean and unloaded whatever my meal was into it. I sat on all fours, stooped over the sloppy mess, I watch it slowly fade into the gentle water. When the disturbance had cleared, and the water was once more transparent, I could see my image in the cold water, and I realized, that I had no idea who I was looking at. The image before my eyes, myself in the water, distorted only slightly, completely unrecognizable. I was a darker skinned man, light brown skin and dark brown hair, cut short and unevenly around my head.

        A gentle breeze slipped its way across the coast, past the man and then over my head, carrying with it a faint smell of ash, a lingering image of some terrible tragedy that has occurred in a land not too far from here. I watched the cloak as it sat, unfettered by the gust that ran over it, when the man underneath turned to me and revealed his face, a prime, unshaven image of a man. He wore a dark red vest over a thick blacksmithing shirt and tattered blue jeans, the cloak presently hung loosely from his back like a cape, laying across his shoulders and tied with a thick leather band around his neck. He had a long face, and short brown hair. His expression resembled that of dishevelment, a short stubble growing along his chin and his sideburns hung stiffly to the sides.

        When he turned his expression was neutral, when he saw that I was conscious, the little point on the right side of his mouth picked up in a clearly recognizable smirk, "You're awake?" He spoke now in such a tone that implied he had known me before, so I replied, "Yes, I believe that I have my wits about me, though I cannot recall last I ate, and there is a terrible grumbling from inside that terrors me as I sit." He took no time to reach into the leather pouch slung over his arm to fetch me a clutch of bread. He threw it over to me and I caught it before it landed just short of my body. I eagerly took a large bite off the open end, my pause giving him time to speak, "The signs of a hurricane were evident last night, so I decided to come to shore to evaluate the potential damage, and that is where I saw your vessel get eaten by a wave, and your body sent flying from the carcass and flung onto the nearest rock. I assumed you dead by the severity of the impact, but when you floated to shore, your eyes were open, though I could not see a life willing to live within them." I tried my best to remember the events of my coming,

        "What was the fluid that you fed me?"

        He came over and sat next to me, "A special concoction invented by a dear ally of mine; an interesting mixture of various potions resulting in a miracle effect, he told me, 'This can repair any amount of damage observed by any body, as long as the heart still beats, and the mind still thinks, that which kills him, physical damage, or sickness, will exist no more,' he did also inform me that the more severe the damage, the more damage it does to the soul, and it leaves behind a nasty craving."

        "Will I ever meet this man?"

        "I surely hope not, he may be a dear ally, however, he does not serve me, in fact, he serves nobody. This scares me because I know that I cannot control him, and if I try, by keeping him on a short leash, the more he might learn of my private endeavours. While the event has not happened to me yet, he has been known to sell information of high value targets to the highest bidder."

        "How can you work with this man, for the risk that he poses, why do you trust him still?"

        "Tread carefully my friend, we are not friends yet, friends no longer; I have given you the information that I have only to ease your mind, I would appreciate your company more if you chose not to test your boundaries around me."

        "I apologize, I was under the impression that events here are neutral in manner."

        "You are sorely mistaken old friend, tensions are high because rogue griefers have united themselves against those factions that have worked to eliminate them from their respective societies."

        "You have referred to me more than once as a friend, yet I do not recognize your face, why do you speak to me in such a manner to make me think that we are cordial?"

        He dropped his head, opened into a wide smile, then picked his head up again to speak, "I was afraid of this, the man who left upon me the concoction that I fed unto you told me that if the body sits too long without food and still under the effects of the fluid, the brain may lose its long-term memory,"

        I sat there for a moment to realize what he said, when the look of astonishment finally reached my face, he spoke again, "I suppose I should tell you your name, what your name was, rather, 'is', Rabbit_Fighter, perhaps I should also tell you your history, however, the sun will be falling soon, and you don't know where you live," I sat there in disbelief as I realized again that I couldn’t remember anything, absolutely nothing, of my past. Completely destroyed by the realization, I layed back onto the sand and saw a standing cliff face behind me, and shade slowly making its way our direction, the sun setting in behind the cliff now just barely visible, when he spoke again, "Please, I invite you to journey with me back to my stay, the walk will do you good, and you can rest there for the night, oh, and my name is Mammoth."

