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"Good morning, Llana!" I said, smiling and bowing for the third morning in a row since I started to work at this cabin. "Unn, yeah." She responded haphazardly as she continued to write down whatever it was that was so important in that journal of hers. Her actions seemed obvious enough, simply coming off as uncaring, but her right eye told a different story. It opened ever so slightly as she looked up stealthily to inspect my head yet again as I changed from my house shoes into the work boots in the corner of my room. Llana quickly buried her gaze back into her journal as I turned around once more to walk into the back garden. It had been a whole two week since the mess of a day that I first arrived here.
Although I had managed to convince both Llana and The Village Chief of my 'amnesia' situation enough for them to not throw me out with a little help from Usra and the evanescent 'fog' that Llana saw in my head. Evidently, at least Llana had still reserved her doubts for me. Taking multiple glances at my head whenever possible. A week in I figured she'd at least cast away her suspicions enough to only do so once or twice a day, but with how often I've caught her staring holes into me It must have been happening at least twenty times an hour.
As for my living situation, Usra was kind enough to allow me to stay with her and her family while The Village Chief had a few men from the village working on constructing a new cabin for me nearby Llana's deep in the woods. As it happens to be, Tetsu, who I had earlier referred to as a 'giant' is actually not one. Although it was hard for me to believe he was just a teenager barely 15 years old. The thought of that giant growing any taller gave me goosebumps, but boys stop growing at 16 right? So surely there wasn't much farther for him to go.
Although suspicious at first, as soon Llana had confirmed that I did indeed have something akin to what you would see from amnesia in my head, The Village Chief immediately changed his attitude. He slathered me with promises and incentives to rope me into joining their tribe as a second healer, giving me housing as well as a job as Llana's assistant. I figured Llana would be completely against the idea, but she had surprisingly little to say about it. I figured at first that she had finally accepted my innocence but soon found myself terrified at the proposition that it would be much easier to monitor me or... take action were I to do anything she didn't quite appreciate.
Based on how much effort the Village Chief put into roping me into his tribe I figure being a healer was quite the rarity in this world, and considering Llana was the only other one in this village, either resources were much scarcer here or my assumption was correct. In which case the deal of a simple cabin in the woods along with enough pay to barely afford the bitter food that they sold here might have been a wild scam I've fallen for. In any case I don't plan on going anywhere outside the village anytime soon. Just thinking about that blue monstrosity I saw at the top of the mountain loses me sleep at night.
"Invasion!?" From the field in front of me, one of the boys that were training in front of me shouted and I looked up to see him quickly pull his eyes off of me. 'That's... Reltin?' I thought as I looked at the two boys that were talking to each other in a now much quieter tone. 'I guess they're still suspicious of me as well' I thought. It only made sense, a complete stranger in such luxurious clothing just falling from the sky? Even the idea was too ludicrous to say out loud. I continued to pick only the plants that looked similar to those in the drawings of 'ripe' versions that Llana had sketched down on a book she had given to me. As well as picking the ripe fruits, I also was tasked with tending and maintaining all the rest of the plants that grew in the entire garden. Which wasn't as far from capital punishment as you'd think. These magical fantasy plants had a terrible temperament and the slightest mistake in any of their care would result in the plant turning out completely unusable as they'd either turn to powder at their ungrounding, spontaneously explode if they were given too much or too little water ruining the other plants around them, and various other dangerously exaggerated methods of death that brought down anything and everything around them.
Also in the journal Llana provided me with was the specific maintenance requirements of each plant, all kinds of plants like 'Iodamias', 'Fearin', 'Nightmare Korlans' etc. had made their home in this garden. A few certain plants required the products of others to help them grow most optimally, leading me to many interview sessions with the big boss herself. But as far as questions went I had plenty of opportunity and reason to ask them as Llana was always sitting at the same windowsill writing in the same windowsill while I was always blessed with the status of 'amnesia' giving me plenty rhyme and reason to ask anything I had questions about. Although at first Llana would give me a look that said 'You're really acting like you don't even know stuff this basic?' during our 'sessions', once she repeatedly found herself having to heal me of all degrees of cuts and bruises from the countless mistakes I had made in the field, I could sense her suspicion fading and she began to answer my questions in earnest detail.
