[Fiction] Puppeteer's Relics

[Kon]

Chapter 1 finished.
Need you grammar bad? You ask should in Germany people, mine class especially. [/yoda]

Chapter 2

What a wonderfully comfortable bed...
Zack smiled as he laid down on the white blanket, looking at the red-colored ceiling in the room. The walls were red, too, there was a tiny shelf in a corner and a table with one seat on every side.
Scarcely had he laid down, he already started to think about how to go on. He now knew someone who could gain him access to Foster, but how was Zack supposed to pay the price? What would the price be?

First of all, he had to meet that girl. He rang a little bell that was connected with the lower floors and soon someone from Room Service knocked on the door. He opened it and looked at the person outside.
Neck-length, bright, golden brown hair.
She had big, blue eyes, she was pretty small compared to him, maybe 16 years old. Her smile was surrounded by small, pink lips.
"What do you need, sir?" she asked.
Zack's eyes moved around, facing hers directly. "Do you like Orange Juice?"
"Why? Yes, I do."
"A bottle and two glasses, please."
Her smile evolved to a grin. "In a few minutes my shift is over, thanks for the invitation!"

Zack laid down on the bed again, staring at the ceiling.


"What does he need?"
"He invited me to drink something with him. O-Juice, two glasses."
"Do you know that guy?"
"No, but you know how it goes. People you won't recognize who you used to know. Besides, I'm sleeping in the hotel anyway, this is a good occasion to shake off boredom."


Ten minutes later, the door was knocked again and Zack opened it, finding the same girl in everyday clothes instead of the cheesy uniform. She was carrying the Orange Juice.

"Make yourself at home." Zack smiled.
"I'm supposed to say that to you." she smirked, putting the bottle and glasses down on the table. Zack reached out his hand.
"I'm Zack Leto. What's your name?"
"I'm Jane. Jane Mosley. Nice to meet you, Mister Leto."
"Just call me Zack."

They sat down and talked about different things. Zack soon found out she was interested in Nature and time passed as they chatted.

After two hours, Zack decided to go for his purpose.

"Well, Jane, I invited you because I saw you yesterday in the market, in Foster's tent. Are you forced to work for him?"
Her smile immediately turned into a frown and Zack felt bad. "I'm sorry, I..."
"No, it's alright. I've got debts to work off, debts I've inherited from my father. He fled and hides from everyone until he thinks they've forgotten his debts..."
"Would you flee if you could?"
"Foster's men would find me."
"He's got a ring I want. If you get me access to that ring, I'll help you flee.

Jane looked at Zack, looking like a hurt wolf, suspecting Zack.
"If you want to steal from that guy, you must be insane."
"I AM insane, didn't you realize?"
"And what if you don't succeed? What if they catch you, and me? Do you have the least idea what they're going to do to me?"
"That's what I have my sword for."

Suddenly the door opened. "Erm... do you need anything? Room service." an old woman asked, maybe fifty years old. She seemed to be the owner of the hotel.
"No, thanks. Could you please leave us alone? We're having something private to talk about." Zack replied. He eyed her suspiciously.
After she had just left without a word, Zack stood up and reached his arm under his bed. "That scared me... next time I'll be ready." He pulled out his sword in its sheath and attached it to his belt.

"You're a swordsman?"
"Depends. I've heard that here in Natra you have another kind of swordsmen. Ones with heavy armor that take lots of damage before they go down. I'm not that kind of swordsman."
"What kind of swordsman are you then?"
"Hmm... have you ever been to the Namidian desert?"
"No..."
"I'm a swordsman focusing on speed. In the Namidian desert, these swordsman have been training because the wild animals are just fast and they could master their techniques there. I'm also from that desert, from a little town near an oasis."
"I see..."

Zack looked at Jane, noticing she was staring down on the table. "Listen. I'm going to get you out of this safe, but you're only going to be safe if there's no one who can follow you. I have a plan."