        I sat there, and then I started to stand, stopping half-way up with my chest still hunched over my erect legs, hands on my knees. My only connection to reality placed his hand on my back, and urged me on, "Come on, we have to move to make the cave by sundown." I picked myself up and took in the landscape one last time. My host swiftly pulled his cloak well over his shoulders.

        We started our journey by following the coastline, a serene sight that stretched beyond where the eye could see. We came around one corner and out in the distance, on a small peninsula, I spied a stray lighthouse tower, but the light within had burned out, and there were holes of paint missing from the sides; ash and dust covered the surfaces and around the missing patches. The once brilliant white and christmas red color stripes now turned similar shades of the same grey. I stopped and stood there for a moment, viewing the sight in front of me, the cliffs still to our right as we travelled north. Mammoth stood beside me, equally amazed by the sight, but it would not be clear until later when I learn his reasons for astonishment were different than mine. You need to understand that Mammoth is the founding member and ruler of a faction kingdom called MammothNation; for a length of time, he has been receiving word that other factions were falling, each one closer and closer to his kingdom, but never dangerously close. Reasons and methods for collapse were never shared or at least made clear. Mammoth after far too long decided that it was time to do some personal investigation, and traveled out to his private bunker out here, looking for clues and evidence for the rumors that he had heard. Until this moment, this very second in time, he had no reason to fear anything. So we stood there, I amazed at the destruction, and Mammoth, surprised that he was right, because he did not wish to be right.

        I turned to Mammoth, his face completely blank, and clearly phased by what he saw. He picked his face up and looked forward, he spoke slowly, but his throat still croaked, "We have to keep moving." I turned again to him, and he once again dropped his head and turned his face away, "We have to move," this time even slower and more garbled. Hiding his grief, he started striding his way further down the coast. I watched him for a moment before I jogged over to catch up to him. He kept his head down as we passed the lighthouse. We only went another hundred yards or so before a gash in the cliffside became visible, the sunlight barrelling through the scar. A single river stream ran down the center and emptied into the ocean through a small delta, a wooden log spanned over the delta at its widest point. We stepped onto the log and I was able to get my first glimpse into the crevasse, a long, narrow, and certainly unstraight, unmeeting of the mountains. The sun rested on top of the stream, even at this hour, allowing the proper conditions for green grasses and bright flowers to flourish along its embankments.

        Mammoth did not stop his striding until we were already enclosed by the valley walls, when the lighthouse was just out of view. We continued along the south side of the river heading west and into the sunset before us. We followed the creek for a length of time before Mammoth stopped, I was so taken by surprise that we had stopped moving after so many hours of walking, that I almost ran into him when he did. He looked to the right and realized that we had reached the next major checkpoint of our journey. He jumped across the stream and prepared a shovel. He started digging into the cliffside where dirt and grass still encrusted the solid stone cliff sides. He flipped his spade around and started ramming the stick end into the dirt where he had dug out a few feet of dirt. There was a gradual crumbling of the terrain as it started to give way, slowly, a hollow hole within sprung out a mild stream of light. Mammoth turned to me with a wide smile and told me to start digging. I prepared my hands, and my first punch met no resistance as it thrust right through to the other side. I removed my arm and the terrain completely fell around it, a massive hole now opened up in front of me and my host. The dirt had settled at our feet and on top of a wooden platform constructed on the other side. There was a tall wooden fence along the edge of the platform, and a small tower of pure crystallized cold light glowed brilliantly, stuck rigidly into the side of one of the walls of the platform.

        We stepped out of the dirt and through the hole, I behind Mammoth. the sunshine creeped away and it became completely dark behind us as we stepped out of the canyon. Once inside I was able to see that the platform was built over a massive gaping ravine. The platform was not very large, but very well lit, dirt encrusted stone walls on 2 sides, one other side had a wall of fences with large holes that I was able to peer through, and the final wall was made of solid steel with a single solid metal door in the center; a 3x3 number pad of buttons covered a portion of the wall. Mammoth walked over and punched in a random code on the massive, wall-sized, security device. He missed the code the first time, and the second time, but after standing in front of the wall for a moment, he attempted one final code, and with a slow, howling screech, the door opened. Cobwebs tangled all around the corners of the door as it tore them off the walls on both sides. The other side was darker, the light from our side poking through the wall for the first time in probably months. Mammoth took a moment before slowly stepping his way through the door.