A company

Despite the system's notification about his current status, Ashton didn't bother to check as he wanted to continue his journey to finding the antidote really quickly.

For a moment, his stomach rumbled aloud as he had not eaten any food since the previous day nor had water smeared on his lips.

As he walked on, he was getting tired and patched and the sun became his enemy as it shone on him harshly threatening to burn through his skin and nuke him like barbeque.

"I think you should take a break, Ashton." Callista who was now inside his sub-consciousness said to him after a long while of remaining silent.

With beads of sweat soaking his hair and dripping down his forehead, Ashton began to say, his words breaking as he took a step forward.

"I…can…not…waste…any…time…in…here…while…Marcus is…dying." He panted.

"You can barely talk right now…you've exhausted a lot of your energy due to the cut you suffered from those bestial creatures and you are only surviving with my own strength."

"That's the point."

"Once you exhaust my energy as well, you will die here, Ashton." Callista warned again.

With a loud thud to the ground, Ashton dropped himself while slamming his back against a tree tiredly.

"Just for a minute…let me catch my breath." He muttered with difficulty. "Just for a minute."

Callista shook her head as she heard him say those words. She heaved a sigh exasperatedly and folded her arms dauntlessly in deep space.

"Why risk your own life for someone else, huh?" She asked him.

"He…" She shushed him off before he could continue with his reply.

"You're not fit to talk right now…you can talk to me through your mind. I can't even imagine how you couldn't realize this all along."

"How am I supposed to figure that out when I'm still new to things like this?" Ashton asked her in his thoughts.

"That's not an excuse for not being smart enough."

"I bet you'd be surprised when you learn new things about me." Ashton shrugged as he tried to find a better position to rest in. "Marcus has risked his life for me once, doing the same for him wouldn't hurt a bit."

"Well, you're hurt now." Callista snapped back.

Ashton let out a small scoff while raising the dagger in his hand to his face. "And besides, I still have to beat him in a fight so, I have to save him first."

"That's a pleasant way to tell me you want to die with him too."

"So, tell me," Ashton continued, changing the subject of the discussion from the talk about Marcus to something new. "How did you become a spirit guide? What happened to you?"

"It's a long story, Ashton." Callista heaved.

"That's why I'm asking you to tell me about it. I will listen."

The next minute, Callista didn't say a word to him through his thoughts and Ashton had thought something had happened to her to make her stop talking during their small talk. He wondered what had suddenly shushed her up so he decided to call her.

"Callista? Is something wrong?"

Still, there was no response from her and Ashton began to feel strange about what was happening. What had happened to Callista within that moment was not a good thing and he couldn't even see her as she was already in his subconscious mind.

"Callista?" He called again. "Are you there?"

"Yes, I am." Callista finally replied sniffing back phony tears.

"What was that about?" Ashton sneered at her. "Why would you just stop talking abruptly?"

"Did I scare you?" She teased.

"Oh, shut up!"

"Watch how you speak to me, Ashton. I can withdraw myself from you right now and your enormous ugly cut will be back."

"Whatever!" He blurted, rolling his eyes as he did. "So, why did you suddenly go mute?"

"No one has ever asked me to tell my story to them." She finally admitted.

"And how many Mages have you chosen as your host?" Ashton asked rhetorically, yawning a bit as her words sounded really untrue.

"Ah! I will tell you anyway…"

The exact moment she began to play her story on her lips, Ashton drifted off to sleep as he was really tired. The fresh breeze that was blowing at him under the tree was marvelous and he hoped it could spurge down water out as well to quench his thirst but, recovering his lost strength was his number one priority.

***~°~***

*TAP!*

*TAP!*

'Is that rain?' Ashton asked himself in his thoughts groggily as he felt something splash on his face. With his eyes still closed in sleep, a small innocent smile appeared on his lips.

"The heavens are on my side to even let it rain today." He said to himself still not ready to open his eyes to view the world he has closed them on.

*TAP!*

*TAP!*

'This doesn't smell like rain though.'

"It's best you open your damned eyes now!" Callista said to him, her voice turning menacingly cold as if she had just seen a long last seen enemy.

Ashton finally opened his eyes slowly as he was still sulken to sleep a bit more. As he opened them to the world, the first thing that caught his eyes was a figure standing before him with its hand lowered on its groan.

Not believing what he saw at first, Ashton rubbed his eyes with the back of his palm hoping what he had seen was an illusion. He flashed his eyes open again and the same sight he had witnessed at first was still standing right in front of him with its hands lowered on its groan.

"Do not tell me this thing is peeing on me." Ashton asked Callista with extreme disgust in his voice.

As he said those words, the figure returned its peeing machine back into where they belonged and it watched Ashton. They both began to stare at themselves dauntlessly and no one made a move first as they watched.

One thing was clear, one of them was human and that was obviously Ashton while the other one had a distinct figure from a normal human but then again some of its features looked humane.

With the realization settling in that the figure had just passed its urinal waste on him, Ashton looked at his left hand to grip hard on his dagger, ready to strike the creature down but to his surprise, his dagger was not in his hand anymore.

The same dagger he had seen just a moment before he fell asleep was suddenly nowhere to be found.

"Looking for this?" The creature asked, spinning Ashton's dagger between its fingers.

"How the fuck did you get that?!" Ashton asked, his eyes glaring at the creature that was standing before him menacingly and his tone imminent his anger was brewing.

'Wait a minute! Did I just talk back to this thing? How can it talk?' Ashton asked himself in his thoughts.

"It seemed fancy so I decided to pick it up. Where did you get it from?" The creature asked.

"Hand it back, bitch!"

"Bitch? Is that the name you have decided to call me by?" The creature asked, pouting a bit like it was sulking about the choice of name Ashton had given to it. "My name is Chainy and I'm a boy…just like you."

"I do not care to know who you are!" Ashton taunted getting up to his feet and ready to strike the so-called Chainy.

"I see you wanna pick a fight. First, tell me what your name is and I will give back your dagger."

"I rather suck on your waste than tell you what my name is."

A slight chuckle escaped Chainy's lips and he lowered his head so he could hide his mockery chuckle from Ashton. He eventually raised his head and said,

"Well, you just sucked on my waste. You enjoyed the pee did you not?"

It was then the realization of what had prompted him to wake up hit him like a bullet train.

"You bastard!" Ashton cursed, lurching his fisted palm forward to connect a blow into Chainy's face.