"Hello?"
The voice sounded absolutely deafening in the silence of the ash covered kiln that his head jerked up in surprise. Beneath the… hat? No, helmet yes helmet… no it was something else, whatever it was that covered his head, his eyes blinked slowly and carefully.
It felt weird, blinking that is, it almost felt like he had blinked in a while. He hadn't blinked? Wasn't blinking supposed to be something you did regularly, as if it did it on it's own. His eyes closed as he thought about this weird feeling of… blinking.
"I-Is anyone there?"
Once again the silence, the one that he had gotten used to for so long, made the sound a hundred times louder than it should, it made him… cringe? Yes, cringe the action reaction of discomfort. From wherever he was he lifted his head, looking past the old withered looking object in front of him to see where the loud sound was coming from. He c-no winced where he felt a painful ache in his… n-neck? Yes, his neck.
His hand, something that was connected to his arm and the rest of his body reached to the back of his neck. The hard material that covered his hand met with another material of similar hardness. The hand lowered itself to the ash covered floor and suddenly reached for something. The… f-fingers, yes smaller things connected to his hands, seemed to reach out for something amongst the ash and felt something.
When he laid his hands upon it his fingers curled around the something, tightening the grip until he felt that he would never let go. Suddenly he felt much more safer, much more protected. The something that he had grabbed made him feel like nothing could harm him, like he was safe as long as he held it in his hands.
His ha-, no not his hand, his other hand, yes he had two hands, this one also connected to an arm and the rest of his body. His other hand reached for something else, it patted the floor, uncaring of the dust of ash it was making until it felt something long and hard. His fingers curled around it as well gripping it just as tightly as he held the protective something. Immediately he felt much more… dangerous, yes that's it. It was as if holding this something made him a larger danger.
It also made him feel the urge to, harm? No no injure? No not that, k-k-kill. Yes, kill! The something was made for killing and if he held onto it than that means he was supposed to kill.
But then why did the other something made him feel safe? W-was he supposed to protect as well, but who to protect. It was only himself here, at least it felt like it was only him.
He blinked again, the weird sensation still present as he wondered if he was supposed to kill or protect?
"I'm coming in there!"
That voice again, who was that? He needed to find out.
His, feet? Yes feet that was at the lower parts of his body connected to something else until it was connected to his body. It was also covered in the same hard material as his hands and arms. They pushed against the ash covered floor of the… cave? What was he in, a cave or cove of some sort? He pondered this as he slowly but surely pushed against the floor until he was standing. When he got to his feet, he stared.
Weakly his head, feeling so… sore, yes sore for not moving it for so long, turned to the left then to the… to the r-r-right, yes right the opposite of left. He looked at the stone around him that all reached and formed an archway, a way out of the kiln. It was as stony as the walls and the sharp rocks on the ground and… and upper ground.
His feet moved forward, the body part crushed the ash underneath it. His other foot followed, moving forward and crushing the ash, and then the leg followed, then the other. He, he was walking, slowly but he was walking.
Where, was he going? Ou-Outside of the kiln, but he was here for a reason wasn-wasn't he?
As he walked he brought the two somethings with him, dragging both of them against the floor. The dangerous something in his r-right hand drew a line as he continued walking forward, while the protective something in his left hand gathered up the ash rather than split it. His feet also made marks as he continued forward to the archway, to the outside.
When he stepped past the archway he stared out into the distance, somehow outside of the c-no no kiln was darker, oddly enough. Structures of black were covered by white and grey, all much more further than he could see. He moved one foot forward, then the other.
The latter felt no ash covered ground and suddenly his view shifted from the vast world in front of him to the very close ground beneath him. The sudden shift caused him to feel something, it was… panic.
Panic, PANIC! He was falling.
He landed heavily on the ground, the hard material that covered his arms and legs also covered his body, they made noisy clanking and clattering sounds that made his ears ring at how loud they seemed after so long of silence.
Falling, it made him feel something else. He felt… hurt, pain he felt pain from falling. It was small pain he realised, but it was so long since he felt pain that this time it felt much worse that it really was. It caused his eyes to shut due to the pain? No, it was because of shock that he had suddenly felt pain.
A gasp, that was the sound he heard from his right. It came higher from him and what followed was frantic footsteps that was heading towards his direction. His eyes opened as the feeling of panic returned, this time it was oddly controlled as the panic made his body ignore the pain and push himself off the ground. His hand gripped the dangerous something as the one holding the protective something pushed him off the floor.
