Darkness.
All Ashen could see was darkness and all he could feel was the numbing pain of his injuries.
'So painful...where am I? The pain...so I'm not dead yet...'
He thought to himself.
'My eyelids feel very heavy...hm...? Even my body feels heavy...'
He was right. His body does feel very heavy. Something that was uncharacteristic of him as he was used to moving around even amidst fatal injuries. He is confident enough that even if he lost all his limbs, he'd still be able to run as fast as a normal human.
He could feel both his legs and his one remaining arm just fine, but it felt like it was taking his all just to try and move them even for a millimeter.
'I don't feel any restraints...but this heavy feeling...isn't an effect of an illness. Don't tell me...I was drugged or something similar to that?'
As he thought that, he remembered what happened just moments before he collapsed,
'I was carrying Nitwit through the forest to avoid the highway but ended up encountering a huge-ass bear and a pack of wolves, then while running, almost fell down a cliff but encountered a herd of yet again huge boars that obviously gave chase and then a pit viper tried to bite me and I dropped Nitwit over the cliff. Then because of that, Mother Nature tried to kill me yet again because she was not satisfied with siccing huge-ass beasts at me and so I was forced to jump down the cliff to follow Nitwit. Then I end up going down the river below and manage to get Nitwit out the water but then I had to blow up a bunch of wolves and then fight a bear and got my right arm crushed and my left arm blown to bits. After that...I remember seeing a freaky hallucination of a large-as-a-van lion that could talk.'
He summarized the events that took place in no more than 9 lines.
'That's about all I can remember. But what happened right after that?'
He wondered and as he did-
*Plip*
-something small and wet hit the tip of his nose.
******
His eyes opened in surprise and before it, he could see an unfamiliar stone structure.
'Uh...is that, the underside of a bridge?'
He looked down and saw his clothes with large gashes and rips here and there with a few parts apparently burned probably due to the grenade explosion from earlier. He could also see some bandages through the holes on his clothes so he deduced that someone had applied first aid on him while he was asleep. He also noticed that he was lying on something very hard and rough,
'This is concrete...am I somewhere near the city?'
He easily deduced what it was. He can also hear the gentle sound of running water and so he assumes he must be by the edge of a river but before he could confirm,
"Ah! You are awake kid!"
A voice suddenly comes from the side.
Turning to look, Ashen sees an old man- wearing ragged clothes and had a scraggly beard on his face that easily told Ashen that the old man was a homeless bum, walking up to him.
"You are?"
Ashen tried to get up but was stopped by the old man.
"Don't be so rash kid. Your injuries have yet to fully heal."
The old man cautioned him and urged him to lie down once more.
"Where's the nitwit who was with me?"
Ashen however did not listen to the old man and instead he asked after noticing Rossweisse was nowhere to be seen. Even brushing away the old man's hands as he tried to assist Ashen.
"Nitwit? Ah~the naive young girl who brought you here? She is fine. She is currently resting in me little shack over there.", the old man pointed at a rather small shack situated right under the concave abutment of the bridge just a dozen meters from them.
"Tsk! Just doing whatever she wants and throwing herself into trouble!", Ashen clicked his tongue.
"Ahaha! Well me agrees with you there kid. That young girlie sure don't have a sense of danger to herself. Makes me wonder how you youngsters managed to get here through the forest.", the old man laughed in an understanding manner.
Looking at him, Ashen did not sense anything malicious from the old man. From the way he was speaking, Ashen could feel like the old man was really just feeling amused at how Rossweisse was being too bothersome to handle and was like he was sympathizing with Ashen. Something he very rarely sees in other people.
But there was another matter to address-
"Hey old man-"
"Call me Jack."
"Fine. Jack, you said that that nitwit brought me here through the forest. How exactly did you see her bring me here?"
-he needed to know how the hell the two of them got there.
"How you got here? Well, she was technically carrying you when you appeared from there.", the old man, Jack, pointed at a part where the forest ended, "It shocked me out of me wits while meself was fishing; two youngsters-one white as snow and the other red as a bloody tomato just popped out the bushes like ta-dah!", he explained with exaggerated hand gestures.
"Technically? What do you mean by that?"
"Hmm? How to describe it in me words?", Jack somehow looked troubled and started scratching his hairy chin.
"What?"
Ashen found Jack's troubled face rather strange and felt like the old man was brooding over if it was safe to answer honestly or not.
Somehow he could imagine Jack saying something that will grate on his nerves.
"We~ll...if meself were to bluntly describe it, that young girlie over there was holding your leg and was pulling you along like a sack of corn."
"..."
A moment of silence passed as the rather absurd answer of Jack was processed by Ashen's mind and then-
"Alright, help me up Jack. I believe I need to have a nice long talk with that nitwit inside your shack!"
-he declared with broiling rage. If this were a scene from an anime, this would be the part where the background is filled with flames and a bunch of onomatopoeia-esque words start appearing around him with an ominous 'Du-Dunnnn!'
But of course, Jack tried to calm him down.
"Hey now kid. Cut the girlie some slack yeah? With her thin lookin arms, it can't be helped that she could only carry your leg considering how heavy you really are."
"That's not the point here old man!"
But it seemed to be ineffective as Ashen started seething until a sharp pain assaults Ashen's body.
"Guh!"
