A small, grey-scaled fish was swimming in a crystal-clear river, completely unaware that a person was aiming a bow with a metal-tipped arrow at it.
I stood still for a few minutes, concentrating on my little hunt. As a very old man, I have spent more than 80% of my life practising hunting to feed myself, so I know how to guide myself on a hunt without being fooled by the refraction of light when I have to kill an animal in the water.
When I was completely sure, I let go of the string and shot the arrow, which hit the fish perfectly, sending its blood running through the water. It was my fourth fish of the morning and promised a hearty breakfast.
"I think that's enough." I said as I picked up the dead fish and pulled out the embedded arrow.
I walked silently through the forest, only listening to the birds singing, which made me think a little. Crossing some trees, I saw my camp near a rock, where I'd made my shelter out of branches and some cut wood, covered with leaves for the cold, though I didn't need it, it was more a matter of habit that I couldn't undo.
I sat down by my campfire and began to remove the scales from the fish I'd killed for cleaning and cooking, though I had no need to worry about bacteria or food-borne illnesses as I'd never been sick in my life.
I grabbed a can of preserves and opened it, revealing some dried fruit, even though I wasn't a big fan, it was still food, so this is not the time to be picky. I waited 1 hour to finish frying the fish and organize it for eating.
Before I started eating, I turned on the only electronic device that I now had with me, an old portable radio, probably from the 90s. I tuned in to a frequency and started listening to the news that was going on, to at least keep up with the latest news about the world.
It had been a few days since my surprise experience on the Cybertronian ship, and to be honest, I hadn't even counted the days since I'd been here. It was strange to think that I looked like a fugitive criminal.
[[Time for this week's gossip!]] Said the voice on the radio. [[Some people claim to have seen an unknown flying object fall in a nature reserve, the presence of the military in the region reinforces the rumours of the local population]].
[[I saw a fireball fall from the sky, it was so cool!]]
[[These aliens abducted my uncle, to this day the government denies the facts, but I know the truth!]]
[[I think it might have been a drone from our government, the military is always funding new weapons for the safety of our people. If something really important happened, we would know.]]
I turn off the radio and sigh tiredly. "It's impressive that an alien ship of this size goes unnoticed by humans... I'm pretty bored." I couldn't complain about my situation because it was my choice, to expose myself more would be like dancing with fortune and misfortune. "I should have brought a book, maybe the Lord of the Rings saga to finally get to know the work, they say it's very good, but damn... I think I should find a new hobby".
I thought a lot about what I could do as a new hobby, the problem is that I have done everything in my life, literally everything possible, I've even been a sculptor, a carpenter, a blacksmith, among other things. The only thing I never tried to explore to its full potential was the Allspark's ability to create life, I just dosed the energy and radiation to create or modify an object, always being careful not to accidentally create a living being.
However, the creation of life, even the smallest possible, could be quite disastrous, from what I understand of the Allspark since it and I became one, what I also learned was when it sent information to my mind when something appeared that I didn't understand, or when I slept and dreamed at some point in a Cybertronian's life.
This was quite strange, because there are an infinite number of sparks ready to be given the opportunity to live their lives, along with billions or trillions of sparks that have already lived their lives in the past that are within me.
The concept of life and death for a Cybertronian is similar to the beliefs of several religions, but regardless of whether they are good or evil, everyone has a single path to their death, except those who directly or indirectly join Unicron's Anti-Spark, as it is the antithesis of my existence.
Although I have access to the life of a Cybertronian, there are few that I am actually curious to learn about, but as I am sometimes overwhelmed with so much information, it is daunting to know where to begin to learn new things. If you imagine that a single Spark from a Cybertronian is a library, and that each year of their life is worth a whole book, you can imagine how vast the network of information is in my mind that I have not directly accessed.
However, as much as I studied Cybertron and its inhabitants for the first few hundred years, I slowly stopped learning this way, as it would be strange for someone to suddenly have access to my life like a book and see all my secrets without permission. Out of respect and privacy, I avoid reading about the latest events on Cybertron, so my idea of the current war is directly limited to the random dreams I have.
My moment of reflection was interrupted when my radio, which was off, began to emit an unpleasant high-pitched sound that made me spit out my food in fright and caused many birds to fly into the sky in fright. A bright flash of light appeared from the top of the trees, preventing me from looking up and forcing me to cover my eyes.
"What happened now?" I asked, covering my eyes with one arm until I felt a jolt on the ground that made me lose my balance and knock me to the ground. "Is it mankind's turn to suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs?"
I looked up at the sky and saw a huge cloud of smoke, visible even above the trees. Part of me wanted to walk away and forget it, but I was curious to see what had caused it. Maybe it was an aeroplane or a helicopter. If I was stupid enough to chase an alien meteor as a kid, it wouldn't hurt to check out what fell from the sky now.
If it was a plane crash, people might be lucky enough to survive, and even though plane crashes are rare, that doesn't mean they can't happen.
Finding the person responsible for the tremor a few minutes ago wasn't difficult, especially when it was at least a 10 minute walk away. When I saw the trail of destruction, it was impossible not to frown. Seeing the destroyed trees and an alien ship with its metal boiling and emitting smoke, I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the irony of fate.
"This is ridiculous... I think someone's messing with me, there's no way an alien ship could have crashed from so many places in the world, it had to be right where I am". I said indignantly. "And the worst part is that the cliché actually happened... so aliens have a preference for landing in the USA, did anyone happen to put up a sign saying: Free tourism on the first trip, park on the American continent?"
I was about to leave, but my guilty conscience hit me hard. Even if it was a Cybertronian ship, there might be survivors who needed help. If they were dead, I wouldn't interfere. The Cybertronian concept of life and death is complex, and I'm not crazy enough to interfere. But as a human being who values life, I can at least help the survivors, if they're lucky enough to survive the impact.
I slowly approached the ship, taking the opportunity to observe the damage to its structure. "This damage was not caused by the landing, this ship was damaged in battle. The damage is to the right wing, the main engines and the fuel compartment." I said, walking towards the bow and seeing that there was a door that allowed entry into the ship. "This thing is practically a walking bomb, it could probably go off at any moment."
I knew it would be stupid to stay near a ship that was about to explode, but I knew that regardless of the situation, I should at least make sure that no one, regardless of race, died from such an accident. I boarded the ship with no idea that my life was about to be changed forever because of a certain gothic spider.