Welcome to demon school Kai

22

Pov of Kai -in the present-

Absolutely fantastic.
Phenomenal even! this has got to be the cherry on top you know? Just a great couple of days I've had! First things first I almost get mauled by 2 different cats, second I get my ass handed to me by an aforementioned cat -in front of a stranger, like wow embarrassing, third I go running and get myself turned around in a forest out of hell, like being here wasn't dangerous enough already, and then right after that I lose my damned bat- I mean who's writing this big running joke, some demented nerd?!

It was easily one of the most vocal moments Kai had about her bad luck so far,
sure she was fuming but she wasn't just angry- she was panicking.
It was a bad situation gone from worse to worst, with no weapons no directional sense- and, unless she got to the river again soon it was about to be 2 full days of this nightmare without a single drink.
On top of that she still had to worry about not going hungry...

In order to give you a better sense of what exactly led up to all of this, you don't need to look any further than the sphinx, who in Kai's mind was becoming reminiscent of a "horrid winged sewer rat on steroids." Yes those words exactly- Most everything that had gone wrong in the past few day or so came down to the moment the sphinx had pushed Kai to cross the path of the white haired stranger -yesterday afternoon-
Immediately thereafter threatening violence  and battering Kai, who saw this as flee or die. En route through the forest Kai had been knocked off her feet by the sphinx multiple times, one of which causing her to go sprawling downhill hitting every sharp rock, fall through every damn thorn bush conceivable, and almost accidentally club herself, which was when she'd been forced to drop the bat-

naturally, it was obvious even to her that she should have already been a pile of crushed bones just after the first swing the sphinx had taken, but claws had still raked her arm and shoulder and she wasn't going to test how many hits she could take because they were definitely still painful even if they weren't lethal.
Now, the best of all of course,
the funny part about this story that catches you up to Kai's present predicament, is this crucial detail you haven't been clued in on yet-
Kai was lost, that was true- and she probably would have been able to correct that normally... but she had no way of backtracking, or of actually going much of anywhere right now really. See, Kai hadn't survived this last encounter because she'd succeeded in outpacing the sphinx, no- She'd actually lost quite badly and as a result was now submerged up to the elbows in a pit of heavy sand... one of the sphinx's own design it seemed.

The whole pit had just erupted out of the ground like it was normal, mid chase and everything. I hadn't been able to break my momentum fast enough to get out of the way, and had sank like a stone in a pond.
Oddly enough as soon as I was stuck the sphinx had left me behind without so much as a second glance-
I wasn't sinking any further than I already had at least- which was the only good news, since I was definitely stuck.
Struggling did nothing but make the sand grate against my skin.
This had all happened a while ago of course,
by now I had been here all of yesterday evening, the entire night, and half of today. I just couldn't believe I hadn't gotten my face gnawed of by a badger or something yet but there was still plenty of time for that...
Plenty indeed.

With the quite sound of wind in trees, and the feeling of light cool rain I had a nice distraction at least. Still stuck as I was the hours passed to evening and still nothing.
No sphinx, no creatures, no poachers, no...
Actually-
faintly I could hear approaching footfalls. ones I almost hadn't noticed.
Only a minute later and a rustle in the trees revealed the very same white haired stranger from the day before, carrying my bat like a natural, though he tossed it aside as he approached.
I hadn't expected this at all, I went sheet white in a second, silent and staring though I needed to crane my head to the left to get a look at him...
Not a coherent thought crossed my mind, whatever happened was so unbelievably out of my control.

Pov of stranger

As I tossed aside the bat, I breathed a sigh of relief. It had taken me the entire day to find this human even standing just a few meters away I couldn't believe it. Just the fact that they still lived, was astronomically lucky, though I noticed they weren't in a great situation.
I'd been slow to get here, that was undeniable.
I had to stop at every trap I didn't see yesterday and at every sign of poachers I happened upon as I searched and zigzagged the woods. I was in around the same place as yesterday but this wasn't a small forest.
With traps it was best to negate the danger before the damage was done. Even without traps to handle I probably would have been out looking into the night too if a certain lion like beast hadn't brought me a spiked bat and given me an easy riddle for the right direction.
Now that I was here though,
What... what should I say? The translation spell should work, but I was well aware that I was intimidating, scary even... though I didn't mean to be. What else was there to say? I'd just have to introduce myself.
I walked to the edge of the sandy pit, in easy view of this human and spoke.
My name is shichirou balam, I'm going to use some magic to help you out, so please don't panic...
I stopped there. My words didn't sound quite right, I could tell- and I only seemed to scare this human more by the second.
It stung but it wasn't a new feeling. Even demons were scared of me...
But I'd just have to do this the scary way then.

I put a hand down to the edge of the sand and cast a quick spell. It wasn't difficult, to change the sand back into a loose soil. As I did, before they got a chance to do anything else I snagged the human by the back of the hood and pulled them up out of the pit.
I... didn't need a spell to know they were throwing swears and insults at me like mad.

Pov of Kai

I might as well have had a heart attack as the stranger nabbed me by the collar and dragged out of the now dirt. I was too numb to feel much of anything as I hissed out several very flattering comments, but even through my shaking i reached to grab at his gloved arm to hold myself up a bit, and maybe get an angle to claw his eyes out. Noticing his thick metal muzzle of a mask did not give me good feelings.
I must have used every curse under the sun, but to my amazement the stranger let me down on solid ground, beside a tree I could lean against and gave me a couple pats on the back.
Wow??
What a roller coaster.
How was I not dead yet...?

Guess I'd have to find out!