Cashew, 3 years old currently, is sitting on the floor next to a smelly bed in a cabin that originally belonged to kidnappers/Bandits. He has a long and shallow cut on his side which hurts badly.
Cashew: The guy wasn't even trying to hurt me. He hit me by accident and I already feel like I'm about to die. I really need to improve myself. This is just sad...
Cashew said to himself, trying to distract himself from the pain of his injury. He is more focused on distracting himself from his injury than he is trying to heal the injury up. He realized that and started to try and heal up his injury, only for Mana Exhaustion to kick in and he falls asleep.
...
...
An unknown amount of time passed, Cashew started to wake up all groggy, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
He eventually remembered that he had a cut on his side, but... It didn't hurt. It was still there, but it didn't hurt anymore.
"What? Where is the injury? Did it heal? How long was I asleep? Did someone else fix it? If I was a fictional character, that would be lazy writing. I fall asleep and wake up with no injury, lazy..." Cashew thought to himself, Wondering what happened. But he suddenly heard a voice.
Unknown voice: You're finally awake?
Cashew quickly looked behind him, he found himself laying in the bed that he was originally laying next to and he saw the Guard with dark red hair, putting away something Cashew can't see thanks to the headboard.
Guard with Dark Red Hair: I never told you my name, part of me doesn't want to since you're also hiding your name, but my name is Rognil. I'm one of the Head Guards in the village.
Cashew: One of the head Guards?
Rognil: Even though this is only a Village, it's still a Very Large Village, so there are Multiple Head Guards and a Captain who is above all of us. We are at War with the Nation of Drembord, if the Military loses, then this Village will be the first place that's attacked, due to proximity to the border. So this Village needs lots of guards and fighters.
Rognil paused for a moment, then started talking again.
Rognil: I was heading to this cabin to look for any evidence on the bandits, as well as see if the Vigilante returned. When I came here, I saw you lying on the floor with a cut on your side. The cut wasn't bad, in fact, you would have been fine even if I didn't do anything, assuming it doesn't get infected, but I felt the need to help you, which I did.
Cashew: What did you do to it?
Rognil: Well, you have a surprising amount of muscle, so the cut didn't go deep thanks to the muscle. But was still deep enough to need to be sewn shut in some areas.
Cashew: Deep enough to need to be sewn shut? That sounds like it's bad.
Rognil: I guess it is bad by civilian standards, but by soldier standards, that wouldn't even stop them from fighting. As a fighter, I forget that not everyone I meet is also a fighter. Sorry on that. But I wasn't lying when I said it would have healed fine even if I left it alone.
Rognil stepped away from what he was doing at the foot of the bed with a bag in his hand. He looked at Cashew for a moment.
Rognil: Are you sure you don't wanna go to the Orpha-
Cashew cut him off again
Cashew: Not interested! I know how Orphanages work. If you send me there, I'll end up stuck there until when? 18? 14? Whatever age you're considered an adult? Not interested. Plus I like being alone.
Rognil: People won't treat you like an Adult until you are in your early to mid 20's, but you'd be considered old enough to take care of yourself by the time you're 12, so you'd be out of the Orphanage by then.
Rognil Sighed for a moment, then started talking again.
Rognil: As someone who's trying to convince you to go to the Orphanage, I shouldn't say this, but you're right. So many children are being left parent less because of the War that the capital cities streets are flooding with homeless children. The King apparently doesn't wanna build more Orphanages because the war is only temporary, he thinks that once the war is over, all those Orphanages that could be built will be left abandoned and he doesn't wanna "Waste" Money on a temporary issue. But even if nobody adopts you, surely it would be better than surviving out here.
Cashew: Not interested!
Rognil: *Sigh* fine. I'll stop asking, you shouldn't move to much with that injury, give it a few days.
Rognil approached the door and opened it, he stepped outside and right before he was gonna shut it, he looked inside at Cashew.
Rognil: By the way, I'm supposed to arrest you because of what you did to Bert. But since he did that to you, I'll let it slide. But keep in mind I won't be so nice next time.
Rognil shut the door and left.
Cashew: Alright, he said the injury wasn't bad. Just torn flesh and muscle, that should be easy to fix with my preferred method of using magic!
Cashew hovered his hand above the injury he had, closed his eyes, and started injecting Mana into it, Imagining the muscle and flesh closing itself up, but instead of that happening, The Mana started to replace the missing flesh and muscle instead. Very different to what happened the first time Cashew tried to heal the injury.
The whole process took about 7 minutes and the cut had this strange blue glow, emitting from it. Cashew looked at it, poked it, it didn't hurt, so he chose to leave it alone. Assuming that's what normally happens with Restoration Magic.
Cashew sat up on the bed, looked at the ground and saw his bags still there, he got up and grabbed them, and turned to look at the bed he was laying in with a frown on his face.
