Damian spent the next few hours wandering through the strange forest with a surprising amount of shame and humiliation painting his features, he had done many embarrassing things before but walking around a dark forest in what seemed like the middle of the day judging by the few rays of light which came down from the canopy, wearing nothing but a choker collar made entirely out of twisted nails was truly a unique experience….he hoped.
It wasn't his fault that the spell hadn't given him any armour type memories to wear in case of situations like this, all he had to wear was the strange charm he had gotten from dispatching Javier which may have just made the whole situation worse honestly. He wasn't quite sure what the charm was actually doing to help him as its description wasn't very helpful but he knew it had to be doing something for him…right?
What was even worse than that was the fact that he didn't have a single weapon to his name, sure he had his bow but without any arrows to fire all he could do with it was bludgeon someone with it and even then he wasn't sure how much damage that would actually do to the inhabitants of these woods. The few creatures he saw here and there varied from small communities of birds, medium to large sized predatory creatures which seemed to hunt low to the ground and a fair few predatory plants which he avoided along the path.
However after traveling for a while a sight caught his eye, or rather eyes! It seemed like his body here was devoid of any of the damages it had accumulated in the past which was a strange adjustment after not being used to seeing through it in so long. It was different than in his first nightmare as well, during that time he was in the body of another person, so the feeling of having two eyes whilst strange didn't bring a lot of emotions with it considering the circumstances he had found himself in, but now it was like he had regained a piece of himself thought to be lost forever.
It was hard for him to determine quite what he was seeing at first but after a few moments of staring at the bark of an innocent looking tree he froze before running forward with startling speed, imbedded in the tree was the remains of a young man with branches growing out of his body covered in vermilion flowers. Damian examined the body, watching as the roots hungrily sucked away at what nutrients still remained within his body, his skin was tight and translucent with his muscles showing clear signs of breaking down as the flowers bloomed beneath his skin.
The branches had grown over the majority of the man's skeleton, replacing the bones with the twisting bark of the dark wood, the roots reached out and pierced his skin forming a hauntingly beautiful display of vermilion flowers which feasted on the young man's flesh. His face was frozen in fear from the moment he had passed with no light shining from his once vibrant eyes but what caught Damian's attention was the peculiar injury on the man's head, taking a closer look it was almost like he had been repeatedly had his skull bashed in which likely was his cause of death.
The revelations here were enough to make his stagger back as he watched the man being slowly digested in front of him, the first revelation was that, much like his first nightmare there were other people walking around this forest and the second revelation was that judging by the nature of this man's lack of clothes they may be like him, Dreamers who were sent to this "Dream Real" as the spell called it, if that was the case how many of them were there in this forest? He had worked out that there were thousands of Dreamers all across the world so it could be a rather staggering amount.
Looking around the area he quickly found a set of footprints in the muddy floor running away from the scene, whoever else had been here must have been frightened by the scene…or abandoned this man to allow for themselves to escape or any number of other possibilities but whatever the case Damian had to be cautious, he didn't know if this other stranger would be a potential ally or a future threat.
Damian was following along the footsteps very pleased that his attributes seemed to make it so the mud wasn't sticking to his feet as he walked, it was strange though, he could feel the muds frost textures underneath his feet as he walked and even how it deformed under his step but unless he willed it to happen he never left even a single print, he wondered what other traces he failed to leave behind which he had otherwise never considered.
Day had long turned to night since he had caught up to the mysterious stranger, the both of them were sitting around a terribly constructed fire though the other man had no idea that Damian was even there, something about the young man put Damian on edge, it wasn't just the fact that his body was bruised and horribly dishevelled even for a person surviving in these strange woods. His eyes shone with a strange sense in the firelight. It was then that he saw it, the look in his eyes was one Damian had seen many times on the battlefield, they were the eyes of a killer. The young man probably didn't even know it himself yet but given the state of the world he was destined to become a prolific harbinger of death some day, Damian was sure of it.
He had debated whether or not he would reveal himself to the young man but since the meeting with Javier he knew he had to be more cautious from now on as it was impossible to tell what type of power a person's Aspect granted them so it was always better to be safe than sorry in this new age. If the young man did have one thing going for it it was his terrible sense of humour, when Damia had caught up to he he was snickering about…wood and something about a naked man, which may have been a little funny the first time if he had worded it well and not repeated it nearly one hundred times since then in different ways and none of them were better than the last.
In the end he decided to simply watch over the man and help him if need be, even if the man didn't know it at the time two people would survive a lot longer than a person on their own, this made Damian think about Jasper, was the young man here in the woods alone as well? He knew that he was and that he had probably done something rather stupid by now, but he was far more prepared than nearly anybody else to survive a place like this. A powerful set of armour and a strong weapon would hopefully allow for him to get by and pass this second trial quickly.
Damian stayed by the young man's side over the next few days watching over him like the world's hairiest guardian angel, helping to take down small threat with well placed strikes, the man wasn't too helpless as he managed to make a makeshift spear from a loose rock he had been carrying about, a long branch and some string he had made from the rotten bark of a dead tree. He had also managed to kill and skin one of the beasts which he had roughly skinned to make something akin to the world most horrific poncho, Damian had help of course, attacking the creatures legs in order to give the man a fair chance of killing it, it was a shame that the man seemingly knew about the shard which he had taken before Damian got a chance to grab them himself.
During this time he had managed to create a rather crude covering made from leaves and loose sticks with vines to hold the whole thing together, Damian had never really been great at this type of thing but it got the job done, it was during this time in which he temporarily lost sight of the man before the sound of screams echoed from behind him as he was being chased by a large silver coated tiger which prompted Damian to give chase.
By the time he arrived he couldn't believe his eyes, a large metal javelin was protruding from the creature's skull as standing above the dishevelled man was a tall young man in a suit with handsome features, dark hair and steely grey eyes which beamed with intensity. His face was perfectly clean and his polished suit of knightly armour made him look like a tank of a man.
The trees had disappeared behind them leaving the world exposed in bright light which made Damian's eye water as his vision adjusted as he looked out onto the beautiful sight of a perfectly clean river flowing steadily as its surface glistened in the midday sun. So distracted by the sudden change of scenery he had failed to pay attention to the two young men's conversation, only catching the end as he watched the knight pull the poor man back onto his feet.
"...you real?" The bruised man asked unsure if his savior was another just like him
The knight nodded before answering in a strangely upbeat yet neutral tone,
"Quite real,yes. It seems that this situation is different from the Nightmare. Actually, there is an entire group of sleepers here, in this monstrous forest. We were all sent here together."
Remaining silent for a moment before smiling brightly,
"All people of great courage and valor, no doubt."
The gaunt man stared wide eyed at the man before speaking once again, their conversation continued a little more before they gathered up the shards from the creature and headed back towards the knights camp, with Damian following close behind, this was the first he heard of the term sleeper…but the name had a nice ring to to he thought to himself.