Chapter 12 - Naheas Cowl I

Echen Forest

Could it have been a dream?

Neheas' first thoughts as he woke were of the last morning he could remember.

Peter… He had watched the man he called his best friend swing from a thick rope until his face turned a vibrant shade of purple. Doctor Bajir… right next to the man he would've one day liked to call friend.

The familiar sensation of water running along his body, and the rustling of leaves in the wind alerted Naheas to his surroundings. He opened his eyes, and was greeted by a small school of fish, and saltwater. The water instantly burned his eyes, and Naheas, grunting in pain, pushed himself from the river he awoke in, facedown.

"What the fuck?" he said. "How..?" his words faded as he continued to register his surroundings. Ku Yong, his home stood tall, and he stood outside its walls.

Traitor!

Hang him!

The cries of his city calling for his death rang in his head. The face of his friend, and the wife and child who would never again see him. As his grief and anger deepened, Naheas absent any other thoughts slammed his fists into the river.

Naheas pounded the riverbed, hitting sharp rocks beneath the water, ripping through skin and cracking bones. With no restraint he continued until..

What… the…

Lifting his hands to his face, he watched as bones snapped back into place. Muscle and skin tissue replaced itself in a matter of moments, restoring his hands new. Naheas' confusion swelled and quickly grew to irritation, and in a matter of moments, he was back to thrusting his anger into the river with his fists. Animals scurried away from his general location as he continued to furiously pound bedrock. The forest itself seemed to shy in the presence of such overwhelming anger.

'It's my fault…'

No amount of violence he exerted on the blameless ground could erase this thought from his mind. Still until he no longer could muster the strength in his arms to do so, he continued to beat his fist into the ground. When his guilt induced anger had finally subsided, the only thing leftover was his shame and guilt.

Naheas stood from his knees, and with his head hung low, and no particular destination in mind, he began to walk. He could not return home. Any soldier would recognize him immediately.

'And I wouldn't put it past our "great" emperor to hang me again.'

Nor was there a place for him to the west. Given his nationality and the no doubt hostile manner in which the people of Caline would treat the Ku Yongi. And so, he decided to head south. Maide was still within the Ku Yong Empire, but he doubted anyone would recognize a man who was supposedly dead in a place so far away.

With this decided, though his thoughts were tainted by guilt, Naheas' mind could only focus on one fact.

'I died. Didn't I?'

There was no room in his thought process to register the more complicated things he'd just experienced. The speed at which his hands were restored without scars or fractures, the lack of pain he should've felt within them, or the fact that he did not need to breathe while he was facedown in water. Only the question how am I alive? burned in his mind..

He looked to the sky as he deliberated on whether or not he was delusional and noticed for the first time since he'd awoken, that the sky was not its usual bright blue. Instead, it was a deep and dark red, mired by clouds blacker than a starless night. His head leaned to the side and an eyebrow raised on his forehead.

"Huh?" Was the only thought he could muster. "What the fuck?" Am I in some sort of hell? Is this the price for treason? Why is the fucking sky red?

A multitude of conundrums piled onto him at once, threatening to overwhelm his mind. It was only natural, as he was sure he was dead.

The gods still punish you if you don't believe in them, eh?

Indeed he found himself in a situation where he had many questions and no answers. So, focusing less on what he could not answer, and more on survival, he began to set his mind on food and shelter and where they would come from.

He was glad he had awoken in a river, as water, his first necessity was taken care of. He needed only travel far enough upstream to be sure no taint from his own body would contaminate the water he drank. Naturally, animals would come to the river to drink, so hunting game wouldn't be much of a problem. Even without a weapon he was sure he could throw a rock or something else hard enough to at least stun a small animal.

Last he remembered, he was an ambitious soldier of twenty-four, on his way up in ranks, before his sympathies led him to the Hanging Post in Joziah's Square. He was fortunate to have been trained in the Ku Yong Imperial Army.

Wilderness survival was one of the very first trials he'd gone through before he was given his sword and spear. It was natural for him, even in his given state, to prepare himself for the night to come.

While in thought, Naheas came across a grass clearing in the forest, an area of about fifteen meters around a small neck in the river. He scoped his surroundings, kicking a few branches as he looked around, checking for movement of any animals that may have been startled or alerted by the sound. A few grazing deer not too from him in the direction of his six, snapped their necks up and upon sighting Naheas, ran with haste in the opposite direction of him. He could see them run through trees and brambles for quite some distance before they disappeared from his sight.

With the distraction of survival now alleviating him of more emotional matters, his mind was clear enough to register that his eyesight had improved exponentially. The fact that he could differentiate the deer from the forest after one kilometer, alone, astound him. He was befuddled. Curious, even.

What else is different? He wondered. It however was not the time to ponder such matters. The sky slowly began to darken, the sun had begun its descent, and, aware of the dangers of the forest at night, Naheas once again wondered what he would do for shelter.

He searched his surroundings. Large green leaves were scattered plentifully across the forest floor. Thick vines hugged themselves tightly around tree trunks. The majority of the trees were packed together, but to his six, where the deer he'd spotted earlier grazed, were trees spread far enough to comfortably lay between. He decided to make himself a canopy.

