He gripped his knife tightly as he braced himself.
The rustling of the bushes stopped dead for an instant until, after one last tremor, a shadow shot out from between them.
Kai frowned, tightened his grip on the knife… and then, recognizing the silhouette, his expression relaxed.
He dropped back onto the rocks, exhausted.
The attacker stopped dead in midair in an impossible way and dropped down onto the rocks alongside him.
"Do you really have to try and scare me like that?"
The bird looked at him, amused, and imitated Kai's gesture of flopping back onto the rock.
"Hey, I couldn't risk it, you know. I knew it was you but you did try to put holes in me before. Though I'm dead tired, I wouldn't have dodged it anyway…"
He sat back up and set his knife aside while reaching for his first aid kit.
"Well, if that's all… I have a couple of things to take care of. And I don't even know what I did to make you hate me so much." He sighed. "But you know what? I don't care in the slightest, because you've done more than enough to not be exactly on my good side either."
The bird looked at him strangely, head tilted, for a few seconds—then shook its head, beat its wings and left, creating a gust of air.
Some of Kai's things almost went flying in the process.
"I don't know where you're going, but have fun. And if you can, stay over there."
He opened the first aid kit, apprehensive, and looked inside.
He pulled out gauze, a small pair of scissors, bandages, some medical tape, a few band-aids and antiseptic gel.
He gave the box of surgical needles and thread a long, wary look. He closed the first aid kit with a soft click, and his expression turned melancholy.
"I told my dad a thousand times not to buy them… Why did he have to be so overprotective? In the end it wasn't even any use."
When his father found out Kai wanted to go mountaineering—or camping, even just once—he had insisted on buying him a massive first aid kit. He even went from pharmacy to pharmacy until he tracked down the surgical needles.
The hole in his leg throbbed suddenly, as if reminding him it was only a matter of time… that sooner or later he'd have to do it.
Kai pressed down on his leg with his hand as he thought it over.
"Actually…"
Actually, he had to thank his father for buying all of that. It was going to increase his chances of survival, and at least it would spare him an infection.
"I didn't even say a proper goodbye to them…" He sighed, looking down.
He had no way of knowing when he left the house—just as he had no way of knowing now how they were, what they'd be doing, or how they were feeling.
He had just gone out with his friends, thinking he'd be back in a couple of hours… And now? Now he was alone. Alone, and in a new world that seemed to be rejecting him.
What had happened back in his old world? Had Kai simply disappeared like the Observer said? Or had it prepared some excuse to cover his absence and everyone else's?
"Are they… are they out looking for me right now…?"
Sometimes he felt like his family would be better off without him, that they'd live more peacefully. But every time he was late getting home, his parents always called him right away.
Of course they worried about him. And they wanted him with them.
His gaze grew deeper as he held his leg.
Just thinking about how worried they must be, about how hard it must be for them… and his sister.
Sometimes they didn't get along and argued—but that was normal, wasn't it? They both knew perfectly well how much they cared about each other. And now he felt like he'd abandoned them. All of them.
He didn't even know where his friends were.
Kai lifted his head to look at the sky, losing track of the pressure he was putting on his leg with his hand. He pulled it away sharply and shook his head.
Kai hadn't cried in a long time—as if some of his feelings had atrophied. Not doing so in that moment bothered him, it hurt not to. But now wasn't the time—not for guilt, not for self-punishment.
He'd be abandoning them for good if he died. He was alone, and that was exactly why he had to be strong. Easy to say, though…
He grabbed the first aid kit again and took out the needles.
"Now I'm alone."
His voice was swallowed by the imposing silence of the forest.
He had always liked being alone, had always preferred it—you could say Kai was very independent, always doing his own thing… but this was a new kind of loneliness.
He clenched his fist against the box, and at that moment something hit him on the head. Something large… and very wet.
He spun around, startled, and saw the projectile beside him: a fish.
Suddenly, the bird landed next to him, looking at him with its head tilted and an unreadable expression.
Kai looked at it, tiredly furrowing his brow.
"Seriously? You won't win me over with that."
The bird tapped the rock lightly and then pointed at the fruit Kai had.
'Why haven't I thrown that away yet?'
"What? You want that? It's my precious food, and very nutritious—I don't know if I'd trade it for just one fish."
The bird looked at him impassively, as if it knew Kai was lying.
"Fine, fine. God, it seems like I can't do business with you."
But if it wanted the fruit so badly, why hadn't it stolen it while Kai was in the cave?
The bird brought the fruit closer to him.
"What? Do you need me for something?"
The bird threatened him with its beak and Kai dodged, then it pointed at his knife.
Kai raised an eyebrow.
"Right, so you want me to open it? I don't work for free, you know. I'll take the fish for the fruit, but you still owe me for opening it."
The bird looked at him, tired but impassive, as if telling Kai "Either you open it or I open you." Kai held firm, but just as he was about to give in out of exhaustion and had already loaded up a sigh, the bird took off.
A couple of seconds later another fish fell beside Kai, hitting the rock with a loud, sharp thud.
"Hey, if it's that easy for you what are you complaining about? And why do you even want the fruit if you can catch fish whenever you want?"
With a sigh he took out his knife and opened the fruit. Seeing that purple color again made his skin crawl.
"There you go—don't complain later. It's not my… Never mind, enjoy it, I hope it treats you well."
Kai settled into his spot.
He gathered his fish near his backpack and picked up the things he'd taken out of the first aid kit, watching as the bird kept eyeing the vine warily.
He climbed down from the rock carefully and set everything down near the riverbank.
