Dresses.

Yuki felt like burying himself under the rocks.

The three soldiers stared at him with stunned silence for a while, then the sound of something hitting ground broke them from their trance.

Asteria, obviously, was the loudest. 

"What!?"

Yuki jumped at the loud noise, the trio seemed to have been thoroughly surprised by the revelation.

Asteria instantly covered her mouth, then pointed a trembling finger at him, looking him up and down to make sure she had heard him right.

Alaric, the handsome archer fared worse. The pot he had been holding was on the ground, its content spilled on the rough, rocky surface. His mouth was left hanging open.

David seemed to have held himself back from blurting something out. Out of three, he at least looked to have had the smallest inkling of a suspicion. But that was not to say that the swordsman wasn't surprised.

His mouth was left hanging open as well.

"B-But your dress…" Asteria broke the awkward silence.

"Dress?" Yuki tilted his head.

Asteria nodded, her eyes still wide from the bizarre situation.

"It's usually worn by girls…"

Her voice trailed off, the rest of the sentence turning into an incoherent mumble.

He nodded.

Yuki had suspected at least that much, he was already familiar with various types of female clothing. So, it wasn't hard to guess.

But she wasn't done talking. 

"...It's usually worn by slave girls sold into the pleasure district"

HIs heart dropped.

He froze at her words, then slowly turned towards the other two soldiers, hoping that they would deny it and the woman was playing some kind of cruel prank.

David slowly nodded, confirming her statement.

The world around Yuki came to a screeching halt, he mentally groaned as he understood what that meant.

The body he was inhabiting right had belonged to girl.

And that of a slave too, who had to have been forced into prostitution.

He looked down at himself, noticing that the proportions were slightly wrong, his fingers, his legs, everything.

It felt wrong, this body. It didn't feel like his.

Tears welled up on his eyes once more.

His heart pounded on his chest, and Yuki felt something clawing at the back of his mind. The dark memories, the ones he had so desperately tried to banish from his mind threatened to resurface, to swallow him whole.

'No. Not again'

Yuki forcefully pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, a subtle pressure accumulated on the back of his head. But he chose to ignore it.

'I'll deal with that later.'

He couldn't break down once more, once a day was already too much.

Thankfully he was pulled back to reality by the static crackling noise. Paranoia getting the best of him, he took a glance behind him. 

There was nothing but rocks and the deep darkness behind him. It looked unnaturally dark, even the light of the fire failing to penetrate it.

Feeling uneasy, he turned to Asteria. It seemed that she hadn't noticed anything.

He decided that there was nothing to worry about, since she didn't look concerned.

Yuki was then barraged by a stream of questions, all of which he dodged by saying he didn't remember.

After a while, a somber silence settled between them, each of them occupied with their own thoughts.

Alaric and David started working on the food once more. Soon the comforting sound of crackling fire and pots filled the air.

And the occasional eerie crackle.

It only seemed to be growing more and more clear.

Scared of what he'll find if he studied his body, Yuki considered what Asteria had done earlier, it had seemed so miraculous and bizarre and earlier that it had completely escaped his mind to ask what the beautiful woman had done.

Deciding to tackle the more important question first, he turned towards the warrior. She was studying some map of sorts.

"Asteria"

Without bothering to take her eyes off the map, she replied.

"Go on"

'How rude'

"What you did earlier there, are you a healer? Do you have magic powers?"

She looked up from the parchment and turned to him, there was a strange expression on her face. Yuki couldn't exactly understand what those ruby eyes of her said, like he could with everyone else.

She was just so hard to read.

"You don't know?"

A sheepish smile tugged at Yuki's lips.

"I can't remembe…"

his voice trailed off into silence, distracted.

The static like crackle had just grown unusually loud. It was so loud that the three soldiers had noticed it as well.

The air around the campfire suddenly changed, a palpable tension emerged between them. All activities seized, the clanging of pans stopped, only the fire seemed to merrily burn away, unbothered.

Asteria turned to Alaric, a silent look understanding passed between them. 

Then it all happened so quick.

Asteria disappeared from where she was sitting, quite literally.

Yuki could make out the blur of something shining on his peripheral vision, that was all he managed to register before his surroundings exploded into motion.

The gut-wrenching sound of flesh being sheared could be heard, followed by a mind-numbing screech. White pain enveloped his being as the shrill voice assaulted his ears.

By the next moment Alaric was by his side, his bow already drawn with an arrow knocked on it. David was nowhere to be seen.

Yuki saw something glinting in the darkness in front of him. 

It looked like the glint of swords, multiple swords.

Another shrill screech echoed erupted from the darkness, this one coming from behind him.

David's deep voice called from where the screech came.

"Get ready for close combat!"

The crackling around him grew louder and louder, then abruptly stopped. Only the sound of metal clanging, and the sound of flesh being cut remained.

Yuki covered his ears, cold terror enveloping his mind. It all felt like a nightmare. No, this couldn't be real.

It was a nightmare.

And then he saw it.

His eyes widened as he tried to process what he was seeing. It was a strange mix between an octopus and human. Its towering body was humanoid, grotesquely disfigured here and there. It had a large head, tentacles protruding from where there was supposed to be a mouth. The creature had dulled grey skin similar to that of the rocks, green moss growing here and there in small patches.

Ita emaciated body looked like it had been starving for a long time, the mad glint in its void like eyes burned with mad fury and hunger.

It was here for blood, didn't matter whose.

An arrow too fast to be followed whistled past him, pulling the creature's head back as it lodged itself on its forehead.

It fell to the ground with a loud thud, but another one was already emerging from the darkness behind it.

Another arrow whistled through the air, but the creature was ready this time. It raised one of its long arms and tried to swat the arrow away. 

But the arrow pierced the hand, jerking the creature's big body sideways from the arrow's impossible strength.

Though it only took a moment for it to recover.

With what seemed like impossible for it's emaciated body, it exploded forward with tremendous speed. Reaching for the two humans with his grotesque limbs.

Alaric had already let another arrow fly in that short moment, this one managing to hit its mark squarely in between its eyes. 

The creature went limp and fell to the ground. Its momentum still remained, carrying it dead body all the way to where Yuki was sitting.

He let out a stifled scream.

He wasn't even participating in the battle. But even he knew, letting his guard down even for a moment meant death.