Chapter 29:
Volume III. Chapter 8. Temperature and buildings
Welcome to my lost Jungle🪴
Chapter 8. Temperature and buildings
The elf girl slept for quite a while. She had a long dream in which, jumping between the branches of a dense forest, she sat down on one of the comfortable branches she'd found. The trees were different from those that grew in her world — they were lighter. Across from her, unexpectedly, a man in black appeared on a branch in front of her. Elf girl didn't remember exactly what he was wearing, but behind his back there were folded wings, and his hair was black, like his bottomless eyes. The only strange thing was probably how a large mushroom cap looked on his head. He definitely wasn't a myconid — maybe it was one of those distortions that happen in dreams. He said some rather inappropriate things for a simple conversation with a stranger, and a girl at that... In the morning, Kasye woke up without remembering a single word from that strange creature. She woke up with a lump in her throat, still on the same couch, under the ticking of a clock somewhere in the corner of the room. Had they always been there, or had she just never noticed them before? It was cold — so cold it felt like her body was giving off too much heat while trembling from the chill. There was also an ache in her body, so just lying there was painful. She couldn't fall back asleep — just staring at one spot, counting the seconds with drool running from her mouth and snot from her nose, with a body shaking from the cold — it wasn't pleasant at all. All she could do was a hope that an adult would come soon, someone who could heal her. After drinking some water from the glass that stood by the bed, the girl just lay there, enduring the pain. She managed to fall asleep eventually, but that dream was horrifying — she barely remembered it..there was a lot of blackness between bright, stupid moments. Kasye woke up because Kenji was wiping her drool off his pillow with his fingers.Ks-mmmgh..She grumbled in dissatisfaction, and immediately got a response:Kj-you drooled all over my pillow! Are you sick or something?Her answer was a cough and his caring response was to leave the room — probably rolling his eyes and snorting. He came back and unexpectedly brought a mug filled to the brim. He set it on the table and ordered her to drink the contents. Kasye didn't feel like getting up at all, but she had to, even though she was cold and dizzy. In the mug was a bright orange liquid. She looked on this mug, then at the one who had poured it, and wanted to ask: "What's that?"Kj-orange juice.With a face full of bewilderment and confusion as to why she couldn't just drink what the doctor had brought her, he answered her. It was clear even from a distance that this was absolutely not orange juice — plus it was heated...Kj-Kasye, please! Drink it, or should I pour it down your throat with a syringe!?She wouldn't have started drinking otherwise. He grabbed his medical robe, which he'd taken off when he came in, and went back to work — because he'd only come during his lunch break.The liquid was strange, but Kasye drank it to the bottom and lay down to sleep. Finally, she managed to fall asleep. The dream was again quite horrifying — most of it was just nothingness, just blackness. She remembered the terrifying end: flying very high up, afraid of hurting herself, over huge buildings made of concrete — it really was strange — she seemed to be trying to escape from there, flying over it all. She did manage to get to a place that reminded her of Arcades, her world — though she had no hope left of ever getting back. There were none of the distinctive beige columns and arches. She got into one of the buildings, couldn't remember how or what it looked like from the outside. Inside there was nothing special at all, just bare, smooth gray walls and many rooms of different sizes. The ceilings were unusually high, which gave a feeling of being lost and alone. It smelled slightly musty, but not strongly, and echoes came from every random rustle. Rooms and hallways, only gray walls, and some had a strange, simple pattern in dull colors. Underfoot, there was no construction debris which often find in abandoned buildings, just a few layers of dust here and there. Empty. What was this new place? The windows were simply rectangular cutouts in the walls. Strange. Passing by rooms that were all the same except for different sizes, inside one of them, at a height above human level, there were rusty boxes set into the wall itself, only their lids slightly protruding. There were several such boxes and a couple more panels, equally rusty placed on the tall gray wall. Looking at them from below wasn't very convenient, especially since you couldn't see any small details. Elf girl rose into the air using her