As for why I couldn't just use my newfound 'prime healing' power on myself instead of having to have Llana do it every time, the options simply never showed up again. I couldn't tell whether if it was just a one time thing or if it had some sort of cooldown or something so I came to Llana asking about why I wasn't able to use my healing on anything anymore she gave me a very vague and confusing answer.
"Firstly, that rose colored healing of yours is not like anything else I've ever seen and, trust me kid, I've seen a lot. As far as I can tell, you've simply run out of mana. That technique you used must have been pretty costly. In all the times I've seen that kid since you used your healing on him, he's been healthy as an Ox. No symptoms from the stillbirth, no illnesses since, not a scratch on him. For healing that potent, I wouldn't be surprised if it'd taken years off your life let alone all your mana." Llana spoke, sitting sideways in her chair as she continued to write in her journal, the bright moon glistening in the sky behind her. At her last few sentences, I went pale.
Her head shifted upward to look at me before she added: "Relax girl, it was only an exaggeration. From how unperturbed you were after the fact; I'd say it's simply an issue of you not knowing how to control it rather than anything else. Amnesia and all." Unlike what I would've expected a week or two prior, she said it now without any tinge of sarcasm.
"So I just have to learn how to control it..." I clenched my hand in excitement at the prospect of being able to control real magic. "But... if I do, will my eyes get like that too?" I asked, reigning back in my excitement.
"Huh?" Llana asked back, seemingly puzzled by my question.
"Your eyes." I said, pointing towards my own and squinting them fiercely, mocking her own.
"Hahaha." Llana began to laugh as I did so before recovering after a few seconds. "No, Elvi. There's no reason for you to worry about that." She started. "This... is a very special case." Her voice returned to its former coldness as she said that last bit and I nodded in response, not wanting to test her in any way now that I had finally gotten on her half-decent side.
- Tak Tak- A sudden knocking came from the backside door that lead out to the garden. As the front door was boarded up with planks as a temporary measure until the winter ended, the backside door was the only way that anyone could find their way inside the cabin now. I hurriedly got up from the ground beside Llana and walked over to open the door, allowing in the four boys that often trained in the field beside Llana's cabin. In two weeks I had only a bit more than a rough grasp on the type of people they were. Firstly was Tetsu, the giant that stood at least two heads above the other boys. He was a bit of a training enthusiast, highly disciplined sort of kid that was strict on everybody around him including himself. From what I'd heard from Llana he would wake up at dawn every morning to go running around the village as well as practice his swordsmanship before anyone else had even woken up. He had slightly long wavy hair that stuck to his head like it was glued on regardless of what physics had to say about the situation.
"Llana. Elvi." Tetsu simply looked towards each of us and bowed as he ducked his towering frame into the cabin door. Also, It'd make sense I explain this whole 'Elvi' thing, right? Well, although I was dangerously close to spilling my real name, 'Levi', to Llana when she had first asked before I remembered I was in a female's body, I quickly covered it up using the 'amnesia' to my advantage, acting as if I was still confused on what my name really could be. "Le-Leev... Elv-elv...ee...Elvi!" In doing so I both saved my ass but also sealed my fate to forever remain as 'Elvi' In the eyes of everyone who now knew me in the village. 'If worst comes to worst, I can just run away and leave it all behind.' I thought to myself.
"Yo." A boy with long dirty-blonde hair walked in next, greeting us both nonchalantly. This one's name was Arton, and I liked him considerably less than the giant in front of him. Particularly his thin eyes that were very similar to Llana's. They held thinly veiled suspicion toward me and though I'd smile toward him whenever I saw him, I always regretted doing so when he met me with his own smile that creeped the hell out of me and would of anyone else who saw it. I didn't know how invasive thin and suspicious eyes felt until I was a targeted by it from a regular-sized young man rather than the fun-sized Llana.
