Alakzyr: Bitten

 It was through the pungent stench that was the Deadland miasma: The fog of the rotten terrain birthed a veil prominent enough to lead wanderers cluelessly through Crellus-infested marshes. As infamous as the region had come to be, it had yet to prove itself to a foolish traveler-- Victimized by its many inhabitants straying far closer to a near village than typically expected.

It was the screams of a fallen man that alerted those nigh of one's plight. Of a fruitless struggle against a predator, gnashing down acuminate maws for a kicking appendage. The sanguineous messings appeased it enough to invoke more of its savage clawing.
It was with every bit of one's accumulated energy that they resisted, that they crawled away in flight; one couldn't allow themselves to die here... Not yet.

There was an entire story to be told of them, was there not? Was this, where it'd end.
"SOMEONE!" He screamed out for the heavens. " SOMEONE PLEASE!" He persisted, toiling muddied soil torn from the ground in a moot endeavor to delay and fend of the monster. A leg was bloodied, far too injured for use, with the other as his sole instrument against total incapacitation. Though, for how much longer could an unarmed man fend off against something so ferocious?
(Alakzyr)
Makia stands upon the edge of the village, the depravity coming from him marking him as out of place amongst those of the Sunflower. The sound of screaming drew his attention, his head shifting towards it slowly...

And then he turns away...

What does he care about someone he has never met? Someone who he had no reason to care about? To go out of his way to save some idiot who couldn't even take a single crellus.

How could they help him? How could they make him feel whole again?

They couldn't. That was the answer. So what does Makia do? He walks the other way, away from the screaming man, leaving him to whatever fate may have for him.
(Makia Hirano)
That was when... He saw them, leaving in the distance. In a moment of frantic panic, he was able to look offwards to see-- A silhuoette. It was distant, it was faint... Perhaps, they hadn't heard him? He didn't know. However, it needed to make the effort, the strife was far too worth the end-game.

"Please, HELP! I'LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING!" He clawed into the soil, attempting to drag himself further from the lumbering predator. Every dragging pull tossed another handful of mud into the monster's face, however it failed to phase it much.

Maybe he was only inching towards help, whilst the threat constantly loomed over him... There were yards... Meters... So much space to cover, and he could only dream his voice only could influence one's decision.
"I don't wanna die! Anything! JUST PLEASE!" He begged with every iota of strength he could muster, fighting and resisting down to the last breath he could make.

How much longer he could keep this up... Was soon to be realized, should one had hesitated or denied savior of this man further.
(Alakzyr)
Ah, but he was dying rather loudly wasn't he?

Makia turned slowly to look upon the man crawling towards him, the threat of the predator looming in the distance behind him. The man stared with indifference, the manasight granted to him allowing him to plainly see how much worth the man was for him.

The distance between them mattered little to the aged Hirano, he could see the threat easily enough. He just, didn't give a shit. He didn't care. He saw no reason for him to go out of his way to help this person.

Arms folded in front of him, he stood and watched as the threat came closer and closer. He would still do nothing. Those who used perhaps their last bit of strength to beg and plead instead of fighting for their life. They didn't even deserve to live, much less be saved by someone else.
(Makia Hirano)
Eyes widened and pupils dilated... Despite the fact that the reflection in his hues shown it, he didn't want to believe it. His cries were infact, heard... But action was not required. The person that heard him stopped, not to save... But to watch. It was as though they... Didn't... Care?
But how could they simply sit back and play audience to such a wicked course of nature?

The question would never find an answer amidst one's panic. With one wounded leg, he could squirm away all he wanted. The inevitible reach from the Crellus would take him once more. "N- No... Please... Why? WHY, PLEASE NO! NOT LIKE THIS!" He pleaded, pounding his weak fists against the digits that clutched him.

His retaliation meant nothing, even less effective than the slings of mud and rocks he made at the creature. Without a real weapon, or any savior, he couldn't find a way out. It felt as though the end of the road was soon to be...
Truly, a damning turn of events... All because he jumped the gun. All because he wanted to see the world.

This, was a world he wasn't ready for yet. This, was something he wasn't strong enough for.
He had never delved into the arts of the supernatural, nor even bothered studying it... Now? An entity worthy of such foes dubbed 'magi' had taken him in as a meal, and another, likely capable took the moment to behold at what was soon to become a bloodied engorgement on human flesh.

