As Saif is being fed by this person, as with each spoonful she blows on it so it wouldn't be hot for him. He can't help but smile at what was happening to him. Even though most of the food that he takes isn't cooled down enough by the person, but Saif fights through the slight pain to not upset her. Upset her?... By what? Her knowing that she hurt you. Sounds fair enough.
As Saif was being fed and enjoying this time, he looked around the area and spotted again the sword he saw before. It had a dark guard with a light colored grip and a diamond looking pommel. The blade was silvery with a grey hue emanating from it. The guard also had decorations on its edges. Now that he really focuses, the entire sword is decorated and flowy in a way that reminds him of his axe. He takes a glance at his axe then back at the sword and finds that the sword is way more organised and decorated than his axe that was more flowy with its decision. Though, his axe was more colorful, while her sword was eerily close to being black and white and grey, and not natural at all with how it interacts with light.
After a while, he finally finished the bowl of soup and finally the person got back up and walked back to the pot. He watches her re-fill the bowl and starts to eat from it herself. As she was eating, Saif couldn't help but stare at her. She just looked so gorgeous and cute. Cute... He feels that that word truly describes her, not fully, but enough for now and his current knowledge. As he stares, it only felt to him like a minute when time passed quickly and he found that she finished her bowl already. As she got up again, she tossed away the rest of the leftover soup outside the ruin, which wasn't that much anyway. Then she dried and put the wooden bowl and spoon inside her bag again with the pot.
As he watched, he felt something weird. You have to go to the bathroom. Bathroom? What's that? You have to relief yourself. But how? The sudden feeling of him needing to use the restroom overwhelmed him all the sudden, like he has been holding it for ages. He didn't really know what to do. Should I just release it? NOT NOW. But when? Go to the outside of the ruin and cover behind a wall. Why? So she doesn't see. Why? She just can't. He stops arguing with his instincts and just gets up and walks behind a wall. The person keeps an eye on him while packing up until he disappears behind the wall.
(After he figured out how to relief him) (It took him about 15 minutes to figure out how to do number 1, because I am not going to describe this more than that)
His pants were soaked as some of the water splashed back on him until he knew what he was doing. As he walks back from behind the wall, he finds the person just waiting for him right behind it and just standing there. He was surprised to see her and flinched slightly at the sudden view as he didn't expect her to be standing there. She was really small. Like way shorter than him as he towered over her. Now he understood the difference in size of them both better. Was it that she was small, or was he really big. Or was it a mix of both.
"Follow", She suddenly said with her aloof and soft voice. Her speaking so suddenly again took Saif by total surprise. Follow... To where? Just follow her. As she started to walk, he could see the bag on her back and the sword on her waist. As she started to walk, her pace was slightly quick, so as Saif knew he needed to not stay that far behind, he quickly ran behind her. But before he was out of the ruin, he remembered his axe and looked back to look for it. He kept looking around quickly but couldn't find where his axe was when suddenly something tapped on his shoulder from behind him, and when he looked back, he saw the person offering him the axe that she used to at his shoulder with. He turned his head back a bit when he found the blade part of the axe so close to his face, as he remembered what it did to his belly last time so he subconsciously backes up his head. He looked down to see the belly wound and how it's doing, but he saw nothing but bandages covering where it was. He looked back at his axe, but didn't really know how to carry it as both of his hands were going to be unable to carry it.
He thinks of dragging the axe, but knew by her pace, he wouldn't be able to walk backwards that fast while dragging it with both hands. He kept thinking for a while, then had an idea. He took the axe with both hands and supported it by putting the gap under the blade on his left arm and using his right arm to put it above the handle to balance it. Seeing this, the person looked back up at him then turned around and started walking again. Seeing this, Saif followed behind, being careful to not let his balancing arm let the axe fall, but after a few steps, he decided to just put the handle between his arm and body and hold it between.
He looked in front of him, following the person throughout the road ahead, not knowing where they were going. He finds her walking the opposite way from the ruined city into the desert that surrounds it, but he doesn't really give it that much mind as he feels that she knows where they need to go. They keep walking and walking, from road then on to rock, and from rock then on to sand, and the cycle keeps changing, but thankfully for Saif's feet's sake, they mostly walked on sand and are currently. But on each terrain, he takes care of his step to not step on many sharp or pointed objects and keeping up his pace behind the person. They were walking, and walking, and walking, and walking, like there was no end to the road to their destination. It was cloudy, and Saif couldn't see the sun that often and the breeze was cold, but he knew that the sun was at its peak. How much time has passed since they started this journey is a mystery to him, but he knows it was a really long one.
