A/N:
HEEEEEEEEEEEEY GUUUUYS! How's it goin'? Good? Well, that's nice. Glad I asked. So, here we have it! Kein, in the most unnatural habitat that he could possibly be in! Alright, so I hope most of you know about what I asked last chapter. Once again, I ask the same thing. I'm not going to repeat it! Just want to double inform if you all would. Anyways, I couldn't do it here anyways. No follow up.
Good. No one wanted you to inphorm us again anyways.
Aetheo…. put your damn label back…
Aetheo: Oops. Well, phuck it. It's not like you're being oppressive or anything.
And what's with the 'ph?' Or are you just…
Aetheo: Well, you wouldn't let me replace every "f" with "ph" so I've taken it upon myselph to do so phor a while.
And thank God for that. It'd get annoying really fast.
Aetheo: You mean "phast"?
No… I… I don't. I mean fast. As in speed. You know what? Whatever, I actually don't care. We just need to do the disclaimer and get it over with...
Aetheo: Well, we do need to come up with something. And phast, iph we don't want this inphringing on the rest oph the night.
Yeah, we do. But in what way? I mean, I haven't really thought of a new one… with finals and all…
Aetheo: And Phinals somehow make you phorget how to tell them that we own only your original content?
Yeah… somehow. It's pretty obvious what's mine in the first place. Clearly Kein isn't going anywhere special and Ellix is just a dick. Everyone else hasn't really had much time to shine sooo… I couldn't even own the actual game if I wanted.
Aetheo: Phor repherence, the dragon race is one oph those not-owned things.
Well I guess that would be because the idea is so general. You can't really own a concept. Anyways, enough debating, we need to do the disclaimer…
…
Wait...
Chapter 9: Third Life's a Charm
Kein was enveloped by darkness. He felt nothing, not his head nor his chest nor, truthfully, any of his arms, legs, digits… nothing at all. His whole body just was numb to the point where he could no longer feel any of it! Not really what he was expecting, given the circumstances… if he could remember what those were. His thoughts were a clouded mess of rainforest overcast to put it plainly. Somehow, his brain had also been, numbed, and his senses along with it. He couldn't think, or at least had a hard time holding a thought together. In all honesty, the only thing he was really aware of was the subtle swish of wind as it passed by his ears and cheeks, but not the rest of his body. Adding onto that, if the wind itself was indeed the cause of the sound, the chill it usually brought with it was nonexistent- save for his cheeks once again, meaning that all he felt was a rather comfortable lukewarm temperature. It really seemed as if he was just a head... which didn't make any sense, considering he just had his head impaled by a massive, blue, ice breathing monster that could speak… right?
All at once, Kein regained his sense of existence. His mind cleared the fog it had been encased in, though the rest of his body remained unchanged. It took him about ten seconds to fully realize that he couldn't feel his own breathing, and his body's first reaction was the most simple thing it could have done: Right arm, up!
Nothing.
This really started to get the gears turning. Just for sheer measure, Kein tried to lift his arm again, only to find the same lack of reaction. He paused for a moment, this attention half locked between why he couldn't move his arm and why he couldn't feel his breathing. Of course, the latter was more important, but when one is in a state of complete and utter unfeeling, all problems become equal problems. Why? Because he couldn't tell the difference between them. Despite Kein's state of physical confusion, his body still knew what it needed, and one way or another, it was going to get it. With less permission than the last time, his arm once again did absolutely nothing and remained still.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Kein knew that something was wrong. Not the fact that he couldn't feel any part of his body other than his cheeks, nor that- despite his best efforts- he couldn't straighten his mind. No, it was something else, something more primal, more necessary, more involuntary. Then, it clicked… he wasn't breathing… at all.
If panic could be described in two words, they would be Kein Madalis. The panic he felt now was greater than the way he felt on the first day of the first job he had ever gotten. His mind immediately went into 'flip shit' mode- all thought that previously existed instantly being snuffed out by the fire extinguisher of suffocation. His inner eye widened past its mental limits and the outside world burst into vision, only to be ignored in favor of looking down to his nose. His mind struggling panic only intensified when he found absolutely nothing obstructing it.
Having not the capabilities to physically flail around, Kein closed his eyes and his mind build him an accurate version of himself- clearly being the most proper thing to do- and used that to portray his current situation. In his head, he was slapping his face with his working hands, only to find nothing there, again. To further 'prove' that indeed nothing was blocking his airway, his inner mini-me stuck a finger up its nose. Not something he'd do normally, but in your mind, everything is okay. Upon yet another failure, mini-Kein doubled over and punched himself right in the gut. Having been a mental projection, it felt no pain, but on top of feeling no pain, nothing came out of its mouth, meaning that Kein was still suffocating. Suddenly, Kein's mental apparition disappeared, leaving him with his own thoughts and a severe a case oxygen deprivation. His mind entered the same clouded state as before, the mental barriers he had set up failed, the thoughts of clearing his nose vanished, and the numbness of his body was replaced by numbness of the mind. It was safe to say, he was going to die.
