Roth slowly opens his eyes, his vision is a bit blurry but he notices a few drops of blood dripping from above his field of view.
He tilts his head up and the light from the moon flow into his blurry eyes. His vision slowly adjusts and he makes out the silhouette of a tall figure standing against the back drop of the full moon. Their hand is outstretched and on its end is is the aggressive wolf, its jaws almost seemingly stuck in the person's forearm, drawing beads of crimson liquid.
The dark clouds in the sky shift around and the rays of moonlight slowly changes angles, illuminating the dark figure and slowly unmasking their features. Multiple rows of hair strands kept cascading in the river breeze and a pair of piercing dark yellow pupils floated in a pool of pitch black instead of the typical white of regular eyes. Those were two of the first details picked up by his eyes which are now getting enveloped in a sense of awe.
The few seconds feel like hours as everything seems to come to a climactic halt before the wolf unclenches its teeth from the forearm and leaps back down. It growls and looks up to see who is the person trying to prevent him from hunting its justified prey. As soon as it stares into those dark eyes, he immediately stops growling and yelps into a submissive pose; In just a few moments its entire pack follows suite, their heads bowed to show that they want no trouble.
Roth turns his attention to the wolves and the sudden change in their aggressive demeanor catches him off guard. What could possibly make an entire pack of wolves, assembled together, kneel with their tails tucked between their legs? The pain in his legs is momentarily forgotten as he glances back at the mysterious figure and he subconsciously blurts out:
"Who...Who are you?"
At that instant, the clouds part completely and the moon light illuminates the entire river bed-Including the tall and mysterious presence. Roth is left astounded as he watches the moonlight slowly peel away the veil of darkness from the figure of the...woman? He slowly processes her features which paint her as a tall enigmatic woman, but he also wonders why would a woman be so deep in the Ravenous Forest, especially at this time of night.
As he slowly scans over her form, his eyes lock into hers and he gets lost in their calm darkness-There is not a single exchange of words but they were still communicating with through the windows of their souls. As a slightly stronger gale rushed through the calming flow of breeze and blew her hair into the wind, from under her long blowing hair, a set of gruffy beast ears resting on her head like a crown, reveal themselves.
The yellow-dark eyes...The pointed animal ears...The behavior of the wolf pack-All of these things made one thing pretty obvious...This woman wasn't any ordinary damsel in distress. As their eyes maintained a hold for a bit too long, a soppy and wet-tearing sound added to the intense situation. Roth finally breaks eye contact to look at her previously injured arm and he witnesses how her flesh is mending itself by coming together and covering the torn area.
He can vaguely make out the blood vessels reconnecting themselves and the blood spilled around her forearm begin to evaporate. The mysterious beast woman watches him in the same stoic expression as his eyes fix on her healing arm, watching the strange grotesque process. The woman finally steps closer and bends down, her face inches away from the boy's as she examines his face for all the little details. Roth slightly flinches back in confusion at the woman's sudden approach and just as it seemed to turn into another stare down, she whispers in a firm and commanding tone:
"Rest."
That's all she said. A single word.
But that was all Roth's body needed to hear as it began to shut itself down. It seemed that her presence was somehow reassuring for Roth, even though she was a complete stranger with even more peculiar features in the most bizarre location possible for a first impression.
His eyelids grew heavy as the adrenaline which had been keeping his body barely awake starts to fizzle out and even the agony of his broken legs is over shadowed by the toll of exhaustion from the entire day. The last thing he sees before his head starts to droop down is the same emotionless face of the woman as she swiftly holds the back of his shirt to prevent him from crashing down.
And after that was darkness. Roth only remembers himself floating in a dark space and his body began to feel a comforting warmth envelope him. Is this...Is this the path to afterlife? Did all those choices lead the so called 'fate' to open the gates to the place beyond? Roth wasn't conscious but these thoughts swarmed around him like a blurry dream...Wait, is he in a dream?
Suddenly the darkness starts to fade out and light starts to radiate around him. He hears a low crackling sound, which becomes more distinguished by the second and then he parts his eye lids to break his deep-dark slumber. So yes, it was a dream and not the end of the line for the adventuring soul.
For the moment Roth lays on his back, not even sure of his surroundings. He is just taking slow breaths as he thinks to himself whether he is truly awake or if its just another reverie disguised as reality. He is blankly staring upwards as his mind itself hasn't started up to its entire functionality and he wonders what is happening? The after effects of the much needed rest has momentarily rendered the memories of the recent events to be forgotten.
As his vision becomes more clear and his thoughts formed more coherently, he notices a slightly warm orange light being emitted to the left of him. He slowly turns his head to find the embers of a calm fire resting in a stone fireplace, the source of the crackling noise became more apparent.
He tries to get up but he was sent crashing back down due to the pain in his legs and as he yelped onto the pillow beneath his head, his recent memories came flooding back. He remembered the chase, the jump, the crash and the SNAP which still echoes within his skeleton but the events are a still bit jumbled. As he looked again at his surroundings, he remembers his last location and it definitely wasn't as warm or comfortable.
"Where am I?"
He murmured to himself as he rubbed his eyes and propped himself up on one of his elbows, trying his best to sit up. He now looked around in more clarity as he picked up details of the room such as intricate wooden furniture like drawers, shelves, tables and many more. As he looked around more, he noticed that the walls were made of logs and the ceiling was a roof covering of thatch.
As he scanned the room his attention drew closer to himself and he checked to see where he was sleeping. Roth glanced at the head board at his feet and felt the soft sheets in the palm of his hands-He could make out the comfort of a bed. The bed was well made, the sheets were straightened out, the pillows were fluffy and blanket was neatly folded at the edge but as he swiped across the bedsheets, his hands picked up a layer of dust.
As he took in all the details he was calm and he suddenly remembered the final and most crucial piece of memory- Who was the woman? His head starts to swirl with various theories as he is both nervous and excited at the turn of events.
Was he rescued by another wandering adventurer?
Did the Guild send someone after him to keep an eye?
Was the woman a mercenary, sorceress or maybe a royal knight?
Was she a spirit?
As Roth remembered her dominating presence and peculiar features, his theories became less mundane and more outrageous. Just as he lost himself to his thoughts, the sound of distant footsteps pierced his mind.