[Kon]

Chapter 3

Zack stood outside a huge steel building in Natra's outskirts, leaning on a wall and staring at the sky. He was nervous and he closed his eyes. His plan was that she was going to go in there and give the guards "something to eat because they're working so hard" so they'd sleep in. He was waiting for her sign. Nothing was happening, which made his hand near his sword tremble. He felt his knees become wobbly.
The plan was that she would run away as far as she could once Zack would be in the building. She'd be safe, Zack could do what he wanted to do and in the end both of them had what they wanted.
But did he have a backup plan? Not really, he thought. He moved his left hand around, trying to find something for it to do, moving it into his pocket, behind his head, he didn't know where to put it.
"Stop it, Zack. Only nervous weaklings do that." he whispered to himself, putting his hand down.

Finally. He heard soft steps outside and waited for Jane to come to the side of the building. But then he suddenly focused. He cursed. She was running out. Zack pulled out his sword, moving it over his head like a serpent and running out of his cover to face Jane running away from two muscly guards, one of them being the vendor in the shop from two days before.

"Get behind me, Jane!" he yelled and moved his sword down to the left to guard himself. The two guards were wielding only their fists, reinforced with gloves, though he guessed they could as well run around naked and had better armor than his own. He focused on finding a way how to keep Jane a hundred percent secure, but in the end, he figured he'd have to change her position to ensure her.

"Sorry, Jane." he spoke. He pulled her hand, getting her in front of him, then kicked her away as forceful as he could, flinging her away. She yelled in mid-air, but now Zack had the time to act while the two of them were confused. Zack jumped up, aiming to the guy on his right, kicking him and bouncing himself towards the second. He stabbed through his throat, pulled himself up with the sword while pulling it out of his throat and kicking him down. Immediately Zack whirled around, hearing someone sobbing, jumped forwards and stood in between Jane and the thug.

He raised his sword towards him as he stopped running towards Jane.
"I'm the one breaking in. Not her. Leave her alone."
He waited as the other guy froze. "Too stupid to talk?" Zack asked ironically.
He raised his right leg slightly, waiting for his opponent to attack and lowering the position of his sword to point down on the floor. "Scared?"
"Hm. I'm just thinking of how I can do it without killing you, but apparently there is no way without breaking your sword, and it seems to be forged fine."

He raised the sword and laid the blade to his left hand. "Wow, thanks. Rare to see someone who knows these kinds of things." He hoped that the dumb bodybuilder in front of him would fall for his lure.
"You lowered your guard."
"Backstep!"

He slammed his right foot into his left, sliding two meters back, dodging his fist, then raised his right foot again and bounced off the floor with his left one, stabbing the sword directly into his heart. He put all his weight down to slide through his legs as he pulled out the sword and just heard something fall behind him.
"Sorry, Jane. I didn't see another way to get you through this safe. Does it hurt?" he asked while walking up to her. She was holding her belly, eyes closed with force.
"Damn it, Zack, could you warn me a little faster?"
"And explain to people who are out to catch both of us how exactly to react to get you into their hands to use you as a hostage against me?"
"... I suppose you're right. Just... it hurts..."

He knelt down and looked at her face. "Come on. I'm sure you've been through worse. Get up."
"Goddammit, are you swordsmen training that kick? Seriously..."
"Yes, we are. Our legs have to be swift."
"Couldn't have imagined it otherwise. Listen, Zack. You don't know how to get through the building unseen. They've been expecting us... the woman yesterday has told Foster everything and now he's hidden perfectly inside his little bunker here. You won't get through there without my help."

Zack, who had stood up suddenly looked down at her again, helping her up. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked, worried about her. And about himself. He didn't want too many people involved in this.
"Yes, I am. If I run off now, they'll find me again, as you said."

Soon, Zack and Jane were sneaking through the building with its white walls. Was Foster doing researches here? Zack had taken out a little dagger from his shoe, handing it to Jane to defend herself if anything happened.
"This is the only way to Foster right now. The ventilation." she whispered.
"Oh, are you serious? This is pretty cliché."
"Yup. That's why they assume no one will go through there."

Zack and Jane crawled through the narrow ventiduct, Zack having troubles with it, so Jane was pushing him often. Soon, Jane had to tell him which ways to go and he noticed that she was pretty nervous herself - had they gotten lost?

"Here it is." she suddenly said in a little way where there was absolutely nothing.
"Here is what?"
"We're directly over his office. His little bunker. Where he hides."
"... are you serious about this? How are we going to get down?"
"Didn't think that far. I thought he'd have some kind of ventilation too."