However, fate would not have it. With a sudden jolt, Kein was snapped back to consciousness. As if powering up like a machine, the first few moments of his time were spent making sure that all of him was there. After which he proceeded to check over his body, only to find the same numbed state of nothingness. It took him a moment to remember what had just transpired. He had almost suffocated, on nothing. It took him almost twice as long to discover why, he still couldn't feel his own breath, but he certainly wasn't deprived of oxygen. With a small mental sigh, and slap, the first thought of the moment occurred.
Damn, reverse-psychology of the mind. He was thinking about breathing, and everyone knows what that does! The only reason he wasn't once again killing himself was that he was actually fully aware and not panicking. Still, he was trying very hard to not think about the involuntary action of breathing, so to avoid the last incident. Kein let off a noiseless sigh but ended up surprising himself with the lack of sound. Blinking the shock away, he regained his composure and finally began to analyze his position. He was lying down… or standing. Shit.
He actually had no way of judging his body's current posture, due to the fact that he literally couldn't feel it. Upon realizing this, again, he relaxed. Relax, of course, being a loose term. His body remained motionless, and he didn't make any more attempts to move it. Instead, he pushed the brunt of his focus into figuring out what the hell happened. Kein remembered the first- though, in this case, second- thing that had entered his mind upon walking up, the ice monster. A scaled beast with wings, horns, claws, and the ability to sling ice at him. Even when replayed in his mind, it seemed like a fantasy creature, something born out of the imagination of a madman. Kein knew that he was not insane… or at least he didn't think he was. He didn't see or hear things that weren't there, usually, nor did he have an unnatural urge to defend himself against every little thing. But if he looked back before the fight and recalled his whole dream theory from before, could he really say that he wasn't insane?
Of course, that only applied if this whole world was indeed a dream, if not… well, at that point anything is up for grabs. But in disregard to all of this, he had been attacked, whether or not an impossible animal was the cause of it, and he had the injuries to show for it… or, wait… And the problem looped back. He had no idea if he really was wounded at all; he couldn't feel anything save for his face! For all he could know, this really could have been a sick, vivid dream and that his own mind envisioned him getting attacked and injured. If it wasn't a dream then… ouch? He couldn't feel anything, so… he guessed it would hurt. This brings the numbness into play. Why was it a thing? There were two real possibilities, one pertaining to dreaming and one not. The dreaming idea was that he had woken up, and to compensate for the idea of mental pain, his body just went numb… or that he had somehow caused his entire body to fall asleep at once. Then there was the non-dream idea. He remembered that the creature's attacks could numb any part of his body on contact, so he could have just gotten bodychecked by an icy rugby player.
But… wait. Didn't I die? It was a strange thing to envision, and not something a sane person would do, but given the circumstances, he permitted it. Adding onto the list of things he remembered: being trapped under the two-toed paw of the frost creature and having its swordtail brought down upon his face… totally not insane, but there was some irony in this. It was now technically his second time 'waking up' after a life-threatening situation, only for death to once again be a possibility. However, there was again, two different opinions to this. It was a dream or it wasn't.
He really, really, wanted to call this a dream. It all lined up. He got knocked out, thrust into a naturalized version of candyland, proceed to find the most inane thing in existance, and get killed by it, only to wake up still on the stone he was passed out on. Sure, the numbness was weird, but hey, the body's got to think of something. Okay, establishing that this was indeed a dream, he was on the stone lying down. Easily enough information to get him started. Luckily, while he was thinking, some of the numbness had faded. It wasn't enough to move his body, but it was enough to allow motion in his face.
However, before he could go and open his eyes they were lit up for him. Being suddenly interrupted, Kein did the only thing he could: nothing. He did not want to open his eyes, mainly due to the one thought that he hadn't- or didn't want to- address. It boiled down to this: rather than killing him, the frost fucker had just smacked him in the forehead with the flat of the blade and knocked him out, then it proceeded to cover him in ice and leave him there to freeze. Sadly, there was no way he was going to find out just lying… or standing… or freezing there.
Slowly, he cracked his eyes open. Having been shut for so long there was a bit of fuzz on the edges of his vision, but with a simple blink, it was cleared. Out of pure habit, he shut his eyes once more, expecting the harsh light to invade his weakened irises. However, no such sting came. Out of shock, Kein shot his eyelids open, completely disregarding any thoughts from before. He cringed upon realizing what he had done, but once again relaxed when no pain came. The state of agitation came back less than a moment later, but not before he released a relieved sigh.
