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Aetheo: I don't see this happening but he wants me to stop him in the middle

HAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAAAA

Aetheo: Are you done?

AHAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Aetheo: So… Author screaming. Disclaimer: We don't own anything, welcome ba~

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Aetheo: ~ck. Welcome back. Fucking… he's back. For however long.

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Chapter 11: Alive… In a way.

Opening one's eyes after a long night's sleep is a very taxing venture. However, one may think: It can't be that bad... I'm a tough guy, the night doesn't phase me! Well, Kein Madalis, the best hypothetical Optometrist, was the only person anyone could need in regards to all such questions. He could explain what it's like simply opening one's peepers in the morning, midday, or at night. He could tell people what being blind looks like and even how to make their vision as sharp as an eagle's! He might even share some of his past experiences with eye related-topics! Such as the time where absolutely no color existed at all or the instant in which a great white sun had invaded his entire field of view and set his whole body ablaze with its false fire of mental pain...

Yup… pretty great.

Seriously, though, it hurt. Terribly. No flash of bright light in the middle of the night could even remotely compare to this. This ridiculous level of irritation. But not just his sense of sight- no, all of his senses were afire. His ears were so sensitive that as he writhed upon the ground, he could hear the dirt shift and crunch beneath the grass. His nose was both detecting his own scent, and distinguishing how much it contrasted with everything else. He could taste the roof of his own mouth for fuck's sake! Even his skin! All of it! Stung like he'd been caught in the blast of a fucking supernova. Not even his broken arm could hold a candle to the pain everything else put out!

But despite the suddenness and intensity of it, the pain did begin to die... slowly, and as such, Kein began to recover from his body-wide 'paralyzation.' His vision cleared, going from what could only be described as "inverse blindness" to a more reasonable "indistinct blur of color". His ears and nose remembered that all the extra information was unnecessary, and went back to being reasonable. Finally, his skin undid its fiery transformation and no longer screamed at him to tear it off. Obviously, this didn't stop his body from quaking and his breathing to be shallow and shaky. But, nevertheless, it was certainly a welcome reprieve.

Unraveling himself from the fetal position, Kein spread out on the ground and focused his eyes. He needed no extra confirmation that he was back in the 'real' world instead of the colorless one from minutes before, seeing as the first splotch of color he saw was very much green. Which was a... "good" sign, but was also not what he was thinking about. Rather, he remembered... he remembered crashing head-over-heels with his kidnapper into one of the many black voids. Not a fond memory… whatever those were.

Regardless of the memory's 'taste,' it did remind him of one fact: the frost fucker was very much still a thing and, as far as he could judge, it was still nearby. Jumping forth, Kein began to search the immediate area, panicking. The key colors he was looking for? Blue, in all its forms.

After getting a fair start from the sky, he sighed and fell back down. Closing his eyes, Kein grit his teeth and absentmindedly grabbed the grass with his left hand; thinking about nothing more than how much he absolutely hated that flying fuck of an icicle. This turned out to be a mistake, as not a fraction of a second later did the arm respond with a stabbing protest. The outcry of his limb ripped a gasp from the lying man, followed by the instantaneous release of his clenched fist.

Nostrils flaring, Kein turned to the side and drug his eyes up his sleeve; his pupils shrunk at the sight laid before his eyes. He had known that his arm was broken- completely or not was the unknown factor, but from what he could see, it certainly wasn't just cracked. Kein shakily poked his arm, tracing the ripped fabric of his sleeve over the forty-five-degree fracture in his arm. At this point, he couldn't even muster the consciousness to become queasy and instead just stared, mind going wild and blank at the same time while he thought about the absolute clown fiesta he was in.

He was the epitome of fucked. His body was fucked, his mind was in a state of fucking panic, and whatever soul that had existed was surely beaten to death and fucked. On top of being fucked, he had no idea what to do or where he was going to go. His last attempt at finding civilization ended in getting lost and beaten half to death by the most uncivilized thing imaginable! He was hungry, he was thirsty, his clothing was tattered and torn. Plus, just to add insult to injury, he really had to pee! He was the epitome of fucked.

Yet, he could do nothing, well, almost nothing, about it. So here he was, sitting down, aching in places he'd never ached before, with barely a clue as to what he'd do next, let alone what all those aching parts were even called.

First, just get up. Get up and look around. Grasping the ground, Kein pulled his body to the side- taking great care to make sure that his left arm was safely tucked up to his chest. Somehow managing to successfully pull himself up, Kein brought his knees underneath him. The result was a badly damaged man crouching on the side of a small hill in the middle of another clearing. Blinking rapidly, Kein began to soak in the surrounding area. The hill he sat upon was incredibly small, maybe only two meters from the lowest to highest points. There was a small tree- barely past the definition of a sapling- in the middle, shadowed by a singular, squarish rock.

The surrounding treeline seemed like the same forest from before, if slightly less dense, and comprised of the oaks that had become far too familiar. From the direction he was staring- past the small tree and rock- he could just see a small stream that broke the tide of brush.

Kein swallowed as the word 'water' echoed within his mind. Without thought, he placed his arms on the ground. A muffled scream seethed from his mouth followed by a generous helping of curses. Taking a moment to steady himself, Kein refocused his attention on his arm. There was no way he could do anything with it like this. The bone needed to be set, not just so it would heal properly but also so his dwindling sanity would be spared, if only slightly more.

With a goal now in the forefront of his mind, Kein looked ahead of him. The tree was practically taunting him with its youthful health and exuberance. Despite this, he had a use for it, regardless of how foolhardy it was.