Zack cursed and hit the ground he was crawling on.
"Intruder detected. Executing defense system."
Zack gulped. "Mom always told me to control my feelings a bit better."
"Do something..."
"What can I do?!"
"You got us in here, you get us out."
"No, actually you pulled us to the airducts."
"That's not what I..."
"Oh crap! Look at this!"

A fan came out in front of them, but one with sharp edges, spinning around and moving closer slowly.
"Move to the back! Move back! Come on!" Jane yelled.
"I can't! I'm stuck!"

Suddenly Zack thought he had heard something. Immediately he took out his sword and held it in front of him, whirling it around once, cutting down the airduct. He sliced a narrow airduck which they were at in half, causing it to bend down and throwing them out.

Zack landed on his face, and as he felt where Jane had landed, he quickly crawled away before she could notice. He stood up and readied his sword in guard position. Foster was standing in front of him, smiling, correcting the position of his sunglasses, his finger laying on a little button he had pressed earlier to execute the defense system.

"Stay calm, Foster. All I want is your ring." Zack smiled.
"You shouldn't fall out of an airduct and have a girl land betw..."
"Ouch... where'd I land? It felt soft."
"... and go ahead and threaten these amused people."

Zack lifted his sword. "Maybe I shouldn't, but I do." Foster seemed to be amused. "What are you going to do? You don't even know where the ring is. Are you going to kill me?"
"Yep. You've worked for a lot, you don't wanna lose it, do you?"
"You've had a hard time getting in here, if you kill me, it'll have been for nothing."
"Except for disposing of the biggest slavedriver in Natra."

Zack kept his eyes on Foster, his right foot trembling on the ground, tempted to run off towards the unarmed enemy. He had to hold himself back though.
Why was Jane so quiet? It made his foot tremble even a bit more.
"Hmhm... the girl? You're trying to get away again? What if I kill your mother this time? Daddy's already got disposed when you tried to get away the first time."

She wanted to say something, but suddenly Zack's foot took off. He flew towards Foster, his sword aimed at Foster's heart, all his focus in hitting him and correcting the swords position if he dodged. He was waiting for the moment... suddenly Foster disappeared. Zack wanted to stop running, but something grabbed him from behind, pressing him against the table Foster had just stood on. Foster's hands closed around Zack's throat as Zack realized that Foster had never intended to sell the ring, he was using it himself.

"Fool! Do you even have the least idea of what this ring is? Do you?!"
Zack tried to break free, fortunately, he had just breathed in, but he had to hold his breath as long as possible. Foster was just too strong, right now, Zack was regretting not being a Natran swordsman. "What will you do now? Huh? You namidian dog! I'm going to..."

Suddenly a strange sound came out of Foster's mouth.
Jane had run up to them and stabbed Zack's dagger right into Foster's back. Slowly, Foster's hands were releasing.
"Run, dammit, Jane!" Zack yelled, letting his elbow boom right into Foster's face and reaching his hand for Foster's finger. He managed to throw the ring off, but it was too fast to keep it in his hands. It fell down and both Zack and Foster knew that trying to get it in fight was useless - the other one would attack once the guard was down. Why wasn't Foster armed? What made him so self-confident? The ring only? Jane was standing in a corner in the room, Foster was cursing, but he wasn't courageous enough to turn away from Zack who had raised his blade again.

"Without the ring, you don't look so confident." Zack smiled.
"You don't even know what the ring is. I can't let you have it, you won't be able to get them all..."

Zack didn't move, he knew that Foster was just trying to get his guard down. The three of them were just standing there, Zack and Foster focused on the ring, Jane not knowing what to do.
In the end, Zack decided to risk it.
"Get them all - get what?" he asked, lowering his sword an inch.
Foster laughed. "No... almost said too much... I can't let you know."

He knelt down to grab the ring, Zack's foot shot right at his chin, he did a half flip in the air and landed on his arms, bouncing himself off away from Zack. Zack charged towards him, his sword ready to shoot out, blind for everything else. Foster whirled around, grabbing something behind him, Zack aimed for his throat and stabbed right into it. Suddenly he noticed pain. It exploded inside his chest and he looked down, seeing Foster having pulled Jane's arm with the dagger towards him. He yelled and fell down on the floor, his vision blurring. He felt and heard something else hit the ground as well.

