I wonder if he understood my signal? I tried to wave and smile and be as friendly as possible, but to be honest, considering my previous experiences and the utter lack of response from this strange youth, it was hard to keep smiling.

Suddenly, the man shook his head, knit his brows, and looked at me in pure disbelief. What, have you never seen an axolotl before? Considering this is another world of some sort, as I previously deducted, it might be my fault?...

Maybe waving and smiling are signs of aggression in this world?...

If I were to follow that pattern of thought, would that mean that typically aggressive behaviour is friendly?...

Frowning as exaggeratedly as I possibly could, I made aggressive-looking movements with my arms, trying my best to get a response out of him. He just looked even more confused.

“What in the world is that?...” he mumbled in a low, hushed tone, most likely speaking to himself rather than to me.

“Hello!” I replied cheerily, however, this didn’t seem to hit home. Ah, hypothesis confirmed, I can’t actually make the sounds I want to make. Hrmm, shame…

Cupping my chin in my hand, I allowed myself a moment to think. Hmm. I thoroughly examined the man.

He seemed to be around 20 years of age, with slick, black hair and a tired, malnourished complexion. His eyes were black as well, like little holes. To be fair, his entire body was quite malnourished, thin like a twig with only the slightest hint of muscle on his forearms. He was dressed in rather modern-looking, heavy clothing, with plenty of pockets on both upper body and legs, pretty much perfectly prepared to explore a cave. I was only able to see his thin arms due to the fact that both sleeved had been rolled up, exposing his skin. He had a length of rope on his waist, and a hard hat with a little light on his head, although the light seemed busted.

Aha.

Now I noticed why he had screamed for help.

Pretty much his entire lower section was covered by a massive heap of rocks, most likely caused by the cave-in, and suddenly I felt guilty again. Maybe it would have been better if I was never reincarnated?... ah, but then I wouldn’t have been able to save Clay from that hole he was in, hmmm…

Whatever! The past is past, and all I can do now is try to help resolve the remaining issues!

The youth was still staring at me, and I became extremely self-conscious of the fact that not only did I make a lot of strange movements to animate my thought-process, but I was also stark-naked. I hadn’t thought about that before.

W-, well, standing around here all idle isn’t going to help anybody, let’s save this guy!

I hopped down from Clay’s back with agility that somewhat surprised myself, and quickly made my way over to the mute youth. Not too close though, since I didn’t really want him to, well, grab me or anything, but close enough to see him face to face.

…

“...”

Well, uhm…

Hi?

I waved slightly to the man.

He gulped loudly and hesitantly, almost half-heartedly, waved back with his left hand ever so slightly.

He understands me!!

I hopped up and down like a literal manifestation of the phrase “leapin’ lizards”, and the man seemed to take this rather well, going so far as to crack a little smile.

But I didn’t know if I could trust him just yet!

I’ll help him, yes, but I have to make sure he won’t, uh… whatever people do to axolotls in this world, I guess?

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I held up my right hand.

He held up his left.

Is he a leftie or something?...

Anyhoo!

I gently tapped my chest with my hand, and then pointed to the heap of rubble his legs were under.

I’m not too sure, but I think I might be able to lift some of the rocks. And that’s enough, right?

The man knit his eyebrows once more. He pointed to me, to the pile of rubble, and then shrugged his shoulders as if to say “can you” or “I don’t mind”, either one. But as I started to make my way over to the rubble(still keeping out of grabbing-distance), I heard him cough behind me, which really startled me, so I jumped about a foot into the air and turned around.

“Before you-, uh, do whatever that is, can you, um… understand me?... godthisissostupidofcourseitcan’tpaulwhathaveyousmoked…” he asked with a stutter, with only barely enough volume to allow me to hear. I couldn’t make out that last part, but nonetheless, I nodded to signify my understanding. The man drew a short breath and exhaled deeply. “...You’re sure?...” he asked once more. I nodded. “If you understand me, shrug,” he commanded, and I did just so.

“Oh my god, the blood-loss has driven me mad,” the youth said, burying his face in his hands.

Uh, sure.

I quickly made my way over to his feet, not too afraid of his lower section since he couldn’t move it, well, at all. Comparing my own size with his foot, I must have been… 10 cm long at the very least. Which isn’t much, but I could have been smaller!

Alright, let’s see here…

Most of his legs were covered in smaller rocks, but the real challenge here was a couple of larger boulders crushing his shins.

I began by getting rid of the smaller rocks since I really couldn’t bother myself with them since, well, he was losing blood by the second. I did this by way of my will, as always. Lifting single rocks at a time would be hard though, so instead of that, I lifted three or four at a time, which went very well. I tried my darndest to ignore the youth’s stares and gasps, which were probably from the pain in his legs and not anything I was doing, since situations like this should be commonplace here.

Soon enough, I had rid most of his legs from the lighter boulders, and only three large ones remained. That wouldn’t be for long.