Cashew: I hope I don't get a disease because of laying in that bed. Who knows what those bandits did in it...
Putting his shirt back on and his bags back on his shoulder, Cashews stomach growled, so he decided to go out and hunt, set some traps, and eat something.
1 Hour later.
Cashew was proud of the new update trap he built. He previous one was complicated. It was 2 small wooden planks, one with food on it that fell downwards into a hole, and a second plank with a rock on it that was triggered to fall when the first one fell.
His new trap is.... A really deep hole covered in leaves. No food on it as Cashew doesn't have any, but for now, he can hope that an animal will happen to step into it.
Cashew decided to only set one trap for now, then go around and actually hunt something.
Moving through the forest, hoping to find something to eat, Cashew came across many different things in the forest. He found an old tomb, a grave, a second dilapidated house, in even worst condition than the first one, as well as several different types of animals. He saw zero animals that existed in his old world, such as wolves and rabbits, which is why he still doesn't have any food.
*Stomach Growls*
Cashew: I'm hungry... 4 hours North, there are wolves, deer, rabbits, and all sorts of animals I recognize while this area is full of.... That.
Cashew Gestured towards several monsters ahead. Ahead is a large area, not an empty field, but the trees are more spaced out than before. Within this area, you can see several strange monsters. Such as a large creature with a bear like body, an Ape like head, Snake like eyes, no fur and Crystals growing out of its back. The crystals look just like the Mana crystal, so Cashew has an idea on where Mana Crystals come from.
A more recognizable creature would be this rather small looking dragon that landed next to the Ape Bear creature. The dragon looked very stereotypical. Pretty much exactly the same as medieval fantasy dragons. 4 legs and 2 wings, Shiny tough red scales, a sleek dinosaur like head, everything you'd normally see in a European dragon.
The dragon looked small, but it was still at least twice the size of the Ape Bear creature. The two creatures were Roaring at each other, trying to scare the other away.
Cashew: When I return to Clorilwood, I'll ask about the Ape Bear thing, but for now, I'll call it a Crystal Bear.
Cashew doesn't know why, but the dragon seems young, like it's starting a fight for fun, but it's eyes seem desperate, like it's hungry.
Cashew: What kind of world is this where even a fantasy dragon struggles to survive?
The dragon lowered its body closer to the ground, like it's gonna charge at the Crystal Bear, but the Crystal Bear started shaking its body like a wet dog, some smaller crystals came flying off its body and landed within a 10 meter radius surrounding the Crystal Bear.
The dragon seems to have noticed, but doesn't really care, charging at the Crystal Bear and breathing fire out of its mouth at the Crystal Bear. The bear responded by charging back at the dragon, not caring about the fire, resulting in the two of them being in a lock, the dragon is trying to bite down on the Crystal Bear while the Crystal Bear is using its paws to hold the dragons jaws open and keep the dragon from biting down.
After a few moments of wrestling, a flame formed in the dragons mouth like it was gonna breath fire again, right when the flame started coming out of its mouth, the Crystals that the Crystal Bear lost started to glow, launching several random elemental spells at the dragon.
After having it's face burned for a few seconds, The Crystal Bear shifted its weight , resulting in the dragon to come falling forward, the Crystal Bear charged to the dragons side and semi lifted it off the ground, pushing it towards the spells that it's discarded crystals launched.
The spells didn't do much when the hit the dragon, but an Ice spell managed to hit the base of the dragons wing, which the Crystal Bear took advantage of and chomped down on the Ice, Shattering the affected area and causing the dragon to lose a wing, the dragon let out a pained roar.
The bear wasted no time and rushed towards the dragons neck, seemingly unhinging its jaw and biting down on the dragons neck, causing the dragon to flail around in even more pain before the Crystal Bear bit down even harder, breaking the dragons neck, killing it.
The Crystal Bear let out a Triumphant roar and started nomming on the dragons neck, seemingly eating it.
Diverting his attention, Cashew noticed a small rabbit in the field too, maybe 30 meters to the Right of him. Feeling hungry himself, Cashew started to slowly move towards the rabbit, after less than a meter of travel, Cashew stopped as he watched a nearby tree suddenly extend a branch downwards, impaling the rabbit before returning the branch to its original location. Looking at the tree, it has several Rabbit carcasses in various levels of decay impaled on all branches. Looking around the field, every tree is exactly the same, with branches full of dead animals, mostly rabbits, but a few wolves and Pigs as well. Cashew saw one tree Lower a branch again and throw a decayed rabbit carcass into a mouth on its trunk that Cashew doesn't remember seeing.
Cashew: Maybe that's why I can't find any animals that I could hunt...
Diverting his attention back to the Crystal Bear and the Dragon carcass, seeing the Crystal Bear enjoy its meal, a loud thud can be heard near them.
The Dragons mother is here and not happy With the Crystal Bear.