"Zack! Stay awake! No!"
Zack didn't care. He closed his eyes and let the comfortable darkness feast on him.

[Kon]

Chapter 4

Zack was drifting away in a void of black, comfortable warmth surrounding him. Every once in a while, something itched on the left of his chest, but he didn't even ask himself why. The only thing he could think about was whether this was death or not - everything else had left his mind.
Suddenly somewhere, something made a cracking sound.
He heard Jane's voice.
"Oh no, please, don't let them get in..."

Zack opened his eyes and found himself laying in Foster's office. His chest was bandaged around his shoulder. "Jane...?"

He couldn't move his head up, or was it just that he was too lazy? Soon he saw her face appear above him. "They're trying to come in. Zack, what are we going to do?"

The void inside Zack's mind cleared and he lifted his head, seeing a steel door, being hit on with huge force. It banged again. Little bents came out of the door. It was just a matter of time until they were in here. How much time would they have? Zack didn't know, he wasn't experienced with breaking up steel doors if it wasn't about lockpicking.

"Jane, push the table to the door and flip it up. And get me the fan thing from the airduct. Hurry, I don't know how much time we have. Did you bandage me?"

"You were bleeding like hell, I was scared you'd bleed to death. Seems like I... like I didn't hit your heart..."

"It wasn't you. It was Foster."
"But it happened with my hand."
"Where's the ring? The ring, Jane!
"I've got it in my pocket.
"Give it to me. And hurry, damn it."

Jane took the ring out of her pocket and gave it to Zack. Just after obtaining it, he felt like throwing it away again. It was way too small for him. He was afraid that if he'd put it on his finger he wouldn't be able to get it off again. Curse these big hands he held his sword with!

"I can't use it. It's too big. Jane, this ring is the ticket for you to get out of here."
"What about you?"
"I'll have to find a way."
"I can't leave you alone here!"
"Jane, one of us has the chance of getting out safely, and the other one has a limited chance of getting out, so just flee. I'll be okay here. I have to make it somehow."

Jane stared at Zack, a scared look pointed towards him.
"Okay... but... what are you going to do?"
Zack just looked at a corner in the room. "For now, you'll help me enough if you take the fan from the airduct. It has a bent end. Attach it on the door hinge and put it in between the space between table and door. It'll slow them down a bit."

As soon as Jane had finished it, she walked back to Zack again.
"Anything more I can do?"
"Just get the hell out of here. And... run to the north as fast as you can. You'll soon arrive at a little village. Just stay there. Stay there and wait for me."

"I'm... no. I'm going to wait for you outside. I won't leave you here."
Zack opened his hand and passed the ring on to her. "I don't know how it works. Sorry."
"Zack... don't let yourself get killed."
"Fine. Take care of yourself, too." Zack moaned as he got up, his numb legs were refusing to work and the pain in his chest was just yelling at him to lie down again.
He looked around the room, all he could see was Jane trying to get the ring to work, the door that soon would be slammed in and an open First Aid set. His chest started pounding like a second heart, but with pain.

Jane had disappeared.
He hadn't even noticed it.
Then he saw Foster's dead body.

"Hmm... great work to bandage me, Jane, but now I've found a way."

He took off his jacket, being left in the dark blue shirt he wore under it and prayed to god as he cut a wound into Foster. Blood was runninh.

"Gross, but helpful."

He formed a ball with his jacket, then let it soak with blood.

[Kon]

Chapter 5

"I hope this will work." Zack whispered. He was in position, in a corner of the room, looking at the door that soon would open. He was licking his lips. The only thing he knew was that the slams were getting stronger and stronger. He hoped there was some big fish on the other side, or that at least one of them would care for Foster first.

Soon, the door crashed open and the table fell down. Zack waited until one of them noticed him. "Where are these..."

"Here." Zack smiled, taking his sword and ramming it right between his chest and his axle - the right part of his chest, of course. Blood spilled out behind him as he dropped the sword, careful not to let them see the now stabbed jacket. He waited a second, then dropped on the ground.

"Shit. Where's the other one? Foster's dead..."

