Genshin: Teyvat's Wandering Demon (Rewrite)

-3000 words-

Inside the cave, Tayden lay sprawled across the cold ground, his body shifting restlessly. His breathing was uneven, limbs twitching now and then as if reacting to something. Every so often, his fingers curled into fists, his expression tightening in discomfort.

A quiet murmur escaped his lips, incoherent but tinged with distress. His head turned sharply to the side, then again, as though trying to escape from something only he could see. His entire form seemed uneasy, like it's trying to hide from something.

—

A bamboo forest stretched out in all directions under a pale moonlight. Tall green stalks rustled with every faint breeze, their gentle sound almost soothing. But something felt wrong. The body he occupied stepped forward with a smooth stride, and Tayden realized that he could not control this body. While he couldn't fully control this body's actions, he did notice that this body was extremely pale.

'What the hell is this?' 

Beside him walked a woman whose face was full of despair, her eyes dark and hollow, like she'd already given up on life. But despite that, Tayden couldn't help but feel somewhat enchanted by her presence, like she was a spirit or something of that kind. Yet as soon as she sensed his gaze, she glared at him, a fierce cutting stare that bristled with hatred. For some sickening reason, he felt his- this body's lips twitching into a smile at the woman's actions.

Tayden tried to speak, but his lips wouldn't obey him. Instead, another voice poured out, laced with mockery. "It would do you better to accept your place. You would have died without me, after all."

The woman's glare intensified, his words seeming to enrage her even more. Tayden's perspective swirled with confusion. 'Who are these people? Why am I seeing this?'

Yet his borrowed body just kept walking, as if nothing unusual was happening. It felt no sympathy, no warmth… only a deep, arrogant calm. As if it was looking down on everyone and anything in its path. The road twisted through walls of thick bamboo and the two walked in silence for quite some time…

That was until a man appeared, a katana strapped to his side. He stood unmoving in front of them with a neutral expression, Tayden guessed he was some kind of samurai—or at least a skilled swordsman.

There was a tense quiet as the two locked eyes, the woman standing off to the side, her gaze finding the floor as if she didn't want to see what his body would do. Tayden felt that something was off about this katana-wielder, an eerie emptiness that didn't fit with a normal human presence. It's an odd feeling, he could see that there is a man standing in front of him, but he can't feel anything coming from him.

 This man had no presence.

 A flicker of dread shot through his soul, like alarm bells ringing. 'This man's dangerous.'

But the next words tumbled out in a low, yet even tone "I am no longer interested in warriors who can use breaths."

Without warning, his arms morphed—flesh stretching, tendons splitting, forming grotesque whip-like appendages bristling with spikes. A single swipe was sent flying at the man, the swipe cut through the bamboo forest with terrifying force. Tayden watched as hundreds of stalks fell in unison, sliced so cleanly in not even a second, it took a heartbeat for them to crash to the ground.

'What kind of strength is this?!' Tayden's thoughts raced, his shock drowned out by the unnatural confidence flowing through this body. He can feel the

The samurai dodged, stepping aside in a flash. Tayden's borrowed body froze for half a heartbeat, locking eyes with the swordsman whose eyes looked empty —then the man vanished, as though torn from reality.

'Where did he—?'

PAIN.

No warning. No buildup. Everything erupted into fire—a scorching, blinding torrent that devoured every shred of sensation. 

Burning—burning—BURNING! 

The agony was so complete, so absolute, that Tayden couldn't form a single rational thought. All he knew was pain, consuming him from the inside out like molten claws raking across raw nerves..

His body—this other body—tried to react, to lash out or collapse, but he couldn't move. This body had been sliced into multiple pieces. No scream would come, no movement to ease the torture. Each millisecond stretched into an eternity of raw agony, and in the depths of that torment, he realized that this fire reached deeper than flesh. It felt as if his very soul was burning, peeled away layer by layer.

The stumps of what used to be his hands held his head back in a desperate attempt to see, he managed to catch a glimpse of the samurai now standing before him. The man's expression was chilling—empty, like the eyes of a doll that had never known life. And yet, there was something terrifying pulsing beneath that emptiness, a quiet power so absolute it defied words. It was like staring into the eyes of a deity.

Tayden's consciousness screamed, It burns—oh god, it BURNS! but the only sound that emerged was a ragged, airless choke. Each ragged pulse of his heart sent fresh jolts of pain raking through his limbs, as though he were being devoured from the inside out.

He tried to move, to recoil, anything to end it, but his body refused to listen. Muscles seized, locked in that excruciating moment. 

Pain, pain, pain—PAIN. Every breath stabbed deeper, fueling the scorching fire coursing through his veins.

The man's blank stare was the last thing he saw before everything went dark.

—

Tayden jolted awake with a scream, damp hair clinging to his forehead. His heart thundered against his ribs, sweat drenching his shirt in the cold confines of the cave. For a frantic moment, he couldn't remember where he was. Bamboo forest? Samurai? Burning agony?

