A whole day has passed since the highway incident, and now in the early hours of dawn, the figure of two people; one carrying the other on his back could be seen trudging through the dense forest that surrounded the highway.
Ashen, who had been walking through the forest while carrying Rossweisse on his back since 2 am was surveying his surroundings as he cut through the forest.
"Looks like it was the correct call to walk through the forest instead of the side of the highway."
As he he muttered so, he heard the sirens of law enforcement echo in the direction of the highway.
"Probably looking for the ones who caused that massacre. Not that I care.", Ashen, the one responsible for the said massacre, said callously before resuming his trek.
The forest was still dark because of how dense and closely-packed the trees were which made it hard for people to see properly. However, it seems to be not a problem for Ashen who easily cut through the thick undergrowth without even having to look down and look at where he was stepping.
'Hmph! This is too easy! Trekking through dense jungles at night is one of my specialties!'
He thought so proudly as he reminisced some memories from days long since passed. Of the days when he travelled through mountains and camped out.
Nostalgic times.
But as he reminisced, he also remembered something that always happen during those times. That was when he knew-
*Pomf!*
"Hm?"
*Looks down and sees large furry paw under his shoe*
"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!"
*Looks up and sees a large bear growling at him*
"..."
-he fucked up.
*****
"Goddamit! Why was there a bear there at the particular spot?!"
Ashen rushed through the undergrowth like a deer. Needless to say, it was quite a feat considering that he is currently carrying Rossweisse on his back alongside a significant amount of armaments that was by no means light. If anything, he made it look like running an Olympic obstacle course with weights look like child's play.
However, his pursuer-
"GWOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!!"
-was an oversized forest bear-to be exact, a brown bear which was easily bulldozing its way through the forest in apparent rage, kept up with him relentlessly and he cannot even use his pilfered rifle to shoot at it.
"Goddamit! Running through the forest is one thing, but with Nitwit still unconscious it's 100-times harder!"
'Maybe I should just drop her somewhere-'
As soon as the very thought passed through his mind, a stone-to be exact, a boulder covered in vines, swung past his face coming from his right like a pendulum and crashing onto a nearby tree smashing the otherwise, sturdy trunk and getting stuck there.
Ashen felt a bead of cold sweat trickle down his face.
"That was close..."
'How did a goddamned boulder get itself wrapped by vines and come swinging down from out of nowhere?!', is what he thought.
Don't you dare drop her even for a second or I will kill you, seemed to be what Mother Nature wants to tell him.
"GRRRROOOOOOOOOORRRR!!!!"
The bear's roar snaps him out of his shock and spurs him forward.
"Why is Mother Nature trying to kill me now?! This is not the time nor the place!!!"
Ashen was now parkouring through the forest floor. It was a miracle that he has yet to trip or run out of steam after all his shouting.
But, it is also a miracle that-
"I think I just stepped on something!"
*GRRRRRRR! RUFFF! RUFFFF! RUFFFF!*
"Geh?! Wolves?!"
-he gets yet another pursuer in his frantic flight across the forest.
But that was not the worst of all.
In the next hours, he and Rossweisse almost fell down a cliff, then when he tried to make a detour, aggravates a passing herd of needlessly large wild boars who then starts to also chase him and then while running, he accidentally let go of Rossweisse after he jerked his body to the side to avoid a pit viper's lunge and letting Rossweisse fall down the cliff into the river below. As expected, Rosseweisse 'somehow' gets her fall broken by a bunch of vines that was 'conveniently' right under her and so she fell into the river below without too much harm.
'Those vines were not there before...', Ashen thought to himself.
He then concluded that with how soft the river was flowing and judging that it was shallow enough that it would not drown her and thus planned to have a (un)fortunate fisherman or forest ranger pick her up. But the said plan was only as a joke.
At least that was what ran through his mind when suddenly, a bunch of fallen logs came rolling down the slope he had been trying to climb to escape the wolves where he almost got flattened like a dough to a rolling pin and so was forced to jump down the river as well.
Miraculously, the vines that had broken Rossweisse's fall were not there hence, Ashen felt the full brunt of the force when he landed into the river.
"I hate you Mother Nature..."
With a grunt, he swam after Rossweisse and when he finally caught up to her, he heard a very loud splash behind him. He need not look at it because he knew from the following sound-
'GROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRR!!!"
-that it was the brown bear.
"Shit! At least give me a break! This troublesome nitwit is not so easy to lug around you know?!", he dragged the still unconscious Rossweisse onto the shore and then he pulled out the rifle that he had been unable to use since the whole ordeal started, "I'm too tired to run any further so go eat some lead you annoying pest!"
The rifle spewed fire and the sound of gunfire rang in the air. Ashen did not hesitate to empty the entire clip into the bear but as nature would have it, the bear was just too large and had impressive vitality that allowed it to shrug off the bullets that hit it and just charge forward onto Ashen.