Naheas quickly went to work, scrounging up the biggest leaves he could find, and tearing the large thick vines from the trees. Once he'd collected enough, he used the vines as ropes, weaving them tightly through the leaves, leaving space on his makeshift ropes to tie them around two adjacent tree trunks. It took him some time, as he was not exactly adept in weaving. But once he'd finished his canopy, he tied it onto the trees, stood back, and admired his work. He'd built a shelter that would indeed keep him from the elements of nature.

Still, he thought. Though he'd covered his basics, he felt he needed to have one last thing before he could relax.

It took him no time to find a long flat jagged rock from the river. He took it, along with another larger round rock, ran to the area he'd made his canopy, and searched until he found a vine, thin and bendable, but dense and strong.

Once he'd gathered what he needed, he went to work, this time, to make himself knife, he smashed the end of the flat rock between the ground and his other rock, creating a stem. He tied the scraps of wood he found around the stem with the vines leftover from his canopy, and finally, he found a boulder he could use as a whetstone near his makeshift shelter, and sharpened his new weapon.

"It's not much, but it can kill in my hands." He said, twirling his new weapon in his hand. He gave a satisfied smile at his handiwork, and placed the blade in the waist band of his pants.

He wasn't exactly hungry yet, but, when the time would come to hunt, he was prepared. There was nothing left for him to do now other than attempt and fail to understand what kept him alive. He sat beneath his canopy. The sky had turned a crimson red, dark and ominous.

Am I even alive? He asked himself, placing a hand over his breast, feeling for a beating heart. There was no response from his body. To say his heart dropped would not be completely accurate, still, an overwhelming sense of disappointment churned his insides in a most grotesque manner.

Next, he held his breath. Thirty seconds passed, and the need to breathe did not arise. One minute, two. Before he knew it he'd been holding air in his lungs for more than ten minutes. He released the air, and felt no change in his body.

"I guess I don't have to worry about drowning or suffocating ever again."

Still, he found himself instinctually inhaling and exhaling, as if his body had deemed it necessary for him to do so. He noticed that the air that seeped from his mouth became a white cloud, indicating that the air around him was chilled. Yet, his body did not shiver in its wake. He could not feel the cold.

"Am I actually dead?" The thought haunted him. Was he an undead? A ghost? He had no clue. He only knew that he should not be alive.

Yet, he was.

His thought back to when he awoke in the river. How his hands had healed in moments from injuries that should've taken years to correct. His father had taught him about gods when he was still among the living. They were said to heal instantaneously from any wound, and possess abilities that man could not fathom.

Could I be a god? He wondered. Shortly after the thought entered his mind, he ferociously shook his head. No, that's blasphemous.

Still, he could not ignore facts. And thus far, the facts pointed towards only one conclusion. He was no longer merely a man. No longer just a soldier from Ku Yong. He was more. Though he did not understand exactly how much more he had become.

Unless of course this is just what hell looks like. He thought to himself incredulously.

The howl of a wolf stirred Naheas from comfort. Judging by the volume, the wolf was not far from his location. He sat up, brandishing his knife in one hand, while clinging to one of the trees holding his canopy with the other for balance.

He scanned the forest area around him, immediately noticing the improvement of his night vision since his hanging. He did not dwell on this though, he was preoccupied with his search for a potentially dangerous beast. When no such beast appeared, Naheas relaxed as much he could on the forest floor, sprawling his body across the ground with only his clothes and the canopy made by his own hand to shelter him.

The grass he lay upon was frosted over, the river threatening to freeze at its edges, yet, Naheas felt no such cold. It would not have taken him long to drift into sleep despite his seemingly uncomfortable state, had it not been for the wild boar that had suddenly strayed into his camp.

The beast was abnormally large, with blackened tusks wider than his hooves and easily as long as his body. He appeared vicious. Mad, even. Naheas warily sat up brandishing his makeshift knife. Though his stomach did not rumble, Naheas knew that men must eat to survive. The thought of digesting pig turned his stomach. He'd always preferred food from the sea, but he'd force himself to swallow pork for a few nights if it'd keep him alive.

If that thing manages to get me with those tusks, I'm as good as dead, Naheas began to strategize his hunt. Then again, a smirk crossed his face as he remembered the speed at which his hands had healed.

Still, no excuse to be sloppy.

Naheas stood, silent and focused on intent. Avoiding bushes and dried twigs, so as to keep from alerting it, Naheas slowly crept up on the beast. The boar gave no sign that he'd so much as noticed Naheas' presence. He continued to press forward, step by step, quietly as he could, until he came into attacking distance. As he braced himself to strike, the boar's ears suddenly shot into the air, his fur stood on end and before Naheas could react, he was knocked to the ground by a hoof larger than his fists.

Had Naheas been an ordinary man, he would've spent the small margin of time between the boar's first and second attacks clutching his chest as he laid on the ground. He was not aware of how much had changed, but he knew now at least that he could take a bigger hit than the ordinary man.

