"So you don't remember much either huh."
After Nina calmed down a little, we talked for a little while, I got to know that she is in pretty much the same boat as me. She woke up alone in this forest, for some reason she seems to have some memories about her parents and nothing else.
"Nina only remembers Mama and Papa."
She cried a lot, at least now she is more relaxed around me.
"Anyways, do you remember your age?"
Nina tilts her head while staring at the sky, contemplating her answer. So far she seems to be a little bit spoiled and I would say she is an airhead.
"Mama and Papa said Nina is already a big girl, Nina celebrated her eighteenth birthday with them."
Wait what? I look at her from top to bottom, she is small, at least 25 cms shorter than me, her body is undeveloped. Not to say that she isn't a beautiful girl, but I'd not look at her as an adult woman. Maybe it has to do with her attitude, she acts like a little kid.
"Why are you looking at Nina like that? Do you like Nina?"
A faint trace of blushing on her face, while she tries to cover her small chest with her arms.
"I just thought you were younger, around twelve or something like that."
She puff her cheeks while appearing to feel insulted by my words.
"Nina is an adult, Mama and Papa said Nina is a beauty."
I blink my eyes for a moment while looking at her.
"HAHAHAHA, yes Nina, you are definitively a beauty."
'Looks like they really spoiled this kid. Well, I can't deny that she is beautiful but looks too young for my taste I guess.'
"Really?"
She grabs me by the arm and stares at me with puppy eyes, somehow I can't help myself but be captivated by her eyes.
"Yes Nina, really."
Her radiant smile makes me forget for a moment the situation we are currently in.
"Charlie likes Nina."
She lets my arm go and spins around while giggling, living in a fantasy world of her own creation.
'Okay, focus.'
We have to keep moving, looks like I'm going to be taking care of her.
'I do like to have some company though. Besides, I don't think she could survive an encounter with one of those dogs.'
'What were they thinking? How could they throw such a fragile little girl in this environment?'
It's possible that there are a lot of other people in this forest getting killed by some beast while incapable of defending themselves. Let's not think too hard about that, it isn't like I can do something to help.
"Nina?"
I can't believe she was terrified a couple of minutes ago and now she is in her own world without a worry. She turns her gaze towards me while smiling.
"Charlie?"
"It's Charles, my name."
"I think Charlie sounds better"
I breathe slowly and let the air out with a sigh.
'Just let her be.'
I turn around and check the map, Nina appears as a green dot, an interrogation symbol written inside.
[Player Nina has sent you a friend request, would you like to accept?]
[YES / NO]
'What?'
Her gaze is directed towards me filled with expectation.
I accept her request, now in the map her dot is blue same as mine, but the interrogation sign is now an 'F', for friend I guess.
When I click the dot it gives me some choices.
[Allow Friend to see your location?]
I can check or uncheck as I like, for the time being it can't hurt to let her see my location. It's good to know that this can be used as a tracking device with your friends.
Then I go to the [FRIENDS] menu, a blue rectangular box with the name [Nina] inside as my only friend. Different options when tapping her name.
[Transfer item]
[Share map]
[Send distress signal]
[Delete friend]
I pick the option to share map.
Nina looks at me and then shows me her tablet, the area visible in her map added the places I have in my map. I explain to her how to do the same and she shares her map with me.
Looks like she appeared in this place really close to me, no more than a couple of minutes walking. No wonder she found me so quickly.
"AAAAAAHHHH"
A cry of pain came from somewhere close by, it sounded like a man. Someone must have been attacked.
Nina got behind me at some point, I can feel her tremble.
'I insist, she isn't made to survive in this kind of situation.'
"I think we should leave."
She doesn't even answer me. As I start walking, she just follows behind me. I feel her hand come close to mine.
'Wait, is she trying to grab my hand? Damn it.'
I grab her hand. She looks at me and smiles, even though I still feel her hand trembling.
