Unalike // Dreamnotfound

Chapter 1: Introductions

Tck-

Tch-

Tsshhhooosh-!

A plethora of shadows started to dance among the walls of the cave as the newly lit campfire illuminated the small space that surrounded him. He was the only shadow that stood out from the rest, deep and dark while the shadows of his many small bags and plates of armor that scattered around the floor didn't make much of a footprint compared to his own. He was alone, he has always been, and now he gave a slight smile in the courtesy of the flames rising from the small bunch of dry grass to finally spread onto his perfectly placed pile of sticks.

Starting the fire ended up easier than usual tonight.

Setting down his flint and steel, his fingers wrapped around a few dead rabbits that hung by their feet from one bag, his most recent victims to the many traps he kept in the woods nearby. It was time to skin them when he finally felt confident the flames would stay, starting to delicately slice around flesh and fur of the first with a small iron dagger he picked up earlier off of a human.

He was thankful that more than one of his traps were successful. It's been a hot minute since he's had a good meal, a long time with the shortage of food, and even in the middle of skinning the animal he couldn't help but drool a little. But he still had control and he had patience, unlike the other Enderfolk, and when he was done he held the meat over the fire by an iron bar.

Every morning like clockwork he returned back to this same spot, the same damp, dark cave that's been called home for quite some time now. He knows he'll soon need to move on and scour the land for the next spot to peacefully thrive in, away from the others that inhabit the same territory, but he couldn't bear to leave this place so soon. It was almost perfect, completely out of the way no creature nor human could stumble in unannounced. And even if one did, the loose gravel covering the floor was the perfect alarm system to catch any crook.

One footstep and his eyes would shoot open.

Thankfully he has only done this once, and it was only because a few bats were fighting over territory above him and they both fell hard to the ground. So one can say he was really counting his blessings, no run-ins with the undead nor the hissing freaks of the night, and best of all no humans had yet to disturb his humble abode.

His dark eyes dart down to the rabbits encased in flames, their raw skin has begun to darken and soon they would be a perfect, golden brown. Another smile pulled at his lips and his tongue pressed against the back of his fangs, his stomach growled in anticipation and his fingers gripped tighter at the rod he held. He would be rather ashamed at such a reaction over food, but it's been too long since he's had possession over some so this time he let his poor manners slide all while staring down at the delicious meat like a hungry cat and mouse.

"Finally..." He spoke above a whisper to no one in particular, he couldn't help himself at admiring his perfect cooking and soon the meat was brought up to his lips, sinking his teeth into it like one devours a kebab.

He might have cried that moment, even just a little while continuing to munch and keen at the happy feeling deep in his gut. The pain it used to have was finally gone after nearly four days going without food. He wouldn't call himself the worst hunter, by god he was far from "bad". The difficulty of finding food these days was all due to the ever growing numbers of undead in the area, he felt as if the corpses followed his every move to a new home. But he chopped it up to creatures so vile will always flock to thriving green pastures, dripping them dry of life to move onto the next, similar to a swarm of locusts destroying whole forests.

That was one thing humans shared with the undead, he's been observing this for quite the handful of decades. The way they reep the land as if they were mindless barbarians, deforesting whole forests to nothing, gathering every animal for miles just to confine them in a small space, wearing pieces of creatures as if they were trophies...