"Brother where are you, why you left us alone Brother,please don't leave us again"
The boy said his eyes still groggy due to crying.
"I am sorry...I won't leave you, I promise I will come back,don't cry ok don't cry" shade said trying to calm down the boy.
Then suddenly a system panel materialised infront of him, which filled his mind with anger.
"It's because of you, everything's because you , just jusst leave me alone with my familyyy " shade said his eyes filled with rage.
[The host has encountered a nightmare]
[ Would like to absorb it for Oneiros(dream energy) ]
[ Yes / No ]
[ Nightmare absorbed Oneiros +5 ]
At first in his anger trying to blame the system for everything he didn't notice the options but after calmed down quickly to stable himself.
Then Shade's mind flicked to yes and he thought 'yes'
The dream around him started to collapse on its own and everything around shade started to appear blurry like fog.
Then suddenly his eyes didn't shot open as he didn't have any eyes to begin with but his shadow perception became sharper.
"Hope it really was just a dream and time had really stopped " he tried to say but no sound came out.
Exasperated by his own voice not coming , he slowly came out of the shadows in his physical shell and removed his mask and covered a shadow cloth above his head like a hood.
He also made it seem like he was wearing gloves and shoes combined with his clothes.
He now looked fully covered in pitch black clothes covering his whole body with not a single piece of his skin that can be looked from outside.
To others he might seem like a monster trying to hide but he didn't have any choice to begin with.
Soon he started looking around him carefully to figure out where he had entered and if it was a human settlement or any other race.
He didn't believe he was a human or if this world had any to begin with but since he was a human in past, he would likely be able to get into human society rather easily.
Looking at the surroundings he noticed houses made up of poor quality like stone or some were even straight up made of dirt.
Then he moved forward trying to find living intelligent people to talk to or listen to.
So as to find where the heck he was now and which kind of abominable race lived here.
He heard a noise coming from somewhere.
So he followed to check it out if there was anything worth his time.
After just passing through a narrow alley, so narrow that no body builder could enter. Heck even he had had to change his form a little to get inside.
The scene infront confused to either feel bad or feel good cause their were 3 humans beating 1 human kid.
'Should I feel good that I found a human city or bad for the kid' he thought in confusion.
But seeing him the three froze for a second and then ran away like scared mouse seeing a cat.
(A/n : what would you do when a scary guy fully covered in black sees like he's about to eat you in a dark alley.)
'Hey, atleast answer my questions before running chickens. Am I that scary or something ' he thought still trying to forget the dream through bullshit.
Then he walked closer to the kid who was still lying there beaten down but fixed in somekind of deep thought.
He bent lower infront of the boy and snapped his fingers to get his attention.
Thik
The boy suddenly jerked up like waking up from a deep sleep and saw a dark hooded man fully covered in black infront of him.
"You Okay", Shade asked the boy with confusion due to the boy's reaction.
"I'm fine, I'm fine who are you " The boy said hurriedly like someone had switched him into 2x.
"Pretty rude for asking someone's name without introducing yourself " Shade said slowly standing up with no sign of trying to extend a hand towards the boy.
"Ah ooh ooh, sorry my mistake for not telling. my name's sage toner " the boy said slowly standing up in pain and waiting for a reply.
'Who names their kid sage ' he thought having no intention of replying to the boy.
"Sage, mind telling me where are we" he said genuinely trying to ask.
Then as if realising something he said
"I am really sorry for asking and thanks for helping me back their. "
'You dumb fuck, just give a straight answer what's up with apology shit, just tell me where the fuck am I ' he thought cursing sage in his mind for whatever he was thinking.
Even though he wanted to ask again this time specifying the question but left the thought.
' I might as well just get the information from somewhere else ' he thought as he didn't wanted to ruin his image nor ruin the thought the boy had come up with.
"Good" he said and left sage facing his back and not looking back.
Sage looked at the back of the man who had just reminded him one of the natural rules of the Outskirts.
NEVER ASK QUESTIONS FROM A STRANGER
This was one of the keys for weak a person like him to survive in the outskirt and one of the reasons people get killed everyday in this damn hell of a place.
After a while of going through the slim alleys again, he finally found a place that can be considered a street to say the most.
Sides of the streets was filled with lifeless gazes in a deep thought just like the one he saw in the eyes of sage but deeper far more deeper.
Compared to what they were wearing shade looked like royalty in fine clothes without a single scratch.
'Are all humans like this in this world or just this area' he thought carrying a sense of pity in his eyes that was covered by his hood.
Then he saw few bulky men clearly carrying weapons approaching towards him.
To others on the street it looked like another poor man was about to be robbed but to shade it looked more like walking high-level information baggages coming towards him.
'Guess this day might not that bad huh'
________________________________________
(A/n : I wanted sage to have a badass first impression of shade. As he might be useful later in the story.)