2 Dream

A cloak of darkness enveloped Ryan while he floated in nothingness. This cold darkness only showed him emptiness, and yet he also felt a familiar warmth. One that may only be received while in the embrace of a loved one. A feeling of security and calmness overcame him until he closed his eyes.

Some time passed. He did not know how long he was asleep, and he did not care for that matter. But what he saw when he opened his eyes once more was not the darkness he fell asleep in.

Even his body told him that this was not the place he was prior. Now he felt the wind brush his face and the shivering coldness it delivered sobered him up very quickly from his drowsiness.

Ryan looked around and could only see a forest around himself. Lush trees packed full of greenery. But it also had an eerie silence to it. One didn't even hear the sound of birds.

´Weird. Why do I still remember everything? Am I not supposed to lose all my memories? And where am I? This doesn't look like Rukongai. Or is the civilization level so bad in the outer skirts of Soul Society that such places really exist? Then let's hope I am not too far away from the Rukongai.´

Even after thinking about it, Ryan was still confused about this place and stood up from the ground he was sitting on since his awakening.

What he noticed at the get-go was that his point of view changed drastically. Everything looked so high up for him.

Frowning a little bit, he looked down at himself and saw that he had a very young body. A child's body to be exact.

´I guess in soul years I am but a child...´, he thought after inspecting it a little bit further. He could only sigh about this matter and accept this fact.

Not knowing what to do, he just started walking in one direction without a real goal in mind. It was not like he could stay at only one place and remain there.

So he walked and walked until he nearly lost patience with the same forest engulfing him. Good thing he could finally see something. It was a mountain range. Maybe he could finally see someone there?

With that in mind, he charged forward into its direction with hopes of meeting someone. And sure enough. After another somewhat long journey, he came closer and closer to it until he arrived.

But sadly there was nothing in that place for him to meet. Taking that hit, he tried moving along the mountain range. That also didn't result in anything.

"Dammit! Come on! It cant be a fucking forest and mountain for eternity, right?", Cursed Ryan loudly into the air and just sat down on a rock that he climbed up on. He was fed up with walking in search of a village that probably didn't exist. Where the hell was he?

Then he put a hand on his stomach. It immediately started growling from sheer hunger.

´And I am getting hungry as well. Maybe I can find something to eat here? At least that should be manageable? Now, where to start looking. I think I heard some river or something nearby.´

Looking to the left side, he jumped down from the rock and moved in the direction of the sound.

And this time around, he had some luck. It was a small waterfall that made the sound. It didn't have any lake underneath it. It just fell and ran along a small river that was leading away from it. If he just moved on a little bit more, he would have come across it anyway.

So the first thing he did was fall on his knees at the sandy shore and start gulping down a lot of liquid with his head put into the water.

With a satisfied sigh, he burped a little. That should help keep his stomach silent for a while. Food was one thing but getting dehydrated another.

From this little location, Ryan started moving around the forest and search for good things. It took him a while until he found something that looked like berries.

The plants were brushes, and the berries had a blue color. Remembering something from his past, they should be edible. So he collected them and ate away. But at some point the brush was empty, and he had to go along and find more to eat.

Right now, that was the only real thing he cared about and just started his little survival life.

-----

Days passed with this lifestyle of his, and Ryan became somewhat depressed. Sure, he became an expert forager in this forest, but he would soon starve after having picked everything clean.

So he decided to follow the river stream to see if there was anything. With how things were, there was little chance in finding anything. This forest was like a lifeless utopia for plants and nothing more.

While following the river, he started to get hungry again, but now it was harder and harder to find anything to eat. And moving out too much could end him up lost.

----

One day his stomach was even hurting so much that he had to grit his teeth to keep moving.

The holy grail came at a point when he was sitting beneath a tree and letting the sun burn him to death, what he saw then while dazing off just made his day. It was an animal that slowly and calmly moved around the forest.

Ryan´s eyes became wide after seeing the animal that looked like a deer. He even gulped unconsciously.

Thinking hard, he tried to craft a plan to hunt this animal down. With his weakened state, it would be tough to confront it in a fast and direct way.

So first, he needed a weapon. Since he didn't want it to notice him and run away, he retreated stealthily and hid.

Then he started to make a spear out of a sturdy branch with a somewhat sharp stone and sneaking back. Good thing it didn't take long, and he found the animal very quickly. He slowly but surely came closer for examination.

