Chapter 6: The Fairly Odde Couple.
Vi said, her voice cut through his dreamless sleep like a knife.
Alex jolted up, his legs tangling in his cloak as he flailed. His eyes were blurry with sleep and confusion, but he brought his dagger up in case of an attack.
Vi said.
Alex yelped and dropped the dagger. In his half-asleep panic, he ended up grabbing the base of the blade instead of the handle. A thin cut ran across the bottom of each finger, blood slowly welling up and trickling down his palm.
Vi said sardonically.
Alex looked at his lacerated fingers dumbly.
"I can resist effects like that?" Alex said, still staring at his hand.
"That's enough sass out of you." Alex said grumpily.
He took out a tube of healing ointment and squeezed it until some of the clear, gel-like substance poked out of the opening he uncapped like it was a tube of toothpaste.
He rubbed the ointment into the cuts, gritting his teeth when they began to sting. Once again, the shallow cuts rapidly knitted back together, and the stinging subsided to a dull itching sensation as the wounds disappeared.
Alex flexed his fingers experimentally and grinned.
"If I didn't have to be the one injured, I could watch that all day."
Alex snorted and got to his feet, stretching. His body feeling remarkably well for sleeping on the ground.
"I agree," Alex said as he continued stretch. "I would rather not experience pain if I don't have to."
"Hey, Vi?" Alex asked, staring at his hands as he flexed them slowly.
"Did something happen to my body when I first woke up here? I know my tattoos and scars are all gone, but i just feel... different."
Alex looked around the clearing, the snow was blindingly white from the rising sun, and he had to squint at the trees to keep his eyes from watering. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and scanned the bright blue sky, oddly disappointed that there was only one sun.
Alex brought a hand up, shielding his eyes from the sun and studied the perimeter of the trees.
Alex could make out the subtle movement of the Caerbunnies moving along the snow-covered brush.
Wait, the fact that I can even see that from this distance...
"I think my eyesight was fixed. I don't need my glasses anymore." Alex said in surprise.
He turned in a small circle, picking out details in the distant trees.
His eyesight wasn't what he would call supernatural, but it was definitely better than before.
"Maybe my body has been healed, removing any kind of damage or flaws?"
Vi said.
"My body feels better in general, stronger too. Even though I slept on the ground, I feel like I just got done getting a full night of sleep."
Alex hopped from side to side lightly.
Alex cracked his neck to the right and left. then scrunched up his face in apprehension.
"Do I have to?"
Vi offered.
“Good point.” Alex said, putting his cloak back. The dagger was still laying in the grass and with a thought he returned it to his storage space before making it reappear in his hand.
“Time for rabbit season.”
*****
Alex lay sprawled in the blood-spattered snow gasping for breath. The corpses of eight more caerbunnies were scattered around him in a horror scene of blood, guts, and amputated body parts.
"Give me a minute." Alex sat up with a groan, fresh blood rushing down the left side of his face.
His body was crisscrossed with superficial cuts from the caerbunni claws, but he ignored them for now.
He lifted a tentative hand and poked at his head gingerly.
A ragged cut bisected his left eyebrow, rising halfway up his forehead before curving to the right and circling halfway around his bald head.
His face and chest were awash in fresh blood, and he swayed drunkenly as he pulled out one of the healing aerosol cans. He began spraying the massive wound and ended up going through two full cans, starting on a third by the time his wound was completely healed. He put what remained of his last healing item away and rose shakily to his feet.
"Let's move to a place a little less..." Alex looked around at the scattered remains of the lesser monsters.
"Corpse-y... We can loot them and go through the rewards once we are far enough away from that god awful smoke."
Alex hobbled slowly out of the circle of death, keeping his eyes peeled for any movement.
According to Vi, one of his abilities increased his recovery rate so he decided to save what was left of his rapidly dwindling healing supplies and let his accelerated healing deal with the minor cuts. He assumed that he would get more healing sprays from at least some of the eight bunnies he just killed, but he would rather deal with a little pain now over risking not having enough for a far more serious injury later.
"This should be far enough. We can loot the Caerbunnies now."
In the distance Alex could see the rainbow smoke rising from the ground. What he didn't expect however, was the rainbow smoke that started to rise off of the blood covering his battered clothes.
Alex gagged loudly before falling to all fours and dry heaving repeatedly. The muscles of his stomach convulsed sporadically as the smell of decay and burnt hair filled his nose and mouth.
"Oh, go-" Alex managed to gasp before retching again.
Vi said, completely indifferent.
A window also popped up with a list of the items he looted, but he dismissed it to the side for now. Alex stuffed clean snow into his mouth and tried to get his stomach under control.
Vi asked after several handfuls of snow.
Alex thought, not trusting himself to speak.
Alex stood up on wobbly legs and leaned against a giant tree for support.
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