3 3: Learning. (1/2)
Still recovering, he sat down on the bed. His shirt that barely fit his body a few hours ago was able to serve as a robe now, his shorts felt as if would fall at any movement he did. He looked at his hands, they were smaller than he remembered. - ”What is going on here...” he thought confused.
Looking around he could see the room, very rustic, looked like a cabin made from wood planks, a small bed and some linen sheet covered him, there was a stand with water bowl on it, everything on the room was a tone of brown as everything was made of wood.
It didn't take long for a middle aged man with gray hair and beard to walk in, he was wearing strange clothes, seemed out of a medieval fair, he walked with grace and ported himself elegantly, he had curious eyes toward the man in the bed, approaching him while showing a sincere smile.
The older man turned around and talked to the man in armor, a strange and never heard of language came from their mouth. He watched tons of movies, and games from all over the globe, there weren't a major language he didn't hear, still the one they were talking were completely strange to him, he could make no sense of it at all.
The gray man approached his bed and tried to communicate slowly - ”Asberah Kham, Mhacss imillihan, khamus et?”
The man laying down understood it was a question directed at him, but all he could do was give back was a confused smile as expressing through his face ”Sorry, but I can't understand it”.
The older man smiled back to the boy and turned around wavering his hand to him as if saying ”I will be right back”. After leaving the room, took about five minutes for him to return, in his hands he was holding an amulet, it was made of copper and held its characteristic reddish color, the pendant was smaller than a thumb, and held some kind of rune engraved on it, as the gray haired man approached he hold it tightly for a moment and the rune started to emit a very weak blue glow, he then extended his arm and put it on the boys hand and then spoke
- ”Let's try again now.... my name is Maximilian, what is yours?”
His eyes went completely open in surprise - ”MAGIC!” he thought to himself completely flabbergasted. He quickly looked the necklace searching for a hidden led light or place to put battery, but there were none, - ”Magic...” he said clearly unbelieving what he was holding his hands... Maximilian gently laughed at the honest and amazed boy in front of him;
- ”My name is...” he suddenly stopped, his thoughts rushed back in forth of what would be the best approach to this, should he give his real name, should he lie and say he doesn't remember... he understood his situation, he was on a strange place, with medieval characters walking around and there was a frigging magic necklace on his hands... His mind remembered thousands of game and movie worlds he had played, one in particular that came forward stronger than the others... a world where names held power to control the person, also his world names could be strange on this one so he believed he could not risk it so easily and trust someone he just met. He spoke the first name that came to his mind... ”Riou... call me, Riou...”
Maximilian face went serious - ”Riou hum? Right, my boy, can you tell us from where you are and what were you doing in this remote lands?”
Riou flinched, he could not elaborate anything, his lies would be seen through in an instant - ”I don't know... but by the looks of this place I think I'm really far away from home, all I can remember is that I went to bed, and suddenly waked up last night in the woods and walked the majority of the day until...” he remembered then the excruciating effort that was to climb that damn never ending hill, and recalled the last moments falling down the giant cliff... he continued after a moment of silence recovering from the thoughts that still caused pain to him”... until I fell... and woke here”
Maximilian pondered a moment while walked around the room, after a few moments he gave a gently smiled to the boy - ”Very interesting...” he said clearly reaching a conclusion.
”Can you get up? come with me boy, lets have a walk, I need to check something if you don't mind... ” Maximilian said while gesturing for him to get up and heading to the door. The Knight silently watched while the Mage worked.
Riou put the necklace around his neck and stood up, something was strange, he felt shorter his shorts almost fell to the ground, he quickly held it to avoid showing more skin than he wanted to. He followed Maximilian outside holding his shorts with one hand.
The sun was still shining but his eyes were more used to it now, he could feel that he was still a bit tired, but nothing that would compromise his abilities to walk and talk. He followed Maximilian, they were in some kind of small village, it was hot and there were people returning from some crop fields with seemed to be some kind of corn plants, nobody paid much attention to him.
”You were found near that forest... do you know about it?” Maximilian pointed out the location known as Endher Forest, as casually as possible, Riou felt as it was subtle test, but he payed no mind to it while looking carefully to it for a few seconds - ”I don't think so, seem a lot different than the one I was, I don't remember fog or dark trees” he said meaning it, it seemed to be a very different place than he remembered, there were no cliffs or hills as far as he could see, the trees weremuch darker and evil looking than the one he was, and this one had a strange fog far in the distance, deep on the heart of the forest, despite the hot day...
”There was a strange silence...” he said to himself, almost voiceless, while remembering it, that strange silence and eerie feeling still bothered him when he remembers it.
Maximilian didn't reply, but he was walking differently than when entering the room, his steps were steady and with purpose, he kept going until he reached what seemed to be a camping site, full of tents, many leather armored men moving around, some with pieces of metal carrying swords and spears, sitting in circles chatting, some preparing to move out and others gathering wood, probably to light a fireplace later on.
”An army camp in a small village?” he asked trying to understand why
”Yes my boy, did you not feel the tremor earlier? This army here came investigate what happened” - Said Maximilian while looking curiously to the boy, expecting his answer...
”I did not feel any earthquake... ” He answered casually paying no mind to the subtle agenda behind the questioning, he thought it would be better to go with it, it would be better to indulge the old man curiosity as of rewarding the help, an in a sign of trust. ”Also... why do you keep calling me boy, do I look like a child?” Riou asked curious to the reason, to him he should be called a man since he was almost 26 already.
Maximilian stopped and went completely quiet, a serious face that kept looking forward, completely still, without looking to Riou, he could feel an uncomfortable silence growing between them, he felt as pushing too hard, the man was clearly bothered by the questioning, perhaps he was uneducated, and was committing a cultural blunder by questioning back the man. Despite the uncomfortable situation, there was nothing he could do now and he was curious, as he already suspected and feared what the answer might be.