"Fuu~~~"

A full exhale of air sounded out. Not a small sigh you might let out when exasperated or the normal breath you let out when breathing on auto-pilot. This type of exhaling was only possible when a person inhales all the air they possibly can into their chest or stomach and then slowly or quickly shoot it back out. In this case, the air was shot out slowly.

Sitting in the back of the carriage, cross-legged, the boy had his eyes shut and head down as he continued to take deep breaths in, and then exhale slowly.

Most of the trip passed by like this.

He enjoyed this type of company best. Being silent on your own missed all the valuable aspects of being silent with a someone else. Sharing in the silence, filling it in with each other's quiet, was calming. The knowledge that each other was aware of their own presence but willing to simply exist together. Rather than feeling the need to engage in conversation, as though, if they didn't, perhaps they weren't human? No, for this boy, this sort of silence was protection and security from the usual useless droning conversations people who were unrelated would enjoy. It was no problem to talk when something was needed or wanted, but simply speaking to fill the silence was painful.

"Haaaaaaapp"

A slow, concentrated inhale from the mouth.

"Eating well?"

Shocked by the sudden break in the silence, the boy didn't have time to breathe out correctly

"Mm-cough cough!"

Satisfied, the driver remained silent but one could see he was more than happy with the response he got.

One small coughing fit later, the boy was once again breathing slowly and deeply, perhaps to calm his body down?

"Fuu~~~"

Regaining the silence, the air was rolling in his body once again. Although, it would be more accurate to say this was a silence of words. Although no words were spoken, the sound of the wheels going over rock and sand was not dulled by the wooden walls of the carriage. But it was good enough, apparently. The boy carried on relishing in the ample silence he found for himself.

"We're here."

Once again intruding, remorselessly, in this soundless sphere of existence, the driver spoke evenly.

Not deep enough in his concentration, the boy didn't seem to mind much this time.

Wordlessly hopping out from the back of the carriage, he looked before himself to see a wide open plain, expanding till the ends of his sight. Although, in the corner a small castle appeared. It was miniature. As tall as one portion of a finger but as long as two whole fingers.

The Plains were sparsely populated with trees and shrubbery, but otherwise dusty. Walking off the path the carriage rode on and into the Plains themselves, the boy trod down his own path.

The sun was not bearing down too hard, despite being directly overhead, and there was a nice spring breeze. Despite not looking so, the weather felt amazing.

After walking a satisfactory distance and finding a nice enclosed space between two trees and some bushes the boy sat in the middle, cross legged and hidden away, partially, waiting.

"Fuu~~~" the noise was familiar enough by now. Instead of sitting idly, he decided to make use of the new and improved silence. Broken only by itself. The silence of the Plains.

He continued breathing diligently. After a while it may have become boring for some, but others could find tranquillity in the simplicity, the repetitiveness, the patterns and rhythm of the wind and his chest beating in tune. The sun had made some progress in it's journey, slowly reaching the horizon as he simply sat there, alone.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Additionally, if one were to pay closer attention, it seemed as though the boys body had swelled up a bit and his inhales and exhales were getting longer too. Perhaps, if it had gone on a little bit longer, he may have popped, or something else. But fortunately or unfortunately, the boy was interrupted by something.

This something was truly strange. It was stocky like a bear but had no fur or scales. Instead, it had what seemed to be very thick and hard flesh with the odd hair poking out randomly. It had a thin short tail, however, what was most striking about this odd, colourless large hunk of mass, was the very apparent protrusion at the front of its heads. It was a bone coloured horn that had chips cracked off of it. It stood out from it's fleshy appearance. The second most hair raising part of this beast was its eyes. There was no distinction between the whites of the eye, rather, there was no white to its eye. It was simply black. It appeared to have no soul, only its instincts to survive and reproduce. The Rhino was headed towards the boy who suddenly had a sturdy looking dagger in his hands. However, the rhino did not seem to be able to see or smell the boy amongst the bushes, instead stopping just short of the bare trees and lowering its head to the ground.

