It was a peaceful evening. The sun setting, making a beautiful orange everywhere it touched, nature more active than ever, the smell of food cooking around the house, it was all amazing.

Jackson extinguished the flame under the cooker, and stirred the mix of vegetables and venison, then went back to finish writing in his journal. Ever since his mother left, he had been keeping track of everything that happened in a journal. He had a journal for every year he had been alone, and he was writing in his seventh.

Once he could hardly hear the sound of the food sizzling, he closed his book and went to put the food on the plate.

He flipped through the pages in the journal while he ate. Page, after page, after page, until he flipped a page and found a note, the same note his mother left him with.

He hadn't read this for a few years now, "I shall read you after I lock up the house." He said to the note. He got up and put his plate in the sink, and went to all of the windows and re-boarded them up.

He walked up to the note and began to read it again.

Jackson,
Last night the panther got in. But there is no reason to worry, I'm currently chasing it off,

'Woh hold up' Jackson thought. You can't just 'chase' off a panther, he had always known that, so why didn't he think about it before? 'I was only 7 back then,' He thought. He continued read.

and if I can, I will find your father. I'm making the same promise as your dad, I don't know when or where, but I will see you again.

'Welp, now I'm an orphan.' He thought. He kind of knew that she was dead, he just never really thought about it.

And even though I'm not here, you still need to follow the rules I set. And DON'T STAY OUTSIDE TOO LONG.

He never did stay outside too long. But why shouldn't he have? Now he was getting concerned.

Make sure the windows are always locked more than they are now, and please don't eat all of the preserves.

Well, he already ate all the wild rice and almost the rest of the preserves,

'7 years and you would expect me not to eat the preserves.' He thought. But the last part, the numbers, 7 14 24 8 19, what were those numbers for? He started looking around, then looked back at the numbers.

"What are these for?" He thought out loud. He set down the note and blew out the candles. He was almost up the stairs when he heard something, but it was faint.

'Probably that owl that hangs out around the house.' He thought. 'I need to kill that thing one night so it stops waking me up.'

The next day, he got his hunting bag and ran into the forest around him. He reached a bolder, and quietly walked around, there on the other side was a trap he made himself. It was one of his throwing knives tied at a 135° angle on a stick like a hook, but the throwing knife was hidden inside of a rabbit's neck.

He took the rabbit and hung it over his back, then continued his walk through the woods. He came up to several more traps, all of which were sprung, or somehow destroyed.

He came back home around 4 hours until sunset with one rabbit. He skinned it, cooked it, and used a preservation box he had pre-made and put the rabbit into it. At this time it was around 2 hours until sunset.

He went and got his journal and started to write.

It's 2 hours until sunset roughly, and I still don't know the date, and that food problem is getting worse. He put.

I don't know what animal could reach some of these traps after they are sprung. I may go looking for berries or fruit and try to make a small garden. Oh, and I killed that owl that kept waking me up.

He heard something, like a howl, but then after the howl, a scream, a human scream. "What the... "
He heard it again. He got up and walked outside.
"help!"
"HELLO?!" Jackson shouted.
"HELP ME!"

Jackson ran out with two of his knifes. He had seen something moving in the brush in front of him.
"Hey!" He shouted.

Out of the bushes came a boy, about his age. He had short dirty blond hair and green eyes. What was more surprising was the fact that this boy had a harness on with knives, a sword, and other defensive gear.

"Where's Ian?" The boy asked.
"Uh... Who?" Jackson asked.

"Dane!" Somebody shouted to their right. Another boy came out of the woods. He was a little taller than Jackson, and was probably older. He had black hair with dark brown eyes, and again, he had a vest on with all sorts of gear.

"Ian, there's a Cyndin after us!" The boy, Dane exclaimed. 

"A what?" Jackson asked.

 The two looked at him confused. "Where are your weapons?" Dane asked. 

"Who are you?" Ian added. A screech stopped the conversation, the same screech from 7 years ago.

"Dane, I found a house over here in this direction. We should head there." Said Ian.

"Uh, that's my house." Jackson said shyly. The other two looked at him confused.

Suddenly, a rustling in the bushes behind them got louder and closer, a creature jumped out of the bushes and onto Dane. The thing was thin, and had small, beady eyes. It was slightly humanoid, but it's arms looked like inverted legs, and instead of feet, it had claws.

It latched it's back claws into the ground, and the front ones into Danes shoulders. Then the creature opened its mouth, rows, and rows of microscopic teeth. It's mouth opened long enough to stuff Danes head in whole.

He screamed in pain as the claws gripped tighter. Ian ran up and took the iron tipped spear off of his back, and he drove it into the side of the creature. The creature showed no pain, but it definitely felt it. 

The creature let go of Dane and grabbed the spear, still impaled in its side, and reached towards Ian. Jackson snapped out of his shock and took two of his knives out of their sheath.

He had to get this right. Jackson lunged towards the creature. One of the knives stabbed it right in the back. He swung his free arm in a large ark and stabbed it right in the neck with hi other knife. And because of its slight humanoid figure, it had the same blood vessels as a person, just as he hoped.

Blood spilled out of its neck, and this time, the creature felt the pain. It let out a blood curdling scream... Jackson became enraged when it screamed, it took him back 7 years in his memory.

Jackson yanked the knife in its neck towards him, destroying its neck internally. He then tilted the knife downwards, and drove it deeper, slicing its larynx in two. 

It wheezed, trying to let out a scream, but it couldn't. The blood stopped spewing, the creature fell, and it went limp. Ian starred at Jackson in shock.

"Is it dead?" Dane asked in an exhausted tone.

Ian bent down beside him and looked at his shoulders.

"Yeah, it is, thanks to this guy." He said.

Jackson looked at the dead creature. It's species killed his mother, not a panther. He spat on it, and wiped the blood on his knives on the sleeves of his shirt.

"Hey, you said that was your house?" Ian asked.

"Yeah, your Ian, right?" Jackson asked.

"Yeah, and this is Dane, we need to get his shoulders rapped up." Ian replied.

Jackson nodded and reached down to pick him up with Ian. The two carried Dane, who was groaning in pain, towards the house. They walked into the door that was left open by Jackson when he ran out, and set Dane on the couch.

Jackson ran over and opened a cabinet, and took out a syringe with a clear, sightly tinted purple liquid in it. He walked back towards Dane and took the cap off of the needle.

"Hold up, you know how to use that, right?" Ian asked.

Jackson looked at him. "Just stick it in and push the plunger, right?" He asked

"Uh.. yeah, no. Let me see it." Said Ian.

Jackson gave him the syringe. And before you knew it, Dane was sleeping.

"You know how to make purashel medications?" Ian asked.

"Uh... no. My mom made it. I'm Jackson by the way." He answered.

"So, are you from a different village? Are there actually still other villages that aren't destroyed?" Ian asked.

"I don't know what your talking about... wait... wait a village? Do you live in one?" Jackson asked excitedly.

"Wait, how long have you been here alone?" Ian asked.

"Well, I've been alone for 7 years. I have lived here for... what, 9 years now?" Jackson answered. 

Ian just looked at Jackson. "What is your name again?" He asked.

"Jackson... Trebyos." He answered.

"Huh."

---

TBC!!!!!