ability to fly, which was completely uncontrollable, it really was hard to keep her body suspended and still at the same time. It felt like clumps of air under feet and she had to control her body as if in water — but there was no water around. She could feel the emptiness under her feet and the fear that her body had no support nearby. It was terrifying — all superpowers are inherited, but nowadays this ability has started to fade, meaning the powers that people are born with now are not as strong as they once were long ago.Flying up to the rusty boxes and panels that protrudes from the wall, she managed to open a couple of lids. Inside were various types of switches, also old and worn. Rust stains covered them too. Between the boxes there were also panels with old buttons that didn't even budge when pressed. On one of them, there was a protruding lever that could be pulled to the left, since it was on a panel with a long slot. Curiosity got her and Kasye pulled that protruding knob to the side. It was hard to pull because of the rusty metal, but she pulled it all the way. After poking at various colored buttons and clicking switches, to the left of all this was a huge iron circle with numbers along its rim. The numbers looked like letters: one stick, then two sticks, three sticks, then a stick and some kind of checkmark. Then just a checkmark, and then the stick and checkmark swapped places! A checkmark and two sticks..and three sticks, a stick and a cross... It was strange. In the middle of the rusty circle, though it looked more like a huge plate, were sticks placed there. They didn't touch the surface itself but were hammered in between nails. The one is short but thick, other one is medium, and the thinnest one was just a plain stick, the ends of the first two had arrowheads. This contraption seemed really creepy and frightening — the short stick pointed at two sticks engraved on the faceplate(II), the second pointed at a checkmark with a stick(IV)...what that meant was unknown to the girl. The pointers were stationary — could they be moved? Rising a little higher and grabbing one of the arrows, she tried to shift it, and mechanically it worked a little — the arrow actually moved down one number. What it all meant remained unknown, but the elf girl liked it so much that she started spinning those pointers around, hoping they might actually start working, even though she had no idea how they were supposed to work. After making a few full rotations with the shortest pointer around the dial, she played with the other pointers too. It was all dusty, rusty, and dirty. Leaving the room — still without touching the floor, Kasye wanted to find something similar that she could change. The empty hallway with that abandoned smell brought on melancholy and dread. The rooms didn't differ from each other, only the windows and the light falling from them into different spots. This building again started to feel like a maze, it had been a long time since she'd been in one — to put it simply, she'd grown unaccustomed to the dizziness that came on. She played around too much, her legs became soft as cotton, her body felt like it was melting, her head was spinning, nausea hit and even lying on the cold floor hurt terribly.Her thoughts tangled into knots, the cold floor beneath her back grew warmer, but remained just as hard. Something soft and strongly scented lightly touched her nose but the smell was too sharp, so her body reflexively stuck out her tongue and clearly didn't want to inhale any more of it. Male hands slapped her cheeks, and Kasye immediately knew who it was.Kj-get up.Kasye Peach, just to spite him, turned over on her side, so she got a slap on her butt with the same male hand!Kj-I thought you'd fallen asleep for another month. You slept for almost two days, you know that!?Ks-can I just a little more..sleeeeeeep...Kasye pulled the plaid toward herself, but he pulled it back, not letting her cover up and pulled harder.Kj-want some yogurt?//hell nah dirty minds, he just feeds her this way//Still half asleep, the sleepyhead forgot what's this " a yogurt" and she just wanted to close her eyes, outside it was already evening.Kj-get up.At his words, the girl wrapped herself up even tighter in the plaid, holding it with her hand. Kenji sighed, rolled his eyes, adjusted the plaid on her so it wouldn't fall off during whatever came next, and abruptly picked up the plaid‑wrapped girl in his arms. Kasye was startled by this but to distract herself, she kept her arms bent and wiggled her palms like she'd been picked up like an upside‑down cockroach. In the kitchen, he sat her down on a chair, and while Kasye was fumbling around in the blanket her caretaker opened the fridge and took out a small pack of the ordinary yogurt. Deciding to show off, he made a direct throw