"What the fuck is this?"
"This? Looks like a tail bones to me..."
"That's not what I meant!" Revy shouted. "I mean... This whole shit..." She added, taking time on her choice of words. Rock looked at her for a moment before turning his eyes to the body in front of him. Revy, seeing that he was about to say something, beat him to it. "If you're going to say he looks like a skeleton with tail bones, then forget it..." Rock slowly lowered his head. Revy just sighed and then bent over the corpse again.
"So what now?" Rock asked after a moment of silence.
"We'll take what we can from him and move on. Whether it's another world or another fuck, we have to get out of here." Rock just nodded, not arguing with Revy. She began to look carefully at what the deceased had with him. She started with the belt first. In addition to the holster, it also carried spare ammunition. 12 bullets to be exact. Revy took out one of them. It looked very similar to the .45 Colt, maybe just a little shorter. Revy immediately took the revolver in her hand and, opening the loading gate, took out one of the bullets. She compared them, even though she was sure they would be identical, but she wanted to make sure. They were identical. Revy quickly putt the bullet back into the empty chamber and slowly turned the cylinder to check that the gun was fully loaded. Six chambers in the cylinder, each with one cartridge. She closed the loading gate and then grabbed the bag lying next to her body. With a bit of strength and finesse, she managed to take the bag from the corpse. "Check if there's anything interesting inside..." She said, handing it to Rock.
"Sure..." Rock replied, taking the bag in his hand, then opening it and looking through its contents. Inside he found a piece of bent metal, a stone and a black piece of cloth. Additionally, there was a small bottle with some liquid inside, it was oily and yellow in color. Rock deduced that it was lamp fuel, although he had no intention of testing it now. Additionally, he found bandages and what looked like a journal and a pencil in the bag. He decided to open and leaf through the journal. Opening the journal to a random page, he saw entire pages of notes and drawings. Most of the letters looked similar to those in the Latin alphabet, but he couldn't read exactly what was written, the additional darkness didn't help. "I have some notes here, but I can't read them..." He said without taking his eyes off the journal.
"You can't read them because they're in some strange language or because someone writes with Sawyer's body-cutting finesse?" Revy replied, wrestling with the corpse and trying to remove the belt from it. Rock thought about his answer for a moment.
"Both reasons, I guess..." Revy just sighed in response and continued her effort for the belt. "The letters look similar to ours and I can even read some of the words, but the rest is incomprehensible to me..."
"Save it for later, after we get out of this hole... Was there anything else in there?"
"Bandages, a bottle of fuel for the lamp, or at least that's what I think... And this..." He said, showing Revy a piece of metal, a stone, and a black piece of cloth. "What do you think it could be?" She looked at it for a moment, then shrugged.
"Fuck knows, but let's take it, it might be useful." Rock put the items back into the bag and slung it over his shoulder. Revy, meanwhile, managed to get to the dead man's belt. After a while, she managed to undo the clasp and take the belt from it. In one movement, she removed the belt from her dead hips and held it up to the light to take a closer look. It was made of dark brown leather, without any decorative patterns. The buckle was simple and, despite being forgotten for a long time, it still gleamed in the lamplight. Additionally, while holding the belt in its full glory, she now saw that on the opposite side from the holster, at the front of the belt, there was a sheath with a large knife in it. Revy, almost instinctively, placed her hand on the handle of the knife and pulled it out, looking at it. The blade of the knife was made of dark metal, its size was slightly larger than the Ka-Bar knife, and the blade had a drop-point tip, where both sides of the converging blade were sharpened. Revy examined the blade in the light. Even though the blade had obviously been used for everything and was still dirty, Revy was still able to see its own reflection by looking at the knife from the side. Revy smugly sheathed her knife and began to put on her belt.
"Revy, is it a good idea to put on the clothes of the deceased?" Rock asked with a little worry.
"Don't worry Rock, there's not even a trace of blood on it. Besides... My holsters can't hold this revolver, much less the ammunition for it." Rock just sighed, but didn't protest any more and didn't try to stop Revy from puting on the belt. She wrapped it around her body at stomach level and then fastened the buckle on the last hole on the belt. The belt was still slightly too big for her, but instead of falling off her, it rested on her hips, remaining stable. Reby moved around for a while, checking that the belt wasn't moving on its own and that it wasn't getting in the way of her movement. Obviously satisfied, she looked at Rock. "What do you think?" Rock looked at her carefully, the dark brown belt hung on Reva's hips, but it was slightly tilted to her right side, where the holster with the revolver hung. Revy practically rested his hand on the handle of the six-shooter. Under her left hand, which rested above her hip, was a sheath with a knife.
"I think it looks good..." He answered honestly, drowning out thoughts about where the belt came from. "And how do you feel about it?"
"Not too bad... I thought it would bother me more, but it fits quite well." Revy took a few more steps and movements, and drew and holstered her revolver a few times to become even more familiar with the new accessory. "I guess we can move on..." She said once she had checked everything she could, then took the lantern from Rock and offered him her hand. "Come on..." Rock grabbed her hand. Rock grabbed her hand and they continued on, past the unfortunate cowboy's body.
