ThatKIrcguy
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Breathe Chapter 1: Recovery
🕑 Added 2024-03-27 05:49:28 +0000 UTCDarkness, it was all as I could see as I slowly drifted through a void. It didn’t bother me, there really wasn’t much that could bother me right now. It was quiet, peaceful, relaxing. I felt like was between the moment where you’re awake and asleep.
I could have stayed here forever, but all it took for me to wake up was a brief spark of light. Just a small flicker that interrupted the darkness, something for my mind to latch onto and let me know that I was still here.
With that newfound awareness, my mind began to frantically search for something else. Anything at all that would break the void I found myself in, anything that could keep it from fading back into blissful sleep and it found it.
A small flickering light that threatened to go out glowed beneath me. Reaching out, I found myself slowly pulled into its warmth.
There was… a woman… she was saying something, but I couldn’t quite make out what it was. Once she was done, I felt more warmth flood my body, pulsing like a second heart beat, but something was accompanying it this time.
Pain!!!
Sharp hot pain pulsed through my neck and chest with some additional burning sensation in my arms, legs and lungs.
My eyes snapped open and I lurched forward with a gargled scream. There was a cry of surprise, before a pair of strong arms pinned me back to the ground. I tried to fight the person off, but either they were to strong or I was too weak.
“Stop moving, you’ll only make your wounds worse,” The person… a woman said.
I continued to try and push her off me on instinct, before the pain became too much and I simply stopped moving, resigning myself to lying on the ground.
“That’s better,” The woman huffed.
She patted down on my neck and chest… the places that hurt the most and all I was able to do was let out a shuddered moan of pain.
“Just checking to make sure that you haven’t hurt yourself further,” The woman answered my unasked question. “It seems that you haven’t. Good… Well, as good as your situation gets, you’re not out of the woods yet!”
There was a strong breeze and the woman cursed. “Damn, if this keeps up, we’ll be in for a blizzard. I need to get you to my house!”
My vision slowly began to fade as my strength rapidly drained out of me. I heard the woman say something, but it was muffled. My last sight before everything went black was a pair of blue goggles.
…Breathe…
Everything became a blur. It was difficult to tell how much time had passed, I remember waking up several times, my head cradled and a liquid being poured down my throat. Ice cold temperatures. A roaring fire.
Everything just merged together in one long series of barely conscious moments and before too long, I found myself waking up properly. My body was still extremely tired, exhaustion had seeped into my bones, I wouldn’t be getting up soon, that much I could tell.
Instead, I decided to examine my surroundings. I was in what looked to be a fairly simple log cabin that seemed to have a second floor if the staircase was to be believed. I was laid on a small futon in front of a cobblestone fireplace with smoldering embers and a comfy looking seat that was pushed to the side..
Shifting slightly took all of my energy. There was a brief flash of a sharp pain in my chest and neck, before it faded into a dull throb.
“Finally awake, I see,” The woman who brought me here said. “Well it’s about time. You’ve been asleep for nearly a whole week. I’ll admit, there were a few times that I thought you wouldn’t make it, but you pulled through in the end.”
Turning to the woman, I finally got a good look at her. She seemed a little old, having grey hair, she was wearing blue robed, she had a tanned complexion, but the most striking thing about her was the pair of glowing blue goggles she was wearing.
“Where,” I began, before devolving into a coughing fit. My throat felt raw and dry, like I had been gargling nails.
“Easy now,” The woman said as she neared me. Placing her hand on the back of my head, she tilted it up and poured some water into my mouth.
I swallowed greedily and before I knew it, the water was all gone and my throat felt a lot better.
“There, now talk softer. That Grimm nearly cut clean through your vocal cords and although they seem to have healed, it’ll be a while until you’re back to one hundred percent.”
“Okay,” I said in a whisper. I had plenty of questions, but the most important one right now was. “Where am I?”
“In my cabin,” the woman replied. “We’re halfway between Argus and Mistral. Black Rock is a few miles to the east.”
“I don’t know where those places are.”
The shutters on the woman’s goggles blinked. ”You don’t know where they are… What’s the last thing you remember before I found you?”
“The last thing I remember?” I asked. “I was… in a dark place and then there was this light… and then pain.”
“And before that?” The woman pressed.
“I… I,” I began. The memories were still there, but there were huge gaps in between them, making it difficult to describe them properly. “I think I was at a house... or maybe in a field?”
The woman sighed as she sat in the seat that had been pushed away to make room for the futon. “Do you at least know your name?”
“Yeah, it’s…” My eyebrows scrunched up as I tried to remember.
“That’s not good. I had hoped that you would remember it so one you’ve healed up, I could take you to a town and find your family.”
“No, I’ll remember it, it’s…” I closed my eyes and began to focus. “My name is… It’s…”
“You don’t have to strain yourself like that. The nearest town is Black Rock, I’ll take you there, I’m sure that if that’s where you come from, the people will recognize your face.”