No. He was back in the cave—alone, lying on rock-hard ground where he'd crashed just hours earlier. He gasped for air like he'd nearly drowned all over again, blinking in the darkness.

"W-What… was that?" he muttered between ragged breaths, pressing a hand to his chest. Images of the woman's glare and the samurai's cold eyes refused to leave his mind. The smell of bamboo, the whoosh of that monstrous swing… Everything felt so real.

He wiped the sweat from his face, trying to steady himself. The cave walls closed in around him, but at least it was his body. He could move freely again, no puppet strings dictating his every action. With a shaky sigh, he curled his knees up and wrapped his arms around them.

"Never had a dream like that," he whispered hoarsely. "Who… what… was I?"

No answer came, just the flicker of half-remembered emotions—arrogance, cruelty, terrifying power. And that unrelenting, searing burn that still made his muscles twitch with phantom pain.

He forced himself to breathe slowly, counting each inhale. Slowly, his heart stopped racing, though the unsettling memory lingered.

Eventually, exhaustion tugged at his eyelids. If not for the ongoing dread, he might have drifted back to sleep. Instead, he just sat there, looking at the cave entrance where sunlight was peering in. He didn't know if he would be able to sleep for a while after that drea-

"Excuse me mister, did you have a nightmare?"

"Holy shit!" 

Tayden jumped when he heard a voice to his side and scrambled away. When he finally took a look at where the voice came from, he found a child? What was a child doing in a cave and where are her parents?

Tayden blinked, mouth half-open, as the little girl tilted her head and repeated with a gentle insistence, "Mister, did you have a nightmare?"

He snapped out of his stupor and cleared his throat, trying not to look too startled. "Uh… yeah. Guess I did. Just a bad dream." Yeah, just a normal nightmare where you get chopped up into pieces by a samurai.

The girl peered at him with big, curious eyes. Her blonde hair was tucked under a red cap that matched her outfit—she seemed particularly fond of that color. What struck Tayden most, though, were her pointy ears. No human he'd ever met had ears like that. Then again, nothing in this world so far had been ordinary.

His initial instinct was to keep his distance—after all, everything else in this new world had seemed more than happy to kill him. But she didn't radiate a shred of malice, only childlike concern. He hesitated, eventually nodding. "I… I'm fine. You just caught me off guard."

She brightened, a wide smile lighting up her face. "That's good! I was worried when I heard you screaming in your sleep." Ok he had to admit, this kid was adorable.

With a quick little hop, she moved closer, then started chattering before Tayden could form a response. "I was out by the lake just over there." She pointed behind her. "I was—um—playing with the fish! They go boom when I throw my toys!" She paused, giggling as if sharing a secret. "Then I came this way cause I heard noises in the cave."

Tayden's eyes widened slightly, a wave of confusion washing over him. Playing with fish? Boom? He wasn't quite sure if he wanted details. "Right. So, you… came all this way alone?" A child wandering the woods alone is a big nope, especially in this world with monsters. He would have died just a few days in this world if it weren't for his regeneration.

"Uh-huh! But I got bored and also wanted to see what the scary noises were." She gestured to the far corner. "That's where I saw you twisting and turning on the ground, and I was gonna wake you up, but then you screamed and woke up on your own!"

Tayden ran a hand through his still-damp hair, glancing around the dark cave. This kid was either extremely naive or unbelievably brave. Possibly both. "Well, thanks for, uh… checking on me."

She smiled again. "You're welcome, mister!"

Something about her unwavering cheerfulness put Tayden at ease, even though his instincts still told him to be cautios. If she was trying to lure him into a false sense of security, she was doing a fantastic job—but he doubted it. She looked too young to fake that kind of innocence. 'And she looks like an adorable marshmallow'

"So…" she went on, "why're you in this cave?"

He tensed, carefully choosing his words. After everything he'd been through, it might be best to keep his weird body a secret, even if it meant lying to a child. "I—uh, I can't go out in the sun," he offered, feigning embarrassment. "It's like a… skin condition. Makes me super sick and hurts my skin." That wasn't technically a full lie, he does have a condition that hurts his skin if he comes into contact with the sun, it's just that he felt that it would kill him if he did.

Her eyes went wide with genuine concern. "Oh no! That sounds awful!" She put her backpack down and immediately began rummaging through it. She threw out a couple balls of fur from the looks of it outside as she tried to find whatever it was that she was looking for. Tayden raised an eyebrow when she pulled out a folded cloth. "You should have an umbrella or something." she declared, half to herself. "That way, the sun can't get you!"

Tayden's chest tightened at how sincere she looked. He wanted to pat her adorable head, but he was still a stranger and he didn't want to scare the kid. "That's actually really thoughtful. Thans." It was odd to feel gratitude in a place where everything else had felt so hostile.

He cleared his throat, hoping to steer the conversation toward something useful. "Anyway, you seem to know your way around. Where are we, exactly?" After finally coming across what he assumed to be a human, he wanted to find out where the heck he was.

"Oh! We're in Stormbearer Mountains!" she chirped.

