1 Breath

"Aargh... my head... it doesn't stop spinning!" he whispered, massaging his temples and turning to one side. " I can... I can breathe again!"

As soon as he opened his eyes, the young, long-haired man looked at the blurry shapes in front of him and then rose his eyes to the ceiling, realizing he was lying on the ground.

"What the fuck... where... where am I?" he thought aloud, rubbing his eyes and beginning to focus on the images. Staring at it long enough, he managed to understand that what he was experiencing was too vivid to be a dream.

When his gaze fell on his callous and ruined hands, a sudden feeling of fear ran through his whole body and, very quickly, he stood up, risking the fall.

"Don't... I... I don't..." he continued to whisper, babbling nonsensical words. His hand instinctively rose to touch his face, frantically tracing his jawline until it landed on his shoulder-length hair. He looked down, unable to recognize the leather clothing, dirty with mud and straw.

In a hurry, he looked around, focusing his attention on the environment around him: the floor and walls were made of rough damp wood, and the ceiling of that small square room seemed built entirely of straw which rested on long wooden beams.

A small chair was a few meters away from him, before a modest square wooden table, next to a fireplace. He could smell pieces of wood burning so intensely that it impregnated everything that was between those four fragile walls.

"Where the fuck am I?" he whispered to himself. It took him a minute but then it suddenly dawned on him, it's a... a hut. He remembered that he had been sitting in his chair when— the blond-haired boy continued, unable to retrace his memories beyond that moment, turning backwards and continuing to look around.

In addition to the table, a fireplace and a large barrel filled with water, similar to a handmade sink, there was a cluster of soft straw in the other corner of the room, covered with fabrics of various kinds, which had the makings of a bed.

The boy's breath became more intense, and a strong feeling of anxiety and contrasting emotions prevented him from moving. That was until his gaze fell on a piece of glass hanging on the wall above the sink.

Convinced that that strange irregular and damaged object was the most mirror-like thing he could find, the young man positioned himself in front of it and, with his eyes wide open towards the reflected image, stood staring at his new appearance.

Straight, dirty blonde hair fell on his right shoulder, and brown eyes looking back at him reminded the boy of something he had already seen. His hand immediately touched his face to reiterate to his brain that what his eyes were looking at was in fact real and not imaginary.

When he touched his cheeks and chin, he realized that the beard once had was not there, and in its place, were faint stubbles spread in patches across his face.

"Aaarg! Who the hell is this?! Who the hell am... I?" he exclaimed suddenly, resting his hands on the water-filled barrel and pushing backwards, stumbling and falling to the floor.

"Ouch! Uh?!"

After the thud caused by his back slamming against the hardwood of the floor, a strange noise came from behind his shoulders, and his face immediately turned in that direction.

"What was it? Who's there?!" he gasped as if he suspected an intruder in his house. He noticed that the strange sound was coming from the bed area.

Immediately, a small dark creature with a horned head sprang from under one of the sheets. Its two crimson eyes caught sight of him and began to stare at the young man, who returned that gaze.

He pushed himself up off the ground before retreating until he touched the table with his lower back.

As soon as he walked away from the bed, the figure hidden under the sheets slowly crept out, revealing its true appearance: it was a kind of black lizard, equipped with scales all over its body and a long meandering tail, with paws similar to those of a kitten.

Unable to believe what he was seeing, the boy continued to rub his eyes, hoping that the image would vanish, but it didn't.

The strange hybrid animal jumped from the bed and, keeping its eyes on him, when again it screeched.

"Aaargh! Holy bitch!" the young man said, running across the table, unable to hold back the fright. He wondered what kind of animal the creature before him was. It seemed to be a weird amalgamation of a cat and a lizard. Was it possible that someone had drugged him?

"Screek!" the strange animal repeated as it began to walk on all fours towards him, with an innocent air despite its not so innocuous appearance.

"Hey, hey! Stop right there! Don't come any closer, buddy! Stay where you are, okay?!"

As soon as it heard that phrase, the Nekage stopped moving. It stood still and continued to stare forward with its small, demonic red eyes.

"Uh?"

Amazed at its behavior, the young man walked around the table again, making sure that the strange animal who mysteriously hid in the bed did nothing dangerous, being a little larger than a standard cat.

"Go to your place, get back on the bed!" he said, testing the Nekage.

*tap*tap*tap*

The sound of the paws, followed by that of the reptile's tail dangling backwards and tapping the floor, traced its movements until it executed the second command it had been given.

There's something wrong here, he thought. It must be a dream. That was the only way it could explain this. As if he still felt the aftereffects of a drug, he found himself struggling to recall even the smallest thing. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember anything. How old am I? What's my name?

As dozens of questions flooded the young farmer's mind, something else caught his eye.

A dense red liquid, incredibly similar to blood, exuding from the wooden wall above the fireplace.

As if by magic, each of the drops of that blood stopped at an exact point and, in a few seconds, a clearly visible inscription appeared:

"Welcome to your Demon Pet System, your second life's redemption attempt. Tame a Demon in the next 48 hours or die forever."