"Y-yo." "H-hello." The next two to walk in were Reltin and Rafal respectively. Brothers that were a refreshing sight to see as neither of them were either monstrously large nor scarily intimidating. I unconsciously smiled even wider while greeting the two of them and the first looked down as his face flushed red much to my confusion while the second's smile only deepened upon meeting my own. As the boys walked in, they shook down their snow-covered clothes at the entrance at Llana's aggressive request that came out as more of a threat to them and their families than a proper request would.
As the boys shuffled inside, they all walked to the corner of the room as if hiding away. And Llana exchanged a quick glance with them before turning off the lamp and leaving the night sky as the only light source for us in the room. "Huh? What's going on?" I asked but was met only with a quick "Shhhh" from Llana. As if on cue, the village chief and the monopoly man who I later found out went by the name of Edgar walked out to the path in front of the cabin by the way post that lied a couple feet in front of it. Behind Edgar was an extensively decorated carriage that, much to my dismay, had a tarp covering most of the intricate design seen on the front. The two seemed to exchange a few words before Edgar entered the carriage and the Village Chief saw him off with a wave before he ended up taking off. After a few seconds, the Village Chief looked over to the cabin in silence. His gaze seemed especially horrifying for some odd reason as it seemed to be looking right at me. After a few more seconds, the Village Chief, too, took his leave, walking back towards the village.
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"What the hell was that?" I asked Llana who continued to sit quietly by the windowsill after the boys had all left the cabin. It stands to reason that they were hiding from Edgar but for what reason I couldn't quite wrap my head around. Come to think of it, it wasn't the first time that those other three boys had been behaving strangely around him. Other than Tetsu I couldn't remember a single time any of the boys had shown themselves in front of that monopoly man. Llana turned a page in her journal, seemingly haven finished writing the last one before she opened her mouth to speak.
"Go home, girl. Some things you're better off not knowing." She spoke in a cold and distant voice before returning to the pages in her notebook. Something was going on. Sure, her actions generally weren't any less strange than when I had first met her, but I could tell that somehow this was different. As I changed shoes once again for the day, and opened the back cabin door to leave, I heard her voice once more.
"I don't know if your whole amnesia story is true, girl." As she spoke, I froze at the doorway. "But if there's anywhere else you feel like you can go. Anywhere but here. You should go home." Her words echoed from behind me and although I wanted to turn around and ask her what she was talking about, in a strange way, I knew for a fact that she wouldn't, no, couldn't tell me anything. I closed the door behind me and set off past the garden gate back onto the unlit village path that led to Usra's home.
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It wasn't long until I arrived on the village grounds. The beaten path was clogged by wet mud, moisturized by the melted snow that had once been on top of it. I struggled to pull my legs through the sludge as I continued through the short aisle of path surrounded by humble cabins on either side. The village was made up of a about three and a half rows of cabins, with farms placed adjacent just outside the fence surrounding it. The pathway circled around and between the structures, allowing for convenient travel from and to any place within the village's boundaries. If you considered this ooze more convenient to walk through than snow, I mean. The Village Chief's cabin was of course the largest, it was the first one immediately right of the entrance to the village, boasting an extended compartment with a grand chimney that served as its spine, releasing black smoke evident of the fireplace's use.
I hurried to walk past the Village Chief's cabin, not taking any time to peer into the open window that exposed the lamp-lit room inside. The technology of the village was as primitive as you'd expect of a village this small and remote. Oil-lamps and candles were the only light source on the inside of the residences. For pitch black nights like this, torches were about the only light source one would have on the outside. But with the rarity of oil for this region it was only the village chief and a few of his close associates that were allowed to carry them. And the Village Chief was the owner of one of the less than five Oil-Lamps that existed in this little patch of nowhere.