Zack opened one of his eyes and saw them examining Foster who was on the other corner of the room. Now or never! He jumped up, grabbed his sword, ignoring the ache in his shoulder and slammed the door closed.

"Have fun closing it if it was already so much fun to open."
Zack put his sword back in his sheath, taking off one of the jackets he had found in the shelf for not spilling blood over his T-Shirt. Then, he walked through the building. Whenever someone asked him what he wanted and what he was doing (he noticed mainly females were employed) he just said he was looking at the building because he thought of applying.
Soon, he found the exit and walked out. Jane just stared at him, surprised.
"You just WALK OUT? No dramatic sprint with explosions?"
"Nope. Trapped the guards inside and acted like an employee."
"Awesome."
"And before they notice what I actually did, let's just run to your home and get you there safely. Or no, let's walk, I don't know how much this chest can stand."

Soon, they were walking to the east, discussing random things. She didn't live very far away from Natra, but it was far enough to be safe from her father's debts... nobody would probably recognize her.
Zack couldn't believe what happened was over, but the wound in his shoulder reminded him of it all the time.

"Why'd you take off your bandage?"
"These guys I had tricked had to see my wound, so they'd think I'm dead."
"Oh, that's how you made it. I see, I see..."
"I was pretty lucky though. Didn't expect them to believe my story..."

Zack was getting uncomfortable. Soon, he'd be saying goodbye to her. He wasn't someone traveling with others, he mainly lived from thievery and selling the things he stole. Someone else... wasn't too helpful.
"How far is it yet, Jane?"
"We'll see it any moment."

Soon, a little village appeared on the horizon. The grass was getting thicker.
"Here it is?" Zack asked.
"Yes. This is the place I live... or rather where my parents used to live. I think I'll have to get together with my love."

Something stung Zack directly into his heart. He didn't even know why - he had not had any expectations to her, didn't really care about her, but why did these words awaken a beast inside his chest screaming at him?
"I think you'll be fine now from here on."
"Are you sure?"
"Yep."
"But what about you? Your wound isn't healed, what if anything happens to you?"
"Then I was too weak to live on. It would be a disgrace. I'll manage to go on."

Jane eyed him suspiciously, then tapped his healthy shoulder. "I hope we see each other again sometime."
"Mhm. Me too."

Zack turned towards the north and lifted his hand goodbye as he slowly disappeared into the horizon.

[Fraizen]

Loving it!!!!!
Write more please Kon

[Kon]

Chapter 6

Five hours of walking.
Zack didn't even know where he was going. He was pretty sure he had reached Burudeng - the continent they were living on was divided in three parts. Eversun, the south part, Burudeng, the middle part, and Flaris, the north part. In Burudeng, there was the Namidian desert in the western area, however, he was pretty sure he had turned towards the east. The familiar smell of the air stayed out.
Where was he going at all? He didn't really know, but his stomach started to grumble as he reflected about his life. All he was really doing was being a nomad. He traveled through the land, stealing once in a while and selling what he got so he could survive.
Zack walked around, collecting a few herbs and different plants he recognized, then, starting to eat them. They weren't really tasty, but they killed down his hunger and he didn't really feel like hunting an animal, especially when a bird landed hear him and inspected a few corns that someone had dropped.

"You've got a nice life." Zack mumbled. "You don't feel the need to have any goals in life. I just wish I could be home somewhere... but I don't feel home anywhere. Ever since my parents disappeared who-knows-where, I'm searching for some place I could call home. And I can't find one. You can just build a nest and feel at home there."

The little bird, blue wings and a red forehead with a cute little beak looked up to him for a short second, then hopped to another corn and picked it. He decided that he should find a goal in life. But he wasn't the person to reside at a certain place and get employed somewhere. He wanted to travel across the land and return to home, where he could be... home. Merchant? No, that wouldn't fit to him. Mercenary? He might as well stay the way he was in that case.

The bird flapped its wings and flew towards another place, ramming its beak into a worm and pulling him up to a nest. "Feed your kids. I won't disturb you."

He got up, a nasty taste in his mouth because of the herbs, hobbling a bit because of his wound. He decided to explore the eastern parts of Burudeng for himself, the last time he was there was long ago, he remembered how well nature lit up there and how well people lived with nature, except for a few people, at least.

