Death Wish

Chapter 1. I Hate My Life

"Didn't I just die?" He asks himself. "I jumped off a roof, landed on the pavement...... I must be dead! This HAS to be the afterlife."

As he rabbles on to himself, a wagon drive by, on a nearby road. An older man stops the wagon and peers out at the young man. 

"Are you okay, sonny?" The man shouts.

The man turns quickly. "You there, where am I?" He shouts.

"Havensroust!" The old man shouts back. "South of the Aldermen Empire." The old man slaps the rains and rides off, quickly.

"Havensroust? Aldermen Empire?!" The man questions himself. "Where the hell am I?!" He shouts at the sky.

After a while, he begins to compose himself. Searching his belongings, he finds a dagger, a few vials of oddly colored liquid, a map, various coins in a bag, and a gently worn ring. Besides his apparel, which seems to be made of cheap fabrics and leather, he has nothing else on him.

"This is far too odd to be the afterlife." He says as he pinches himself. "Oww! Ok, this is real. But how did I get here?"

He again looks around, but no one is nearby. Pulling out the map, he examines it closely. 

"Ok, so that old man said I was in Havensroust..... south of the Aldermen Empire...." As he speaks he traces his fingure on the map and locates Havensroust. "Okay, found that.... now, what is nearby?" He circles the area, on the map, with his fingure and locates a small pond to the east. "Guess I need water, so I will go there first."

He picks up all the things he unpacked and heads east, following the sun's arch in the sky. Once he nears the pond, he hides behind a bush having spotted a few animals drinking from the water. They are deer like, in appearance, with tan hair mixed with patches of white around their chests. He slowly picks up a rock and readies his dagger.

"I have only one shot at this." He thinks to himself.

He throws the rock causing a splash, in the pond, in front of the animals. They scatter quickly, one runs straight for the bush, where he is hiding.

"Bingo!" He thinks.

As the animal reaches the bush it attempts to leap over it, but he pops up and stabs his dagger into its chest, bringing it crashing to the ground, on its back. The animal is dead. He quickly looks around for any others, but they have all fleed the area. 

"Caught myself some dinner, have plenty of water, guess I should make a fire." He says to himself.

As night begins to fall, he gathers wood and leafs, for the fire. Before starting it, he skins the animal and cuts it into manageable pieces. 

"Looks like I will have a lot left over, but if I do not eat it now it will likely go bad quickly." He says to himself.

He starts the fire, using two rocks, and begins to place each piece on a makeshift spit, propped up by other branches he found laying around. The smell of cooking meat instantly reminds him of home, of Becca and all the times they cooked together. 

"I'm such an idiot...." He thinks to himself. "Why am I alive?!!" He shouts angrily.

His shout is answered by a grunting beyond some nearby bushes. Richard turns quickly to see what made the noise. As he tries to focus his eyes he sees an abnormally large bear lumbering towards him. The bear roars and stands on its hind legs.

"YES!" Richard shouts with joy, running up to the bear. "Kill me!"

The bear is thrown off guard by this sudden advancement and stumbles a bit, landing back on all fours.