Pushing himself up, Kein began to shuffle forward across the grass. He managed to make it halfway through his arduous journey, but unfortunately, the halfway point was also when his legs began to fail him. Faster than he could react, his left knee locked up and crashed to the ground. The sudden impact gave him a start, coupled with the jolt of pain in his broken arm, shook his instincts enough to force him to attempt to stand erect. This only served to continue tripping him over and over, repeating ad infinitum, until, with a sudden imbalance, Kein began to tilt. Disregarding what he would have normally done in this situation, he instead did what most others would have- stuck his right arm out.

However, there was, luckily, or unfortunately- depending on whose point of view- there turned out to be no need for this. Why? Well, seeing that the first thing his body hit was not the dirt, but rather a wooden pole of nature, his hand just slid past it.

His face, on the other hand.

"Fuuuu- huhuhuhu- ck..." Naturally, Kein's right arm wrapped around the trunk in an attempt to keep himself steady. He still slid down it, there was no way of avoiding that, but at least it wasn't painful. Well, as painful as falling would have been. He hoped. Landing with a faint groan and slipping off the tree, he fell directly on the rock beneath. Forthwith, that rock became his new seat for the next few minutes.

Refocusing through the eventually receding pain, Kein peered down at his arm. Recovering his previous thought, most people knew how to set a bone, either out of common sense or proper education. Pull it out a tad and pop it back into place. The only problem being that Kein would be doing it himself and the body does not want to hurt itself, even if the pain is for its own betterment.

"Everyt~hing has to be soo- ah, difficult," he mumbled and straightened his chest to face the small tree, barely thinking past the most basic of mechanical movements in his fugue state. "Everything ju-... just has to be difficult."

Having lined himself up, Kein glanced up and down the trunk. He was going to use it as the 'second person' in this instance, resting his arm on an extremely convenient branch and gripping onto it with his broken arm. He would then leaning back and pop it back into place. It was a painfully simple plan, but before any of that could happen, he needed to get his arm up there. Kein reached down and grabbed his left wrist. Moving monotonously, he brought his arm to eye level and rested it between the branch and the trunk. Then, he froze.

For some reason, when his arms were at eye level they seemed much worse. It could have been the unobstructed lighting or the fact that he could see the whole arm rather than a top-down view, but either way. It. Was. Disgusting. Kein had to bend his chin to touch his chest just to keep his stomach's contents separated from all the other disgusting bodily fluids to avoid the "cauldron of repeated vomiting" scenario. The sickly maroon of the blood was very clear now and it splattered across every inch of his sleeves; half-clotted in some places, flowing freely in others, and everything in between. This juxtaposition of coagulation with free flow created mushy blobs that regularly slipped down his jacket and hit the rock beneath him with grotesque squelches. The rips in the fabric only served as additional points of congealment, areas where the blood would pool and half-harden as if attempting to seal an imaginary wound.

He saw that his coat fared no better. It too was covered in the unknown blood of his attacker. Fortunately, it only seemed to saturate the top half of the cloth, unfortunately, it also made it seem as if someone had sliced his neck wide open. Kein brought a hand to cover his exposed throat, only to pull it back when his palm touched the groups of platelets that had gathered there in chunks. Abruptly, a thick strand of his hair fell over his face. On its tip hung what was appeared to be a walnut-sized lump of blood. Reacting as it fell, Kein caught it in his hand. Looking it over for a moment, his face scrunched up in righteous disgust and the clot slipped through his fingers to join its useless friends on the stone.

Having finally registered what he was drenched in, Kein turned to the side and promptly vomited.

There was a significant delay as Kein thoroughly thought about what he was going to do and what could happen if he did it wrong.

And threw up.

The sounds it would make.

And barfed.

Just the pure imagery itself.

His stomach had nothing else to give...

CRACK!

There was a yelp, followed by a loud thud as Kein fell, face first, tucking the broken limb between himself, his right arm, and the ground. Another wave of silence broke over the clearing as Kein began to chew the dirt he was lying across. Secondary lesson learned: Don't clench your teeth next to the ground. The primary lesson learned was fairly evident: Do not do that without some sort of sedative. The feeling he was experiencing was not normal pain, but more a stomach-wrenching sense of vertigo that turned his insides into outsides. It was like someone had hit him in the gut with an invisible mallet, but his gut was actually his arm and the mallet was really the one held by cartoon characters who think you can survive the power of their massively gargantuan gumdrop hammers...

But in spite of that; in spite of the pain, the nausea, the breathlessness. He heard something.

Over his own labored breath, over the rustling leaves and the swoosh of the grass, even over his own heart as it pounded on his ribs, he heard it: a scraping sound, like a knife against shingles… a noise Kein wished he didn't remember. Unlike the last time, it was rapid: a natural motion, like someone rubbing their hands or brushing their teeth. Regardless, it was unnerving: the thought of there being another creature in the clearing with him, especially in his current state, weakened and broken with little chance of escape. Unfortunately for his adrenal gland and fear reflex, his natural need to know took over, and he raised his head.

Lying no more than five meters away was one of those things… One of those scaly, colorful, excessively violent, ice-flinging fucksticks. Kein stopped breathing, his eyes locked on the beast lying in front of him. His body and mind went numb, the only thing even slightly contrasting to his panic being the pulse of his arm against his chest.

It was just... sitting there, eyes half-lidded, biting the side of its lip, scratching the underside of its arm like it didn't have a care in the world. At this point, the creature's appearance meant nothing, but somewhere, deep within his subconscious, one thing stood out, and that was that this thing was a lot smaller than his previous combatant. With this small comfort in the back of his mind, Kein's hair stood that much less on edge.

It was also around this time in which the smaller version of the blue bitch finally acknowledged he had moved. With melodrama rivaling that of a toddler, the creature slowly began to stop scratching itself, taking a full five seconds to finally halt the motion.