with that flat plastic container, which landed and slid across the table! She just lowered her eyes and raised them again, because he slammed the fridge shut with a satisfying thud. His steps was weird that he walked past all the chairs, moved the girl off her seat, sat down on that chair himself, and placed her on his lap.Ks-shoud I..eat it like this?She asked in that same soft, shy voice — a little childish and drooly.Kj-eat it like that.Having received her answer, his hands opened the package and handed her a teaspoon. The elf girl didn't use a spoon much before — either she made something similar out of leaves, or most often she licked things up like a dog. She used the spoon by staining it with yogurt and later licking. It was strange, because whatever got on leaves could just be eaten along with the leaf itself (this was mentioned in the first volume — basically, she really does eat leaves and grass like regular food). Meanwhile, Kenji was staring at her shoulder, holding her leg with one hand. There was nothing unusual about it, he didn't move unnecessarily. Outside it was already dark, yellow light was on and she wanted to sleep, but because of the light there was a strange feeling of daytime in the middle of the night. The guy was probably very tired and just wanted to fall asleep again, hugging his victim. He'd already started snoring on her shoulders, listening to her smacking.Ks-K‑Kenji..Kj-mmm...He didn't want it to end, but the girl had already licked up all the yogurt. Taking her back in his arms, they left the empty package and the dirty spoon right on the table.Kj-come on, turn off the light — push it with your foot.Her legs were dangling in his arms, and his hands were full. In a strange but rather cute move, he asked her dangling foot to press the switch to turn off the light.Ks-it's dark..The girl whisperedKj-can't see a thing. Give my eyes a minute to adjust, then we'll go.Ks-r-rock me..It was a strange request from Kasye with a breath at the end, but since they had to wait a couple of minutes anyway, why not? The guy started swaying smoothly from side to side.Kj-like this?Ks-mmTrees don't sway at all the same way when she falls asleep on them, but being in someone's arms felt peaceful too.Kj-boo!He made a sudden downward motion with his arms, making it seem like he was dropping her. Naturally, she didn't like that at all, so she went from her cockroach pose to turning into an ever‑snarky worm.Kj-now I'll really drop youAnd they slowly made their way through the darkness to the room, to the couch where, every day before the peach‑haired girl came into his life, Kenji Crassus had been rotting away.They slept under different plaids, on different pillows, on different parts of the couch — but that didn't stop them from having a conversation before falling asleep.Kj-what did you do in that cult place?Ks-well..I ate and went straight to sleep — there wasn't much time for sleep, and then did laundry again.Kj-yeahYawning, she continued her answerKs-but I also read fairy tales — I never got to finish one of them. There was a library there, I found a couple of old books in Elvish.Kj-still can't read "this" language? (the one they speak internationally..?¿)Ks-uh-huhKj-and we've already had three people from the hospital taken to the morgue, just got the protocols left to fill out.And instead of a comma in that sentence, he let out a pretty big yawn. Kj-what was the book about?Ks-it was about this little guy who never shut up and kept telling everyone fairy tales. He also gossiped a lot and made everyone cry. Unfortunately, I didn't get to finish it.. I liked that he was pretty closed off, but paradoxically he was also openly outspoken. Interacting with others repelled him, but he wrote some pretty candid tall tales.Kj-it's a good thing you didn't finish it. Later, a second blond guy shows up, starts listening to tattler and then begins weave his own stories. In the end, they both go crazy and gouge out each other's eyes. ... I read that as a kid — I used to love reading a lot when I was a child.Ks-oof..what is your favorite story?Kj-...about..acardiac hypertension. Nah, I don't really remember the children's stories I read. The only one that stuck with me partially is about a witch who was constantly bullied everywhere she went – at school, at work and nobody liked her anywhere. And she spent all her free time studying magic pentagrams, and one day she brutally killed all her tormentors. Let's just sleep already — I've got work tomorrow.Ks-g-good night...Kj-yeahKs-say a good night to me..honAnd he froze while turning over on his side, but shyly said:Kj-g-good night...They both mumbled half‑asleep, and the pair turned onto different sides. One stared at the wall and the other was examining just how pathetically he'd hung his T‑shirt on the chair.
