Hollow-Hearted Life

Chapter 1

Thunk. I chopped away at the tree stump in front of me, breaking it into tiny pieces. Tomorrow was the day I could go to the market and sell wood, and I could get more money for food and water, and maybe a new stove-the one I have is practically held together by tape and glue. Not literally, but it might as well be. It sucks, I hate it. 

....

There we go, all done. There's nothing left for me to chop, and It's getting dark-I may be a Demihuman, but there's some creatures out here that I would rather not meet with. I shouldn't have built this house so close to the Ichor Woods, but it can't be helped now. It was necessary at the time, and it's far too late for me to leave now... At the very least, there's a lot of trees here-a small positive to living next to hell on earth. I stack the wooden logs in a pyramid and enter my house, closing and locking the door behind me. If a demon does decide to attack, that won't do much, but it makes me feel a bit better by doing it. I put some water for tea on the kettle and take out a cup for it, and then--

Scratch, scratch.
I heard...Something... at my door.
Skriitch..
It could just be that cat I've been seeing lately...Or a demon. It could always be a demon. Or, the cat is the demon. That's always a possibility with the shapeshifting ones.
..sktch..
...It got quieter. Demons don't give up like that-they're persistent. This is stupid of me, but I'm going to check. I could always fight back or run away.
I opened up the door, slowly, and I didn't see anything that even remotely looked like a demon.

Instead, I saw a man.
He was lying face down, but as I opened the door, he lifted his head slowly to look at me. He had dark skin with golden eyes, and green hair with an ornate headband on his head.. His face was battered, with cuts and scratches oozing blood. He had a particularly bad one on his shoulder, which appeared to have gotten infected. He wore a red-and gold kimono.
"He....Help me..." He said, looking directly into my eyes. His voice was hoarse and scratchy, like he hadn't drunk anything in a few days.
"...."
I slammed the door shut on him. I know, I shouldn't have done that, but it was really too much for me to take in all at once, and I panicked. 
After taking a breather, I organized my thoughts. Well, he isn't a demon, and is obviously hurt, so... Letting him in seems like a good option. I opened up the door again. This time, he was back to lying face down on the grass and didn't react when it creaked open.

Oh no.

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I dragged him in from outside and set him on a spare bed I had-now and again, lost travelers come to me looking for a place to stay the night. However, none of them have come to me collapsed like this. I set to work cleaning up the injuries, and placed a glass of water on the end table next to the bed for when he woke up. Who is this? He looks....familiar, somehow. Have I seen him somewhere before? If he'd have come here before, I would definitely remember him-hair and eyes like that aren't exactly commonplace... Suddenly, I heard a sharp whistle. I quickly covered my ears-as a demihuman, especially a canine demihuman, my hearing is far sharper than a human's, and sharp sounds like that hurt a bit-I was also jumpy from being startled by this guy. Realizing it was the tea, I quickly lifted it off of the flame and shut off the stove, and began to pour some in the cup I set aside earlier for it. At least he's not a demon, but... I sat down on a reading chair in another room and lit a few candles in a candleholder. What am I supposed to do with him? I'm pretty sure he'll leave after he's better, but this is still an extremely strange situation...
I can't shake the feeling that I've seen him before, and that he's someone rather important. But, who is he..? There's nothing else I can really do tonight. I might as well just take out a book and try to relax-though, that'll end up being a bit harder to do tonight..

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aight boys im writing out my webcomic since I can't fit nearly as much in a comic format and can't release nearly as fast. I hope you enjoy this story!!
Link to the webcomic: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/hollow-hearted-life/list?title_no=422138