Chapter Text
You’ve come to accept whatever cards fate has dealt you with. You’ve been called resilient, yeah, though you hated it. You can live off of a packet of ramen a day, not bite off your shitty boss’ head and complain how shitty his wages are. You can do that. Sure you can handle being with a group of strangers on a mountain hike.
Okay. That’s fine.
There was a sense of community anyway when someone needed something small like a wet wipe or a handful of nuts. You can handle maybe a few mosquito bites on your arms and neck. You can handle accidentally stepping on whatever animal feces you stepped on the trail.
But what you can’t handle is being left alone in small closed spaces. Especially when it’s colder than a witch’s tit and it was in a fucking forest in the middle of wherever you are. You can’t handle this. Your swollen ankle hurts like hell and you hiss out every time you try to move. Worst part was there was no phone signal from where you were.
You were stranded. Inside a small cave.
And you were dumb enough to take a potty break far away from the group, slipped on something wet when you finally pulled your pants up and rolled down, hitting your ankle in process. There was a momentary time where you blacked out after your head hit the stone wall and you woke up to the sun setting.
And that was it. Your throat was dry and itchy from shouting for help for hours. All you could do now was pray to whichever god gets to you first.
Life was a party and you were the pinata.
Night time falls and it gets chillier. Your neon parka was enough to warm you during the trail and you weren’t sure if it’s going to last you through the night plus you weren’t risking your phone’s battery, she’s partially drained as it is and you were saving your power bank some other time.
You know like, calling the cops or some help. Calling your parents to say that you were fine and all right and maybe quit your shit job and curse your boss.
You left to wonder if your hiking group already called the authorities and were in the process of looking for you. Maybe a helicopter passed by and didn’t see you. Oh god, the very idea fucks you up and sends your heart racing and your breaths labored.
Taking off your backpack, you set it by the walls to make a makeshift place to rest your head. As you were about to close your eyes, you hear a wolf’s howl into the night sky and leaves rustling with a sole leaf falling down from the cave’s mouth, down to the stone floor.
You inhaled, squeezing your eyes shut and murmured an Oh god before you stood up. You hobbled towards the opening while supporting yourself holding against the walls.
“Here it goes-” you suck in your breath and yell “Help me!”
The sound of leaves rustling grew louder and you were thinking about how much this was a bad idea. Oh god, you were sure an animal was going to maul you down there or maybe some mountain creature or the goatmam himself. Your face grew pale when something tall stood between you and the moonlight. Their figure was big and imposing and you couldn’t stand on your tiptoes to get a better look at them. And also the fact that it was dark from where you are. They were merely a tall black figure from what you could see.
“H-hey!” you waved your arms frantically. You try to do a little hop but you stopped due to the pain growing down in your ankle “I’ve been stuck here for a couple of hours now and-”
A howl, and their head turns to the right and leaves in a hurry.
Your eyes widened with a face full of shock and disappointment with a tiny bit of relief. You ran your tongue against your teeth and clicked your tongue and sighed as you got back to your makeshift bed. Twiddling your thumbs as they were neatly folded on your stomach. A sweat drops from your cold face and you wonder what that tall figure was.
“If I die today” you closed your eyes and prayed “God take my soul and turn me into a fat cat in Korea”
You bumped the sides of your clasped hand onto the bridge of your nose and repeated it over and over again. Your ears perked up when you heard a whimper and something squishy that almost made you want to vomit. Leaves rustle again and the tall shadowy figure comes back, their head just poking by the cave’s opening. They stare at you for a moment before tossing something down.
It was a rope.
You took your backpack and hobbled towards it. Hands grasping it tightly before taking a deep breath and climbing it. It wasn’t exactly a tall wall. It was climbable, for an expert mountain climber but you- you weren’t exactly a mountain climber or anything related to that. The most you can climb was your cupboards without a chair’s help. That’s it.
As you climbed, you were mindful of your footing. Finding the right rocks to plant your foot and the right cracks to give yourself an advantage. And yet, there was one crack that decided to play a cruel joke on you and that your shoelace decided that it was a good idea to get stuck in it, making you yelp, sliding further down on the rope making your palms burn and your swollen ankle hit the rock wall, making grunt out in pain and curse loudly. You hoped your savior was still there.
“Are you all right?” a man’s voice comes from above. It was soft and reassuring, you quickly thought.
“No-ow ow ow” you replied, still holding onto the rope. Your body dangling mere inches away from the ground “My ankle is swollen and I can’t climb up properly!”
“Hold tight onto the rope and I shall pull you up” you felt a tug “When you are sure that you are secure, give me signal to pull you up”
“G-Gotcha!”
Tangling the rope around your arms and hands you shouted at him to pull you up. It took two tugs for you to get up and a squeal from you to get up. You feel someone tug you further up from the opening and be gently set down somewhere far away from it.
“God” you breathed out, body still on the ground with your forearms supporting your upper body to distance yourself from the soil “Thank you. I was so stupid and I fell and I-”
Looking up to face your hero, he had a white hood on. It covered his eyes and-
“ Oh gosh, you’re big ” those words leave your mouth almost in a whisper. You noticed that he had multiple weapons strapped onto him, a bow and arrow on his back and what looks like an axe strapped to his hip. You continued to eye him. He had what looks like a coat and some...boots that you couldn’t recognize the fashion of.
The man tilts his head at you.
You try to push yourself up and he notices you struggle. He helps you to pick yourself up and holds onto your arm to assist you. Now that you had a closer look at him, you noticed that he had a light dusting of freckles on his face (and the fact that you had to crane your head up high just to take a look at his face). And upon, further, further inspection…you notice that there was blood on his white coat.
You mentally groan and stealed yourself.
Turn me into a fat cat god please. I won’t ask for anything else. Just take my soul and turn me into a fat cat.