I slowly opened my eyes trying to readjust my eyesight, everything was still really blurry and I could tell I wasn’t still laying down outside on the snow, I’ve been moved indoors and I was laying on a really soft bed. I sat up slowly and winced in pain, apparently I was hit pretty hard in my abdomen. I lifted up my shirt and saw the massive bruise that was deep purple. I also realized I was wrapped up in bandages.

“That doesn’t look very good.” I said to nobody in particular.

“I’d say!”

I jumped a bit at hearing that familiar voice, I turned in the direction the voice came from; it came from somewhere close the doorway. There I saw the person who must’ve helped me awhile ago. He stood at about 5’6” and he had dark brown hair, he was wearing a white shirt with a black emblem that looked familiar, printed on it.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you or anything. How’re you feeling?” He asked in a very softly spoken tone, still as relaxing to listen to as before.

“Hey, are you okay?” He asked again.

“Huh? What? Oh I just-” I got a little embarrassed at how I spaced out just because I was too focused on listening to somebody else’s voice.

“I’m good, thanks for asking.”

He looked at me a little confused but he ignored it and started walking over to me.

“Here you go.” He held out the folded laundry I didn’t notice that he was holding.

“They got wet in the snow so I just, uh, cleaned them up for you.” He said smiling.

I was a little confused at what he meant, what got wet in the snow? I took a closer look at what he was holding out, I immediately realized that it was my shirt and coat and scarf, all the stuff that I was wearing awhile ago.

My face got flustered immediately as I glanced down and realized that I was wearing a hoodie that was obviously not mine.

I looked up at him “D-did you? Did you change me out of my clothes?” I said.

“Huh. What? Oh uh, yeah, yeah I did.” He scratched his head with his free hand and turned his head away from me, he was obviously embarrassed.

“Don’t worry though; I didn’t change you out of your pants.” Well I guess that was a relief as I looked down and saw my pants still on.

“I-I’m a licensed nurse so, yeah...” He said.

“Oh. Okay then.” I looked around a bit then said. “By the way, where am I?”

“Oh.” He looked back at me and rested the clothes down on the foot of the bed.

“You’re in my room, in the Winter Lodge.” He stated.

“The Winter Lodge, huh?” That was the inn, hotel thing that was placed somewhere near the foot of the mountain. It was pretty expensive though, it was 50 Giletes a night, and that was the cheapest room they got.

Oh, and by the way, a Gilet is about as much as a three hundred old American dollars. When the world was influenced by the Knights, they changed the means of currency.

“This place is good, but too pricey for me.” I stated. I wasn’t exactly a wealthy person, to be honest I’m pretty broke. It wasn’t hard to tell.

“You don’t really look like the type of person who is in the richer classes of society, no offense.” I just realized how bad that actually sounded.

“Don’t worry, I can understand why. It’s because I have a pretty big job actually, and it pays a lot, but recently it’s become really dangerous.” He looked a little distressed.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-” he cut me off before I could finish.  

“No! No, it’s fine, really.” He said shaking his hands apologetically.

I started “I hope you don’t mind, but what’s your work?” I didn’t want to bother him or make him uncomfortable but the description of his job made me curious, I mean he did mention he was a registered nurse, but he isn’t a nurse, which meant that it was nothing more than a requirement to know medical procedures, and he also mentioned about it becoming more dangerous recently.'

He looked up at me again and he rubbed his right arm with the other and was obviously not into talking about it.

“Well maybe- I guess I could tell you-” he wasn’t able to finish his sentence because somebody rang the doorbell.

He turned his head around to the hall “I’ll get it!” and he walked hurriedly off.

Wait, he still didn’t tell me what his job was. Well I guess I’ll have to ask about it again some other day. My attention was pulled away from his work when I saw him walk back into the room with somebody else; the other person was a woman, dressed much like a physician.

“So how’re you feeling?” She asked me.

“What me? Oh, I’m doing better.” I replied to her.

I could see the “North Side” logo on that was printed onto her lab coat’s shoulder. She must’ve been a doctor there. Her red hair caught my eye right away, it was a deep ruby red, and it matched her eyes, which burned a deep scarlet.

“That’s right, thanks to this guy...” She gestured her hands toward the young man standing behind her.

“... Cammy called me up right away after you had your accident. He did a pretty good job of fixin’ you up; you broke quite a few bones. Also surprisingly enough, even though the impact was mostly focused on your nose and face, neither of those things are broken, I mean geez you didn’t even get a concussion. You’re pretty tough, kid.”

“Lexa, I told you not to call me that!” The smaller boy cried out.

She laughed a bit. “Yeah sure, whatever you say.” She said as she waved her hand in a light motion. She walked back over to the front door.

“I’ll check on you in a bit- uh...” She glanced over to me.

“Daniel.” I said.

“Daniel, I think I’ll call you, Danny. If anything happens, just call me.”

She pulled out a small card and flicked it at me in a skilful manner. It glided slowly over to me, and then landed on my lap. I picked it up and examined it.

It had the words “North Side Medical Support Team.”

NSMST huh, didn’t think these kind of independent parties still existed. It also had a number located under the name. “500-130-1987” I’m going to assume that was the number to her office or something.

“Oh thanks I-” The door slammed closed as I started talking. She already left.

“... Will.” I said as I lowered the card. I sighed.

I looked over to the door on the right of the bed. That boy, I think the doctor called him Cammy? He came out carrying a small tray carrying some tea over to the bed.

“Here, I made you some tea.” He said handing over a cup to me.

“Thanks.” I accepted the tea and took a sip from it.

The lad looked at me and asked a little concerned. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

I think he was talking about my injuries because I was pretty much sitting up and moving around quite a bit, even though I look pretty beat up.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“I mean you did dislocate your left shoulder, fractured three or four ribs, cracked your pelvis and you got pretty badly lacerated.” He said with concern.

