Picking up the sharpened rock he had just made Kou slammed it hard against the wall of the cave, at least that's what it would seem like if one ignored the heartbeat they could hear when they placed they're head against it, and carved 10 tallies into it
Each of the small jagged marks represented a day, or at least the periods of time in between when he fell asleep, he had been here
'Here' here being this weird phycadelic nightmare of a place what are the animals abode by no natural laws in the world itself seem to twist and fold at its own whims
For example...
Kou turned his head and looked out to the entrance of the cave where a large field of ash and general hellscape seemed to stretch endlessly.
Just yesterday, or more accurately before he fell asleep, it had been a vibrant lake area that had supported what had seemed to be an entire flourishing eco-system, one that he certainly would have indulged in if not for the giant snake-esq creature that was staring at him as if challenging him to get out of the cave, but now it wasn't, or it was more apt to say he was no longer in the area because the cave had moved.
The cave moved every day during the time in which you was asleep, without fail.
After being shot and waking up in the middle of a marsh made of giant mushrooms and weirdly sweet air in this psychedelic world he had wandered aimlessly for two days, probably longer considering on those days he didn't actually fall asleep he simply passed out and woke up.
But anyway, he had eventually found this cave, which everyday he was considering the possibility more and more that it might have been a giant worm or mystical creature of some kind, and after doing a bit of preliminary searching he had found it to be entirely empty.
And considering that it was, or at least believed was, a solid geographic structure that seemed to be nowhere near as abnormal as everything else around he made camp.
Of course he was swiftly proven wrong after waking up the for the first time after camping in the cave and he found himself literally in the clouds.
He had been less freaked out than he should have been at the time considering the fact that he had already kind of mentally checked out, the sheer absurdity of his situation had kind of got to Kou.
Like seriously, who gets shot, fatally right through the heart, and wakes up in a place like this where the world itself defied the rules of logic, the beasts and creatures that lived and said world were entirely unreal, and he could produce literal flames from his skin.
And yes he could produce flames.
He had figured that out after a particularly nasty run in with one of the inhabitants of the marsh, a creature that looked something like a mix between a kobald, a frog, and a snake, that he had appeared in.
The thing had caught the sight of him as he was trying to sneak by it and had given chase.
Kou, with his military training, luckily didn't freeze and instead chose what he felt was the most logical option, just running, but the thing was too fast.
It was built for the marsh, coiling and wrapping over mushrooms, swimming through some of the deeper sections of the water, and generally being far more capable of navigating the area.
And so it was upon him, a webbed padded hand grabbed his shoulder and pushed him down into the marshs water before it opened its jaw, which elongated and gaped like a snakes.
Kou seeing that had essentially already assumed he was going to die but considering the type of man he was, and his general adherence to the idea that you should never give up dumb as it may sound, he tried to fight back.
He clumsily clawed at the things wet scaly arms and tried to kick it off at the torso.
But it was strong so he quickly switched to just grabbing the thing by the top and bottom of its jaw and hoping that despite the strength of its body its neck would be slightly weaker, at least enough so that he could hold it back from biting his head off.
And it was, enough so that when he was putting his full force into his arms the thing couldn't move its head.
That didn't seem to discourage the beast however, as instead of continuing to try and bite him or swallow him it just shoved his head under the water with its other hand.
And there wasn't much Kou could do about it.
The thing was far stronger than him by what seemed to be every metric.
But despite his precarious predicament and the darkness that was slowly beginning to encroach on either side of his vision he continued to struggle, trying to buck his hips and kick it the thing to get it off of him.
Still nothing worked, the monster was strong, enormously so, simply to the point it didn't budge, not even by a fraction of a fraction of a centimeter.
Realizing this Kou, in a desperate last bid, focused everything he had into his arms and his hands and just tried to rip the thing jaw clean off of it.
Of course that didn't work, but something did happen.
In his desperation he seemed to have called upon something inside of him as brilliant bright white flames shot out of his hands and encompassed the things and burning it clear off, killing it at which point it dissolved into particles and drifted away.