He turned to where the footsteps were coming from and raised the dangerous something into the air.
It remained raised when he saw what approached him. It wasn't something that he expected, he expected something else, something dangerous like the dangerous something that he held in the air.
Instead he saw a small human, a short one that looked at him with both curiosity and panic. Looking at the human, he realised that it made him feel like the protective something in his other hand, and because of this he lowered the dangerous something until it was by his side. All so he could see what this human was.
It was much more shorter than him, only by his upper legs if that was what they were called. He had… h-hair, curly ones that grew from the top of his head. They matched his dark coloured eyes. Around his body was some sort of material that wasn't like his. It looked soft and was bl-re-p-pink yes pink, it was pink with something yellow in the middle, then his lower body had something bl-blue and his feet had something that was slightly g-green.
He looked at the human with a sense of… of con-confusion as he didn't know what it was.
The smaller human's mouth suddenly changed from the wide and surprised that it had shown before, it lost all feeling of panic in its body and suddenly everything about it made him feel like it was same feeling as the protective something in his left hand. The human held out its own hand and his mouth seemed to curl upwards.
He stared at it as it said with a happy? Yes, happy voice.
[Scene]
"Hiya, my name's Steven" The boy greeted the oddly dressed man in front of him. Towering over the short boy was a man covered in ash and soot, all the way from the metal gloves and boots that he wore to the weird boar shape helmet that he wore.
The man looked at the hand that he offered, staring at it long and hard as if looking at it as a foreign object. Steven was about to pull his hand back and apologise before the man slowly got to one knee. Thinking he was going to shake his hand the man surprised him when he suddenly grabbed the hand and just looked at it. Steven had to close his eyes as the hand that he had grabbed it with was just holding the gigantic sword, letting it go made the ash on the floor kick up. The boar helmet tilted with him as he looked at his head like he just found some rare treasure.
Steven giggled when he his other hand, the one holding the equally as large shield, grabbed the same hand and began to run his fingers through it. Though consequently dropping the shield kicked up more dust that made Steven close his eyes, lest he get them in his eyes. Of course he went back to giggling when the man continued to look over his hand.
At least until he suddenly gripped it in an almost bone crushing grip, one that made him cry out in shock and pain as well made him yell at the man to "OW THAT HURTS, LET ME GO!" In panic.
Surprised the man let go, falling onto his butt as he pulled away too fast and stared at him in… well he wasn't sure, the boar helmet made it hard for him to find out what he was feeling.
Instead he focused on his own feeling, more importantly the feeling of pain in his left arm. He rubbed it softly, noting the nasty bruise that was quickly starting to form. He whimpered slightly and lifted his head to the man "Why did you do that?" He asked, more in surprise than a desire to know why the man had hurt him.
Once again he tilted his head, slowly he lifted his hand and pointed it at his arm. The man looked at the hand for a moment, and slowly curled all the fingers except his index finger, he nodded and pointed at the injured arm and tilted his head in the other direction.
For some reason Steve saw that gesture as 'Does that hurt?' and decide to answer.
Turning to the bruise hand he rubbed it softly "Yes, it hurts a lot. Ouch, I didn't think you could hurt it just by grabbing it" he mumbled those last words out.
The man lowered his head and softly he lowered his head in a unmistakable form of a bow, albeit a very improper one. Steven saw this gesture as 'I'm sorry' and smiled.
"That's okay, you didn't mean to you were curious right?" Steven asked as he stepped closer towards the armoured man.
He nodded his head, the boar helmet somehow staying on his head with ease.
Smiling he held out his injured hand again "Here, look carefully but don't crush it" he said gently.
Slowly the man got up from his butt and got back into his kneeling position. He looked at him for a moment, as if unsure. A quick nod from him gave him the permission to reach for the hand. Wincing slightly as the dirty armour touched the sore spot Steven let out a light laugh as he just seem to stare at his arm as if it was something he had never seen before.
"You really like looking at my hand don't you?" Steven asked the man.
He stopped and lifted his head, beneath the boar helmet he stared at Steven intensely for a few moments. Then his hands went towards his face.
Taking an involuntary step back from the sudden action the man stopped, his arms outstretched towards his face. Steven looked at the man with slight worry, "What do you want to do?" He asked.
