The sky was blue. Birds chirped every so often and nature's melody of woodland creatures scurried about every so often as a sound of a running river made it's way to Willem's ears
Oddly, He felt nothing.
There was no fear of this strange location, no sudden alarm that he had just died, and not even a trace of sorrow that he felt when he usually wakes up in the morning due to the sheer weight of his past and mistakes bearing down on him.
He felt…
Relieved.
It was as if a great weight was taken off his shoulders. He felt the sweet breeze of air hit his face and not once did it bring him the memories of regret and the bitter tang of self-loathing
He stood up.
"what?" Willem asked himself in wonder as there was no pain.
No ache of arthritis, no effects of the crippling wounds he had once gained and most of all the ravenous effects of time on his body were gone as he found himself with a newfound vigor
Something that was on his chest fell to the forest floor
He looked down.
A stuffed puppy.
Amanda's stuffed puppy.
He picked it up and for a good minute or two just stared at it. Instead of bringing the usual loneliness, he felt when looking at it he found a strange sensation of… contempt?
True, there was still that bite of sorrow when he remembered all the memories with the object but there was more… it was light to the chest.
…Almost as if the very stuffed animal was comforting him
He shook his head to clear it of weird thoughts, stuffed the toy into his coat and got back on track
What was this place?
He looked around.
Trees.
And even more trees
He seemed to be in a forest of some sort. Following his survival instincts, he followed the sound of moving water to find a small stream that sprouted from a small hill forming that flowed what he thought was east as the sun was now tilting to the west as it looked as if dusk was just moments away
He'd thought back on a saying his father used to say
"stormclouds are thrice-cursed," he said sagely "now get back to work!! the fields aren't gonna sow themselves!!!"
Yeah… he didn't quite have the best relationship with his dad
But anyway, him being brought here marked the first storm cloud and he should be prepared for the other two coming his way
He raised his hand to the horizon using it to estimate the number of hours he has left till nightfall the sun was. He had about two and a half hours till night
He turned his body to the left swiftly as he heard the small scuffle of grass only to feel a small weight shift behind his hip.
Assessing the threat of what made the noise he strained his eyes and tensed his body. As old as he was, he was still a veteran scout ranger.
His fingers traced behind his back grasping something hard and most likely, polished wood from the texture. Seeing no harm he pulled.
A flash of metal
It was a machete
simple in craft but durable.
Another scuffling noise came from the bush.
His body tensed.
Then it came���
"A… rabbit?" Willem whispered to himself in realization as he was caught in an awkward position by the offending creature
His body had all but jumped to combat stance with his left hand in front of him and the right holding the machete in a prepared grasp drawn back letting the weight lean to the earth. His feet had spread themselves from their usual lax manner in favor of a more ground
The rabbit thing stared at him. Granted, it didn't look like a rabbit completely. Two horns protruded from its head forming a jagged antler-like pair
"…cute?" he muttered unsurely his shoulders relaxing a bit
*hiss!!! Snap!!!*
Just as he'd relaxed his stature a giant snake-like creature whose width was bigger than a human's head and a length exceeded that of a fire hose sprung from the same bush, its fangs bared and with one sickeningly wet chomp the rabbit was gone
Now Willem was never the type of person to scare easily but having a snake who could no doubt swallow him whole would probably scare most people
But the only thing that rang in his mind at that moment was
"Second storm cloud"
He stood his ground remembering words from his drill Sargent of "never show your back to the enemy" whilst Its green orbs as eyes shifted to him, its split tongue looking like it was taunting him. its body began coiling itself preparing to attack.
Willem tensed again but this time carefully not to make any sudden movements as to make the giant serpent attack
Timed seemed to slow as Willem and the serpent stared each other down. Neither moving but both prepared to strike
There was a loud crack and a deafening roar when both combatants finally attacked
Willem leaped to the side rolling on the ground roughly avoiding the fangs that would've sank deep into his head and made a shallow cut on the beasts main body making the creature unleash a deafening roar
Black blood started to leak from the wound in drops staining its blue scales with black. it was a good hit but not fatal enough to hinder it in any way
Willem knew what his objective is, judging by the beast's main appearance. With a goal set in mind, he dove once more to avoid getting his head chomped off
The goal he had?
