Editing Dark Elf:Volume1 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===

Klaus’s vision was obscured by flames and smoke.

He did not even have time for fear. His eyes and nose throbbed with pain and, instead of heat, he felt pain like sharp needles were piercing every part of his body. The direct pain and suffering shattered the freedom of thought that people were meant to preserve above all else.

He couldn’t think. Human or dark elf, the burning fire would consume anything in its path.

“Agh! Cough, cough!!”

He coughed violently and twisted around, but he still could not free himself from the log. ''He could use magic, but he had erred in his timing.'' It was too late to use his magic in a panic now that the fire was already set. He should have tried it sooner despite the risk. Then he might have been able to escape, even if the odds were low. They might have killed him, but at least he would have chosen his fate. He could have avoided this worst of all possibilities where he did nothing, had no chance of survival and was simply executed.

…''Am I going to die like this?

It was horribly unfair, but the pain from his burned nose and throat kept him from screaming. But why did they do this? That was still a mystery. Had it been that wrong to see Slender naked? Or had it been a mistake to use the elf language? Was he going to die without even knowing the reason why?

All of a sudden, Klaus realized he could think again. Perhaps he had grown numb to the direct pain. If so, was the real terror about to hit him? ''That seems backwards,'' he thought with a slight smile. He felt a step removed from his own predicament, like he was looking down on himself in an out-of-body experience.

That was when he noticed it. In fact, maybe that was why he noticed it.

Something felt off to him.

There was way too much of it. Of what? Of the smoke. The white smoke billowed out like cotton candy and fully obscured his vision, but there shouldn’t have been that much of it. He thought about what this could mean while the smoke irritated his tear ducts and sent tears streaming down his cheeks. Why was there so much smoke after they threw their torches on the dried plants? He couldn’t think of any reason for that to trigger an incomplete combustion. He should have been engulfed in a giant pillar of fire.

And…

“''Ito bae amib?''”

He heard a voice from a seemingly impossible location.

He couldn’t understand it, but the sound definitely came from within the fire.

“''Wkob fiq’w voo ykiw’v kirroquqj koto, va u fiq jow bae aew ah koto.''”

He couldn’t see past his nose with all the smoke, but he recognized that clear voice.

''Is that…Slender?

…''But why? If this is a punishment for peeping on her bathing, she wouldn’t come to rescue me.

He felt a tug forward. That shouldn’t have moved him while tied to the log, but he collapsed forward nevertheless. Before his knees could land in the dried plants, he felt someone supporting his weight. He could feel an intelligent mind behind the action.

He also felt a litheness not found in his male body. He could sense someone’s pulse through their touching chests.

…''Huh? There’s an awful lot there for someone named Slender.

He must have been too heavy for her because he felt her stagger back a few steps. Whoever this was, they were no ghost. They had a real, physical body.

…''She undid the rope.

''But in the middle of a fire???

No, there may not have been as much fire as it seemed. That unnatural fact may have been the result of something the dark elves did for their ritual.

“Uh, ah.”

He had questions, but he did not have it in him to find any answers. The thick smoke kept Leader, Curvy, and the others dark elf hunters from seeing him, but it also filled his lungs.

He did not even sense himself passing out.

He was not even aware he was crossing that line as his consciousness slipped away.