"You have got to be shitting me!"
Ashen unstrapped the rifle and threw it away then drew the knife by his side.
But another trouble arose.
From the edge of his vision, he saw the wolves from earlier break through the underbrush and they were all looking at him. But somehow there was something amiss...
'No...they're after her!'
He notices that they were not after him, but Rossweisse who was defenseless near him and that one moment was a grave mistake. Because he was distracted by the wolves, he failed to see the bear as it was already upon him with its jaws wide open.
His body reacted instinctively and raised his right arm to stave off the oncoming maw in a split second.
"Guh!"
Ashen grits his teeth hard as the huge fangs of the bear sank into his arm. His tattered but thick jacket was useless against the fangs and were easily perforated. Blood spurted out as the bear jostled Ashen left and right with him being unable to resist nor stop it.
'Damn this hurts!'
He could feel his bones creak under the bear's powerful bite and thinks he doesn't have that long until his arm's literally torn off.
'What do I do?!'
The blood continued to flow from his arm and soon, he could feel panic well up his mind and his consciousness slowly fade and the gloom of death creep ever closer.
Finally, as his eyelids grow heavy with each passing second,
'I trust that you will protect me. Right? G****?'
the cheerful and trusting voice of a young woman echoed in his mind and as he heard that garbled name, his mind snapped him awake and his eyes flew open as the gloom of death was blown away.
His body moved before he could even think. Grabbing the other knife strapped on his vest with his free hand, he then stabs the bear through the eye making it throw him away into the river as it roared in pain. Landing on a shallow spot in the river, he felt the cold river further rouse him awake.
Without pause, he rose from the water and from there, he saw the wolves closing in on Rossweisse and with no firearm at hand, he then chose to use the next best thing that was available, a grenade.
Without hesitation, he pulled the pin and then threw it with all his strength towards the wolves. A couple of seconds later, it explodes and blows apart a good number of the wolves. The remaining ones got scared by the loud and dangerous attack and so quickly fled the scene with audible whimpers.
'That's one nuisance down!'
Thinking so, Ashen returns his attention towards the roaring bear.
'With my knife still stuck in its empty skull...damn this uselessly big beast! It's still moving so energetically.'
Thinking that nothing else would help him bring down the beast, he takes out the last of his grenades from his vest.
His plan was simple; chuck down a live grenade down the bear's throat.
"Well...if I'm gonna die, might as well go down swinging!", with a bloody grin, he pulls the pin and charges towards the bear who notices his approach with its one remaining eye.
"GROOOOOOOAAAAAAARRR!!!!"
It bared its fangs once more with blazing fury. But Ashen remained undaunted and in no less than a couple seconds, ran up to the roaring beast and with his left arm, thrust the live grenade down the gaping maw of the bear.
"Now eat this you stupid beast!"
A split-second later, grenade explodes and with it, the bear and Ashen's left arm.
The force of the explosion then blows him away by a few feet making him groan as he lands on the rocky shore of the river. His mind, gone numb from the pain and he basically cannot feel his entire body as he lay down on the ground practically at death's door.
"Ah...Damn it...not even 3 days and I'm already at death's door..."
With a somber tone, he mutters words of disappointment while coughing up blood,
"Stupid Nitwit...why'd you have to go and sleep away like that?", turning to the side, he sees the still unconscious Rossweisse slumbering peacefully like nobody's business.
"To be fair though...it was Mother Nature who is messed up in the head right now...", he chuckles, "I just wanted to get shelter from the rain...and I get death...what kind of messed up thing is this huh?"
His eyelids start to grow heavy. But then he notices something approach from a distance.
"White? No...It's ash-gray...", he sees a figure near them in silence.
"You mean...one of them wolves came back?"
'That sucks...'
He shrugged disappointedly. He was expecting to die peacefully but with his current situation, he can only wish to die a quick painful death at best.
"Just bite my head off first please...I don't want to be eaten alive..."
"Fool. I am not so barbaric as to just eat you outright, human."
"Eh?"
When he heard the sudden reply to his earlier words, his eyes flew open for a few seconds as he looked at the source of the reply.
"What the..."
"Well met human. Fear not, you are safe now."
The blurry figure that he saw approaching them earlier now stood before Rossweisse, was not a wolf; it was far larger. Larger than the bear Ashen had just blew up with a grenade.
What Ashen saw in his slowly closing eyes was not some random rabid beast, but a mystical and majestic creature that he had trouble recognizing as something from reality.
"You...You're a lion!!!"
Yes. He was looking at an ash-grey lion and it chuckled as it replied,
"Yes. That I am. Now rest, human. For you need all the strength you will need for your journey."