A Misfortunate Person

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She slowly comes to her senses, starting to taste the salt in her mouth for some odd reason.

Once she forced her eyes open, the world before her was so dark that she absentmindedly wondered if that lightning bolt had dumped her in some psychedelic in-between space-time or something.

Her whole body was aching all over and she felt paralysed, unable to move. The seething pain settling in the pits of her stomach, and the hammering ache in her head indicates that she must've hit it somewhere hard. 

As if coming out of a long tunnel, sound starts to be recorded in her ears with increasing intensity. Billowing waves, silently howling winds, snapping twigs, desperate cries for help in the distance…

She had no idea where she was. She felt the damp ground underneath her, and a dry, heated wind messing with her clothes and hair. But she tried to think over the cloud that seemingly covered her mind, giving herself time and tried to take slow, even breaths.

What was the last thing she remembered?

Ah, yes.

If she estimated correctly, that lightning was almost two hundred thirty kilovolts. The voltage of that lightning was physically impossible for any human being to survive!

...but here she is.

She also remembers the darkness swirling in, melting her vision to a world of black. She closed her eyes again as dizziness hit her.

She could not recall any sound, then. But she remembered the lightning and darkness, the loud noises, remembered losing the ground under her feet and grasping at nothing, her phone playing that otome game was suspended in the air. She remembered being thrown from side to side in the middle of a non-existent tunnel, her head violently jerked. She remembered dread and void…

And, then…she did not remember anything anymore.

For a moment, she felt conflicted. Someone must've hit and drugged her! That seemed to be the only plausible explanation in this predicament. Someone had drugged her and brought her in the middle of nowhere.

Feeling an intensifying alarm and hearing her breathing turned ragged, she hastily peeled her open. A forest was stretching beyond her gaze, and next to her was a large body of water (probably the reason why she could taste salt?). Somehow, the area had gone from the modern landscape of her town to a bunch of greenery everywhere, and yes, houses and roads and skyscrapers were nowhere in sight.

She frowned. Where is she? Why is she still alive? Omg, nothing makes sense at all!

Although she immediately realised something. When did her hands and feet become so small? Her body movements were like that of a…child. She was even wearing some kind of dress that she did not remember wearing at all!

"What the hell?!" Her voice came as a high pitched squeak, like the voice of a child throwing an epic tantrum, and it's definitely not the sound of her own voice!

She desperately cupped her own face, her hair, and her body. What's the reason for this child form? Is this the after effects of getting hit by lightning? To turn her back into a kid? No one told her about this!

She forced herself up, frustrated as she felt her limped muscles. She flexed her calves and forced herself to her feet, just a tad wobbly. Even her legs seemed a bit…diminutive—for the lack of a better word. She really did become a kid!

She can't decide whether this is a good outcome or not.

It took her a moment to orient herself, but when she did, she felt a frown tugging at her lips. 

Aside from her shrunken body, the bustling and busy streets around the modern city had completely disappeared. Fields and slopes kept appearing, reaching as far as the mountainsides she could barely see in the distance.

Where were the towering buildings and skyscrapers? Where was the city that stood here? This forest and topography…it's not even familiar to her anymore. Where was civilisation, cars, blinding lights? She even missed pollution at this point!

Is she hallucinating? Is she in a psychotic break? That's it. She has finally become senile and mentally ill and this is her personal hellーa hell that doesn't have WiFi, otome games, modern toilets.

But she was still alive and kicking. Whoever did this may come back anytime soon and she doesn't even know where she is. 

Then, she heard it.

A pained groan, sounding like a child, and then light footsteps. For some odd reasons, her senses could even hear that.

Frowning, she scanned the area possible for any escape routes and ambush tracks, all the while trying to locate the source of the faint sounds. After a few moments, she figured it out. There was a hand just visible in the near distance, inside the forest. Whoever that was, they were probably lying on the ground…or it could be the serial killer trying to lure her in?!

Since she cannot stay out here forever, and as much as she wanted to run away now, she walked slowly towards the sound of the pained groaning, keeping her footsteps light as much as possible.

What the hell is she doing!? She should just run away, but here she is…! She twitched, irritated with herself that her conscience nagging her that she couldn't possibly leave an injured man to his own death.