Saif was tired from walking, and his pace's rhythm was uneven, slowing down behind her and then speeding up to catch back up. She didn't look the least bit tired though as her pace never slowed down, not even for a second. He knew deep down he liked walking, and for the majority of the journey he had no problem with walking, but it has been ridiculously long where his legs feel heavier with each step he takes. Most of the journey was through the dead desert that surrounded the city, but now, they have walked so far that he can't see the city anymore. Not even its tallest building that he saw shrink and shrink till it vanished from view and disappeared into the horizon.
After a long bit of time more, there was a lone ruined building that was wider than the ones he saw in the area where he woke up as most of them were tall, but this one was tall in the opposite direction, but still kind of tall on the normal direction. He found the person walking directly to it, like it was finally the destination. Hope glowed in his eyes as this realisation hit him and he increased his pace again as rest was near him. He walked right behind the person and while his breathing rate increased from the walking, he was still excited to finally get to the end of the journey. As they reached the door to the ruined building, it was a small one situated in an all flat wall (it was one of the back doors). When they reached it and the person stopped, Saif was excited that his suspensions were true about this being their destination.
They both just stood outside right in front of the doorway that had lost its door long ago. When he peeked inside, he saw how dark it was and how he couldn't see anything at all. They just keep standing there for a while, and Saif didn't know why. What were they waiting for? He looked at the person and saw her unchanged expression and she was also looking at the door. Staring at it. The cold breeze made Saif uncomfortable as it keeps hitting his body making him shiver, so he decided to walked closer to the door to see if she would oppose him going inside or not. He was standing right infront of it, and yet she didn't oppose. She didn't even move her gaze nor body even slightly since thye both got there. This slightly made Saif uncomfortable with what she was staring at. What inside this place? He wondered and wondered and fear started to grow in him. The fear of the unknown.
He started to back up slowly to her direction as he wanted to get away from this dark, from what may be hiding inside. As he takes a few steps with his fear growing even more with each one, a sudden relief hits him when he hears her voice saying, "Go inside." He let out the trapped air in his lungs that he had from how tense he was as a sigh of relief. He started to walk to the doorway and right before getting inside and taking that first step he stole a glance at her face, from this distance it looked normal, as unchanged as ever. Her words then echoed in his mind again as he stepped inside. Her voice was as aloof as usual, but not as soft, just a really, no, extremely small difference, but still he thought of how peculia-...
Suddenly, something hits Saif in the head and he falls on the ground. He felt a jolt go through his body when it happened. He didn't feel that much pain from it, except on the impact, but he couldn't move and could just barely move his limbs in a desperate attempt for movement. He was whimpering on the ground for some reason, letting out this noise from himself. What just happened? Did something hit me? He then started to hear murmurs around him. Noise that he could understand. "Wow --------- really tough ------------ like this would --------- go to sleep. Well, ------------ so he isn't --------------- useless." (Wow, this guy is really tough. A hit to the head like that would have put anyone to sleep. Well, that's good anyway so he isn't too hurt.) The noise was murmurs, but he could barely make out the words. He didn't know what was going on, and why it was happening. He then felt himself moving, no, being moved.
Due to his state, he couldn't really tell what was happening when too much was going on, and how much time passed as he was in and out of awareness, but not unconscious. The hit was severe, but when he found himself finally starting to get a grasp of himself, he found himself tied up with ropes. His hands held up and his feet tied down, and he was hanging by the ones that were tied to his hands. It hurt. His head hurt. His body wanted to vomit. Everything hurts and everything feels wrong. His vision was still blurry, but he saw glimpses of the person because of her golden hair still visible through the haziness. He also saw others shadows moving around. People. He couldn't really tell what they were saying from the ringing he was hearing, and also because the voices were pretty far. After a long while, he finally was able to have proper vision and hearing, but his head really hurt and he couldn't think straight. For even longer, he kept bobbing his head from left to right, to it falling forward and backwards until the dizziness started to dissipate.
He finally could put a proper coherent thought in his head. What happened? What was going on? Where am I? What is this? Why am I hanging? WHY DOES EVERYTHING HURT?!?!
