Title: Origins: part 3 Author: PanicPirate Pastebin link: http://pastebin.com/WnvX8QyV First Edit: Monday 3rd of February 2014 06:02:40 PM CDT Last Edit: Monday 3rd of February 2014 06:02:40 PM CDT I scrambled out of bed without a sound, grabbing my spear that I used for fishing, the tip a nasty-looking thing that once entered a piece of flesh, couldn’t come out. I crouched down and silently advanced forwards. I slid behind a large piece of timber that served as support for the roof. I peered around it and looked at the source of the current sound. It stood a bit above one and a half meters, and was rummaging through my chests, grabbing all of my fish and bread. Brown-red hair went well past the shoulder line, and it was wrapped in one of my blankets woven from wool and cowhide. I gripped my spear tighter, and slowly walked forwards, grabbing my hatchet in my free hand. I was right behind it. My heart was racing, adrenaline flooding every nerve and cell of my body. I was ready to kill whatever climbed into my house and ate my food. So I lunged. I wrapped my left arm around its neck, and it dropped everything it had taken from my chests. It immediately struggled against me, but months of lifting logs to build my house and heaving iron to the giant furnace ensured that nothing could escape a headlock; nonetheless, it fought back with a strength of its own, thrashing around and trying to escape my grasp. I rammed it into another pillar, forcing it to the ground. I used my weight to keep it under, but that didn’t stop it from trying. I eventually managed to tire it out, as it stopped flailing and rested in a corner of my shack. Should I kill it? I brushed the thought aside as I thought as to what it was. All I knew about it was that I was stronger than it and it had eaten a good amount of my fish reserves. It seemed to have come alone, which I was lucky for. Where did it come from? Are there more of it, or is it truly alone, like me? What does it even look like? These questions could wait. Now, all I wanted to do was tie up the unconscious thing and then get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be very interesting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ When I awoke, I looked up to my delight to see it sleeping on the pillar I had tied it to. It hadn’t moved at all, but it was breathing. But what is it? I walked towards it, hatchet in hand, and crouched in front of. I proceeded to prod its head with the side of the hatchet blade for a full minute before it stirred. It looked up, and I was taken aback at what I saw. When I had it in a headlock yesterday, I never got a look at its front, much less the face. Speaking of which, it was very similar to mine; this was another….whatever I was. Its eyes were a dark brown like the bark of an oak, and they drilled into me with pure hatred. “What’s with your eyes?” it asked. “What’s with yours?” my voice boomed. “Mine are normal. Yours are green and blue.” “Yours are the same color.  That’s weirder than mine.” It grunted with displeasure, then tried to wiggle out of the rope to no avail. “Why are you here anyways?” I pressed. It still had no right to deplete my fish reserves. Fish was hard to get in wintertime. “You had food and a fire. Don’t blame me for being hungry” I wasn’t going to take that. I was going to take it back to where it came from. Or I could make it work the furnace for a few days. A little work never killed me, it shouldn’t kill it, either. “Well,” I started. “I don’t know you, but I do know you’ll be working the iron furnace for a day or two.” Its face sank at the very thought of work. “My name’s Ava, by the way.” it replied. I shrugged off the fact about its name, and noticed that Ava was shivering. “Don’t you have any clothes?” I said. “No” Ava stammered. “That’s another reason I came into your house. It was warm.” “Regardless, get ready for work in the morning” Ava sighed. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the cave, Ava adjusted the coat I made for her. It had wolf pelts on the inside and leather on the outside. The pants and moccasins were leather lined with wool to allow for stretching. The hood on the coat went to the thighs and had a hood that was currently snuggled against her head. Ava was lucky that I could make that in a 4 hours, but I did it so she would stop snuggling me and complaining about the cold. Right now she was dragging a hunk of iron ore into the fire pit, scraping it along the cave floor. The metal scratched and tore at her hands, forcing Ava to repeatedly put the chunk down and rest her hands, while I continually broke into the vein of iron with my pickax. “Why can’t you do this part?” Ava complained, her hands showing faint signs of red. “Because if I need to keep doing this, I’ll need gloves like yours.” “You can’t have gloves because your coat, pants, boots, shirt and socks took up all of my extra leather and wolf pelts.” I said, giving her a deadpan look. “And if I do that part, I guess you’ll have to come over here and beat the crap out of superheated iron until its flat enough for me to use.” Ava looked down at her boots sheepishly and grumbled something. “Thanks for the clothes, anyways. They’re warm.” Ava grabbed the piece of iron and started dragging it toward the pit. I grabbed hold of my hammer and pliers and began working on a lock for my door. I was going to need it now. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hours passed in the cave, with the heat slowly rising as I tossed logs and coal into the fire pit to warm the iron faster. I’d have to make vents for the heat, it’s almost unbearable. I had already taken off my coat, exposing the shirt I had woken up in; now barely able to cover my muscled body. Trudging around in heavy snowstorms and hauling large trees sure did a body good. I looked over at Ava, who was laying on the floor, breaths coming out raggedly. Lifting was obviously not her talent. Neither was dragging, pushing, begging, or any method of moving things or trying to make me move things. Sweat covered her forehead and stained her red hair. I stood up, grabbed my coat and looked outside the cave. A snowstorm had rolled in, obscuring a clear way to my home; Good thing I know the way by heart. “Alright. Let’s wrap this up and head to my home.” I shouted at Ava. She sighed and sat up, her eyes and muscles in desperate need of sleep. “Can you carry me?” She pleaded. “No” “Please? I won’t complain at all tomorrow!” I put on my coat fast and scooped her in my arms. Damn, she was light. “You make really bad deals. You know that, right?” I gloated at the idea of no complaints. I has known her for less than a day, but I was already tired of her whining. “What do you mean?” She didn’t know that she just allowed me to do all the annoying things I wanted and she couldn’t do jack. “I mean that you have to go a day without complaining. No matter what happens” The gears in her head slowly turning, she realized her mistake. Her grim expression met my giddy one. “I hate you.” “I love the deals you make” “If I walk the rest of the way, can I still complain tomorrow?” I respond to that by gripping her in my arms in way that not even a bear could escape from. “If you can get out of my arms, sure” The ensuing struggle was hilarious, watching Ava try to wriggle out of my arms, her body heaving with the effort. She eventually gave up, opting to lie limply in my arms as she accepted her fate. The houses outside lamps were beginning to show their light through the raging snowstorm. Soon, the door would open and the fire would blast its heat on Ava and I. Probably a good thing too, her cheeks are looking redder by the minute and she’s starting to shiver. Then again, the coat she had on didn’t really have any time or work put into it, so it probably let in a lot of the cold. Picking up the pace to a light jog, I headed towards home, clutching Ava closer to my body. Her shivering slowed for a bit, and I considered giving her my jacket for the rest of the trip.