There was nothing above him but sky. In that instant, Kein thanked whatever god was watching over him. Yeah, the same god that watched him suffer for nearly twenty minutes, but they at least saved him. However, this is where the problem came in. There was nothing above him, but the sky. Doesn't seem that unusual… until you add the fact that the sky was gray. Before he could even begin to comprehend what caused this utterly unnatural color, the light- and therefore, the sky- disappeared.
However, as quickly as it left, the light returned, allowing him another clear view of the sky's… 'beauty.' A lot of strange and unexplainable things have happened within the last twenty-four hours. He's eaten unknown things, drank unknown liquids; scaled trees, shredded testicles; climbed rock faces, smacked his shins; crossed a river, wet himself; was lost in thought, flipped his shit, dodged impressively, died… probably. But this!? The sky! Changing its color! That had to be second on the list of 'What I Will See on My Impromptu Camping Trip!'
This shit's getting ridiculous... as if it already wasn't. AThe light vanished again, but when it returned, he was met with the same grey sky as before. Kein simply stared into the never ending void of grey, barely even thinking about what had transpired mere minutes before. Not that the memories had actually vanished, just they weren't as prominent or demanding of immediate attention. Strangely enough, he found the neutral grey of the sky oddly calming. No bright colors burning his mind with their glows, no texture differences between the colors and the blue ocean, no need to be concerned about the position of the sun… not being attacked... It was, in reality, what he wished for almost every day. The chance to have time to himself. Even though he did get some time back at home, it was usually when the twins had disappeared for the week and it was around one in the morning. In truth, not really free time versus time that just exists and doesn't have something in his schedule to fill it up. This, as well, wasn't free time, considering what had happened, but at least he didn't have anything to worry about… maybe.
Despite the half and half situation, Kein couldn't help but get lulled into a daze by the mix of paresthesia and neutral colors. His attention was lost and the world blurred into a haze where only his mind existed within the expansive void. Of course this was only in his mind, meaning that the sky continued to flash in and out of existence. Sometimes it would half disappear or there'd be a strange opacity that allowed him to see it, only more blurry. Eventually, his mind found its place again and his thoughts darted back to the still-grey sky, though he would have preferred the unfocus from before. So with nothing to do he just… stared, lulled but awake. It was actually really annoying. It had been, about one minute since he had straightened his thoughts, and Kein had no idea how long he had been out of it. But regardless the constant bursts of light with interludes of lightlessness were starting to get on his nerves. However, he could do nothing about it, instead he only wished for it to stop so he could move on with his now stupidly exciting 'life.' Abruptly Kein began to blink rapidly, as if he was trying to clear something from his eyes. During that desire for forward progression and meaning a sudden thought crossed his mind: Was he moving?
With this new thought in him, Kein lazily rolled his head to one side, and as his surroundings came into focus his eyes widened. It was like some scene out of a black and white movie. Even though his eyesight was slightly more blurred than necessary, he could tell that everything was some shade of gray. Long stalks shot up from the ground. These, he presumed to be some sort of tree, while slightly darker blobs of mush that surrounded them would, therefore, be bushes. That didn't matter, however; what mattered was that they were rushing past his face at an alarming rate.
Yes, he was. That is definitely motion. But what did that matter to Kein? He couldn't move, so the only thing he really could do was envy the running blobs… Blob plants don't run… okay well, maybe those do, he didn't actually know, but regular plants don't! The plant code didn't necessarily apply to blob-plants! But the plant code prohibited motion that living things could register, so if they weren't moving, that meant he was. However, all this new information was promptly disregarded in favor of attention to detail. Having the burning itch to examine each and every new thing encountered wasn't usually a habit Kein would partake in, and was something he had almost been broken out of. With the addition of Sir Ice-and-Snow: Attacker of all Things Warm, he was less inclined to even think about it. But this! This new world! It was just too much.
However, even though this newer world was, well, more new and interesting, one thought invaded Kein's mind. If this was death, than holy crap. It. Was. Boring. But really, if this is the best that God could come up with for the afterlife- not saying that he was religious- then wow, he could afford to hire some concept artists. Just... grey, black, and light grey. Not even white was present in the shadowy forest that he now… 'flew' across. Just grayscale and monochrome. And now that his vision had cleared a bit more, Kein found that things actually had texture, everything was just so visually bland that you couldn't see it without nearing the object, as every couple seconds a bush would pass mere centimeters from his face. To top it all off, the black shapes that comprised most of the plants were actually very sharp and very clean, and not the blobs he had once thought, though he blamed this on his still-adjusting eyes. However, these sharp line only seemed like a front layer, due to the fact that everything in this strange place had a slight flowing glow to it. Of course this glow was grey, but it was there.
