Jacob woke up to the sound of slurping and heavy breathing. Shortie was licking his balls right next to Jacob's head. "Eww, Get off." Jacob pushed Shortie to the side. 'Where am I?' looking around, Jacob could see a lot of strange colored trees. Then, a brush of Shortie's tongue across his face broke his attention for a second.
A second was all that it took, a shadow covered the sky, it was about to start raining again. Jacob brushed his clothes off and grabbed the leash. "Fine, lets figure out where we are and get home." Walking for an hour, he managed to find a tree with lots of shade. The rain didn't make it past the canopy and Shortie shook the water free from himself.
When the scattered dog water hit the surroundings, a hissing sound alerted both of them. Shortie barked, thundercracks followed and made it seem dramatic. A small snake slipped along and down the path. Its eyes were round, it moved fast.
'Round eyes mean non-poisonous' Camp survival courses paid off if only for that one act. Jacob grabbed the snake as quickly as he could and broke its neck. He was starving, he found some sticks and made a fire. Every camper was suppose to keep a baggie with matches, an alcohol wipe and bandages. Thinking about the fall from before, Jacob stared at his arm.
'No marks?' It was like the entire night had been a lie. 'Am I insane? Did I imagine the whole thing?' Jacob knelt down and prayed, hoping God would hear him. Instead, he heard four thunderbolts land nearby. The air shook and his heart pounded. When the fire was just right, he started to roast the snake while he dried off next to Shortie.
"Yeah, I don't like lightning either boy but its okay. I'm here." he passed some of the cooked meat over to Shortie, he didn't pass out or die. 'Good, its not poisonous.' Grateful that Shortie hadn't died right then and there, Jacob chewed down some of the meat. It was a bit gamy sparse on meat but it was better than absolutely nothing. Shortie Barked again and they waited until the storm passed to keep walking.
The afternoon air was moist from the rain, all of Jacob's clothes were sticking to him. He felt around in his pocket and found a small coaster. It was probably three inches in diameter but it was exactly like the stone he had found in the hole. Its rounded edge was prefectly smooth and no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't even make out the fine details, they even engraved.
Jacob stopped in his tracks. 'What is this?' He tried to set it down, but the coaster flew back into his hand. Jacob put the coaster down again and once more it flew into his hand. "What?" There was no reason to keep quiet on the matter, he was baffled. Jacob tried putting it into his pocket, he let go, the coaster rested in the pocket. 'Huh?' Question marks flew around Jacobs head and he repeated his experiment from a moment ago to see if he was just losing his mind.
He tried throwing it.
He tried burying it.
He tried kicking it away, every time, it returned to his possession. 'Maybe its a gift from god?' A devilish smile crept over Jacob's face. 'Maybe?!' Jacob lodged the coaster in a tree and tried running away. The tree broke and the coaster smacked Jacob in the ass with its flat edge, an invisible footprint appeared on his backside and Jacob fell over, face down, ass up. "What the? Who?" Looking around, there was no one. The Coaster floated in front of him again, then the situation changed entirely.
Like a kick in the pants, the Coaster dove into Jacob's Chest. A Crest appeared over his heart, a tattoo, like a magical seal, is shined with blue and purple light. "I don't understand? Why God? Why kill me?" Jacob fell over, he stretched out his arms and looked at his hands, waiting for the pain.
Shortie licked Jacob's face and snapped him out of it. "Where's the pain?" Jacob felt his chest all over, then searched for the coaster.
It was no where to be seen, looking down at his chest Jacob was concerned. There was a marking, it hovered over his heart, it appeared like burning flames, blue and purple. "Is this the mark of the beast? Am I dead? Did I go to hell? But I was a good kid? Why?? No God? Why have you forsaken me?" Jacob was losing his cool, another hot flick of tongue traveled across Jacob's face. He laid there on the ground, black lines covered his face.
'I surrender, I give up' he laid there staring at the sky, the clouds, they were really nice. 'Come to think of it, I don't hear anything, no cars, no airplanes, nothing.' "I haven't even seen a road." Jacob's voice was dry, he needed water and headed downhill.
There are some things you can prepare yourself for, a ten year old child wouldn't know what to do when faced with an extremely obstacle.
Jacob saw what no child should see, Mountains. He went to the river to wash his clothes, when he arrived a older woman, in her twenties was bathing silently on the other side of the river. Jacob gathered his own clothes to sneak away but Shortie dove into the water and made a bunch of splashing noise grabbing the woman's attentions and directing her gaze at his half naked body.
Jacob Cringed and tried to slink off behind a rock. The woman ran out of the river and into the forest, she took her clothes and dashed away.
"Wow, just... wow." Jacob felt his nose run a bit and snapped out of it. He got dressed quickly and walked downstream. "When in doubt, follow the water."
There were a lot of weird looking animals all over. Jacob felt like he was seeing things a few times and then when he was face to face with something that couldn't possibly exist, he dropped the ground and wished to wake up from his dream. A Small animal, walked up to Shortie and asked him a question. That wasn't the weirdest part for Jacob.
Only when Shortie replied did his jaw drop. Shortie's barks.. they sounded like words for a moment.
Jacob cleared out his ears but he was still hearing it. He knelt down toward Shortie's face and asked, "You can talk?"
"You can understand me?" Shortie blinked.
Jacob fell over backward and reeled backward, "whuh....what? Huh? Ehh...." there was nothing to say that could fulfill his ambition to speak at that moment. Everything came out sounding like half a word and Jacob passed out.
A minute later, he was awake. Shortie had been licking Jacob's face the entire time between his discussion with the small furry animal. "He's awake." Jacob heard a voice, it was hoarse and aged. "Ahh, finally.. someone can help me, I've had this horrible nightmare, I'm lost, I think I ate some poisonous snake. Am I going to die?" Jacob opened his eyes after clearing the saliva from his face. Then, he started yelling again.
It took a moment for him to settle down, but Shortie did his best to convince Jacob that it wasn't a dream. "I think i've done pretty good to not freak out for a minute." Jacob looked at the small animal, it was something he would have killed with a stone and eaten. 'crap. I hope I didn't admit to eating this guy's friend.'
Jacob covered his moderate guilt and stood up. "Thank you," he said as he grabbed the leash to leave.
The small animal got furious and started yelling at Jacob. "What the hell man? You're a slave? Just kill him and be free, don't let humans destroy you." It cocked its head in confusion while looking at Shortie, the collar, leash and the human holding it.
"Shortie isn't a slave, he's the Camp Mascot.. he's like the Camp Hero. This is so I don't lose him." Jacob tried reasoning with the small animal but he didn't understand and started to throw things at Jacob.
"Slaves are bad, bad human, bad." the rocks were getting bigger. Jacob got annoyed and turned to leave.
"Yeah, you better run.. stinkin' human!" shaking it tiny, furry fist at Jacob, it disappeared into the forest underbrush.
"I am not a slave. But.. I don't really like this leash. You can let me go now." Shortie looked serious. Jacob had no reason to choose either way, he didn't feel like carrying the leash but it was better than having to hold it and Shortie. 'If I'm going to die, isn't this better anyway?' He took off the leash and Shortie shook heavily, then stretched. "Okay!" he smelled at the air. "Food is this way, lets find the Camp. Camp. Camp. I like Camp. Where's Camp?"