“All surface wounds will heal in time, the one thing I'm worried about though is his mental state after. Mr. Markson, I'm sorry to tell you this....but there appears to be some lesions on Derec's medial temporal lobe.”

“Wh-what does that mean?” Henry was afraid, not fearful that he would be stuck with a vegetable, but afraid that he wouldn't be able to care for the young man he hadn't even met properly yet.

“The medial temporal lobe, is the part of the brain that stores long-term memory. From what we can gather from the few short moment's Derec has been awake, he suffers from retrograde amnesia. He will be able to remember everything from after the accident but nothing from before, his latest memories are from around the age 9 or 10 though we can't be sure.” Like any experienced doctor, Dr. Hans knew how best to handle family when it came to breaking the news, there were no fake smiles or unsupported reassurances, nothing but the facts. “I'll give you some time to think over your options.” Dr. Hans hated this part of it, an amnesiac is a hard case to take care of, they require much consideration and many families just can't handle the burden and they abandon siblings, parents and spouses to long-term care centres.

But Henry wasn't one of those people, just the though of Jeraldine taking Derec home only to be kicked out by Frank, or locked up and beaten daily. “No! I don't need time to think, I'll take custody. What can I do to help him?”

Almost sighing in relief Dr. Hans turned back to Henry and sat behind his desk. “We are very lucky in recent years for the technology we have today, that it will allow us to care for and even cure patients with Derec's condition. Proven time and time again, the new virtual reality Royal Road is what we are going to use to our advantage.”

> Quote:-- The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account? --

Derec was so excited, this is the first game he got to play that actually belonged to him, any other games he used to play either were at the arcade when he managed to scrap together a few coins or at a friends house.

“Yes!”

> Quote:-- Select the name of your avatar --

“Cloud” Derec automatically named his favourite final fantasy character, he remembered playing the game on his best friend Jason's Playstation just yesterday.

> Quote:-- Select your gender from male female or neutral --

“boy”

> Quote:-- Royal road has forty-nine races, you may select your race from the primary thirty --

Human was a boring race for Derec, and dwarves were short, thinking about it he decided within moments “elf”

> Quote:-- Due to programming restrictions specific to this gaming console changes to a pre-programmed appearance are not permitted. Would you like to continue? --

This confused Derec but he didn't really care to think about it much, as it was going through the beginning stages was taking long enough. “Continue!”

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> Quote:-- Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road --

“Hurry up!”

> Quote:-- Based on your race choice and programming restrictions your city of origin is the Citadel of Isis in the Avalon kingdom. Would you like to continue? --

Yet again Derec was confused. Why would there be restrictions on his console? But really not like he would have been able to pick better city or kingdom as he didn't know anything about the game beyond the basic description. “Yes I wanna continue”

> Quote:-- Welcome to Royal Road. Entering instance in 3, 2, 1, 0...... --

With a flash Cloud was in the middle of a bustling square. In complete shock he just stood stock still until someone bumped into him. “Out of the way freak!” Stumbling Cloud looked up to the person that the voice had come from. At this moment he noticed quite a few people staring at him, speaking in low whispers he could barely hear.

“---Child”

“--- alter their looks like that?”

“Why not be taller?”

After a while cloud realized they were all looking down at him, literally. Looking down at himself, Cloud realized he was quite short in comparison to the other players. Then it hit him, this game was unlike any other he had ever played, what was going on? Did he somehow get stuck in the console? Was he in another world?

Running to the nearest water fountain he looked at his reflection in the water, he looked exactly like himself. He had his ordinary dark hair and blue eyes, average body for a ten year old; a little too skinny for his height but nothing out of the usual. He must have gone to another planet! But why weren't there any other people his own age here?

Cloud needed to think but he couldn't keep a straight thought in his head without it getting knocked out every time he got stepped on or elbowed. Running to to the nearest alley he slid down the wall and sat on the ground, staring at the bricks across from him. Thinking back on the last few hours he vaguely remembered a conversation.

'This new game is called Royal Road.......like nothing you've ever played before....virtual reality......to remember.'

Then it came to him, this was just a game he was playing, the system like nothing he had ever played before, something called virtual reality where it seemed like he was in another world. Feeling a little sheepish at his own outrageous conclusions Cloud watched the bustling crowd of players in the street.

Standing up he turned toward the street taking a step forward when some one grabbed his hand. Not looking back he squeezed his eyes shut, tugging on his captured hand trying to free himself only to find he was truly caught by the fact that having the body of a child gave him the strength to match.