Nathan groaned to himself as rays of sunlight hit him through the leaves. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around in confusion. For a second he didn't remember where he was, his body screaming in protest at every movement he made. As he sat up the smell of grass and dirt jogged his memory. Nathan remembered the day before, his fathers summon and the supernatural abilities used to break free from Walker Co. The young man had no idea where he was, or even how he got there. He stood up to get a better look at his surroundings and Nathan saw no buildings and no signs of human life.

The mark on his hand had brought him to this place, but he had no idea why. His heart rate increased slightly as he realized he was all alone, his eyes darted back and forth between the trees to look for possible threats. He tried to summon the abailties he had used on his father and the guards, but the mark remained a cold black tattoo. Unless he hadn't seen it for himself he wouldn't even have known it was alive.

When no bear came to maul him Nathan dared to move from his spot underneath one of the birch trees. The branches and twigs above him were broken and looking at them made him wince. His back and sides throbbed with pain as he moved, but nothing was broken. As he started to walk further into the forest he soon came upon a slope that led into a small valley. From where he stood Nathan got a good look over the area and spotted a clearing among the sea of trees. He also spotted a small mountain and a river running through the valley. He thought about it for a second before he headed down the slope, wanting to look around. If he at least had freshwater then he wouldn't die from dehydration.

I turned out the slope was covered in throne bushes. He complained and grumbled as he forced himself down towards the river, the thorns tearing holes into his jeans and jacket. When he finally reached the end of the slope Nathan pulled himself free from the bushes and cursed them. As he walked away from the slope he looked up into the sky and saw a bird of some sort flying ahead. Nathan stopped as he noticed more and more birds flying high up in the sky. The more he looked at the birds the more confused he became since he saw four legs and two wings.

"What in the world-"

Suddenly Nathan was knocked back as something enormous past just over the treetops. The young man scrambled to his feet and looked up to see a creature with red scales fly away from the valley. As the thing rose into the sky he saw its four legs and two wings. The creature's head reminded him of a lizard and its tail had spikes all over it.

"A dragon..." He said in awe.

Nathan stood up, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open as he saw more and more dragons pass over the valley. They came in all kinds of colors, green, red, blue, yellow, purple, and gold just to name a few. Without thinking about it he took a few steps forward to follow the large creature, his eyes locked onto the herd of dragons. He laughed slightly as more of the dragons decided to fly closer to the valley.

"I am very far away from home..." Nathan mumbled to himself and watched as the last couple of dragons fly past the valley.

With the breathtaking scene gone Nathan continued towards the river and clearing. He made his way through bushes and trees, the twigs cutting into his cheeks. When he made it past the wall of green Nathan came across the river he had seen earlier. It was two meters in width and stretched from one end of the valley to the other. He noted how incredibly clear the water looked and he bent down to drink from it. A part of his mind was worried about possible bacteria, but he had no way to boil the water. Nathan cupped his hands and scooped up some of the river water, letting his dry throat be soothed by it. He didn't feel any weird taste from the water and scooped up some more to satisfy his thirst. As he drank from the river he heard a branch snap across the river. Nathan looked up and saw a deer, its black eyes fixated on him. The animal took a tentative step towards the river and bent down to drink. Nathan just watched it intensely, desperately wanting to touch it. He had never been so close to a wild animal despite having lived close to the woods his entire life.

Nathan kept watching the deer drink from the river before it walked away, the boy not moving a single muscle to not spook the creature. He had never understood why some people refused to eat meat but he had seen an animal just a couple of meters away from him, full of life. Part of him understood the vegans now, while another part of him urged him to find something to eat. He heard his stomach rumble with dissatisfaction at missing out a breakfast of eggs and bacon and Nathan decided to make his way to the clearing, he needed a place to stay.

As the birds chirped away their morning songs Nathan made his way across the river and found the clearing. The green grass had plenty of flowers in all different colors growing from it and he saw multiple bees zoom around the open area. Something he hadn't noticed before when surveying the clearing was a white tree at the far end of it. It had plenty of large roots that curled around the ground and its thick branches seemed to be able to carry a house. The tree's red leaves seemed to be locked in permanent autumn as they swayed in the wind. Nathan was drawn to the tree and he made his way to it with quick steps. When he got to the tree Nathan put his hand against its trunk and it almost seemed to pulsate. He quickly pulled away and eyed the tree verily before he looked around his new campsite. The tree could protect him against wild animals at night if he could sleep among its branches and it wouldn't be hard to find stones to build a campfire. He lacked any tools to cut down trees and no matches, however.

"Should I try to start a fire first or find food first?" He mumbled to himself and looked around the clearing.

His rumbling stomach decided for him.