As for how I was faring in this primitive landscape? Not too bad, surprisingly. Although I'm not at all aware of what this body of mine is at this point, I know it's unlike anything I've ever seen before. I've never been hungry since I woke up here. Although I eat sometimes to wave off the concerns and suspicions of Usra and Llana, I've never actually felt the need to do so. As for number one and number two, as one could assume based off a no-food diet, I never have to go. Which is quite the blessing in this backwater place where buckets and pits work as substitutes for toilets.
The clothes I arrived here with are also another special case of their own. The blue scarf and kilt that I woke up with have not the slightest scratch on them since I had arrived regardless of how many plant-based explosions they had went through. The same went for the black leggings and brown boots that I found on me. Aside from keeping me unnaturally warm the clothes never got damaged nor tracked any sort of filth on them. No matter how much mud I waded through, my boots would come out unnaturally clean. When I came to Llana with this knowledge she hurriedly 'collected' my clothes, telling me that nobody could know about them and that I should stick to a normal set that she generously provided me after stealing my mystical ones. At the time she was still quite scary to me, so I didn't have the guts to demand them back. But next time for sure.
I arrived at the doorstep of Usra's house, knocking three times as I had been taught was the maximum amount without being disrespectful by Llana. I was let off work pretty quickly every day. Since I was coming in every day there wasn't too much new work needing to be done besides a few routine inspections and repetitive maintenance involving the same dull actions every so often. I was usually let off after just a few couple hours but chose to remain with Llana for the remainder of the time, asking questions on the herbs in the garden and the magical medicines they could turn into, questions about her healing powers, the village, and everything else in between. Although most of the time I was left with the cryptic answer of 'You don't need to know' or 'You're better off not asking so many questions.' At the end of the day she would always come around and give me the answer to my questions.
- Crrrk -
"Elvi!" Usra exclaimed from the other side of the door, almost immediately running up to hold me in her embrace. "Come in, come in. Dinner is ready. We've been waiting for you to start you know!" She said with a smile as she herded me into the moderately-sized cabin. The place was big enough to fit at least two families not including her own.
I eventually came to learn that Usra was the head of all things financial within the village, keeping records of all the produce from the farms and merchandise sold to the merchants that would come by every so often to buy for their trade caravan runs. That was perhaps the reason she was able to live in such a grand place, at least it was for where she was. I soon found myself being pushed down onto one of the wooden dining room chairs where, yet another rare oil-lamp sat shining its glory from the center of the table in front of me. Usra quickly rushed back over towards the kitchen where I was sure she was heating up already cold food from the meal she prepared that her husband had already ravaged through before I'd arrived.
"Ah, I see dinner is starting ag- Err,... I meannn... dinner is starting now, huh?" A gravelly voice sounded from the other end of the room where a tall round-bellied man walked out of his bedroom door, clearly drunk. He struggled to take a few straight steps towards his chair before plopping down imbalanced onto it, the wood of the chair screeching under his weight. "So yer home now, ay Elvi?" The man said, his eyes starting on my face but quickly trailing down towards the rest of my body.
I cringed inwardly at his lecherous gaze, quickly looking at him straight in the eye with a glare. "Err! Ah, yer a feisty little one aren'tcha." The fat degenerate spoke once more. I cursed whatever god put me on here with such a body before standing up and excusing myself from the room. Usra apologized on her husband's behalf and asked me to stay but I refused her offer simply claiming I was too tired and that I'd eat in the morning tomorrow. As I entered my room, I saw Usra scolding her husband out of the corner of my eye while his gaze lingered on me the entire time. What I wouldn't give to get in a quick jab at his fat face.
I entered my room and changed quickly into the nightgown Usra had given me. If there was anything I learned about being a woman since I came here it was that the clothes were a hell of a lot more uncomfortable and harder to deal with. Things were much simpler when I was a man, and yes, I did confirm. There was no equivalent of a mirror in this place but from the gazes I've received since I've gotten here, and the lack of any perceivable flaw in my skin, it's safe to assume I'm an attractive woman.
