Steven once again woke up completely naked under a strange bush. On the positive side, and Steven was well known to focus on the positive due to an inability to handle considering the negative, he knew how he got under this particular bush. The rough outline of his body had left in the mud a few paces away, drag marks to where he was now, and dried mud that covered his body told the story. For the average person, that story would be a very short and brutal lesson on avoiding green strangers with a penchant for stabbing. Steven, ever the optimist, saw it differently!

“You saved me!” He told the Beast who was a few feet away, playing with one of the lumps of metal the pile and fiddling with it. Whether Steven was talking about being saved from drowning in an embarrassingly thin layer of mud, which the Beast was responsible for, or the many stab wounds that had been sewn (stabbed) shut, which the Beast was also responsible for, wasn’t made clear.

Steven eyed his where his many stab wounds had been. The oddest part wasn’t the threads of metal gong through his skin, some simple looked like staples but others wove together like works of art. There was the likeness of a tree, rock, and one that was shaped just like one of the metal lumps that had stabbed him. Part of him was absolutely mortified. Maybe more than part. Steven had never gotten a tattoo before. Even temporary tattoos made him feel self-conscious. The idea that he would have something on his body that everyone could see, and know he put there purposefully, gave him anxiety.

“And now here I am with a metal weaving of what looks like an ogre holding a stick on my calf.” It was an overly flattering self portrait of the Beast with an unrealistically sized… stick. Steven ran his fingers over the silver metal. The designs, portraits, and some things he couldn’t categorize didn’t particularly hurt. None of them pulled uncomfortably and most didn’t stick out much higher than skin level.

Steven nearly panicked when he remembered to check his private parts, but they were thankfully untouched. Except his left nipple was incorporated into a spiral design, but he kind of liked that one.

“I owe you my life kind stranger.” Steven said, clearly forgetting that the Beast was the one that endangered his life in the first place. “I would like to pay you back after,” Steven looked the Beast up and down, at the rags twisted around its body, “maybe acquiring something to wear.”