It felt like adrenaline had been pumping without end for a month. Every muscle felt like it weighed a godly amount. Early blue morning light turned his eyelids orange, his mind had become awake before his body. Typhus took a deep breath while stretching out.
"Hi, er… Hey, do you know by chance, what uh, is going on?"
Tentatively a woman's soft hushed voice sounded out from the far end of the makeshift campsite. Rubbing his eyes to get morning gunk out, Typhus was amazed at how fast she had healed overnight. Rays of soft light made her pale skin light up with red rosy cheeks from the morning chill.
After seeing the intensity of her gaze as a statue, the sheepish woman in front of him seemed out of place. She had taken one of the cleaner cloth bandages and made a pony tail from it emphasizing the new purple bangs framing her face.
Dark blue oceanic eyes reflected the gaps of sunlight in the morning overcast clouds. She moved one of the purple fangs behind her ear while looking around with rising concern. Her words seemed meek but her body language was guarded and distrusting.
"I mean 'save' seems like a bit much, but we certainly helped you." Typhus finally found his voice realizing he had just stared at the poor girl up and down. "Sorry by the way, I'm just… surprised how healthy you seem, I am Typhus, sorry to meet under unfortunate circumstances." He said while sitting upright, feeling many leaves stuck onto his bare back, his [Dark Robe] was turned into a cloak from utilizing his 'shirt' as a blanket the night before.
"I'm Sophia, How do we get out of here?" She said looking up to the roof of felled trees. "we can get out this way, but I will need a second." Typhus began climbing from the pit and rolling the trees off the top. "Come on, I'll lift you out" Sophia took uncertain steps as she approached the outstretched hand until finally clasping it and being easily lifted onto the dirt floor.
Immediately after being put down and released, her head shot to their surroundings. "No need to be so on edge, between me and Nocturne I think you will be okay, besides I doubt those boots were made for walking..." Typhus questioned with a dark brown eyebrow raised above his piercing green and yellow accusatory glance.
She looked down at her shoes then back at Typhus like she had understandably forgotten about the appearance entirely, "They were cute! How was I supposed to know I would end up here?! In fairness I thought this was a dream!" Sophia said as she started speaking faster visibly spiraling "Where are we? Who are you? What do you mean us-"
Rising from the soil 2 meters away, Nocturne peeled mud flakes off their bones before turning towards the two bickering. 'Are we ready to move on?' Nocturne signaled Typhus mentally. Following Typhus's line of sight Sophia turned a deeper pale than she had already been upon seeing the familiar unnerving visage of the skeleton. "I thought you killed it!?!" she said, backing to the bark of the tree nearest to the entrance of the tiger trap style campsite entrance.
"Oh... No, this is Nocturne, long story very short, like we are on time, think of him as a friendly skeleton, we have a lot bigger problems right now, which says ALOT about our current predicament, so can we start at the beginning for both of us"
Sophia kept a long stare of confusion which turned to anger then finally resignation towards their environment. "WHAT?! I still have so many questions and you have been much less helpful than the self writing book from 'integrating', they at least responded, which sounds crazy in hindsight." Sophia brought a finger to her lips as she stared thoughtfully at the floor like an idea had suddenly formed.
"Self writing book?" Typhus questioned.
"Yeah, when things first kinda moved, I was sitting on a chrome seat next to a chrome table with a brown book that opened itself. and started moving its words into drawings of faces that explained that I would be moved again momentarily.", Sophia recollected out loud while parsing her memories. "Weird, mine was a computer screen that was erratic and rather... moody". For over an hour the two sat and talked Typhus explained the events that led up to them being in the hole including the skeleton companion, and death mana being honest she had confirmed her Death affinity to him.
Avoiding the topic for as long as he could Typhus swallowed hard before questioning, "What lead to you being so far in that tunnel?" knowing this is an unavoidable yet, horrific topic for Sophia. Staring at the trees she looked up then at the ground as tears fought to be released. "I reappeared in a muddy mouth of a river or something" pausing to stay in the memory she continued, "things... swam beneath the mud, so I ran, as I took my third step it was like the ground ate my legs as I slipped into a hole or something that pulled me beneath it... I thought I had died." Her breath picked up in speed, her cadence of speaking grew more rapid.