After the initial shock and all had worn off Kou had tried to get the flames to appear again but he just couldn't, at least not initially, he was either too mentally clouded or distracted at the time, something like that.
But, after he had found the cave and been allotted a bit more down time of not constantly trying to hide from monsters or wade his way through sticky, gross, marsh water he begin to actually try and call upon those flames once more.
For the first day or two nothing came about, not a singular spark, it was disheartening but Kou didn't stop, he spent just about every moment he wasn't either scouting an area outside of the cave to search for anything, having a small mental crisis, or breaking down and begging God to stop this, he practiced.
And eventually he kind of got it, a few small white sparks popped off of his hand, nothing anywhere near those brilliant white flames he had shot into the monster's face but it was a start and proof that he hadn't gone crazy and imagined to the entire thing.
So he kept practicing and now, Kou lifted his hand and concentrated for a second at which point a small but brilliant white flame flowed off his palm, he can make his hand emulate in flames.
With a slight shake of his hand is the flames stopped and faded into nothing like they were never there.
All it took to turn the power on and off was a mix of concentration, proper breathing, and strong intent, not to mention a little bit of time.
It wasn't quite effective as a spontaneous use weapon or even defense at the moment really but considering how fast he had made progress so far Kou was willing to bet that given enough time he'd certainly be able to get it there.
That is if he had enough time...
With a small sigh Kou picked up the small bag he had wrapped around his shoulder when he woke up in this place.
Opening it he peared inside and...
"Yup"
He acknowledged his reality.
Inside where there had one spin around 6 full water skins each holding maybe half a gallon of water, and 20 well preserved bars of salted meat mixed with what seemed to be some type of grain now only two water skins and four and a half bars remained.
Considering the fact that he had lost around four bars and a single full water skin during his scuffle with the creature where he discovered that he could shoot out flame due them getting contaminated by the marshes water and him not wanting to test out if ingesting it would be toxic, that meant he was averaging 3 water skins in 10 days and around 12 bars.
That left him with about 4 days of food and 6 days of water, which generally meant he had about 10 days left to find clean drinkable water if he was doing nothing, end maybe seven and a half at his actual current rate of physical exertion.
Wrapping his bag around his shoulder Kou stood up and walked to the entrance of the cave to look at the seemingly endless field of grey ash, black trees, and hellish red skies.
It certainly did not seem like the type of place where he could find clean water, in fact it looked more like he might find a lake of blood or fire of some kind.
Not to mention the heat, just feeling it from inside the cave he could tell it was worse than anything he had faced when he was working as a mercenary in the Sahara, and he seemed to be generally more resilient to heat ever since he woke up in this weird psychedelic world.
So logically it would probably be best for him stay in the cave and just wait and hope the cave appears somewhere better next time.
But there was also no chance the cave wouldn't appear somewhere his equally inhospitable, if not worse, tomorrow.
And, somewhere in the back of his head, there was a little scratch of intuition telling him to go out there, something in his instincts telling him that if he wanted to live he was going to have to go into the endless field of ash.
Fastening the bag firmly to his shoulder Kou took in a deep breath feeling there heated air enter his lungs with ferocity.
"Guess we're doing this..."
With a deep exhale he stepped out of the cage and into the desert of ash and the heat instantly became 10 times worse.
It felt like his skin was going to melt off driping to the floor like a melty ice cream.
But it didn't so Kou just started walking forward, he didn't really have a destination just a goal and a general vibe.
He had done arguably dumber things with less planning our execution in the past so...
Kou quickly made his way up the nearest dune and for the first time he got a truely proper look at the area as he lifted a hand to cover his eyes from the light.
It was certainly hell just as he figured.
The desert of ash was truly a desert of ash the gray dunes stretching on as far as he could see.
There were intermediately placed dead trees with wood is black as coal that twisted and coiled in on themselves like a mockery of normal trees.
The sky was a deep blood red color and almost warped in a way, it felt wrong just to look at, especially so with the purplish clouds that were blotched around that did much the same.
