Chapter Three. Built from the top down.

Ryo had a rough night sleep. His brain had refused to shut down, and he had spent the night in a half-sleep trance. He'd rather be wide awake all night, but he knew he would need sleep. The fire had been nothing but cold ashes and over-cooked charcoal. Thin clouds graced the sky, and the wooded place around Ryo was already wide awake with bug call and annoying, high pitched birds. Bagi had gathered seed-looking things, that cracked when you bit them. Ryo was wary of them, but trusted Bagi's ability to know poison from food. She didn't eat any, but with her face stained red around the sides, it didn't take much imagination why.

It was a slow journey down the hill, and his heavy head wasn't helping none. The best Ryo knew, there was a settlement somewhere around the mountain. It had been hard to tell anything when clinging for dear life on the back of a powerful beast. Again, he would have to trust Bagi's judgment. Ryo yawned. Bagi had taken the lead, showing him which path was best to take downhill. Ryo was glad for the guide. Normally, he would be able to find his own path, even if it was this steep. But with the exotic food, shift in climate, and bad night, it was a hard to walk, making a hike down a mountain an even greater chore. But he refused to ride Bagi again. He could handle himself.

The tree line thinned, taking half of the much needed shade. Ryo tried to blink the sun out of his eyes as it flashed at him. Its low position and bright feature meant Ryo had to shield his eyes to prevent blinding. He could swear the sun was laughing at him. His head roared up with a sudden head ache. The next moment, it got worse, and a biting pain gripped his shoulder.

Ryo couldn't see anything beyond the white glare of light he had been trying to defend himself from. He could feel himself being dragged upward at an awkward angle. Something snaked around his waist, and the bite from his shoulder relax, though it still hurt. Everything was swaying around Ryo. What was happening. He looked back to the ground… only to find it was about 40 feet below him! His mind cleared, and he took a double take. He could feel a furry back to his… he..

Though the mind fog, Ryo tried to piece everything together… he shifted to see what was holding him. Bagi was clinging tightly to a tree, and she was trying to place her claws better. There was several long gashes leading from her claws up to a point on the side of the tree. Ryo didn't envy the tree. It wasn't hard to guess now, though it still took Ryo a moment to figure. He… must have blacked out, and had fell right over the side of a ravine. Bagi had leaped to his rescue… again… She slowly started to descend the rough bark pole, careful not to squeeze Ryo in half with her tail.

Though they had to break through several branches, the two finally made it to the bottom of the ravine. The shock was finally leaving Ryo's head, and the marks on his body finally set in. There were several new scrapes along his person, what of his shirt's shoulder that had survived was now bleached red with blood. It took every part of Ryo not fall trembling to the ground and rock out of misery.

Ryo felt Bagi pull on the back of his shirt, and he heard a loud, define rip as she sliced it. Ryo flicked back to face her. "What are you doing?! This is the only shirt I have out here!" She met his gaze, then set back to her work, without any type of explanation. She pulled one side around and off of him, then started with the other. He felt the bloodied rags pull off of his wound, and his had shot up to stop it from moving. But Bagi was quicker, and she grabbed his hand before it could reach. The rest of the cloth came off. Ryo's gut wrenched as he heard the peeling noise as his bite mark was revealed. He looked at it.

Ryo was surprised that his shoulder looked like it was still in place, and instead of a huge semicircle of teeth marks, there was only two holes in the front, what felt like two in the back, and a skiff on the top of his shoulder. "Do you think I'll bleed out?" he asked Bagi, only partly kidding. Bagi had his stripped shirt in her hands. For the first time since she had danced for him, she was on two legs, though terribly unbalanced. She rocked a little, then gave up and braced one of her paws on Ryo's good shoulder. She concentrated on the bite she left, and put the bottom of the shirt on top of it. Ryo flinched, and Bagi tattered again. When she retable herself, she set to wrapping the clothes around the wound. 'Bagi is making a make shift bandage' Ryo thought, 'When did she learn this?' It was strange, since last time she set to licking it instead of wrapping it. It was only ironic that it was the same place.

When it was full around his shoulder, she backed off of him. Unable to stand like a human, she fell back into her animal stance, once again a pink mountain pet. Ryo knew it wouldn't hold how she slung it. So, he took the loose end, pulled the other from under the bandage, and tied them together with a lazy granny knot. It hurt to tie, but he knew he'd rather this than let his blood drain out. Ryo shuddered. He felt unnaturally cold, considering it was summer in south, and a little weak.

"Bagi, I don't know where we're going, but you might have to carry me there. I don't think I'm gonna make it like this." His voice sounded hollow, like a man confined to bed for a fatal illness. He swayed, his new weakness mixing all to well to the lack of the support Bagi had given and the tilted ground. He fell forward, and supported himself on one of Bagi's shoulders. Ryo couldn't tell if he was hungry or about to throw up. "Can we find a river or something? I feel real thirsty…" It was hard to speak, since his mouth was so dry.

Bagi hadn't moved her gaze from his face. She blinked, flicked her ear, then turned sideways to him. It was the closest invitation Ryo could expect. He let himself drape over her, becoming little more than a living, heavy coat on Bagi. Though Ryo already knew Bagi's strength, he still found it unusual, how when he got on her, she didn't strain a bit. Even a would table would squeak and protest some when someone climbs atop one. She took down in a slow walk, and Ryo slid forward a bit. She carried him towards the base of the mountain, only stopping to let him drink from a small creek that inhabited the bed of a mighty river.

