[note]This is based on a character I was just playing, I thought it would be fun to go off into the forest and consume poison, on the basis that my character believed that it would show his devotion to nature and that nature wouldn't let him die. When he got back home he did indeed die on the day that his meat would have been prepared. Anyway I thought this was a fun story so here it is.[/note]

Hakku The Reckless

Hakku was a regular boy from a regular village, but in the past few years he had been sneaking into the forest at night, taking strange items with him. One night he had taken an axe, a spear, a torch, a sheep and a few pounds of mushrooms and meat. He moved quietly and quickly through the village not wishing to arouse suspicion of his activities. When he had left the village he walk several miles to a small lake with an island close to the centre. Hakku had been here many times before and had built a crude raft to ferry himself across to the island. Hakku waited until the time was right, when the moon was revealed from behind the clouds. A fire was lit and Hakku sat silent infront of it. Some time later he opened a pouch that contained dried mushrooms, he laided them infront of the fire, and waited for a few moments before he took out the meat he had brought with him. When Hakku was building the fire he had placed a few large stones nearby, these stones were now used to keep the meat off the ground. Hakku had begun to chant quietly, soon after he was consuming raw meat, quite old meat too. After gnawing the rather tough meat Hakku then forced down the dried mushrooms. It wasn't long before Hakku was in a stoopur splayed out under his shelter.

The reason Hakku did this was this, he felt that his 'ritual' brought him closer to nature, he felt that he was trusting the nature spirits to look after him, keeping animals away. He thought that this blind trust would make the spirits have belief in him, and that they would protect him in the future.

Hakku had been on the island for 3 days, much longer than any of his other visits, he had been slipping in and out of conciousness, he was staying awake for longer periods of time untill he felt ready to make the journey home. It took him a day and a half to walk home, he still had the sheep with him, and was surviving from the milk, but the milk alone wasn't enough to cure him of the poisoning he had subjected himself too. When he reached his home he made his way to the stove where he had been smoking some meat for his return and recovery. However Hakku had misjudged the strength of the mushrooms he had taken, and was close to death, he tried to get a wise man to heal him, but the wise man would not help until he recieved payment. The meat that had been smoking was still not ready to eat, and so Hakku waited. The day before the meat was ready Hakku had taken a turn for the worse, he was now bed-ridden and would not be able to take the food payment to the wise man.

This however wasn't a problem, as that was the last night Hakku spent alive.