"Oh, right."
The cobweb was still on his arm. He pushed it down toward his wrist, folding it, and slipped it off like a bracelet.
He took off his shirt and his mask and began to clean his wounds. Various cuts marked his body like stains—some superficial, some deeper.
He turned his head to glance at his shirt beside him. It was honestly pitiful—it had more holes than it should, and some were simply large enough to ruin the shape of the garment. His mask, for its part, was immaculate.
Looking down, his pants—even ignoring the gaping hole at thigh height—weren't in much better shape. Miraculously, his hoodie seemed to be almost intact.
He dried himself off a little using it and applied the antiseptic gel, holding his breath and gritting his teeth, letting out the occasional grunt.
He glanced over at the rock every now and then and saw the bird eating the fruit like someone savoring their favorite dessert—sometimes the bird would glance back at him discreetly.
Band-aids covered his body, and you could see the odd piece of gauze held down with medical tape over the deeper cuts.
He crouched down and began to clean the wounds on his legs too—which, luckily, were fewer in number.
He didn't take his pants off, figuring it would be a hassle, and being practically naked in the forest didn't seem particularly comfortable—he just rolled them up from the ankles.
Everything was going more or less the same as with his torso, but when he reached the hole in his thigh, an explosion of pain shot through his entire leg.
His back folded forward on pure reflex, fingers digging into the ground as if trying to tear a piece of it out.
A weak groan escaped his mouth.
"F…uck…" he managed to spit through his teeth, feeling the entire world narrow down to that raw, burning point in his leg.
He looked up for a second. The bird was watching him, still, the fruit still unfinished between its talons. As if it were waiting to see whether Kai would pass out or not.
"Don't you dare enjoy this…" he growled, his voice breaking.
He tried to pull himself together, with no success, until he simply gave in to the pain and curled up waiting for it to pass.
After a few agonizing minutes, the burning was easing. The pain was still there—it had sunk deep into his leg. But at least it was no longer incapacitating.
Kai hesitated for a few seconds. In the end he had picked up the needles, but he didn't want to use them.
"It is what it is." he finally said after a long, resigned sigh.
If he hadn't wanted to go through all this, he shouldn't have let himself get attacked.
That said—in the end he didn't use the needle after all. The wound was deep enough that he could only close the most superficial part. Messing it up would only make things worse.
There was even a chance that applying the antiseptic had been a mistake. Sure, it had probably killed whatever was inside… but it had also burned something, definitely.
"This survival stuff is hard…"
He was certainly putting his complete lack of basic knowledge on full display. Oh well… at least he was still alive, wasn't he?
He grabbed the gauze and placed it over the wound. He cut some of the bandage and wrapped it around his leg with firm pressure, then secured everything with a bit of medical tape.
"All that fuss and in the end I don't even use them…" he muttered through his teeth.
He got dressed again—this time with his hoodie on properly and his mask covering his face, it was starting to get cold and his shirt couldn't do its job anymore.
He gathered all his things and went back to his rock. At some point the bird had disappeared, but well—it wasn't like he cared. If anything, better that it wasn't there: that way he wouldn't have to keep an eye on it the whole time.
Kai put everything away and switched on his phone. Around him, night was only just beginning—but according to the time… he'd be in class right now.
"Well…"
Not like that mattered at the moment. He turned his head.
"Let's see…"
He glanced at the vine. He couldn't understand why the bird seemed so reluctant around it—to Kai it seemed pretty ordinary, too normal to provoke that kind of reaction. After a few seconds he got bored and set it aside.
He didn't know what to do anymore.
Should he try to make a fire? Gather materials? Look for food?
He already had food thanks to the bird, actually, so at least that was covered until the next day.
Kai sighed, looked around a couple of times without really seeing anything, and sighed again.
It had taken a while, but he was finally starting to get bored.
The silence was too much.
After the chaos, after the fear, after the pain… being still felt almost uncomfortable.
"I can't stay here."
He stood up abruptly, instantly regretting the movement but not stopping, and climbed down from the rocks.
He spent a good while in the grove and, little by little, a small pile of dry wood and branches accumulated beside the rock. He searched for a while for a branch flexible enough, but what took the longest to find was some dry grass. Even so, he managed.
"Right, I'm doing well… I think."
From the riverbank he picked up a slightly flat stone, only mildly concave.
He set his staff beside him and sat down in front of the pile.
"What on earth…?" he muttered as he took out his knife and saw the blade.
It had lost some of its shine since he arrived, but now it wasn't just that. A black, chaotic pattern wrapped around the edge. The marks were the same color as the spider's blood, and no matter how much he rubbed with his sleeve it wouldn't come off.
"Bah, whatever." he said, resigned, and began to shave one of the pieces of dry wood to make sawdust.
Then he cut a small piece of vine, tied one end near the tip of a branch and gave it a small loop around it—without letting go—then tied the other end at the far end of the branch to make a bow.
He placed the sawdust and dry grass on a medium-sized, flat enough piece of dry wood and, using the stone as support, began to spin the branch while moving the bow back and forth.
After a good while, just as he was about to give up, smoke finally began to rise. Little by little, the grass caught and the flame came to life with some help from Kai.
"Good, good, very good."
He carved one of the branches and opened the fish, cleaning it as best he could given his complete lack of experience.
When he was done, he skewered it and drove the branch into the ground, angling it toward the fire.
After a while, a figure with a beak and feathers emerged from the shadows, approaching Kai's dinner.
He raised his knife and its black pattern without thinking.
"Don't even think about it, you vile creature."