"Food it is then."

Nathan made his way into the area surrounding the clearing and he quickly found berry bushes. The boy took note of them but decided that meat was more important. He groaned in frustration as he realized he lacked any tools to either kill or trap an animal. Defeated Nathan returned to the berry bushes and examined them, he hoped the berries would be okay to eat and not contain any parasites. Nathan picked up one of the berries and examined its blue color. It looked like a blueberry and smelled like one as well. He put the berry into his mouth timidly and bit down, the taste of blueberry filling his mouth and he quickly started picking more and more of the berries. By the time he was done his hands were purple as was his tongue, but the hunger had subsided a little bit. Now he needed to focus on building a campfire or at least try to build a one.

Nathan scavenged the nearby woods for the materials he would need and he carried back rocks and loose branches to the white tree. He arranged the rocks into a circle and added the fuel. He quickly had a campfire established, but he still lacked a way to burn the wood. He thought about all the documentaries he had seen on tv and knew he either needed to make a bow-drill, which he didn't know how to craft or just quickly rub a stick against a piece of wood. Nathan sighed and decided to try rubbing a stick against a piece of wood. The boy rubbed the stick back and forth for many minutes, his hands working furiously to make fire. After fifteen minutes he dropped the stick and panted heavily, his hands numb from the effort and the only thing he had accomplished was a small black spot on the wood. It was progress on his part, but it wasn't good enough. He looked at the stick with a glare and a frown before laying down on the grass, looking up at the blue sky.

"I should have joined the boy scouts..." He muttered and his thoughts drifted to home.

He wondered what Isabella was doing. Did she think he was dead? Had she been forced to see the scene in the company building? Nathan had no idea how she would react to his disappearance. Maybe she would be happy now that he was gone and out of her hair. But a part of him beat that down that thought the same second it arrived. She had always smiled and gone out of her way to spend time with him. He remembered how she used to scold him when he had done something wrong and encouraged his violin playing long after his mother lost her interest. No Isabelle would cry, and the thought of that formed a lump at the back of his throat and an ache in his chest.

Nathan forced the emotions down and sat up, looking around his new home. He was free in the woods, and his father could never force him to do anything as long as he stayed there. Nathan looked upon his campfire and the stick before he started trying to force a flame from it once more. He tried and tried but it was no use. He got no closer to getting a fire started and he gave up on the idea. Thankfully it was warm outside and the summer sun shone down on the clearing. He would most likely not freeze to death at night, but he needed some way to cock his food. As a sudden harsh wind wiped across his face Nathan realized he would need to build some kind of shelter, so he got up and went looking in the woods again. If he couldn't start a fire then he would at the very least keep himself safe from the wind and possible predators.

There were plenty of fallen trees to pick and choose from in the woods and Nathan dragged many of them back to the clearing for his project. By the time he was done his clothes were soaked with sweat and he breathed heavily. He could feel his heart beating at the back of his throat and the taste of blood was prevalent in his mouth. He wished he had played more sports as a kid, but wishing for better stamina wouldn't get him anywhere. With all the materials gathered Nathan started building on his shelter. He found a log with one of its ends shaped like a 'v'. Nathan pushed the old piece of wood into the ground a couple of meters away from the white tree. He put up another log on the V-shaped one before sliding it over to the white tree. He now had a skeleton to build the rest of his home on. Nathan continued working on the shelter as the sun burned his skin and the birds sang. He only stopped to drink from the river and Nathan found it to be quite referishing doing manual labor for once. His father had detested such activities and forced the same view onto him. But as he leaned log after log against the branch it became clear to Nathan that his father just hadn't done an honest day of work in his entire life.

Nathan stood with his chin held high, his shoulders back, and his chest thrust out as he looked upon his new home. Sure, the thing looked ready to fall apart if a gust of wind hit it, but it was his creation. He had built a A-shaped shelter using the logs and it would at the very least shield him from the sun. He could feel his arms and shoulders aching from the exposore to the harsh ball of gas and Nathan climbed into the shelter. It was small, only allowing him to sit on his knees, but it would work for now. He just needed someplace safe where no animals could get him. He looked at the two entrances into the shelter, one by the tree and one by the V-shaped log. He would need to cover up one of them and bind his fragile roof together with wines. He could see the logs tremble as the wind hit them. Nathan was optemistic about the shelter, but he wasn't naive. If he wanted to stay there for longer than a day he would need a home that would crush him during the night.

It was at that moment he heard a rustling from outside. The young man made his way out from the pile of logs and he looked around the clearing. Suddenly the bushes to Nathan's left rustled and swayed like something was moving through them. He grabbed a rock and took a step back, his eyes locked on the bushes and his breahing getting quicker and quicker as the creature in the bushes got closer. He yelped as something exploded out from the bushes and he fell back. Nathan groaned and looked up to see a rabbit looking at him with a tilted head. The animal had snow white fur despite it being in the middle of summer and its red eyes looked like they belonged on a demon.