Then it laughed

A full on titter

It took Kein a good second to realize that the thing had straightened its body and dropped its head between its forelegs. From that moment, it began to laugh a muffled, sickly gleeful laugh. By now, Kein felt no more pain, nor any shock or panic, he was just… blank. He wanted to be scared, he wanted to get up and run, to get as far away from this white thing as possible, but the blood-stained man found himself locked in an ongoing battle between the absolute insanity of what was happening and his own instincts.

Then, with a speed refuting the very existence of the speed at which it started, the creature stopped its laughing and stood. Kein scrambled his arms into position and forced himself upward, only to stumble back when his legs failed to balance properly. Without really thinking, Kein began to backpedal on the ground. Justifying this ex-post facto, not long after he fell, the black-and-white quadruped-thing began walking toward him.

Kein panicked when he felt his back hit the tree behind him. Using it as a means to steady himself, he thrust his body upwards and to the left, just to trip.

The panic doubled!

Out of sheer cliche, he turned to see what had stopped him. It was a void. One of the voids from the darkness. Only, this one was visibly sucking his foot into the abyss of doom, and it seemed that no amount of pulling would free it.

Triple panic bonus round!

As Kein fully realized his position and the crunching of grass got closer, he closed his eyes and rotated his body, hatred crossing his face as he prepared to go out with even the most infinitesimal amount of dignity. But when no killing blow came, he blinked.

It was in front of him, that was easy enough to see. However, the distance between them is what startled him. They couldn't have been no more than a meter apart, the thing was practically touching his folded legs! On top of the obvious, he could tell that it was examining him. Yet, strangely enough, despite its interest, he noted its expression to be rather blasé. No hatred, no disgust, and certainly no blind rage. Not that he was complaining. Kein would much rather be critically judged by the unknown rather than killed by it.

To put it simply, it was black and white. And while details weren't exactly the most prominent thing in his mind at the moment, it was easy to tell that this thing was the blackest of black and the whitest of white. The kinds of hues that seemed invulnerable to outside alteration. These colors were perfect inverses of each other, with white being the base and black the accent- body, then chest and underbelly respectively. And while the white was clearly the dominant color, that didn't stop small specks of black from peppering about the creature's body.

While this one was smaller than the last, Kein had no doubt that it was still stronger than him. Kein might be able to outrun it, due to his better maneuverability. At the same time, that part really wasn't even an important point of reference because it had wings- but hey, positivity, right?

Of course, this was not what was currently occupying the forefront of Kein's thoughts. Rather, he was thinking about the multitude of different ways this monster could kill him. Which included and weren't limited to: four, slightly curved ivory horns that would have absolutely no problem goring him; a nice set of very sharp claws that looked well used; surprisingly clean teeth; and a diamond-shaped, seemingly metal blade that hung threateningly on the end of its whip-like tail. Oh. And magic fucking ice powers. Can't forget those.

These creatures were literally murder incarnate.

By the time Kein concluded his observational trance, he found that the thing was still staring at him almost expressionlessly- it seemed to have not finished its own inspection of him. A fact that it made a little bit too apparent by slowly stepping forward and stretching its neck over Kein's legs- placing its muzzle only a few centimeters from his face. At that point, their eyes locked. Kein peered into the purple eyes of a possible enemy and said 'enemy' forced an unbroken squint into his own. Abruptly, it backed off to the original distance and stood, only to begin walking around him and studying the rest of his frame from all angles.

Fortunately for Kein's sanity, after completing one full revolution, it stopped and sat back down. For a brief moment the two stared at each other again, all while maintaining their own small fidgets. The creature's tail was whipping back and forth, almost like a cat's, lacking only the sharp flick with each swipe and Kein was slowly, weakly, kneading the underarm of his jacket.

The second sudden movement of the creature was luckily on a smaller scale, its expression contorting into one of surprise before quickly dropping back down into its seemingly habitual demeanor of dispassion. It appeared, however, that the change was not directed at him, but more due to something behind it. Seeing that a moment later the creature shot its tail out in a random direction, brought it up, and turned around.

It stayed in that position for a few more seconds, obviously intrigued by what Kein assumed was now placed upon its tail. Just as the question entered his brain, it was answered. As it turned around, he could see a brown, red-stained driver's cap dangling on the pointed tip of its tail. His driver's cap.

Kein had little time to react before the cap was flicked at his face. With a quiet fump, the hat hit his turned head and fell into his lap. Casting his eyes downward, a thoroughly shocked twenty-year-old grasped the age-old cap in his fist, hardly noticing the creature walk further down the hill to pick up something else.

What the fu- Kein began to wonder before a nondescript thud sounded before him. Looking up listlessly, he found his satchel. Standing over the satchel was the thing. It held an equally- if not more listless expression. Kein's jaw dropped slightly, allowing only the smallest of flies to enter. The thing didn't really seem to care and once again began to circle him.

What the fuuuuuuuck.Kein had no idea how to take the last couple seconds. On one hand, he wanted to be terrified. He wanted to just up and leave and not look back and whatever else included noping the fuck out of a situation. On the other hand he… he really had no idea. Everything was just so backward from the last encounter. From the way it had been up to this point. So he had yet to even formulate an other hand.

It was at this moment that Kein squealed a most manly squeal. It was one thing to get that sense of being watched and having your neck hairs stand on end, it's another thing to actually have something watching you and be touched on the neck by the thing watching you. With the sudden burst of adrenaline that pouring through his veins, Kein shot upward. At the same time, his shoulders jumped up to block the sides of his neck and his working hand snatched up his satchel and slung it over his shoulder.

Thud.

Having completed the basic checklist of actions he would take every time something foreign and invisible touched his body, Kein froze. Regaining his awareness, he looked down at his bag which had conveniently landed leaning against his right leg. Disregarding its existence, he slowly turned around to face the thing he knew was there. It looked as if nothing had happened… at least, nothing that concerned it. It was actually scrunching its snout in a way that portrayed contemplation. Then and there, Kein realized what had just happened.

