The human quickly nocked another arrow in their bow.

Sin could hardly think. The pain was so intense, and he was entirely caught off guard.

‘You’ve been far too careless! Now, look, it came back to bite you in the ass… or the shoulder,’ he thought begrudgingly, quickly scrambling to his feet.

“Wait!” he screamed, as he dashed behind the corner of the monolith when he heard the bow draw with a small creak.

Another arrow struck the corner of the monolith, moments from where he had been. It slid harmlessly off the monolith and fell to the floor.

“Get back here, rat!” came a feminine voice.

‘She can speak English, oh thank the suns…’ Sin huffed with relief. ‘Now I just need to convince her not to kill me…’

“Wait, we can help each other!” Sin shouted from behind the monolith, his hands finding the etches of the unfamiliar language in the dark stone. He had initially grabbed at his bloody shoulder when he first got shot. His hand had come away slick with blood. Now, that blood was, unbeknownst to Sin, seeping into the etchings in the monolith.

Sin heard another arrow nock.

“Lies, rat!”

He heard a shuffle of quickly moving feet. This time, he wasn’t fast enough to escape and he fell back with a pained groan. The human came into view, her arrow pointing straight between his eyes.

“You can’t escape these plains, can you? Well, I know how to escape!” Sin started to lie… well, not entirely. He had an idea forming and the appearance of this human would help with that. He could have used her dead or alive, but he didn’t have the means of killing her. He almost felt like an idiot with the dull sword in his hand on the floor, and no expertise to use it.

The woman, meanwhile, was staring at him distrustfully. He could see her properly now. Her brunette hair was hastily tied back, which did nothing to prevent the strands from jumping out in all directions. Her green eyes were narrowed, her pretty face was dirty, and she had blood stains here and there. She wore mismatched clothes, as if dragged off more than one corpse, and her sleeves were cut off at the shoulder.

She looked more like a rat than he did, so why was she calling him one? Then again, he probably didn’t look too orderly himself.

‘How mean! And I have far better fashion sense!’

He spoke again, sensing that he had her attention. He would have to be quick because her patience seemed to wane faster than her interest.

“If you kill me, you won’t ever escape this place! I know a way to escape. I can get us out of here!”

The woman looked troubled, and she bit her lip, deciding upon a choice of action. Finally, she hesitated and then lowered her bow.

Sin breathed an audible sigh of relief.

“Well then get to it, rat,” the woman said, watching his every move.

“Stop calling me rat… My name is Sin. And, you’ll promise not to kill me after I get us out of here?” he asked distrustfully.

“Yes, yes. Come, get to work,” the woman replied, huffing with impatience.

“Alright, alright,” he sighed and then got up with a pained groan. He was unconvinced by her reply, but what could he do? He didn’t have the means to kill her, and she had truthfully brought him a way to escape. Without that, he would’ve been wandering the plains for the rest of his life… so, for the rest of approximately 3 days. Water was scarce.

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“First, you have to help me with my shoulder,” Sin said, staring at her with indignation.

“I was aiming for your head,” she replied, making no move to help him.

“If I bleed out before I find an escape for us, then so be it,” he replied as nonchalantly as he could, leaning against the monolith, his back toward it. More blood was allowed to trickle into the etchings of the monolith.

The woman gritted her teeth angrily. “Fine. But throw your sword away.”

She grabbed the pack that was slung around her shoulder and rustled around inside as Sin threw the dull sword. Even if he couldn’t use it, it had offered him a sense of protection, and he felt weirdly uncomfortable when he threw it away.

She produced some material and leaves from within and then took a wary few steps to Sin’s side.

“Hold still,” she said, grabbing the arrow that was protruding from his right shoulder. He groaned at the pain.

“Don’t be a baby,” she said, and then suddenly snapped the end of the arrow off. This caused a flood of pain from the jarring motion to wash over Sin. He held his cry in as much as he could and yelped like a puppy.

The woman glared at him contemptuously.

“Wh-what is your name?” Sin suddenly asked, his teeth still grinding from the pangs of pain.

“And why should I tell you?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Gods, you really have a stick up your ass, don’t you?” he said, rolling his eyes. The two had come to an unstable agreement, one that could end at any second, but he was already tired of her contempt. He couldn’t help but scold her.

She blinked, not having expected that. Sin thought she would be angry, but she seemed to calm down a little.

“Noa…” she said softly, picking something else out from her bag and placing it somewhere accessible.

“Now stop talking and bite onto this,” she ordered, giving him a stick. He obliged, putting the stick between his teeth. She stared at him, amusement dancing in her verdant eyes, then put a leaf into her mouth and began chewing.

“You’ve been upgraded from rat to dog, it seems,” she said with a smile between chews, and then suddenly she gripped the part of the arrow that was still stuck inside his shoulder and pulled it out in one smooth motion.

“Gah!” he cried, biting down hard on the stick. He couldn’t even comprehend her insult because of the white-hot pain that flooded his senses. Noa quickly dropped the arrow, spitting out her leaf that was now all chewed up and mushy. She proceeded to smear the stuff on the wound, causing tears to form in Sin’s eyes.

‘By the suns, that burns!’ he thought, his mind feeling woozy. He stayed still, however, allowing Noa to treat him. She seemed to know what she was doing.

“That will sanitize the wound,” she said as she wrapped the cloth around his shoulder, circling his arm and under his armpit. “Later I will suture it.”

Taking a few deep breaths, Sin fell on his ass. “Th-Thanks, Noa.”

She nodded and returned the items to her bag. “Now come on, doggy. Get us out of this hellish place.”

Sin nodded, knowing it was his time to perform. It was odd hearing how this place was ‘hellish’, because when one looked around it almost seemed like heaven… if heaven slowly made you go mad and trapped you like prey.

“Pass me an arrow,” he said, holding out a hand.

“What? What are you planning?” she asked, her voice full of suspicion.

“Relax… I’m planning to make a fire,” he said, waving his hand out impatiently.

She scoffed and was about to say something with contempt, but then frowned and walked to where the arrow that had hit the monolith was. She picked it up and chucked it to him, keeping her distance.

“Now don’t get a fright. I’m going to pick up my sword,” he said as he got up again, walking over to the sword. He picked it up and placed the arrow down.

“Wait, you don’t have a rock on you, right?” he asked suddenly.

“No? Why would I carry around rocks?” Noa said.

Sin sighed. “Thought so… let’s hope this will do.”

He had a vague idea forming in his head on how to make a fire. This idea didn’t come from his ingenuity, but rather from a fuzzy memory that was floating around in his head. He still couldn’t recall anything and still didn’t know why he was here on these plains nor how he had got here.

He lifted the sword in the air and struck it down onto the arrowhead at an angle so it slid off. Nothing happened, just a dull clang rang as the wind lazily took it away. He tried again, striking the dull sword against the arrowhead. Again and again, he repeated the motion, but nothing seemed to be happening.

Noa was getting impatient. She had seemed curious at first, but that had now turned to simmering irritation. To her, Sin just looked like he was trying to pull an idea out of his ass to postpone his own death.

“You lying dog!” she suddenly shouted at him, walking nearer with surprising speed.

Just then, Sin hit the sword against the arrowhead once more and a single spark flew, landing on the grass. The grass blade it had fallen on seemed to shiver with pain, but the spark quickly died.

Noa had stopped and was staring, her eyes as wide as saucers.

Sin turned to her and grinned. “You were saying?”

It seemed he had found I viable plan of escape. Now, he just had to make it work.