Airi trembled, her mind was stuck on one thing, the fact that she had just killed a person and that the world she was in was a real one "It's real...Oh god, its real" she mumbled as she slowly started to lose her mind, she wanted to go home, she wanted to be back in her room clicking away as she stared at her computer screen, she wanted to be there when Kazu walked in from work. At that thought Airi paused, Kazu, what would her brother do once he came home and saw Airi was gone, would he figure out she was in another world or, would he assume she just vanished while he was gone. Airi's head was a jumbled mess of worries and dredful thoughts, she hadn't noticed but she started to mumble like a crazy person which unerved Garret who was stading there next to her watching her fall to pieces.
Garret placed both hands on Airi's shoulders, he turned her around making her let go of her sword handel to where she was facing him, the dead bandits body fell to the ground "Gawain! Come back man!" Garret shook her a bit, Airi just looked at Garret like a zombie, Garret clicked his tounge "Come on! Gawain! Snap out of it!" Airi didn't respond, she was too wrapped up in her thought and was tuning Garret out. Garret grumbled as Airi kept on mumbling to herself, "Gawain! Gawian!" Garret kept calling out, he'd would shake Airi from time to time but, dispite his efforts Airi wasn't snapping out of it.
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Garret was at a loss, he had no idea what to do to get Gawain out of the state he was in "Come on, snap out of it Gawain!" Garret shook Gawain for what had been the tenth time yet, Gawain just kept on mumbling incoherently with the look of complete fear on his face. Garret tried to listen to what Gawain was mumbling about the whole time but, he couldn't make heads or tails of what he was saying, it all sounded like the mublings of a crazy person. Garret was at his wits end, if he couldn't shake Gawain out of his crazed state there was only one thing left for him to do, he raised his hand off of Gawain's shoulder "Snap out of it Godamnit!" Garret let his arm fly. His hand smacked across Gawain's face with a loud smack, Garret noticed that stopped Gawain from mumbling but didn't take him out of his crazed state with that he raised his other arm and procedded to give another hard slap across Gawain's face.
Gawain went silent, he still wasn't completley out of it, he sighed he slapped Gawain a third time across the face still, Gawain stayed the same, "I can do this all day!" repeatedly Garret slapped Gawain across the face, he wasn't going to stop until Gawain went back to normal. "Come on, come back man!" Garret's hands were hurting, but Gawain still wasn't back to normal he had to keep going, "Gawain!!" Garret shouted.
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Airi was lost in her thoughts, she could hear Garret shouting Gawain's name, probably to snap her back to reality but, with all what was going through her mind, that seemed impossible to her, as reality for her now, was being in a world where giant monsters roamed and death could be right around the corner. If Airi was behind a monitor and a mouse she woudln't be so scared and hopeless, but she didn't have those, she wasn't sitting saftely behind a monitor no, now she was beyond the monitor. Airi was scared, she was in a place where the first wrong step she took would mean her death, as Airi continued to be wrapped in her thoughts she started to feel a stinging sensation coming from her cheeks.
"Why does my face hurt so much?" she wondered then as she started to feel the stinging grow stronger she could swear she felt a force against her cheeks, whenever she felt the force on her cheeks the stinging would get worse. "What the hells going on?" slowly, Airi started to come back from her thoughts, each time she felt the stinging sensation grow stronger she would come back more and more, after a while she started to here a sound, she could instantly tell what it was, it was the sound of flesh hitting flesh. As Airi slowly came to, her eyes focused on Garret who was gritting his teeth "Garret?" Airi wondered what Garret was doing, but she was answered when she saw his extended arm come from the side and connect with the left side of her face. "Ow!" Airi cried she came to the realization that the stinging sensation on her face she was feeling, was Garret slapping her.
She then could hear Garret calling out Gawain's name, then another slap came across her face, "Has he been doing this the whole time?" Airi eyes Garret and watched as his hand went across her face once more. Airi's cheeks were on fire, "Snap out of it Gawain!" she heard Garret shout, Airi was impressed, Garret could have left her when she went into her crazed state yet, there he was, slapping her across the face to get to come back to. Airi chuckled, to think there would be a person who would do something like that, to slap the crazy out of a crazy person with that, Airi decided that she shouldn't think her being in this unkown world was just a death sentence. She had played a game for months that was just like the world she was in, there was no reason for her to be scared of it, yes, she could die, but it was a world she knew, and she knew how to survive in it, as Garret was winding up for another slap Airi shot her arm out and stopped him.
