[Celtic]

His head hurt.

That was the first sense to come back to him, a searing, blinding pain coming from his entire head. Slowly, he opened his eyes and found his vision swam. That bitch teleported him! She knew he had a head injury and still she teleported him.

Oh good god his stomach. Rez pitched himself to the side just in time to vomit on the forest floor. He retched a few more times before being able to fully sit himself up. Dipping his head in between his thighs, Rez rubbed the back of his neck. Thankfully the vomiting distracted from the searing headache, and it was started to fade. He could at least open his eyes now.

[Celtic]

He blinked and took in his surroundings. Fog was surrounding him, preventing him from seeing much farther than 10 or so feet. Other than the fog there were trees and moss and... very few noises. Oh no. This was definitely going to be his death. "Did she at least send me with supplies?" He muttered out loud, figuring no one was really around to be bothered. Rez patted his belt area and came up empty. Not even a knife.

"Good to know you want me dead! Really encouraging!" He shouted upwards, immediately regretting it. The headache came pounding back. He laid back down (carefully avoiding the vomit patch) and closed his eyes again.

[Celtic]

"Oh dearest, what do you have to say for yourself?" A smooth, silky voice surrounded him. He knew that voice, and he was immediately on the defensive. He widened his stance, looking everywhere around him, feeling for a weapon on his belt and finding none. Right, no weapons.

"I'm not sure, what am I supposed to be defending here?" He shouted back, looking around, trying to figure out where she was.

"I think you know." Her tone cut to menacing instantly. Suddenly, the world started to darken. Everything was spinning, surrounding him. He was spinning now too, trying to find her.

"Don't do this! Don't do-"

[Celtic]

Rez woke up with a start, sitting straight up. He was sweating and shaking, instantly feeling for a weapon. "Right, no weapon." His eyes darted left and right, seeing nothing. The forest was still oddly quiet, but he could hear some rustling not too far off. His heart rate started to lower, "Just a dream." That wasn't necessarily true, but he was going to cling onto that hope.

He stood up and stretched. His head felt better at least.  Not that odds were great he was surviving this, but comfort in your last days was important. Rez sighed heavily and spun around, trying to see if there were any paths to take. There weren't any, but he wasn't too surprised by that. Time to pick a direction at random then!

Rez started to walk.

[Celtic]

Ugh this was getting him nowhere. He hadn't even seen a small forest critter in the hours he'd been walking. He would probably die of starvation or thirst at this rate. You'd think a forest would have food for just one measly traveler. "Are you glad about this now? Huh? Happy I'm going to die in this weird roundabout way?" He kicked a patch of moss in his way. Rez could feel his hope starting to drain. It'd only been part of a day, but this was looking very, very dire.

[Celtic]

"Hey mister!"

Rez jumped and then slipped and then promptly fell before swiveling his head around. "Who said that?" He couldn't immediately see anyone or anything around him.

"Oh it's just me!"

It sounded like a kid, but Rez still saw nothing. "Uh, I don't know who "me" is?"

"Oh! Right! Whoopsies. Mom is always telling me not to do this. Apparently I'm scary or something."

However, Rez still didn't see anything. "Kid, I don't see you. Are you a ghost or something?" The voice erupted into giggles.

"No, mister! Nothing like that. I"m a leaf!"

[Celtic]

A... A what? Rez started looking intensely at the leaves on the forest floor around him. None of them looked particularly sentient... "Uhm, you sure you're a leaf kid?" He definitely didn't rule out ghost. Maybe his mom told him he was a leaf because he wasn't old enough to know death? Or deal with death? This was a bit of a creepy place. It wouldn't be too out of the ordinary for it to be haunted.

"Yes! I'm sure!"

"Why don't you come out and show me then? Which leaf are you?" He started picking at the leaves on the ground again.

[Celtic]

A finger tapped Rez's shoulder and he jumped again, skittering away from whatever had touched him.

"Gee, you sure are jumpy."

Sure enough, it was a leaf. A fucking, leaf. It had tiny little wings, a little face, little arms and legs but sure enough- it was a leaf! He was stunned. "Y-you're a leaf?!"

"Well, yeah. Did you think I was lying?" It flew closer.