Another thing that surprised him was that these inky plants did move, but not in the way he'd first thought. This idea lead him to believe that these plants were in fact alive despite every other thing in this world proving otherwise: the color, the sharpness, the glow. All of which here unnatural for plants. However, he could clearly see leaves twist and branches bent in the non-existent wind- not something dead plants would do- as they whipped past him. And there was another ridiculously incorrect thing that this world seemed to be okay with, no wind, and with that, came no sound. Even though Kein had realized this before, he had payed it no attention. Never, had Kein ever! Heard nothing! Truly nothing. The closest he had gotten was when the twins lit a firecracker near his ear, even then there was an annoying ring. But nothing really made sense at the moment, so he just ignored the facts that were screaming in his face and let the bushes fly by.
Once again, he felt like he was just watching a black and white movie. He was just lying there, waiting for some white text to appear at the bottom of his vision narrating the absolutely amazing time he was having. The oh-so-interesting trees and bushes with the clear and gray sky and ridiculous monotone speed at which he was moving. Such a riveting experience! It didn't even matter if he was magically flying at this point, it was boring! For christ's sake! He was a sketchbook artist! He only worked in black and white! Yet he was practically lulled to sleep by their sheer repetitiveness of the background that he was forced to look at. However, his own thoughts processes worked against his sanity, preventing him from dozing off.
Throughout the quick and repetitive motion which he was traveling at, one thing became apparent. He wasn't flying… or hovering, or moving in a way that he would remain stiff as a board. Even though his body was completely numb, he could tell by the way everything in his sight was bouncing in sync. Every second the trees and bushes in his vision would rise, fall, then repeat. Occasionally the terrain would change and he would be going uphill or downhill, but that only made it worst. Being able to see the foliage jerk around like something was tearing it from the ground then shaking all the dirt off the roots and throwing said plants to the moon was more then enough of an indicator that he was not floating. Therefore, it was very clear that the ride wasn't smooth, if anything, it was like he was bouncing between two trampolines, or that something was carrying him.
Wait, carrying? This new concept, he didn't like. Being carried through a forest having no control over where he's going after almost or definitely dying to the hands of a monster did not bode well with his sanity. There were not a lot of things that Kein knew about that could carry other things without dragging them. However, he did just witness a creature that was not bipedal carrying a bag, filled with... meat. If he was being carried by that goddamn blue bastard then he might as well just die, again, on the spot! Though he was clearly not in a bag, or at least not a closed one. But that didn't stop the thing from carrying him on its back!
Kein couldn't decide whether to be pissed or scared out of his damn mind. He had already been through the whole depressing death thoughts so that didn't need to be run through again, but the fact that he could die again was just unnerving to him. Though the irony of this being his technical third life was just making things even more difficult. Still he might as well try and use this chance to do something without fucking up. However, it didn't matter because he was numb in a world of black and could do nothing.
Suddenly, Kein laughed, and though no sound came out, he could tell from the motion that something was happening. His entire thought process was nothing more than an emotion stew, there was so much stuff in the goddamn bowl that he didn't know where to start! There were so maying things he could be doing, but hey, how about we screw that and do nothing. Joke! He was not going to just float or be carried to wherever he was going to get slaughtered by the same shit-faced monster that killed him before. So with newfound determination, Kein gathered up every last fiber of energy that he could possibly muster and did the only thing he could do: He rolled his head to the left.
However, as his vision refocused on the world he immediately regretted it. During the last train of thought went so gloriously off the rails and into the never-ending Abyss of Doom, he had completely forgotten that he was not in the world of color but instead in the world of D.O.A. But that was unimportant, what was more dire than the strange and unknowingly unpredictable world was the fact that he was now somehow staring into the neverending void of eternal darkness.
Kein just lay there, petrified at the sight lying before his eyes. This, thing, was the darkest thing he had even seen. Darker than the darkest tunnel. More black than the depths of space. More strangely consuming that a black hole or the twins lust for the same fast food restaurant. This was the eternal night! This was terrifying! This was death! More dead than he was! The unnerving feeling of blindness that the darkness brought with it only amplifying the feeling and causing his hair to stand on end.
Slowly, Kein moved his head back to face the sky- maybe with wide eyes, possibly paired with a twitching lip. What felt like an eternity to Kein was only a couple seconds to everything else. Daring to recall the disturbing image that had been placed for his viewing pleasure, he could only imagine the blackness. Saying it in the way he was made it seem like this was a new evil. Like there was a way to battle this darkness. Now, this evil was only meters away from his face, and there was no way to tell it if was getting closer. Once again, irony. He was just killed by a blue monster and he's afraid of the dark? Still, no one was there to judge, so he could be as stunned as he wanted.
But regardless of this newfound terror, Kein's curiosity got the better of him, and with the flick of the head, he was once again looking to the left. However, once the motion blur had faded, he was met with nothing but plants. Dark, glowing, wavy plants. Kein was confused, dare he say, astounded? So, darkness can move! Well, great. Now the rest of the world is fucked. But pushing all negative comments aside, he found there to be a great and strangely unwavering sense of relief with this new fact. The neverending void of eternal darkness has left! Joy to the world, praise Jesus, and look both ways before you cross! Clearly, he was unnaturally happy for this, but considering his mind had decided that his second most powerful fear would be said neverending void of eternal darkness, who could blame him.
