The Ranch

Henri (2)

Instructor Henri talks a little more about his experience in the process of raising ranks for Tih's future benefit. Truthfully, he hopes Tih will be able to do what he can't and get that silver star in Parkour.

Tih is only half paying attention. After his "episode" with the green-star instructor, Tih's senses have dulled slightly. It was the first time his body moved unconsciously while he was still aware of his surroundings, still him.

He hasn't been able to wave off that out of body feeling yet. For the past week, he's been in a daze more often and his fingers often twitch. There's a foggy image of something that looks like some of the seashells he's seen along the beach of the island that appears in his mind.

As Tih goes into another daze and Henri continues talking, they don't hear the rustling noise. The sound happens a short moment before a large boar the size of half an adult rushes out of the bushes.

Tih would usually be aware of the animal's position even if it was a couple meters away, but currently his mind is still dulled. Henri isn't skilled in detection and intuition and only noticed boar when it was a few feet from them.

His teacher instincts kick in and pushes Tih out of the way before Tih's body can move to stop the boar. Henri doesn't have enough time to turn around and put up any kind of block, not that he's proficient in defensive moves in the first place.

He has no choice but to block the animal with his back, taking the full force of the boar's ramming attack. Instructor Henri gets sent flying back and slams into a tree. There's a loud conk, indicating that his head hit bark.

Tih feels his body pulse. His pupils shrink as a hazy red engulfs them. His body turns towards the boar and pounces without giving the animal a chance to be scared by the drop in temperature or the demonic aura shrouding him.

The child's hands latch onto the large boar, fingernails dig through its thick hide and into its skin. As it squeals and shrieks in pain, it runs around, crashing into trees haphazardly.

He doesn't let go. The child opens his mouth and bites into the animal and rips out patches of fur along with a huge chunk of flesh into his mouth. The child spits out the flesh and goes back in for more.

Meanwhile, the shrieking boar continues colliding into trees, trying to shake off the predator on its back. The child's back slams into multiple trees but he stays latched on without a care for the pain his body is undergoing.

The child continues mauling the, half the size of an adult male, boar until it becomes slower and slower. Its screams quiet down until it's body remains lifeless on the bloody dirt floor.

The child finally releases his death-grip on the boar. His red eyes stare silently at the bloody corpse. After the adrenaline starts fading, the pain starts to come. It's long materialized on his body as bloody gashes, long stretches of open flesh ripped off by the bark, and bruises. The back of his hoodie had been shredded long ago.

Tih tastes the rust flavor on his tongue and a hazy memory of the seashell, no, an ear comes to the forefront. That seems to shake him awake as the red in his eyes completely disperses. Tih feels dizzy. He closes his eyes and shakes his head, ruffling his already messy hair.

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e...eaaa-rerr

Mm...

...Hmm?

...

gone...

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The image in his mind has turned hazy once more. He opens his eyes to see a dead animal in front of him. Tih looks at the dead boar in confusion, then he tastes the blood in his mouth. He uses his hand to scrape some fur out while looking around.

A lot of the bark on the trees is broken and has fallen. Tih recalls his last memory before everything went blank. He was with Instructor Henri, but Tih doesn't see him anywhere.

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...Instructor Henri?

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He has to walk around a little before finding him slumped against a tree. Tih walks over to the unconscious man.

Tih is relaxed as he sits next to Henri and looks at him without expression. He waits.

Instructor Henri doesn't move.

Tih taps him lightly, waiting for him to open his eyes and continue talking.

He remains unmoving.

Tih pulls on his sleeve but his whole upper body slides sideways towards the pull. Instructor Henri falls on Tih and that's when Tih sees something on the bark, glistening in the sunlight. The color almost blends in with its background, soaking into the bark and becoming dark.

Instructor Henri's head landed on Tih's thigh and a warm liquid seeped into Tih's black military pants. Tih's hand goes into Henri's hair and returns with a red wet substance coloring his pale hand.

Tih recalls the time he was leaking this red stuff and it was called "hurt". June said when he's hurt, he should go to June.

Tih picks up Instructor Henri's body, but his muscles throb from pain. He finds it a weird new feeling before ignoring it and carrying Henri to June's office.

As he walks through the Central Market, he gets many stares. Some people secretly take pictures of him while others whisper among themselves.

"He's that guy, right?"

"Should be."

"What happened to him?"

"Do you think he killed another one?"

All of this enters Tih's superhuman ears, but his brain doesn't register who they're talking about.

He arrives at the building June works at.