Slowly and carefully he extended his reach, him not backing away seemingly giving him the signal to continue forward.
Closing his eyes Steven waiting for something, and let out a soft sigh of relief when the man just placed his dirty metal gloves on his face. Slowly opening his eyes he flinched slightly at the close up look of the boar helmet, that the more he looked seemed like it was taken directly from an actual boar (If boars were made of metal) and saw the pale white skin underneath. He saw the mouth that was opened in slight fascination. Steven chuckled "Heh, it seems like you been all alone for a while haven't you?"
The man stopped his hands where they were, at his cheeks pushing them slightly, and nodded.
Steven smiled sadly "When was the last time you had human interaction?" he asked.
This made him pause. Taking his hands away from his face the man stood up to his full height, while still looking down at him, and seemed to think. Steven saw his mouth opened "Human… long… time" he spoke in an incredibly dry voice that made him wince at the sound.
But that made him realise something else, looking up Steven gave the man a shocked look "You can talk" he said in surprise. The man having said nothing this entire time made him thought that he was mute.
The man nodded his head slowly "…Yes" he spoke after a few seconds.
Smiling the boy pointed to himself "Can you say my name? It's Steven, Ste-ven."
Once more he nodded "… Ste… Ven" he spoke. He nodded again, seemingly proud of his achievement "Yes… you… Stev… en."
Steven's smile seemed to grow brighter, even with the man's very hard pronunciation of his name, and clapped his hands "That's good!"
The man seemed to smile under the boar helmet.
"Okay so what's your name?" he asked the man.
This made him lose his smile and tilt his head "My… name?" He said in confusion.
Steven looked surprise at the sudden shift "Yeah you're name, like my name is Steven Quartz Universe, my dad's name is Greg Universe. You must have a name to right?" He looked at the man.
The man lifted his hands in front of his face "My… name" he mumbled to himself. He clenched and unclenched his hands, turned them over multiple times as if he was expecting to find something there. His head shook slightly as a low growl came from his throat "My… n-n-name" his hands went to his boar helmet, pressing against where the temples would've been. His breathing suddenly grew heavy for a few moments, before it stopped just as suddenly. His hands slowly dropped to his side, his body straightened up and turned his head to Steven, who had been watching with worry all this time "I… don't… know."
Steven's eyebrows furrowed "Y-you don't know your name, do you remember who you are?"
The man nodded slightly "Knight… fought… bad people… killed and… protected" he listed off, one of his hands returned to his head "Fought demons… evil people… saved f-f-friendssss" he grunted and both of his hands went to his head.
Steven stepped in, placing his hands on the man's chest "Are you okay?" He asked frantically.
The man let out a single shuddering breath "F-f-f-failed…" his breathing started to resemble sobs "and killed friends."
A looked of shock appeared on his face at those last words, but he didn't back away. Instead he tapped the armour and got his attention, giving him a determined look. The man seemed surprise at the look he was given but Steven kept the look, even as he went for a hug.
Surprised the man didn't know what to do, his hands were still by his head but now they just seemed stuck there because he couldn't find out what he was supposed to do with them. But slowly he lowered his hands until they were back by his sides, his moment of grief migrated by the oddly warm hug the boy was giving him.
Looking up Steven gave the man a warm smile "Don't be sad, I'll help you get through this and we can your name back."
He blinked "You… will?" He asked, surprised at the offer.
The boy's response was to smile and nod "Of course that is what friends do."
He tilted his head "Friends… we are… f-friends?"
Again the boy smiled, and released him from his hug "Of course we're friends, friend help out each other no matter what."
The man stayed silent before he let a few quick breaths that resembled chuckling, gaining a weird look from the boy. Softly he lowered his head to the boy and smiled "Jolly… co-operation."
This got the boy to smile and chuckle as well "Of course, then let's be off and engage in jolly co-operation!" He announced loudly, unaware of the smile on the man's face that widened even more at the words.
Slowly he reached for the large sword he had dropped and picked it up with ease, before he rested it on his shoulder. He went for his shield next and picked it up with similar ease, flexing his grip on the shield a few times before he was sure he got it right. He turned back to Steven and gave a small bow "Lead… the way."
Smiling, Steven walked out of the dark kiln that he had stumbled across with a new friend.
Behind him the man smiled, and allowed himself to take a deep breath not caring that of the dust and ash everywhere. He ignore the pain that he felt in his chest to enjoy the feeling of the outside.