Right, it sniffed me, he then sat down next to his satchel and planted his face in his hand. Sniff, sniffy… sniff. Okay, fine.

Kein, once again, had absolutely zero ideas as to what was happening. He had no idea know how to deal with the pain he was in. He had no idea how to deal with his blood-soaked body. He had no idea how to deal with the thought of being near the small white bitch without panicking. And he certainly had no fucking idea where the hell he was going to go after all this. And so, having not a clue, Kein did the only thing that came to mind. Which was to simply disregard everything, close his aching eyes, and lay back onto the grass.

And so he did.

Unfortunately for Kein, it was around this time in which the incessant examination of the creature became just too much to bear, as it had decided to steal away his most important item. His satchel, and related objects.

Surprisingly, Kein had watched this happen and, up until the point in which it had opened the cloth bag, had done nothing to stop it. However, that changed rather quickly when he realized the full extent of what was going on.

Forcing himself to sit forward, Kein reached out and grabbed for the closest part of his satchel. Pulling it back to him and holding it close, he looked up and cast a glare at the monster who would dare touch his bag full of private material and personal pictures. It glared back.

It was at this point that Kein realized what he did. He had just taken something from the most probably violent creature he knew, just because. There was a small chuckle in the back of his mind, the kind of chuckle that, if spoken aloud, could only be taken as an 'Oh, fuck' chuckle. But contrary to the amount of times the words 'I'm dead' appeared in his mind, not one move to confirm that belief was made by the creature. Instead, it merely shrugged and moved away.

Kein didn't move from his last position for the next several seconds. He had almost diedagain. And over what? A bloody, ripped, over-glorified piece of cloth!? Yeah, sure- that cloth contained some of his most fond and exciting memories, but really!? Dying for it!? His priorities were fucked.

Taking a deep breath, Kein ran his fingers through his hair. An action that turned from exasperated to disgusted in a matter of centimeters. Having not the ability to be any more sick, he simply wiped the clotted substance off in the grass, which did little to cleanse his hand, and even less to ease his mind.

Recalling a previous thought, Kein looked to the right and caught an unobstructed view of the stream he so desperately needed. Looking back, he caught a view of the creature that seemed to give less than zero shits about him. Weighing his options was rather unnecessary, and with a small 'fuck it,' Kein began to pick himself up.


Kein had been walking for an hour and a half. An hour and a half of shuffling over hills, rocks, streams, the occasional fallen log, and whatever else decided that a nice, flat pathway was a crime against nature. And if that wasn't annoying enough, he was being followed by the white creature that had so lovingly introduced him to the true meaning and power of the concept of silent criticism. Seeing as whatever he did was watched very closely by it. Meaning he still had to pee!

It wasn't even making any noise as it followed a few feet behind him, or in front of him, or just flat out next to him. Fuck, sometimes it would just disappear for minutes on end, just to reappear in the next clearing, for literally no reason at all.

The most Kein had gotten out of it was a somewhat disgusted 'hmmm' when he found another one of those orange/mango trees and tried to eat some of the fruit! Out of a hour and a half, that was it.

Of course, this had given him the slightest amount of trepidation about eating it, before considering that this thing was carnivorous and most likely saw all fruit that way. The only real problem he saw with eating the fruit was that he would most likely get diarrhea if he ate too much of it… Regardless, and luckily for him, the fruit was easier to get and was good enough for consumption. Or, at least, it hadn't killed him yet- a plus in his book.

Strangely enough, Kein was actually compelled to share his findings with the creature. However, that thought was dashed faster than the rabbit the thing brought back after disappearing for five minutes.

The reason for this shift in attitude towards the thing was due to some realizations and other observation he had made. Things such as: How the hell he survived being nearly beheaded, opening his eyes to see nothing more than blackness, and the sudden appearance of this thing. By this point, Kein knew that it was this black and white creature than saved him, there was no doubt about that. The better questions were why and how. His main idea for that was the whole 'powers' thing he'd witnessed with the ice fuck. Thinking that, if that one could spit ice and control the shit like a totalitarian government's internal police force, then this one had to be able to do something similar. Right?

With this in mind, he began hoping against hope that color coding of creatures was indeed a thing here. Luckily, that idea could be backed up a bit more than most, due to the slight memory of him struggling against something in the blackened world that was definitely not the size of the ice one, and since his current... traveling companion,was the only other creature of its type he had seen, it was safe to assume that it was indeed this one that had created the black void somehow, and it was that 'somehow' clause the Kein really didn't want to think about right now.

That still didn't answer the questions of how and why or where this one came from, or the other one for that matter. How long that it been following him to jump in like that at the last second!? Kein would assume that, since the first one attacked him, this one should have done the same, but it didn't. What did that mean? It was easy to see that this thing was interested in him, but was that it? It didn't really settle well with Kein, the idea that the only reason that this… emotionally devoid creature had saved him was that he was mildly interesting. But that begged the question, how long had it been following him in order to take up that curiosity?

Kein couldn't really judge the attention span of this creature. Not that he really wanted to, but figuring out if it truly was interested in him or was just saving him for later was impossible, so he hoped for the former.

"Oh, Jesus…" Kein murmured to himself, his mind wandering a bit too far in the opposite direction. Despite this, the simple action of thinking reminded him that he was not only not alone, but was also walking along the side of a river at the bottom of a large, grassy canyon.

He'd already taken in the scenery of the expansive valley, and in all honestly, it was quite a beautiful place. Beautiful in a crazily unnatural way. The rock walls that protected their lush innards were no more than thirty to forty meters high in some places and looked like giant, moss-covered, vine-coated stepping stones. Strangely enough, there were also hoodoos… rock hoodoos whose tops were also covered in grass and sides held vines. They seemed oddly appropriate for the surroundings and were most definitely the things that held Kein's eyes for the longest.