The elf girl slept for quite a while. She had a long dream in which, jumping between the branches of a dense forest, she sat down on one of the comfortable branches she'd found. The trees were different from those that grew in her world — they were lighter. Across from her, unexpectedly, a man in black appeared on a branch in front of her. Elf girl didn't remember exactly what he was wearing, but behind his back there were folded wings, and his hair was black, like his bottomless eyes. The only strange thing was probably how a large mushroom cap looked on his head. He definitely wasn't a myconid — maybe it was one of those distortions that happen in dreams. He said some rather inappropriate things for a simple conversation with a stranger, and a girl at that... In the morning, Kasye woke up without remembering a single word from that strange creature. She woke up with a lump in her throat, still on the same couch, under the ticking of a clock somewhere in the corner of the room. Had they always been there, or had she just never noticed them before? It was cold — so cold it felt like her body was giving off too much heat while trembling from the chill. There was also an ache in her body, so just lying there was painful. She couldn't fall back asleep — just staring at one spot, counting the seconds with drool running from her mouth and snot from her nose, with a body shaking from the cold — it wasn't pleasant at all. All she could do was a hope that an adult would come soon, someone who could heal her. After drinking some water from the glass that stood by the bed, the girl just lay there, enduring the pain. She managed to fall asleep eventually, but that dream was horrifying — she barely remembered it..there was a lot of blackness between bright, stupid moments. Kasye woke up because Kenji was wiping her drool off his pillow with his fingers.Ks-mmmgh..She grumbled in dissatisfaction, and immediately got a response:Kj-you drooled all over my pillow! Are you sick or something?Her answer was a cough and his caring response was to leave the room — probably rolling his eyes and snorting. He came back and unexpectedly brought a mug filled to the brim. He set it on the table and ordered her to drink the contents. Kasye didn't feel like getting up at all, but she had to, even though she was cold and dizzy. In the mug was a bright orange liquid. She looked on this mug, then at the one who had poured it, and wanted to ask: "What's that?"Kj-orange juice.With a face full of bewilderment and confusion as to why she couldn't just drink what the doctor had brought her, he answered her. It was clear even from a distance that this was absolutely not orange juice — plus it was heated...Kj-Kasye, please! Drink it, or should I pour it down your throat with a syringe!?She wouldn't have started drinking otherwise. He grabbed his medical robe, which he'd taken off when he came in, and went back to work — because he'd only come during his lunch break.The liquid was strange, but Kasye drank it to the bottom and lay down to sleep. Finally, she managed to fall asleep. The dream was again quite horrifying — most of it was just nothingness, just blackness. She remembered the terrifying end: flying very high up, afraid of hurting herself, over huge buildings made of concrete — it really was strange — she seemed to be trying to escape from there, flying over it all. She did manage to get to a place that reminded her of Arcades, her world — though she had no hope left of ever getting back. There were none of the distinctive beige columns and arches. She got into one of the buildings, couldn't remember how or what it looked like from the outside. Inside there was nothing special at all, just bare, smooth gray walls and many rooms of different sizes. The ceilings were unusually high, which gave a feeling of being lost and alone. It smelled slightly musty, but not strongly, and echoes came from every random rustle. Rooms and hallways, only gray walls, and some had a strange, simple pattern in dull colors. Underfoot, there was no construction debris which often find in abandoned buildings, just a few layers of dust here and there. Empty. What was this new place? The windows were simply rectangular cutouts in the walls. Strange. Passing by rooms that were all the same except for different sizes, inside one of them, at a height above human level, there were rusty boxes set into the wall itself, only their lids slightly protruding. There were several such boxes and a couple more panels, equally rusty placed on the tall gray wall. Looking at them from below wasn't very convenient, especially since you couldn't see any small details. Elf girl rose into the air using her ability to fly, which was completely uncontrollable, it really was hard to keep her body suspended and