Dawn- An age of Darkness
Chapter 81 - Should I Really Be Happy?

Something was pinching my nose. I opened my eyes and there was water and sand everywhere. A crab pinched my nose and my pain receptors became active all of a sudden. It hurts.

I threw the crab away and looked around. Behind me were endless waves of water and in front of me was a jungle of coconuts.

"What about the old man!?"

There was no sign of him. But something else was missing too. It was also quite obvious.

Damn it! The sword is gone! Actually, everything was gone apart from my underwear and some cloth around it. They were still here thanks to my belt.

The sun was in the west and it was evident that the night would visit soon. Some part of my pants was still attached and my underwear peaked from within. It was kind of embarrassing but at least I had survived. Where is this place?

I took a deep breath and started to check my body. My eye… my eye was gone and I knew it. But strangely enough, my vision didn't seem all that blurry or even constricted. What is going on? I looked at the water behind me but couldn't tell just by seeing my reflection. But I got the feeling that somehow my eye had recovered. I couldn't tell if that was true or not though.

I was about to head inside the forest when a white bunny came out. Its tail was fluffy and looked rather cute. Oh my god! An actual bunny!

"What are you doing there little guy?" I tried making my voice as cute and harmless as possibly could. The bunny was twice or close to three times as big as normal rabbits and looked muscular but I didn't worry for a second. After all, I was a bunny lover, through and through.

"Rrgh!" It roared in a very not so cute tone and jumped in front of me. For a moment I was flustered. I don't know why but I thought it was jumping in my arms. It did but…

It bit my arm and the teeth sank in my flesh. For a moment I was staggered. Huh?

I regained my senses, grit my teeth. My heart raced. It was the same feeling when the goblin bit me. Intense pain followed as I grabbed it and threw it in a distance. Blood dripped, and my heart beat faster. But there was more. If it was just one, I could have handled it, but there were at least a few hundred of them: pain was the least of my worries. You gotta be kidding me.

They were coming toward me in flocks and I was taking steps back. The water from the sea touched my feet and moved away with the tide. My heart was beating rapidly from the moment, the first one bit me. So much so that I figured it'd pop out. The cold water at my feet was not comforting.

The bunnies were marching towards me and I was constantly moving back: my left hand felt very hot. Blood gushed out and made me feel faint but I didn't have the leisure to sit down.

The bunnies suddenly stopped and I stopped as well. The water covered up to my thigh. They didn't even let the water touch them. Huh! Are they afraid of water? But I was too dumb to notice what could make the little creatures feel fear. The water was making little swirling sounds. Cold sweats covered my entire body as I realized the situation I was in. Don't tell me….

There were piranha-like fish with large pointy heads and they surrounded me in every direction. They were roughly half the size of the bunnies. But there were more than enough of them to screw me over. Just a few more steps and I would have fallen off the riff too. It was edgy and looked like an eternal abyss of darkness: but there were faint flashes deep down. What in hell-

My bloody arm was the beacon. Damn it! Both of my legs were underwater so it was impossible to move about with speed. But that didn't stop me from trying to run.

The damn fish were striking with speed and precision. I lost blood from my legs and with the combination of the saltwater the pain was heart-wrenching. I could barely stand as I brought out my only weapon; Lianne's knife. It was attached to the belt that kept my underwear where it should have been. It was more or less an undie miracle. Get it? No? Okay.

Blood was spilling everywhere. They weren't giving me any quarter. I tried to run towards the shore but it was already overrun by the savage rabbits. Man-eating fish or rabbits? I had two choices. Either be eaten by rabbits or be eaten by fish. I didn't like either of them.

"Turbulence," shouted a familiar voice.

A gust of wind sliced about seven bunnies. They were torn in half as pink glowing blood spewed everywhere. The rabbits were staggered.

Seeing so, I rushed to the shore. But, the fish weren't letting me go off without payment. They settled for my blood and flesh. By the time I reached the shore my legs were covered in blood, I was missing some flesh from my legs, and my vision was getting more and more blurry, but I had sliced at least ten fishes. More like they sliced me but oh well.

At first the rabbits acted mighty, but as more and more gusts of wind came, they started to panic. They ran away from the incoming gusts.

"I leave you for ten minutes to take a piss, and you end up like this?" The voice said. It was probably the voice of the old man. I didn't see him.

Then you shouldn't have left in the first place. It happened without any warning. I lost consciousness.

The crackling sound of wood woke me up. My legs hurt. I looked and it was covered in herbs. There was a fire near me. And a man with a sword was sitting there eating fish. The rest of the place was covered in darkness as the light from the fire didn't reach those places. This isn't that beach? There were trees around me and the ground was covered in grass rather than sand.

"Old man, I thought you ran away with the sword," I said.

"I did felt the urge to do that, but since we are surrounded by the sea in all sides it didn't seem practical," he chuckled.

Yes, the old man didn't just leave me behind, but he didn't because, there wasn't any choice. He was too screwed to try anything funny.

"What were they?"

"This island is full of carnivores: the birds, the animals and even the fish. They eat each other." The old didn't look at me and enjoyed his meal.

Never knew bunnies- the cute creatures of my dreams- were carnivorous in this world.

He offered me a fish and we started to eat. It was actually pretty good. Wait this couldn't be… "Is this the same fish?"

"Do you really want to know that?" he said. I didn't like his smirk one bit.

I didn't reply. I kept eating. Even if that was the fish that tried to eat me, it didn't matter anymore. He fiddled with the fire and dumped some more wood.

"Why save me?" I didn't have any worth to him. He already had the sword and we were out of the serpent. So I didn't have any value, at least to him.

"I don't like owing debts. Besides, I never saw anyone trying to fiddle with monsters like that and survive. Ever." He glared at me and I had to look away.

Though I didn't like his reason for keeping me alive, I didn't complain either. "By the way old man, you a sailor?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Your way of doing things reminds me of my uncle. He was a sailor you see," I said.

My uncle was a sailor whom I wholeheartedly respected. He taught me a good deal of things. Including how to charm women. It never worked for me though. He also taught me how to fish. But in my uncle's own words "you're not cut out for this." After that Alicia died, and we drifted apart.

"Good observation lad. I was once a famous sailor. But that was more than twenty years ago." He seemed rather proud of himself. He had to strength to back it up, so I couldn't really reject his pride.

He was cooking fish and meat by the fire. I only ate the fish.

We continued to eat and stuffed everything down with coconut water. After finishing I stared at the sky. It was a beautiful sky just like the first day I came to that world. My body was still pretty exposed. But at least I had underwear. Without it, I'd have looked like a pervert. Something which I never expected me saying to myself.

Now that we were out I didn't feel considerate anymore. "Say, old man, how did you survive in that place?"

He laughed hard for a minute. The crickets in the background were really having fun. "Well, when push comes to shove you'll know how to survive even in the roughest of places or just die tryin. But that reminds me, what the hell were you spouting about? Some sort of lover's quarrel?"

I laughed in an awkward way. "I suppose that does make sense. Survival of the fittest. As for that, how about later? I feel too sleepy," I said. I actually didn't want to think about it just yet.

He laughed and I smirked.

I tried to get some sleep.. The fire kept burning and the sound of the fire was comforting.