The actual dimensions of the valley were unclear to him. However, from what he could see, its length could be no more than half a kilometer long and maybe a quarter of one wide, so it was larger than the meadow from early that day. The river that ran cut the place in half curved in some places and peeled off land from one side, only to give it to the other and do the inverse further down. The one thing he found odd about it was that was that the river had no bank, it just fell off a small, maybe two-meter high cliff down into the water.

As for where he- and the thing- were, compared to it: they were positioned on the right side of the seven-meter wide rush of water and walking downstream. The water itself- seeing as it was clearly an important thing to note- was the same crystal blue he had encountered in his first minutes here and the only thing that fed it was the waterfall to their back.

Lastly, the only foliage in the entire expanse, other than the piles of grass, was the grouping of trees that were placed as far away from the river as possible, along with their bush companions. Of course, they were oak trees, but hey, he didn't really care anymore. The only thing that actually got to him was the fact that most of the trees were as far from the water as possible. It didn't really make much sense. Since they were all situated under the canyon walls, they would only get half as much sunlight. Plus, as far as he could tell, water was drinkable, if a bit sweet, so there was no reason why the trees and bushes should remain away from it. There were some exceptions, of course, but the majority ruled in favor of the strange separation.

By now, they had walked over three-quarters of the way across the valley and were nearing the cliff-face on the other side. During their time walking, Kein noted- other than the scenery- some other things about his colorless acquaintance that connected with his previous thoughts. Mostly random things, but noteworthy nonetheless.

The first thing that he had really gotten, and never really appreciated until now, was the height difference between them. Kein was a hundred and ninety centimeters tall, which was a fair height. This thing, however, was about that long in length, from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail- discounting the blade. Height-wise it was only maybe one hundred and thirty, so how the hell did it carry him? Because Kein knew he was being carried in the dark realm place.

That, on top of a few body related details, such as the weird splotches of white that randomly appeared on its otherwise black wing membranes, the black diamonds that were found on all its major joints, and the two sets of frills it had, one set resting on the top of its head to the bottom of its neck and the other starting on the lower half of its back to the beginning of its tail.

Kein was also hyper-aware of the creature also taking mental notes on his own actions, like how it would stare at him whenever he touched his face- which had grown a new smattering of hair- or how he would rearrange the items in his bag when he felt something poking his ribs.

Luckily, nothing of major significant happened for the remainder of the time they traveled to the opposite side of the valley. Upon reaching the other side, Kein huffed. The river he and the thing had been following was no more… though closer inspection revealed that the water had in fact disappeared, rather than ceased to exist. It hit the rock wall and tunneled underneath. Knowing that was no way in hell he was going to see where it went, Kein turned his attention to the stony face. It was covered in vines, like every other surface here, and was maybe ten meters shorter than the cliffs in the middle of the valley. Still, his arm was broken and there weren't any other immediate ways up. So in response to this new obstacle, Kein turned around- completely disregarding the flaring wings from the thing- and found the nearest fallen log.

Upon situating himself so that the whole of the meadow was apparent to him, Kein removed the satchel from his shoulder and placed it in front of himself. From there, he opened the flap and pulled out his binder. At this point, he proceeded to go about the task of sketching out the valley- holding the paper still with the flat of his palm- to his front. Not long after he started, the bichromatic creature pulled itself up to his right flank and sat down. It seemed genuinely interested in what he was doing, rather than its usual blasé, faked attempt at caring, and was attempting to get a better look at the paper.

Thinking within the moment, and therefore with no frame of reference for what he was doing, Kein turned the paper. He had no idea what compelled him to do so and judged the stupidity of his own action silently. However, his brooding mood was dissolved when the paper was suddenly stolen from his hands. Snapping back to reality, Kein found not only his recently started sketch- which consisted of nothing more than a myriad of lines- but his pencil too had been taken by the creature, who was examining each with great fascination.

It was at this moment, Kein knew. He had no idea what had kept him from his conclusion before, nor did he know how the hell this was actually happening. Either way, he now knew what he was looking at, what was sitting beside him in an absolutely uncaring manner, what this 'thing' that had saved him was.

There was a subtle movement to the side as the now newly identified dragon reared back onto its haunches and began to fiddle with the pencil with both of its paws. Kein blinked several times in newfound awe, and as confirmation to his beliefs, he began to rapidly flip his binder to one section in particular.

Yup, he quipped to himself as he gazed down of the multitude of self-designed drawings containing the mythical beasts. Of course it is, Kein. You idiot. Clearly, he didn't really know whether to designate it as a dragon, wyvern, or wyrm... but in all honesty, who was really sure which was which? To him, at least, this thing fit best under the category of a dragon.

There was a pause in his thought process when a very obvious ripping sound came from his right. Looking down, he gazed upon an obviously surprised white and black dragon with his pencil situated between two of his claw. For a moment, Kein got a mental image of holding a pencil with chop sticks, but that was quickly vanquished when the dragon turned to him and a piece of paper with a hole in it was held before him.

Right, he thought, picking the paper off the end of the pencil carefully. Acting only due to the terrifying familiarity of the action, Kein reached over to his binder and slowly pulled out two more pieces of paper. Snapping the rings closed, he set one in front of himself and grabbed a spare notebook. Then, placing the book on the ground, he handed the paper to the dragon, who was waiting with one paw out like it was expecting him to comply. Without even a single noise between them, the drake… dragon… thing! placed the paper on the notebook and turned away.