Because he was not sure what the animal was still doing at that place, he just waited and looked at what it did. It was pacing from one location to another with certain intervals. But it remained mostly on the same path.

So Ryan used that to his advantage and climbed up a tree above one of the locations when it was gone from it and waited patiently like a statue. He even covered himself with branches and brushes to camouflage himself.

-----

Time flew, and Ryan ignored the hunger because he knew he would have the chance to get something soon.

Then when the animal was right beneath him, he initiated his attack. He landed on top of its back and used his self-made spear to pierce into it for a wound.

And lucky for him he immediately hit the animals neck. Its blood spurted out, and the shock in its eyes from the surprise attack became filled with fear of death.

It threw Ryan from its back and started sprinting away from him.

Ryan stayed calm and looked into the direction it ran off. Then his gaze went to the ground where the animal left a sure trail for him to follow - its blood.

Not waiting for anything, Ryan started to move and follow the trail slowly. He didn't run because he didn't want it to run more than it needed. Lull it into false safety. Safe enough for it to rest but be everpresent to get his reward. And of course, wasting his energy was not a good thing.

The hunt took a while, and Ryan sometimes lost track, but at some point, he reached his goal. The animal was lying dead at a clearing and was now only meat that could be eaten after being prepared.

So Ryan charged straight to it to cut it and roast it. He did learn to make fire after all those days, So that was not a problem. But he was so hungry that his hunger flared up. Not even knowing what overcame him, he ripped the animal apart with his bare hands and started eating away at the animal like a beast himself.

When he came back to his senses, he saw his bloody hands and clothes. Even his mouth was completely drenched in blood from the flesh he ate.

Looking at the carcass in front of him that was now ripped apart so much that it was not recognizable, let him become nauseous and disgusted. Nearly vomiting the food back out.

But he remained willful and kept it down while looking upwards into the sky. He already did something like this, so at least he should keep the food inside and not waste it.

After a while, Ryan just sat there in front of the carcass and contemplated his behavior previously. Was his hunger that great that he just started eating without knowing? It was one thing to do so but without his knowledge about it? Did he lose conscious at that moment?

That was a severe action. Ryan needed to find out the reason for his outburst at some point.

Just when Ryan stood up, he noticed another animal close by that was approaching. This one was not the same race as it had jet black fur and shining yellow eyes. Its mouth was gritted, and it was showing its malicious sharp teeth.

It was a wolf, and it came closer and closer to him and the carcass.

Ryan became somewhat panicky and moved backward slowly. Away from the meat in front of him. It could distract this wolf, and with that, he could make his escape. That is what he hoped.

Unlucky for him, the wolf ignored the carcass and charged straight at him.

He shielded himself with his arms in front of his face, and the wolf bit down on his left arm.

With that impact, the wolf threw Ryan to the ground and was now atop of him. This was a bad situation, and Ryan could do nothing but try his darndest to struggle.

But this struggle ended pretty fast after the wolf got his neck and ripped out his throat.

Darkness came over him once more.

+Wake up+

It was the last thing he heard. It was a deep hollow voice.

-----

When he opened his eyes once more, he was somewhere else again. His confused look darted around himself. This time he even saw some people around him.

"What to do with this kid?", asked a male person another.

"Does it matter? We were only here to investigate the hollow breach. Look, the kid is so confused that he probably doesn't even know where he is. He is probably a new soul."

"Guess you are right. But how do we explain this then? Tell our superior that when we reached the scene, we saw five dead hollows and a little kid drenched in blood?"

"Let's tell them we got rid of them, and that´s that. No need to complicate things."

"Good idea. I hate paperwork anyway. Nothing bad happened, so it should be alright. Let´s go back, then."

Ryan watched as those two guys left. "Lazy idiots.", He murmured and judged these two guys immediately as useless lazy bums. Then he stood up and looked around once more.

This time Ryan was sure that he was in Rukongai. Those two Shinigami alone were proof of that. But shouldn't he be dead? Like a second time? Was that only a dream? Then again, what is up with him having these weird things happening to him?

Also, his memories seemed to be still intact, just like before. So people seem to keep their memories when arriving here. Sure gives someone stuff to think about. Just the fact of being able to meet souls from the first and second world war is a somewhat interesting thought.

Sighing a little, he remembered the conversation the two Shinigami had and wondered what these guys were talking about. When he turned his head to confirm it, shock replaced his calm expression.

He saw five big monsters in various sizes lying on the ground and slowly dissipate into nothingness.