Merek's Ascendance Read Online Free PDF Page B

Maybe he would sleep a bit longer. Nothing terrible seemed to happen to him when he was asleep, as of late.
    Then the ground started shaking again. Merek opened his eyes, momentarily being blinded by the sun. He slowly rolled on to his stomach to better observe the cliff.
    The rocks were falling towards him.
    Energy born from fear flowed into Merek’s legs, and he was on his feet before he was even aware of getting up. Without pause, he bolted downstream, trying to maintain his balance between the shaking ground and his inability to stay focused. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say his brain was busy elsewhere and was longer in his head.
    So, naturally, Merek didn’t see the tree stump until he tripped over it.
    His momentum carried him clear over the stump, where he landed in a pile of dirt and leaves. His leg stung from where it hit the stump, but Merek didn’t much care. He was too tired to move.
    “Today…” he wheezed, “ is wonderful. Just wonderful.”
    The ground shook again, but Merek ignored it. At least, until a stone smacked into the crook of his right leg with a painful thud.
    “ At least the rocks don’t shout at me,” Merek sighed, pushing himself to a sitting position. The sting in his leg was only getting worse, so he peeled away his pant leg.
    He had to peel it, because there was a large spot of blood growing. The force of impact must have sliced a few layers of skin off, and the wound was bleeding. Merek winced as he examined it, but it wasn’t so bad. He had suffered worse wounds when he was trying to master how a sickle worked.
    “I guess I just need to clean this and find something to wrap it up with. Oh that’s right, the only other cloth I had was stolen by an injured mother bear. Well, I stay stolen. I did give it to her…”
    So Merek mumbled as he hobbled down the stream. There was no telling where he was going, but the water wasn’t deep enough here for him to submerge his leg to properly clean it.
    He didn’t have to walk long. He traveled maybe five minutes before he caught the scent of water and something else he couldn’t describe. Salt, maybe? The air certainly smelled salty, like Mother’s cooking when she simply did not care anymore.
    He passed through a clump of trees and found out, more or less, what he was smelling.
    It was a huge body of water, more water than Merek had ever seen before. It stretched out to the horizon, so vast Merek couldn’t see the other side. He smiled as he examined the turning waves, crashing on the rocks beneath him.
    “I’d say that’s deep enough,” he nodded, “if I can get down there.” His face screwed up in concentration, trying to find a safe way down. The rocks looked sharp and it was a sheer drop right onto them, so climbing down wasn’t an option. Merek looked down the coast, looking to see if there was a break in the rocks nearby. But all he could see for miles was trees and rocks.
    The stinging in his leg was only getting worse the longer he didn’t tend to it. Getting down didn’t seem to be an option at present, so instead Merek turned back to the forest. Crossing his arms thoughtfully, he looked at the trees.
    “I wonder…” he mumbled as he climbed the nearest tree, “if I can use leaves to cover up the wound…”
    It took some doing and Merek felt like he had pulled half of the leaves off of the tree, but eventually he fashioned a sort of bandage for his wound. The coolness of the leaves, if nothing else, relieved some of the pain, though their roughness made him question his decision.
    Eventually he just shrugged. A little extra pain was okay next to a little less lost blood.
    “Well, Merek, you’ve managed to survive two hours in the forest with no more injury than a messed up leg and almost drowning,” he chuckled, staying in the tree. It was nice in the tree, and he had a perfect view of the churning waves. He smiled involuntarily as he stared, relaxing for the first time in…
    Well, he couldn’t