My body neither smells nor blemishes no matter how long I go without a bath. The only real flaws are the bruises and cuts I get from work, but with Llana's help both are quite the quick fix. Although it's helpful for me not to have to worry about things like that, evidently, beauty brings a lot of trouble to a woman. Fate is cruel, taking away the chance to get the one thing I was unable to in my past life; love.
"HNNH" From my window I heard a faint grunting. "HAHH" "PHHH" The grunting continued accompanied by a rough breathing. I walked over to the window and opened it, sliding up the lower sash. Outside I saw the source of the rough grunting at such an odd time of night. In front of me stood Tetsu who sat down to take a short break from his incessant training before getting back up again to continue swinging his pole. 'He really is a training freak' I thought to myself. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he continued to swing over and over again in the same motion, regardless of the obvious stress he put himself under. 'What the...' My heart jumped and I was struck with a familiar sensation of excitement as I saw what was now in front of my eyes.
[Potential Student]
Those words hovered over the boy's head as he continued to swing. After about fifty more swings he finally stopped to fall back down on the ground again, his eyes moved around before randomly locking on me, squinting and looking me in the eyes as I stared back at his. "Hey." I said, waving my hand.
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"So, he says you're not ready yet?" She sat with her arms wrapped around her knees that were pulled up to her chest. Her long, white eyelashes fluttered in the wind as she looked up at the moon with her glistening sapphire eyes. I never cared enough to give her face a proper look, maybe that's why only now I understood why Reltin seemed so infatuated with her. She definitely wasn't ugly.
"Yeah." I spoke curtly, whipping away my head and inwardly cursing my brain for having blanked out so long staring at her face. "I guess that means I'll just have to wait until wintertime next year..." My voice turned serious, and I grew restless at the thought of waiting another entire year to see him again.
"That's good." She said, turning her head towards me as she spoke. "I've barely just met you. Wouldn't it be too cruel for you to leave as soon as I got here?" Her voice was honest as her unwavering eyes stared directly into mine. "Er, mhmm. Unn." I said, feeling the blood rush out of my head as I turned my head away to look down at the snow below us.
"So, tell me more about what this whole 'frontline fort' thing is." She started again. "I don't see why the people up the mountain wouldn't be allowed to come back to the village once they get selected for the garrison there."
"There's not enough people there, they can't afford to lose even one man. That's what the village chief tells me." I replied, recalling what the old man told me earlier this afternoon.
"Well that hardly makes any sense. If they're short-handed then I don't see why Featherhead would be so against letting you go."
"Featherhead?" I had no idea what she was referring to.
"Yeah, Featherhead. The Chief." She seemed truly surprised at me not picking up on her demeaning pseudonym for our leader.
I snorted before breaking into a short laugh. "That's the first time I've heard that one. At worst, sometimes Reltin calls him bird nest." I joked.
"Oh, that's a good one! I'll keep it in mind." She replied, acting genuinely excited at the discovery of a new demeaning name for our Chieftan.
"So, what's got you interested in taking a one-way hike up there anyways? Maybe I'm missing something, but it sure doesn't sound like the most comfortable place to spend the rest of your life." She inquired.
"Yeah..." I sighed. "It sure as hell doesn't. You know, when I was a kid, I really wanted to see the capital. And not just that, but everything beyond it too. My father used to tell me stories about his time as a merchant when he travelled the world on his caravan runs across the world. He had all these different kinds of maps that he used to show me of all the different countries he'd been to, countries ruled by kings and queens, some by a group of chiefs, and even countries that were ruled by immortal mages that had lived hundreds of years."
"Hold on, a few questions before you keep on going. Did your dad ever mention anything about an adventurer's guild? Or adventurer party? Or adventurer anything like that?"
"Adventurer's guild? Party?" I tilted my head in confusion at the unfamiliar terms.