"I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die..." He whined, he cried, he mumbled and squirmed... And althroughout it all, the monster simply pulled him in closer. His body could only wiggle within its fist. and watching as maws full of teeth opened up to prepare for the agonizing final moments? He could only grow more frantic! What was worse, than watching yourself die...

"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" He panicked...
But was it too late... Pointless... Hands had opened up enough to leave him with liberty...

... The liberty of a toss between paused, gaping maws... His entire body fit inside, between a fleshy topside, and tongue.... Soon to be encompassed within a blink of an eye with dozens of teeth-- Sounded off with a distinct, thundrous clap.

Consumed?... Whole? By a Crellus? Perhaps it was a curse, rather than mercy-- Not to die to the shearing gnaws of its teeth, but dissolved slowly by its stomach acids.
(Alakzyr)
A wicked course of nature?

Was that what Makia was watching? Should that change anything regarding how he looked upon the poor idiot who was about to die to a Crellus of all things?

Not even slightly.

There was a time where the Hirano would have been in that crellus' place, doing exactly what it was doing now. And he would have enjoyed it. But that time wasn't now, it wasn't who he was anymore. The blindfolded man simply watched on with apparent disinterest.

He watched as the man was picked up and held aloft before it's open maw, and still he didn't move. He watched as the man pounded against the creature fruitlessly. He kept watching, attention briefly taken away as a sound in the distance brought him away from the course of nature unraveling before him.

He turned back to see one half of the man's body already gone within the maw of the beast. His eye rolled behind the blindfold. Seriously?

By a Crellus....

The depraved Hirano had already begun to turn away from the scene, losing what middling interest he had for it by then.

The sound of the thundrous clap toned.

Makia didn't look back.

He looked downwards, a hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose. So pointless.

From within the man could hear a roar as he traveled down the creatures esophagus, feel a pressure exerting itself against him from one side of his body- underneath him. Was the creature lying down to digest him?

Light.

Sudden rays pierced his vision, a gloved hand grasped at you and began to tug harshly. "Waste of time." The voice didn't sound annoyed, it didn't even sound angry or sullen. It was cold, neutral. Apathetic.

The feeling of grass and dirt underneath you, and then- the hand released you to allow you to collapse into the ground or whatever may occur, and when senses were regained..

Well, you could see the figure of a man walking away from you.
(Makia Hirano)
It was all... So strange. To be saved from the brink of what was thought to be oblivion. The jaws of the beast were denied by what seemed to be a glint of hope-- Hope, manifested in light encompassing one's hand. From the gullet of the beast, he was pulled... and to the ground he was dropped.

Pulled, straight from the belly of a beast: A crellus, having consumed him whole. The bloodied man rested on the soil, his chewed left leg and fatigue denying him the opportunity to rise up and acknowledge his savior... His... Swiftly departing savior.

He never met eyes with the Hirano that made their leave, hardly even got a good look at him, but at least there was one plus in all of this. Despite being eaten, he was still alive! Maybe, this was a sign for the future! A magi, noticed him, allowed him to live! Perhaps, all was not a glum life after all...
To add on to such, the deadlands seemed to present him with a clearing amidst the pungent smog... A grassy... Village surrounding a grandiose sunflower... A... Sunflower village.

One such village pursued with a crawl, hands digging into the marshes with a tired call out to the horizon.
".... S- Someone... HEEEEEEEELP!" At least now, it was more likely that a soul would hear him.
(Alakzyr)
It had been some time... and the Crellus bite was exposed to the scum of the marshes. He was, naught but a bloodied man, covered in mucus, digestive fluids and his own blood...
His wheezing had been calmed, and body... No longer struggling.
All that remained in the current, and a body lying amidst the grasses of Sunflower village.

He crawled as far as he could before exhaustion took him whole, a pool of blood warming him at the seems. Alas, he could lie limp, without much to think when surrounded by the abyss of his declining consciousness. All he had with him now, were the sparse resemblence of outside noise, and ambience that coupled with his internal voicings.

Was this... The end? A mere traveler, dead by Crellus? Watched, as he was slowly consumed? To see, Sunflower village as his last hope, only to have death denied at the last moments he spent within the belly of the beast? Was this life's cruel way of tormenting him? Did... No one... Care?
(Alakzyr)