It was a long day, and by the time Bagi had back-tracked the mountain she had run, and the sun had already set. Ryo had been slow to recover, especially with the cold that needled his body and the heat on his now burned back constantly fighting. But he was getting over himself. The blood lost from the bite-mark alone wouldn't have done this. He had probably caught some disease or sickness. Of all the luck. Ryo felt like getting angry. Ever since he left the facility, it was only one problem behind the last. But he couldn't. He didn't have the energy to be angry. Besides, he was comfortable where he was, even if his cushion never stopped shifting.

Ryo couldn't hold onto any thought for long. He tried to focus on one idea, but each on would escape, leaving Ryo without a clue what it was. He tried to focus on his future. Where could they go? Could they make it back to Japan? The thoughts were soon replaced with his history. His dad was a good cook. All his mom make tasted fake. Where was his bike? Oh… he had crashed it into an electric fence. Why wouldn't his ears stop ringing?

It was getting real annoying to Ryo. He'd never been like this before. Why couldn't he think properly anymore? He grabbed his wrap with his hand. He would probably be scared for life along this shoulder. The previous cut that was in it had been aggravated by the new puncture wounds, along with the jar of the fall. Would he want it? … Yes. Even if it wasn't pleasant, it was still a reminder of what he and Bagi had been through.

The tone in Ryo's ears was starting to bug him. It was non-stop, and he couldn't drown it out. Ringing ears weren't cured by sound. If Ryo could put his hand over his ears, he would. Not that it would help…

It was just now that Ryo realized that Bagi had stopped walking. Her whole body was stiff. Ryo pulled his head up and looked at the back of her head. Her fuzzy ears were straight up, with one turned off to the right. Her ears twitched and moved, then became still again.

The ringing was really agitating Ryo. He gritted his teeth softly. It seemed to have escalated since before.

Bagi crouched to her belly, then tilted, making Ryo fall off like the sack of bricks he was. He felt the slight press of wood as he fell into a indent under a tree. He was completely in daze. He must have fallen asleep, and still felt like he was in a dream. Nothing really hurt anymore, but Ryo still could feel the pain. It was strange.

Where was Bagi going? She'd just left him. It was fine. The cool ground and shade under the tree felt nice. Ryo felt that this would be the perfect place to sleep the night. Even the elevation seemed to make things comfortable…

With his body at rest, the insane ringing in his ears subsided. He almost didn't care that he could now hear gunfire. He just wanted to sleep. To fall to the warm cool that enveloped him. Nothing else really mattered now. Bagi would be fine on her own for the night.

It wasn't a moment latter when he was shook back awake by a rough hand. Ryo opened his eyes to the best of his ability. Did his dad have to wake him now? He had just got comfortable. Some weird, foreign voices cut into Ryo's skull. Then his battered shoulder screeched its message, making Ryo shake in agony. He moaned. Who ever had shook him wasn't very nice.

"What do you want," Ryo mumbled without his voice, "I was sleeping."

More foreign talking. A hand held out a picture to Ryo. Through the deep haze Ryo was in, he saw his parents with fourteen year old Ryo in between them. That was a strange time of life for him, and he had Temporary tattoos splattered across him. It was a time that Ryo would rather have forgotten.

More talking. Why wouldn't these people speak plain Japanese? Ryo stretched his leg a little, helping the stiff feeling that had infected it. His vision strengthened, and he could see people now. Three men and two women. 'Too much to harass a sleeping teen,' Ryo thought. What did they want?

The man with the picture backed off, and was replaced with a smaller man with more define features. He contemplated Ryo's face for a short time, then spoke, "Who… is you?" He said in the most garbled Japanese Ryo had ever heard. "Is Ryo." Ryo responded in a weak, mocking tone. He was never too weak to play games.

The man turned towards some unseen something beyond Ryo's sight, then shouted in a foreign language and waved at it. Ryo closed his eyes and tried dozing off again. What the guy wanted was probably nothing. Ryo's mind was slipping farther away. He felt oddly hungry. He could almost imagine his dads home fried rice. Nothing at-take out was worth…

Someone shook him gruffly again, making his thoughts roll back to the front of his head. He tenderly opened his eyes, and opening his mouth in a half yawn. He tried to focus his eyes, with little success. It took his nose to figure someone was holding something food to him, and it was only because it was lightly touching it rather than smell.

He stared at it, trying to figure if it was actually food. Whoever held it dropped it on his chest and left it there. Ryo lifted his head to see what it was. It was hard to move, but constant curiosity kept him trying. It was a wrapped something of a dull yellow color. It reminded him of a cruder version of the food that they served in the foreign restaurants he had seen before.

Finally, with effort, he picked it off of his chest, and took a bite. It was filled with roundish things that were a bit hard to chew through. It was after he swallowed his second bite before he tasted anything, and he was almost finished when the flavor struck him. It was hot. Very spicy. Ryo was up in a second, his mouth agape, trying to cool his now burning mouth. His stiff body moved without motivation. His hand went up to his face and pinched his jaw. What had he just eaten?

"Hyi" a mans voice came from somewhere lower on the mountain. Ryo looked at him, still panting heavily and sweat drops starting to form on his brow.

The man was flipping through a book, and when he spoke his sentence was incredibly drawn out. "Where… the… lion girl?"

Author's remorse.

I Just checked the date for the last update, and it has been over a year since I last updated…

Cheers…