“No, no, I can remember it,” I replied. “My name is...” I was going to remember my name even if it damn well killed me.
“Stop!”
“My name is Coal,” I finished, feeling a sense of accomplishment. Now that I’d done it, there was a faint taste of iron in my mouth.
The woman gave me an odd look before sighing. “You’re in for a long recovery if just remembering your name took so much out of you,” She said. Getting up, she quickly grabbed a cloth, before bringing it to my nose, wiping away blood from a nosebleed that I’d accidentally caused myself.
“Oh… sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, kid, this is a new situation for you… it’s a new situation for me too.” The woman paused to make sure she had wiped all of the blood from my face. “My name is Maria Calavera… You can call me Maria.”
I tried to nod, but ended up wincing when pain flashed through my neck and chest.
“Get some rest, Coal,” Maria said. “You might be through the worst of it, but you’ve still got a ways left until you’ve recovered. All of your Aura is being used to healing your wounds, so you’re going to be tired until you’re healed.”
I hummed in agreement tiredly.
Closing my eyes, I couldn’t help but think about what Maria had said to me. Aura… Grimm… Maria Calavera, they all sounded extremely familiar to me. Every time I thought about it, I got flashed of an animated show, but other than that, nothing was really making itself apparent to me. I didn’t want to try and force the information out because apparently that caused me to have a nose bleed and if the pain in my neck and chest is anything to go by, I need all my blood inside myself.
So I followed Maria’s advice and quickly drifted off to sleep, something my body was apparently in desperate need of, judging by how quickly I drifted off.
…Breathe…
The next time I awoke, it was to the sound of Maria softly snoring in her chair. The room was pretty dark, so I tilted my head back to ge a better look at her and immediately froze when I realized that would cause me a massive amount of pain… only it didn’t.
Shifting around, I found that my chest and neck still hurt, but instead of the sharp, jabbing pain that I felt when I first fully woke up, it only throbbed.
A new problem, however made itself known to me. I really needed to take a leak. Leaning to the side, I flipped onto my stomach and slowly pushed myself up. My body hurt and I was still extremely tired, but I was capable of moving.
Stumbling around in the dark, I slowly made my way out of the lounge area and was immediately met with an extremely cold house. It wasn’t too difficult to find the bathroom. Once I entered it, I flipped on the switch, lighting up the room and was about to head to the toilet, before my eye caught the mirror that sat above the sink.
Stepping towards it, I saw my reflection. The first thing I noticed was how pale I was… almost unnaturally so. It was probably due to the blood loss that I’d suffered, so I moved past that.
My eyes were a dark red and my hair was black with hints of burgundy peeking through… oh, and there were bandages that covered the majority of my upper body and neck. I thought that I was wearing a shirt and a scarf, but it seemed that I was wrong.
Pulling the bandage on my neck down a little, I found a long line that was slightly sunken going across my neck. I had no doubt that there were more of these lines on my chest as well.
My bladder soon made itself known and I turned away from the mirror. Lifting the toilet lid, my eyebrows rose when I found the water frozen.
“How the hell am I supposed to take a leek now?” I muttered to myself.
“Just go outside, or you could do as you’ve done while unconscious and use the bucket that I had left next to your futon,” Maria answered.
I jumped and quickly turned towards her. “Sorry if I woke you.”
“Don’t be, sonny. I would have woken up within the hour anyway,” Maria said. “Now let’s get back to the fireplace, it’s freezing in here!”
Nodding, I followed her to the warmth of the lounge, doing my best not to think about the implication of Maria helping me pee while I was unconscious.
“I recommend you use the bucket or wait for the sun to rise, which should be in about half an hour.”
“Can’t I just go outside now?”
Maria fell into her comfy chair. “That would be a bad idea,” She shook her head. “If you go out there now, not only do you have to deal with the dark, the freezing temperature and the snow, but you also have to worry about Grimm jumping out at you. Then again, you’ll probably have to worry about all that once it’s light out.”
“I can wait,” I said, moving closer to the fire.
“Just use the bucket, it’s not like you have anything to show that I haven’t seen,” Maria replied. “Besides, I’ve already put so much effort in making sure you survive that I’ll have to watch you if you decide to pee outside. At least this way, you can take the bucket to the bathroom and have more privacy.”
“Fine,” I muttered and took the bucket with me to the bathroom.
When I returned back to the lounge, it was to Maria setting a pot of boiling water on the fire.
“I hope you don’t mind black coffee without sugar, because everything else is frozen solid,” Maria said. Pouring the hot water into a tin cup with coffee sitting at the bottom, she gave it a quick stir with a spoon and offered it to me.
“Thanks,” I hummed and took the drink. It was a bit too hot and bitter, but honestly, I was too cold and tired to be complaining about it.