"Just before I ran out of breath I reached the bottom of the hole, which was the ceiling of a massive cavern, causing me to..." Twitching her nose from the pain of the incident coming back Typhus motioned with his hands to just continue instead of reliving the pain fully. "After I fell, I was hurt. Badly. I looked at my stats and inventory to pass the time while waiting for help. Which never came, I was dirty, hungry and decided on trying to find a way out. Honestly, I still can't believe I found a way out since I just started walking while resigning myself to a fate in that... Dark." Loosening the intensity of his gaze Typhus leaned back while listening. "Eventually, I, I saw a light and just couldn't believe it, I was so sure it was over... So I yelled in excitement, which caused a shift ahead of me until I saw a silhouette but when I saw it I was more confused than scared at first. It looked exactly like a skeleton, which... stabbed me with something" Placing a hand on her wound she took a deep breath and continued, "Can we do the rest later, I really don't like having this chat." Sophia interrupted her recounting before getting to the ghoul.
Immediate concerns stayed the same for Typhus but for Sophia everything about the situation had changed. He had guessed she had a sheltered life by the lack of a plan being a real concern for her.
"For the time being I think we should focus on staying put and waiting for help. Learn as much as we can in the meantime and prepare for, or if we meet any other survivors, if everywhere is as… Intense as this mountain has been, I doubt many people are even left at this point." Typhus said while ripping the bark off nearby trees. Unwilling to take her eyes off Nocturne, Sophia stood on the opposite side of the tree cautiously while responding, "That's… Depressing, but logically speaking we should assume that to be the case, I don't think we should just stay here, with creatures having 'Nocturne' in the title, I figure the 'predators' would primarily be out at night?".
"Thinking back on it, the only time I've seen a animal or creature not immediately hostile was at night, a group of wolves approached me and just... Left, after seeing me, which was a good thing too cause I was quite injured" Typhus added credibility to the thought while digesting the theory. Sophia softened her gaze for the first time since the two began talking, "what happened to you?". Taken back for a moment Typhus didn't know where to even begin. "well, first off, I reappeared in a weird crystal clear water square..."
He explaining the ball of black lightning, cutting one of the river basin creatures, how he had almost made the same mistake with quicksand in the river basin, climbing down on the top of the cliff, to hear her scream and the eventual ghoul attack. Sophia was silent and clearly mentally taking notes trying not to call him insane with what he claimed to have performed in the last 24 hours. "Interesting, is there anything else I need to know, you seem much more... Comfortable with this than I am." Sophia added a bit of venom to the sentence whether on accident or not Typhus was unsure. "Yes, things like mana and stats, not as in statistics but how it seems like they are represented, but that can wait for morning, I hope we both get some sleep tonight"
Internally debating he tried to heed the advice and really considered the situation.
If they left, he would say to head straight for the village which did seem ominously safe given the surrounding mounds of displaced dirt. His own argument for staying and stocking any food or water in the area in order to make the journey. Silver sword of skeleton slaying would have less effect if the area was unsafe for a different reason but he saw no evidence of that either, knowing this area has guaranteed dangers and the next had hypothetical, he was swayed.
"I saw a bunch of ruins and a weirdly serene looking city when I was climbing down from the muddy river basin, how about we stock up supplies today and then we head that way in the morning, deal" Typhus expected his upbeat attitude to be matched, Sophia answered with an annoyed face before responding, "we could have been moving when we have been talking all this time?"
"Wow, maybe we aren't as fucked as I thought" Typhus said as the sun started to begin its climb on the horizon between the trees. "Well, Sophia, let's get to work, any advice for first steps?"
"How can we make a warm shower?" She replied while smelling her armpits with a face of pure revulsion, causing Typhus to do the same.
"I could be wrong... but that's not on the hierarchy of needs.", Typhus answered, reassessing his sanity and their chances.