When I woke up, the pain hadn't gone away; on the contrary, I felt even worse. I could move now, but the mere act of shifting even a few centimeters hurt as much as a thousand heated needles piercing every muscle in motion.
"You still can't move? You're recovering very slowly"
"Weren't you the one who took a massive hit and was left lying on the ground? You can talk when you've proven your skills."
— Oberon said mockingly; you could tell he just wanted to provoke him. He had more achievements than anyone else there and didn't intend to waste his moment of glory —
"I saved your life"
"You ruined my death; I was going to die with honor and glory"
"Ahh, if dying is your wish, it's no problem for me to grant your wish"
said that bipolar guy as he watched him unsheathe his sword, even though he was just messing with him.
"You're making too much noise, why can't you just fall asleep?"
"He finally woke up. We were waiting for you. There's no food left, and you're the only one here with the skills to find more.
— Oberon was sucking up to Kaelen. He was still exhausted, and sleeping hadn't helped him beyond regaining feeling in his limbs —
"I'm not your mother. Do it yourselves, and stop making noise already."
"And he went back to sleep. Well, you're on your own here, Krax. I'm not in shape to move. You know what it's like to fight ferocious beasts. Oh, sorry—it's true, you've never done that."
"Starve to death"
— Krax turned and walked deeper into the forest with disdain —
"Where are you going?"
"Far away from you. I can't stand you."
— As he went deeper into the forest, Krax could feel the fresh air coming from all directions; he was at peace in a silence that could only be broken by the buzzing of insects.
He was exploring the whole place, looking at the different plants—majestic, large, almost fantastical—yet he kept going deeper until a flower caught his attention —
"Wait, could it be?"
— He approached that purple flower, which seemed so unique in that fantastic place, as if someone had drawn it there on purpose —
"Could this be the flower my mother always told me about?"
— He was about to pluck it, but stopped at the last second, as if doubting his action —
"No, I'd better leave it here; anyway, I have no one to give it to. They really are as beautiful as she described them."
— He took off his shirt and drew his sword; he stood face-to-face with a tree as if it were about to pounce on him, but instead, Krax didn't move. With his eyes closed and his sword held in both hands, one could see how he stood in unyielding stillness. He remained that way until his sweat could be seen glistening across his bare torso, and then, as if it were a surprise attack, he began striking at nothing, delivering several consecutive blows. Each of his attacks was followed by a faster one, continuing like this until the fourth, when he lost his balance and fell with a crash —
"Ouch!!, shit"
— He sighed on the floor with his hand over his face, staring at the ground —
"What a beautiful blue sky… dying here must be nice. I'd like to die while looking at a sky as clear as this; that would be the ultimate"
— After that brief reflection, Krax got up and dressed again, putting on a white shirt and a red raincoat, one that was already quite worn —
"Well, —he sighed—, I'm going to have to find food for that idiot"
— Krax sheathed his sword, venturing even deeper into the forest. It wasn't hard for him to find the first fruits; the problem was that he didn't dare try them. With Kaelen's sense of smell, it was easy to tell which were edible and which weren't—at least for him—which made the task even harder for Krax. still, he managed to find a few and eat them to regain his strength after training, but the further he went, the less he found —
"This isn't normal, why is the distribution of fruit in this forest so uneven?"
— Just then, Krax heard footsteps coming from his right. Hiding quickly behind a tree, he saw two men arrive at the spot—one quite burly and the other more average, no, slightly smaller. They were arguing about something; Krax only caught a few words —
"… No, do you think so? He'll… he won't let him go"
"Well, it is… and our slave"
"will fetch a high price on the black market"
— That last sentence froze Krax in his tracks; it was the only one he had heard clearly, and for good reason—his rage was evident in the veins bulging on his forehead.
He began to follow them discreetly, trying not to make a sound, leaping from tree to tree. It was a delicate situation in which he had no information about anything other than the fact that they were surely criminals. He thought about warning the other two first, but he couldn't let this opportunity slip away; in any case, he had already reached his destination—a ship large enough to hold ten people—