Kein clapped his hands absentmindedly. Mind-numb, he picked another pencil- one that wasn't broken- out of his coat pocket and began to draw. After a good thirty minutes of sketching- an extended amount of time because half of the drawing wasn't sky- Kein refitted the hole punched paper back into his binder. He had already turned to see what the dragon had done- it having left about halfway through the process to do god knew what. The paper was covered in little more than a few lines in seemingly specific orders, portraying symbols. Regardless, he picked it up off the ground and tabbed in under the over-full section labeled 'What the fuck was I thinking?'. Even now, he was thinking of revisiting the section, tabbing the rest of them under merely 'Confusing' and this new piece all alone in the division.

Following the path back took him directly to the cliff face. Stopping next to the waiting creature, Kein began to consider the ways by which he could climb up its face. Taking his arm into consideration, his first thought was to just walk around it, and by that, he meant take one of the multitude of steep paths he saw littered around the valley. The problem with that plan was the amount of time it would take. It was around six or seven in the afternoon, and, luckily, the sun had yet to set fully. Despite this, it was still getting darker and he really didn't want to get caught stumbling around up hills like those at night.

He knew there was no way he was going to be able to climb it, even if there were small ledges he could stop to take respites at. He didn't carry rope in his satchel, because that would be absurd, nor did he have any other sort of climbing gear, like a pick or pitons. Tom's knife wouldn't help him at all, so he really only had two options, try to climb it, or hopefully make it somewhere meaningful by dark.

Fuuush!

Or that! A deep scowl set upon Kein's face as his hair was blown back by the rush of air and his eyes settled on the now flying dragon. Because I can totally do that!

Kein threw his hand up as it reached the top of the cliff. What a bitch! Just leaving him down here like that! Though, in all reality, he didn't really know what he had expected. It just showed up and saved him, it could fuck off if it wanted to– it wasn't like he could really stop it! But the sad part was Kein had grown slightly accustomed to it being next to him while he walked. Strange, true, but it was more of an 'okay, I'm alone… what the fuck now?' kind of feeling than any kind of betrayal. Of course, just thinking it did little to satisfy him or stop him from verbally sharing his opinion.

"What the hell do you expect me to do? It's not like I can fly!"

He waited, staring upwards at the edge of the rock face, not really expecting any response to come. So it came as quite a surprise when a white face peeked out from over the stone and looked down at him. For the longest time, nothing happened. They just stared at each other… blinking…

"I didn't expect you to suck at dealing with every obstacle we encounter!" It shouted.

There was a pause. Kein's eyes squinted menacingly, then he threw his arm back up and turned. "Fine! I'll just find a different way around!"

In all honesty, he didn't really care that a creature that could be visually considered a beast spoke back to him. Even past that point, it was so insignificant that putting effort into being shocked was a waste of time. It wasn't really all that bad anyways. The whole event could be given the analogy of talking to a dumb, in the 'in the unable-to-speak' sense, person, only to find out that they were just pranking you for shits and giggles. That, or adding more mud on a mud pie as decoration. Sure, he was surprised, if only slightly, but any other reaction beyond that would be redundant. Plus, in all reality, what did it truly matter to him? His arm was broken! He was still more-than-slightly covered in blood! The fruit he was eating didn't even exist on Earth! Why would this, of all things, matter!?

Kein was actually proud of himself for taking it such a logical manner– unlike the first encounter, where he had just shouted some words in his mind and said, 'yeah, that works'. Other parts of him were actually relieved. Finally, he had a method by which to annihilate the constant, mundane process of walking an unknown distance in silence. That, however, was dependant on if the thing was willing to spark up a conversation. Still, there was hope. The only reason Kein wasn't turning around and attempting to do that right now was the mien of agitation he had to maintain in order to not seem contradictory to himself, as well as other people… dragon… things.

So when he heard the thud of feet just behind him, a small smile crossed his face, if only for a brief moment.

Unfortunately, now came the awkward part. It was great that it had been thoroughly established that his monochrome acquaintance could talk, but how was he, a person who wasn't exactly famous for his social prowess, going to successfully converse with a creature whose existence denied all common knowledge? As far as Kein was aware, they had nothing in common other than their existence in the same general space. What, was he going to have to pull some 'Good weather' bullshit? Or maybe, and hopefully, a topic with make itself apparent.

"You're not used to this, are you?"

Well, god bless the latter, but... Kein looked down to the creature, then to himself, the canyon walls, and finally the point of invisible space that went an infinite distance in front of him. "No."

"Thought so."

Kein was not the type of person to judge a book by its cover- save for the past two days, because the threat of death and all. However, just from the three sentences the creature had spoken so far, 'condescending' was the one and only word that came to mind. Of course, no one really likes a condescending person, and the same was certainly said for Kein, but his usual method of dealing with such people was to simply nod his head and move on. But due to the day prior, most of his original morals had been thrown out the window.

"Which part would make you think that?" Kein demanded. "Which one of the may parts?"

The creature put on a grimace. "Alright, fine. You don't have to get hostile about it."

Kein sighed and sat down on the nearest thing, which just so happen to be the log from before. "Look, man. I-" he stopped mid-sentence when something snapped beneath him. Reaching around, he pulled one-half of a broken pencil from his back pocket.

"I have no fucking clue what's going on." Kein growled and chucked the shattered pencil into the closest treeline. "I have no fucking clue where I am." He pulled the other half of the pencil out of his pocket and snapped it in half. "I have no fucking clue how I got here." Kein threw the first piece. "I have no fucking clue why I'm here." Then the second. "Fuck! I don't even know what time it is!" He turned to the creature. "I've been guessing all god damn day!"

There was a brief moment of silence as Kein leaned forward into his palm, after which there was a small huff, followed by, "That sucks."

Kein instantly raised his head. Balling up his fist, he began to smack his own leg. "Yup!" He paused, "Really sucks!"

As Kein was groaning at the sky, the creature removed itself from the seated position in front of him. "I literally don't know where I am." It started to circle around the area they were in. "Everything I've seen has made… no sense." It looked to the fading light in the sky, then at river they were situated near. "I don't even know what I'm going to do past this point… I-"

"Kein!"

