Something I will never finish!!
This was supposed to be for a trade with a friend, but due to constraints, we decided to mutually cancel, and I gave her what I had written.
An explorer was nothing without his conquests. Andrew Clark could, and had, travel the world without exploring ground that hadn't already been trampled by humans in the past, but he had recently devised a new plan. With funds for the voyage, he had purchased a boat and enough food supplies to last him a month or two if he was careful. The only things that he brought with him that weren't new was his telescope and a compass and a blank map. Well, blank besides the corner that he had marked as home.
It took weeks to prepare for the voyage, getting all of the supplies that he needed was a time consuming process, and, at times, an illegal one. Just because he was on a mission for his country, it didn't mean that he had to be perfect, eh? There were weapons on his vessel that he didn't exactly have the permits for.
The day that he set sail wasn't exactly memorable; he didn't have anyone to come and wish him well, and that was another reason to go on this adventure. If he came back a hero, or at least rich, he would gain a woman that may not have respected him for his looks, but at least she would respect him for his power. The first few days of the seafaring, that was pretty much all that he thought about, a woman that he wouldn't have to pay for to get pleasure.
He spent three days and nights just drifting along at a snail's pace, the wind wasn't blowing enough for the boat to go any faster than snail pace. "Well at this rate, I won't be getting anywhere," he said to himself, willing the wind to pick up and drag him any place that was far away from here.
Eventually the wind did pick, going from non-existence to a full-on gale within five minutes. Andrew had to rush around the boat, battening down the hatches as he went. He wasn't on a large vessel; he didn't much like sharing his glory, so he made sure that there was nobody to share it with this time around. If he found something, he was going to make sure that he was the only one to find it.
The storm didn't stop, and soon Andrew realized that he might not survive the night; the boat looked like it was about ready to capsize as it were. He hadn't thought to bring a lifeboat with him, figuring not to run into any problems, and he was far too proud to admit that was a mistake, assuring himself that he would go down with his ship like a captain should. Fuck that shit.
Anyone who said that they would go down with their ship was a right liar Andrew decided as he abandoned ship, bringing with him a makeshift life-raft of sorts, a couple of pieces of wood tied together with a bit of rope he had cut from the mast. "Well now I have no food, and no fresh water. This adventure is going along just as well as I had planned," he said, sarcasm heavily weighting in his words.
===
Andrew had no idea how much time had passed when he woke up. The last thing that he remembered was passing out on his raft after the dehydration and hunger got to him. He had assumed that he wouldn't have woken back up, so now he was rather confused indeed. He reached around himself, eyes still closed, and his hands came into contact with a fabric that was covering his body, and since that wasn't what he remembered being there before, he woke up with a bit more gusto, sitting up and opening his eyes.
He was in a makeshift hut, the walls were dirt... really dirty, it looked like it was actually made from dirt, some sort of stick-like substance being used like wood paneling. There was even a little window, he found it to be quite a quaint little place. "I must have washed up on shore somehow," he said to himself, wondering exactly how that could have happened, since there had been no land in sight when he'd slept, and he wasn't the type to believe in miracles or magic.
A figure stepped into the hut, and at first Andrew thought that he was looking at a primitive human, but quickly noticed something was wrong with this 'human'. Its' eyes were glowing a reddish color, and if that wasn't terrifying enough, there were red wings sprouting from the creature's back. The features of the creature otherwise seemed to be fairly humanistic, though it was wearing clothes that looked like they were stitched together from the skins of animals. It was altogether one of the most strange looking things that he had ever seen.
"Do you speak?" Andrew asked slowly making hand gestures at the creature to show what he was talking about.
The bird-human said something, or at least Andrew thought that he was speaking, as it opened its' mouth and some sort of alien noises came out.
"I don't understand you. Do. You. Speak?" he asked louder, as if volume would help his situation.
More noise.
"Okay, they must be a lesser race than I thought. I'm going to be famous!" was all that the man had on his mind it seemed as he stared at the creature. His only worry was going to be how to prove his finding.
===
Though he had just woken up, Anthony had gone back to sleep, and was rudely awoken by red-bird and shoved to his feet, as the thing seemed to want him to go somewhere. It spoke at him, making strange sounds that reminded him of bird talk really. It was fitting though, that these bird mutants spoke somewhat like birds.
He was constantly being shoved by the annoying creature until he exited the little hut, and had a chance to look around at his surroundings. There were many more of the bird people out and about, some of them very young, some of them quite a bit older. There seemed to be a lot them that were colored basically, but there were a few that had a different hue, and then even fewer that had multiple colored feathers.