We keep walking in the opposite direction of the crying man. I can't help but think that I should have gone to help, but I doubt he could have survived that long.
My walking speed increases as I glance towards the wound in my arm, fearing that the smell of blood would bring the creature towards us.
Now that I think about it, my arm doesn't really hurt anymore and it seems to be healing way faster than it should. I wish I could experiment with my healing rate, but now isn't the time.
We kept walking at a fast pace for around 10 minutes, then I noticed Nina is barely keeping up with my speed. Of course, her legs are a lot shorter than mine.
"Are you okay?"
I stop walking while I wait for her to answer.
"Don't leave Nina."
Oh… she thinks I'm going to leave her behind.
'Should I? Uhm… I don't think I'm capable of abandoning her.'
Now I know something else about myself, I have a conscience.
"Nina, I'm not going to leave you."
I look into her eyes trying to give her confidence. Suddenly she grabs my arm, I feel her soft skin rubbing against my body, it is a pleasing sensation.
'Charles… this isn't the time to enjoy that feeling, besides, she looks way too young so get ahold of yourself.'
'I know, I know…'
I slap myself with both hands while Nina stares at me confused by my behavior.
"AOOOOOWWW"
The howling sound is coming from really close. Two red dots on the map, they are approaching fast towards our position.
I grab Nina and run towards a tree with thick branches, then I push her up.
"CLIMB"
Nina starts climbing while pressing her feet on my shoulders, once she is safe sitting on a branch I turn around and bring out the knife, just in time to see two sets of red eyes staring viciously at me, there is blood on their teeth, probably from the guy who cried out before.
'I handled one previously, I should be able to deal with two of them, right?'
First, I should get them to move further away from Nina. I dash towards the closer of the two while swinging my knife to its head, the dog easily dodges my attack, but I keep running.
Somehow, I feel fast, at least I have the impression that I am not used to this speed. Even though my speed is impressive, the dogs are faster and a minute later they are about to catch up to me.
I look over my shoulder and notice one of them jumping towards me, trying to take a bite out of my body, I barely manage to spin around and hit the dog with the back of my hand, which pushes it into a crash with a nearby tree.
The second dog sneaks from the side just a second after I hit its partner, managing to take a bite out of my right leg, it's really painful but I try to ignore it and stab the creature while it's biting me. Sadly, it avoids my knife by letting go of my leg and stepping backwards.
The first dog is back on its feet and seems pissed.
'Well, these creatures always look pissed so I guess now it's more than at the beginning.'
The dogs walk in circles around me, until one of them is in front and the other behind, then both of them charge towards me.
'Should I step to the side? Backwards?'
I step forward and slash the knife towards the one in front of me, stabbing it right in the eye while the one behind me takes another bite out of my leg, the pain making me fall backwards right on top of the dog.
It's a strange situation to have the creature looking at me while I'm sitting on it, it takes both of us a couple of seconds to realize our current position, I manage to react faster and slash my knife on the neck of the dog which is an instantaneous kill for me.
At that moment, I didn't manage to notice the previous dog jumping towards me ready to bite my neck.
'An eye for an eye they say, I guess that's it for me.'
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"
Just the from the side Nina intercepted the jumping dog and hit it with her knife, both of them falling to the ground with Nina on top stabbing her knife over and over until the monster no longer moves.
'That was unexpected.'
She was supposed to remain on the tree, where it's safe. Not that I can blame her, it would be me dying on the ground otherwise.
Nina turns around and looks at me with tears rolling down her face.
"Nina doesn't want to be alone, please don't leave Nina alone."
With my hand pressing the corpse below me, I feel the strange energy appearing again while the corpse dissolved into dust on the air.
I fall to the ground while staring at the crying little girl who saved my life.
"Thank you Nina."
She throws herself into my arms and cries nonstop while I stroke her long black hair.
'Looks like I overestimated myself this time. If it wasn't for her, there is no way I would be alive right now. I have to get stronger, I need to get stronger, I will get stronger.'