Every time he screamed, pain shot through his body. The thorns were huge, he'd never seen anything like them, and they were alive and killing him. Dark shadows emerged on the edges of his vision, laughing at his predicament. He could feel his clothing rip, the thorns dig into his skin. He would have countless wounds from this, if he survived, and maybe a fracture on his right arm. The chances of survival, though, looked terribly slim to him. He had calculated all the possible outcomes as he stuck there, screaming every few minutes in pain. There was only one fact that he knew to be certain.

Wilson Percival Higgsbury was hanging onto life with the tips of his fingers, and if he didn't act soon, he'd loose his grip.

Truth be told, he'd died before. Oh yes, Wilson had definitely died here before. He couldn't deny it was a rather relaxing feeling, but he still didn't like it. He'd been slashed by hounds, fallen into a Tallbird's nest in the dead of night, chased Beefalos across the ground pursued by angry Pigmen. But out of all these, among others, this had to be the most painful way to go ever.

Looking down at his chest, he gulped and held back a sob of fear and disgust. The skin was ripped and torn; a thorn stuck in his gut, the cloth ripped everywhere. He was bleeding heavily from there, and everywhere else as well. The pain was insufferable. As each moment passed, the young man grew increasingly weaker, but managed somehow to find the strength to weakly fight back, screaming off and on still. He cried out again as a thick thorny branch whacked his left leg, a few thorns catching and sticking in it.

He didn't have his amulet. The thought scared him so much that he fought wildly once more, moving his limbs up and down. If he didn't have his amulet…he was not going to make it. How had he been so foolish to leave- yes he had just called himself foolish, which was surprising but at the moment he had no time to ponder it- to leave his amulet at camp? Had he really thought he wouldn't run into any trouble?

He whimpered slightly, the pain coursing through his body. Suddenly, he fell out of the thorns onto the hard ground, landing belly down. Surely something had happened to let him loose like that? Looking up weakly from his position, he saw fire raging in the thorns. How had that happened? There wasn't anything flammable around… suddenly he spotted a girl, more of a woman, probably around his age, maybe a bit younger, with two black hair tails, large white eyes and holding a … lighter. A pyromaniac? Out here? He hadn't seen any other human being at all here, and now, just as he's bleeding to death, someone comes and attempts to help him? Or was this just a simple act that the woman didn't' think of as kindness? The Gentleman Scientist wanted to call out to her, but he couldn't open his mouth through the pain.

Then she came towards him slowly, obviously in fear. He was lying still on his stomach, no doubt with a pool of blood around him, he could feel it. She came closer, and Wilson looked at her painfully. He was no doubt a mess; he already knew he was, so he found it quite disconcerting that she had appeared then.

"Are you… you're …" She stuttered, gasping. Her eyes and mouth were wide with shock, probably at finding another human.

The man attempted to nod but instead let his head fall onto the ground in exhaustion. His blood was horribly warm and he could feel his heart pounding slower and harder, trying to pump enough blood into him, but he was losing it too fast.

"Here." She started placing warm sticky things onto the various wounds and gashes all over his back and legs, and arms, then turned him over to do the same to the other side. He realized it was cobwebs, and almost moved away, what with his fear of spiders, wondering why she would waist her silk on him.

"You…" It was all he could manage, still choking for breath.

"Just be quiet. I'm going to try and help you here; I don't know how well the webs will hold up." She silenced him, even though he wanted to tell her that webs were the best things for wounds here, being that it was a strong sturdy material that was extremely reliable to help stop blood.

For a while, she was kneeling next to him, with gobs of silk next to her, though he still wasn't sure how she'd gotten all that, and was pressing multiple webs onto his wounds constantly. The first time she pulled out a thorn, he cried out, grabbing at his leg where she had pulled it from. It hurt horribly and even then, a small sliver of his manliness shone through and he worried she thought less of him because he was a wimp for a brief moment. Then he remembered that he was nearly dead, pride didn't exactly matter.

"Lay here and stay still. The bleeding needs to slow down." Well he wasn't stupid, he knew this, and who did she think she was talking to? Wilson once again had to remind himself she was some stranger he'd never ever seen before, and thus decided not to say anything against this.

Minutes passed as he lay there, struggling to stay conscious. He was pretty sure the bleeding had slowed down by now, though his heart was still pounding. Breathing was difficult, while he knew why, it was still terrifying when he found he couldn't breathe in at points. He was really hoping he wasn't going to die now. Wilson figured he was recovering in some way or form, so death probably wouldn't happen. Or so he hoped.

The girl was watching him most of the time, but also seemed to be getting up now and then to tend to a fire she had started at one point. It was morning, so he didn't exactly see the point in it, but when she started putting warm spider silk on his wounds, he figured out why. There was no talking, only silence and he moaned occasionally. Just when Wilson thought it was all over, breathe came to him that seemed to cause his heart to go back to normal, the pain was immense but he was coming back to life.

She appeared to notice and came over by his head, wrapping a bit more silk around his arm, and looked at him. He sighed, closing his eyes gently, trying to relax. It was hard after nearly dying, but somehow he had survived, and would live to see another day in the forsaken land.

"You're going to need sleep."

The most obvious thing she's pointed out. He thought to himself, but only nodded in response. He kept his eyes closed as he felt his body shutting down with sleep. Eventually he dozed off, and unbeknownst to him, the woman watched him as he did so, keeping the fire burning through the day, and applying bandages of silk when needed.

Upon waking up, he found he was staring into the brilliant white eyes of the woman from before. Wilson gasped slightly and tried to sit up, but found the pain was too great, and had to lie back down again. She moved off, looking slightly deterred to find him awake, but only slightly.