still at the same time. It felt like clumps of air under feet and she had to control her body as if in water — but there was no water around. She could feel the emptiness under her feet and the fear that her body had no support nearby. It was terrifying — all superpowers are inherited, but nowadays this ability has started to fade, meaning the powers that people are born with now are not as strong as they once were long ago.Flying up to the rusty boxes and panels that protrudes from the wall, she managed to open a couple of lids. Inside were various types of switches, also old and worn. Rust stains covered them too. Between the boxes there were also panels with old buttons that didn't even budge when pressed. On one of them, there was a protruding lever that could be pulled to the left, since it was on a panel with a long slot. Curiosity got her and Kasye pulled that protruding knob to the side. It was hard to pull because of the rusty metal, but she pulled it all the way. After poking at various colored buttons and clicking switches, to the left of all this was a huge iron circle with numbers along its rim. The numbers looked like letters: one stick, then two sticks, three sticks, then a stick and some kind of checkmark. Then just a checkmark, and then the stick and checkmark swapped places! A checkmark and two sticks..and three sticks, a stick and a cross... It was strange. In the middle of the rusty circle, though it looked more like a huge plate, were sticks placed there. They didn't touch the surface itself but were hammered in between nails. The one is short but thick, other one is medium, and the thinnest one was just a plain stick, the ends of the first two had arrowheads. This contraption seemed really creepy and frightening — the short stick pointed at two sticks engraved on the faceplate(II), the second pointed at a checkmark with a stick(IV)...what that meant was unknown to the girl. The pointers were stationary — could they be moved? Rising a little higher and grabbing one of the arrows, she tried to shift it, and mechanically it worked a little — the arrow actually moved down one number. What it all meant remained unknown, but the elf girl liked it so much that she started spinning those pointers around, hoping they might actually start working, even though she had no idea how they were supposed to work. After making a few full rotations with the shortest pointer around the dial, she played with the other pointers too. It was all dusty, rusty, and dirty. Leaving the room — still without touching the floor, Kasye wanted to find something similar that she could change. The empty hallway with that abandoned smell brought on melancholy and dread. The rooms didn't differ from each other, only the windows and the light falling from them into different spots. This building again started to feel like a maze, it had been a long time since she'd been in one — to put it simply, she'd grown unaccustomed to the dizziness that came on. She played around too much, her legs became soft as cotton, her body felt like it was melting, her head was spinning, nausea hit and even lying on the cold floor hurt terribly.Her thoughts tangled into knots, the cold floor beneath her back grew warmer, but remained just as hard. Something soft and strongly scented lightly touched her nose but the smell was too sharp, so her body reflexively stuck out her tongue and clearly didn't want to inhale any more of it. Male hands slapped her cheeks, and Kasye immediately knew who it was.Kj-get up.Kasye Peach, just to spite him, turned over on her side, so she got a slap on her butt with the same male hand!Kj-I thought you'd fallen asleep for another month. You slept for almost two days, you know that!?Ks-can I just a little more..sleeeeeeep...Kasye pulled the plaid toward herself, but he pulled it back, not letting her cover up and pulled harder.Kj-want some yogurt?//hell nah dirty minds, he just feeds her this way//Still half asleep, the sleepyhead forgot what's this " a yogurt" and she just wanted to close her eyes, outside it was already evening.Kj-get up.At his words, the girl wrapped herself up even tighter in the plaid, holding it with her hand. Kenji sighed, rolled his eyes, adjusted the plaid on her so it wouldn't fall off during whatever came next, and abruptly picked up the plaid‑wrapped girl in his arms. Kasye was startled by this but to distract herself, she kept her arms bent and wiggled her palms like she'd been picked up like an upside‑down cockroach. In the kitchen, he sat her down on a chair, and while Kasye was fumbling around in the blanket her caretaker opened the fridge and took out a small pack of the ordinary yogurt. Deciding to show off, he made a direct throw with that flat plastic container, which landed and slid across the table! She