Zhang Han woke up with a splitting headache.
It became worse when he tried to move his arms and legs, which seemed unresponsive. At first he feared he'd become quadriplegic from his crash landing.
In fact, a vague green fire was lighting the space he was in, and once his eyes adjusted he found that his arms and legs were firmly tied in a way he couldn't budge them an inch.
So there was still a very good reason to be afraid.
Although, he did feel a slight triumph for surviving that entire flight at all, given that his ship was mostly destroyed by the landing. It was likely that the tracker installed by his home planet wouldn't work and they would assume he'd died.
Zhang Han figured that didn't matter so much as getting himself untied. Just thinking about what could happen to him when whoever it was who did it came back made him close to passing out again.
Looking at the space he was in, the walls and floors were rock, mostly uneven, but appeared to be scrapped flat on the floor. He was in a large cavern, the size of a large living room.
Zhang Han was a little taken aback since the planet he came from, Gaojun, was highly industrialized and developed, something like a cave was only seen in educational books. Moreover, he was lying on a pile of animal furs with strange spots and patterns he'd never seen before.
He rolled over to figure out where the entrance was.
A large boulder was blocking it, but a sliver of light peeked through. He wondered if whoever lived here had some sort of leverage system to move such a large boulder. It was taller than him and about two meters wide.
But he knew he must stay calm. Right, find a way out of this situation.
Not wanting to waste more time, Zhang Han reached his tied hands downward to the pocket on his pant leg and tried to get out his knife. He managed to reach a finger in, but found that the pocket was empty.
"…fuck."
Now he was even more nervous, cold and clammy sweat broke out along his neck. Seeing as he'd been checked for weapons, it seemed likely that this person was of decent intelligence, but what kind of being inhabited a planet like this, so primitive. Well, it was possible that small colonies could exist places that the rest of the galaxy knew nothing about…
In any case, Zhang Han needed to find a way to escape!
The only hope at this point was probably by rubbing the rope against a sharper spot on the cave wall. This would be much more time consuming than a knife, but there was nothing to do about it.
Zhang Han rubbed the ropes on his wrist against a rock furiously but only felt his arms getting sore.
Then, there was a grinding noise at the cave entrance.
He froze like a rabbit.
The sound got louder as the boulder blocking the cave entrance was rolled to the side from a hand that was gripping it from the side.
Zhang Han, as many would be, was stunned out of his wits from that superhuman display of strength. His body began to go taunt, and he squeezed his eyes shut as he felt his chest constricting.
"Hey, pal."
Zhang Han's eyes snapped open. 'Hey, pal?' This stranger spoke the same language as him!
In the cave opening stood a tall man, with shoulder length red hair, a color that reminded him of a blazing red star he'd seen before, bright and terrifying.
The man was smiling, and his hand flipped Zhang Han's pocketknife in the air.
If Zhang Han wasn't worried thinking about what was going to happen to him, he'd probably take more notice of the man's devilishly handsome face.
The man noticed Zhang Han's pallid expression and stony silence.
"Sorry I tied you up, just couldn't let a stranger do whatever they wanted here while I was away."
Zhang Han frowned. That was reasonable but he wasn't going to calm down until he was untied.
He said, "Then can you untie me now?"
"Sure."
The man sauntered over. Zhang Han closed his eyes again as the knife was brought close, and all he heard was a low chuckle entering his ear.
"It's a good knife. Really sharp."
...Zhang Han didn't want to hear those words when he was at this guy's mercy!
The ropes loosened as they were sawed through one by one. But based on the strength he saw earlier, Zhang Han guessed that this man could probably snap them with his bare hands.
"You can open your eyes. I'm not gonna tear you to pieces, you know."
Zhang Han dubiously opened them and was met with a magnified pair of golden eyes. He felt his head spin and his stomach churn. This might be an alien race. Although he was familiar with a few other races, he'd not met one that looked similar to humans yet had such an edge of feral-ness.
"Yeah, looks like it stopped bleeding," said the man, patting the side of Zhang Han's head.