"Hi there little guy... You scared me," Nathan said and sat up.

The rabbit just growled and revealed rows of sharp white fangs.

"Oh for fucks sak-"

Nathan fell back once more as the minature demon pounced on him. He screamed as it bit into his right arm and growled deeply. It tugged onto his flesh and the Nathan tried to pry it off with his bare hands. The attempt to remove the rabbit only resulted in his hand getting bit. Nathan grabbed a hold of the rock he had dropped in the fall and wacked it into the side of the monster's head. It made a pained squeal but only bit down harder in response. Nathan gave off another scream and threw back his head as white flashed before his eyes. He gritted his teeth and started beating the rabbit with the rock until the it's surface was covered with blood. Suddenly the monster let go and fell over to Nathan's side, a loud thump echoing out over the clearing.

Nathan kicked the animal away from him and quickly crawled back into his shelter. The young man held the wound on his throbbing arm and inhaled sharply. Nathan tried to be as quiet as possible in his hiding place and he only looked outside once he relaized the rabbit wasn't coming back. Nathan slowly got out from the shelter and eyed the dead rabbit as blood ran down his arm. The beast's head was cracked open and its body was limp as a ragdoll, much to Nathan's belief. Once Nathan had made sure it was dead he quickly started to patch himself up. The wound on his arm was deep and the little demon had torn out a good chunk out of it. His left hand hadn't substained serious injuries, but it bleed and throbbed all the same. Nathan didn't think twice before he tore of a piece of cloth from his shirt and wrapped it tightly around the wound on his right arm. Blood just leaked through the cloth however and he could feel a lump starting to form at the back of his throat. He took a shakey breath and put his bleeding left hand against the wound before he sat down on the grass.

He would bleed out becuase of a rabbit, his death would be caused by a fucking rabbit. Nathan could feel his nostrails flaring at the thought of that and he growled. He wanted to finish his shelter. He wanted to start a fire. He wanted to cook the rabbit and eat the little bastard. But most of all he wanted to live. As if it responded to Nathan's call the mark on his right hand suddenly glowed a bright green. He didn't have time to react before he felt his body grow heavy and his breathing only came out as shallow gasps. He fell onto his back and desperately tried to get oxygen into his lungs, clawing at his throat with his left hand. He could see what looked like liquid green light form around his right hand and it poured down towards his injured arm. He screamed as the strange energy forced itself into the wound and his skin felt like it was on fire. He wished for death as the burning sensation only got worse and his vision grew black due to the lack of oxygen. It felt like a car had been placed on his chest and he couldn't even scream, his voice nothing more than a hoarse squeal.

Just as quickly as the sensation had come it disapeared. Nathan gasped for air and choughed violently, a black tar like substance running down his chin. He sat up and curled up into a ball like a scared child, his eyes flicking around the clearing for answers. His haze landed on the mark on his hand, the green glow slowly fading away. A part of him wanted to cut the mark off his hand, despite the fact it had helped him escape his father. But his angry snarl soon turned into wide eyes and an open jaw as he looked at his arm.

"Oh my god..."

The wound was no longer there. The only thing that remained was a nasty scar that ran across the area the rabbit had bit him and the blood on his clothes. Nathan tentivly toutched the area before he let out a quiet laugh which erupted into cheering. He stood up and swirled around, a large smile plastered across his face as he eyed the miracle on his arm. He had seen it do fantstical things before, but the mere idea it could heal him astonished Nathan. The pain the process had brought on was still fresh in his mind however and he never wanted to experince that again. He made a mental note of being more careful in the woods in the future and he then turned to the failed campfire.

It was time he got a fire started.

Nathan worked just as hard as he had done before, only now he didn't quit when his muscles and lungs burned. He pushed through it and continued rolling the stick between his hands until he saw a tiny bit of smoke appear on the dry piece of wood. He cheered when a small flame finally grew on the firewood and he blew on it gently to get it bigger. Slowly the fire grew bigger until he had finally aquired a proper fireplace. The young man grinned at his acomplishment and then looked at the rabbit.

How did you skin an animal? What parts were you even supposed to remove?

Nathan swore to himself and kicked the rabbit for good messure. He really should have joined the boy scouts.

Author's Notes:

And so chapter 2 has been rewritten. I am adding one or two extra chapters about Nathaniel's time in the woods to make his survival more believable and to better explore his charcater. I hope you enjoyed it The new chapter 3 will be written soon.