just lowered her eyes and raised them again, because he slammed the fridge shut with a satisfying thud. His steps was weird that he walked past all the chairs, moved the girl off her seat, sat down on that chair himself, and placed her on his lap.Ks-shoud I..eat it like this?She asked in that same soft, shy voice — a little childish and drooly.Kj-eat it like that.Having received her answer, his hands opened the package and handed her a teaspoon. The elf girl didn't use a spoon much before — either she made something similar out of leaves, or most often she licked things up like a dog. She used the spoon by staining it with yogurt and later licking. It was strange, because whatever got on leaves could just be eaten along with the leaf itself (this was mentioned in the first volume — basically, she really does eat leaves and grass like regular food). Meanwhile, Kenji was staring at her shoulder, holding her leg with one hand. There was nothing unusual about it, he didn't move unnecessarily. Outside it was already dark, yellow light was on and she wanted to sleep, but because of the light there was a strange feeling of daytime in the middle of the night. The guy was probably very tired and just wanted to fall asleep again, hugging his victim. He'd already started snoring on her shoulders, listening to her smacking.Ks-K‑Kenji..Kj-mmm...He didn't want it to end, but the girl had already licked up all the yogurt. Taking her back in his arms, they left the empty package and the dirty spoon right on the table.Kj-come on, turn off the light — push it with your foot.Her legs were dangling in his arms, and his hands were full. In a strange but rather cute move, he asked her dangling foot to press the switch to turn off the light.Ks-it's dark..The girl whisperedKj-can't see a thing. Give my eyes a minute to adjust, then we'll go.Ks-r-rock me..It was a strange request from Kasye with a breath at the end, but since they had to wait a couple of minutes anyway, why not? The guy started swaying smoothly from side to side.Kj-like this?Ks-mmTrees don't sway at all the same way when she falls asleep on them, but being in someone's arms felt peaceful too.Kj-boo!He made a sudden downward motion with his arms, making it seem like he was dropping her. Naturally, she didn't like that at all, so she went from her cockroach pose to turning into an ever‑snarky worm.Kj-now I'll really drop youAnd they slowly made their way through the darkness to the room, to the couch where, every day before the peach‑haired girl came into his life, Kenji Crassus had been rotting away.They slept under different plaids, on different pillows, on different parts of the couch — but that didn't stop them from having a conversation before falling asleep.Kj-what did you do in that cult place?Ks-well..I ate and went straight to sleep — there wasn't much time for sleep, and then did laundry again.Kj-yeahYawning, she continued her answerKs-but I also read fairy tales — I never got to finish one of them. There was a library there, I found a couple of old books in Elvish.Kj-still can't read "this" language? (the one they speak internationally..?¿)Ks-uh-huhKj-and we've already had three people from the hospital taken to the morgue, just got the protocols left to fill out.And instead of a comma in that sentence, he let out a pretty big yawn. Kj-what was the book about?Ks-it was about this little guy who never shut up and kept telling everyone fairy tales. He also gossiped a lot and made everyone cry. Unfortunately, I didn't get to finish it.. I liked that he was pretty closed off, but paradoxically he was also openly outspoken. Interacting with others repelled him, but he wrote some pretty candid tall tales.Kj-it's a good thing you didn't finish it. Later, a second blond guy shows up, starts listening to tattler and then begins weave his own stories. In the end, they both go crazy and gouge out each other's eyes. ... I read that as a kid — I used to love reading a lot when I was a child.Ks-oof..what is your favorite story?Kj-...about..acardiac hypertension. Nah, I don't really remember the children's stories I read. The only one that stuck with me partially is about a witch who was constantly bullied everywhere she went – at school, at work and nobody liked her anywhere. And she spent all her free time studying magic pentagrams, and one day she brutally killed all her tormentors. Let's just sleep already — I've got work tomorrow.Ks-g-good night...Kj-yeahKs-say a good night to me..honAnd he froze while turning over on his side, but shyly said:Kj-g-good night...They both mumbled half‑asleep, and the pair turned onto different sides. One stared at the wall and the other was examining just how pathetically he'd hung his T‑shirt on the chair.
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