He stumbled through the unending plains, blades of dying grass and reeds reached up to his chest, and he felt like he was wading through water, constantly struggling against the sharp blades of grass. Too, in the grass, were bugs and other small animals, each scampering around beneath his feet. The sunlight was like molten gold on his back, face, and whole body. He passed by herds of animals, some like bulls with massive horns and bodies far larger than cars, and others like cheetahs but with two extra legs, totaling six. They looked like they grazed on the grasses and other reeds.
Although, in the distance, the shadows of massive monsters sometimes fell upon him, and he would try to duck down in the grass before they noticed. They were like massive antelopes, which would be fine, if not for one little discrepancy. At one point, Teijin got close enough to one that he could see it fully, and what he saw made him decide never to get that close to one again. In its mouth were three full rows of serrated teeth, each shining in the golden sunlight of the plains sun.
The sack contained only one day of rations now, and as sweat formed on his brow he knew he would have to find some sort of shelter or water soon.
It's too damn hot out here, how do these animals get any water?
He continued moving along through the plains into the distant endless horizon. Finally, his rations ran thin. Even trying to stretch it out as much as he could, he had maybe one more day, and at that point, he would be so exhausted it might not matter anymore. Teijin put his hands on his knees and his head down, as the road ahead had become blurry in his eyes. He had to stop, just for a moment… take a short rest…
Get up, Teijin, now is not the time to rest!
Damn it! If y'all have a better idea than endlessly walking in this fuckin hellscape, you should let me know!
hmm…
Yeah, that's about what I thought you son of a-
Focus on the path ahead.
Teijin raised his head and strained his eyes. There, far in the distance, was a pillar of slowly rising smoke that he would not have been able to see had he not been told of it. It was like a beacon of hope for him. There were other people. Then, something else occurred to him.
Wait, why is it burning? Shiiiiiiiit, I'm either gonna get fucked up by some massive ass monster or meet some people that probably aint gonna be as nice to me as the city people. On the other hand, I'm doomed either way if I don't get food and water.
So he began trudging his way through the grass towards the small plume of smoke that, as time went on grew ever darker and ever larger. The way to the rising smoke eventually became hilly, and what Teijin had thought was a single plume of smoke turned out to be many smaller ones each combining to make one much larger one.
As Teijin finally rose above the last hill, a gruesome scene appeared in front of him. A village, assembled with tents, was burning to the ground. People ran to and fro, while men on horseback holding bows shot them not lethally, but rather in places like the calves or the feet, where they would be slowed down but not killed right away. Teijin was used to far greater amounts of noise in battles, using guns and other modern weaponry, as well as the occasional spell or bomb.
What the hell?! Did I just walk into some kinda damned historical reenactment? Whatever gods out there, they didn't intend for this typa shit to go down in the middle of buttfuck nowhere.
Well, how could you know that a god could have entended-
-Shut the fuck up.
As he watched the men on horses laughed, shooting men, women, and children alike with their arrows. Although Teijin thought that "save the women and children" was a rather outdated term, as he had been brutally injured by both classes of people multiple times, and more than a few had gotten mere millimeters from ending his life with bullets, knives, spells, and other various weapons.
Now that Teijin thought about it, this seemed a rather one-sided conflict. Why did none of them fight back? He even observed several bows and bushels of arrows leaning on the sides of tents, seemingly discarded but more than available for use. Seeing as the 'tent people', as Teijin decided he would refer to them, were distracted, and the years of sneaking around in buildings that he certainly had no right to be near, and let alone in, it was rather simple to get behind the tents while they weren't looking.
In the first tent he 'visited', which was only just starting to catch on fire, he climbed through the back by lifting the animal hide that made for the walls of the tent. The tent had no corners, and Teijin found himself instead of inside, trapped between the hides and a weave of wood that held the tent in shape. It was not unlike a large upside-down basket, in which the main living area and sleeping areas were all located.
Teijin, deciding that if the lattice of wood could hold together the entirety of the heavy tent, there was almost no chance he could break it, backed out to try and find either another means of entering or some sort of tool he could use to open the tent. He quickly scanned the area around him and found the bow and arrows. Although he had no clue how to use them, he sure as hell would take them anyway. He also noticed that a blade lay strewn nearby, which he picked up as well.
He then retreated back towards the hills, seeing that there was no real way to sneak into any of the tents without using the front door, and also that the horsemen were quickly getting bored of their little shooting game. He decided that waiting it out until nightfall would benefit him more than sticking around, and so he retreated into the reeds of the surrounding hills, also taking notice of how the reeds near the tent village were cleared, and obviously, it had taken some painstaking work to do so.
Why, he wondered, would they put so much effort into clearing the grass, if they lived only in a semi-permanent encampment? Would it not be better to only clear paths between the many tents? This revelation made him much more cautious of the tall reeds, and for a moment he considered going back and hiding between the burning tents instead. But he decided that whatever purge was going on there he did not want to be a part of it.
He waited in the grass, watching the tents slowly burn. Eventually, the horsemen simply finished the job and rode off. At that time Teijin decided that he could enter before the village and try to salvage anything he could find. He entered a home at the far end of the village, which had only just started burning.
In the tent, he found a table with food. It was some sort of simple venison and fried dish with seasoning in an orange sauce. Although it was all taking a little more time baking because of the fire, which had grown hot enough that Teijin decided it would be prudent to leave before he too got cooked because of the intense heat. He also noticed a fireplace that was slowly smoking some kind of meat, which he pocketed. He entered several other homes and found similar things.
With his bag now filled again, he decided, as he had nothing else to do, to explore the village more thoroughly. As he explored what now was the ruins of the village, he heard something struggling in the wreckage of the tents. He watched as a young woman slowly rose from the ashes of the wreckage, lifting the massive pelts off of herself, all while resisting the fire.