"You're feeling better now, are you not?" She asked quietly.

"I… yes." He replied, slightly annoyed but didn't think about it.

"That's good."

"Miss, I seemed to not have gained your name." He said quietly.

"Willow. And you are?" Willow seemed slightly amused by his approach but if she had truly been so, she hid it from him.

"Wilson Percival Higgsbury." A cry of pain came up his throat as a burst of it ran up his leg.

"Well, Wilson, I suppose you ran into trouble with some thorns back there."

"It was… a mistake."

They remained silent for the next few minutes, Wilson pondering on how there was possibly another human being around, and Willow pondering the meaning of Maxwell placing two of them in there. Both were pretty sure it had only been him at first, but now… now neither knew. Wilson still wasn't sure what those thorns had been, so this was just adding onto the mystery.

"I didn't think anyone else was out here." Willow broke through the silence.

"Neither… did I." He gasped out.

"I'm sorry if I cause you any pain."

"It's o-okay I just… it … just hurts."

"I suppose it was a good thing I came along when I did, huh?" He nodded, looking up at her briefly.

"Yes, it … certainly is… Miss."

They lapsed into silence once more, each in their own thoughts once more. A few birds flew overhead singing, the sun hitting its highest point now. Willow got up and left, probably to go get more firewood, though he didn't understand how she could move. It was very hot, and he writhed uncomfortably beneath its beams and all of the bandages on his body. It still felt like he was bleeding in most places, and he was trying to keep down any scream of pain that threatened to emit from him. A Gentleman Scientist he was, and so he remained. I will not show pain in front of her, I will not show pain in front of- His thought was cut off by a cry of pain, everything in his chest suddenly feeling the tearing motion again. His left hand came to grasp at it, trying to make it stop, clutching at it with violent motions. Wilson was jerking around, and would have kept going until he probably died before Willow suddenly came running back, yelling to him.

"Wilson, lay still." She ordered, and he was forced down by her strong grip a moment later. Too weak to refuse, he gave up and lay there as the pain arched through his body. "I need you to stay completely still or you'll bleed again." His legs arched up as he tried to fight back whatever it was.

Something felt like it was in him, and he didn't know what it was, but it was killing him from the inside out, and he wasn't going to last much longer. Willow was trying to hold him down, he could hear her muttering underneath her breath. Whatever it was, it wasn't taking its chances and was killing him immediately. Of course, he could just be going mad, but the scientist doubted it as he had felt something burn his chest.

"What is it?"

"The… thorns… something… evil…" He shouted breathlessly, struggling still.

"I didn't think… okay, I'm going to have to… light you on fire, Wilson. I'm sorry about this. It won't do any major damage to you, it'll just chase whatever it is out. I think." She paused before bringing up a lighter. From his position on the ground, Wilson wasn't sure exactly what it was, but he discovered what it was the minute she lit it.

Still writhing, he cried out when he saw the flame and tried vainly to escape her grasp. Something grabbed the inside of his legs like claws, and he screamed. Whatever it was, it wasn't joking around at this point. Why it hadn't attacked earlier, he was completely unsure of. But he had no time to investigate, because as the pain racked his body, he coughed up blood, to his and Willow's alarm. She pulled out a rag from somewhere and wiped the blood off his lips. The lighter was brought close to his body, and in one instant, one which he could not describe, Willow had grabbed him close to her and was lighting his body on fire!

Yet instead of burning, he could only feel warmth around him, and he could feel whatever it was giving off huge surges of pain. Upheavals came from his chest, he found at one point he couldn't breathe and was gasping so drastically that he felt the girl's hand land on his chest, trying to force air into him. In any other situation, he might have felt alarmed at these actions, but as mentioned afore, he couldn't think about much else. The thing was truly killing him, he was dying, leaving, and going- a huge swell of pain went through his body, and he gasped in terror and shock as whatever it was left. He could breathe again, and was lying on his back now, Willow having dropped him. Somehow that had killed the flames; he was no longer on fire.

The pain was finally gone, and even as brief as that had been, Wilson felt like it had lasted ages. The pain had lessened a bit but he was stinging with it, and everything hurt. As he breathed slowly, he looked at Willow from an angle, who was gasping herself. When she saw him looking at her, her face went to a sorrowful one, like it was her fault he had ended up with whatever it was inside of him.

"I'm sorry, I … I didn't know what it was… and fire seemed to be the only reasonable way." He could only gasp and nod at that, to which she relaxed a tiny bit.

"I… I don't… know what that… was." He admitted, but saw that she was nodding too.

"I have never heard of thorn bushes that leave some dark spirit in their victim that causes the most painful death ever, but … I do suppose that it only seems realistic that this would be the place to have that kind of thing."

"I do suppose… it- it would … be."

"I'm sorry if I alarmed you when I first appeared, once again I had jumped to the idea that fire would be the only thing to help. I was right, but then it didn't really occur to me that I would have to actually set you on fire later."

"It's … okay." Wilson nodded lightly, his breathing less shaky now.

"Good. I'm going to go lay some traps not far from here. Try to avoid dying anytime soon." She teased very lightly, and he smiled weakly.

Willow had left, and Higgsbury was left to his own thoughts. It had certainly been a strange way to meet someone in this horrid land, and little did he know that she would become his most trusted traveling companion along the way.

A/N: Hello all! I hope you enjoyed this! At first and still kinda I intended for this to be a one-shot, but I might possibly write more chapters if it's liked enough and people ask for it, and if I feel that it is indeed needed to be continued. So please, if you did like it, leave a review and quite possibly I might continue it. Thank you for reading, and please, review, review, review!