"Hey kid, are you lost?" The homeless-looking man didn't come any closer, being on the edge of the territory lit by the fire.
"Well, let's just say the man's a sword, put it away." The guy's heart was beating like mad, he was facing a man with a big sharpened iron, anyone would get nervous here, and if you pay attention to his super spiritual face, it's not far to panic.
"Don't be frightened, the Asian put the cleaver into the improvised scabbard and took a step closer. Dima did not stop him and put his spear aside. The stranger sat down on the opposite side of the fire and looked with rapt attention at the still smoking fish."
"Hungry?" Dima became somehow uncomfortable, he took out a stick with fish and handed it to his unexpected companion. The latter took it without a moment's hesitation and without too much modesty gnawed into the juicy meat. The Asiatic ate like a real pig, tearing the meat and cartilage with his teeth, paying no attention to the bones at all. 'Fate has given us a guest.'
Dima waited patiently for the Asian to finish, the guy didn't want to blame him, he had to starve for a couple of days a couple of times in his life, and the feeling, to put it mildly, was far from positive. The Asian quickly finished the rest of the provisions and reached for the pot hanging behind his belt, opening the cork the man took a couple of sips. He gave the flask to Dima, the boy was a little wary, as the traveller looked very unpretentious, but he took it. He put the neck to his nose, and the smell of cheap alcohol immediately hit his head.
'Well, why not,' the boy thought to himself, and he took a drink from the pot. He felt as if he had been hit on the head with a pipe, his eyes were blurred and wet, and the tears came on their own. The traveller only laughed, and with a slight smile took the burden back.
"My name is Min, and what is your name?" The man spoke a little confusedly, but what struck Dima was that he understood him, as if this man had lived in city all his life, and had spoken to him every day. And if you dress him up in a dirty work uniform, and put a cigarette in his teeth, even he wouldn't be able to tell the difference between this man and a typical alcoholic - Valera's grandfather. 'Probably the tricks of Chorus, but I'm better off,' he thought to himself. - thought to himself.
"My name is Dima, and you're lost here too?" Min nodded, and spoke.
"Yes, I was going for more, and I took a wrong turn, and probably another wrong turn, but don't worry, I know this place, we are now on the bank of the river Ao, if we go downstream we will come to the village." Min's words warmed Dima's soul like the summer sun, the guy calmed down, in general Min's story was more than plausible, not many people get lost in the forest, especially drunk.
'Wait, where did he get the booze from if he was going for more?' asked Victor, the veil fell from his eyes, and the guy began to think hard, if there were no other inconsistencies.
"Why do you need a sword?" Dima decided to ask leading questions, and so casually moved closer to the spear.
"The place is troubled, people say there are bandits, so I took it with me, just in case." Min's words now seemed very suspicious to Dima, 'Yes, there are bandits, and one of them is sitting right across the street. Min answered reluctantly, and mainly looked at two things: Dima leather jacket and the fire.
"Listen, what were you doing in the river, and why did you start shouting, I almost gave my soul to God from the surprise." This question should have been asked from the first minutes of their acquaintance, but frightened Dima simply forgot. Min shifted his gaze to the guy and stretched his neck and answered.
"Ah, that, well, I wanted to eat, and so I went into the river, I thought maybe I could catch something, and I was caught by some thing." Min obviously did not want to bring up the subject, and turned away casually and cast a fleeting glance at the place from which he had come.
'Don't talk anymore,' thought the boy, examining his interlocutor from head to toe, and of course there were no signs of a bite. Dima had already decided for himself that Min could not be trusted, the men sat a little longer and Min decided to go to sleep, Dima sat opposite to him deciding what he should do. 'Well, what we have is, a strange-looking thug with a big cleaver, his alibi is doubtful, and his greedy look directed at my jacket is very tense,' he said.
Dima was thinking, and then another unpleasant idea popped into his head. 'What if he was not alone,' the guy was again overcome by a slight panic, he was just sitting near the fire, and the adrenaline in his blood was ready to burst out. Dima was pulled out of his stupor by strange sounds coming from roughly where Min had come from. 'Okay I'll go check it out, sleeping isn't an option right now anyway.' Maybe it was worth it to kill Min quietly, but Dima could not do that, not so much from the physical side, but from the moral side. There was no clear and proven guilt for Min, and the cost of a mistake would be too great.
The boy stood up and grabbed his improvised spear and walked towards the strange rustling. Visibility was at zero, and Dima used the sharps as an improvised walking stick, the guy reached the drowned bank and took a closer look. His knees were shaking and his hands were shaking violently. Exhaling, the guy took another step.