However, before any celebratory cocktails could be made, Kein noticed something out the corner of his eye. As the new object came into view, his cheer stopped- eyes locked with the new patch of… darkness. This one was a little baby darkness though, not even a quarter the size of the terror before, but it was not alone. Less than a second later, another, slightly larger, patch of black shadow appeared in his vision. Than another, and another, until there was a practical rainbow of blackness covering his vision, all strangely angled away from him with faded tops. A supposedly cold sweat found its way to Kein's brow, and his facial features probably trembled at the sight laid before him. It was an army! An army of eternal nights! The first patch of blackness was the brood mother! Directing her hatchlings towards the stupidly unprotected city. Their ultimate goal to unleash death and destruction across the world, that... they, practically were! It made so much sense!
Then, Kein slapped himself. Did he really? Really! Just make this into a retro game? Since when did he play those? It was fricking shadows! How the hell can a shadow eat someone! All this was was just more trees and bushes! So what if they were complete blackness, this whole goddamn world was blackness! It was most likely a different breed of tree, one that reacted to or had a different color of black in this world. What had even caused him to think like that?
It's this place! This evil place! It seduces you into a false sense of security with it's vile taint! Then, once you are paralyzed and locked into your mind, it sends in it's SHADOW MINIONS! Kein slapped himself mentally I need to leave…
But how? How was Kein, who could barely move his head, going to escape from this black and… black, hell hole. Maybe he could use the friction of his hair to pull himself to safety, where ever that would be found! Then, a rather important fact occurred to him: he couldn't move. Kein closed his eyes in silent anger at the fact. He was unsurprised that he had forgotten, since moving is an everyday action, taking it for granted it rather easy. Releasing yet another soundless sigh, he went back to thinking, and quickly came up with another, semi-flaw in his plans: was he actually in any real danger? Danger from his own stupidity, yes, but what about physical danger? His thoughts from before resurfaced. First of all, fuck the dream idea, he would have woken up and/or been able to move by now. Second, if he was indeed being carried by the big, bustling, blue, bastard then wow, it was taking its sweet time. You would think, that with all that body mass, that it would have to eat. Yeah, sure, it had a bag full of dead deer, but hey! Why not eat the thing that was giving you so much trouble first? Or, maybe something else held that title.
Of course, this all got him nowhere. If he was going to escape from the clutches of an unknown entity, he'd first need a way to move his body. Heck, he'd already done it before! Should be simple enough to do again. Unfortunately, even with confidence in mind, when Kein rolled his head to the left, the word 'roll' was an unnecessary verb. His first thought was that- once again- reverse psychology! Don't think about it, and said thing will happen! But here in came yet another problem. How was he going to get a somewhat voluntary action to become involuntary?
His first thought was the idea of waiting until something in the terrain bumped his head to one direction, was immediately trashed. It just wasn't exactly helpful considering his wanted outcome. His second idea was just reacting towards a moving object. There were plenty of those nearby and all he really needed to do was draw his focus enough so that when something unusual like… symmetry in nature? Came by…
It should have been an easy enough task to complete, numb or not. Kein knew that, in some instances, one can be numbed but still move their numbed body part. Even if it was one of the situations in which he couldn't, it shouldn't take that much to get his limbs moving again… hopefully. Of course, there was the problem of mentally grabbing hold of the limb's motion once he had found it. If there was something like an anesthetic blocking the feeling of the arm, then there might be a problem. But if this was nothing more than paresthesia he should be able to easily recov- sky octagon!
And his head shot backward as the aforementioned symmetry in nature made itself apparent. Just as fast as the distraction for the distraction came, it left, but luckily, it had given Kein just enough time to lock onto the motion needed to move his head. With a thoroughly content grin, he shot his head down, then back up, and down once again. Despite the strange reaction to success, he found it necessary. Kein did not want to repeat the process again. It was hard enough to think of something that would draw his focus, and it was even more difficult to keep his attention on it; therefore, in order to keep the muscles in his neck from being lost, he would need to keep moving them.
The motion granted no feeling, it was weird. Or at least seemed weird. Kein had no doubt, if he could feel right now, the weirdness of it all would be multiplied by hundreds. If he was indeed being carried right now, and he was also on the back of his attacker, wouldn't that mean he was essentially… rubbing his head on its back? And Kein had no idea what kind of rubbing he was doing. For all he knew, the 'rubbing' he was doing was actually a slow, sensual pet…
Luckily, he broke that train with conspicuous violence, leaving him to pursue his last-five-minutes dream of becoming the new Houdini of brilliant ideas. No matter how stupid it sounded, he had to try it. So without another thought, Kein increased the pressure of the totally-not-sexual head rubbing, back and forth, with intensity, attempting to latch the back crook of his neck onto something in order to move himself. Sadly, all he accomplished was pulling out some of his own hair, which had gotten stuck on the, thing, beneath him. Sensing the clear failure, Kein moved on to his next idea, which made a lot more sense and would hopefully lessen the apparent awkwardness. Quickly, he turned his head to the left, then just as fast to the right, and then over and over and over. Surprisingly, from what Kein could tell, he started to sway father to the left, and right, and continued to increase his distance until something unexpected happened.