Pain suddenly shot up his entire body. Making him shudder and curl up in place as he started gasping for air. He could feel every muscle in his body throb and he could even hear his own rapid heartbeat echo in his ears. Despite such a terrible state however, he remained calm for he recognized this feeling.
'How long has it been since I last felt like this?'
His mind was clear unlike the time with the bear. How it was different, he could really not tell but the feeling was nostalgic.
'How long?'
He tried to recall any memory of his past but somehow, he could not remember anything specific. Only the random memories that stuck inside his mind like specific locations he had been to during his travels like the ancient colosseum where he got lost in the labyrinth like ruined dungeons and two pagodas called 'gold' and 'silver'.
Other than that, any instance where he had felt such pain was missing. But as he was reminiscing, he felt Jack put a hand on his shoulder,
"Boy get up. Me thinks you need to get to me shack and hide.", the old man's tone was seemingly flippant but felt serious in context which surprised Ashen.
Wondering what the old man is trying to do, Ashen looks at him but sees him put a finger on his wrinkly lips to signal Ashen to keep quiet before pointing at a spot somewhere in at the other end of the bridge above them where they could see lightbeams from flashlights.
'Don't tell me-!', as Ashen starts to realize, Jack pulls him up as gently and as fast as possible, wraps Ashen's one remaining arm over his shoulder, and then proceeds to carry him towards his shack;
"Walls and roofs made of scrap metal roof sheets and a wooden door...are you someone from the squatters in the southeast Jack?", Ashen whispered to Jack.
"Well, me built it solely for meself afterall and no, meself have not left this city since me birth. Now...", Jack wasted no time arguing and quickly opened the wooden door revealing the interior of the small shack;
A small shelf with lots of random items was on one wall, a small bed made of wooden planks and pieces of lumber placed in one corner and a bunch of dented utensils for food and a rusty-looking gas range. All of which are crammed within a space Ashen estimates to be no more than 10 square meters. But that was not the worst of the things inside, the worst thing was Rossweisse who was seated on the floor fiddling with the gas range like a curious cat.
"-! Hey girlie! Don't just go and fiddle with me stove! You might burn the entire shack if you're careless!", Jack exclaimed in a panic as he let go of Ashen-
*Thump!*
"Ouch."
-and rushed to stop Rosseweisse, who looked at the old man with a wonderful smile.
"Ah! Mr. Jack-"
"Don't smile at me now girlie!", he pulls her hands away from the gas valve, "Go under me bed and hide! Them trigger-happy men have come by again and judging from me instincts, I bet they're after you two youngsters!"
Jack quickly took away the gas range and put it by the door and urged Rossweisse to hide under the small bed.
"Trigger-happy men? Ah! Mr. Ashen! You're awake!", Rossweisse however notices the aching Ashen who was left by the door beside the gas range, "Are your injuries alri-Ack!"
A tattered slipper hit her face courtesy of a grumpy Ashen.
"No thanks to you Nitiwit."
Ashen somehow could not muster any energy to scold her.
"Get inside the damned bed already you stupid Nitwit or we both die.", he continued while throwing another tattered slipper at her.
"Could you please stop-"
"Argh! Girlie come here and go under the bed already!", Jack who got impatient grabbed Rossweisse just as she was about to get up and then pushed her under the bed.
"Ah! I can't go in further!", Rossweisse remarked from under the bed as she only had only a part of her body inside. Apparently, her clothes was making it hard for her to fit in.
Both Jack and Ashen sighed. For two different reasons;
For Jack, it seemed like he was being hesitant to touch Rossweisse further as her position was rather a precarious one; she had only her upper half under the bed with her unintentionally raised rear completely exposed because as surprising as it is to see, her breasts was making it hard for her to fit.
For Ashen however,
"You sure like causing headaches for humanity huh you Nitwit!"
He was completely exasperated at Rossweisse.
"Now how is meself going to jam you under the bed?"
Ashen was surprised by Jack's words,
"So you are planning to 'jam' this nitwit under the bed? Just like that?", he asked while pulling himself up using the doorway.
"Well do you have any other word to use to get the girlie inside?", Jack asked.
"Pfft! No and I agree with you.", Ashen scoffed and says, "The bed is too narrow to hide us both so we'll just have to compromise.", with utter exasperation.
He then approaches Rossweisse and then pulls her out from under the bed by her leg then he flips her over,
"Ugh! Mr. Ashen...you could have warned me...", she groaned.
"Shut up."
Then Ashen places himself directly above her and pushed her down with his entire body. This surprised Rossweisse who had no idea what is happening.
"Uh...Mr. Ashen? are you not too close for comfort?", she asked in confusion.
"Shut it fatso. Okay old man Jack, jam us under the bed, with me pressing down her needlessly fat body, I bet we'll fit."
"Eh? Ah...okay.", Jack who did not know what to make of what Ashen had just done, obediently pushed the two under the bed and surprisingly, both of them fit albeit in a tight manner.
"What the hell...Youngsters these days are terrifyingly genius.", he muttered in amazement, "Are you alright there kids?", he asked.
Because he only had a candle for light, he could barely see under the bed but he was able to see Ashen nod.
"Alright! Leave distracting them trigger-happy men so sit tight!", saying so, Jack gets up and leaves the shack to face the alleged pursuers.