Aiden jumped to his feet and rushed after the sound. His feet fell in line now that his mind wasn’t on each movement. The feeling of speed was familiar to him, like rushing past galaxies. His grin grew wide as he felt the wind rush through his hair. He closed his eyes to let the sensation sink in. The wind ruffled his hair and the beams of sunlight strobed beyond his closed eyelids.
He felt more alive in that moment than he had yet. Until the light in his eyes went dark and then flashed white as he was brought to a sudden halt.
“Ouch!” He cried out.
He smacked head-first into a tree and tumbled down to the earth. Pain burst through him like he had never experienced before. It hurt far worse than laughing too hard. Spots that looked like stars swam in his vision, despite his eyes being closed. Tears formed in the corner of his eyes and he rolled around clutching his forehead.
“Help! Please, somebody help!” The same voice cried out again.
Aiden barely heard the cry for help through the pain. It refocused his jumbled emotions. Anger at his own folly. Sadness for the worst pain he’d ever experienced. And frustration at forgetting…something. Why had he been running in the first place?
“Ahhh!” The voice shrieked.
Aiden forced his focus back on the voice. He pulled his mind away from the pain with great effort. He needed to help and to do that he must get up.
He pushed himself to his feet and leaned forward into a run again. This time he would not close his eyes while running. In hindsight that had been a foolish thing to do. Even he knew that. It was just too hard to not revel in the new feelings he now had.
His falling feet came up short as he stumbled into a small area cleared of trees. In the center was a dome made of colorful plastic. It took him a moment to place the name of the structure. A…tent, he thought.
The tent shook and he could hear someone grunt from inside. A new, lower voice said, “If the world is going to end in one hour then I might as well enjoy myself.”
“No, stop!” the high pitched voice cried out.
Aiden didn’t know much, but he knew what a cry of help was, and he knew it was important to help someone crying out in such a way. He ran at the tent at full speed. He bowled into the material with force and felt the plastic stretch as it sunk in toward the middle. He slammed into something inside the tent which halted his movement, and then the plastic fabric was pulling him back with elastic force.
His right shoulder stung from whatever he had hit, but it was not nearly as painful as running into the tree. He slid down to his butt as the stretchy fabric rebuffed his attempt to enter the structure.
“Ugh, what the crap?!” The gruff low voice barked out. “We’re a little busy, leave us alo-”
“NO! He’s raping me! Please, h-” the high pitch voice was muffled before Aiden could hear any more.
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He jumped back up to his feet and tried entering the structure again. The material didn’t let him through. He leaned all the way into it and ran into solid resistance again.
“Get your hands off me!” The gruff voice said to Aiden before shoving him off balance. Aiden slid along the slippery fabric again until his stomach was on the forest floor again. Sliding was fun, but he wouldn’t let that distract him.
Aiden stood back up and ran a loop around the tent, looking for an entrance. “Hey!” He shouted inside. “Let me in! I’m trying to stop you!”
“What the hell is wrong with this freak?!” The gruff man said. “Let me go take care of this cock blocker, sweetheart, and then I’ll be back. Don’t move.” There was a loud thud and a sharp grunt from the higher pitched voice then.
Aiden was pretty sure the man had just punched whoever was crying out for help. That man was seriously rude.
The next moment he heard a zipping noise from the other side of the tent than he was on. A head poke up above the fabric a moment later and turned to face him. The man that came out had sharp features with a beard that was neatly trimmed. A little too neatly trimmed, like the man cared more about the angles of his face than he did about anyone else’s feelings.
Aiden knew his type despite not remembering any experience with anyone like him before. He would try his best to give the man the benefit of the doubt.
“Stop what you’re doing right now,” Aiden said calmly, glad that he was able to help.
The man looked back at him and his eyes went wide. “What the crap is your problem man? Get out of here before I beat your pretty little face in.”
Aiden paused at the man's words. Did he have a problem? He wasn’t sure, but he knew it was good to respond to a compliment. “I’m happy that you think my face is pretty, but you still need to stop doing bad things. I can’t leave until you promise you will stop.”
The man sputtered at him. “No! I don’t think it’s pretty,” the man’s face turned red. “You really do want a beating don’t you?” He started to come around the tent at Aiden.
Aiden simply started moving around the tent the other way. Keeping his distance from the man seemed a wise choice. “That depends.” He said in response. “What is a beating? And can you really give it to me?”
Aiden knew that he felt his heart beating. He was glad it did that. If this man could give him another beating heart, wouldn’t that be super good? It was all a little confusing.
“All you need to know is that it’s going to hurt real bad. Now stand still you coward!”
“Oh,” Aiden said sadly, “then I don’t want one. You can keep it.” Aiden had nearly made a full circle around the tent by this point. The man kept moving around the tent at a far slower pace than himself. Maybe his high stats were helping him?
Just when he wondered if he needed to tell this man to stop again another figure climbed out of the tent. The woman had ruffled dirty blonde hair that fell past her shoulders. She held something in two hands that she swung around as fast as she could. Aiden jumped in surprise at the noise it made as it slammed into the gruff man’s face.
There was a loud smack, a grunt, and then a thud as the man fell to the earth. Aiden didn’t like violence, but he knew it was sometimes necessary to stop someone from doing bad. If someone wouldn’t stop then you must stop them. What the women did next, however, was not acceptable.
She moved over the man and brought the object in her hand down on him again. There was a loud smack and a grunt again. She lifted the object again and began bringing it down.
Aiden rushed over with his 20 dexterity points and caught the object before it could land on the man again. He looked down at what it was and saw a small propane tank for a lantern. He knew what it was, again, despite not remembering why he would know anything about it.
“What the hell?” The woman looked up at him, then with wide eyes she looked down at him and then back up again. “What the hell?” She said again. Then with a blush on her cheeks she looked up and down again. “What the…Why are you naked?”