The Lost Otsutsuki part 2

The other side

The red-haired woman stepped gently on the grass. She smiled as she noticed some berries hiding behind the leaves.
"I got you!" She picked and placed them in the basket. The day was warm and the sun felt energizing. On her way back to the hut she heard a groan.
"No!" She hid behind a tree. "This can't be!" She was terrified as she hasn't seen a human being for a very long time.

His weak body fell on the stones near the waterfall. Dirt and mud dripped from his long hair. The man tried to breathe.
"No." He whispered desperately as he tried to crawl out of the mud. His barely beating heart was aching. The wild nature surrounded his loneliness, he would rather be dead.
"Akari!" He cried out with all he had left.

She watched his misery from the distance.
The man crawled to the grass.

"Don't move!" A womans' voice striked from the back. He tried to look back. "I said, don't move!" She repeated and he felt a cold metal touching his neck.
"I need to see her.." he whispered.
"Who are you?!" The woman asked. The waterfall made it harder to hear her words. He clenched his fists in the mud.
"I need to see her..."
"Why are you here?" She pushed the metal to his pale skin. "Are you a spy?!"
"She... she needs me..." the man lost consciousness and fell face down in the mud.
"Great." She hissed.

***

As he woke from the dreamless sleep he found himself in the room. His dry lips bled as he parted them to speak.
"You're finally awake. It's been two days." The sunlight shaped her feminine figure through the door. The man narrowed his eyes and discovered his hands were tied as he tried to get up. "Yeah, I don't trust you. You can't just fall out of nowhere on my land and expect me to be okay with it."
"I apologize.." He sounded unsure. The woman couldn't breathe around him. "My clothes?"
"They were dirty." She looked away with a blush. It was getting really awkward.

"Please, I need to go..."
"And I want you gone aswell."
"So just untie me and I'll be on my way."

His desperate, teary blue eyes suffocated her. He looked so sad and broken, but he was beautiful.
She stepped closer.
"I'm going to untie you now." She declared. "If you think of doing something stupid, I won't hesitate to kill you."

She reached for the chains carefully. As soon as she opened the last one he pushed her aside and ran outside to open the rift, but his eyes started to bleed.
"No!" He spread his arms wide and gathered his thoughts about Akari and her bright smile, he prayed to gods for help, but he failed.
"No, Akari!" He fell as blood dyed his hair red. "I can't lose you..."

The woman ran to attack but stopped as she saw him on his knees weeping.
"I'm sorry." His eyes dripped the tears of blood on the soft grass. "I can't get to you."

He sat there for hours, hugging his knees like a child. She watched him from a far. He didn't move or speak a word. As sun was about to set she gave him a bottle of water.
"Here, Drink."
He didn't respond so she left him alone as he wished, but couldn't bring herself to abandon the man. In the morning she found him at the same spot. His white hair had become one with the mud. The rain was running down his naked back. "He must be freezing." She thought to herself.

"Drink." She gave him some water. He didn't respond so she brought a huge piece of cloth and covered his back.
"Leave me alone, I don't..."
"You do!"
He looked up. For the first time he noticed how beautiful she was. The humidity had curled her red hair, but she looked mesmerizing. He felt warmer now that she cared about him.
"Thank you, but I'm fine..."
"Are you always this stubborn?"
"No.." the man hugged his knees closer to his chest. She had no idea who Akari was, but it was obvious how much this man loved her. She tried to imagine what Akari was like to bring this mountain of a man to his knees and make him weep like a child.
"You will freeze to death." She looked up. "I know those clouds, it'll rain all night. These woods are tough, even for a man like you."
"The cold can't hurt me." He answered. His bright eyes were drained of life, the man was dead inside.
"If you change your mind, come back to the hut."