Without warning, Kein's head- and body- were flung into the air. Not too far, from what he could tell, but it was enough to get his attention and make him stop rubbing. Crashing back down, he smashed his head on what he was laying on, giving him a minor headache. Then, whatever was controlling his actions decided that what he was doing before was not okay: it was against standard paralyzation protocol and was, therefore, to be eliminated with extreme prejudice, namely just jostling him back into his original position. Once steady, he began to move again.
Like before, Kein stared dead-eyed at the sky. So, this thing wanted him to stay here? Like hell! This act only gave him more determination to get the fuck away. However, he was out of ideas, which didn't bode well for him. But one thing was clear, and that was his last attempt had almost worked. Also! He was fairly certain that he was being carried, so more incentive! Strangely enough, this whole experience reminded him of the year in which the twins would hog tie him every morning. How they were able to do it, he may never know. It just seemed like whenever his back was turned. BAM! There they were, charging through his door, climbing through his window, and tying his person up. They would then proceed to leave him like that until he would get out. The worst part was that they would check up on him every so often to make sure he was still immobile. Therefore, he had gained quite the skill when it came to untying knots using his toes or teeth.
However, there was no way he was going to free himself with his toes, considering he couldn't feel them. Still, he might has well try the idea from before, maybe the blue fuck won't notice this time because of how big it is. So without another thought, he began to vibrate, left, right, and repeat. His oscillating velocity increased a bit faster than last time and for a second he thought he might succeed, if it hadn't been for the creature beneath him taking notice.
This time, however, it was a bit more of a violent response. Instead of just pushing back to where he was, the thing punched him. Right in the gut. From what Kein knew about this body so far, he would have guessed it not to hurt. However, he was wrong. Despite the rest of his body being numb, the quick jab was not only able to make him stop, it also involuntarily caused him to sit up. However, having just gotten sucker punched, he was unable to take heed and instead resorted to falling back down on whatever he was on, holding his stomach.
As the pain subsided, Kein let out a long sigh. The only thing that kept this from being a kidnapping was the fact that he wasn't technically a kid. Logic, right? However, there aren't any laws in the jungle so, flawed logic? This entire place was just filled with flawed logic, why not add some more! That's always fun. But continuing on in the moment, Kein began to rub his gut with one hand, disregarding all previous thoughts in favor of tending to this minor annoyance. He had gotten into fights- generally school-related- that ended badly before after some cinder block of a jock decided that they wanted a workout. However, those hits were mere nicks or bitch slaps that people were magically able to land on him. This was a full blown sucker punch.
However, Kein thought he was taking it pretty good for the first real hit he had ever taken. Which also surprised him taking the sheer number of fights he had gotten into consideration. Not even the twins resorted to hitting him around, which he knew they could do, easily.
However, no amount of scratches, knicks, trips, butt kicks, thigh slaps, or titty twisters could have prepared him for the near loss of his lunch. This, however, was not as important as the fact that the pain had subsided and he had regained his senses. Sadly for Kein, sometime during his little 'care for myself' fit, he had started moving again. Clearly his captor cared not for him, though that thought was redundant because he had already 'killed' him, supposedly. However, there had to be some level of 'care' considering he hadn't killed him again or maimed him into stillness. It was almost like he was being kept as a pet, and was being punished for doing things his… 'owner' didn't like.
The idea actually disgusted him. This creature, The Blue Bitch, attacked him, beat the tar out of him, killed him or got way too close for comfort to the same, only to keep him as a slave. The worst part was that he couldn't do anything! Nothing! Could be done! Sure, he could try to escape again, but if the damn thing escalated from putting him back to punching with one attempt! Frankly, he didn't want to get stabbed, or ripped, or maimed, dissected, chopped, or any other form of bodily harm that he couldn't think of at the moment.
He shuddered at the idea of himself being slowly picked apart, hair by hair, limb by limb, only to get snapped in half and devoured mockingly as he stared into the sadistic glee-filled eyes of his tormentor. Or having the thing beneath him slowly savor each part of his body as it bit into the skin, ripping off one wrist, then munching comically with the goofiest smile on its face while the bones of his hand disintegrated noisily between its teeth. Or it could be a dick and eat his!