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As Garret was prepared to slap Gawain for what would have been the nineteenth time,he saw Gawain's arm shoot up and grab his arm stopping him, Garret smirked, "Gawain, you back?" Garret waited a bit, slowly Gawain smiled, "Yeah, I'm back" Garret chuckled "Thank god" Gawain released Garret's arm and took a deep calming breath, "Good to have you back" Gawain nodded "Thanks for bringing me back" Garret grinned. Gawain winced in pain, his hand held his reddened cheeks, he took in a pained breath "Man, you could have held back a bit" Gawain rubbed his cheeks gingerly Garret chuckled and scratched the back of his head "Well, I thought that the harder I'd hit you the faster you'd come back" Gawain sighed.
"So, what caused that little episode?" Gawain looked hard at Garret who was curious as to why killing a bandit had made Gawain break down, "Well..." Gawain started, "I've never, killed another human before" the realization sunk into Garret, "I've only killed monsters before, I've never had to kill humans before" Garret could see where Gawain was coming from.It had taken him a few days after killing his first human opponent to sleep soudnly at night, "I know what you mean, it's hard to get over, taking a human life" Garret looked at the bodies of the two bandits he had killed. It still got to him, killing other humans, killing the snake was easy because it was a monster but, the bandits, they must have had families, friends, lives, and he had taken all of that from them by killing them.
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Airi hated to lie, but, she had to give Garret an explanation, it wasn't like she could tell Garret that she was panicing over being stuck in another world and was scared of dying, then she would get more questions that she'd have to answer, and who was to know if Garret would belive her if she told his the truth, that she was from another world, and that the blue stone she had earlier was what brought her here. Airi saw the solem look in Garret's eyes as he looked at the bodies of the dead bandits he had killed, "I see, he's no different then me" Airi looked at the bandit she had killed he was laying on the ground, her sword sticking out of him, she felt bad abut what she had done. But, she remebered what Garret had said, the bandit was going to kill her, and she had to kill him so he didn't kill her, that she shouldn't feel bad for defending herself.
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Airi gave a shuddering sigh, she walked over to the bandits lifeless body, she stared at the body for a bit, taking in the sight what a dead human body looked like, know that along her way in this new world it was possible she was going to see more. Airi eyed her sword, she reached her hand down and gripped the handel, she took another breath, slowly, she started to pull her sword out of the bandits body. She could hear the crunch of flesh as she pulled the blade out, she covered her mouth as the sounds she was hearing was sickening but, she persevered, and slowly but surely she pulled her sword free of the bandits body. She smiled, but her smile soon vanished when a jet of blood hit her in the face, the blood was warm, it dripped down her face and onto the ground, Airi fought against her stomach.
She heard Garret walk over, she turned and he almost busted out laughing when he saw the blood all over her face, "I'm glad you find it funny" she grumbled angrily "Sorry, after the seriousness we had to see you with blood splattered in you face" Garret snorted.
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Gawain grumbled, Garret was trying his hardest to not laugh at Gawain, "Well, looks like it's not just me that needs to wash off" Garret could swear he heard a chuckle form Gawain, "Yeah, guess your right" Gawain sheated his sword, "Should we be on our way then?" Garret nodded he rustled in his bag and took out his map "Fallow me" he chuckled. Garret stared walking off looking down at the map as he did, "Lead the way" Gawain chuckled as he fallowed behind, the two walked for what seemed like hours until Garret finally started fallowing the right path. In a matter on minuets the two finally arrived at their destination, when the arrived Garret was the first one to walk in he looked down at his map and back up, "Looks like this is the place" Gawain stepped up beside him and looked around.
A aweinspired gasp came from Gawain, "Wow, this place is amazing" Garret nodded in agreement "Well, lets get cleaned up shall we?" he folded his map and put it away, "Yeah, we should" Gawain agreed with that Garret started to strip his clothes off.
