The creature let out a high pitch squeal, louder than any animal Khai had heard before, a cry of victory before killing its prey he could only assume. The war-cry stopped as the creature began its charge. Eyes squeezed shut and clutching the trunk beside him, Khai braced himself. The impact never came and the thunder of paws on the earth had stopped. Why would the creature stop? Was It toying with him? Were the creatures here that malicious that they would give their prey a sense of false hope? Moments passed before Khai dared open his eyes again. The creature was on its side, covered in chains, something sharp buried in its flank.

The creature must have gotten over it’s shock as it started to thrash and shriek in its chains, trying, and failing, to break the bonds wrapped around its legs and body, keeping the angry ball of fur and meat immobilised.

“You still alive?” It was a low, clipped voice.

Khai watched as the chains wrapped around the creature went taut, the trailing chain swinging slightly as the owner emerged from the surrounding jungle. The man was large, bigger than Khai by double with stone grey skin. That wasn’t what surprised Khai most however, the man’s outfit consisted of loose-fitting trousers over his lower half, whereas his entire torso was covered in large metal chains snaking over the man’s skin. Only his right arm remained bare, though Khai assumed that might have been because those chains normally covering the arm were currently being used to contain the angry creature.

Khai didn’t respond, was the man just taunting the creature? Or had he seen Khai and saved him from a gruesome death? The stranger walked calmly toward the creature, the chains winding themselves around his arm as he closed the distance.

“You in the tree, are you alive or just deaf?” The stranger called again, his focus never leaving the creature that continued to thrash in its chains.

“Yes” Khai called back, his voice cracking slightly. , “Yes I’m still alive”

“Can you get down?”

“Probably, I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention when I climbed up here”

The stranger was still walking toward the creature as he spoke with Khai, pausing just outside the reach of the thrashing beast. The chains had wrapped back around the mans upper arm, covering just up above his bicep.

It took Khai longer than usual to descend the tree, many of the branches were loose and after almost losing his footing twice initially, Khai decided to take his time with the climb. There was no point surviving his ordeal and dying right after to a loose handhold. It would also be really embarrassing to fall to his death in front of the chain-man.

Khai slowly made his way toward the large man, stopping much further from the still moving creature. It hadn’t stopped shrieking, letting out a slowly diminishing angry cry as every few moments passed.

“Thank you for saving me from…that thing” Khai gestured toward the creature as he spoke. “It definitely would have ki…”

“What in the six are you doing here?” The stranger barked, interrupting Khai before he could speak further.

“This zone has been sealed off for a reason, no one weaker than lapis rank should be able to get in here, let alone someone who apparently doesn’t know that hiding from a Crasher by climbing a tree is possibly one of dumbest ways to get yourself killed’

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I know that now Khai thought to himself.

Khai felt his cheeks redden as he looked away from the stranger. Wanting to try and explain himself and his stupidity he let the words fall from his mouth “My island got destroyed by some mud monster thing and Spirit sent me here. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to be in a ‘zone’ or whatever you called it, I just got here and I was attacked by the creature over there”

Khai indictated a shaky hand toward the chained creature. As if knowing it was being talked about, the Crasher let out a snort and scraped its tusks into the earth, causing Khai to step back instinctively.

The man turned his head toward Khai, his thick eyebrows lowering and looking incredulously toward Khai. This might actually be worse than being gored by the crasher.

“You expect me to believe, you were thrown here by Spirit? The Elemental that nobody has heard from in over a century?” Khai thought he could actually feel pressure coming off of the man, threatening to force him to the ground as he spoke.

“It’s true, I’m sorry I really don’t know why she sent me here. My name’s Khai and that’s all I’ve got, please don’t kill me I don’t know what’s going on and everyone from before is dead now and I was almost dead now and..” Khai started breathing heavily, the air feeling increasingly thick. It was so hot, he couldn’t think straight.

The stranger glared at Khai as he tried to decide if the boy was being truthful, or just a very committed liar. Letting out a sigh, the stranger un-tensed slightly, Khai immediately felt the air lighten and almost force itself into his lungs, slowly evening his breathing again.

“Come here” The man ordered. “If what you’re saying is true, and I don’t believe it is yet , I can at least find out which region you’re from using your Koar so I know where to send your body”

Khai paled at the man’s suddenly calm tone. Would the man kill him just for not having a Koar? He didn’t want to get any closer to the stranger but if the man could keep a Crasher immobilised with seemingly minimal effort, Khai didn’t think the man would have much of an issue catching him if he tried to run.

Reluctantly, Khai took the remaining few steps toward the stranger, not looking him in the eyes even as he got within arms reach of the man, Khai braced himself for whatever was about to happen to him.

“Don’t move and don’t bother blocking your Koarr, If need be I’ll just kill you and find out from your corpse” The man grunted the last few words at Khai.

Khai didn’t dare move, the man raised his arm and put a hand to Khai’s chest. The hand was surprisingly rough, Khai could feel the stoney texture through his shirt. A pressure formed around his entire body, pressing inwards from every direction. He could barely breath, panicking, he looked up and met the man’s eyes. He wasn’t expecting to see the puzzled expression on the man’s face as he took his hand away from Khai’s chest. Instantly the pressure receded and Khai felt the breath return to his lungs once more.

“I don’t know why you’re here, and I don’t believe that the Spirit sent you” The man didn’t take his eyes off Khai as he spoke, not paying any heed to the creature that had started to slow its escape attempts. “However, I know someone that will want to see you for themselves. So you can either follow me willingly, or you can join the Crasher and I’ll drag you both back to the gate.”

The man wasn’t bluffing, Khai could see that much. He still didn’t know where he was and the chances of Khai surviving the jungle would be a lot higher with the chain-man. Granted, his chances of survival if he refused were probably a lot lower anyway. One look at the chains wrapped imposingly around the mans torso and Khai quickly felt as helpless as the Crasher must have done. Running was pointless. He nodded at the man.

“I’ll come with you willingly” Khai said.

The man grunted, Khai took that as his acknowledgement. Without another word, the man let more of the chains fall from his arm and put them over his shoulder, turning away from the Crasher he started to walk back in the direction he’d appeared from, pulling the still struggling Crasher behind him.

Khai didn’t say anything, he just stared at the strength the man was casually using to pull the giant Crasher. Not knowing what else to do, Khai followed in the trail behind his stoney savior.