Hardened (A Yogscast Fanfiction)

17

        Everything seemed to blur together after that. My days were spent trudging across desolate lands, picking my way through dense forests, or climbing irritating mountains and hills that were too large to go around. Of course it was beautiful and there was so much to explore, but as Sjin's words continued to swirl around me and get snagged around my throat, everything grew more bleak and miserable until the sights around me made me grit my teeth in frustration. Nights wern't any better; I was too weak to fight my way across the landscape so I buried myself in the side of a mountain and sat in my small burrow until morning.

        I don't know how long that lasted; it could have been a few days or I had managed to stretch it out to two weeks or more. It was as if I wern't actually here, but just observing some automatic machine blindly making it's way farther and farther away from it's farm. Running, swimming, climbing; I seemed numb to everything except the memories that continued to fill my head and drag at my shoulders, my arms, my clothes. I thought the farther away I got, the easier it would be to confront what had actually happened, but so far every time I let my guard down Sjin would creep into my mind and make me fall to my knees and gasp for breath. 

        I shook my head and cleared my thoughts; I didn't need to think about that right now. I was beyond crying, beyond being angry and screaming and cursing the world and everything on it; I had gotten all that out of my system the first night. The only thing that was mildly concerning to me now was my rations; I ate the last of my food two nights ago. 

        I stopped suddenly to look around for some apple trees, or mushrooms or anything else that could constitute as food. A sea of tall grass and small dirt knolls rolled out in front of me and disappeared around the horizon, and a crevice split the landscape and had been herding me towards the grasslands. A deciduous forest was to the east of me, and as it seemed to be good as any direction, I started towards it. I thought wistfully that I might find a pig or beehive around here somewhere, but before I could make much progress into it a voice interrupted my search.

        "Where are you going Kirby?" he asked, appearing a few meters away from me looking exactly like he did all those months ago. I flinched instinctively at Ridge's voice, not only because it brought up horrific memories but because it seemed like years since I've heard an actual voice. It pierced through my skull and a wave of irritation followed.

        "Leave," I growled, keeping my head down and looking away from him. As much as I craved human contact, Ridgedog only made me angry.

        "That's not an answer," he tisked, "and here I am trying to help you."

        "I thought you tried that once before," I hissed, turning and picking my way away from him through the forest, "I don't want that kind of help."

        Ridge appeared a few paces in front of me, leaning up against the tree with his arms crossed over his broad chest. I expected him to have that stupid, smug look that seemed to perminatly cock his eyebrow and turn one corner of his mouth up in a smirk, but instead I was confronted with a passive, almost sympathetic look to him. I had stopped again, but this time I didn't turn away from him; I wasn't in the mood to play cat and mouse all day. "I was right though, wasn't I?" he asked, and I didn't have to question him to know what he meant; he was the only to origonally warn me about Sjin.

        "No," I said stubbornly, "It was Sips that did it, not Sjin..."

        "Are you sure?" Ridge asked quietly, teleporting a few steps closer to me, "Was it Sips that said all that? Was it Sips that told you to leave his-"

        "Stop," I warned, feeling my chest throb as Sjin's voice engulfed me, calm and deadly.

        "I'm sorry he did that to you Kirby," Ridge whispered, his eyebrows knitting together and the corners of his mouth turning down into a frown. I let my head turn down towards the floor, afraid to face the embarrassment of sympathy. My pride battled with my sadness; I couldn't think of anything more appealing than to fall into Ridge's arms like the weakling I was.