The bird he had watched earlier came flying towards him. It flew in front of his face, chirping wildly. It seemed to be panicked. He turned around - what happened? Was a cat or something attacking their nest?

He gulped. He saw a blood trail. A drip here, a drip there, a drip here again. His own blood. And following the trail were two people who didn't seem to be as nice to offer him First Aid.
As they approached closer, Zack thought of what to do. Running away would make no sense - he'd leave blood trails again. Fighting them? In his current condition? He had no other choice, but he figured he should see what they wanted to him before taking action.

Leather jackets, black bandanas, one of them with natural brown hair and the other one colored to it, seemed just like someone and his best friend, also known as the bandwagoner.
"Eh, dude. You're bleeding." one of them yelled from far away.
"The more I bleed out now, the more I can chomp later for dinner."
"Awesome way of thinking, but you could be pretty weak with such a blood loss. Want us to escort you? You won't have to pay much, just all you have."

Zack took a step back - his hand rested on his swordhilt. "Who cares about a wound in my left shoulder. I'm right handed and I'm from Namidia. I use my feet for fighting."
"Which is why you hobble around like someone with broken bones?"
"Just get off me."

One of them walked towards Zack, he took another step back, lifting out his sword of the hilt, showing a bit of the blade. "I warn you. Don't get any closer to me."

One of them pulled out a sword, the other one pulled out an axe. "Are you threatening us?"
"Yep."
"Are you sure that was a good idea?"
"Are you sure it's a good idea to rob random people? One day, you'll meet your master. Like today."
"You're the last victim for today, I don't think we're meeting him for now."

Zack pulled his sword out, flipping it to the left in order to protect his weakened shoulder. It started aching again. Now?

The axe fighter swung his deadly weapon towards Zack, who dodged with a sidestep and closed in with his sword, watching the other thug just not move.

He realized he was about to be surrounded. He used his Backstep technique and raised his sword in the Serpent's stance.

"Okay, cuties, why don't you stop dealing with things you can't handle?"
"Look, he's trying to insult us. Are all Namidians such dirty rats?"

Zack switched the stance to the dancer, moving his swordhand to the left and flipping the blade to the right. He was proud of his blood and felt harassed. Blood dripped down again from his wound. He would need treatment soon.

The swordsman charged towards him, Zack flipped around and jumped, slashing at his head when a silver axe blocked him. Instinct made him catch the fall with his left arm, he howled in pain as he whirled back on the floor, dodging a blade. Zack hopped up and got ready to guard himself.

"Just give us Foster's ring. We want it. We saw you break in."
"You work for Foster?"
"We just want the ring."

This was getting bad. His vision started to get blurry as his wound opened again.
Act now or die, he thought, raised his sword and dove towards the axe fighter. He stabbed his leg, turned around and faked a guarding position to the swordsman and stabbed the axe fighter's heart. He got kicked from behind, flew away and cried as he landed on his wound. He rolled around and caught the swordsman's hands trying to ram his blade through Zack's throat. Now followed a fight in direct strength between Zack and the thug, but Zack was losing. He pushed the blade down, letting it hit the center of his chest, yelled and kicked the thug over his head. Zack heard a cracking noise... he tried to get his arms up and pull out the blade, but he was too weakened.
"Help..." he whispered, hearing a chirp next to him.

[Fraizen]

epic :)
I actually let my mind get lsot in this chapter and imagined every bit of it was amazing
keep it up

[Kon]

Chapter 7

Grassy plains, the smell of flowers in the air and a clear blue sky - Zack was running through them, not even knowing how he got there, forgotten everything except that he had to run. Why? He didn't know. Was something hunting him? He forgot.
He just ran on and ran on, soon, obstacles got in his way and he jumped and rolled around, avoiding them and running on and on as fast as he could.
He felt light on his feet, as if the wind would carry him, and he ran on, thinking about what is was he was running from, or running towards. Or what made him run.

