Naran

The wind blew through the trees, rustling their leaves and shaking their branches.

In a forest that surrounded a mountain a human is seen, walking among the plants. This human's name was Naran.

Naran irked the nearby villagers, due to his dull eyes and lackluster expression. Every time he spoke it sounded lifeless, like a robot reading words it was instructed to.

Naran was harvesting nearby fruits for the day's meal. He had done so for the past few years. His clothes were shabby and worn, yet Naran did not care. He could not care.

His hands closed around a fruit, with a swift pull it snapped free from its supporting branch. After a quick inspection Naran began eating it.

The fruit was sweet and juicy. It would be considered a high quality fruit in any market. Sadly, Naran was unable to appreciate its deliciousness. It was only food to him, a needed object to satisfy his stomach.

After the fruit was consumed in almost its entirety, Naran buried the seed in the dirt. It would be up to it to grow and survive. If it succeeded, it would only provide more fruit for him.

The snap of wood was heard behind him. Naran turned only to come eye-to-eye with a bear. Human and beast stared at each other, both sides unwavering.

The bear was uninterested and snorted before walking away. Naran walked in the opposite direction. Leaving the confrontation to be solved.

Naran's stomach continued to plead for more food. So he continued forward, searching for more sustenance.

Fifteen minutes of wandering and he stopped to inspect a nearby bush. There were obvious signs of it once having berries, but something beat Naran to it.

As he stood he concluded that it must have been the bear, perhaps itself was satisfied with what it foraged.

However... there was something odd about the whole situation. Having lived the same way for the past few years Naran was quite accustomed to the forest. While it wasn't unusual for an animal to beat him to a food source, whatever was eating it was desperate.

Was something released into the forest? Perhaps a newcomer is what caused this.

Now knowing his fruit hunting would prove fruitless, he decided to fish instead.

Turning towards the river he began to trek his way through the plants, until he heard a scream.

'When you hear a scream, try to help.'

Naran turned towards the direction and took off.

Why would someone with no emotions decide to help? It was due to how he was raised.

Due to his inability to feel emotions he took every command and sentence literally. His mother gave him lessons on how to be a good person, so when a scream was heard a memory of that lesson resurfaced.

Naran could barely remember his mother's face. But he could remember her voice, "Naran, if you ever hear a scream, you should always try to help. Okay?"

Naran ran, his feet snapping twigs and sticks. The rough calluses on his feet kept them protected from splinters.

He saw a rough shack in the distance. A girl was desperately backing away on the ground.

She cried, "Help! Anyone!"

Naran ran with an extra boost in speed. The girl spotted Naran and increased her effort in escaping.

He landed next to her, "What's wrong?"

She pointed at the door of the shack and Naran followed her finger. A weird monstrosity was moving about, its flesh turning in and about.

A faint cry came from it, "Food... food..!"

It looked confused as it searched about in the shack. Shattering wooden cabinets and searching amongst the rubble.

It looked like a malformed human, its feet were two different sizes. Its hands were incredibly large, making it difficult to perform any fine motor movement. Its body was massive, making it look morbidly obese.

It launched a large piece of wood in frustration, "Food!"

It turned its head and looked at the girl, "F...Food!"

It rushed forward and stretched its arm out, aiming to grab her. The girl screamed in terror.

Naran punched the face of the monstrosity, making it stumble back in surprise, "Food?"

It looked at Naran, making a decision it quickly moved its arm.

The monstrosity was far faster than it looked, it quickly grabbed Naran and lifted him off the ground. It cried out in glee, "Food!"

Its massive stomach opened, like a mouth ready to bite down. In fact it was a mouth, rows of teeth was seen. Even a disgusting looking tongue was visible.

It brought Naran close to its mouth, ready to bite down.

A voice shouted, "Shit! It's turning into a Desire!"

Naran looked at the voice, a middle-aged man with a stubble was running towards the shack. Naran watched as the man held out his hand and a Beretta M9 formed in his palm. He quickly lifted it and shot three times.

The bullets held more destructive force than an ordinary one. The three shots proved enough to completely dismember the monstrosity's arm.

The man shouted, "Horis!"

"On it!"

Another individual joined, this time a teenager boy. He leapt into the air, far higher than an ordinary human was able to, and landed on the monstrosity. Intertwining his fingers he slammed down onto the monstrosity's head. Its head caved in and it collapsed with a cry.

The teen leapt off it and landed next to the girl, "Are you okay?"

The middle-age man scolded, "Check the guy it was trying to eat Horis!"

"Oh."

Naran had freed himself from the dismembered arm and stood up. Horis looked at him suspiciously but still asked, "Are you okay?"

Naran nodded.

Horis rubbed his chin confidently, "You know if we did come as fast as we did, you would be food! I think you owe a little thanks."

Naran replied, "Thank you."

Horis was a little taken aback, both by the lack of hesitation and the robot-like voice. He scratched his head, embarrassed by his previous boastful comment.

Eager to change the subject he called, "Orin! Everything's good!"

The middle-aged man, named Orin by Horis, grumbled as he approached the shack. After a quick inspection of the monstrosity he sighed in relief, "We made it in time, if it ate that guy it would have turned into a Desire. Alright let's clean this up and get this guy erased. You have the stickers right?"

Horis pulled out two small packets, "Right here!"

Orin looked at Naran, "We're sorry for this."

Horis walked over to the girl and ripped open a packet, inside was a thin paper with a strange marking on it. He placed this on the girls forehead, and she immediately passed out.

Horis walked over to Naran, "It's best you try not to resist this."

Naran stood and didn't resist. Horis placed the sticker on his forehead and... nothing happened.

"Uh."

Horis took off the sticker and opened a new packet. Placing it on Naran's forehead, but once again nothing happened.

Orin looked over, "Don't tell me you brought expired stickers."

"How could they be expired?! They came from the same pack and it worked on the girl!"

"The expired ones can still affect the weak-minded, I swear if they're expired... Hand me one."

Horis tossed one over, Orin inspected it closely before flicking Horis' forehead, "You dumbass, they are expired!"

"How am I supposed to tell?"

"They have the date on them!"

"They do?!"

Orin took a breath and reached into his pocket. Pulling out a lollipop he unwrapped it and began sucking on it, "You're gonna stress me out. Go get some more from the car."

Horis nodded and quickly took off, not willing to take any more of Orin's scolding.

Orin shouted, "And bring the HED as well!"

Horis made a thumbs up to indicate he heard as he continued running.

Orin sighed and sat on a chair that survived the monstrosity's wrath, "Stay there for a moment."

Naran stood still, watching Orin.

Within a few minutes Horis came back, in his hand a strange looking device. Orin stood up, "Let me see it."

Horis held it obediently as Orin tinker with the object. Naran watched quietly, unmoving.

"Food..."

Orin looked over, "It's still moving?! Horis, hold him off for a minute-"

Naran stomped on the head of the monstrosity, due to it already being damaged the monstrosity collapsed back onto the ground.

Naran returned back to his position, he was supposed to stay there.

Orin suddenly looked at him with suspicion, "You... harmed it?"

"I hit where it was hurt." Naran responded

"No I don't think you understand. You 'harmed' it. You can't do that normally."

"I do not understand."

"I... forget about the sticker for now. We're taking you to camp."

Horis was surprised, "This guy?"

"Either he's an enemy, or a natural talent. Both is enough means for me to take him back. You don't have anything against do you?"

Naran responded plainly, "I do."

A certain lesson floated in his head, 'Don't let strangers take you away.'

Orin nodded, "I see... Too bad, Horis, knock him out."