KNY | The Boat Of Humanity (Tanjirou x Muichiro)

Chapter 27 - Main Character Problems

Muichiro's POV

I stared at the burning fire in the corner of the stone cave. I felt the tears on my face, how did I end up here? How would this end? I thought back to when Maribelle and the other lady were in here, talking to me and acting like this wasn't a big deal.

I struggled against the ropes on my legs and wrists, they had wrapped a vine around my head and in my mouth, like a muzzle. The cave floor was cold and the air was moist.

I had been here for about an hour and I could hardly move, my head hurt and I could feel the blood trickling down the side of my face. I didn't know where I was, well I knew I was in a cave but that's about it.

I watched as the fire in the corner started to burn out, the smoke filled the cave horribly. I sighed through the muzzle and rolled over onto my stomach. My face pushed into the ground as I tried to get up. I managed to stand up but I wobbled and had very little balance. I tried to shuffle on my feet but I fell to my knees and scraped them painfully against the rock ground. I winced at the feeling but I took a second and really looked at my surroundings to see how I could escape with my limbs bound.

My eyes fell on the fading embers in the corner of the cave. I made my way to the corner over to the dying fire. I considered it deeply, it was probably going to hurt, but I had to put my wrists to the fire to burn through the plant based ropes.

I stared at the fire for a few minutes, I sighed deeply to myself and looked around the fire. There was a stone circle surrounding the fire for whatever reason. I kicked one of the stones out of the circle, it was charred black and a bit larger.

I twisted my wrists around to expose the vine ropes and then pressed them to the stone. The stone didn't touch my skin but I could feel the heat radiating off it. I rubbed the vine against the stone and I could smell the plant start to burn. I turned my wrist to look at the charred vine, though it hadn't burned through very much, it only charred a superficial layer.

I didn't have time for this, the fire would go cold before I managed to get through half of the ropes. There was only a small flicker of fire left, so I took a deep breath and held my wrists over the small flicker. I was ok for a second but then the flames started licking at my skin and burning me. I wanted to pull away but the scent of burning vines and the small snapping sounds of the thinner vines strengthening the thicker ones encouraged me to keep my wrists over the fire.

Tears pricked at my eyes, I started trying to pull my wrists apart over the fire to speed up the process. The vines had loosened but I couldn't take my hands off the fire. If I did I knew I wouldn't be able to put them back on. I summoned all the strength I could and pulled my wrists apart as hard as I could. The vines pressed against my already tender skin, the pain forced a scream out of me that was muffled.

But after what felt like forever the vines snapped and my hands fell down to my sides.

I breathed heavily as I flopped down on my back next to the fire, there were tears rolling down the sides of my face and I could feel bite marks where my jaw had clamped down on the muzzle. I reached up and looked at my hands, where the vines were, I had second degree marks. They were painfully tender, but I was free. I reached to undo the muzzle and a small string of spit followed after I took it out of my mouth. It hurt to move my wrists but then I undid the vine ropes around my ankles.

I heard footsteps start to come down the stone hall of the caves. I panicked and looked around quickly, my eyes landed on the discarded rock from earlier. I grabbed it and got up, I went to go stand at the corner of the cave next to the door, anyone walking in wouldn't see me right away, and that would give me enough time to run.