Epoch of Desolation

No matter how shocked he was, Rain knew he had to snap himself back immediately. The scene before his eyes could very well develop quickly into a rather gory spectacle if he didn’t step in now.

Why? Because it looked to be that J had gone ahead to cause some trouble while he had been away.

How had he arrived at that notion? Well, one of the two humans he had surprisingly come across was a boy seemingly no older than twelve or thirteen, and this boy was currently hiding behind the other human present with a frightened look on his face.

It was his scream, Rain instantly realized.

As for the other person, they were a woman who looked to be double his age, and one quite intimidating as well. The sort of air around her was stiffening and the type to act as a human repellant.

Rain couldn’t afford to be repelled at the moment though. He raised his arms up high and shouted, “Wait!” Then he approached slowly, the attention of both the humans and his dear, once-growling J now drawn to him. “Let’s all take a second to calm down, shall we?” he added as he came to stand side by side with his Companion.

There was a moment of shock on the woman’s face due to his appearance, and Rain decided to use that short span to carefully choose his words in order to bring down the heat flaring up around them. And to do that he needed to understand those standing across from him to a substantial extent.

Rain studied the young boy, who was almost the same height as J, to a greater degree first.

He had brown chestnut hair, and was dressed in a white sweatshirt, brown pants, and black canvas shoes. His skin was pale, but not too pale, and his cheeks had a little tinge of red, which meant that he had been crying. However, it had been a while since he’d stopped; in other words, it was not J that had caused the boy to cry. Furthermore, looking past the way he was drenched, his clothes did not have the stiff look of abandonment, and only had a little bit of dirt on them; his hair was the same as well.

Considering all that, Rain came to a strong enough conclusion on the boy. Timid, but somewhat fervid. Looks like he can keep a secret too. He also just got released from his pod; most likely today or yesterday.

Rain shifted his gaze to the woman next.

She had dark skin and shared no similarities with the boy hiding behind her. Her hair was made up of long loc braids tied into a bun, and her clothes, which were a combination of a red jacket and jeans, looked even more ragged than Rain’s patient gown. The blood stains on them were also quite evident.

Although, that was not what caught Rain’s attention the most. That praise was given to the piece of weaponry she was pointing at his and J’s direction.

The weapon was no doubt of the same blade class as his kitchen knife, just, it was like five times longer and possessed a glimmering blue luster.

It was a sword, Rain still knew that much, only he didn’t realize that they had always been as blue colored as the ocean.

That aside, he could see that the woman wasn’t a newbie in this ruined world. She had undoubtedly been released from her pod for a while. Unlike the boy she seemed to be protecting, her number count in this desolate earth definitely spanned between months to years. And that made the adult and child duo association even weird.

Unless…

The boy stumbled upon her immediately after being released from his pod? That would explain how he was still alive. Rain sighed inwardly, contemplating on the duality of life. One person had come upon a human in their early moments, while another a Jaguar. What a great stroke of luck! For himself, obviously. Definitely not that boy.

“You!” Rain refocused once again on the matter at hand. The catalyst? The adult woman’s strong voice. “She yours?”

She? Rain was confused for a moment, then suddenly his brows shot up as his eyes widened in understanding. He threw his gaze on the defensively poised J, almost slapping his forehead. You’re a female, huh? Forgive me for referring to you as ‘it’ all this while; I’ve been too focused on other things to think about your gender.

He then exhaled a puff of air and looked back at the adult woman. His hazel eyes were placed on her tightly knitted face, as well as the bags she had under her eyes, as he nodded.

It seemed his honest answer didn’t help things though, since the woman’s eyebrows narrowed even further.

Instinctively, he knew he had to take the reins here. The tension in the air had to be dispelled at all cost, and what better way to do that than creating a sense of familiarity between one another?

“I’m Rain Leclair—”

“I never asked for your name,” the woman interjected without batting an eye or wasting a second. The sheer speed baffled Rain so much that the rest of the words he had planned to utter hung in his throat. “How long since you’ve been awake?”

Awake? Released from the pod, you mean…

Rain cleared his throat and answered with his arms still raised up, “Less than a day.” She obviously did not seem to believe him, so Rain did not stop there. “I was released from the pod at Western General Hospital a few miles away from here—”

“Your Companion, mentally mutated, isn’t she?” the woman asked. “They’re always the most dangerous ones.” Her following words were muttered in some sort of whisper that made Rain feel like he was not supposed to hear them, but he had, either way, and he had been cut off—again. Although, he wasn’t angry. After all, the cons of allowing anger cloud his mind outweighed the pros.

