BEYOND 3A: BloodRed and ScaleBlack

The Fifty-Seventh Feather: Now and Then, Here and There

Jake regained his consciousness a while after that disaster ensued and he found himself in the middle of a calm, serene forest under warm weather. He looked around and thought: "How did I get here? Am I...Dead? No, there's no way. This must be someone's doing...Was I teleported here? Where's Corna's head?!"

He got up and frantically looked around the area but he couldn't locate the head. He laid against a tree and with a hand on his forehead, he wondered: "Oh, great, what am I supposed to do now? I don't even know where I am right now-" His train of thought was interrupted when he heard a faint cry for help coming from afar. He chased down the voice for a few minutes until he saw a bare naked girl he didn't recognise stuck on a tree with several branches impaling her abdomen. She cried: "S-somebody... Please help me... I-I'm hurt..."

Immediately, he scaled the tree and cut the branches, allowing her to be freed. She muttered: "T-there's still... branches in me..."

Jake: "Grrr...(If I remove those now, your bleeding will get worse. Just bear with it.)"

Girl: "H-huh?"

Jake: "Who...Are... you...?"

Girl: "I-I'm... Zoe... Zoe Everly... And you?"

Jake: "...Jake..."

Zoe: "Jake...? I see... Can you help me...? I might die at this rate..."

Jake: "...(Damn it, if I still had my Beyonder, this would have been dealt with in a second. I suppose it is best to find civilization first.)"

Zoe: "W-well?"

Jake: "Bark."

Zoe: "Why... Are you barking?"

With Zoe in his arms, he marched onward in a random direction, hoping to get lucky and find a city or at least a gas station, but much to his surprise, it didn't take long for him to find a building that was, for some reason, by itself in the middle of the forest. It wasn't decrepit either, it was as clean as a normal city building would be. Zoe said: "Ah...m-maybe there's someone inside... or at least a medkit..."

Jake pushed the door open and what was inside was shocking. Jake and Zoe were met with a freezing, vast tundra. Jake barked: "Bark! (What the hell is this?!)

"What the hell is this?!" someone nearby shouted. Jake and Zoe looked that way and saw a man they didn't recognise. That man was Ziggy.

Jake prepared himself to fight until the rapper said: "Woah, cool it down there, mate! You better not make that mistake! I ain't here trying to pick a fight, I'm just looking for the tunnel's light!"

Zoe: "O-okay... Do you have a m-medkit...? Or at least a band aid...?"

Ziggy: "Put her down on the ground, yo! I got tricks better than band aids, yo!"

Zoe: "I-I'd rather not... use essential o-oils... or shungite..."

Ziggy: "Shut up and stay static, I'm about to work my magic!"

With very limited options, Jake tested Zoe's luck and put her down before him and immediately, he crouched down and sang: "I've never performed on a child, this shit's about to get wild!" and wild it got, when he started rapidly hitting around Zoe's injuries, applying a pressure point-based healing method that forces the body to heal much faster. It was also taught to him by the same Chinese monk. Zoe stood up, amazed by her rate of recovery, and exclaimed: "What?! No way! How did you do that?!"

Ziggy: "That's a trade secret, and I'm tryna keep it!"

Zoe: "...Nevermind, I got it!"

Ziggy: "Wha-"