It was at this point in time in which Kein's hand unconsciously slid up and slapped his face. Though it hurt less than what had happened a few seconds ago, it had the same effect. Now was not the time to envision grotesque deaths, now was the time for action! Action in the form of movement and escape! He had already proven to himself that- despite his lack of motor control- he could move. Though that was only his head, if Kein was going to release himself from the imaginary steel rebar that currently surrounded him, immediate full body access was necessary. Thought once again, how was Kein going to get his entire body to react to some passing object? It was simple enough with his head, but whole body? He'd need something like a blow to the gut in order to achieve that!
Goddammit, you know that, Kein! Fucking… Of course he'd forgotten what happened less than a few seconds ago! Of course being punched by something several times his size would slip his mind! Somehow…
Okay, here's the plan, he started in internal monologue. Regain control of the head and try to escape that way. If it fails, then plan B will be set into motion. Plan B: if plan A fails, hoping that the thing goes and tries to punch me again… regain control of muscles that way and escape…
Sound plan! Now, putting it into action. There was some hesitation in his mind. You don't go into a room and yell 'Quick! Someone shoot me!' That's just bad form, and Kein, was not, a particularly self-destructive person. Therefore, in the very front of his mind was the loud as a jet engine voice telling him that he was about to get punched, move out of the way. It probably should have taken more to push that voice back, but luckily, Kein's mind knew that what he was doing was for the best. Having gained a small amount of feeling his in head from the previous endeavors, Kein was able to sigh verbally and actually feel it. Following up with a quick lip bite, he began to rock his head back and forth.
WHAM!
Okay! That time it was not a punch, more or less a full body slap! Still, it was localized on his stomach, meaning…
Got it! Kein yelled with mental glee. The hit actually hurt this time, which was a good thing. It meant that all his efforts weren't in vain, and that his attempts at movement had begun to lessen the numbness. Ignoring the rest of the world, Kein latched onto the sensation in his gut and capitalized on it. So, rather than just sitting up and falling back down, he sat up, then proceeded to throw himself to the side. Miraculously, his arms- or just right arm, recalling what happened to the other- had also responded to the hit, allowing him to more or less give himself an additional boost as he flew off the supporting back of his attacker.
So far, Kein's track record for 'infallible plans' had been pretty bad. Given that he'd only really executed five plan, his rate of failure has been sixty percent. With the current circumstances, he wasn't really in a proper position to make any book-updating schemes: at least some slack was in order. Though, he'd already forgotten about his lack of movement one time, so in all honesty, he shouldn't have forgotten about it again! This was, unfortunately, not the case, and as he whipped his legs around to land feet first, his face intercepted the ground.
Thud!
His right cheek lit up with pain. The kind of pain one would get after getting a cut on top of an already existing rash. As fast as his lethargic limb could carry him, Kein pushed his upper body skyward, only to slide forward as his legs slipped off the back of the creature.
Thud…
Fuck! One word, one thought- ambiguity and meaning as to thousands. Legs! Not working! Once more, Kein pushed himself up- his body bending backward into an impromptu seal position. It was slightly lopsided, but a seal nonetheless! With his left arm still tucked in, he thrust off with his right. However, upon attempting to catch himself, his lack of arm strength made itself apparent, causing him to fall to the ground once again. This, yet again, caused him pain. Luckily, not from his face, but rather from his chest and stomach. Topping it off, the right elbow had not forgotten the punishment it had taken and made it murderously apparent.
But he was determined! Determined not to be eaten and or picked back up! With a grunt, Kein strained his muscles and pushed off the ground- dropping to the dirt with another thud. Before he could force himself up for the fourth time, his whole body was jerked to the side, the pivot point being his upper chest.
Kein was immediately aware of what was happening: the blue fucker had finally reacted to his movement and had turned to face him, also having accidentally pushed his legs to the side in the process. This alone set a fresh wave of dread through him, and as if responding to his new fear, Kein's legs curled inwards. Endorphins and epinephrine. That's what was currently flowing through his mind, for respectable reasons.
Of course, it did matter, because as soon as the tension in his thighs was released and his whole body sprang forward, a rope-like appendage wrapped around his leg and yanked him back. As he hit the ground on his back with another dull onomatopoeia, Kein shot his arm forward. At this point, he had stopped thinking. Sure, reaching this state was much easier, but his brain already knew that his body was damaged, and to prevent any further and unnecessary injuries, it fully took over.
Continuing the previous action, Kein's available hand enclosed around the first object it touched. Said item was a rock, o it was shaped like a rock… Why did this matter? Well, no matter what species you are- giant, ferocious, ice-spitting beast or not- a one-kilogram rock flying at your face is going to make you recoil, if only slightly.
Motherfuc- ACK!