“It doesn’t taste nice, but it’ll give you what you need,” Maria said after taking a sip of her own coffee. “Seeing as you’re capable of walking around, it must mean that your Aura is almost done fixing up your body. I’ll need to take a look at your wounds again to make sure, but you’ll probably be in traveling condition soon.”
“Oh… So what does that mean?”
“It means that you might be going home soon,” Maria replied. “I could technically carry you to Black Rock now that you’ve healed up, but I’d rather wait for you to regenerate some Aura so if we get cornered by some Grimm, I won’t have to worry about you dying instantly.”
There were those words again. “Um… What is a Grimm… and Aura?”
“What do you mean, what’s a Gri… Oh, right.” Maria looked at her cup and swished the liquid before taking a large gulp. “Grimm… they’re monsters, you know what a monster is, right?”
“I understand the general term,” I nodded.
“Right, so, Grimm are monsters of many shapes and sizes, they attack and kill people. That’s how you got so injured, you were attacked by a Grimm and I came across you and killed them… which brings us to our next point, Aura,” Maria explained. “It’s the power of your soul. I assume that you know what that is, seeing as you knew what a monster is?” Maria asked and I nodded. “When I saw how injured you were, I decided to unlock your Aura, it’s capable of making you stronger, faster, it can protect you from harm and in your case, it helped heal your body.”
“If it can do that, why doesn’t everyone have their Aura unlocked?”
“It’s not that simple,” Maria replied. “Aura makes you a target for Grimm. Even if you’re not using it, Grimm will still be able to sense that you have it and will target you over anyone else. It’s alright for hunters to have it as they know how to fight, but for an untrained civilian, all it will do is make them a more durable target.”
“So this Aura that’s inside me… it’ll make me a target for Grimm?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Maria nodded. “But it shouldn’t be too much of an issue if you live in a walled settlement.”
I… suppose I could live with that. I mean, it’s not ideal, having to hide from these Grimm, knowing that if one got in, it would hunt for me specifically, but it was seemingly my only option.
“Well,” Maria began, getting up from her chair. “It seems like it’s beginning to get brighter outside and the fire’s beginning to dwindle. I’ll go bring back some more firewood and then we can see about getting some breakfast, there’s not much food here now, you don’t mind beans, do you?”
My stomach suddenly made itself known by letting out a loud growl.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Maria smirked.
“Ah, yeah. I’m actually really hungry.”
“It makes sense. You’ve been recovering for most of a week after all and the only thing I could get down your throat was water and some vegetable soup.”
My eyes widened. She’d said that before, but it was only really realizing it now. I’d been unconscious for a week? That was crazy.
“Alright. I shouldn’t be to long. You rest by the fire, but don’t fall asleep. You can sleep more after you get something to eat,” Maria said as she opened the door to the cabin, revealing a frozen and snowy landscape. “I’ll be back in an hour.”
And with that, she left, closing the door behind her.
I stared at the door blankly, before turning back to the fire. The things I’d learned about Grimm and Aura, they sounded extremely familiar, but it just wasn’t clicking. It was like I had all the ingredients, but nothing to mix them with. It was almost infuriating, but I did my best not to dwell on it.
The memory of the last time I was awake flashed through my head… How I forced myself to remember my name and ended up giving myself a nosebleed.
Although, knowing why it was so familiar… having my memories… It wouldn’t change my current situation. Memories or no, I can’t leave Maria’s cabin. I was too tired and it was too dangerous out there. It wasn’t just those Grimm things either, it was also the cold temperature. I’d probably freeze to death within the first ten minutes outside.
Turning my eyes towards the fire, I rubbed my hands together and held them in front of it. It really was freezing. I couldn’t imagine what it felt like for Maria outside… then again, she did have a cloak on while I was pretty much stuck with pants and bandages.
Looking to the futon, I noticed a blanket and grabbed it, wrapping myself up as I huddled closer to the fire. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too long until I was recovered enough to make the journey with Maria to Black Rock… And hopefully Black Rock was a little warmer than this.
For now, however, all I could do is leave everything to Maria while I stayed warm by the fire. I would much rather be doing something else… anything to keep myself busy so I didn’t have to think about how little I remembered, but I couldn’t. If I went outside to help Maria, the odds are that I’ll just be a hindrance to her. One day I’ll repay her kindness, but sadly that wouldn’t be today.
…Breathe…
Ping!
I blinked and looked up from my half eaten plate of beans and found a translucent screen hovering in front of me.
…
Coal
Semblance: Gamer Lite
AP: 5/500
STR: 6
DEX: 5
CON: 4
AUR: 10
Status effects:
Fragmentation (Passive)
Due to a sudden case of transmigration, the Gamers mind is 95% fragmented.
Aura regeneration (Passive)
Aura regenerates 1% per minute.