So many questions, but so little answers. It was dark all around him, but he felt the cold breeze again. It was freezing and his body was freezing. He looked around and found himself outside the building. It was dark. Everywhere was dark and he couldn't see almost anything. He could just see one shadow that was moving around. Before he knew it, he found the shadow stopped moving when he stared at it, or was it when it noticed him? The shadow then walked towards a direction, and it was towards the wide building and it disappeared inside. What was happening?! What was that?! I DON'T LIKE THIS!!! Saif was uncomfortable and panicked from what he just saw. He looked up again at the ropes that held him, and he found it was held up by thick wood log, and underneath him was a big bowl that would probably fit him inside. He wasn't wearing a thing but a pair of pants that for some reason had two big holes on each waist sides. His bandages were gone, and his exposed hurt skin and clotted wounds could be seen with all the other wounds he had on his body since he woke up. He was slightly muscular in build which still could be seen even as he was hanging, and also had a small amount of body hair. A pile of wood was in front of him too, but before he had the chance to look around anymore, shadows appeared from out of the building, and there were so many of them. They moved around in the darkness in front of him, in a kind of unison, like they were doing something. They then all moved in one final movement after they seemed to finish and they just stood there.
Flames then lit up from behind each one of them, and then it illuminated the area around him. He found that the shadows were hooded figures that wore dark blood red cloth around them that was long almost everywhere with black highlights at its edges. It covered their entire bodies where you couldn't see any of it. They were standing in a half elliptical pattern, and in the middle was another hooded figure, but this one had a piece of cloth around his neck that fell to his chest with symbols that he had never seen before, but he somehow knows this can't be good. He can't see much as his vision still isn't perfect, but he also sees his axe in the hand of the robed figure in the middle. He started to walk towards him and Saif flinched and tried to back up, but as he was hanging there, there wasn't anything he could do. The figures then went up to the pile of wood and kneeled down to it then it spontaneously caught on fire and its flame was huge and that terrified Saif further. The figures started to talk in a kind of tongue he has never heard before, but he still knew that anything that sounded like that was unholy in every way possible. He started to shake with fear, his panic on an all time high. He started to worm around, trying to get his hands or legs free, but it was no use.
The figure then walked around the fire, and with each step he took, the more panicked Saif gets, and the harder he strangles to get free, and the louder his grunts are. His breathing gets louder as he tries to get free and his fighting against the ropes becomes harder and harder as his desperation grows by each step he hears him taking. When the figure stood right in front of him, they all just stopped speaking, and all he could hear was silence and his loud panicked breathing. The eerie silence sent shivers down his spine, and from the fear of aggravating them again, he stopped struggling, but his breath was still loud and clear with his pants and air getting in and out of him. He stared at the robbed figure who he knew was staring back at him even though he couldn't see his face. He knew he saw his panic and fear, so why does he continue doing this to him?
Saif didn't know what to do, or what to think, or how to act. He just froze there, not wanting to move out of fear of what they might do. He was just hanging there a good amount above the robed figure was close enough to make all of Saif's nervous to shut at him all at once to run from this thing. The figures behind then all lifted their hands up, and with this, they started to chant something in the unholy tongue again, but they kept repeating the same sentence long over and over and over again. Saif knew something was about to happen. Something bad. He fought the ropes the hardest he ever fought while quickly switching his gaze between looking at the ropes and the robed figure. He then moved the axe in front of him and grabbed it with both his hidden hands and slowly lifted it above his head. He started to chant the same sentence as the other figures three times, and in those three times, Saif's fighting weakened as he knew something extremely horrible was about to happen to him, and he can't stop it. He tried his best to brace himself for it.
In the last chant, the figure says it in an aggressive, an almost insane way, and in a quick motion with it, the figure thrusts down the axe into Saif's chest in its center. Blood gushed out of his chest and he saw it drip down on his body and fall into the bowl. His face is filled with shock and disbelief and panic, but not for long as then he starts to cough out blood uncontrollably. His body shaking and convulsing more each passing second. All he can feel is pain. All he knows at this moment is pain. His body grew colder each passing second as his blood drained out of his body. Slowly, things are getting darker than they once were, and darker. Everything is fading. Is he dying? Dying? What is that? Before he could think of anything else, everything finally fades to black.
(Muffeled voice)
This is .... deaths to come. (This is one of many deaths to come)
(Clears up a bit)
So stay determined.
Saif couldn't see anything. He could only hear this voice. He didn't know who it belonged to, but he knew he trusted it completely. Suddenly, he then sees a bright light that is coming out from what looks like a doorway that appeared in the dark.
(Voice): So go through that door.
And wake up.
Saif started to walk towards the door and the light from it grew brighter and brighter with each step he takes, and once he passes through...
…
He woke up.