"Yes!" She whispered under her breath from beside me. "Oh, and uh, these cities. Were they all similarly circular in shape? And are there beast men slaves sold everywhere in some countries or something that sometimes get rescued by people who build up harems of cute girls with crazy strength and then go to dungeons and... well you know the rest." She continued.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." I said, completely puzzled at the sheer number of unknown terms she had just thrown at me. "But the architecture of every city is completely different. My dad taught me that every kingdom has their own architectural designs, but I've never heard of a town being surrounded completely by a circle of stone wall. That sounds ridiculous and expensive. I've never heard of beast men but as far as I know the slave trade is still popular in the south, but those poor people can hardly be called cute. Most are treated too terribly to even be called healthy. As for dungeons my brother once told me that there were rumors that the magician king of Geldra owns a dungeon that sits underneath his castle."
"Nice! that's three tropes down." She celebrated briefly as I watched her with confusion. "Please, do continue now with your story. Sorry to interrupt."
I coughed before starting again. "Anyways, once my dad passed away, I was still too young to know how to read any of the maps myself. That's when my brother took my father's place and told me some of the stories that he passed down to him. He used to teach me how to read the maps that my father left behind and tell me all about all the places he'd take me once he saved up enough money to buy a carriage of his own."
"So... what happened? Why didn't you ever end up going with him?"
"He was chosen to join the troops at the fort. The day it happened my mother cried harder than I've ever seen her cry before, even worse than when my father died. My brother though was all smiles, he told me that he'd come back as soon as he was done taking care of all the evil trolls... and I believed him. It's been almost ten years now and I haven't seen him since."
"So, you want to go to the fort now to see him again."
"Yeah." I answered before starting to lift myself up. "And I won't be ready by wintertime next year unless I train twice as hard as last year." I said, steeling myself for another fifty swings.
"Next year, huh?" Elvi spoke from behind me as I grabbed my pole and got into stance. "You know a wise man once said: No man ever sank underneath the burden of today, it is only when he adds the burden of the coming days to its weight that it becomes too much to bear." The words struck me like steel as I froze up, wondering whether to take my first swing or not.
"You should go to bed and worry about what you need to do for tomorrow, instead of what you need to do for a couple hundred days from now." She said with a smile as I heard her voice retreating farther away from me back towards her cabin window...
Although I didn't look back so that I could come off as a bit more awesome, I assumed from the lack of grunting and panting behind me that I'd left the giant a little introspective as I climbed carefully back into my room through the open window.
'That should be enough groundwork for him to see me as a teacher figure quite soon' I thought.
The opening was abnormally big considering that it was near twice my size. Although I couldn't get my hands on any rulers or measuring tapes for obvious reasons, using the power of logical thinking I divined from the people and places around me that I was about the same height in this new body as I was in my previous life. And although I could never hold a candle to the giant I had just finished talking to, being about 5'11' was quite tall for a woman in this new world as well.
I towered over Llana who was nearly a foot shorter than me, and the situation was similar with Usra who was a half a foot shorter than me. It was only Tetsu, and that fat bastard of a husband Usra had that were able to far surpass me in that aspect by virtue of their sheer inhuman size.
"It's a wonder that bastard managed to get so fat at his height." I clicked my tongue and spoke as I lay down, staring up at the moon through the window. The whistle of the cool wind that passed my window grew louder, then quiet, as snow began to fall, creating white spots on the moon and purple mountains surrounding it as it did so. The beautiful scene reminded me of the reality that I had truly entered another world. My blood boiled in anticipation of what the future held.
- Krrrrrh- A grumbling sound of something dragging across the wood floor tolled from behind me before I felt a hand, cold and spongy with a stench of alcohol, wrap around my arm. Another quickly pounced up over the side of my face my eyes subconsciously widened in an attempt to see who it was before I was flipped and shoved into the straw mattress below me face first. I screamed what only came out as a muffle through the thick sheet I was violently pressed up against. The hand moved quickly from the side of my face to my nape as a huge weight grew on my back sinking me deeper into the bed.
