Make sure it zaps Cryptosporidium.

Most modern purifiers do. Not sure about iodine though.

When I came to I hurt, my head hurt, my side hurt, my back hurt, I basically felt like I had gotten hit by a Mack truck. On top of that I was wet and had a slight chill. So now completely confused, I sat up and looked around me. I saw plants and greenery stretching out in all directions, for as far as the eye could see. By the light I could tell it was either early dawn or late dusk but couldn’t tell which. Also I was quite certain that I wasn’t in North Carolina.

Sitting up I find out why my body hurt, I had been lying on a bush of some sort, not the most comfortable bedding in the world, and I was butt naked on top of that. Trying to stretch I continued to look around me to assess my situation. That is when I noticed the roughly circular black shape lying on the ground beside me, and a transparent man, sitting in a non-existent chair floating about two feet off the ground.

After a double take of the man I noticed he had a triangular green, yes hulk green, face with a mustache and pointed goatee and head full of curly hair, both of which looked possibly orange in color and seemed to be possibly moving as if in a breeze. He wore a white shirt, unbuttoned to the middle of his green chest, black pants of some sort, black gloves and black boots. He was sitting with his right ankle crossing his left knee, leaning on his right elbow, holding his chin in his right hand and tapping his lips. There appeared to be some kind of medallion around his neck but the brightening light was making the image harder to see. I think he had a slight smile on his face but I was certain it was more of the malicious sort, not one of pleasure. He looked lost in thought, but then he look directly at me.

He quickly sat up and looked at me more sternly. I felt something pushing at that wall around my mind again. A voice in the back of my head, probably my own reason, was screaming at me to run. This would have been the rational thing to do. Unfortunately curiosity made me stay. I felt the pressure against the wall again, pressing harder, and then he sat back in the chair. He appeared to laugh and shake his head, but I heard nothing.

With a flick of his wrist and motion of his hand I suddenly heard him speak,
You killed my pet. For that you will die. But, not yet.
There was an echo to his voice so it had to be audible.
Maybe Winder’s interest in your kind hasn’t been so unfounded. There may be some potential here after all. This will require more… research.
At this his smile widened and then vanished.
It appears, this round goes to you, mortal. Don’t worry I’ll be back for you later. No one gets away forever.
He seemed to think a little more and then said, If you see the old Windbag, before I do, let him know I’m on his ass.
Then, laughing, as if to some joke only he got, he started to fade.
Suddenly getting some nerve I demanded, Wait! You’re just going to leave me here? Where am I?! How, do I get home?!
With a mildly annoyed on his face he looked back me and said while continuing to fade, I don’t care.
If you die here then I will bring you back later and kill you at my leisure. Anyway, all of you will die when they return. Of that you may have no worries.
He then finished fading away.

I think at this moment I lost it for a moment. I seem to remember hearing echoing as I was trying to catch my breath. Also my throat hurt. So I think I may have shouted all of my indignation at the Universe and left it up to that.

While trying to figure out what to do next, I realized that something was cutting in to the palm of my right hand. I looked down and saw the remains of a healing medallion I had gotten from KT. It looked like someone had hit it with a hammer and shattered it. Dropping the pieces on the ground, and wiping my hands, I remembered the black form on the ground beside me. Looking at it in the brightening light, I saw that it was leathery, black, roughly circular, about three foot in diameter, and shallowly convex. Turning it over, I saw that there was a slit mouth about six inches wide and two beady black eyes above the mouth on the concave side. Looking closely I noticed that the mouth was still moving, and that the mouth was full of little pointed teeth, but the mouth stopped moving as I watched. Then the whole thing started to dissolve in to something that looked like black sand. That lasted for about a minute and then it was gone.

The day was quickly getting warmer though it didn’t seem to be getting any brighter. Looking around me I knew I realized all of the training I did in the Scouts was almost for naught, as that was in a temperate wood, this was a down right jungle. I knew I would need water and some kind of protection. Of course that’s about the time the rain started and it wasn’t a gentle shower either. So I had my water, at the least I didn’t have to worry about my clothes getting wet. Now native peoples have be running around the jungles in their birthday suits for eons so I figured if they could do it then I could do it too. Have and of y’all ever noticed how life just loves to smack your ego around?

Well while walking slowly through the jungle, I was keeping an eye out for giant snakes, crocodiles, spiders, brain-suckers, you name it I was looking out for them. Unfortunately I didn’t think to look out for what grabbed me and threw me to the ground. It felt like something had taken a bite out of my foot and thrown me to the ground. In reality it was a thorn. Now to be honest it was a fairly large thorn, and it was stuck in the arch of my foot and I was going nowhere until it was removed. I tried to remove it but the pain was causing my hands to shake so much that I couldn’t grab a hold of it. After a couple of tries I realized I needed to relax so I could do this or I might as well give up right then. So attempting for all I was worth to relax, I focused on blocking the pain in my foot. Slowly the pain faded and the trembling relaxed and I was proud of myself for succeeding in blocking the pain. Then I looked at my foot. The thorn was no longer there and there was no mark where it had been. I had seen it with my own eyes and just couldn’t stop shaking enough to pull it out, but now it was gone.

I continued walking all day and startled to realize that the light was starting to fade. I needed to find a place to sleep for the night. I hadn’t eaten all day, I had no clue what is safe to eat there, so I was exhausted. While looking for some place to hole I wound up stubbing my toe on a rock. Looking at the stone I saw something that at first didn’t make a lot of sense to me. The stone had some of the oddest patterning to the grain I had ever seen. Then I realized that it was carving on the stone. I then realized it was an ancient low wall of some sort. Following the wall I realized it was starting to get taller. What I initially thought to be a low wall used to boarder property or something was actually the wall of a building of some sort. I know I should have been wary but when I found the “cave” I was just happy to get out of the rain. Entering the cave it was actually deeper than I had guessed, and in the fading light I couldn’t see far. So I chose to stay near the opening. Of course this was about the time the rain started to slow.

Droopy

Good luck to ya.