Narrator's POV
Rain soaked the fur of a small group of four wolves, they had wandered right into a recently destroyed village, the fire slowly dying down from the humid air and the water falling from the skies.
The scent of blood had drawn the beasts closer to the burnt rubble or a destroyed cabin, one wolf managed to stick his head in between a few boards, his sharp fangs closing around flesh as its back legs started to roughly pull on what it had caught.
With great effort, the wolf managed to first pull out an arm from the rubble, and as other two wolves joined in to help in pulling from the arm, with their combined force they managed to pull out an entire body out of the rubble.
It was the body of a young man, probably in his mid 20s, long black hair remained tied in a short ponytail, and the simple shirt and pants he wore looked a little charred and tattered, but the corpse was weirdly intact compared to the other burnt and torn apart corpses that the wolves had found across the small destroyed village.
One of the wolves immediately started to bite down on his left shoulder, teeth tearing through skin and flesh with some effort as the beast started to try and devour the meat.
Another wolf decided to join in on the activity and started to bite and pull on the right leg of the young man, already managing to rip off and bite some muscle, something that made the black haired man's right hand give a little twitch.
A third wolf got close to his throat, opening its maws to bite down directly on his neck, but the corpse moved in response, his hands immediately shot out towards the wolf's maws, the right hand grabbed the wolf's lower maw, the left one moved to grab the upper one.
And with a quick movement at held a surprising amount of force, The Undead forced the maws to open more than they should, completely breaking the wolf's jaw which drove it to a quick death.
His pair of unfocused and empty green eyes opened to stare at the corpse of the wolf he had just killed, the other three immediately retaliated, one of them biting at his leg starting to drag him, the second one closed its maws around The Undead's right forearm also starting to pull on him.
While the two wolves pulled on opposite directions to limit his movement, the third wolf decided to bit down on the young man's torso, digging its fangs on his side while the claws of his front legs started to claw at him quickly, slowly tearing the simple shirt and some skin apart.
His free arm moved around the mud beneath him, managing to pick up a stone big enough to fit in his palm he smacked the head of the wolf biting his arm, forcing it to let out a whine and free his arm, which let him force his torso up, slightly flipping the wolf biting and clawing at his torso.
Sitting on the mud, a strong smack hit the wolf biting on his leg the blood splattering a little as the wolf let go of his leg, but that didn't stop The Undead that kept hitting the wolf again and again until its skull was completely bashed in letting the slightly spasming corpse of the wolf go.
The remaining wolf on his side released him and tried to make some distance, but the young man immediately grabbed it by the upper jaw and pushed the stone down it's throat, forcing it to block the wolf's airway making the beast shake and roll on the ground gagging on the stone for a few seconds before it finally collapsed and died.
The Undead slowly stood up on the mud, his green eyes locking onto the last remaining wolf...that simply let out a small whine before turning around and running away, leaving him alone in between the corpses.
The Undead looked around the destroyed place, like if he had just woken up and didn't even know where he was, but then his green eyes glimmered with life for a single second, the strong and sharp pain of a headache hitting him and making him get down on his knees driving both hands to his head to tightly hold onto himself.
"What makes you different?"
The echo of a woman's voice made his eyes lose the light again, the pain slowly dissapearing after a few seconds, the wounds of biting and clawing he had gained from the wolves started to heal, muscle and skin growing to cover the damaged places like if he hadn't received a single scratch and managing to stand up, his eyes, head and entire body instinctively stared at the same direction, and remaining in complete silence.
The Undead started to walk.
.....
"1 week...or at least I think so"
The Undead's slow steps took him through the gates of a small city, the guards behind him standing on their spot while he continued walking without saying a single word.
"That's how long I believe has passed ever since I woke up"
His hand reached up to softly hold the scarf around his neck, his new dark clothes fitting nicely around him, the black trousers and white shirt were rather simple, but he didn't need much more, the black coat and the boots fit combined with the rest of his outfit, it'd be a little more stylish if the many traces of sewing and stitching weren't obvious to everyone who could look, the leather bag wrapped around his shoulder seemed to hold some papers, a quill and a few small vials of ink alongside a short dagger that remained inside of its sheath.