And now he could finally see the fourth thing, far, far, far, in the distance but he couldn't have seen it from the cave entrance, there was a almost malicious looking mountain, and rushing down it with a waterfall that was pure blue.
His gut was telling him, his head was telling him, his heart was telling him, everything was telling Kou, that mountain was where he needed to be.
Kou turned to take one last look at the cave, maybe the offer it and thanks or something along those lines, but when he did it was already gone.
The entrance had receded into the sand and the creature that the cave truly was, at least that's what he thought, had left.
"Thanks"
He offered the cave a quiet thing for the last few days of it protecting and not eating him before turning forward and starting his match towards the mountain.
This was going to be a long trip.
***
"Ugghh"
With a groan Kou took one of his still full water skins from his bag, unsealed the cap and quickly chugged about 3/4 of it.
The water was warm, no not even it was hot.
The heat which had already gotten to him so bad in just 2 hours that he had to resort to drinking this much of a water skin had made his water so hot it I felt like it was boiling as it went down his throat.
But you couldn't really bring himself to care about that, it was uncomfortable but not really a problem, no what was the problem was that it had only been 2 hours.
At this rate he wouldn't even last a full day, the heat of this place was just too unbearable.
And he still felt just as far from the mountain as when he started.
Letting out a long, tired, sore, raspy, sigh Kou threw his water skin back in his bag and started walking forward once more.
He couldn't afford to stay still, his gut was telling him if he didn't keep walking forward he was going to die, his brain was as well but it was mostly his gut he was listening to.
Kous that had gotten him out of a lot of bad situations, from being pinned down alone in a small home against 3 entire enemy squads in Myanmar to keeping him from freezing in the streets of Yakutsk back when he was young and homeless.
Suffice to say he trusted it wholeheartedly, so he would listen to it and continue to march onward through the dunes.
***
Rubbing his eyes Kou blinked through his exhaustion, how long had it been, days, months, years...
No it had only been 12 or so hours at max, it just felt like it had been longer, far, far longer.
Pulling out his last water skin Kou chugged the entire thing in a few desperate gulps, his throat felt like it was on fire, being rubbed in salt, and having acid poured down it all at the same time.
Throwing the now empty water skin back into his bag Kou let out a long, raspy, breath, just a little white longer and a little further, not to the mountain, the mountain was still so far away, a backdrop in the horizon, but something, that's what his gut was telling him.
Kou continued to walk forward swaying slightly with every step, honestly you could barely tell what forward it was at the moment the heat, the general oddness of the world, and quite possibly his own beginnings of a mental shutdown you're starting to get to him.
The world felt spherical, and not in the sense of a globe but more like he'd been stuck within a tiny little sphere like a snow globe but with ash instead of snow, it was just never ending.
Just distorted.
But he wouldn't stop, he needed to continue walking forward.
***
It had been maybe 17 hours now, the heat was at its worst yet...
Blinking oh so slowly Kou pushed himself up from the dunes of ash, they were scorching hot, and it felt like he was being cooked through with the radiant heat from them and the just ever present he beating down from the sky.
Taking a long raspy breath of the hot air Kou shuffled forward in the dunes before getting enough leverage to stand back up.
He was weak, he was about his dehydrated as a man could get before he died, he was hungry but he didn't even have enough energy to reach into his bag and grab a bar anymore.
But he could walk, he had to walk. He just had to get there, his gut kept telling him he was closer and closer with every step.
He just had to push through another hour or so.
Standing at the top of the dune he had been climbing Kou paused for a moment he heard a familiar screech, it was piercing, like nails on a chalkboard glass being used to cut glass.
Looking up he saw the same bird, hey was somewhere between a vulture and a raven, with a big plump body day long skinny neck, all of it covered in jet black feathers and a raven-esque beak
Though that wasn't what was interesting about it, more accurately it wasn't what was off about it.
No, that was the fact that it had four eyes on either side of its head, each of them a different color, each opening and closing in a different time, almost like it was four separate entities all controlling their own pair of eyes.
This bird thing had appeared around 4 hours ago, give or take it was hard for him to properly count time.