His hat fell down, his precious, black ellipse hat he already carried as a child (which was too big for him back then), but he didn't care and ran on. He had to leave things behind if he wanted to reach his goal.
But what was this? The same obstacles as before? He crossed them again, felt refreshed as he finally made it past them and was on an empty plain again. He ran on, then he noticed he had drawn his sword. Why did he notice it now? The sky was turning darker soon, he just ran on, crossing the same obstacles again and again until he realized he was repeating the same way again and again.

Zack felt cold. He realized that all this running had never had any sense as he whirled around, readying his sword in the Wolf's stance, body facing forward and sword flipped backwards, this time, running towards a black shape. He slashed his sword right through it as pain exploded in his head.

He opened his eyes.
Everything felt dizzy in his head as slowly the memories from yesterday came back. The sword wasn't stuck in his chest anymore, in fact, it had disappeared... who had helped him? He felt that the wounds had recovered a bit, but sadly, not fully. He was still losing blood. He slowly got up, using his own sword as a foothold and following the way he had traveled in. Soon, he saw the bird, or at least a similar bird to it, from before he had fainted. How long was that ago...?
The bird was flying to the right, chirping wildly.

"At least I'll have someone to blame it on if I end up in a desert..." Zack smiled sentimentally and started following the bird. He coughed from time to time, sometimes, he waited three seconds before the next step, his blood was still dropping down from the wound. He'd have to change his shirt if he'd get to any store, it was soaked with blood already.

Soon, Zack collapsed on the ground and started to cry. Why'd he have to leave Jane so fast? Why didn't he accept her help? He regretted getting involved with Foster - even after he had died, he was still putting Zack's life on the very edge of death. His stomach roared at him, his throat was dry like sand and the power was leaving his legs.
Suddenly something woke up inside of him. What would his father think of a wimp crying on the floor? Zack rammed his sword into the ground, pushing himself up, then walked on, slower, but determined. He sniffed, but was thankful that the tears had cooled down his face.
"Hey! Why did you move?!" a voice from far behind cried and Zack turned his face. Someone was running towards him? To help? He couldn't see, hunger was blurring his field of view.

The mere point on the horizon was closing in. Zack gave up and slowly moved to the side, leaning on a tree.

"Wait! You can't go on!"
It was a female, young voice. He felt too weak to reply and just closed his eyes and waited.

It was a girl with bright, green eyes and waist-length brown hair. Zack assumed that shewas smaller than him. A black bow with diamonds of every color was attached to her hip, she wore a brown, small backpack and she was wearing a green top and a brown, short skirt. A feather was stinging up from her hair.
"You can... move?" she asked. She seemed to have trouble talking to him.
"Barely. Everything hurts, I'm starving and bleeding. I collapsed once."

She was staring on the ground, then took off her brown backpack, handing it to Zack. "Eat. Drink." she just spoke, keeping her glare on the grass down there. Zack slowly unzipped the bag.

He chomped random fruits and drank pure water, thanking god that this girl brought it to him. She seemed to be glaring on the way he had been on. Then her head turned to Zack.
"Where is the second wound from?"
"You helped me?"
She nodded. "I ran home to get you food after I treated your wounds, but then, you disappeared. The bird was trying to lead you to me, but I took shortcuts."
"That other wound... I got stabbed in Natra. While fighting Foster, a businessman who was lending people money and cruelly collected the debts, almost like slavery, I got stabbed."

Zack noticed a longing in her eye. "Thank you. I'd be dead without you. My name's Zack."

She trembled for a second, then took his hand. "I'm Laura..." she replied.
The bird flew near them and hopped around as Zack let go of her hand. He noticed that it kept away from him, staying near her.
"Is he yours?"
"W-well, no. They are living beings! They don't belong to anyone. Chirpy's my friend."

"I haven't really been here yet. I'm from Namidia."
"You're near at the east coast... you won't go back for now. I... er, can't let you travel with these gazing wounds."
"I guess you're right..."

Zack watched the little bird hop around, looking for worms. His stomach grumbled again.

"If you want to... I can get more."
"Thanks, it's fine. I'm just a bit, you know, exhausted."
"We don't live far from here. You almost did it."
"You're inviting me?"
"I'm not letting you go until you're healthy again!"
"Looks like I've got no choice."

[Fraizen]

Thanks for yet another update.
Konrad :D

GCSE trials ftw lol

[darksidehero]

ICH BIN GAAF.

Yeah!