[skillya_glowi]

Chapter Two.

It turns out that the metal was actually dumped from a nearby plant, which had a garbage chute exit into the river. Sami thought about coming back home. No, he told himself firmly. The Woulks have made it their nesting place. It would prove difficult, Sami reasoned, nearly impossible to win it back. And yet, he had to try.
The wood that he was standing on the edge of looked very unfriendly. Where the trees parted, there was blackness.. Even the sky above it seemed darker.
Still unsure of himself, Sami sat down on a rotting log. He found that the less he moved the areas containing his wounds, the less they hurt. He hung his head and closed his eyes.. After all, it couldn’t be much worse — this was the point in life where there was no turning back..
Sami decided to risk going in. Heavily hauling himself up off the fallen tree trunk, he stood unstably on his one foot, swaying back and forth.
Since the Gabbit is an amphibian species, their appendages were not made for the ground. Neither were Sami’s. Instead of walking, he had to move by awkward hopping motions. He could use a stick as a support, but he did not wish to overload himself and so bravely hopped toward the wood.

The giant trees cast a shadow over the entire forest, forming a semi-light-absorbing canopy over Sami’s head, much like the jungles of Necrum. The beams of light traveled down from the tree tops with an eerie orange glow. Calls of birds and rustling of leaves could be heard through the dense air, carried in some unearthly echo. An occasional wind gust would send fallen leaves flying up in the air in a frenzied swarm.
Sami hopped timidly, doing his best not to disturb the atmoshere. He could even hear his own labored breathing. He was a strange sight — both his injured arms stuck out stiffly in opposite directions and his spine erect. He looked much like a rather fat scarecrow.
Suddenly, there was a swooping sound from above and a great howl, followed by a noise as an egg being struck with a fork. Instinctively, Sami dropped to the ground and covered his head with what was left of his arms.
The breaking calls continued, but Sami could not yet feel claws being stuck into him and flesh torn out of his ribs. He ventured to look up.
What he saw was a small creature, hardly double his arm’s length. It possessed massive jaws with a heavy overbite, narrowed like a beak. Its forearms were muscular and flexible, and it had no paws. Instead, a single, long claw grew out of its wrist, for the purpose, as Sami could see, of anchoring itself in a nearly vertical position against the tree bark. Its hind legs looked limp and immobile, with three digits on each foot. An elastic membrane joined the fore- and hind- legs together.
While Sami was gaping at the animal, it lost no time. Immediately, it began digging in the bark with its sharp mandibles and pulling in the critters found inside with its long, sticky tongue.
Supposing it was some sort of undocumented species, Sami hurried on.
After a long while, Sami grew tired. The vegetation growing in these parts was, for the main part, unsuitable for Gabbit consumption, but Sami was able to compromise by eating the few known species of insects he found along the way. Shortly, he came to a stopping place, sitting down on the dry grass.
He wiped his nose with the right paw and sneezed. Most of the dried blood had worn off, and now his limbs looked much less repulsive. However, the throbbing pain was still present, and he needed to find a solution soon. His back was feeling much better, although he still only could lay on his side and the wounds broke occasionally.
The sky was beginning to darken. Most of the birds have ceased their singing, but now the night was filled with the sound of crickets and calls of various nocturnal animals. The orange glow has been replaced with a rich purplish one, and the forest floor has burst into light. It appeared that bioluminescence was not unusual in such forests, and this one particularly had it in abundance. Now and then he could hear distant cries of animals, and the rushing of the wind as it passed between the trees. But apart from that, he was quite alone.
Gabbits are social creatures, who do not like to be alone. And so, Sami gave way to sniffling and whimpering into the night, not sure whether he wanted anyone to hear or not. He himself did not notice as he fell asleep.

He was awakened by sounds coming from behind him. Scraping leaves off his face, he sat up. Looking around him, he found that it was still semi-dark and the golden sunlight was just beginning to penetrate the forest canopy.
Sami yawned and shook his head, sure that it was someone singing that awakened him. Perhaps not singing, but the sounds definitely were musical.
As it were, the forest was, at present, devoid of sound. Musical sound, leastways. Just beginning to present itself was the chirping of birds and the now-familiar howls of the unknown inhabitants of the wood, along with the customary wailing of the wind.
On the tree against which Sami was leaning were more claw-wristed animals that he had glimpsed earlier. Fearing that one of them might fall, he crawled away from the tree to sit on a dead log. Sami yawned again and leaned back, accidentally falling off the log.
Now he was completely upside down, but did not take care to adjust this position, as he was already half asleep. Eventually performing a sort of front-flip and landing on his stomach, Sami made himself comfortable in the leaves and started snoring.



I know, my style is horribly boring. But try to bear with me. I am trying to get opinions here!

Oh, and by the way, I made a sort of model of a daggerwrist by piecing together bits of Paramites, Scrabs, Fleeches, Ratz and Mudokons. However, I think I lost it when my computer crashed.