Cold...

The only sense I could still perceive was the prickling low temperature of air that crawled all over my body, as if my skin was covered with a thin cloak of ice and my blood had stopped flowing under it. I couldn't feel anything than just being cold, not even knowing whether I was trembling or not.

Especially at the part where the critical wound was supposed to be, the stomach. It felt tense and tight, as if the skin around the stomach will be shattered with only a slight touch. It was freezing cold to the extent that it became a burning sensation. It was cold, but then at the same time, it was flaming hot.

The sensation steadily spread all over my body that in my mind I screamed out of pain. My conscious was hazy, but then, I wasn't truly awake, or I couldn't. There's nothing I could do to ease the pain, not that I could handle it if I was awake. All I could see was black, only pitch black.

The life and death sensation continued for a while, suddenly, a warm and soft little palm touched my wounded area. As if magic, the sensation mysteriously slipping out from my body on contact and vanished. The blood under my skin started to flow, the intense pain I felt gradually diminished and the tightness on my stomach had long gone.

All of my senses gradually came back to me. The sound of a dripping water echoed into my ears. My nose was filled by the same familiar murky stench of the cave. I can finally feel the movement behind my eyelids as I rolled my eyes under it. I can move my fingers, turn my head and stretch my leg. Last but not least, I breathed.

"Hhh!!" I jolted awake as I gasped a chunk of air through my mouth.

That warm sensation which cured me from the pain, vanished in sync as I breathed. The sudden loss of the soothing feel had got me unsettled. The tingling pain instantly returned, but this time, in a far way weaker force than before.

I carefully turned my weak body to the side, my hands touching on to the cold ground and gently pushed myself up while slowly opening my eyes. But, the gravity won over my tiny little resistance, so I staggered and fell back to the ground. The impact caused by pounding back onto the ground, has stimulated the wound I have on my stomach. I groaned in pain I precipitated upon myself.

My vision was blurry at first, I wasn't sure about what I exactly saw, a figure blurred away and followed by a splashing sound right after I blinked. At the moment my vision fully returned, that unknown figure had disappeared. It was on my mind for a sec, but then I let it pass first.

While lying on the ground, I slowly turned my head to see around. Beside me, was a spread of water, I was lying at around a meter far by the lakeside. Above me, stood the same old dirt ceiling with the weird glowing substances, up high from reach. What made me pondered, was the lack of the stalagmites which was supposed to be fully covering the cave.

The stalagmites?

The terror rushed through my mind as I recalled of what had happened before. My heart thumped. My eyes opened wide and quickly took a scan toward the other side of the cave. I gazed all around the cave with unruly breath while my back still laid flat on the ground.

There was no one, no monsters.

The cave itself was different, I wasn't in the same cave as before. The terrain of this cave was tamer. The size of the cave was smaller compared to before. The ground was dirt flat, surrounded by only few rocks at the opposite side of the lake. The lake seemed to be covering half of the cave. The ground and the lake were separated in a straight line at the center of the cave.

Once again, I mustered all my strength into my arms and I pushed myself up onto a sitting position. At that exact moment, I realized that the zipper of my red training top was forcefully shredded open, exposing my chest and stomach area. I slowly slid my hand to touch the round blueish bruise on top of my stomach.

That was where the fang jabbed through.

I was one hundred percent sure that I was jabbed through my stomach. But where did the hole go? It was impossible to heal a wound that fast. What's more peculiar is that, how did I end up here? I was certainly sure that I drowned into the lake bottom. Speaking of that, it reminded me about the previous splashing sound, so I immediately put the lake onto my sight.

It could be a monster.

I closely watched over the calm surfaced lake. Once in a while, the dripping sound of water from the ceiling filled my sense of hearing. There was no sign of life moving on the lake, but it wasn't like that I could see what's hiding under the calm surface. I shuddered at the thought of the possibility of a few unknown monsters swimming freely underneath the lake.

Now that I sat up, eyes on the higher level than when I lied on the ground. I looked around the cave again. Something was definitely off. I deliberately searched on every nooks and crannies of the cave with my eyes. But I couldn't find it.

There was no entrance to this cave!

I was stupefied by the fact I've just learned. There was no sign of crack nor hole around this cave. Then, how the hell did I get in here?

"Ughh..." I groaned at the pain that is still tingling on my stomach. I might have mistaken, but didn't the bluish part of my wound shrink?

Sasaki...

Her smug face flashed into my mind. She wasn't here. At the previous cave, the monsters were awakened and one of it threw me into the lake. That was the last time I saw her. I sincerely hope that she managed to run for her life. But, thinking back about how close the monster stood and the mind state of her at that moment. The chance was greatly reduced, but not into zero. If I calculate about the good reflex she has and the knife throwing skill she showed, there was a hope.

I never actually hated her, maybe a bit irritated, but that's all. Still, I will pray for her safety.

