The Fatal Conflict (GBS2G7) (Round 4: The Huntsman's Garden)

Kaja felt rough. Like, really rough. He felt even worse than the morning after that one night, back home, when he'd gone out to the local tavern celebrating the success of his new apothecary and he'd ended up spending the entirety of his first week's profits on the most expensive stuff they had. He felt even worse than that one night, shortly after his accident when he discovered that alcohol and the chemical mixture that was keeping him alive really did not mix. His head felt as though someone had been rummaging around in there and hadn't bothered to put anything back where it belonged, and if he moved too suddenly it started throbbing with pain. His entire body was sore, but especially around the pipes that connected him to his contraption. He could taste blood, and in fact it was encrusted around his mouth. He felt like he was going to throw up. His vision was bleary and his eyes sensitive to even the dim light of... wherever it was that he was, but slowly his eyes adjusted.

He was in a small shaded copse of trees the like of which he had never seen before. If he'd been in a better mood he might have described this place as wondrous; thick lush grass, vividly coloured trees bearing even more vividly coloured fruits and above a canopy of vines stretching from tree to tree. It was everything Kaja had wanted; an alchemist's paradise almost, if it wasn't for how insanely perilous Zaire had made it sound. Able to see clearly again Kaja couldn't help but notice the blood that stained his hands, and had splattered here and there on his coat. He idly rubbed his hands together, peeling off some of the dried blood as he scanned the immediate vicinity for- aha there it was. He spotted Zaire's crimson sword half buried in the long grass and grabbed it. Sure he was no swordsman and now he had at his disposal what was surely enough herbs to concoct whatever mixture he could devise, but he was loathe to leave it behind. It could still be useful.

Using the sword, half buried in the dirt, for support Kaja climbed carefully to his feet. He took in a deep breath of fresh forest air, coughed up a gobbet of dried blood, and now about as thoroughly revitalized as he could manage without chemical aid he set about gathering herbs. He let his instinct lead him; he had always had this uncanny knack of knowing just what effects might be produced from any given ingredient and that instinct was telling him he really needed a scraping of flame red moss from the nearest tree and one of those sapphire coloured fruits that hung from a tree a little further away.

Whilst Kaja wasn't alert and thoughtful enough to wonder if the long grass he was walking through might contain traps he did recall Zaire's demonstration and so prodded hesitantly at the moss covered tree with Zaire's blade. Nothing happened but he gave it another prod anyway just to be sure and then scraped a good handful of moss. At the other tree he almost stumbled over an already sprung, yet empty, beartrap. Cautiously he picked a couple of fallen fruits, and hoping that his instincts were still on good form he mixed himself an off purple potion from the two ingredients and downed it in one. It tasted foul. These things generally did.

Apart from rinsing the taste of blood there was no immediate effect, not that Kaja had thought there would be. As much as he would have liked to have a little rest for five minutes he knew that he couldn't afford to stop. He had to take advantage of this opportunity before something got in the way, and grab as many ingredients as he could reasonably carry while he still could. He couldn't remember a lot of what happened in the previous round, but the things he could remember and the state of himself convinced him that that was probably a good thing. As he worked gathering ingredients he gradually started to feel a bit better and at the same time he heard something moving nearby.

He turned to see a hunter, or well he presumed it was a hunter. It was a small red cube suspended in a humanoid shaped translucent cloud of red energy, wearing ill fitting camouflaged hunting gear and carrying some kind of futuristic weapon. As he turned the hunter raised its weapon.

"Woah woah." Kaja croaked. "Hey hold up there."

The cube sighed. I WILL GIVE YOU A HEAD START it seemed to say somehow

"Hold on, lets not be hasty here." Kaja said. "I'm a human being, not a wild animal. I understand I don't exactly look like it at the moment but trust me I am sentient."

THE BROCHURE SAID THAT ALL BEINGS IN THIS UNIVERSE ARE FAIR GAME SENTIENT OR NOT

"Oh." said Kaja somewhat dumbfounded. He quickly recovered though, "Well you see, the thing is I'm not from this universe. I'm afraid I'm just passing through."

YOU'RE REALLY TAKING THE FUN OUT OF THIS YOU KNOW. The cube gestured with its weapon. GO ON I'M NOT GOING TO WAIT MUCH LONGER

Kaja glanced around desperately. Even if he did flee he wasn't probably wasn't going to get far without springing some trap or running into a deadly predator. He could reason with a talking cube who wanted to kill him for sport, at least in theory.

"Hold on a minute." He said. "You're here for the sport, right? For the thrill of the hunt all that?"

IN THEORY, IF YOU CAN CALL THIS THRILLING

"Well exactly." Kaja replied. "I'm no sport whatsoever. Have you seen all this equipment I'm carrying? You have no idea how heavy this all is. I can barely run anywhere with this thing on."

TAKE IT OFF THEN. HONESTLY ITS NOT HARD

"It's part of my body; it doesn't come off." Kaja said. "Yeah, weird I know. I'm sorry there's not really anything I can do about it." he paused. "But... I do know someone who would be good sport. He's quick, resourceful, he would be much more suited to your skills than I am."

GO ON...

"His name's Zaire." Kaja said. "He's a little taller than I am, wears black leather clothing, a red cloak and has black spiky hair. He has a sort of perpetual smugness about him."

AND WHERE WILL I FIND THIS ZAIRE

"I don't know." Kaja admitted. "He's almost definitely around here somewhere though." He paused for a moment, mindful of the myriad dangers which this round promised. Perhaps it wouldn't be the worst thing having this guy around. "I could help locate him if you'd like."

AS IF I NEED YOUR HELP. The cube scoffed. BTW IF YOU REALLY ARE JUST PASSING THROUGH THIS UNIVERSE I WOULD HURRY UP AND GET OUT ASAP. And then without any further ado the cube folded in on itself and was gone completely.

"Yeah I was just thinking that myself."