…
What the hell, were those video game stats? And what was up with the weird status effect. Transmigration? A fragmented Mi… well, that one actually made a sense.
“Don’t tell me that you suddenly remembered that you hate beans,” Maria said, breaking me from my thoughts.
“No,” I said, before swallowing. “No, it’s not that. There’s this weird screen in front of me.”
“A screen?” Maria asked. “Well what’s on it?”
“Just a bunch of video game stats,” I replied. “And also a word I don’t understand. What’s a semblance?”
“Semblance!” Maria latched onto the word. “What does it say about your semblance?”
“It says Gamer Lite next to it,” I replied honestly. “Why, what is it?”
Maria stared at me intently, her plate of beans all but forgotten. “A semblance is an ability that anyone with active Aura naturally possessed. Normally it takes years of intense training for a huntsman to unlock or understand their semblance, but it seems you’ve already gained access to yours. What else can you tell me about this screen that you see?”
“Nothing much,” I shrugged. “It’s just some basic stats for a video game character with status effects at the end.”
“And these status effects, what do they say?”
“Just that my mind is fragmented and my Aura regenerates at 1% per minute,” I replied, deciding not to mention the whole thing about transmigration. I’m not exactly sure how I would even go about mentioning that.
Maria rubbed her chin in thought. “It does take almost two hours for Aura to regenerate, so that’s correct and the other thing could explain why you can’t seem to remember anything,” She muttered to herself. “Well, it seems that you’re a very lucky unlucky person. You’ve gained your semblance almost instantly, but it’s not especially handy seeing as scrolls can do what it does.”
“So… it’s not very good?”
“well,” Maria began slowly. “It’s still useful and it seems to let you know what’s going on with your body, but outside of that, there aren’t many uses.”
Well that was kind of crap… Then again, it’s not like I was planning on becoming a Huntsman… But I wasn’t like I hadn’t thought about becoming a Huntsman either, I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do, it was still way too early.
I’d only been awake for a few hours after all, so I can’t exactly make a decision like that right now. I’ll figure it all out a bit later on. For now, I’ll just enjoy my plate of beans.
…Breathe…
After breakfast, Maria removed the bandaged that had been covering my neck and chest, allowing me to see a portion of the scars on my chest. There were a trio of claw marks that began on my upper left shoulder and ended at the bottom right of my waist. Now that I could see them, I honestly wondered how I was still alive.
“It looks like you’re just about healed up,” Maria announced. “The scars are still pretty fresh, but you’ve still got some growing to do, so they’ll probably fade a little with time.”
“How,” I swallowed. “How deep were the wounds?” They couldn’t be too deep, right? The main issue was that I’d bled a lot, right?
“Pretty deep,” Maria replied. “When I was treating your wounds, I found there was even a portion of your rib bones that had been cut through. I’m still amazed that you survived, if I’m being honest. I thought for sure that I would wake up to find you dead at my feet.”
“But I didn’t die, right?” I asked, the memory of floating in a dark space coming back to me. “This… isn’t the afterlife?!”
“The afterlife?” Maria chuckled. “No, this isn’t the afterlife. You’re still alive, you don’t have to worry about that.”
Well that was a bit of a relief… I think. This world was filled with monsters that almost killed me after all.
A cold breeze hit me, reminding me that it was freezing outside and the only thing I’d had on me that was keeping me warm was the bandages. Reaching for the blanket, I quickly wrapped it around myself.
“Wait here for a minute,” Maria said and got up and walked upstairs. It didn’t take her than long to return, but this time with a dark blue, grayish bundle of clothes. “Here, try this on.”
I gingerly accepted them and carefully unfolded the clothes, revealing that instead of being several different pieces of clothing, it was in fact one, a large blue and grey cloak. Pulling it on, I immediately began to feel myself warm up.
“Good,” Maria nodded. “It seems to fit you fine. I was a bit worried that it wouldn’t, those were my robes from when I was younger after all.”
“Thank you,” I replied, not really knowing what else to say.
“Think nothing of it, sonny.”
“So what happens now?” I asked. “You… said that you wanted to take me to Black Rock… Are we going now?”
“I was thinking that I would take you there tomorrow,” Maria said. “The weather should be a bit warmer and I do need to teach you the absolute basics of your Aura. You need to know how to shield yourself in case we run into some Grimm.”
That made sense. “Okay. So when do we do that?”
“In about an hour, that’ll give you more time to regenerate your Aura and digest your breakfast,” Maria replied. “Just stay warm by the fire for now.”
I nodded and pulled the hood up. Hopefully it wasn’t too difficult learning how to use my Aura.
Comments
Zai
This is very interesting. I hope you continue this. I always do think the best gamer stories are the ones that aren't heavy on gamer abilities and when the gamer system can be explained as a part of the world the character is in.