Whoooossshhhh

The lake water by my side, splashed upward and blurred something out. It dashed out in an outrageous speed, up to the air. I was caught off guard and lurched back as a reaction, with both eyes glued on the blur. That thing hit onto the ceiling and bounced straight down with a not faltering speed. In just a blink, it was thrust into the ground.

An... egg?

A big striped green egg to be exact. The length was about half of my height and its wide was around one arm long. The bottom of the egg was magnificently stuck into the ground with only two or three meters away from me. I sighed in relief at the thought that it didn't land on me. I would be instantly crushed under that force if it did.

While wobbling weakly, I forced myself to stand on my feet. Braced myself for whatever worse that will come next. I shifted my eyes from the egg to the lake, back and forth, trying to figure out the current situation. Silence returned to the lake and no movement could be sense from that egg. The shell must be so thick and hard which explained why it didn’t even break after that crash.

While my eyes fixed on the egg. I was about to move closer to inspect further. But then, another splash and whoosh filled in my ear from the direction of the lake. I weakly turned myself to the source of the sound and locked my eyes on another being that was jumping out from the lake. I hastily add distances between me, the egg and the currently blurred unknown being.

That unknown being flipped on the air and landed perfectly, the previous blur had gone. It wasn't a monster, nor another egg. It was a little girl. She stood up like it was nothing.

if I had to guess, she would be around eight to ten years old. Her height was about my chest level. Her rugged beige colored clothing soaked wet, while her shoulder length light blue hair dripping out the water in a peculiar way, as if the water itself slid out from her hair, but not leaving it wet. Her fluffy wavy hair had perfectly dried by now, even though she just got out from the lake. I couldn't muster what I was seeing.

She glanced at me with her big round turquois blue eyes filled with an unknown intent. I didn't know how should I react. She didn't look harmful and she has that normal human face except she has the feature of an extraordinary beautiful doll. Everything about her felt godly and out of normal. What was abnormal was the bizarre pair of legs she has. The skin from the knee length until the ankle, was covered with shiny little blue scales. Now that I noticed, at the back of her hand was covered with a patch of scales too.

While I was still standing puzzled, holding on the pain that was tingling harder as it reacted to my tensed-up body. She moved to the side of the giant egg and stopped. She leisurely raised her right hand up, fist curled into a ball. She thrust her hand straight on top of the egg, in a speed my eyes couldn't follow.

CRAACCKKK

The hard-shelled egg broke as easily as a normal human breaking a normal egg. She opened a big round crack on top of the egg. Some bits of the cracks strewed across the ground. I took a brief look at the shell. It was about an inch thick. On top of that, the material of the shell looked different, definitely not a matter from my world.

The egg was almost as tall as the girl which explained why she stood on her toes. Both of her hands entered into the crack she opened. A moment later, she picked up a slimy embryo looked a like flesh, holding it with both hands. She turned to my side and she stared at me again with that mesmerizing blue eyes of her. She steadily walked toward my direction, while holding a dripping slimy big chunk of flesh.

Should I run?

Escaping flashed through my thought, but then I realized that this was an entrance-less cave. I couldn't escape even if I wanted to. Even if I run, I doubt that I could win against her astounding speed. Not even a Cerberus and the dragon headed snake could win against her speed too. Alas, what should I do in this situation?

I stepped my foot backward subconsciously as she drew in closer toward me. There was no emotion shown in her face. Just plainly straight. Her big eyes locking onto me. She would have won a poker face award, but not until when she stopped exactly a few steps in front of me. She opened her mouth.

"Uhmm!!" A cute little voice came out from her tiny little mouth, followed by a refreshing smile. She shoved the slimy flesh forward, directing onto me, while I was still dazed by her voice.

I quickly run my mind deep about the event which was happening right now, right in front of me. First, I need to know what's her intention for giving me a lump of flesh. Does she want me to eat it? And that voice she made, totally not the sound a predator would have made.

She seemed to be realize that I was mulling over her action. So, she pulled back that slimy flesh and ripped it apart. The flesh was divided into two pieces. Next, she thrust her hand again, swinging that slimy flesh in front of my face. She smiled eagerly while waiting me to take that lump of flesh.

Okay then...

I slowly raised both of my hands with the palm opened up. Upon seeing that, she immediately dropped that slimy flesh onto my hand. I was jerked downward as the flesh landed onto my palm. That thing was unexpectedly way heavier than I formerly thought. I do have the strength to lift it, but I was caught off guard.

The girl smiled from ear to ear. Then with her pale and currently slimy, little hand, she yanked on my arm directing me to follow her stride. I was hesitant, but there's no way I could reject her invitation. I didn't want to angry her. Thinking back about how she can easily cracked that hard-shelled egg open, I warned myself to not enraging her. For now, I will follow the flow and further observe.