"It could've been more, sometimes I forget how much time passes, I blink and the sun is already going down"
Walking for a few minutes he left the city behind him, stopping, his eyes moved first to his right, then his head stared at the same place, and finally the rest of his body decided that walking off the road and into the woods was a good idea.
"But as much time passes, there are a few things I find constant...It seems I am not able to die, I've already been mauled by beasts, cut by bandits, stabbed and burnt...but the most I suffer is having to fix my clothes or get new ones every time"
He moved in between the trees, being careful with his step, feeling a small sting on his leg, he saw a snake curled up around his leg, fangs digging on his skin, but he just leaned down and grabbed the snake pulling on it to uncurl It from his leg and throw it away, letting out a little grunt as he stared down at the 2 small but new holes on his trousers.
"I also can't seem to remember much...or anything about myself at all, I remember how to talk, how to write, how to use and do certain things, but not my name, the place where I woke up or..."
His train of thought was stopped as a stinging pain in his head forced him to lean on a nearby tree, the kind of painful headache that already seemed to be normal to him, even as unintelligible words echoed in his head with the voice of a woman.
"Who this woman is, or why I...feel the urge to find her, I can't exactly explain it but I believe that if I follow this urge guiding me, I'll find her..."
Stopping for a moment, he stumbled forward and his eyes lost their light for a single second, his right hand moved and held onto...something hard and cold, blinking for a second, he found himself somewhere else.
"Did I sleep again?"
His voice came out a little horse and somewhat tired, looking around, he found himself in what seemed to be a somewhat big graveyard, multiple tombstones around the place, including the one he found himself holding onto to stop himself from falling.
He stood straight and looked around for a few seconds before his left hand moved to the leather bag that was resting on his side, opening it, he pulled out a few papers, reading them one by one, his green eyes widened a little as he read what seemed to be a rather freshly written paper.
"Don't go"
"What are you trying to tell me?..."
He simply sighed heavily and decided to sit down on the ground, resting his back against the nearby tombstone he started to read the rest of the written papers one by one.
"I pass out sometimes...or well, passing out is not the word, it's like if I fell asleep but my body kept moving, after I fell asleep for the first time, I got myself these papers, quill and ink to write down important things I might forget at some point"
His green eyes stared at the single piece of paper he had read first, separating it from the rest and setting it down on the ground he continued reading the other ones.
"Weirdly enough, sometimes there are things written that I don't remember, perhaps I did it on those moments where I sleep, it doesn't happen often, but when it does..." He briefly looked at the paper resting on the ground. "It's to tell me to not find that woman...but if I don't, I won't get the answers I want"
He perked up a little and stopped reading the notes, his green eyes looked around him, seeing how a silver mist started to slowly expand across the floor, having a bad feeling he quickly stood up and stuffed the papers on the bag, quickly pulling out the dagger and unsheathing it.
"I have a bad feeling...a very bad feeling!"
His eyes looked around somewhat erratically, he had fought a few beasts and bandits on his short travel ever since hw woke up, but this time, it felt something completely different, he wasn't trembling, he knew he was afraid or nervous, he just felt...uneasy in a way he couldn't exactly describe.
The silver mist slowly started to rise around him, which only made it harder and harder for him to look around, up to be point where he could only see himself and a few meters around him, then, he heard the sound of a boot landing on the ground behind him, so he quickly turned around to attack.
But just as his entire body finished turning around, the cold sharp edge of s sword went cleanly across his neck, completely cutting his head off letting it spin in the air briefly before it fell to the ground a short distance away from the rest of his corpse that also fell to the ground.
"...what?"
Slowly, the silver mist started to go down and dissipate, and the sound of a sword being sheathed was one what made his eyes move towards the origin of the sound, letting The Undead fully see the person that had just decapitated him in a single strike.
It was a young man, probably in his very early 20s, or at least, he looked a little bit younger than The Undead saw himself as, he had short and mildly wavy black hair, a pair of somewhat empty silver eyes looked down at the decapitated body, he wore a long-sleeved white shirt, a sleeveless black vest and a short cape that covered his shoulders, below, a pair of black pants and brown belt had attached the sheath of the short sword he had just used to decapitate, and the pair of black shoes barely made a sound as the person turned around to start walking away.
