2: Rejoining society

Hours? I scrambled up the trees to look at the sun and sure enough, it was on its highest point. That large ball of gas was mocking at this point. It wouldn't let me experience the night and now it's stopping me from experiencing the first early signs of morning.

This was starting to get annoying. I need to find out why this is happening and since I'm here, I might as well ask around.

There was a moment before I had walked outside of the bushes to rejoin civilization. If I go out there now, it's going to be a whole new world that I would need to adjust to. Can I do it?

Who am I kidding? I haven't got a choice. It's either I would go insane over the blacking out phenomenon or dip my toes into whatever there to offer behind those walls. It was one or the other. I am also getting tired over thinking of just this one stupid problem, my brain is not used to overthinking only on one task I need some other forms of simulation.

What's more stimulating than a large crowd of people?

I don't even know why I hesitated in the first place. With that in mind, I walked out ready to face whatever it might throw at m—

"Kshhiwwiw! Als hmh xlmw xs csy?!"

I turn to the voice and not even getting a moment to reply as the woman invaded my space and started to touch me all over with eyes that cried a unhealthy amount of sympathy.

"Evi csy epvmklx? Evi csy lyvxmrk ercalivi?"

"I don't..."

Recognition passed over her face and she leaned back in surprise, "Cleathean? You're a long way from home, buttercup!" She checked over my body again, to my uncomfortable mumbling, "Are you hurt anywhere?"

What language was she speaking before? Since when was my language named Cleathean? Why does she keep on touching me? Can't she see that I'm uncomfortable? This is so fucking weird. Her accent is weird.

Maybe rejoining society was a bad idea after all. Should I abort mission?

"Hey." She snapped her fingers in front of my face.

By instinct, I grabbed her wrist and pulled up and away from me. It took her scream and a moment for me to realize what I had done and I immediately let her go, "Goddess, I'm so sorry-"

Instead of reprimanding or screaming at me some more, she looked on with more sympathy. Her wrist was red yet she still reached out and lightly moved some hair away from my eye, she shushed me softly when I flinched, "Who hurt you, buttercup?"

"I-"

Surprised, I stepped back. This woman is starting to feel dangerous. "Hey, it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you."

I took another step back, so close to going back to the bushes and running away from here forever.

I can't survive this kind of treatment. What is this? Why does she feel dangerous? She's weak, I know that. I was easily able to grab her and dangle her without breaking a sweat. Her wrist is red, if I had just flinched one more time I would have broken it. So why does she feel so fucking dangerous?

"Who...are you?" I felt ashamed to have let my voice quiver that much when I spoke.

I am supposed to be the abomination. The mutant that everyone in the tower was scared of. Outside of those crazy fucking scientists, they were all scared of me. So how dare she make me feel so fucking scared right now?

She softened, finally taking a step back. I didn't know I would get so relieved as soon as she did. It was like someone had turned off the static playing in my ear, "My name is Tiana from the Village of Eisle," She said, "I don't know about the details but you look like you could really use some help."

Should I..

"Black outs. Do you know?" If she was offering help, I should get as much information about it as possible.

"Black outs? What do you mean by that?"

"I can't see the night. Just after the sun sets it would be sun rise. Now it happened again but this time it's suddenly noon and I'm far away from where I used to be."

She looked to the band on her wrist then to the wagon behind her before she replied, "That sounds like a problem that we don't have the time or resources to solve right now. Do you want to come with me inside the town? I know of a doctor that might be able to help in knowing what's happening with you."

Inside the town. Do I want to go? I'm so close to just stepping back and letting nature take ahold of me. Is that really what I want? To suffer?

I don't want to go inside the to—

"I would really love to go."

Fuck it. I got this freedom, I'll spend it however I want to.

———

[ Kingdom of Cleat - 1 Year after The Escape ]

"Did you find her?"

The man looked over the documents spread all across the large table, an irritant crease between his brows. His voice echoed endlessly despite speaking with a touch of softness. 

Two teens appeared behind him with a cloud of smoke, kneeling.

The one with white hair trembled as he looked to the man in front of him before reporting, "The doctor has not been able to make progress with the experiment. From the current data, there have been signs of where she might have gone to but when we investigated further, there was no trace of her."

A suffocating aura engulfed the room. The table along with a large chunk of the floor breaking apart as the man groaned miserably at the news. He heaved a long sigh, shoulders slumping as the pressure continued to grow.

The other teen, with eyes as white as the moon, stepped in smoothly. Appearing by the man's side and offering him a scroll as he added, "The continued destruction has gotten worse and worse by the minute, which means that the drug that the doctor had given her in the case of this scenario was slowly working."

Before the man could actually express joy over the news, the nervous one spoke again, "However, while the grunts were gathering data of the effects the drugs had on her, they were ambushed and killed. Reinforcements were only able to recover half of the data the initially acquired, the rest of the site was reduced to a large crater."

The man's fists went through the calm teen's chest in rage. "One year. It has been one year since she escaped and we have not found a single clue as to where she is or what she is going to do next." He looked at the teen, the fire blazing in his eyes as he watched the muscles in his forearms flex as he opened and closed the fist inside of the boy.

The timid one had already looked away, bile rising in his throat as he tried to erase the images of his comrade's suffering from his head.

There was a sickening squelch when the man located the heart and squeezed, followed by a lifeless thud. "The day of reckoning is near. If we do not present our weapon to the King, the church's summoned heroes will ceaselessly have to risk their lives to those demons."

The man walked over the corpse to reach for the broadsword nearby. "I will be leading the next expedition. Take me to the research facility."