The boar dug his rear hooves into the ground, and sprung forward as Naheas, moving far faster than he thought capable spun on his back and regained his footing, dodging the boar in the process. The beast, however, was just as quick as the man. It continued to charge, careening into an arc, coming about to attack Naheas again.

Naheas stood his ground as the boar bore down on him. He had not spent time adjusting to the changes within his body. Still, Naheas was a soldier. Adaptation in battle, whether as a battalion or one to one was a skill ingrained into his being.

Hoping he'd measured himself appropriately, he dug his heels into the ground, and just as the boar attempted to skewer him on his tusks, Naheas spun to his right, narrowly avoiding the sharp ivory jutting from the animal's face, presenting himself with an opening to strike. He grabbed onto the beast's tusk his free hand, and with his other, thrust his makeshift knife into the boar's neck.

Bright red blood sprayed from the boar's wound as it let out an agonized squeal. The beast fell to its side, squirming and crying in pain. To his chagrin and surprise, Naheas felt no sympathy for the beast, even as it bleated and writhed on the ground. Perhaps death had removed his ability to feel such pity. He doubted it was because the boar had attacked him.

Maybe I can't feel sympathy anymore? He mused as he chuckled distastefully.

He chose however, not to dwell upon this and proceeded to skin his kill. He cut down the belly of the boar, careful not to pierce further than its skin. Then sliced meat from fur until he was able to rip the pelt from the animal. With it no longer covered in fur, or skin for that matter, Naheas was able to cut meat from its carcass. He took a large chunk from its hide, and set it on a large leaf he'd found near the body.

Knowing he could not eat the pig raw, he gathered branches, twigs and bramble, built a small pyre and with two dry stones he found not to far from his encampment near the river, lit a fire to roast the beast upon. Naheas skewered the slab of pork he'd cut from the boar and drove it deep as he could into the ground, setting the meat just over the fire. With his meal now roasting over his makeshift pit, he felt satisfied. So, with nothing left to do, he sat down and relaxed.

With the sun setting, Naheas was left with nothing but his thoughts, A single question continuously repeating in his mind.

How am I alive? He thought of Peter and Dr. Bajir. The way their heads hung low as they walked alongside him into Joziah's Square. The bruises Dr. Bajir had received on his face as he was stoned by the people of Ku Yong.

He thought of the dark cloud that rolled in over them as the Emperor of Ku Yong presented him and his best friend to the city as a pair of traitors. The rain drop that fell onto his cheek just before the wooden foothold dropped from beneath him.

'He became a god who lived for a millennium…'

No, Naheas shook his head. The Doctor said no evidence of supernatural ability had shown itself.

'Of course no one would've been given a gift of such proportions from your measly testing…' The Emperor's lackey's voice rattled in his mind.

Is it possible?

Naheas slowly raised his hands to his eyes. His gaze stayed frozen, staring at everything and nothing, a stupor absorbing his mind. It was only speculation, and he had no way of knowing why or how, but..

Naheas scoffed aloud. The notion seemed ridiculous. So ridiculous that Naheas thought to write it off altogether. It was however, the only logical explanation he had for the changes within him.

Still, he though, frowning, whilst running his hand through his crimson red hair. I wish I knew more...

Naheas thought of the kind Doctor he was tasked with guarding before they ultimately shared in punishment unworthy of their accused crimes. I wish I had more time to speak with him.

Alas, he was alone, with questions upon questions and no one to answer them. Surrounded by wilderness and beasts who lurked in the dark of the night. Once again finding himself frustrated by his own ignorance, Naheas focused on the slab of pork, now fully cooked still roasting over his campfire.

He took two or three bites of the meat. Each bite was flavorless, not at all like he remembered pork to be. Even without seasoning he knew pork to be the meat full of flavor, though it was not a flavor he particularly enjoyed. Naheas found himself disappointed.

"I guess I lost my sense of taste as well." As he sulked aa new energy rose within him. He suddenly felt as if he could run thousands of miles without tiring, or leap higher than any tree in his vicinity. The sudden surge of energy was startling, but exhilarating.

Still, even with this energy, Naheas remained fixated on his losses. He inhaled deeply through his nose, to smell nothing.

He then closed his eyes

"Woah."

Naheas was pleasantly surprised to find that despite his eyes being closed, he was still fully aware of the world around him. It wasn't exactly seeing, it was as if he could sense life, from the insects that crawled across the grass, to the leaves of each tree that rustled in the breeze.

I can feel, but I cant tell hot from cold. I can see and hear, but I cant smell or taste. Naheas let out a deep sigh. "I guess things could be worse."

Night had completely taken over the sky. The black sky he remembered was tainted red, the stars shone dimly through a scarlet haze. Without company or a goal, Naheas was left unsettled. He figured, high ass the moon was, that it was at least two or three hours into the morning. Still, he felt no sense of fatigue.

Staring into the night sky, the man continued to ponder what exactly he should do next. No clear answer in mind, Naheas put his makeshift knife in his waistband, and once again, with no particular destination in mind, he began to walk.