It's swooped down from the blood red sky and had started circling him incessantly, waiting for him to collapse.
He give the bird a deep stare, and for a moment it felt like it returned, like it was smart, intelligent, conscious like him.
It gave him the same vibe has that snake in the lake yesterday that had just kept staring at him deep in the eyes.
Kou turned his attention back to the dunes, rolling this way down the one he was on before slowly picking himself back up.
***
"Huuuuuuh"
Kou let out a cracked, near dying breath, falling to his knees and then his chest Kou gave up, he tried his best, he went 18 hours into this hellscape, six of them without any water and just pure determination and will.
But he just couldn't do it, he could tell he had gotten close, so close just a dune or 2 more, and he would be there that first stop that his gut was telling him to get to.
Closing his eyes Kou embraced the heat of the ash and let it take him...
***
Karu circled the corpse of the human below.
He did not know how he had gotten into the spirit realm, he certainly wasn't the avatar nor did he seem to be someone of particular skill or importance just from looking at him.
But still he'd given it a valiant effort, he made a 37 hours into desert but he ran out of whatever water rations he had over the way through that.
Though regardless he failed, and he would not be permitted to go back to his side of the proverbial pond.
No he was destined to be nourishment and while he wouldn't be particularly tasty free food that came into his area was never something Karu turned down.
With a final circle Karu swooped down to the mans corpse and grew in size, nearly increasing by 15 times.
Karu opened his beak wide ready to grab the corpse but just as he got close it moved.
With a swiftness and an intense ferocity, the corpse, no the man grabbed hin, he'd been duped.
The mans hands were covered in a brilliant white flame as they wrapped around his left leg and caused intense, like nothing else ever, pain to shoot through Karu.
Immediately change the direction as he tried to swoop up into the air and shake the man off, the flames burned, and not in the normal way, not like back before the times of the avatar when he ran into firebenders, no these burned different, they did not simply burn him, they burned him.
Like they were raging through everything that was himand destroying him.
He heard the man say something in his tired raspy voice but he paid no mind to it he needed to get him off, he flipped and shook in the air doing flips and spins trying to get the man off.
But he had been burned so deeply into his flesh that his hands were hooked into his leg so the man would not budge.
He shot up straight trying to build as much speed as possible before nose diving hard and halfway through the descent stopping.
The momentum jerked him and disoriented him, but I got the man worse, his grip loosened and he fell, further, and further.
Enraged Karu dove at him as he fell, intent on piercing him through for the damage he caused.
But he never got the chance, as the man go lucky, to lucky, Karu, had somehow thrown him right into one of the oasis, on the trail to the mountain.
The oasis with the one place in the desert in which he could not extend himself and enact his will, they were her domain after all and she would protect him as long as he remained within its bounds.
And on a normal day he might be able to fight her off enough to land a killing blow on the man before quickly making exit.
But right now with the fire raging in his leg and burning him he would not be able to do that.
Put the fiery rage inside of him Karu turned and flew into the sky, he needed to recover, but best believe that man would die soon...
***
Kou stared into the sky with a exasperated grin, it had worked, he'd managed to trick the beast.
He wasn't quite sure where he landed when he was thrown off, nor was Kou sure how he was alive, but he was, and he felt better, like and every moment that passed he was growing stronger and regaining the strength he had before he left the cave today.
After a few moments he sat up and saw, he was lucky, it seemed in his scuffle with the beast he had landed in the area which has gut had been leading him too.
An oasis, the water being pure and clear, and the small surrounding areas of vegetation full of what seemed to be fruits.
Kou let out a few chuckles and fell backwards into the water.
An oasis!
It was like something of a comic book or a TV show that he had been lucky enough to land in one.
"What is so funny human."
His blood turned cold in his veins as his chucking came to a dead stop.
He remained still for a few moments before slowly turning his head to look at the direction where the almost ethereal womanly voice came from.
And what he saw, was something between horrifying and enchanting.
It was a skeleton, one covered in carved and painted markings alike, they're also seem to be some form of veil around her that was translucent in nature from what he could tell
"It's rude to stare you know."