"It fucking hurts!" A voice shouted from under his trainer, and acting on reflexes Dima pierced the place where the night thug's head was supposedly. The shiv stabbed into something hard and went deeper with a squelching sound.
Dima didn't have time to realise what was happening, and as he tried to make a second blow, something hard crashed into his leg. The guy lost his balance and fell into the river.
The cold water brought the lad out of his shock, and he swam a little way out and surfaced in a different place. Disgruntled voices came to his ear at once.
"That sucker stabbed me in the back." Dima listened with bated breath, he had been lucky to find himself in a thick reed, and the night was dark enough that he could not be seen at all.
"It's your own fault, if you hadn't shouted, we'd have done it long ago, and now look for him now, he won't just give himself away."
"And me, I've been bitten by some bollocks." The first voice definitely belonged to Min, and then Dima got a big blow, he was only a couple of metres away from the real killer, and there was no doubt that he was a killer.
"All right, you stay here, I'll find this guy." Min said and started to twist his head, trying to catch his victim with his eyes, but the night had a different opinion. Dima's eyes suddenly widened, his hand on automatic flung to his hip, raising a splash, from under the water the guy pulled out a small black snake. Fresh blood dripped from its small fangs. Dima was already regretting that he had stopped in this cursed place at all.
Min heard a rustle in the bushes, and he scrambled through the reeds with a cleaver and moved towards the boy's position. There was little time to think, and Min was getting closer by the second. 'Dima thought to himself and grabbed the snake by the tail and moved towards Min. By ear he was very close and trotting just a couple of metres away, the water and muddy bottom slowed down the movement. The two men literally collided foreheads, Min lost his balance and fell into the water, and immediately tried to get up. Dima didn't miss the opportunity and hit him in the face with a snake, which got caught in Min's liquid hair, the animal obviously didn't like being a weapon, and it took out its anger on Min, clawing at his eyebrow.
"Aah..." screamed the bandit, trying to tear the sow from his face, his victim, pushing the reeds again came to the same shore.
"Min, what are you..." the wounded bandit had no time to ask, a white trainer flew into his head, Dima spared no effort and put all his weight into the blow. The nasty crunch was like music to his ears, the guy turned round towards the river, by the sound of it Min was already close by. 'Gotta run.'
Dima had already rushed towards the fire, but in the darkness he tripped over his own sharpshooter. The boy grabbed a stick and jerked up the slope. Something whistled near his head, cutting off a small clump of hair.
"You bitch, I'll kill you," Min shouted and ran after the boy. Dima ran to the fire and made a spear with his spear and prepared for a fight, and by the way, Min was standing opposite in a couple of seconds, in his hands the blade of a cleaver was shining, blood was flowing from the man's eyebrow, and his eyes were no different from those of a rabid jackal.
Min shouted and swung the cleaver, Dima was far enough away, his weapon was longer, and most importantly they were separated by a fire. The blow went into the milk, and the guy counterattacked, the sharpshooter only slipped on the improvised armour of the Bandit and went away. Min did not hesitate and rushed to the right and tried to shorten the distance. Dima ran in the opposite direction. This scene was more like a scene from a second-rate comedy, two morons running around a fire trying to cut each other. The guys were out of breath and stopped breathing heavily.
"How long are we going to run like this?" Min could hardly keep on his feet, he was a bandit, but he was also a drunkard, and stamina was not usually their forte. Still, their brothers had always relied on intimidation and surprise. Dima didn't quite understand what was going on, the guy just acted, reacting to the threat like an amoeba.
"Yeah, if you don't give up." Dima grinned madly, not quite sure what was going on and just floating in the adrenaline.
The chase continued again, Min struggled to move his legs, and his opponent took a moment to get away from the thug's attack and stabbed him in the knee. Min lost his balance and fell straight into the fire.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Shouted Min frantically waving his arms, trying to grab onto something and get out of the fire, but Dima had a different opinion, the guy just nailed the neck of the bandit to the hot coals, piercing it.
"No, let go!" Min yelled unintelligibly trying to knock Dima off balance with blows against his leg, the bandit simply dropped the knife, but the guy stood like a statue, this madness lasted for a couple of minutes and having issued a quiet long Min gave up his breath and fell silent.
Dima just stood there, his hands just refused to unclench, clutching the improvised spearhead to the point of pain. 'Maybe it was meant to happen, but I didn't think it would be so soon, I... I killed a man.'