The man had an instinct to explore the world. He didn't know what this instinct was but felt it was something he had his entire life.

Every step he took was loud, like an angry cat. The man was skinny and looked as though he'd pass out from starvation. His eyes were empty, giving it the feeling of clouds.

This place wasn't all that big, he'd been exploring it for a short while. Although the parasite never stopped biting his arm, each step was agonising.

Every time he stepped, the parasite would bite angrily. As if it had a terrible grudge against this man. His index finger's nail bed was already alienated. Flesh could be seen, he was bleeding but the man payed no mind.

Curiosity had purged him after encountering that figure. That was mainly why he decided to explore this place, he was afraid at first but the figure he saw gave him a sense of relief.

The rain had yet to stop, as if it would continue forever. Everywhere he went, the roof would always have some holes.

As for the branch, turns out there were more. After he stepped out of the room he was in he found two different bathrooms, both moldy and dusty. Filled with cobwebs, and even dead insects.

The man didn't know what these insects were, curiosity peaked. But he didn't dare touch them, what if they were more terrifying than the parasites eating him?

The man always carried skepticism with him. The branch was found in two of these bathrooms aswell, they had parasites too. But the man wasn't all that afraid of them anymore, he'd learn from last time all they could do was cause him pain they'd still be quite the hassle though.

He also proceeded to direct the branches under the raindrops again. Having learned that the parasites would find another target after the branch was eliminated, he was ready to run. However he wanted to change his methods.

During the fourth branch he found, he had a stick with him. He found it while exploring, he plucked it out god-knows where. He used the stick to try attacking the parasite. He found out that the parasites were quite slow but they could jump.

He was quite cowardly, the moment the stick failed to do damage to the parasites he abandoned it and ran away. Better to play safe than sorry.

The parasites were all roaming around the house because of him always purifying the branches, the house was infested. Thus he decided to leave this place.

*

After hours of observation,

The man walked towards the door. The parasite still biting him. He gritted his teeth thru the excruciating pain, lifted his hand and jabbed the door open. He went out and the rain embraced him. He had never felt this feeling before. Each drop gave him a tingling sensation, it was a refreshing moment for him.

He wanted to experiment more, He used two of his hands to rub his face. Trying to examine himself, not like he hadn't done this earlier but this time it was in the rain. He thought there might be a difference, there wasn't much difference. Only his hair was soaked, he had touched his lips and wondered what they were for.

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He soon learned he could open his mouth, thus he opened them wide. Rain dripped inside of his mouth, it was a bit salty. He instantly closed his mouth after tasting it, feeling as though he was just poisoned.

He couldn't stay here forever though. Thud thud. His steps were more stable now, less like an angry cat but a cat was still a cat. He was immersed in the scenery before him, everything was so green.

Every step he took, he saw branches, leafs, bushes, trees. The ground was muddy and dirty, he had walked from there to here barefoot. Everything about him was dirty, he wasn't exactly sure what he looked like.

He ended up stumbling upon a puddle. The water reflected him, his hair was black and no color could be seen. He was quite tall, his lips were bright red, his nose was quite refined and the most beautiful part were his eyes.

He was flustered at first, he didn't quite realise that the reflection was him. He waved his arm at it but it did the same thing, he was shocked. Thankfully he didn't embarrass himself any further as he quickly concluded that the reflection was him.

The rain kept pouring, he looked up and it was really cloudy. He was mesmerised by the cloud almost as if he was familiar with it. There was this nagging instinct again, to reach the clouds.

Of course, he failed to do so. He didn't understand why or how he could reach the clouds. He had been walking for a long time. He didn't know how much time had passed but it felt like eternity.

He soon adapted to his surroundings and nothing was all that surprising anymore. Although at times, his stomach would rumble and he would be confused. He took some bushes and ate them, it was much more disgusting than the rain but it stopped the rumbling from his stomach.

And this was how he was living. Hours turned to days, he didn't know what he was exploring. The thrill he felt a few days ago soon dispersed into thin air. He hadn't met anyone like him yet, but soon he saw something strange.

Towards his left, he saw weird buildings. Similiar to the place he was living in. He was familiar with the architecture, almost as if all these houses were built by the same person.

Just from a simple glance, he deducted that there must be other people similiar to him. He soon approached but to his dismay nobody approached him, he didn't understand why. He clearly saw people and tried to approach them while giving out hand gestures but they walked away or ran away from him, seemingly trying to avoid him.

He was confused, he was like them too so why? He looked at his arm, the parasite was still there. He long noticed the villagers didn't have these parasites on them. They were talking about something and he seemed to understand what they were talking about.

It was almost as if it was natural. He had never learnt nor spoken this knowledge, but it was drilled into him, somewhat similiar to his instincts.

The first person that greeted him was similiar to him, he had short hair and black hair. His eyes were glowing though. It wasn't exactly a greeting as the first words that came out were :

"Shoo! Shoo! We don't accept people like you! You're infected with a parasite! Harm us and we'll kill you! Leave this village!"

It wasn't just the man, alot of people shouted at him. But it didn't enter the man's ears. He could understand, but he didn't know why they wanted him to leave. He saw them speak with their mouth open, so he tried it too. Unexpectedly, he couldn't say anything. He didn't know how they did it.

He was quite intrigued by his own instinct, he was afraid of the parasites and avoided the figure he felt kinship with due to his instincts. This time, his instincts didn't react. He thought this meant the area was safe and wouldn't deal any harm.

The people of this village were still looking at him, they all either had terrified or angry expressions. The man was quite curious as to why their facial expressions could change.

At the end, nothing was done. The villagers didn't dare do anything but still kept distance away from him. He again did another wave of friendly hand gestures but it might've been misunderstood.

He was still confused and trying to adapt, he was already quite happy meeting people similiar to his kind. That gave him a feeling he wasn't lonely, though he most definitely liked it lonely.