Using this chance, the boy slowly put a foot and hand onto the tree nearest to him. This tree arched out and over the creature. Perhaps the creature came for the shade and not a potential meal. Slowly and quietly, but deftly he made his way up the tree with one hand holding the dagger. Once he was directly atop the creature, the boy began to observe it. From the top view, it looked simple, like an oval. It's legs were not visible from this angle. It's neck was bent down, unnaturally, however. It was asking to be cut down.

As if to oblige to its request, the boy dropped down from his vantage point, one hand gripping the dagger with a reverse grip, while the other was placed behind the hilt. Landing dagger first, he drove the blade end clean in to the connection between the beasts neck and body, digging it in deeper with the hand behind the hilt.

Shockingly, the penetration was not enough, or perhaps it was angled wrong? Maybe what seemed to be the neck area was not vital? It could be any of a million reasons that the surprise attack didn't go well, however, what was most important was that the rhino was now jerking in fear for its life. The boy on his back was perturbed only for a second; the dagger gliding out, and then back in, only at a different location. It's cold dark eye. It's eye was soft, like jelly, the blade slipped right in.

'Still jerking around?' the boy thought to himself, quite surprised at this.

"Hmm." he had done this many times, usually the first strike to the neck was enough to knock the Rhinoes down, then he could calmly stab its head and slice below its neck, to let the blood drain out. Either he had gotten lucky all those times, or this was an incredibly tough rhino, despite not looking so.

Stabbing the dagger into its other eye proved to be slightly more difficult as the beast was truly moving for its life. It began to buck like a bull, roaring as it did. Missing a few times, the boy was annoyed, breathing slowly to regain control of his movements, even on this wildly gyrating, jerking beast, he struck with precision into its remaining eye. But he didn't immediately pull the blade out, instead twisting and turning it around in the rhino's eye socket, as best he could.

As the beast began to fall, he retrieved his blade and jumped off and rolled out of the way. Falling to its side and remaining motionless, the fearful rhino seemed to be dead, finally. At this moment, the boy rushed in close and sliced at its neck cleanly, before jumping over and rolling to the other side- making some distance once again.

"Phew, what the hell was that?"

His breath slowly becoming more even as he squat a few metres away from the supposedly dead beast, he watched the blood flow, undisturbed, from the rhino's neck and other wounds. Waiting patiently for a moment, then rising slowly he walked over to the rhino, sure that it was dead by now.

"Dammit" he spat out as he looked at the dagger in his hands. Covered in blood and guts still, it was slimy, even at the hilt. Stripping his clothes off, once again, he began to slowly pick away at the beasts limbs. Struggling to find a stable grip on the dagger, the boy kept mumbling complaints to no one. His dagger was not a chopping sort of blade and he knew it. However, he had no choice but to slowly make progress with it.

After a long while, when the sun was almost fully set but there was still light out, the boy sat to the side, having accomplished a herculean task. Hands dyed red with blood, grime splattered all over his body.

The boy wiped his hands on some leaves from the nearby bushes then, reached into his clothes and pulled out a large cloth, somehow.

Wrapping all the limbs up and tying it off, he wore it around his neck like a sling. The boy started on his way, blood dripping from the makeshift bag on his back, his path left a trail.

Finding a spring in the middle of these Plains may sound unbelievable, but there it was. A spring.

Dropping his clothes and removing his bag of limbs, the boy began to rub his hands in the water, then wiping down his body. Finally, dunking his head into the water and rubbing at his hair and face, he cleaned himself fully. Splashing all the water about, as if to make the blood and grime disperse, the boy jumped into the spring, reclining backwards.

"Fuu~~~" there it was again. His head leaning backwards and his eyes closed, he began to breathe slowly.

• • • • •

Once the sun had set fully, and the cool breeze during the day had become a chilling cold, the boy wore his clothes and held the bag of blood in his hands out at a distance. Turning to look around, he found some lights and activity further away. He began making his way to the miniature city in the distance.