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Jasper stopped his descent down the rocky hillside as he felt a tug on his chest. Sighing he turned around and saw his unwilling companion stuck in an opening between two rocks. "Runt! Yer stuck again?" He called out to the demon. A flare of light was his answer and he shook his head. "I'm comin'." He muttered, staring at the jagged rocks he had very carefully climbed down. He had done his best to avoid slipping on the spear points and plummeting to his death. 

He looked toward the bottom of the hill, so close was the soft looking ashen sand. His feet felt like they were ripped to shreds and he didn't dare look down at them as he started to climb back up to 'Runt'. He have given the demon that name for no other reason than because it seemed to enrage it more than normal. It deserved it for it's behavior and attitude. From what he understood, they were very much stuck with each other. If they grew too far apart then it would become physically painful for them both. Something he learned and never forgot after growing frustrated with the creature and throwing it into a hole. 

The pain he felt had been so agonizing that he couldn't move, couldn't even scream. He had laid there shuddering and writhing until his heart stopped beating. Then he died. He knew he did not just passed out, he had died. When he awoke again with Runt sitting on his chest and glowering at him and seeing nothing had changed, he realized he was in the afterlife. 

Before that moment he hadn't thought he was dead. From his hazy memories he thought he had merely been taken away from his home and from his...Sister? Daughter? He had been wandering the wasteland with the hope that he was making his way home, making his way to answers of who he was. He hadn't been though. He had never been close.

The realization had crippled him and he hadn't wanted to get up from where he awoke. What would have been the point? There was no point. He was dead. Why not just lay in the dirt like the corpse he was?

It had been Runt that encouraged him to get up. The demonic creature had tugged on his sleeve, scratched at him and nudged him with his head non-stop for hours on end. As the creature persisted a thought occurred to him. Maybe Runt knew something he didn't? What if he was trying to lead him somewhere?

The small chance of hope, any hope at all in this nightmare land had reignited a fire inside him.

Jasper hissed when a jagged bit of rock cut across his palm. Sweat dripped down his brow, causing some of the grime on his face to streak in dark lines. "Almost...there!" He grunted, reaching up to grab another rock. He started to pull himself up by it and then he heard a crack. There was a brief moment of free fall before his back slammed into a rock at an angle, causing his body to slip off and tumble down the unforgiving hillside.

Panic swept through him as he tried to catch himself on something, anything to stop the painful descent. He felt his head hit a small rock and felt a crack before darkness.

===

Jasper awoke with a gasp, his eyes opening wide and looking up at Runt, sitting on his chest and staring at him as always. "...What?" He asked the demon defensively, holding out his hands. "Yer the one tha' got stuck." Runt growled at him before looking down at his chest and pawing at the hole in his tunic. "The stone?" He put his hands on his chest and pulled the fabric so Runt could see the damned thing. "'s fine. See?" It looked the same as always, right down to the little crack in the polished surface.

The fire or whatever it was that made up Runt's body flared and it jumped off to stalk away. 

“‘Ey, don’t be miffed with me. I didn’t do anythin’ wrong.” Jasper mumbled, pushing himself up from the soft sand. At least they were at the bottom. He rubbed his hand over his head to shake out the sand in it, his eyes fixated on the hillside. His rust colored eyes traveled up until they looked at the top and into the swirling dark clouds overhead. 

He watched the hill for any movement before getting up and following after Runt’s paw prints in the sand. “Y’know, things be easier if ya let me carry ya.” He pointed out, walking beside the small creature. It growled at him, flicking its tail in clear annoyance. “Fine, fine, let yer pride get in the way. If I could, I’d let someone carry me in a heart beat. Get off me poor feet for awhile.” Jasper looked down at his dirty feet that ached and burned as they always did. 

Runt darting off out of the corner of his eye got his attention and he quickly followed after it. Sand flared up around his feet as he came to a stop next to the demon, staring at the impressions in the sand with wide eyes.

Tracks. They looked like human foot prints. 

Jasper knelt down into the sand to study them carefully, not believing what he was seeing. He had never seen evidence of another person in this realm before. After what felt like an eternity of traveling alone and avoiding monsters, did another person really make these tracks? Or was it a trick?

“What do ya think?” He asked Runt, standing up to his feet. “Follow?”

The demon stared at him for a moment then it silently began to walk alongside the tracks. Nodding Jasper walked with the creature, anxiety and excitement making his stomach churn.