Kein chucked that rock like no rocks had been thrown before. Due to the lack of space between himself and his attacker there was an almost instant reaction. Though the only reason he was given the time to throw the rock was because the creature had taken the time to release his leg and lunge for his neck. Luckily, this had happened before be had thrown the stone, meaning that when he chucked it, the appendage that was now around his neck did lessen its tension, if only slightly. But the counterattack made by Kein did have another effect, a more negative effect. Obviously, this thing was just as determined as him, but instead of wanting to escape, it wanted to enslave. So when the rock sailed into its face and hit it, it did jerk back. Rather than letting go, the blue fuck held firm- yanking his neck and dragging Kein alone his back.
Now, Kein was trapped, numb, and choking! A brilliantly harmful combination! Regardless of his new ailment, Kein fought on, even if that fighting was degraded to nothing more than flailing and tugging… which it was. Within the next second, Kein had whipped himself around so that his feet were pointed toward his enemy, and was now kicking out wildly. Coupled with that, his working arm had inexorably moved its hand up to the still firmly neck-wrapping limb and had grabbed at it. Unfortunately, the only thing this actually accomplished was cutting his hand on the blade that resided there.
For the second time in what seemed like less than five minutes, the creature decided that it had had enough of Kein's shit, and tightened its grip on his neck. Then, it proceeded to lift him up just enough so that his lower back was off the ground and throw him to the side. Of course, it didn't relinquish its hold on him, so as his body flew forward, it was also whipped sideways- his neck being the pivot point.
But it wasn't done. Next, it tightened the appendage even further, forcing Kein to jet his arm up just so he wouldn't suffocate. Once satisfied that its prey wouldn't be using its hands for anything else, the frost fucker began pulling. Naturally, Kein protested, and stuck his foot out- hoping to catch it on a surfaced tree root or stone. Luckily, this did happen and he temporarily stopped. Was it worth it? No, of course not! Having already had enough, the creature reacted very angrily to his repeated attempts of stalling. Yet again, it yanked at Kein's neck, only this time to the side.
Upon 'recovering' from the most recent act of violence, Kein redoubled his efforts, only now, it was much more difficult. Not from the previous weakness that was once again making itself apparent, but instead from the fact that he could no longer catch his feet on anything. So instead, he released his hand and shot it down to the dirt; the digits sadly connecting with nothing but loose pebbles and small, uselessly thin roots. Regardless, his flailing didn't cease, and as he was clichélydragged off, he did the only thing he could and looked up.
What Kein saw made him freeze. The beast was dragging towards the eternal blackness! Kein dectupled his efforts. Hands? Grab shit! Feet? Dig your heels into the ground! Legs? Spread out and attempt to catch a passing object! Butt? Clench and hope you succeed! All this happened within the moment of realization, and for the same moment, he stopped! But the persistence was prevalent on both sides, and as Kein's body continued to fight, so did the ice spitter's. This lack of motion seemed indefinite as the two sides fought for dominance, but as fast as it came, the whole thing fell apart.
With a sudden lack of control both Kein's legs- which had been doing most of the holding- once again fell numb. This only served to have them suddenly pulled together, not only causing him slight pain but also clicking his heels together and making them lose grip. Without the support of the others, the hands became victims of blisters and released their grip. All this happened within a quarter of a second. Since the intensity of the tug-of-war took a sharp turn toward escalation, the opposing member having no time to react to his opponent's sudden failure.
It was this list of failures that inevitably ended with Kein and his attacker flying head over heels over each other. Of course, Kein was fully aware of what was going to happen did the motion of flight continue: shadowy consumption. He tried, he really did. Heck! Even his broken arm attempted to help! But in the end, air is not a solid object and cannot be grabbed. Fortunately, Kein did manage to scream one last curse of defiance before be was ensnared by the void- filling his vision with a dazzling light and silencing his voice from the darkened world.
A/N:
Ssethelis: What the heck was that, Aetheo?
Aetheo: Phuck you. I'm doing this phor as long as I pheel like doing this.
I'm going to pass you guys off for a second, I want to inform our dear friend Dom here about something a few chapter- I think it was seven- ago: You're right, some people- maybe most- would have died, if they were taken by surprise. Let's just say, adrenaline allows you to do some crazy shit. End of story. If you don't believe me, Google it. I'm sure the results will be more than pleasing…
Aetheo: Phor sure. The pheats perphormed by those under the inphluence oph some hormone phluctuation are phrightening
Correct… as Aetheo here has so… thoughtfully… put it.
AETHEO: THE PLANT CODE COMMANDS IT!1!1!
It sure does. There, now we all have an inside joke that remains on the outside… for all to enjoy. I think there was something else… but it must have not been as good, cause I can't remember it.
WELP! That sucks. I suppose that's it now. I have nothing else to say. What about you guys?
Aetheo: I think all I've been writing is philler anyways.
Well, I'm sorry you think that but at least you are contributing to the A/N's unlike Sseth. Little bitch.
Aetheo: Signing out with magic, going to our homes in the Abyss of Doom. We'll be waiting phor that train.
FIN
Aetheo: (Phin)
