Ink was very bored.
The only exciting thing in his whole day was the unicorns and the dragon! And even that was short-lived. Splotches was still sleeping, despite the whole fiasco that happened a few hours ago. It was almost sundown too.
Ink shoved another leaf out of the way and stilled.
Beyond the trees was a beautiful lake.
He walked closer, literally starry-eyed.
The lake had calm dark waters, and the sand around it seemed untouched. The night sky looked as clear as the lake. He could see large mountains in the distance, the same distance he has to travel. He could feel the sand beneath his feet.
He felt a twitch in his hand to capture the landscape.
He grabbed his satchel and gently pulled out a large tent, avoiding awakening Splotches, and placed it down. Placing the satchel down, he got to work on building the tent, and placing Splotches and the satchel inside.
When he finally finished, he sat in front of the water. Sketchbook in hand, he moved his pencil across the page. With just his pencil, he captured the essence of the lake, he hasn't even added color yet!
As he was reaching for his paints he heard movement from the forest. He looked over, one eye light an exclamation mark and the other a crosshair.
When--what looked like a hunter-- came out they both froze. The hunter looked shocked, and Ink was himself. After looking at the other, Ink noticed what seemed to be bone marrow on him. Ink tilted his head, and his eye light which used to be a crosshair turned into a question mark.
The hunter pulled out twin daggers and stood in a fighting stance.
"Who are you!?"
Ink did the first thing he could think of:
He fled.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He dashed through the trees, as if he’s been in this situation before. (He has, but now wasn’t the time to talk about it.)
After a few minutes, he finally heard something moving toward him. So, naturally, he picked up the pace.
"Hey! Get back here!", a voice yelled. He tried to grab something from his satchel, only to realize that he’d left it at the lake. He cursed himself mentally.
Then suddenly he stopped.
…
What was he doing again? And where was he? Where was Splotches?
He turned around to go in the direction he came from.
A figure ran into him. At full force.
They both fell down with a yell.
"Owww!"
He felt a dagger up his scarf.
"Who are you!?", the skeleton repeated at him.
Rude.
"Heya pal! My name is Ink! Mind getting off?"
"Yes"
So, that didn’t work.
He chooses violence.
He kicked the hunter.
The hunter, not expecting the kick, flew onto the ground next to him. He slowly rose up, and brushed some dirt off his robe. He heard a groan of pain. He looked at the hunter expectantly.
"Well, are you gonna get up?"
The hunter looked genuinely surprised at the question.
He held out his sleeve for him. The hunter stared at it for a moment, and then finally took it.
"So, why were you behind me?", Ink couldn’t remember why he was in the middle of a forest. Maybe this was a new friend!
"You ran off when I questioned you", the hunter said slowly.
"I did?"
"Uh…yes?"
His eyes caught onto the many fresh scars on his new friend(?).
"Are you okay!?", he could see the hunter visibly flinch from his tone of voice.
"Come with me, I probably have something to help!"
He just grabbed his new friend's arm and started rushing back.
The hunter seemed stunned, and Ink couldn’t tell if that helped move him or not.
As they were walking back, the hunter came back to his senses.
"Uhh, I'm Cross by the way…"
"Cool! I'm Ink!"
"You already said that…"
"Really? Oh well, never hurts to say it twice!"
Ink started skipping.
"Soo, why were you chasing me?"Ink was curious as to why Cross was chasing him. He didn't do anything wrong?! Right?
Oh God, he hoped he didn't do anything wrong. Last time that happened he was almost burned.
"A better question is why did you run away?"
Cross responded with a question instead of an actual answer.
"I ran away?"
Cross stared at him with visible frustration.
Ink just smiled.
"Anyway, we better get your cuts checked! An infection is not ideal…"
Cross just glared.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They finally made it back to Ink's tent!
"Hey Cross, can you wait out here while I grab some stuff from my tent?"
Cross just nodded his head.
Ink entered his tent and turned toward his satchel.
He opened it and grabbed healing potions and some bandages.
The potions allowed for faster-than-normal healing, as he hasn't perfected the instant healing one yet.
As he exited the tent, potions and bandages in hand, he saw Cross staring at his unfinished painting.
"Do you like it?"
Cross visibly jumped in surprise. He turned to look at Ink, who had a large smile on his face.
"Uh, yeah It's good I guess…"
Ink giggled, "Glad to hear! I got what I needed to heal ya!"
Ink sat down and motioned for Cross to do the same.
"Here, drink this!" Ink handed the healing potion to Cross.
Cross looked at him and drank the potion with caution.
After he drank the potion, Ink placed the bandages on skillfully.
"There! You should be better in no time"
A grumble
"Huh? What did you say?"
"thanks…"
"No problem! Although, do you have a place to stay?"
"Ehh, not really. It's fine though, I'll just try and find a cave near-."
"Why not just stay here?"
Ink didn’t want Cross to stay by himself around here. He’s only been here for a day and already many things have happened. While he liked exciting things, he knew that not everybody was a being that couldn’t die at the hands of something small like the occasional herd of unicorns or a dragon.
Cross looked at him with shock and confusion.
"I mean, wouldn’t it be safer to stay here?" Ink wanted his new friend to stay, even just for a little longer.
Cross looked hesitant.
"Besides, I didn’t spend all that time helping your scars just for you to get them again!"
"I didn’t ask for help…"
"Yeah well, you clearly needed it" Cross had scars all over him! Ink was wondering how he got them anyway.
Did a creature do this to him?
Did someone do this to him?
If so who?
Why would they-
Hold on…
He was getting distracted again!
"Besides, I've been feeling pretty lonely lately! Maybe you too!" Ink couldn’t really communicate with Splotches often as they slept a lot.
"I’ve been fine on my own!"
Ink doesn’t know who told Cross that(probably himself), because he clearly was not fine. Anybody should know that when Ink thinks you’re not fine, you aren’t.
A loud dragon roar was heard in the distance.
"Nevermind, I’m staying here."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We finally meet Cross! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!