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“Just a little more,” Akito mutters. The guy in the strange clothes who climbed out of the well, Toya? Is helping him get to a clearing far enough from the bounty hunters.
“Are you sure you’re ok?” Well Guy’s smaller, more nervous, Well Friend, Kohane, asks. “That looks like it hurts.”
Of course the metal harpoon embedded in his shoulder hurts, but they need to find cover before they do anything else.
“Should we try and find a town?” the final Well Person, An says.
“By the River, no!” Akito says. “Do you want us to all be burned at the stake?”
“B-burned? Like witches?” Kohane asks. “B-but we’re not witches!”
“I’ve never seen regular people who dress like you,” Akito says. “Or who live in wells.”
“We don’t live in the well,” An says. “I found this old chest that belonged to my aunt, we opened it, and we fell in!”
“That’s witch stuff,” Akito says. “Ok, here.” They reach the mouth of the cave, moving aside the moss, and Akito heads back and moves a large rock covering his supplies.
He takes the flint and sets the remains of the fire from last week. He’d prefer fresh wood but he doesn’t want the Well People to go out on their own, they don’t seem very reliable.
Luckily for all of them, the fire starts quickly and they’re warmed up. Toya recloses the moss covering.
“Ok, so the first thing I’m going to need you to do,” Akito says after taking a seat on one of the rocks, “is take that stone over there and break off the back half of this harpoon with the chain.”
“What?” Kohane asks. “Won’t that hurt?”
“Oh it’s the least painful part of all of this.”
Kohane squeaks.
An understands what he wants to do, and picks up the rock. The cave is silent with the sharp clangs of stone on metal, until finally the end of the harpoon connected to the chain clatters across the cave floor.
“What now?” An grunts.
Akito grips the triangular part of the harpoon sticking out the front of his right shoulder and pulls as hard as he can.
He knows not to scream, but Kohane didn’t get the memo, and even An and Toya stagger back.
Akito ignores them and holds his left arm up to his shoulder and mutters a healing spell. Soon, a pair of orange circles appear over both sides of the wound.
“Ok,” Akito says, barely staying awake. “That’s going to take a bit to heal, and it requires a lot of energy, so I’m going to pass out. You’re free to leave, of course, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Thank you for your help in getting here, and please don’t try to kill me while I sleep.”
“Wait hold on!” An gasps. “What is this place, what does it have to do with Aunt Nagi?”
“Who are you?” Kohane adds. “Why were those people trying to kill you anyway?”
“What’s your name?” Toya asks, and it’s that question he focuses on as his consciousness slips away.
“Name’s Akito Shinonome, The Last Autumn Witch.”