When he wakes up, he's lying on what appears to be a beach. There's the sound of the ocean very nearby, and he's sure that the ground he's lying on is sand.
But… that can't be right. Just seconds ago he'd been in the middle of the forest, a demon trying to tear off his leg– Wait a minute! Could he have died and gone to the afterlife?!
He tries to sit up, but he hisses in pain when the abrupt movement jostles his injured leg, and he lets himself fall back down.
Nope. Definitely still alive. If he had died he doubts his injury would have transferred to the next life. At least he hopes that's not how it works.
"Oh, you're finally awake," a voice somewhere behind him says. Baz. Of course it had to be him.
His head feels groggy, like it's been stuffed full of cotton, and he can't be sure if that's why he isn't able to make out his surroundings or if there is simply no light.
He's heard of people going temporarily blind after receiving a blow to the head, but he thinks (hopes) that isn't the case here. At least he doesn't remember hitting his head before passing out. Though there is the possibility that he hit his head when he passed out.
"What the fuck happened?" he groans, trying to lift himself up on his elbows, careful not to disturb his right leg this time, to look for wherever Baz is. He doesn't have to, because when Baz notices what he's trying to do, he hurries to his side to help him.
"Easy there. Don't push yourself," he says as he helps him up into a semi-sitting position.
"Where the fuck are we?" he asks, squinting at his surroundings. There is lighting, but it is very dim, making it impossible to distinguish anything more than a few metres away.
"We got swallowed by the demon."
"..." It takes his brain a few seconds to catch up. "WE WHAT?!"
"Well, more like absorbed, actually. After you passed out. We thought all the demons had already been dealt with after Aster killed the one that attacked you. Still, xe still went to make sure they were all gone, and I stayed behind looking over you. Well, turns out all those small creatures were just part of a larger one, and since you weren't able to seal away their souls, killing them didn't do shit, because they just merged together and came back to life as a big one. It just opened its mouth, like I'm telling you, it was huge, and the next thing I knew we were being sucked in. You know like when someone gets abducted by aliens in movies? They just get pulled up from the ground? Yeah, somewhat like that. I was sure that was the end."
So they weren't on a beach, meaning what he previously thought was the sound of the ocean was probably the demon's gastrointestinal fluids, and what he was lying on wasn't sand, but…
Ugh. No. He can't think about it.
"Hey, don't look so glum," Baz pokes him in the shoulder, "you should feel lucky you got stuck with me. At least I know some basic medical care. If you were stuck with Aster xe would definitely have left you to bleed out and die."
He looks down at his leg. Sure enough, it has been bandaged, if somewhat clumsily, but he's not bleeding out from a gaping wound. The makeshift bandages look like strips of cloth from Baz's robe. Now that he mentions that, he notices Baz's robe is nowhere in sight. So he had definitely torn it up to use as bandages.
"Thank you. And, sorry." He feels like he should apologise.
"What for?"
"For putting you through so much trouble," he can feel his face heating up.
"Don't worry. It was nothing."
"So, um," he feels awkward now, "aside from being absorbed by some demonic creature, what else do you know?"
"Not much, really. We seem to be stuck on some sort of… island? I walked all around while waiting for you to wake up. It's a small island, about 50 square metres. I know the liquid isn't anything toxic, if you're worried about that; I managed to find out it's just blood." He picks up a handful of the "sand", letting it fall back down slowly. "I don't really know what this is though. It's not leftover food or anything like that." He dusts off his hands, "Well, it's better not to think too hard about it."
Something doesn't seem right. If they were in the creature's stomach, there would at least be pieces of the animals it had consumed floating around if it hadn't digested them yet. And there was also the detail of them not getting chewed up, simply absorbed, meaning they hadn't been eaten…
"Yeah, I don't think this is the creature's stomach," Kit says. "Maybe it's some sort of astral space inside it? By what you've told me, it doesn't sound like it ate us so much as it just transported us to a different place inside itself."
"What are you implying?"
Now that his eyes have more gotten used to the dim lighting, he is more aware of his surroundings, helped by the fact his head has cleared up. There appears to be a type of barrier over the place, something he hadn't been able to sense before. It's a powerful barrier, enough that even without the energy sensing spell activated he can feel the thrum of magical energy all around. There are very few barriers strong enough to be perceived without an aiding spell, and in this context, it's most likely the one that would be used to create a dimensional transcendentalism. So the more likely scenario is they're trapped inside a barrier, and not in the demon's stomach like he'd previously thought, meaning there is a way to get out that doesn't include being digested. Kit tells Baz his theory as he starts formulating a plan. "We were probably teleported here by an array, most likely drawn on the creature's mouth, and then dropped into an interdimensional space with a barrier set around it so it fits inside the creature. If there is, in fact, a barrier, it means it must have some sort of weak spot… If we can find it, we could break through and get out."