Blinking, the man turned his head. The creature had left him mid monolog and had situated itself under the cliff face he'd given up on. "How do you-"

"Get over here!" It yelled, turning away. "You whiny sack of rocks…"

Kein didn't really know whether to be insulted by the… insult? Regardless, he did want he was told and began to walk over.

"Of course, I know your name. It's not like you've been talking to yourself for the past hour or anything." Kein wasn't exactly sure what to say at that point, so he just went with the obvious.

"You're an ass."

The creature turned to him. "And you're useless. Glad we came this understanding. Now hold still."

"Wha-" but before Kein could fully ask, it lifted off into the air and hovered over him.

"Alright, as much as I hate it, I'm going to need your help with this." Kein was, once again, going to question what it was even going to do, but he was, once again, cut off. "And yes, this is going to help."

"What are we even doing!?" Kein demanded before it could continue.

The creature growled. "Just shut up and listen!" Kein threw his hand in the air. "I need you to get as far up the cliff as possible."

"Wha- why?"

"Look! Do you want to spend another hour backtracking just so you can get out of this valley, or do you want to spend the ten seconds this should've taken to make it up this cliff?"

"Fuckin…" Throwing his hand in the air, Kein turned to the stone face. "Alright."

"Good," it began, "now as soon as you see me flying toward the cliff, start running."

"How is that going-?" At this point, Kein was very confused. But upon looked back for instruction, he saw that the creature was no longer there, but was, in fact, hundreds of feet in the sky. He was about to question what the actual fuck was the point of all of this, and he would have, had the creature not sudden dive bombed towards him.

The word 'shit' barely escaped his mouth before he started running, something that his legs were thoroughly unhappy about. Still, he managed to reach the wall in record time. Doing his best not to think about how stupid of an idea this was, Kein shifted his momentum and shoved off the ground. Using his past experience, he forced his toes into the cliff and thrust himself upwards. Upon feeling his loss of movement, Kein reached his hand as far up as possible and grasped the nearest vine. Slamming chest first into the stone, he grunted and desperately tried to find a foothold while his left arm tried just as hard to make him lose his current handhold.

This was exactly the position he didn't want to be in and was also the reason he hadn't tried his before. Kein had no idea why the thing would think he could even remotely climb a twenty-meter cliff face with a broken arm and aching muscles. Okay, maybe it didn't know either of those too things, but still!"

"Fucking, asshat." Kein quipped as he pulled himself higher. If this thing was going to make such a big deal about it, then fine! He'll try and climb a fucking cliff!

"Next time, I'll just walk around." Turning back and catching a glimpse of the 'master planner', he sighed, it was almost on top of him.

"I swear to god, if it pulls any more bullshit like this..."

With one final push, he threw himself upwards. Within the second, Kein felt a blast of wind and points of extreme pressure appear under his armpits. Before he even knew what was happening, the distance between him and the ground changed drastically and the cliff face flew by. All Kein could muster before he found himself hovering three meters above the cliff was a long string of the consonant 'f'. And with that, he was kicked in the back and sent hurling onto the grass at the top of the stone wall.

Not long after that, Kein found himself holding his broken arm and screaming 'son of a bitch' all while the creature pestered him by with insults.

"Seriously? That's as high as you could get?"

Kein got onto one knee and cringed. "Dude, fuck you!" Once fully standing, he looked down on the creature. "You couldn't have just told me that you were going to, oh, I don't know. Throw me up a fucking cliff!?"

"If I'd told you that, you wouldn't have done it!" It claimed self-righteously, stepping up to counter Kein's height. He actually couldn't deny that, seeing as it was most definitely true. Instead, he just chose to turn away, audibly forcing air out of his mouth. Walking to the nearest tree, Kein began to hit his head against it.

After finishing, he turned back to the expressionless creature and asked. "Why was that even necessary? It would have been just as 'easy' and much less painful to just walk around!"

The thing just smiled. "You're a terrible listener." It said. "Plus, that valley is too open to camp in. There's a better place just over there."

"Camp? Wha… what the hell are yo-!"

Slap.

"Are you even paying attention!?" The creature asked, setting its wing back into place. "You were complaining literally minutes ago about how you didn't know what time it was! If you seriously can't tell the difference between day and night, it's a miracle that you're not dead yet."

"You really are an ass."

"And you really are oblivious!" It stated and walked past him. "Now that we've discovered even more about each other, how about we get moving before we're caught in the darkness and you die…"

And Kein had thought his brothers were bad. This thing didn't even have to do anything physical to be the biggest jackass he'd ever had the pleasure to meet. But despite any resentment he felt for the self-righteous creature, it was clear to him that it knew what it was doing, which was something he was dearly lacking in. So without another word, Kein picked his hat up off the ground and followed.

It wasn't a long trip, maybe only a hundred or so meters. On the way, Kein saw exactly what he would have expected. Oak trees, bushes, rocks, nature… things like that. The only thing that really got him was the small stream on the top of the plateau, which made little sense considering how well formed it was. Regardless, he stepped over it.

Pushing aside a wall of green, Kein saw the creature standing at the edge of another cliff, looking down. Walking up next to it, he too looked out into the expansive valley in front of them.

This one was much like that one before. Sample stone walls covered in vines, same grass, only this place had many more of the hoodoos of larger sizes and the amount of rivers running through it was drastically higher. Of course, another important note was the was absolutely gargantuan size of the valley, but hey, it's not like it could consume the entire city of Chicago and still have space for more…

Kein couldn't actually estimate the size of it- it was just that big! And the water, there was so damn much of it! How was the place not a swamp? The main body was water was one, thoroughly massive river that cut straight down the middle of the place, being fed by an uncountable amount of inlets and glistening with a radiant silver hue. The inlets themselves came from every source possible, whether the water was spewing from the hoodoos themselves or just flat out being produced by springs, it was like SeaWorld™ on steroids. Even the river they had been following before was nothing more than a trickle in this valley's grand scheme to drown the world.

