Reborn as a Beast Whisperer

Chapter 3: Strange Friends, Stranger Foes

Jake awoke what felt like hours later to the sight of the strange bird resting on his chest. It peered down at him, and if Jake hadn't known better he would've guessed there was a glint of mischief in the bird's eyes.

He grunted and pushed it off of him as he made to stand, “Don't mock me," he told the bird, then froze as he came to realize what he had just done.

“Great," he grumbled, “they do say the first sign of losing your mind is talking to yourself."

He glared at the bird sitting on a nearby fallen tree trunk. It chirped at him.

He shook his head and rolled his eyes as he turned from the creature and continued walking down a somewhat odd looking path through the woods. He'd never seen foliage or trees like this before; they grew in stranger shapes and sizes than he was accustomed to.

Not only that, but something felt off about this place, something felt wrong.

The bird kept following him as he explored the strange new place, looking for any sort of civilization. Then something rustled nearby, and had it been anywhere else, in any other circumstance, he would have dismissed it to the wind.

But Jake's senses were on high alert and he planted himself on the ground, waiting in agonized anticipation to receive the oncoming threat.

The oncoming threat, however, seemed to come in the form of a small black and white foal. He breathed a sigh of relief as he regarded the once familiar creature- then stopped altogether as he noticed a particularly unfamiliar characteristic.

The horse had a singular, long white horn etched into the middle of its forehead.

Its coat, though seemingly black and white at first glance, seemed to shine from the brilliant white patterns laced onto a dark coat. Unicorn, was his first thought. But he shook his head and quickly abandoned the thought.

But there was no denying the proof that stood before him in all its bowlegged and stumbling glory. The strange foal stumbled towards him, seemingly having no regard for any danger from creatures larger than itself yet, and out of sure instinct he had never once had, Jacob stuck his hand out towards the creature in greeting.

He felt the soft wet sensation as it nuzzled his hands, the tiny hairs on its nose tickled his palm and he brought his other hand up to rest at the base of its horn, feeling the sturdiness of it. Despite the dull edge it now held, he surmised it could form into a formidable weapon if the unicorn felt threatened.

The white bird fluttered from a branch above them and settled on the back of the horse, “Just where exactly am I?" He heard himself mumbling.

A strange grunting seemed to come in response to his question, the noise sounded out forced and pained and the hairs on Jacob's arms stood up in alarm.

Out from the foliage of the bush where the young foal had come now stood the body of a much larger, more aggressive looking unicorn.

From beside him the young foal let out a whining cry, attempting to get closer to the mare that stood before them now in a domineering stance. But she lowered her head and widened her stance in what Jacob could only assume was a threatening action. Out of instinct he grabbed onto the mane of the young foal and held it back.

He heard it whine in dismay as it pulled again the strain of his grip, but he held fast onto the baby despite its protests.

At the noise from the foal, the mare's eyes darted towards it wide and bloodshot, and Jake knew that she could not recognise it as one of her own and saw them both as threats.

He figured the larger unicorn must have been its mother at some point but whatever dark and twisted creature it was that stood before him now would barely recognise its own baby from a threat that had to be disposed of. So he held fast onto the young foul and stood in front of it.

He watched in horror as the large dark creature lowered its horned head and began stomping wildly onto the grass, disrupting the earth that stood beneath it and he yelled out as it charged forward.

It took almost all the gathered strength in him to push the foul out of the direct line of charge, despite its small size it was firm and heavy and he had to heave it out of the way with his entire body. The both of them crashed onto the soil at the side of the body of unicorn whose horn was no embedded into a damp trunk.

He stood up quickly and pushed the foal further from their attacker, but it whine and fought against him as it rushed towards its mother.

A screech sounded out into the now danger-filled forest as the larger unicorn's horn became dislodged from the wet bark and sliced the side of the baby as it turned to face them. The foal fell onto the ground from its fear-weakened legs and he groaned as he watched the scene unfold before him.

And before he knew what his body was doing he was charging hard and faster than he realized he could go at the body of the wicked beast and lunged himself at the creature, wrapping his arms around its thick neck and swinging himself onto its back.

It shook violently in an attempt to get him off and he heard loud chirping from above him, when he looked up from his clutched position he noticed the white bird flying in the face of the beast and attempting to disorientate it.

For some reason unknown to even himself, as though someone deep within him was tugging at him and controlling him, he yelled out a command to the bird, “Get it out of here!" he heard himself shout.

And to his shocking amazement the bird stopped its attacks on the larger unicorn and flew towards the foal on the floor, gripped its small horn in its large talon and pulled it up and away. He watched as they both drove into the thickness of the forest and disappeared.

He didn't have time to celebrate however; the larger creature seemed to become even more enraged as it began to violently shake in protest.

Sucking in a deep breath of air and courage, Jake lifted his legs up onto the back of the horse as steadily as he could while still gripping at the thick base of its neck, and then launched himself off of the back of it by kicking off at its side. He stumbled onto the grass and cried out as his arm gave a shuddering pain.

He stood up as quickly as he could to see the unicorn do the same, then he took off running.

From the side of his eye as he ran he spotted an opening of a cave, quickly he dived into it to avert the direct trampling of the unicorn. The thundering of its hooves rang out in the large cavernous area and he heard the small rocks beneath his feet tremble at the impact as it chased after him.

The cave above him was lined with sharp rocks and cracked stone higher than he could see the indents of and the wide open space before him stretched out long and ran into other places through tunnels he could not see.

He looked behind him as he ran; noticing the way the horse seemed to gain on him despite his own fast speed.

He turned a corner into one of the smaller tunnels that led from the main cavern, but came to a screeching halt as the way cut off abruptly by a large stone wall. He attempted to climb, but the aching in his hurt arm prevented him from doing anything of the sort.

Just as he shut his eyes tight to brace for the horse to impale him growling sounded around him low and reverberating. A chorus of snarls raked through the cave as terrifying creatures approached them; wolves. And yet not wolves as Jake knew them.

These creatures stood as high as Jake on their four legs, some even larger than he was and competed with the horse in terrifying Jake. Some were varying shades of browns and auburns, and at the centre of where a large group of them had gathered there stood a mighty black wolf. Jake could hear his heart thundering as a new fear settled.

Then a clicking sound rang and a neon light flashed before his eyes.

NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: BEAST WHISPERER