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Airi went red in the face as she stared at Garret as he slowly took his clothes off, he first took his sword off his back and placed it on the ground, he threw off his blue coat next to his sword he then started to unbutton his withe collard shirt. Airi threw her hands over her eyes, "What the hell are you doing!?" she cried Garret looked over, "What to you mean, I'm taking my clothes off" Airi grumbled "I can see that! I mean why here!" Garret raised an eyebrow "What's the matter with me taking my clothes off here, were both guys right?" Airi gasped. How could she have forgotten that Garret thought she was a guy, "Uhm, well, I uh.." Airi stuttered "What's wrong with you man?" Airi grumbled she took her hands off her eyes but when she did her face flushed more.
Garret was now standning shirtless in front of her, Airi could see his well defined muscles, he was a bit more bilt then her brother but not much, but Airi didn't have the time to admire, she freaked out, this was the first time in her life she had a boy who looked to be around her age or wasn't Kazu, standing shirtless in front of her. She stuttered, her words weren't coherent, "Come on, what's the hold up?" Airi looked up from Garret's body and focused on his face "What?" she said absentmindedly "What's the hold up? Don't you want to clean that blood off of you?" Airi chuckled. "Oh yeah, I was going to do that" Airi chuckled nervously, "Then why aren't you taking that armor off?" Airi froze "Uhm, well you see..." Garret gave a skeptical look, Airi's eyes fell back to Garrets body "Come on, if you don't wash that blood off you'll smell like crap" with that Garret proceeded to take his pants off.
Airi went red in the face, "I'm going to go wash off over there!" she shouted, she then started running off away from the stripping Garret "Well, alright" came Garrets reply, Airi stopped after she felt she had run at least a good distance away. She looked back to see if Garret could see her,she sighed in relief when she saw no sign of him, "Man, that was a close one" just then the image of Garret shirtless came to her mind. It caused her to go red in the face, Airi let out a girly shriek "What was that jerk thinking!" she stomped the ground in frustration she then sighed, "But,it's my fault for pretending to be a guy" as Airi stood there she started to smell something bad. She sniffed, she almost retched, it was her, the blood and sweat had mixed together and had made her stink the worst she ever had "Ugh, man I reek" Airi looked around to see if anyone was around. When she saw sign of no one she started to take the armor she had on off, it was difficult at first, taking off armor was a bit harder then slipping off a shirt, she got the pauldrons off and dropped them to the ground.
"Good thing the Weightless Potion hasn't run out yet" she remarked, she then took of the gauntlets and placed them by the pauldrons, she then sat down and pulled the boots off and put them together with the rest. She stood back up and went for the greaves, she reached for the clasps on the back and undid them she took the left one off first then the right, she added them to the pile of armor she had taken off. All that was left now was the cuirass, she found the straps keeping it together at the sides she undid them and slowly she pulled the curiass over her head, Airi almost let out a loud shriek but, she held herself back, "What the hell?" she mumbled "Why am I totally naked?" Airi looked down at her bare body. Airi knew that she had made Gawain ware chainmail under his armor yet, "It's not here!" that's when Airi remebered something, only male characters could wear chainmail in Elder Tales, Airi sighed, was this the only thing that was consistant with the game.
Airi groaned, she put the curiass down and made her way to the water, she stepped her foot in slowly, the water was cool Airi smiled she the stepped into the water and waded through until she stopped in the middle. Airi sighed in contempt, she let her body relax in the cold water, "Ahh, this is nice" she mumbled Airi then got started washing herself, she cleaned the bandits blood off her face when she felt that all of it was washed off she focused on her hair. There was some blood stuck in some strands of her hair, she took a deep breath and held it, she the dove under the water for a few seconds she stayed under, she shot back up and exhaled, she then started wringing her hand through her hair. Airi giggled when she saw her reflection in the water, her hair was nice and straight and wasn't a mess, seeing herself like this brought her back to times where she kept her apperance up. A frown came to Airi's face, she stopped weaving her hands through her hair, she giggled sadly.
Just then, as Airi sulked, she heard footsteps coming in her direction, she snapped out of her funk and looked to where the footsteps were coming from, "Who could it be?" just then Airi remebered something crucel, she looked down, her face went red, she eyed her sword and armor sitting on the bank. Airi clicked her tounge, the footsteps were coming closer at a fast pace, there was no time for her to run and grab her stuff and be able to slip it back on, Airi could only sit in the water covering herself up with her arms and wait as the footsteps came closer and closer. Then as the footsteps reached where she was Airi's face burned with red, her mouth went agape as she couldn't believe who it was, "Garret!" she shouted, Garret looked over and looked Airi up and down, he blushed. [Ch.6 END]