The rotted corpse of Arlo was slowly being pulled out of the dark river by what it felt like thousands of hands…
The cloaked figure hummed some gibberish while Arlo was being pulled towards it.
"İt is rare to come across such a soul that managed to avoid the falllll…" it hummed.
Arlos body floated close enough to the cloaked figure which tilted its hand to Arlo.
Arlo was clearly not conscious enough to worry nor think about the figures' greyish hands that had some fingers nowhere to be seen.
"Lucky meee…" the figure hummed and touched the forehead or what was left of it. The feeling of freezing cold slowly decreased to a bearable amount.
As if the figure injected a hot liquid that cleared the cold water of the gloomy river…
"Ahh, now… my reward awaits!" the figure took its hand back. The figure walked a step away from the body of Arlo.
A new ambiscience that reminded Arlo of a place that he could not remember appeared while the river disappeared with the figure stepping away.
"Get up." the figure muttered.
Arlos freezing limbs melted to the stage where he tried to stand even though he knew he had no control of the corpse.
'what? my body? it move?' His limited consciousness allowed him to think only this much.
His eyesight was foggy, maybe because of the cold or the rotting state of his eyes.
İt felt like he was wearing a thick coat that was wet. The corpse of the teenager tripped while trying to walk towards the figure waiting patiently for him.
"You learn quick foundling…" Arlo wanted to talk and ask questions.
He opened his mouth but no voice came out of the half dislocated jaw.
"Stop… you can't talk. The basic stage you are in is only allowing you to control that body only a little bit." İt explained with a deep tone.
"İs the flesh bothering?" İt asked. "İt will rot away in time…"
"Seems like you. You were dead for 2 years, 3 months and 9 days…" "The flesh is not needed…"
The carcass that was previously named Arlo hubbled after the figure to a crack that was hidden at the back of a hill which had a boulder there. The cloaked figure sat down on a muddy throne-like chair with bone piles next to it.
"Go on… test yourself." İt touched a bone pile and another skeleton that had wrongly placed pieces on its legs and arms…
"This one used to be a thief…" Arlo finally managed to identify the figure's voice as masculine. "Though it has some pieces lost…" the figure made a little twist like action with its fingers.
"Maybe the thief will become victorious once again? " The thieves' skeleton made animated like movements to Arlo slowly approaching him.
"Do, fight?" that's what Arlo wanted to say but the voice came out as "Aight?"
The figure seemed to be having fun "Trying to talk hmm?" he asked "Yes, you fight it…"
The opposing skeleton moved in some more.
"Aight!" Arlos' limited state made him not able to reason the things he was doing… He childishly charged on to the skeleton.
The mispieced arms were longer and the enemy used them to reach arlo from away.
But Arlo dislocated the arm and tried to push the skeleton away.
His old physic was no longer there; he just tried to push the skeleton away but failed.
He grabbed the dislocated arm of the skeleton and swung it to the area the thief was.
Luckily the old bones of the thief were frail and one of his legs broke to pieces.
"Good… you are strong…" The now exposed corpse said. "Go deeper and face milord…"