Soren-066: Difference between revisions
→Early childhood
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The first night spent on his own was difficult for Soren.{{Ref/Reuse|HEP1}} The cold air and sounds of the forest kept waking him up or kept him awake, but he still managed to get up at dawn to creep back to the clearing where his family's prefabricated house was. He might have tried to sneak back in to get some food, but the sight of his stepfather waiting for him through a window kept him from doing so. Turning back to the woods, his efforts next turned to catching his breakfast. He tried to snag one of the toothless [[Wikipedia:Squirrel|squirrel]]-like [[Dwarkan squirrel|creature]]s that inhabited the surrounding trees but they were much too fast for him. Neither sitting in wait for them to come to him or throwing rocks at them gave him any success. Soren eventually settled for eating [[Wikipedia::Larva|larvae]] and [[Wikipedia:Worm|worm]]s discovered on the underside of a dry, rotten branch he stepped on. After a few hours had passed and he didn't feel sick, he elected to turn over more logs to eat his fill. Before night fell he started to experiment, moving a little farther away from the house and making several beds out of the leaves and needles of different trees. He found that one type of leaf raised a row of angry, itchy red bumps along his wrist after he touched it so he made sure to avoid it thereafter. He had to try out several of the beds he'd made before finding one soft and warm enough to let him sleep. After a few days like this, he had determined where exactly in his little patch of forest to search for grubs and when to leave a log alone to return to days later. Certain berries and plants he knew to avoid from watching the [[ghost squirrel]]s, but others he only wrote off after they made him sick or just produced a bitter taste. Every morning and evening Soren continued to watch his stepfather from the bushes, and though he tried to break back into the house a few times, the windows were too strong.{{Ref/Reuse|HEP1}} | The first night spent on his own was difficult for Soren.{{Ref/Reuse|HEP1}} The cold air and sounds of the forest kept waking him up or kept him awake, but he still managed to get up at dawn to creep back to the clearing where his family's prefabricated house was. He might have tried to sneak back in to get some food, but the sight of his stepfather waiting for him through a window kept him from doing so. Turning back to the woods, his efforts next turned to catching his breakfast. He tried to snag one of the toothless [[Wikipedia:Squirrel|squirrel]]-like [[Dwarkan squirrel|creature]]s that inhabited the surrounding trees but they were much too fast for him. Neither sitting in wait for them to come to him or throwing rocks at them gave him any success. Soren eventually settled for eating [[Wikipedia::Larva|larvae]] and [[Wikipedia:Worm|worm]]s discovered on the underside of a dry, rotten branch he stepped on. After a few hours had passed and he didn't feel sick, he elected to turn over more logs to eat his fill. Before night fell he started to experiment, moving a little farther away from the house and making several beds out of the leaves and needles of different trees. He found that one type of leaf raised a row of angry, itchy red bumps along his wrist after he touched it so he made sure to avoid it thereafter. He had to try out several of the beds he'd made before finding one soft and warm enough to let him sleep. After a few days like this, he had determined where exactly in his little patch of forest to search for grubs and when to leave a log alone to return to days later. Certain berries and plants he knew to avoid from watching the [[ghost squirrel]]s, but others he only wrote off after they made him sick or just produced a bitter taste. Every morning and evening Soren continued to watch his stepfather from the bushes, and though he tried to break back into the house a few times, the windows were too strong.{{Ref/Reuse|HEP1}} | ||
Weeks passed like this until one morning Soren's stepfather emerged from his home coughing badly and clearly sick.{{Ref/Reuse|HEP1}} The man started to head back by | Weeks passed like this until one morning Soren's stepfather emerged from his home coughing badly and clearly sick.{{Ref/Reuse|HEP1}} The man started to head back by midday, but suddenly fell to the dirt and lay still there before he could make it. After a long time he finally stirred and began to crawl toward his truck, but he could not lift himself into it. Lying on his back, he then was faced by Soren standing over him. He begged his stepson for help finding medicine but Soren remained unmoved. His pleas soon turned to threats and then flattery, but Soren only watched dispassionately as he finally slipped into unconsciousness. He then sat down by his stepfather and remained with him there until he finally was dead two days later. Soren thereafter used his stepfather's keys to reclaim the house, from which he dragged his mother's body to bury her outside. It took several days of slow digging to accomplish this task, leaving the young boy's hands blistered and bloodied. Soren also rolled his stepfather into a shallow hole where he had fallen beside the truck and mounded dirt high around him. For a few days following this he stayed inside, eating and building up his strength. When provisions finally began to run low he returned to the forest, slowly making his way in the direction he thought a town might be. For days or weeks he lived off berries and grubs, though he did manage to once kill a ghost squirrel with a carefully thrown rock and slit its fur off with another to get at the meat within.{{Ref/Reuse|HEP1}} It was almost by accident that Soren came across a human-made track and followed it for a few hours to the edge of a small township around one-hundred and twelve kilometers from his family's home.{{Ref/Reuse|HEPP}}{{Ref/Reuse|HEP1}} When he emerged from the underbrush and the town's people saw him, they rushed forward out of concern for the dirty boy in tattered clothing.{{Ref/Reuse|HEP1}} And though he was turned over to various psychiatrists for evaluation, Soren neglected to tell any of them the whole truth of his recent ordeal, instead merely claiming that for the nearly three months he spent on his own, both his mother and stepfather had been dead and that he'd buried them both according to his stepfather's dying wish.{{Ref/Reuse|HEPP}}{{Ref/Reuse|HEP1}} | ||
===SPARTAN-II=== | ===SPARTAN-II=== | ||