It stung a little, and Zhang Han hoped there was no internal bleeding, but he still felt a semblance of relief after being untied. If this man really wanted to harm him he would've gotten to the point already. Clearly he was above him in strength, he could do anything he wanted to him.
But instead he was keeping cordial. Good...seeing as he was untied, Zhang Han fixed his suit color and gave a fake smile, looking twice as put together as he did previously.
He said, "Thanks for dragging me out of my ship. I assume it was on fire by the time it hit the ground, so I would've been dead if not for you." He slowly sat up. "Which planet is this?"
The man cocked his eyebrow at the shift in attitude. Then he just shrugged.
"Dunno. It doesn't have a name."
Zhang Han figured that this place must not be formally colonized since it wasn't on his ship's map, and travel on it to other planets was restricted, otherwise it would have a name.
"My name's Zhang Han, I'm from planet Gaojun. Are you a permanent resident of this planet, then?"
It couldn't be a weird coincidence where this guy also happened to crash here...right?
"Yeah, been here since birth. My grandparents were the ones from a different planet. Call me Vaien."
Zhang Han thought there was a weird look in Vaien's eyes. They seemed to rove over his figure, making him feel like ants were crawling up his back from the scrutiny. He suddenly didn't want to stay any longer. He shuffled upright and held his forehead for a moment until the dizziness went away.
But...he didn't know the first thing about this planet, either, so it would be better if he at least asked Vaien for more information. Zhang Han decided he'd go back to his ship and take a look at the surroundings on this planet then use that time to cool his head before coming back to talk.
"Thanks again for saving me," Zhang Han said. "You can keep the knife since I don't have anything else to repay you with besides what can be salvaged from the ship. I'll go back there to do that before others get to it, or it burns up completely."
Zhang Han made a straight line for the cave exit, but a shadow appeared in front of him in the blink of an eye. His heart jumped into his throat.
Vaien was grinning with two reptile-like slits in his pupils, and held out the knife so that the handle was facing Zhang Han.
"Nah. Here, take it back. I don't need it."
The unspoken part of that was '…but you'll need it'.
All in all, Zhang Han just nodded. He found Vaien's inhuman movements unnerving, but he still seemed like a decent guy.
He stepped outside and felt struck by the humidity in the air. The placement of the cave was on a high ledge along the side of a cliff, rocky bluffs behind it. There was a long drop to the ground below and then grassland that spanned for miles.
Everything within Zhang Han's sight was like a out of a historical text, full of life. Trees tall as skyscrapers and shaped with odd hanging branches and rough, layered bark. Bright greens and blues, purples. Mushrooms the size of cars and several giant birds that hovered in a purplish-blue sky.
It was all completely different from Zhang Han's planet, so he couldn't help stare dumbly as he stepped forward.
"Can you point me in the direction of my ship?" he eventually asked, still gawking at the surroundings.
Vaien pointed towards a forest in the distance, and a small line of smoke ran up like a single string on the sky. The distance was miles away, so walking there would take more than an hour. Zhang Han could do so normally with no issues, but right now he still didn't feel the best.
He'd…have to rely on this stranger for the night, if possible.
Zhang Han was taking a couple steps forwards, past the rock bluff and edge of the cave, when there was a rustle in the grass that drew his attention.
There was a reddish-black puddle on the ground close to where the sound came from.
Part of a human arm and hand was lying dismembered on the ground.
In the next moment a blurred form jumped out at him from the grass! It was huge, much larger than himself.
Zhang Han choked back a shout and tried to dodge, but his foot caught on a root. He fell backwards and watched as that giant creature soared over his head.
It landed on the other side of him with a thud. His accidental slip up actually saved his life.
The body of the beast was long like a lizard's with blue scales. Two beady eyes bordered the sides of its face near its mouth, which was filled with rows of serrated teeth like a shark's jaw.
Zhang Han's limbs were frozen. He heard himself hyperventilating as his vision went fuzzy again. He couldn't out run this thing, nor be so lucky as to trip and dodge it again…
The giant lizard scuttled at him again, its mouth opened wide.