"In what way is this less open than the other valley?" Kein asked. Sure, there were more trees and they were situated around the hoodoos- due to their size- rather than just the cliff edges, but that didn't exactly put a dent in the openness of the place.

"It's not." Kein made appropriate motions of distaste. "It just gets us closer to our goal than we would've been had we stayed back there."

"And what is our goal exactly."

The creature sighed. "Since everything has to be broken up to you in simple tasks. Your immediate goal is to get over there." It stuck out a foreleg and pointed to a small pathway that seemed to lead down the edge of the cliff face. "Then, you'll walk down the path an-."

This time, it was Kein's turn to interrupt. "Okay! I fucking get it!" Not even bothering for a response, he began to walk towards the path. "Ye bitchy dragon!" Upon reaching the small trail, he turned. "Why do you have to be such a fuckwit about everything?" And walked down.

Reaching the bottom ten or so minutes later, Kein found himself walking the light of the faded sun. Mere seconds after his feet touched the grass did he heard the beat of wings behind him.

"Ancestors, you're slow." The creature said, sauntering up to him.

Kein sighed. "Yeah, very." He looked out at the golden coated valley. "Now where?"

"Now where what?"

Kein grit his teeth. "We're at the bottom of the plateau, now which direction do we go to get to the place you deemed worthing of camping at?"

The creature flared its wings back. "Oh, yeah." It groaned and slide down onto its stomach. "It's right here."

Kein's eye twitched. Cupping his hand over his mouth, he too slid down into a sitting position. Was this really worth it? Was being lead around by something from mythology really worth it? It had been less than thirty minutes since he discovered the creature's ability to speak, but thirty minutes was far more than it took for his opinion to shift from instinctual distrust to complete annoyance.

How did he know he could even trust this thing to actually help him? So far, the only things it's done- that he could safely confirm- was stalk him for an hour, use his paper, and throw him up a cliff! On top of that, how did the leadership roles change so quickly to begin with? Was he really that lost? That any form of direction, no matter who was giving it, was enough to make him give up authority and follow blindly?

"Could you stop staring at me? It makes you look disabled."

Kein's train of thought was derailed by a nuclear bomb. Blinking his surprise away, he looked ahead of him at the dragon. He had done the one thing that made everyone feel internally uncomfortable: Staring at someone's face, while also staring into space. Though its reaction was definitely not discomfort.

In an attempt to salvage what little remained of the 'conversation' Kein asked a very important question. "What's your name, anyways?"

The creature turned its body to face him. "And why would that matter to you?"

"Well, you already know mine." Kein said. "I think it would only be polite if I knew yours." The word 'polite' came out a bit more bitterly than he had hoped.

A mellow 'hmmh' came from its mouth as it seemed to weighed whatever options it apparently had. Finally, with a small shrugged, it spoke. "Ellix."

Kein himself 'hmm'ed' and began to nod. "Ellix." He repeated. "Well, ah. It's… nice, to officially meet you."

The dragon skeptical eyes the held out hand. "You're really not from around here. Are you?"

"Nope."


A/N:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Aetheo: Ok, seriously?

COUGH! FUCK! FUCKIN… ITALICS!

Aetheo: Figuring that out now, are we? The fact that those aren't canceled by your will alone?

IT'S LIKE A WHOLE NEW WORLD!

Aetheo: It's two in the morning. You have stuff to say, if I remember correctly?

Alright…. Look… FUCKING ITALICS! God dammit! Okay! I'm not going to attempt to sugarcoat this, or come up with any kind of bullshit response that takes the blame off me.

I know I fucked up, Italics intended.

Aetheo: Like pun intended. But worse.

...And there's nothing I can do to take it back. I'm also not going to fill up like… the next one hundred pages describing what the hell happened. But just to give everyone, everyone who cares at least, the short version…

I got into some funk. Some severe funk. And it seriously ruined my… life.

Everything I had previously loved doing was just so… uneventful and lackluster. Nothing was really worth it.

But hey! At least, after almost a full year, I'm FINALLY FIGURING MY SHIT OUT!

Aetheo: Thanks. I think it was a matter of like 6 months, though.

It started like… last December, I just really tried to hide it.

Aetheo: It happens to lots of people, but some get hit harder than others. I think we can all agree that as long as you come back, it's fine.

Regardless, thanks for waiting, friends. If anyone truly wants full details… to an extent, don't be afraid to ask… via message.

Also! As a new trend! Starting now…

AUTHOR FODDER!

Aetheo: Most of this is my adding to it though. Actually, pretty sure it was all of it this time.

It was all of it.

"Casual Genocide: Fun for the whole family"

"His soul was fucked by a demon from the lower planes which could apparently have sexual intercourse with souls"

"his train of thought before it could be completely lost to the darkness of the abyss of doom"

"A hammer so big that it probably would, in the course of it's swing, increase the perceived power by pulling you towards it gravitationally…"

"Lost a little bit of it's edge. Which wasn't any at all, really- perhaps the fifth or sixth dimensional edge had been lost, but nothing within the three of standard human experience"

"It's sniffing me. It has a nose. I suppose that makes a measure of sense." Aetheo: Pun intended.

When Ellix was looking through Kein's bag: "Actually, the creature hadn't even been doing anything other than looking at it, yet. Dying to prevent someone from looking at his things. This was a new level of recklessness, even for him."

"He hadn't known it to be possible to take shits from other people, but he was now... reconsidering that opinion."

"Kein's train of thought was derailed by a nuclear bomb of such virility that it managed to gouge out the sides of the abyss that the train found itself drifting into at 9.8 M/s2"