Til Death Tears Me Apart Once Again [Discontinued]

X: More Strangers

When I woke up, I felt like I have fallen down a building and run over by a truck.

Believe me, I know. It's how I died after all. 

The only difference is that I'm alive this time, and I don't know whether to be relieved or not. From looking at the sky...or is it a canopy of leaves? I can tell from the nothingness I saw that it is now night time.

Near me, a small, smoky fire burned.

I turn towards it, half-expecting my neck to snap from how stiff it was. There, I saw the back of a young lady facing the flames. She was dressed in an elegant, fancy purple dress and had multi-coloured flowers weaved into her unique silver-white hair. It was more appropriate for a party or dance than a hike in the woods.

So...what is she doing here?

I observed her back a little longer, watching her poke the small fire with a stick. What the hell, why is there so much branches in it? No wonder the fire is so damn small!

Wait, I was still around my prison area right? Could she be...?

Pushing myself up silently, I almost fell back down when the young lady threw even more sticks into the fire, completely smothering the already tiny blaze. "Eh...?" She sounded confused, leaning forward at the fire. "It's gone? Where did it go...?"

Are Queen Agathys' agents supposed to be this stupid at wilderness survival?

"You put too many sticks, idiot."

"Uwah!" The girl shot up in surprise, spinning around so fast she fell on the pile of firewood she gathered. Luckily the fire had died completely, or it would have been a pain in the ass. I stifle a smirk, clamping my lips together at my own joke.

Pink spread over the girls cheeks as she hurriedly got up, dusting her skirt quickly before plopping down beside me. "Y-you're awake...how are you feeling?" 

"Feel kinda frozen," I moved my fingers to find them quite stiff, much like my neck, and a little numb. I gestured to fireless fire pit. "Think I can borrow this pit you have?"

"O-oh! No problem!" She scoots away. "Help yourself!"

Help myself? This isn't food...I thought to myself, amused, as I took the stick she had to push away the small hill of branches. Speaking of food, my backpack full of it disappeared, great! Ack, let's see...a large and long lasting fire would be good right now. I don't know if what I am feeling is hypothermia, but I feel cold as all heck and tired as all fuck. Quickly, I rearranged the branches into a squarish, standing structure, inserting some smaller twigs in between. 

I take two branches, one striking the other at an angle. It took several tries because I haven't done this ever since I discovered the Fire Enchantment (Which I don't want to use just in case this unknown young lady is an agent of Queen Agathys), but a small spark flies and catches onto the tinder.

The flame consumes the log structure almost instantly, roaring to life.

"Amazing...!" The young lady says in awe, gold eyes widening and I give her a smug smirk, leaning back. "This fire will last a long while, especially with the amount of fire wood you gathered to fuel it."

"Ah...I'm sor- extremely apologetic about that." She blushes once more, correcting herself for some reason. "I have never had to start a fire without a match and oiled firewood."

I shrug. "It's nothing. Don't sweat it."

"Don't sweat?" Her brows furrows in confusion. "I...am not sweating of course. Instead, I feel quite cold and am shivering very much. If not for your fire, I would have mostly died from the cold."