I quickly leaped at the boulders, ignoring the groans and gasps from the young man, and started chowing down on the premium-grade rocks. Getting rid of 100 kilos of rocks would prove to be easier said than done, however, as I quickly reached a bump in my road. I was absolutely full. There was no way I could stick anything into my stomach. I felt like Mr. Croesote from the Meaning of Life, which really wasn’t good, since he, well, you know. Died.

“Y-, you!” the boy grunted, and I turned around, giving him my undivided attention. “You really don’t have to, I have friends, they’ll help me!” he cried, probably hoping it would deter me from trying to help him. It didn’t. “I won’t abandon you like this!” I retaliated. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, all I can hear is “meep”!” the boy replied. Ah, so that’s how I sounded. Not flattering, I am a grown man after all, or, rather, WAS, but anyhoo.

Ignoring his attempts to persuade me, I continued eating. I had now ground down one of the boulder so much that I could it off of him with my will. I never said I would eat ALL of it!

“I admire your courage, little axolotl, but I can see your exhaustion!” the boy cried, once more attempting to save me from Mr. Creosote’s fate. But I wouldn’t allow myself to be saved! However, neither could I eat both of these boulders. They were, frankly, too much. I knew it was futile and the very idea was terrible, but I willed myself to fly, my little wings carrying me into the air, yet being inexplicably still, as if I was simply levitating on top of my own will. The boy didn’t react audibly to this, but I was pretty sure his jaw was entirely unhinged when I looked over to him. What, has he never seen a flying axolotl before? Pff, rookie.

Slowly, and with all the grace of a giraffe on roller-skates, I got high up enough to hover just above one of the two remaining boulders. I tried to grab hold of it, but it was extremely slippery, meaning I had to search for nooks and creeks to grab onto, which I did. Stubbornly, unyielding, I put half of my will into lifting me into the air, and the rest into lifting the boulder itself.

It did not budge.

It was stern.

Or, rather, I simply wasn’t strong enough.

My will wasn’t enough to lift it.

Actually, neither my body nor my will had enough strength to even budge the thing, and this made me groan in despair, altough this most likely just sounded like a squeaky dog-toy, well, squeaking. What am I, a squeaky dog-toy?

“Hey, don’t worry, my friends will be here soon, don’t look so glum,” the boy said, apparently understanding my frustration.

B-, but I wanted to save you!

Pouting, I sat down on the boulder, my tail swishing back and forth like an unhappy cat. “Now, don’t worry, I’ll just try to call them over, okay? Okay. Erherm. JOHANNAAAAAA, ROBERTTTTTTT, SAVE MEEEEEEEE” he cried as loudly as he possibly could, and I could hear how his voice echoed throughout the entire cave.

For a couple of minutes, he continued shouting, giving himself small breathers in between, but even with these pauses, he still sounded like a hoarse frog in due time.

“H-, hey, you’re not afraid of me, are you?” the boy croaked, finally noticing how I had done my very best to avoid the long reach of his arms for the better part of their short time together. Nervous, I avoided his gaze, looking over to the right in shame. Well, it made sense for a wild animal to be a bit spooked by a human, but he USED to be human, damnit! Can’t he have some faith in his (former) species?

Apparently not.

“Hey, I won’t hurt you, you’ve almost saved me, after all!” the boy radiated, apparently feeling quite alright with talking to a (mostly) mute lizard.

Anxiously, I hopped down from the boulder and onto his mangled legs, successfully ignoring every single part that I didn’t like about them, which at this point was everything. I pretended to not notice how the boy grit his teeth.

I hadn’t noticed him sitting up ever since I came, he’s mostly just been laying straight on his back, so I trusted he wouldn’t sit up all of a sudden and grab me. I really should trust him more, but for some reason, the thought of being suddenly grabbed by a man 18 times your size frightened me to no end.

“Calm down, calm down,” he cooed, probably hoping it would calm me down and thus make me come a little closer. I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t do just that. He seemed nice, ok?!

I stood on his stomach, weak-legged and weak-willed. I felt like a lilliputian, standing atop Gulliver. Atleast this giant seemed pretty soft-spoken and such.

And for a while, I just kinda laid there, not really moving much in any way, and he seemed fine with it. The rhythmic rising and falling of his stomach nearly lulled me into sleep. “Okay, now just stay still…” he said, and I noticed a shadow creeping into my view. His left arm.

Gripped by panic, I almost took to flight, when I heard him coo: “don’t worry, I won’t harm you” a statement I foolishly trusted.

Lo and behold, the hand grew nearer, looming over me like some oversized eagle getting ready to grab at its prey, and just when I thought I was about to be man-handled into oblivion, a finger gently swept over me, from head to tail, stroking me softly. “Not so bad, eh?” the man asked rhetorically, and I had to agree.

Laying back down, I allowed myself to be stroked for a while more, eventually succumbing to the lure of sleep.