"Heh.. w-whats rong..? C-can't mhove? Ghuess yew're reight... Aih RHELLY EM A FHAT BHASTARD..." A chill crawled up my spine as I heard the breathy and jumbled voice just above my neck. I squirmed and continued to shout muffled screams into the mattress until the pressure around my neck suddenly disappeared. I turned my head away from the mattress to catch a breath of open air when I felt the inside of my cheek cave in, crashing into my teeth, and a metallic taste invaded my mouth.
"AHHHC!" I screamed out in agony as the pain hit me and my mind descended into a blinding whiteness. "Crcklh... Hrk Ukh" My throat tightened, and I felt a sharp stabbing in the back of my mouth before breaking out into a violent coughing fit. When the piercing pain in my throat had finally disappeared, I opened my eyes to peer through the tears in my burning eyes. In front of me was a bloodstained part of the sheet along with a single pearly white tooth that lay on the patch of red. I felt the chill in my back spreading as my gown was forcefully ripped open from the top down and the man returned his hand to my neck.
"HEH. S-SHERVES YHOU RHIGHT BHICH." The ear-splitting voice croaked from behind me as wet saliva rained down onto my exposed back.
"P-pleathe..." I spoke in barely a whisper as I turned my head downwards into my bosom.
"HAEH?..." The man grunted in a gravelly tone as he moved his head down towards mine. I quickly whipped my head upwards striking him in the face with the back of my head before hurriedly twisting him off of me sending him toppling down onto the windowsill at the bedside. I sprung up onto my feet, running towards the door and ramming into it with all my weight. However, instead of the bright scene of the well-lit kitchen that I had expected, I was met with the same cold and unchanging darkness of my bedroom. I continued to struggle against the block of wood, kicking and punching at it until my hands bled of splinters.
"HAHEH... D-DHON'T EFEN FHINK OFV GHETTING AHWAY. I BLHOCKED TFHE DHOOOOR~" The man roared. "AIH THOUGHT OHF EHVERYTHING. IHTS F-FHOOL... FHOOL-PROOF..."
My hands slowed down on their own as the stinging pain of the cuts and bruises from the wood started to settle in. I felt my last ounce of hope drain away along with the adrenaline as all the pain and fatigue caught up to me. I turned around but couldn't bring myself to look directly at the man's face. Something primal preventing me from any kind of acceptance of my fate. The man started to talk but my hearing started to fade on its own, reducing his words to a mere ringing in my head as I froze up with my back against the door.
My mind screamed out in rejection when I suddenly remembered the system that had saved me once before. 'Come on. Give me something.' I shut my eyes tightly and tried to draw on the power of my memories like I had once done before. 'Something... Anything!' I squeezed my eyes even tighter, hard enough to see stars but still felt nothing. No secret power or sudden burst of strength, nothing...
I opened my eyes once more to see the man now towering over me, my heartbeat quickened as adrenaline rushed throughout me once more and my body began to move on its own. I ducked quickly and ran straight past the man's hulking figure in a way so agile that I even surprised myself. Without thinking I ran directly for the window, unfastening the gears between the two panes and quickly sliding up the bottom sash and feeling the refreshing mountain air rush in over me. I pulled my torso halfway through the window, enough to see the entrance at Tetsu's backyard porch. For a brief moment I felt a spark of hope, a refuge from the nightmare I hoped to escape. But the appearance of the weight on my legs that squeezed and pulled me backwards tore it all away.
"T-Tethu..." I pushed out my voice through broken teeth with all the strength I could muster but only managed to squeeze out little more than a whimper before I was wrenched back into the room and forced onto the bed once more. My slightly opened eyes spotted the man as he slowly leaned down over me, his figure growing to surround me completely.
I felt the same chill spread down my torso as all noise drowned and the only thing I could make out were the red eyes that hovered over me, unreasonable and terrifying. I closed my eyes tightly once more in preparation for what was to come when suddenly the man's hands stopped moving. I opened my eyes to see a beaten and bruised Usra standing over him from behind, a broken chair in her hands as the man slowly toppled over sideways onto the bedroom floor below...