Tale of a Frontier

I wake up in an endless surf. It recedes and returns regularly, saltwater, an augury. The sun shines overbearingly from above. Squinting my eyes, I stand.

Where am I? How did I get here? Where was I before? I remember nothing.

Now, I am only lost. Lost to my own past. Lost in a sparse forest, with no signs of life other than the still trees. The forest appears to extend off into the distance, but I hear crashing waves nearby. Turning around, there is a cliff, waves crashing against the rock face. The mist formed from the violence creates rainbows, and I feel drawn to it.

However, I would surely not survive the pounding waves. I decide to go to the top of the cliff. There is no path, so I forge my own. I don’t feel tired, and there is an instinctive feeling I never will. I scale the steep slope up and survey my reward.

An endless ocean. The waves crash noisily below me, and the sun is beginning to set over the blue horizon. The red sky and azure water contrast heavily.

A noise.

I turn, too slowly. Behind me, there is a person. No – a monster. It is dead. It hunts me.

Trembling with fear, I back away, closer to the cliff and the crushing water below. It lunges at me. I dodge. It falls down to the water below. What was that? Are there –

Something has me, pinned. Suffocating. I punch vainly at a hard armor, chitin cracking but not breaking under my blows. I knock it away, and it scurries around me.

It is massive.

It is a spider.

Seemingly at random, it jumps towards me, but I knock it back. It curls and is dead. Even now, though, others are coming. I can see them, climbing the hill towards me. Beasts. Zombies. All with their eyes fixed firmly on me.

The next is foreign to me, but my resolve and fear have steeled my instincts. It runs vaguely towards me on its four legs, its armless form towering over me. I kite it briefly until it charges me, then I lash out with an open palm. The creature’s skin cracks, like a dry leaf, and traps my arm as it begins to glow.

Noise. Light. Vacuum. I am airborne, flying through the air, off my precious cliff and into the void below. Is this my end, then? I crash into the heaving surface, trapped underwater in the currents and my own confusion. I black out soon.

When consciousness returns to me, I am again on the beach. The sun shines dimly from the sunrise, and I sit up slowly. I’m fine. Alive. How?

And where are those monsters?, I thought, suddenly remembering. I turn towards the forest but see nothing. I am alone again. Perhaps they only come out at night? I know they’ll return. I have to prepare.

I run into the forest, looking for something, anything. The trees will have to do. I find a tree with low lying and begin to climb it – but something seems wrong, I think mid-tree. It seems too easy. Getting down, I punch the tree. Since when was I this powerful?

I punch it repeatedly, the trunk eventually splintering as the tree falls, crashing through the forest and landing on the ground, its limbs cushioning the impact. I run along the trunk to the smaller branches, stripping those I can pick off. I check the time of day – it’s still morning, though noticeably later. The sun’s a bit higher up.

Through the entire day I strip the tree, fashioning a set of spears and retreating, at night, to the cliff again.

From here, I can see everything. I see the abominations running towards me, and I fight them off. The spiders I can kill easily with my spears; the zombies and skeletons are harmless as long as I can avoid their attacks. The creepers I impale and run away. It destroys the spear I use but saves me.

And, when the sun rises again, I am still alive. I lost many spears from splintering and creepers, but I’m alive. I can survive.