"Soo... you don't think this is a different world..." Rock suddenly asked from behind her. Revy gritted her teeth, thinking about her answer for a moment, then sighed.
"I don't know what to think..." She replied, continuing to play dumb. "Let's get to the surface first, then I'll start wondering what I will think..."
"Okay..." Rock nodded. After a few minutes of extra travel, and two more turns, there was no need for a lantern, as the road ahead was illuminated by the light pouring in through the opening to outside. Rock and Revy stood in shock, but in a second they were both running towards the exit, after a few moments of sprinting towards the light, they left the musty underground and went out into the fresh air.
"Finally, I got bored of this corridor a long time ago..." Revy said, enjoying the fresh air and sun rays together with Rock. Once they felt they had made up for the time spent underground, they looked around them. They stood in the middle of what looked like foundations made of black brick. The structures reached no higher than their knees. Looking further they saw more such ruins along what looked like a small valley. All made of black brick and all no higher than knee high, with more black bricks in between, and a few trees, a few of which had bark that shimmered with a bluish tint. Revy took a few steps forward, looking around her, but mainly paying attention to the strange tree in front of her. She approached one of them slowly to take a closer look at it. Rock quietly walked up behind her. The tree itself, apart from the blue glow on the bark fragments, did not differ much from the typical tree they knew. The tree's crown was extensive and round in shape, and flexible branches filled with small, round, dark green leaves hung below the branching of the trunk. The tree itself could be mistaken for a willow if it weren't for the different leaves and the obvious blue shiny lines on the almost black bark of the trunk. "It looks like it has veins..." Revy commented as she moved closer. She was now standing directly under the tree canopy, the sun no longer reaching her, blocked by the hanging branches of the tree.
"You still think this is our world?" Rock asked, looking around the inside of the tree himself. Revy stopped for a moment when she heard this question, but she didn't answer anything, to Rock's slight surprise. She took a few steps forward and then stretched her hand towards the tree. "Revy, don't touch it!" Rock shouted, trying to stop her. "It could be harmful." Revy stopped for a moment again when she heard Rock, but then moved her hand forward, towards the blue piece of bark. Rock rushed towards her to pull her away, but before he could catch her hand, it touched the trunk. "Revy!" Rock shouted, bravely grabbing his partner's hand. "We should not touch this..." He said, continuing to hold her wrist. However, Revy didn't react, she just looked at her hand and then showed it to Rock.
"See? The black bark..." Rock now looked at Revy's fingers that touched the trunk, they were covered in black bits of bark. "I touched the blue spot, but I still have black residue on my hand..." She added, pulling her hand away from Rock's grip. "It's as if there wasn't any blue there at all..." Rock looked at her hand and the dust on it for a moment, then looked at the tree trunk. He slowly approached the tree, keeping the blue points in mind. He carefully placed his hand on one of the lines running through the trunk, and not feeling that something strange was happening to his hand, he broke off a piece of bark and placed it on his open palm. Revy leaned over his shoulder and watched with him as the previously shiny blue piece of bark lost its shine and the color lost its intensity, until finally the piece turned almost black, identical to the rest of the tree trunk.
"What this is about?" Rock looked at the piece of bark, examining it carefully. "Did you see that?" Revy looked at Rock's hand, but she wasn't as surprised as he was. "It's like, the wood was filled with something, but when you peeled off the bark, it lost its source..." Rock looked back at the tree. The place from which he broke off the bark still glowed with a shiny blue color. Rock turned on his heel and, taking the broken piece between his index finger and thumb, emerged from under the branch and, stepping out into the light, looked at it against the light. "It doesn't look like it has any vessels in it... It doesn't look any different than a regular bark... I don't understand..." Revy sighed at how quickly her partner changed the topic of interest, then walked over and patted him on the back, shaking him off balance and almost causing him to drop the piece of wood he was holding in his hand.
"And I don't think you'll understand Rock... At least not now." She said as she walked past him. "If this is really a different world, we won't be able to understand everything like that. So move on and don't get your head mixed up with all this." Rock pocketed the piece of bark and looked at Revy's back.
"So you finally believe this is another world?" Rock asked, catching up and leveling with her. Revy stopped and looked around. The green grass, blue sky and ordinary trees looked just like in their world, while the black brick ruins and strange trees were so unique that if she hadn't known from the beginning that they were in another world, it would made her to belive it's other world.
"I guess so... I think I'm starting to believe you're right, Rock." She replied with a mix of lies and truth without looking at him. "We are in another world." Rock looked at her. He didn't like her behavior. Whenever they talked, she at least turned her eyes towards him, only avoiding it when she was talking about something unpleasant or wanted to hide something. However, her voice was calm. Rock had a doubt in his mind, but it was just a doubt. He decided to put these thoughts aside, at least for the moment. Rock looked around the valley they were in.