She towed me all the way to the side of the cave, where some knee length rocks lie. She freed my arm and went to sit on the rock. The hand she used to drag me went back to hold that slimy flesh. She happily munched on it like a normal meat. Then, she glanced at me who's still standing with both hands holding the same thing. She raised one of her shiny scales covered leg and thumping it down repeatedly at the rock beside her excitedly.

"Umuu!" She voiced again, cheerfully. Trying to tell me to sit beside her.

Learned of what she was implying. I walked to the rock and sat on it. While sitting, I started to think if she can actually talk or is that the only way she can communicate. Then to why she’s telling me to eat. Does she want to fatten me? In order to eat me later? She might not look like it. But, could it be that she is a cannibal? Just look at how leisurely she munched on that raw flesh.

"Nom! Nom!" She munched on the flesh looking satisfyingly, as if it was a gourmet meal.

Her light blue fluffy wavy hair covered her cheek, some stranded and stuck on the slimy surface of the flesh. She resembled a baby eating their baby food, messy but in a cute way. I was nearly forgotten about the horrifying strength she displayed before. If not for that, she would be just a perfect cute little girl. Okay, except the scales she has on her legs and back of her hands.

"Uuu?" She questioned me while staring at me intently. Then, she glanced at the flesh I was still holding and back to my face again.

As if she wanted to tell me what I was supposed to do. She took a big bite off the flesh I was holding and chewed. After that, she looked at me again with a contented face.

Do I really have to... eat this?

I looked at the flesh I was holding, the slimy substance still constantly dripping onto the ground. The raw smell of the flesh that was pricking my nostril, strong enough to almost make me puke. The flesh was colored in light pink. And the shape, resembled an animal's embryo. This must be an embryo of a monster. I wondered how that girl could eat it in such an appetizing way. Her face didn’t seem to be lying. I was almost tempted by how scrumptious she was eating. My stomach grumbled as I watch her chomping.

Ahhhh!! Better than nothing

I took the first brave bite, immediately swallowed the tiny bite down to my throat. It slid down smoothly and unexpectedly didn't leave a bad after taste like what I had feared. It was actually, nice in the mouth. I was surprised. I further observe the flesh on hand again. Still, a gross looking slimy raw flesh. But, what's with the taste?

I took the second bite, now, courageously chewed it inside my mouth.

“Umuuuuu..." That girl leaned close to me, while seemed to be waiting for my reaction.

It was juicy, a bit salty and sweet. The texture of the flesh was so tender that it melted away almost like a cotton candy. I couldn't think of any way to describe this food. Even though it looked disgusting. But then again, never judge a thing by its cover. This slimy gross looking flesh actually tasted amazing.

"Uhhm... it's delicious" I responded to her, not knowing whether she understood my words or not.

Her eyes widened, a glint of surprise flashed through.

She pulled my hand toward her and placed the rest of her meat onto my hand. Then, she nodded lightly while staring at me intently. I pushed it back to her knowing that she enjoyed eating it too. But, she insisted about giving her portion to me. Actually, it was too much, I didn't think I could finish it all myself.

"It's okay... You can eat it" I tried talking to her. I have a feel that she might understand what I was speaking.

She stopped pushing and stared at me again. As if she was deeply touched, she frowned her brows and her eyes sparkled. Once again, she pushed me while smiling sheepishly with an extended strength. This time, she shoved me too hard and caused me to stumbled to the side. I was staggered and then fell down unsightly.

"Hh!" I groaned a bit in reaction to the jolt of pain that I felt through my stomach.

That girl immediately stood up from the rock she sat and then quickly ran to my side. She looked at me with concern plastered on her face. I slid my hand and covered the area where it hurt. Trying to suppress the pain, when knowing it was actually a futile. It was hurting only for a moment. I had already felt fine by now.

But then, she startled me by pulling my hand away, uncovering my stomach. Then she took a deep breath, looking at the wound seriously. She raised one of her hand and put it on top of it. After that, she closed both of her eyes. Her palm felt familiar.

She whispered and hummed in a weird voice, it was definitely not a human language. The air around her started to change. As if the nearby air was circling around, the fluffy shoulder length hair of her floated and her cloth danced in the air. It was a heavenly sight.

A moment later, from her palm seeped out streaks of glowing blue light, slowly encircling the wound. The light was warm upon contact on my skin. It was soothing and comfortable. The bruise on my skin faded in a steady speed. The tingling sensation on my stomach was gone. The discoloration on the skin vanished, as if it was never there before. I was now fully recovered.

That girl retracted her hand back to her chest, then she shifted her eyes toward mine. I didn't know how should I react. By now, I had realized that she was the person who healed my wound when I was still unconscious. She was the one who saved my life. I am one hundred percent sure that she is the one. The feeling she gave when she was healing me. It was exactly the same as before.

"Hhnn!" She gave me her brightest grin.

While I was dumbfounded by the magic she just displayed.