She was an impressive figure, her muscles coiled under her skin like hungry snakes, while her face emanated a dark rage. She stood at an extraordinary six foot three, or for the non-imperials around two meters tall.
This lady's built like a war bot, and she looks like she's got the same amount of strength as well.
He raised his hand in what he hoped she would understand as a greeting, as he wasn't sure if he could speak the language of the tent people. She stared at him for what seemed like forever, and Teijin felt quite awkward now. After all, he had just shown up in front of this lady, with a bow and arrows that he didn't know how to use, and food that wasn't his, both of which were stolen from her people.
Speaking of her people, she may well have been the last one left, and Teijin was certainly not helping her calm down at all from the death of her brethren. Her heaving breathing could be heard from where he was, and sweat and burns covered her rough tanned skin. Her hazel eyes stared him down, like some sort of beast considering if it had just met another one of its kind or something it would rip to shreds and devour.
Teijin, feeling like he would explode from how much he hated the situation, decided to attempt to break the silence.
"Do. You. Understand-" Teijin started saying slowly until he was cut off by the woman.
"Who are you, sir?'
She spoke with an accent like an old noble, as if from some sort of rich family, which Teijin found quite funny as she lived in these old tents, with no floor but the bare ground. Although it was interesting that they both spoke the same language, he would have to think about that more later. Then she spoke again, and now he took notice of the sound of her voice. It could be likened to the sound of windchimes on that fateful day when he stood happily with his father and mother in the park and watched birds fly by.
The expanse of the plains seemed so massively large, and yet with the sound of those chimes the sky turned a little more blue, and the animals of the plains stood and listened to the gentle breeze. It was a voice that one would not associate with someone of her size and stature, and yet it too fit her perfectly, like some sort of warrior goddess. Unfortunately, the words that came out of it were not exactly pleasant for Teijin to hear.
"Why do you approach this camp at such a time? Are you some sort of loathsome scavenger, waiting to snatch away what my people had gathered?" the fury in her voice carried out, no longer like chimes but now like some sort of great bell, thundering in its high up cathedral.
At this moment Teijin seemed to lose his wits and said something which we may deem to be extremely stupid.
"Well, doesn't look like you've got much need of it anymore"
You fucking idiot.
She lunged at him with rage in her eyes and, if he hadn't known she was human he would have thought that flames would burst from her jaws. Being just some street kid hadn't helped Teijin with hand-to-hand fighting, and at an early age was given a front-row demonstration of just how much shit could be beaten out of someone. Street fighting takes place on concrete and usually ends up with the winner as hurt as the loser because neither of the idiots knows how to fight.
Teijin also wasn't graced with a large build, nor was especially swift, although he was a little faster than most. What he did know how to do was fuck with people, especially people who were already angry. A comment about something that was already hurting or just being a general bastard always made his opponent underthink their next move. Of course, none of that would matter unless Teijin could doge her lunge.
Which he couldn't.
He found himself pinned on the ground, then the Amazonian began slamming her fists into his face. Teijin tried to put his hand up to lessen the damage, but even if he had been taught how to put up an actual guard he would have had trouble doing anything near blocking the unending blows to his face.
Come on man, let us have a turn…
Fuck no, you remember what happened last time, never again!
Aright, alright, no need to get so hot and bothered about it! Just a suggestion.
Teijin continued to get his face rearranged for a few minutes, each blow feeling harder than the last until it felt like he was getting beat with a massive chunk of lead over and over again. He gasped for air and some sort of relief from the pain. Eventually, it stopped, and Teijin lay there, bloodied and bruised. He felt a drop of water land on his cheek, and he opened his blue and black puffed-up eyes.
She stood over him, tears falling from her eyes. She fell off of him and hit the ground hard next to him, her breathing was strained and she wasn't moving much. They both lay there for a while until Teijin stood up and sat on the ground some distance away. She too shortly stood up and turned to face him, ready to face him once more, and found that his face was, miraculously, completely restored.
He sat there, grinning like a madman, leaning against a bunch of broken bits and pieces he had found and put together so that he could lean back comfortably.
"Well then, we're quite the pair aren't we." he said comfortably like he hadn't just had parts of his face surgically rearranged into places where they had no right being.
"How have you… by what method…" she said, never quite finishing either question, but their endings both implied. Then, her eyes widened, and she took a step back.
"Are you one of those few cursed? Those who wander collecting souls? Or perhaps you have been blessed by the blood of a goddess, and are a holy bishop" With every word, her expression changed, from fear, to wonder, to reverence. Teijin laughed.
"Perhaps." he laughed "You speak very refined, like some kind of noble! Wouldn't expect that from all the way out here in the middle of buttfuck nowhere." he slowly stood up and brushed himself off.
"Why would you not?" she said with mixed disdain. She was very obviously trying to hide her tears, although it wasn't going very well, and eventually, she simply turned away from him so that he couldn't see her face. "I'll have you know, we are a refined family of the far west, and will not be slandered by one such as you!"
"One such as me. Really? What's so wrong with me? Am I more 'common' than you are? We're both humans aren't we?" he grinned "Although I will admit I've been a little rude to you, so how bout we just come to some sort of peace, ay?" He walked towards her and stuck his hand out. She looked at him with some confusion.
"What are you doing?" she stared at his hand "Why are you doing that?" They awkwardly stared at each other for a few moments, and Teijin withdrew his hand.
"Ah, well it's… never mind, what's your name then?" he said, trying to recover from the unrequited handshake.
"I am Antraeda, warrior princess and heir to the thousand camps of the Giarandar, future lord of all that lies in the western plains, true ruler and head of the Ran family, and she untouched by curses of the night!"