The Island- chapter VIII

Day nine…

Marcel’s eyes shot open as he gasped for air. He was shivering and crying, and he could still feel the raptor’s toe claw digging into the back of his skull. But the raptor wasn’t there anymore. Marcel was in his sleeping bag in his house, with his one eyed compsognathus, Magnus, sleeping on one of Marcel’s storage crates. He could hear Ghost, his parasaur, softly outside, grazing on the bushes that grew near his house.

Marcel sat up and felt his midsection. He was relieved when he found nothing there, but then he realized that the raptor had killed him. Somehow, he had “respawned” back in his sleeping bag. He stumbled outside and looked across the water at the beach on the other side of the inlet. There was a hill not far from the beach, and the hill led to a cliff. He saw on the trail there was a raptor, picking at Marcel’s corpse. It was pretty far away, and it didn’t seem to notice him. Marcel walked slowly down to the beach, grabbed his clothes, and put them on. That raptor, he thought, would be a threat. He wouldn’t be able to leave very far from his house if that raptor was still alive. He had a plan…

9:00am

Marcel’s hands hurt. Badly. He had spent most of the morning killing dodos and dilos for their skin, and he also chopped down small trees with his hatchet and processed the wood into small planks. He placed four thick planks of wood together and bound them tightly with rope. He wrapped string leather around the whole thing and stitched it to the wood. He then made a Handel out of wood and tied it to his brand new shield.

Next, Marcel searched for a long, flexible branch. It took him a while, and he was restricted to the small peninsula that his house was built on (because of the Raptor),

But he found on after about an hour of searching. He then took some rope he fashioned from fiber and hide, and tied some to both ends of his makeshift bow.

Next came the arrows, which were easier than the bow. He took small, straight sticks, and tied sharp stones to the ends, until he had about fifteen. He now had a primitive bow and arrows. He decided to test them out on a pack of dilos wandering about 100 yards from his house. He nocked an arrow, and drew back the string. As one of the dinosaurs looked up and saw him, he let the string go and the arrow went flying. It struck the dilo in the head and killed it. He mocked and released two more arrows and killed the other two dinosaurs. He walked over and collected two of the used arrows. The third one broke on impact and was lodged in the dilo’s skull. He skinned the three dilos and used their hide to make a quiver to store his arrows.

Marcel looked at his reflection in the water. He was totally different from when he first woke up on that beach on the Island. He wore a cloth shirt and pants. His face had a rough stubble and his hair had grown longer. On his left wrist, his shield was strapped to his forearm, and in his right hand he held one of two spears he had, the other was strapped to his back with his bow and quiver. Strapped to his belt was his hatchet. While he respawned without any previous injuries he acquired when he died, he had scars of all of them. He had several scars on his chest and arms form various scuffles with dilos, and he had a scar going down his stomach from where the raptor had gutted him. He felt stronger, smarter, and more capable than when he first arrived on the island. As he looked across the water to the hill where he knew the raptor was lurking, he exhaled. He was ready…

Marcel rose up out of the water and walked up the beach. He could hear his heart pounding in his chest. It felt like it was going to explode. He paused at the bottom of the hill, and unstrapped his spear from his back. He cautiously walked up the hill, scanning the tree line. About 50 feet away, he saw the now fly-covered corpse of his previous body, and right next to it was his pouch and spear. He then heard a menacing snarl. Marcel looked all around him but didn’t see the raptor. Until he looked up. Up, on the cliff, was the raptor, looking down at him. It snarled again and hopped down and landed about 50 feet from Marcel, snarling and snapping its jaws. Marcel raised his spear and shield. The beast charged, and so did Marcel, yelling like a madman….

My apologies for the relatively boring chapter everyone. I know it was probably boring but it’s necessary, and too long as it is. Also a quick reminder, I am going in alphabetical order when I release the chapters. Chapter I in achatina, chapter two in allosaurus, and so on. You can find chapter VII in ankylosaurus and chapter IX will be released in archaeopteryx