Maej: Journal Entry 4

Maej runs into trouble in his first battle with his new found power, but vows to learn from his mistakes.

The first true test of my abilities didn't go exactly how I planned, but it proved... interesting.  Early this morning I arrived in the outskirts of Galena, I found a farming settlement and inquired to a man working the field about the beast in the area.  He mentioned some of the merkants in the area that had passed by recently spoke of a strange beast just north of the village center.  The village it self was only a couple miles west on a small path so I decided to head there first to gather more information before setting out on the hunt.  The run into the village of Galena was mostly uneventful but I did see a small cart by the side of road completely abandoned and smashed to many pieces.  There's no way that the damage was accidental, I think the beast had been this way, and not too long ago.

 

    I arrived at the village and found a young man outside.  It was still early in the day so most people had yet to get to the small market place there.  He told me that a day ago he was out on a northern path to a fresh water spring.  While he was there he met someone from a northern farmland heading south in a hurry, he had just been attacked by the beast, and barely escaped with his life.  I didn't need to hear much more, the beast had been with an hours run of the village less a day ago, so I headed north immediately.  I met a father and son on the path north, they confirmed that they have heard and seen the beast from a distance recently.  I was so close at that point my hands were pulsating, my body was tuned to confront the beast at any second.  I was running at full pace for a few hours along the northern paths and then I heard a sound off the path to right.  I stopped and crouched down listening as best I could.  I tried concentrating my inner power to help heighten my hearing but with no results yet.  I am still not even sure if it’s possible, but I will have to explore those possibilities later.  I looked into the woods and saw a silhouette hunched over who appeared to be consuming something.  I paused a moment…  Then the beast started to move away so I chased after it.  He heard me instantly and took off running.  At about 30 feet away, and through the thick brush I could make out the shape of the beast, it was close to that of a man’s but the head was larger, and it had long straggled hair.  It also had powerful arms and it ran on all four limbs like cattle.  After about a minute, the beast began climbing a tree next to a short cliff in the woods, I got to the tree quickly and climbed after him.  As I was climbing the tree the beast jumped over from the tree to the short cliff, I knew that I had to hurry in order to catch up.  I got to the top of the tree, and I was surprised to see the beast standing on top of the cliff facing me as if to see what kind of threat I pose.  Finally I could see the thing close up, it appeared to be half man and half wild cat.  It had a large main and fur all over its body and human like arms and legs, although the arms were twice the size of the average man, with slightly shorter legs.  It appeared as if it were about to attack at me so I decided to lunged towards it.  I jumped at the beast hands first attempting to wrap my arms around its neck, I was surprised when it managed to react in time and grab my left arm, and I was even more surprised to find that on the other side of this short cliff was not more forest but a much larger cliff.  The beast began to spin me around attempting to throw me off the cliff, but before he was able to let go of my arm, I focused my energy in my right forearm as fast as I could, I have yet to focus this much power at once, it actually made my arm feel numb.  I released it in a straight blast at the beast as best as I could, but with my spinning momentum I think I barely grazed the it but managed to also knock it off the taller cliff side as well but in the opposite direction I was falling.  I kept an eye on where the beast was heading so I could continue the hunt later.  On the way down I hit several thick branches; I tried to protect myself but still was struck by several in the chest, and one in the head.  I hit the ground and tried to roll to absorb the impact, the blast I fired at the beast was too great for me to attempt any energy usage to break my fall, and the last blow to the head made me disoriented.  

 

    I couldn’t continue the hunt at that point so I set up camp here at the base of the cliff.  I will meditate for a while, eat and get a few hours sleep until my headache completely subsides then began again.  I was correct in thinking that a real challenge could help unleash even more of my hidden strength, my arm still feels slightly warm from my brief battle today.  This experience has also shown that I still have a great deal to learn about combat.  Always be aware of your surroundings seems to be a good lesson to take from today.  That is something I won’t forget tomorrow, beast, today was indeed interesting, tomorrow will be your end.