"So we go look for it?"
"No, you go look for it. As much as I might want to help you, if you haven't noticed, I would appear to be currently compromised," he gestures at his injured leg.
"Right. Sorry." Baz has the decency to look ashamed of himself. "Where and what should I look for, though?"
"Is this the exact place where we landed?" he asks. Baz nods. "So we're probably right in the middle…" With teleportation arrays, there were three major factors at play: the transmitter array, where the "message", be it a person or object, would start from, and lastly, the receptor array, which was the destination. With most teleportation arrays, the message would be deposited right in the middle of the receptor array. Assuming this was the case here, this worked to their advantage. "Most seals will be less likely to have a weakness around their perimeter, since most of the attacks would come from the outside, but the centre tends to be weaker. So if this barrier has a weakness, it's most likely you'll be able to find it here."
"Right." Baz nods pensively. "So I look for what?"
"Anywhere where the magic feels weaker, or some place where the surroundings might look blurry. With places created by barriers, there will be places where the space doesn't manifest correctly."
"And those are the weak spots easier to break through?"
"Generally speaking, yes."
Baz nods, standing up. "And then when I find it? Do I come back for you?"
"Yeah, that would be good. Though I think I'm going to have to rely on you to do all the work even then. Sorry."
"It's fine. I don't mind. Think of it as making up for not guarding you properly before," he jokes, but there is a layer of genuineness underneath.
After Baz leaves, it's only a few minutes before he's unable to spot him anymore. If what he said about the size of the "island" is true, he should be able to hear him if he were to call out in case of an emergency.
Now that he's left alone with his thoughts, the pain that he hadn't felt before hits him. When the demon had just bitten him, he was only vaguely aware of the seriousness of his injury, but his brain had disconnected too soon for it to really sink in. But now, he is hyper aware of his leg in a way he didn't believe was possible. Even though he isn't bleeding out, that doesn't do anything to diminish the pain, and what was a dull throbbing just minutes before now feels like he's getting his right leg set on fire. It feels like every time he breathes, the wound is tearing open all over again, penetrating all the way to the bone. He remembers his bone making a cracking sound. He hopes it didn't break the bone. That would be really bad.
He grits his teeth, trying to keep his breathing even. He tries to think of something (anything) that will distract him from it.
He closes his eyes. But it's no use; his brain is unable to think about anything except the pain. There's really nothing he can do but try to bear the pain until Baz comes back.
When he does, he can hear his footsteps approaching before he speaks, "I checked out the whole place again, but there doesn't seem to be any weak points in the barrier."
He opens his eyes to look at Baz, who has sat back down beside him. "So we're trapped?"
"Don't be so negative. We're not trapped. Just," he waves his hands around, "momentarily detained."
"We're trapped."
"We're not trapped!"
"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say." He lays down. Now that the adrenaline has completely worn off, he can feel the resulting headache from using the energy sensing spell coming on with a viscous passion. Combined with the pain in his leg, he wants nothing but to drop dead.
"W-wha- what are you doing?" Baz splutters.
He closes his eyes. "I'm going to take a nap."
"Right now?!"
"Why not?"
"BECAUSE!"
"There's nothing we can do, except wait for Aster to rescue us. If xe kills the creature, the barrier will dissolve, since it's probably the demon's life force sustaining it. So I'll make myself comfortable in the meanwhile."
"We're in the stomach-"
"I told you we're not in the stomach."
"Fine. We're in the not-stomach of some demon and you want to take a nap?! Shouldn't you be acting more worried? We could die at any moment!"
Kit can't help but feel like their roles have been reversed. Usually it would be Baz acting all nonchalant, with Kit freaking out, but right now he's too tired to panic.
"I don't think anything's going to happen. If nothing has happened in all the time we've been here, I doubt a few more hours will change that," he says drowsily from the floor.
"What are you even saying? You're just going to give up? You're okay with dying here?"
"I have confidence in Aster."
"You don't even know if xe's still around! What if xe thought we're already dead and just left?"
"I doubt it. Xe wouldn't half ass a job."
"What if xe died?!"
"Hm. Perhaps."
"PERHAPS?!"
"Would you please be quiet? My head is really killing me right now."
"You–! You're not taking this seriously at all! Do you not care at all if we die!" Baz looks like he's about ready to burst into flames from outrage.