“Wow, I didn’t think I hit that tree that hard.” I really didn’t feel any of those things he just mentioned; I was a little sore, but aside from that I couldn’t really feel anything wrong with me.

He laughed a bit. I smiled a little too just seeing him happy for some reason.

After laughing we had a little bit of a silent pause. Then he looked up at me and said “Oh, right! I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Pyron.” He said as he put his hand on his chest. “And you’re Daniel, right?” He gestured his hand forward.

“Yeah, that’s me.” I remembered that the doctor lady had actually called him Cammy, maybe that was some nickname, but it wasn’t anything close to Pyron.

“Didn’t that lady, Lexa was it? Call you Cammy?” I decided to ask.

“Haha! Yeah, but no, that’s not my name anymore. My name was changed by requirement when I got my job. Apparently we weren’t allowed to reveal ourselves to anyone else, so we had an identity change.”

“Just call me Pyron.” He said in a friendly manner.

“Pyron it is then.”

I looked out the window and realized it was getting pretty late. I didn’t want to overstay my welcome so I got up from the bed, to which Pyron responded by rushing over to me and held me up a little.

He seemed pretty surprised.

“Hey, wait! What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Don’t worry about me, I’m doing fine. I really shouldn’t stay too long; I don’t want to overstay my welcome.” I really didn’t, and also I had to go some place tomorrow, and I have to be early. I glanced over to the clock and it read 08’20”40.

“Wait! You should stay a bit longer.” He objected. “At least until you’ll have dinner.”

I thought about it for a second. I looked at his blue eyes, this stranger really does care about me for some reason, and I guess it would be rude to refuse having dinner with the person who helped me out, not that I needed it, but I can appreciate it.

“Fine then, you win.” He had the look of success on his face. “But only on one condition.” I said.

He looked at me again looking puzzled.

“I won’t stay longer than ten.” Partially because I had to go somewhere tomorrow, but mostly because I start changing as the night goes on, and it varies on how bad I change every time.

He pondered on it as he rubbed his chin. He thought about it for a few seconds and then gave me his answer.

“Deal!” He looked cheerful again.

I laughed at how enthusiastic he was acting, his cheerful nature really was addictive and it was nice to be around him.

I took my clothes off the bed so I could change.

“Uhm, do you have anywhere I could go so I can change.” I asked him.

“Oh, you can use that room over then if you like.” He gestured for the door on the far right side corner of the room. “I’ll go and check on the food while you change.”

He walked out into the hallways assumingly towards the kitchen, and by food I think he meant that dinner I agreed to having with him which we talked about awhile ago.

I went for the door that he directed me to awhile ago. I made my way over to it and opened the door. It lead to a bathroom of sort, it was pretty big actually, almost as big as the room I was in awhile ago, in it there was a pretty big bathtub, a new-tech toilet, a pretty big mirror. It looked pretty good actually.

I freshened up a little bit first, washing my face and taking a closer look at my bandages. There was some blood on it, but not that much.

I removed the hoodie that I was wearing; it felt pretty soft for a hoodie to be honest. I took the dark shirt from the pile of laundry that I took from the bed earlier. I wore it along with my black hooded jacket, scarf, and my strap belt for all my stuff.

I walked out the bathroom and went through the same hall that Pyron went through, and it brought me to a pretty high class living room. I was pretty astounded with the stuff that was in here. Everything looked really expensive.

Then suddenly, I was struck with the most amazing aroma ever.

I inhaled deeply and followed its source, it seemed to be coming from the kitchen, I went through and I saw Pyron facing the opposite direction towards a counter. He was cooking something that looked pretty fancy on the stove. I walked into the kitchen and found my way to the decent sized table; I took a seat on one of the chairs.

Pyron turned towards me and then smiled. “Hey, I’m just about done with the food.”

I took the pan from the stove and took the food off and set it on a plate. He pulled out two glasses from the cupboard overhead and then set it on the tray along with the food. It looked really good.

My face flushed red when my stomach made the loudest possible groan it could, I didn’t think I was that hungry. I laughed a little as I rubbed the back of my head in embarrassment.

“I-I’m sorry! I guess I’m pretty hungry after all.” I said.

He just laughed back and set the food onto the table from the tray. He walked over to the fridge and pulled out some kind of juice. I wasn’t paying too much attention to that though.

He walked back to the table and poured some juice into the glasses, it smelled pretty citrusy; I sniffed at it a bit. I think Pyron noticed because he tilted his head to the side a bit and gave a confused look.

“It’s just iced tea.” He gave another look at me.

“Huh? Oh, no! Sorry, just old habits.” I was raised as a beast for about a year or so after I figured out what I was, I made it training I guess, I didn’t get to be very proper or learn etiquette until after awhile.

Pyron just nodded. He handed me a glass and then took a seat. We started eating and I we talked a little bit more.

“So, what do you do?” Pyron asked me.

“What? Me?” I didn’t actually have a proper job or anything like that, I didn’t really mind, it isn’t like I actually needed to eat, after all I am an almost-immortal being.

“No. I haven’t had a good job in so long.” I looked down a bit. I didn’t really enjoy my older jobs, but it gave me a sense of purpose, like I was doing something important.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up anything painful-”

“No, it’s not anything like that. I just...” I looked for the right words to say. “I guess I just miss it, is all.”

He stared at me for a bit too long, and I felt a little embarrassed again. I looked away from his gaze. “I’m sorry. It’s nothing, I promise.” I admit it was a little bit painful, always quitting a job before anything big happened. All the friends I made, all the fun I had.

My eyes got a little bit teary. I looked down as I wiped the tears away from my eyes.