บท 96: Breaking and Entering
Emma didn't encounter any more monsters that night, instead she spent it in perpetual anxiety at the thought of being ambushed in the dark. But as the darkness subsided and light painted the world, Emma's fear significantly reduced.
With her spear in hand, Emma entered the trees and walked beside the towering wall. Even though she was interested in the corrupted creatures, Emma needed to establish a camp.
She needed to sleep.
The wares of exhaustion were already prevalent in her body. The appearance of light helped a little, but she hasn't had a good sleep in many nights, she was already pushing her body past its limits.
As she roamed through the forest, she stumbled across multiple different animals: a fox ran across her path, a tortoise leisurely nibbled on a bush beside her, the island was overflowing with life.
Emma made it around the colossal cliff and found the beginning of the ascent skyward. The hill to the top was covered in bushes and flora and was no stranger to steep angles as the hill itself was close to being a climb.
Emma dug the end of her spear in the dirt and used it to pull herself forward. Slowly but surely, she made her way up the mountain.
Hours passed in annoyed grunts and numerous scrapes, but Emma was nearing the summit. She tossed her spear up over the final wall, a strange six foot tall stone wall that perfectly guarded the tip of the mountain.
She jumped over the wall and retrieved her spear, but immediately hesitated to take another step forward. In the center of the summit, overlooking the entirety of the island, a wooden cabin stood stall.
The cabin wasn't large, built from multiple palm trees and covered in a roof of leaves, it looked to only have two rooms within. Emma readied her stance and approached the unknown cabin.
The door, a separate piece of wooden logs tied together with grass, was facing Emma and was the only opening into the cabin Emma could find. It had no other windows or doors Emma could see.
Emma neared the door. Should she knock? Announce her presence? Or should she open the door herself and barge in, hoping the cabin was empty?
Emma chose the latter and ripped the door open, it wasn't attached to the cabin and so the door flew off and blew past her. She knew she couldn't hesitate, so Emma rushed into the cabin ready to strike.
The first room, which seemed to be a living room as it had a bench covered in grass and multiple chests filled with junk, was otherwise empty.
She rushed into the second room which had a simple bed of grass and leaves, but that too was unoccupied. Before Emma could comfortably catch her breath, though, she ran back outside and circled the cabin.
Every nook and cranny of this mysterious cabin needed to be unturned and brought to light. Emma couldn't afford a mistake.
But the cabin, the summit itself, truly appeared deserted. Unless the cabin's maker buried themselves beneath the rock and dirt, no one was here.
Emma retrieved the door she previously threw and placed it back in the doorway then entered the cabin. She dismissed her spear and kneeled before the handful of chests that lined the wall of the cabin.
With zero remorse, Emma tore through the chests. She pulled out dried meats, multiple different animal hides, archaic hand tools like a stone ax and hammer, and a handful of different bones.
The chest's contents screamed primitive, but the craftsmanship behind the cabin itself and the quality of the tools told a different story. Perhaps someone else had been abandoned here, who knows how long ago.
Emma stumbled into the bedroom and dropped onto the makeshift mattress. Within moments, her brain shutdown and her body loosened. The sweet embrace of rest swept Emma off her feet and coddled her to sleep.
***
An unknown amount of time passed and a savory smoke rummaged its way into Emma's nostrils. Pulling her from her dreams, Emma stretched her body across the bed of leaves and let out a much needed drawn out yawn.
She wiped her eyes and sat up, allowing herself another full body stretch before she truly got up. While her vision adjusted, the entrancing smokey scent continued to fill her room.
Emma hopped out of bed and subconsciously followed the savory smoke into the living room.
"Well rested?" A man's voice suddenly struck Emma's eardrums.
"The food should be ready in just a few minutes."
Emma immediately entered a panic. She summoned her spear and backed away from the living room. With her spear in hand and her defensive stance employed, Emma stared intensely at the foreign man.
He had long, dirty blonde hair that was pulled back into a bun. A ridiculously large ring sat on each of his fingers, each carried a different gemstone and an oversized, torn scar was wrapped around his neck.
He looked up and met Emma's gaze, his bright golden irises illuminated the cabin as if they were perpetually glowing.
"You eat meat right?" He asked.
"Who are you?!" Emma snapped, "What are you doing here?!"
The man looked around the cabin like he was lost then opened his mouth:
"But I built this place though…" His voice trailed off.
For some reason Emma felt attacked, of course she knew she was wrong, but she wasn't expecting him to counter her like that.
"Who the hell are you?!" Emma raised her voice and yelled.
"Timi—" The man replied indifferently, his attention back on the small fire in the living room, "Timi Oswald, nice to meet you."
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