Don't get bitten.
While he wasn't exactly like his grandfather who could tell by glance if a snake was venomous but he was probably right in assuming getting bit by fangs the size of knives would be quite bad. even if it had no venom it would probably kill him from bloodloss… if Willem manages to make it out alive that is
Keeping up their little dance of the snake chasing Willem around and Willem dodging and barely managing to even scratch it Willem was beginning to tire.
If only he had a longer weapon,
something that could reach it without having to get too close and not have to dodge immediately after the initial attack
But as fate would have it there were no such weapons.
He only had a machete and that was it.
'i was lucky to keep this up for as long as I did' he thought resolutely as his breaths were now raged his heart pumping rapidly as it tried to supply more air to his body desperately
'i guess this old man really is gonna die on the battlefield… but…'
"you know what?" he asked leaping to the side again but this time accidentally dove right next to a thorn bush that ripped wounds in his right arm and leg sending a hailstorm of pain to lance up to his brain
He ground his teeth to keep from screaming as he raised his left arm in front of him
"I'll allow you to kill me" he ground at the snake
"…but on one condition"
"AH!!" The fangs met the skin as he instantly felt the poison pump into his system
His heart pumped faster his vision became clearer and he found a new strength in his body. Was this adrenalin?
"you're going to hell with me!!!"
Never missing a beat Willem jammed his machete into the beast's neck and churned it sideways letting the sharp blade exit out of the neck as the beast's body fell limp onto the grassy floor now stained with blood
He breathed deeply and closed his eyes expecting the cold bite of death to claim him any second now…
A second passed
Two seconds passed
Three seconds passed
(yes, that is a Jojo reference)
Nothing.
The usual effects of snake poisoning weren't kicking in
He opened his eyes
"ah!"
The half decapitated half still attached head of the snake greeted him making him jump a little
Wondering what happened he tried to stand.
"what?"
Willem was by no means an easy man to surprise. Years of getting ambushed and defending from surprise attacks in the army made it so that he would have to expect anything
But looking at where two huge fangs once impaled through his arms that had miraculously healed and all that was left were dust and drying blood certainly got a reaction from him
He stood.
Noting the lack of pain in his leg that was for a lack of a better term, fucked up beyond recognition before was now in pristine condition… aside from being covered by blood and a bit of the snake's blood
"The venom…" he trailed off as a suicidal theory came to his mind
Grabbing the snakes head he too some venom in hand and made a shallow cut in his arm and watched with morbid fascination as the wound began to heal at a rapid pace
Did the venom have some kind of medicinal property?
"I'm way too old to deal with this- what?!" he said Scratching his head before catching a glimpse of the machete he used which reflected his face and features only…
His face was younger.
His hair was longer and turned almost snowy white.
His ears were longer for some reason.
His skin a new darkened shade of brown.
"godamn, the third storm cloud" he muttered in awe
His thoughts ground to halt as his stomach started to grumble its displeasure
"looks like we're having snake for dinner," said to the dead head of the snake who stared blankly at him
Humor wasn't his strong point exactly
"it wasn't that bad…" he grumbled under his breath
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Whilst Willem might have been senile before, his mind had remained sharp throughout his life even as the useless old man He'd always made it a point to remember all the important days to Amanda. From anniversaries to birthdays he would always remember them. His memory had also served him well back in the war and it surely did now.
From memory, he repeated the survival training he had gone through as a scout ranger. Starting a fire by rubbing a wedged piece of wood and a piece of old bamboo. Skinning the live snake and taking out its internal organs that couldn't be consumed
He did so mechanically, as he didn't want his mind to wonder about the impossibilities and possibilities of his situation.
The only solution he thought of that would make sense was that this land, this place, this forest, wasn't on earth
But Willem was never the type to ever think deeply about stuff like that. He just takes things at face value and lives with it
But still, questions plagued his mind.
Why was he young again?
How was he young again?
Why is he in a forest?
Why did he look like some strange dude with pointy ears?
Willem sighed and shrugged those thoughts away. he could think about them some other time when he isn't tired
For now, sleep.