Tayden paused, waiting for some hint of recognition from his own mind. "Stormbearer… what, now?" Stormbearer Mountains sound like a sick name for a mountain, but being in the mountains also meant that civilization would be far away.

She tilted her head, blinking. "You've never heard of it? That's so weird. Are you a traveler from far away?"

He exhaled, deciding to give her a partial truth. "I… guess you could say that. I got lost and… ended up on the beach one day, had no idea where I was. Been wandering ever since."

Her eyes flickered with curiosity, as though scanning him for clues. "Wow! That sounds scary." Then she smiled, bright and earnest. "Don't worry, you're not lost anymore, 'cause I'm here! I'm a Knight of Mondstadt, after all. I'm the Spark Knight! I can blow away any bad guy that comes our way!"

He tilted his head at that. "A… knight?" He glanced around this dim cave, trying to reconcile knight with the small child wearing a red outfit and… bombs? Possibly bombs.

She puffed out her chest proudly. "Yep! My name's Klee. I help protect Mondstadt with the rest of the Knights. And…" She tapped her chin thoughtfully, then beamed. "I think we should be friends! You seem kinda lonely, mister."

Tayden didn't know how to feel about being called lonely by a child, but the kid's offer was disarmingly sweet. Nobody had been friendly to him here—well, nobody had even talked to him except for arrows, slimes, and… now a little knight.

"Friends, huh?" he murmured. Well there could be worse things than having a child-knight being your first friend in a new world, and she seemed like a good kid so he supposed that it wouldn't hurt "Alright then Klee, I'll be your friend. My names Tayden by the way.."

"Yay!" she cheered, bouncing on her toes. "Now we just gotta find you an umbrella so you can come outside with me when the sun's up. Or maybe I can take you to Mondstadt, and we'll figure something out! But how do I bring you there without the sun hitting you? Hmmm…"

Tayden blinked. "Mondstadt?" he repeated, that was what he was waiting for. Mondstadt… so that was where he was. "Where is that?"

Klee froze mid-bounce, her head tilting to the side in confusion. "Huh? How do you not know what Mondstadt is?"

His mind scrambled for an excuse. "Uh… I told you, right? My skin condition? I wasn't allowed to go out basically at all, so I never really learned about places outside where I lived." He gave a small, awkward shrug.

Klee's confusion melted into understanding. "Ohhh! That must've been super boring!" Bless the world for child innocence, she just believes anything he says without a second thought. That… was actually pretty concerning if he thought about it. "Don't worry, mister! I'll go back to Mondstadt and get someone to help you!"

Tayden blinked again, this time in mild surprise. She really was determined to help him, wasn't she? The thought was oddly heartwarming, but at the same time, he couldn't just let her walk all the way down the mountains alone. What if she ran into monsters?

"Wait, Klee," he said, furrowing his brow. "Are you sure you should be going by yourself? What if you get hurt?"

Klee just giggled and waved off his concern, puffing out her chest. "I'm super strong! Look!" She flexed her tiny arms in an exaggerated way, grinning proudly. "I can handle myself! I even beat up a big fish once!"

Now that he thought about it, he really doesn't know if she's human or not. Heck, she could be many times stronger than him even if she was just a child. Maybe he should stop thinking about it too much.

But looking back at her prideful face, he couldn't help but chuckle. 'She really is just a kid, huh?' 

Before he could say anything else, she turned and looked outside. The sky was still bright, though the sun had started its slow descent. "Oh! It's almost time for Master Jean to tell me to come back!" she said. "I gotta go now! But don't worry, I'll get someone to come help you as soon as I can!"

She started skipping towards the entrance but stopped suddenly, turning back to him with a thoughtful look. "Oh! Do you want anything? Like food or something? I can bring snacks!"

Tayden hesitated. He appreciated the gesture, but knowing that normal food tasted like ash to him, it wouldn't do much good. "I'll be fine," he said, shaking his head. "Just get back safely, alright?"

Klee nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! You can count on me!"

Without waiting for a response, she turned on her heel and sprinted out of the cave, waving wildly over her shoulder. "Bye-bye, mister!"

Tayden found himself raising a hand and waving back, though he was still a bit too stunned to process everything that had just happened. He sat there in silence, listening as the sound of her footsteps faded into the distance.

And then, just like that, she was gone. The cave fell into silence once more, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

He exhaled, shaking his head. "Well… that was one unique first interaction."

He leaned back against the cave wall, rubbing his temples. He had just met an energetic little girl who was by her words, a damn knight. That would mean that this Mondstadt would still have kings and queens, maybe. He cursed again, if he was able to walk under the sun then he wouldn't have to go creeping around in the night like a vampire.

Looking towards the cave entrance, he watched the golden hues of the setting sun spill over the landscape. Klee's promise hung in the air. Would she really bring someone back? Would they actually help him? The thought of meeting more people made him tense. But at the same time, he was tired of being alone.

He let out a slow breath and muttered to himself, "Guess I'll find out soon enough."