As for the woman herself, he’d made up his mind, he needed to get her to become an ally of his. It was obvious that she knew a lot, and had lived in this ruined world far longer than he. She would undoubtedly be of great help to him.

The fact that she had a clear face devoid of anything akin to haste was a deciding factor for that thought of his. Someone who didn’t know anything about this world would have acted impulsively the way he had done at the hospital, fearful of the beast before them and engaging in battle immediately.

But the woman wasn’t afraid, nor did she seem to want to engage in battle, Rain was able to tell due to a certain message not arriving yet. She knew that not all beasts attacked humans for the pleasure of it, and was contemplating the possibility of J being one of those kinds, despite her claim of them being the most dangerous ones.

He understood why she had said that and was wary and on guard though. Just like he’d thought too, they were practically unpredictable since they could think like humans.

But not J. She wasn’t dangerous.

“I doubt that,” Rain said to the woman with a soft smile. “I’m her Companion, and I can tell you surely that she isn’t that way. Although, if you plan to attack her that means you’ll have to deal with me as well. But since I’m not receiving any animosity message from the Plexus regarding you, I take it you’re not leaning that way.”

Rain had come to a conclusion that the animosity message from the Plexus only appeared when there was killing intent. So if the intent was to run or shoo an attacker away, it wouldn’t appear.

“And I’m quite sure that you did not receive any due to my beloved kitty here,” he added, and the woman’s brows softened. “I’m a testament to the fact that J here does not like human meat. If she’d wanted to attack any of you the Plexus would have told you by now; if you’ve not, you can also ask the little boy if he’s received any. His answer should put your mind at ease.”

He had said all that, but how was he to know if the woman and the boy, or either one of them, had not received a message of survival?

His words were a gamble, but he chose to trust that J’s moment of contemplation with him hadn’t merely been a fluke.

The woman asked the boy as Rain had proposed, and he shook his head in reply.

Rain’s tensed heart relaxed then, after which he took it upon himself to continue talking when a few seconds of silence had passed, “I and my Companion are just here to seek shelter from the storm, the same as you, I suppose. We don’t want to cause any trouble.”

Any other person would have stopped there, but not him.

“Although, I do wish to know about what you’ve experienced up to this point, if you don’t mind, that is. Like I said, I just woke up not too long ago, so I don’t know much, and since my journey towards here had not been what you’d call pleasant, I’m of the mind to seek any assistance that would make the subsequent ones easier. You’re also the first human I’ve met, I’m sure you can see that much. What I’m getting at is: Shouldn’t we help one another in a time of crisis like this?” Yeah, but unlike the woman he didn’t have anything to offer. Whatever he knew, she obviously already did. That didn’t stop him though. “So what do you say? Will you have a chat with me while we all wait out the storm?”

The woman’s stiffened expression had all loosened now, her sword, on the other hand, was yet to be lowered.

“How old are you?” It had taken a while, but her next words had come, and they were ones Rain hadn’t been expecting.

He did not think too much of it anyway, and simply answered truthfully, at least based on what he remembered and what was on the Plexus Interface, “Seventeen.”

The woman mumbled something as her shoulders slumped indistinctly. Then she took short gazes between J and the boy behind her before looking back at Rain.

“She must be far away from him at all times,” the woman said, referring to J and the young boy.

“Sure,” Rain answered with a smile. “I’ll make sure she is.”

The woman’s sword finally came down then, and the stifling tension filling the air simmered into oblivion.

The boy who had been hiding seemed to notice this and took advantage of it to remove himself from behind the woman’s back.

Now that J was no longer seen as dangerous as she had been seconds ago, his gaze was placed on her, the expression of thrill-seeking written all over his face. Rain saw that, and instantly he realized what was running through the youngin’s mind.

Now, now. No playing with wild cats without the permission of your guardian, Rain said sarcastically within himself. Then he turned back to the adult woman who had just finished concealing her sword within the sheath around her waist.

“Do you mind if I ask a question?” The woman took her eyes, which seemed to be laced with tiredness, towards him. She nodded. Now that she had indirectly agreed to engage him the repelling air around her was no longer as dense as it was prior. “What’s your name?”

It took a few seconds, but she finally answered in a low tone, “Alice. Alice Hall.”