A faint rush of water cruised through Yossarian's ears, followed by a scramble of words in the distance. His mind felt empty, a dark void, incapable of thought, a nexus of tiredness and laziness. A sensation that carried throughout his entire body, a cold liquid, chilling him to the core.
He strained to feel something, move some aspect in his body, his mind failing to attach on to anything, his focus slipping at every second.
He tried lifting his eye's, yet they stayed shut, the lids weighing heavily on him. Only his lips seemed to move, momentarily opening and closing to breath.
His right-hand palm was the only area he felt, the arm feeling sapped for strength, great lines of itchiness started igniting, stretching to his head, chest and upper half of his legs. The itchiness growing into a torrent of flames, burning his body.
A smack of cold water hit his head, alertness and consciousness awakening in the inner workings of his mind. His body jolted up at the shock. His eye's flickered open to see a concerned Georgia staring back at him.
Her dark hair was wet and scattered over her face. The areas around her eyes were a rubbed tint of red. Yossarian strained to lift his hand, etching his fingers to her left eye as tears started to well up before Georgia grabbed his hand, gently dropping it back down.
Yossarian shot his eyebrow up as he heard his hand cause a splash, a sharp coolness submerging his arm. Yossarian moved his stiff neck to see himself half-submerged in a river, body completely drenched and floating on the surface of the water.
His body panicked, resulting in him losing his balance and drowning himself, Georgia was forced to help him out of the water.
The two landed on the bank of the river, bodies crawling across the stone and grass, Yossarian breathing heavily, Georgia annoyed.
"Why was I in a river?" Yossarian spat out, taking in deep breaths of cold air and wiping off the water on his face. Georgia looked at him, mouth open with disbelief.
"Because we needed to wake you up," Ruby shouted in front of them, lighting a fire. "It's nearly night time and we weren't confident in being able to protect and unconscious you."
"There are a lot more convenient ways to do that," Yossarian replied bitterly, lifting himself up. His muscles ached; deep pains shot through his body uncontrollably. Exhaustion lingered in the back of his mind, the sudden shock of water keeping it at bay.
"Right, no need to say thank you," Georgia mumbled, walking past the struggling Yossarian. She curled herself close to the burning fire, a form of tiredness etching away at her body.
Yossarian followed her to the fire, shifting close to it, his minds problems oozing away at the small warm comfort. "Thank you Georgia," He said.
"You okay?" Ruby asked a hint of concern in her voice. Her light blue eyes were exposed for once, glasses hanging from a green shirt under her unstrapped overcoat. Yossarian stared at the dark purple bruise on her face, the colours contrasting with her eyes.
Yossarian scratched his head, his mind still an empty husk. "Not sure. I can't seem to recall much of what happened, my head still processing it all."
"Well let me help you by reminding you that you took down that beast," she spat. "How, I would very much like to know."
Yossarian seemed to recall his fight in brief detail, an image of the man exposed head sending a toxic sensation up his gut. "I believe I noticed that things ridiculous regenerative abilities start to slow, newer wounds healing slower. The blown up head being a spur of the moment action I thought up after finding the revolver." Yossarian mumbled, his mind still working over the day's events.
The mystery around the person haunting him, possibilities collecting and stagnating his tired mind. "Must have originated from some sort of divinity," he blurted out, trying to sort through his ideas.
Georgia and Ruby looked at him. "What?" Georgia questioned, voice shaking.
Yossarian looked at her confused, "Will it might just be the case we encountered some sort of divine being, an off-breed to an Olympian maybe." Yossarian explained, before closing his eyes in concentration, "That wouldn't explain how I killed him though?"
The two women looked at each other in silence, Georgia nodding towards Ruby, Ruby sighing in response. "You didn't," She informed Yossarian. "When we check to see if you were okay, Georgia noticed his body twitching, his head slowly growing back together. You hurt the thing badly, but it's not dead."
"Of course it did," Yossarian sighed, rubbing his eye's. "We're going to have to keep our guard up tonight."
Ruby grunted in response, her gaze looming on Yoss' right hand. "I managed to grab some of your stuff before we left, it's over there." She indicated over to a small bundle of clothing placed next to Ruby's backpack. "And I think you should take this back, considering how proficient you were with it," She told him, offering him the revolver.
Yossarian stared at the revolver, the crimson sky above them, lighting the revolvers dulled steel. "You can keep it," he replied, guilt and fear stirring in his mind, the events of the day replaying in his mind. "I'd prefer not to use it."
Ruby looked at him inquisitively, her eyebrows raised, but she kept quiet.
"What do you know of the town, the old one I mean." Yoss inquired, twiddling his thumbs, staring deeply into the fire.
"Not much," Ruby answered, throwing more wood into the fire. "There wasn't much information in the party, and the information that was there was either black listed or useless."
"Just give me anything you have."
"Well, apparently it was a closed-off place, isolating themselves from others. Followed some religion lost to time. When party scouts first surveyed the area, they recorded that the villagers praised the titan as their deity, a god that would awaken and bring its faithful to the royalty over the world." Ruby informed, listing off information in her mind.
Yoss chuckled, "They were right in some aspects."
Ruby stared at him blankly, "Did the information help?"
"Not in the slightest, but it provides some context I suppose," Yoss replied. He stood up and moved over to his clothes, whipping out a silver ring in his morte. The ring possessing small engraves in its metal.
Upon slipping it on his finger, Yoss' body started to heat up, the cold chill in his body melting away. Yoss stared at his right-hand palm, the tattoo of a half-filled circle was still there, the circle's fillings shrunken, a consequence of its use.
An idea, a plan started to brew in Yossarian's mind, its contents filling him with a strong reluctance. "On a scale, how screwed do you think we are?" Yoss inquired to Ruby.
This caused Ruby to think in silence before responding, "Out of ten, seven, I would say. You and I are barely standing, Georgia isn't much use and we're versing an immortal beast. Why?"
"I might know away."