///
"You disgusting, fleshy thing..." A woman groaned as I felt my insides flayed. "Damn you... Damn you-- you miserable, ugly cur."
She spat insults in my face as my stomach grew gradually numb, and I felt the harrowing nothing of death's knock on my chest. I couldn't yell or object, just sit there and wonder to god what was happening to me.
What had I done to deserve this torture?
It had to be a nightmare, but the more I told myself that, the more agonizing her feral digging into my intestines felt.
I looked into her figure, nearly the same as those imposters in the shape of my family yet disfigured and inhuman. I felt the release of liquid from the depths of my being, and from the horrible, unmistakable smell, I knew it was my own blood, the life-fruit of my very humanity. I coughed as my mind raced into madness, writhing in pain and rolling in my own, messy essence.
"W--What the fuck do you want from me?" I coughed, gradually mustering up the strength to shout back. "I don't know who the fuck you are, bitch!"
I felt her tug at my intestines, shutting me up good.
"What gall..." She laughed. "To step on my people from on high yet still have the audacity to speak ill to me now that you're here, on the same teeny fucking level as we. The Lord knows where in hell you fit, not I. The least in my might is to relish merrily this fruit, the fruit bestowed upon my people through your pitiful fucking suffering."
I pulled my chest up by the string of flesh she dug her claws into.
"Fuck you..." I smiled.
In the very next instant, I lost all feeling, yet I saw clearly my body, as if looking upon myself from the third person.
///
"Sir Grinner!" Another woman yelled in grief. "Thou promised me, promised my people... You liar..."
I couldn't feel anything, no pain, just confusion. It was truly as if what'd just happened was a dream, but it was so real... There was pain, and there was the anger, the anger brought about by my confusion in the situation. It was unnatural, almost as unnatural as being called "sir" and hearing the word, "thou" in the 21st century.
Gradually, I felt a touch along a phantom limb, so faint and fleeting that it was surprising I'd even taken notice. I tried to move the limb, but I couldn't feel any sign of it listening to me. It was as if I was stuck with only the sense of sight and mind at my disposal.
"I should have known..." She whispered. "One of flesh like you would never last in our world. You were so powerful, a titan in right, but here, you're so fragile and insignificant..."
The feeling went away in an instant.
"I pity you for being cursed into our world. My sister was wrong-- so wrong about you."
The words... I couldn't understand the gravity of them, lying along the bushy ground as I was. Where was I? Who were these women? Why was I being shown this? My vision grew hazy, and after a moment of silence, loud steps could be heard, approaching myself and whatever woman was at my side.
My body raised as if lifted, and I stood there, finally getting a glance at their mouth.
'Who...' I thought, my vision failing my mind.
Her lips had a look of desperation yet not of fear. I was tucked under her arm... How the hell does that work? I couldn't see who or what was coming, only hearing their conversation-- if you could even call it that.
"Give me the boy, you rotting girl." A stern woman's voice called. "Drop. The. Boy."
The girl held me tighter, fastening me to her hip. In an instant, we were in another place, followed by a loud echo of cracking ground. Whoever they were talking to wasn't friendly, and the force behind what I assumed to be a giant swing was not that of a human but that of some monster.
From where we stood, I could finally get a sense of where we were. The ground was that of something akin to grass but artificial and grainy to look at. It was a weird look, but whoever held me so effortlessly moved smoothly along its surface. The space was grand, nearly covered by that same, strange turf, but in the distance, brown towers could be seen with a surface similar to wood yet too smooth to be a tree.
'What the hell is happening?' I snapped myself out of my curious daze.
My eyes locked onto something wrapped in the foliage, the form of a man, but with a closer look, my eyes burrowed, and my mind knew the fear without the feeling.
In that grass-like surface was my body-- it had to be mine.
Looking into it's surface, I felt it within myself-- that that torso was my torso, motionless and dead. Not far removed, were both of my legs, in a similar state. I couldn't hope to move them; no matter how much my mind willed them to, they wouldn't budge. All this, but I couldn't even peep my panic, a silent, bodyless head.
"Leave this place, beast!" The girl yelled in response. "I won't let you tarnish the man who was to be my people's salvation."
"Salvation?" The stern woman chuckled before slamming a black, inhuman nail into that very torso. "You ignorant thing... you know not what you're holding, girl. Now, give me the boy-- this fleshy shell."
Another instance passed, and we were across the space, on the opposite side of the monster woman. I felt my mouth spew more blood, yet the pain in my throat was short-lived. The blood stained the back of my protector's leg, and she stopped, wiping at the foreign substance.
"Why won't you give him to me?!" She yelled, the sound of her voice perverted. "Give me it!"
Finally, I was untucked from that hip and brought before the eyes of the woman who would defend my body. My mouth still stained with blood, I got a good look into her beautiful, amber-red eyes.
'Tora?' I thought, my vision cutting completely.
///
I gasped for air, and finally, I was gifted with wind through my lungs. I indulged too much, coughing coughs that echoed throughout the silent room. Again, I was met by those shadow beings, holding my family hostage with those grins plastered along where their faces would have been.
The room was still dim and coated in red lighting, reminding me that this was not home; I wasn't safe just yet.
"You alright, man?" A familiar man called from my side, patting me on the shoulder.
"Baun?" I raised my eyes to him.
Baun looked normal, and that face was definitely his, caring and friendly as always. But looking into his eyes, I felt that something wasn't right. He was the only person who looked-- well, normal, but still, he had the same air about him as those shadows.
"Your eyes tell a story, Scavenger." Baun smiled, the same smile as the shadows, and another man's figure appeared over his shoulder. "It's about time your heart was clued in... on the contract attached to the fate you face."