There she saw a little boy, probably no more than twelve years old, clad in thin white clothesーthat was now soiled dirty and bloodyーlying on the floor on his back. Even in the vast darkness, she could see the extent of his injuries that she feared she's already too late.

The child trembled from pain, pushing her out of her daydreams. His greyish black hair plastered on his head, partly from sweat and partly from blood. He kept groaning and hissing, not getting up or showing other signs of movement.

"ーDude, can you hear me? I know you're not alright, but look at the bright side, I won't let you die."

She gave him a nervous smile as she checked his pulse, which was barely there; weak but stable. She then place her hand on his forehead, feeling his rising temperature. His eyes slammed shut tightly.

"...Omg!" She started to panic. "I need to get you out of here first. I know I'm not a very nice person, but I'm willing to carry youーhey, can you understand what I'm saying?"

When the boy half-opened his eyes again, she grinned at him, momentarily relieved. He was lying with his head in the shadows and his eyes were not that visible in the trembling light, but she caught a glimpse of burning grey glinting feverishly back at her. 

She knelt next to him, cupping his cheek to get him to focus his gaze at her. "...Good evening, sleeping beauty. We need to leave this place immediately if we want to live the next day. I don't know about you, but I certainly love my life…so, can you stand?"

He answered in a whisper, barely audible. "N-No…"

"...I knew it. Talking is probably too much for you." She clicked her tongue, trying her best to stay calm, but miserably failing. "A-Anyway, I'll try to lift you up, but don't move, okay? I'm the hero here, I can handle this one hundred percent! Trust me!"

Struggling with her shrunken body, she lifted up his upper body, his weight on her legs, as she slowly dragged him out while maintaining his head stable at the crook of her neck as possible. His ragged breathing tickled her skin and his hissed of pain made her grimaced in sympathy, and he moved at some point, but did not complain or say anything else. 

Once she managed to clumsily drag him in the grass away and into the shoars of the ocean she woke up to, he seemed to breathe with more ease. She placed him on the cool sands gently and hastily tried to check for wounds.

"ーI can see a lot of shallow lacerations that have stopped bleeding for the most part. You took quite a lot of bruises, man. Several ribs seem too soft, so they're probably broken by now. No swelling of the abdomen, so no ruptured spleen or pancreas." She gave the nearly unconscious man a detailed account of his injuries, while thinking down other avenues. 

Oh, gods. Who is he and what has he done to receive this kind of treatment? 

But where are they, anyway? Some kind of warring states? A murder scene?!

Her eyes kept darting everywhere to see any signs of movement in her surroundings as her thoughts turned haywire.

When she checked him out again (that sounds so wrong but, oh wellー), she jolted with surprise to find his pulse very weak. His glowing eyes held a feverish fire, yet they were almost closed. Just then, he groaned again, and his breath wheezed out and seized.

The girl panicked. "Holy shit! Don't you dare die on me, you crazy…old-fashioned person, bleeding in the middle of nowhere!" 

She opened his clothes a bit, pulling his head back to allow him easier breathing. Hands opened at his sides, she checked his pulse. 

Very weak and unstable, fading fast. 

"ーThat's it! If you die here after I saved you, I'll definitely skewer your body. If I'm not satisfied, I'll dice and mince you instead. Hey! Wake up now, please!"

She did not hesitate anymore. She took a deep breath, pinched his nose with her fingers and performed CPR. "...CAB. Compression. Airway, breath. Compression again. Breath check…"

After a short while, he was breathing shallowly on his own, but still kept his eyes closed.

She grinned triumphantly.

Resting him on his side, the light of fire in the distance shone on his face, illuminating his beautiful countenance. She shamelessly stared at him as she started to tear off the unneeded layers of her own clothes without hesitation.

She was no doctor, her expertise lies in maths and maybe science for a bit, so she could only rely on her almost non-existent knowledge in first aid until help arrived to give him proper medication. 

Crisis averted for now, she thought warily as she finished tying strips of cloth to his injuries, and trying to dry off the blood from his face. Sighing, she leaned back and crossed her little arms tiredly.

Now, what should she do in this unfortunate situation?

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