Friend or Foe?

Lex shuddered awake, expecting the same old bleak, pale roof of his forgotten apartment. Instead, he'd opened his eyes to a bright blue sky dotted with lazy clouds, only to be interrupted by the neon blue leaves of the tree. What?! He flung up and remembered that he was in a tree as he nearly fell over. At least in the day, he could see if something was going to have him for supper.

He looked down at the ground and gulped. The ground seemed more distant than he recalled. It was littered with brown leaf litter and green undergrowth, sprouting from the dead debris. Faint large paw prints engrave themselves in the leaves from where the monster had stepped. So, this wasn't a dream?

He needed to find someone. As long as he found clean water and food, he'll survive. Except there was a fundamental flaw in his plan. Well, a few. One, he had no survival skills because there was no forest to get lost in, and two, how the hell was he supposed to get down without hurting himself? The least appealing option was climbing down, as it evoked images of his skin peeling off. However, that was the safest option, given that if he just jumped down, he would break something. 

Something inside him, however, was different. He could sense it. Like a star in the night's sky, it was small. Before he ended up there, the stars were absent or invisible in their bleak, lifeless world. There was too much light pollution.

Now to muster the confidence to climb down from the tree. Lex looked up, captivated by the clear sky and fresh air. It tickled his throat. No one could enjoy such a sight in his ugly world.

 ---

Upon exiting the ambulance, Lex witnessed the aftermath of the fall. While the sky was clean and pale blue, they were called because a woman fell off a ladder and impaled her arm on a fence spike while trimming a tree. She was screaming in agony and had dropped her phone after calling the ambulance.

It had been a treacherous job getting her off that spike. He never imagined the practicality of operating cutting equipment. He'd learned that a while ago, being a paramedic wasn't so taxing. Instead, they had a fire brigade to cut people out of cars. Merging that job with paramedics increased their stress load. But he could still remember a singular cloud floating by as if to observe them. It had been a rare occurrence.

Lex was relieved to see the woman was safe and able to reunite with her children at home. She'd even invited him to her house for dinner, where their relationship grew. Sheila was her name, and her two young sons, Ben and Alex. 

Even though she was a widow, Lex fell in love with her and her two children. He could still remember the first time he'd walked into their house when Ben asked if he was their dad. He'd denied it, but eventually accepted the title as his love for Sheila grew, and how Ben had been ecstatic to be the ring bearer on their wedding day.

Perhaps that was his biggest regret, being a paramedic. Cause whilst it brought them together, it tore them apart.

Sheila had been driving Ben and Alex to daycare when a large truck sped through a red light and barrelled into them. All three were killed instantly. If not for being a paramedic, he might have been in the car and perished that day, but he was left alone with an unbearable haunted house after the accident.

 ---

Tears streamed down Lex's cheeks. Why did everything here remind him of someone's death? Why bring up Sheila at a time like this? He analysed his hand and noticed his ring was still there. He'd gotten so used to it, it had felt natural. But why did his ring stay but not his clothes? Lex pulled the middle finger at the sky, imagining the cruel gods were watching him.

Crunch. Lex's ear's peaked at the sudden sound. Chatter sliced through the tree, mixed with the obnoxious stomping of feet. Lex, like a bird on its perch, peered down from the tree, intrigued by where the sound was coming from. Sure enough, a group of mis-matched individuals seized shelter underneath his tree. It looked like they were from some medieval era. There were four in total.

One leaned up against the tree, cushioned by a hard metallic armour plate with a star engraved onto the metallic piece above their heart. His face wasn't visible from that angle, but Lex could see that he had blonde hair.

A taller person stood to his left. The woman's blonde hair fell down her back, ending just below her shoulders. 

"Leo, I don't think we're going to find what we're looking for here," she sighed towards the blonde-haired man who leaned against the tree. The two other members wore the same style of armour it seemed. However, one was tall. Their striking short jet-back hair looked more like a bush than hair, but his piercing gold eyes sent a shiver down Lex's spine as he noticed the long spear with a sharp blade at the end. The reserved girl with long, light brown hair and grey eyes didn't utter a word to anyone.

"It said that it was in this direction, didn't it? Look," Leo gestured to the giant paw print, "see Luna, I was right."

"Leo, we don't know when that could've been from. We should just circle back and go back the way we came." The black-haired man with pointy ears chimed in.

"Theodore, we've come this far. The least we can do is follow the creature so we can collect its bounty. This will all be in vain if we turn back."

 "Yea, we can hunt it, run out of food, and die because we'll be slower," Luna huffed. Leo gestured for her to be quiet, and she shut her mouth, but not before giving him a dirty look.

"Someone's watching us," he whispered to his small group, which wasn't effective, as Lex could still hear them. This time, Leo sprang from the tree. Light blinded Lex, but only for an instant before he gasped at what he saw. Someow Leo was now holding a fancy bow and arrow that was a mixture of black and gold, with blue humming inside of it.

"Who would watch us?" Luna asked dumbfounded, "whoever it is, we'll just find and kill, no probs." Lex froze at those words. Kill? He wanted to crawl back into the cover of the tree, but his body glued itself onto the bark. To Lex's horror, whilst he had been panicking at Luna's words, Leo had found him and was glaring at him, his bow poised and ready to fire. 

Lex watched as his life flashed before his eyes as Leo let go of the string, sending the arrow flying towards Lex. He closed his eyes and wished that he was on the floor instead of the tree because it meant he at least had a slim chance of surviving. But now he was going to die. The arrow was slow to hit him, right? Shouldn't this be his ending sequence?

Lex peeked to see what was going on and his stomach flip-flopped. He was on the ground. Thankfully, the group hadn't noticed, and were scratching their heads. It dawned on Lex that he'd have no chance of escaping them. Even with his best attempts, he had no clue where he was. He needed their help, without being decapitated or shot to death.

Lex sighed and stepped towards the group, who swung around at the sound of the leaves under Lex's feet snapping. Lex raised his hands above his head as they focused all their weapons on him.

"Please, don't kill me," Lex begged.

"Oh my lord," Leo ripped his head away from Lex, and the others glanced away from him, their cheeks burning cherry red. At that moment, Lex remembered something he had forgotten. He was naked. He squished his parts together, his cheeks burning hot. 

"For the sake of Jeremy, why the fuck are you not wearing any clothes?!" Leo howled as he tried to erase the stranger's image from his mind.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know," Lex sighed, frozen to the bone.

"Leo, you have spare clothes, right?" Luna suggested. Leo sighed, making something appear from thin air. It was a pair of underwear, pants, shirt, and shoes.

"Umm," Lex hesitantly took the clothes from Leo graciously, who had to move his hands, causing Leo's red cheeks to darken, "wouldn't this be unhygienic?"

"Are you in the position to choose?" Luna growled, gesturing for Lex to hurry. The clothes were decent. He scrambled into the clothes, terrified at the thought that if he wasn't faster, they might just kill him.

"So," Leo gestured for Lex to sit, "are you a friend or foe?"