"Uh, I-I just haven't seen your kind before. I'm not from around here?" He said it questioningly because he truly didn't know where he was, and could feasibly actually be from around here. Dependent on where here was.

"Oh. Yeah, we aren't very common. I don't know many others."

[Celtic]

Well this was unexpected. He couldn't really eat a leaf, not that he could eat something this intelligent anyways. Not unless he was very, very desperate.

"Ah, well are you from here? Can you tell me how to leave this place?" Might as well use anything. Rez's chances alone were slim to none. This might at least help.

"Oh, um, kind of. You see mister, I'm lost. I haven't seen my mom in ages. I can get you to a path though!" For such a depressing sentence, the kid seemed to keep his cheery demeanor.

"You're lost too? Well let's be lost together for a while."

[Celtic]

"Great! Mom would like that. She doesn't like me going off by myself. Let's go this way-- I know you bigger monsters need food and I think there's some of that this way." Rez was pleasantly surprised, the little guy was most definitely going to be useful.

"Well if you're promising food, you can stick with me for a long as you like." The little leaf made a happy noise and floated closer to Rez before his stem wiggled and.. stuck onto his head, with the little leaf perching on Rez's shoulder.

"Uh, what're ya doing there?"

"Sticking to you! That way I won't float away. You said I could!"

[Wild Pet Found]

[Celtic]

Rez blinked. He now had a.. leaf stuck to his head. So it wouldn't float away. Did this mean he was a dad? Well, rather a surrogate dad for now. This kid is my responsibility. "Mister, go thataway!" The kid pulled him out of his thoughts, and he felt a slight tugging to the right. So, he turned right. It was interesting trusting a leaf, but it was his only hope right now.

"Alright, you're the boss kid." The only trouble with this was that he couldn't actually see the leaf now, so he had no idea what expression he was making. "Say, what's your name?"

"Name? What's that?"

[Celtic]

"What're ya called? What does your mom refer to you as?" That explanation drew a silence from his companion. Rez assumed (and hoped) that meant he was thinking and that his explanation was somehow a cultural taboo. Though the kid was very young (well Rez actually had no idea, maybe the leaf was mature, it was anyone's guess) and they tended to ignore taboos. The societal expectations usually didn't set in completely.

"Uh, she just talks and I know it's to me! Mom did say that there are some huge groups of our kind but she never refers to anyone specific. Grandmother, grandfather, uncle, aunt... And me! Little!"

"Well, I can call you Little if you'd like, or you can just pick something? Like here, my name is Rez, and one of my closest friend is named Lia." Another silence from the leaf. Presumably more thinking.

[Celtic]

"Hmmm... Little sounds good. Call me Little!" The leaf piped cheerily, and Rez just smiled.

"Alright, Little it is."

They walked for a time in silence. Rez's thoughts were running back to home, and he was trying to figure out how far away he was and what his chances of getting back were. He'd have to find a teleporter, and not just any teleporter, but a talented one. The bitch that got him here was damn talented, and she likely flung him as far as she could. Just thinking about it rekindled his headache. Absently, he brought his hand up and rubbed his neck.... Accidentally smacking Little.

[Celtic]

"Ouch! Mister that hurt!" Little exclaimed as he recoiled from the hand. Rez noticed that he didn't let go of his neck, just tried to get as far from the offending appendage as possible.

"Sorry, sorry! I'm not used to you being attached to me. It hasn't been that long, I'll learn!" It was funny, hearing the pleading apology leave his mouth. If he was anywhere else, and with anyone that wasn't this small defenseless child, he would have responded much, much different. Machismo tended to get you further in his homeland, but here? There was no use for a show.

[Celtic]

His companion didn't say anything further, but he could feel the sad pouting as Little nursed his wounds. Rez sincerely hoped the little guy wasn't hurt too bad, but had no words or actions to help. So, they resumed their silence for a time. Eventually Rez felt a small tug to the right, and he went right. A tug to the left, and he went left.

This forest was huge, and Rez couldn't tell any one tree from the other. He'd had some survival training, but it was years ago and he never found a good use for it, so he forgot it. Some of it might've been helpful, but in a place like this, where there were no animals to be heard, no streams and a dense fog? Rez doubted if it'd have come in handy at all.