"Do you think anyone ever lived here?" He asked, turning his gaze towards the structures. "And if so, why don't they live here anymore..."
"Probably, someone lived here. Someone built it for a reason..." She answered one question, standing next to Rock. "And why? Who knows, maybe they moved somewhere... Don't think about it too much. We'd better get out of here, there's nothing for us here." Revy turned and looked down the valley. All its banks were lined with a dense forest of ordinary trees, but she was able to see a place where the forest was a little thinner. "Come on Rock, I think we can get through this way..." She said and she slowly moved forward. Rock, however, looked at the ruins in front of him for a moment.
"Okay..." He replied without taking his eyes off the dark foundations, then followed Revy. After a few minutes of leisurely walking, they managed to reach the end of the valley and enter the forest. They went ahead, trying to follow an imaginary trail consisting of sparsely spaced trees, but after a few minutes of traveling along this trail, they lost it. Now they had to rely only on their own sense of orientation. At first, they tried to get back to the trail, but after an hour of wandering around looking for a non-existent trail, they decided to just go forward, in the straightest line possible. After another hour, they began to feel tired, hungry and thirsty, and the sun peeking out from behind the trees looked as if it was approaching sunset.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Revy began to scream out of frustration. "We've been walking through this forest for who knows how long and we're still nowhere! FUCK!"
"Calm down, Revy..." Rock responded. "You only waste energy by shouting... We'd better just keep moving forward." Revy looked at him pissed, but he obviously didn't have much strength to react to it, which made her lose the strength to continue being pissed.
"Ahhh... Fucking hell..." She growled, clutching her head, and then kicked the stone under her shoe in front of her. The stone flew far away. Rock just watched it fly through the forest until at one point it bounced off a tree and fell behind the slope, and after a while there was a splash of water from that direction. Revy and Rock looked at each other and then ran towards the sound with new found energy. They quickly climbed to a slight rise in the ground and peered over the slope, seeing a small river slowly flowing. "Fuck yeah, we finally found something..." Revy actually shouted and then ran downstairs in front of Rock's protests, who after a while joined her. Revy quickly ran to the shore and knelt down by it, dipping one of her knees in the water. The water was cold but crystal clear, and she was able to see fish swimming further down the river. She took some water in her hands and put it to her mouth. At first she drank a little, but feeling that the water was safe to drink, she drank everything she took with satisfaction. At the same moment, Rock stood next to her. "Drink... this is drinkable water..." She told him before he could say a word, but without arguing, he knelt down by the river and started drinking, taking the water in his hands. At first slowly, as if not fully trusting Revy's judgment, then faster and more confidently. Revy meanwhile washed her face with water, completely refreshing herself. "It's lucky we found that river..." Revy said, sitting down and catching her breath.
"True..." Rock replied, wiping his face. "A little carelessness and we would have missed it." He also added as he sat down next to her. "What now? It's getting dark, you don't want us to go any further." Revy scratched her head.
"It's hard to see anything in this forest now, let alone when it will be fully dark... It's probably best to spend the night here." Rock just nodded in agreement before looking around. The sky was clear and the wind was slow, it didn't look like it would rain overnight, although he would have liked to have something overhead just in case. Judging by the height of the sun, they still had an hour of light left, and they still could use it to prepare something for night. They had a lighter with them so they could light a fire. After thinking for a moment, Rock stood up.
"Let's find some firewood to make a fire for the night."
"Yes, that would be the best." Revy stood up, brushing off the dirt, and went with Rock to look for firewood. They moved without going too far from the river so as not to lose it. After a few minutes, they managed to take quite a large amount of dry wood. Enough, in their opinion, to survive the night, so now they were heading to the previously selected place by the river where they wanted to set up camp.
"Why did you get so many long sticks?" Rock asked, seeing several, almost meter-long pieces of dry wood that Revy was holding under her arm.
"I saw a few fish in the river. I hope to make a spear and maybe catch some of them." She responded by additionally displaying the knife hanging on her belt.
"Ooh, it would be great not to go to sleep on an empty stomach." Rock replied, reaching a recess in the embankment by the river, which they had previously found while looking for firewood. It wasn't deep, but deep enough to provide protection from any wind. Rock put down the tree he had found and was immediately joined by Revy.
"I'm definitely not going to..." Revy replied, placing her part of wood next to his and then began to take off her shoes. "I'll take these longer sticks, you take care of the fire." She added, then bent down to grab some pieces of wood, then pulled a lighter from her pocket and threw it to him. Rock had barely grabbed the lighter, when she was already running away towards the river. Rock just sighed and then bent down to grab the tree, but suddenly something blinding him. After a second, he managed to locate what the light was reflecting from. There was a silver medallion lying on Revy's shoe. Rock walked over and grabbed the strap attached to it, then looked at it. It looked strangely familiar, although he couldn't remember where he had seen it before. A moment later, however, it dawned on him. He took the journal he found with him from the bag and then leafed through it. On one of the pages, he found a sketch of this medalion.