"I really just want to sleep. Just a quick nap. I'll talk to you when I wake up."
"If you wake up!"
"Ah, whatever." He tries to roll over to his side to give his back to Baz, but his injured leg doesn't let him.
"It is NOT whatever! Shouldn't you be the one most preoccupied about getting out of here?!"
"I guess."
"You guess?! If we don't die in here I'm going to fucking kill you when we get out!"
He peels open an eye to look at Baz. "You're being dramatic."
"I am not being dramatic! I just don't want to die!" he slams his fist on the ground, steam rising from his hand. (He's going to burst into flames any time now.)
He accidentally lets out a huff of laughter.
"WHAT?!" Baz's expression twists in anger, and that only launches him into a laughing fit. The exhaustion must be getting to him; he feels like he's slowly losing his mind. "Stop laughing! What about this whole situation do you find remotely amusing?!"
"Nothing," he says when he manages to calm down a little, but he's still giggling, "it's just- You," he wheezes, "you just- You look just like Fluorite right now." Baz's frown deepens, and he starts laughing hysterically again. "Just- just like that! Hahahaha, you look exactly like her when you do that face!"
He keeps laughing; he just can't stop. Even his headache and the pain in his leg have been pushed to the back of his mind.
At first, Baz's expression looks like he's about to hit him, but as more and more time goes on and he shows no signs of stopping, his expression goes from outraged to worried.
He's definitely gone crazy.
"Hey, Kit," Baz takes him by the shoulders, giving him a slight shake, "cut it out." When he is still unable to stop, Baz slaps him twice, one on each cheek. "I said cut it out!"
The slaps seem to work, because he's finally pulled out from his hysterical state.
"...Sorry."
"What the hell happened to you?"
"Sorry. I don't know. I just…"
"What the hell, man? Don't scare me like that."
"Sorry."
"Yeah," Baz is still giving him a concerned look, "you should be sorry. Seriously though," he pushes a few strands of hair back that had fallen in front of his face, "what is wrong with you today?"
"Um."
"You know what? Never mind."
"Okay."
Baz lies down next to him. "I never thought I would die like this."
"You're getting fatalistic."
"I had so much more I wanted to do with my life. I at least wanted to see the light of the sun again."
"O-oi, you're blowing this whole thing out of proportion. I told you Aster would rescue us."
"Hey, Kit," it's like Baz can't hear him anymore, "did you ever think about what your life would be like when you were older? It's funny, I never really thought about that before. In fact, I was terrified of growing old. But now, I find myself wishing I had…" Seems like it's now Baz's turn to lose his mind.
Maybe there was something toxic in the atmosphere and they hadn't noticed.
"You're rambling," he tells him, but it does nothing to snap him out of his stupor. Should he slap him? It worked when Baz did it to him, maybe it will work for him too.
He hoists himself up to rest on his elbows, but before he can reach over and slap him, a black hole opens up above them. He doesn't have time to think, doesn't even have time to blink, before he's being pulled in by it.
And then there's only darkness.
~~~
When they resurface, they're sitting in a pile of blood covered guts reaching up to their middle. This must be the merged demon Baz had told him about, except it's been cleaved along the middle, and all its insides have spilled out, the two halves of the creature flanking them and creating a sort of pool preventing its intestines from spreading out all across the ground. They're back in the forest, almost the exact same location where he had last been, because a few metres away there is the seal he had drawn. He can see Aster sitting with xeir back against a tree, xeir eyes closed, splatters of the demon's blood all over xeir clothes.
"We're alive!" Baz cries out, standing up and throwing his hands in the air. Bits of flesh and blood fly through the air at his outburst.
Aster jumps, opening xeir eyes in shock. "WHAT THE FUCK!" Xe gets up, grabbing xeir axe from where it had been lying next to xem. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE BOTH DEAD!"
"Surprise?" Kit says weakly, the putrid smell making him feel lightheaded and nauseous. Baz is too busy celebrating to pay attention to xem.
"What the hell happened to you two?!"
"A LOT!" Baz still seems a little hysterical. There's a crazed look in his eyes, accentuated by the fact his hair, which he usually keeps in a neat bun, has come undone, strands of it falling all over his face and giving him a wild look, not to mention his clothes are torn and covered in all kinds of questionable substances.
"What-" xe stops when xe sees him, still sitting dazed and unmoving. "Oh my god, Kit. Are you okay?!"
He feels his surroundings starting to blur, before emptying all of his stomach's contents on the forest floor. It mixes with the demon's innards, creating an even more gruesome picture.
Then, for the second time that day, he blacks out.