"Who is he?! I'm not a strong person, but I already know I'm not exactly weak either, but still, who is that person?!" The Undead's thoughts ran quickly but, then he decided to speak up. "H-Hey! You!"
Hearing the decapitated head talk, the young swordsman perked up, turning around he looked at The Undead's head before walking close and staring down at it.
"This is... curious" he spoke dryly while looking at The Undead. "Your kind normally dies when I am the one killing them..."
"Well, sorry to disappoint you but I can't—" His words died in his throat after he properly processed the words of the one who decapitated him. "Wait...did you say...Your Kind?"
The swordsman with the silver eyes didn't say anything as answer to The Undead's question, but in silence he moved towards the decapitated body, and grabbed one of its arms with a hand, starting to pull on it, his free hand meanwhile grabbed The Undead's ponytail and yanked on it to lift up the decapitated head, normally, The Undead would've complained, but right now...
"Who are you?"
His curiosity was being much more stronger than him.
.....
"The Ones Who Escape Death"
The silver eyed swordsman stares at the fire of a small fireplace he made with thin twigs and some leaves, in front of him, The Undead's body sat against a tree, with the head basically tied back into place while the neck slowly regenerated and linked the head and body back together.
"It's the main name given to your kind" the Swordsman started to explain. "Basically, it's a category that holds every kind of being that avoids death, a Lich with an entirely immortal body, a spirit who refuses to pass on out of fear of dying, an immortal abomination created by people...or in your case, an Undead who regenerates any and all wounds"
In response to the short explanation, The Undead eyes narrowed a little. "So...why am I this? And who are you exactly? You just saw me and decapitated me"
"You can call me Messenger" The Messenger presented himself. "My...work...is to hunt The Ones Who Escape Death, which is why I decapitated you, normally, Undeads are not capable of healing the wounds I do to them, which is why you should've died when I cut off your head"
"But I'm still alive"
"Technically you aren't...what you are right now cannot be considered alive at all" he immediately corrected. "Tell me...do you remember anything about yourself?"
"...no, I don't, but how do you-"
"Because death is the ultimate end of everyone and everything...once you die, you can't be brought back, even if people believe otherwise, Undeads are a common occurrence, people who hold great magic power can bring people back, or at least that's what they think..." The Messenger briefly stopped the explanation before continuing. "What they bring back is not the person who died...when someone dies, they join what is called The Entity of Death, it's an emptiness tasked with hoarding and protecting the spirits of everything that dies, there's no stealing back a spirit, what you are right now...is just an emptiness parasitizing a body..."
"...I see...but if I am truly empty, what is this urge I feel? There's a woman, I feel like I need to find her" The Undead spoke as his neck finally finished healing, letting him control the rest of his body.
"That woman is the one who brought you back, when an Undead is raised, the only thing fueling that empty body is obedience to the one who brought them back, but assuming she's not around...I can only guess that she's not even aware you're an Undead" He spoke before standing up from the ground while staring at the Undead.
"How could she have been able to bring me back without knowing?"
"I have seen it before, a person with a desire so strong that can drive them to do incorregible things...whether they know it or not" his silver eyes closed for a second before he stared again at The Undead. "But still, if I can't kill you, I'll just kill that woman, killing her should dispel her magic and let that body die again"
"Wait!" The Undead quickly stood up. "...I...I want answers"
"I already answered what you asked"
"Not from you...I want answers from her" he declared before he closed his eyes. "I want to know who this body belonged to and...and why her desire was so strong that it brought it...brought me back"
"Fine, but after you get your answers, I'll kill her" he said dryly, making The Undead flinch a little.
"Just...like that?"
"Just like that, I'll kill her anyways, I'm not particularly in any rush" without saying much more he walked closer to the Undead. "You take the lead, you're the one capable of feeling her"
The Undead just stared slightly down at The Messenger, after a few seconds, he sighed and looked to a specific direction immediately starting to walk while behind him, the silver eyed swordsman follow.
"So...what are you exactly?" The Undead asked. "If we'll travel together, I feel like we need to know each other a little better..."
.....
"Just keep walking, Undead"
★ ★ ★
A/N: nice, this one got done rather quickly compared to The Shadow, I need more experience in writing toxic yaoi.
Anyways, hope you all enjoyed!