The next thing Kael knew was that he felt cold. Slowly opening his eyes, he had to blink a few times until his eyes focused. There was only darkness when he opened his eyes. Confused at first, he was not sure if he was awake and in reality or still unconscious.

Only after concentrating for a moment did he see some spots of light sporadically dotting the black void. Prodding his brain a little to get it to work again, he tried to piece together what had happened to him. The view up told him that he was most likely back in the real world. To confirm, he tried to move his head and get a different angle.

The movement was a little stiff from his throbbing head and neck. Before he had the chance to move much, however, a familiar voice called out to him. "Ah! Hey don't move yet. Your wound is still healing." Well, that is new, he thought, had there been a voice in the void? No, I don't think so... makes this more likely to be reality then.

Struggling with his still dazed mind, it took a while for him to formulate an answer. Maybe he was too slow, but before he could speak, the voice seemed to have run out of patience, and Kael saw the outline of something humanoid invade his field of view, looking down at him.

In the darkness, Kael could only make out shapes and contours, but... he was pretty sure he knew the creature, human from somewhere. Yea, that seals the deal, he thought. He was back in his original body. Too bad that it hurt. Some lever in him had seemingly flipped, and a dull throbbing pain broke out from his back.

With the pain, clarity returned to his mind, and the memories of how he ended up on the ground came back to him. For a short moment, he wished the daze back, hoping it would take the pain away with it. Letting out a groan, he looked at the person kneeling over him. With only the light of the moon and stars and whatever residual constant background light was left in the city, it was hard to make out details.

"Ouch. Note to self, don't get hit by strange magic." Images of what might have happened had he gotten hit in his squishy parts only reinforced that statement. Hearing the light snort of laughter from the person above him helped pull him away from the painful possibilities.

"How long was I out? And what happened to me? Am I ok? What did you say again, and shouldn't I be in a hospital or something?" Still rattled from his, he now realized, near-death encounter, he had trouble controlling himself. Taking a deep breath, he focused on Green, or no, Martin if he remembered correctly.

"Oh ah, I don't know how we would have explained what happened, you know, in a hospital. Also, you are not really supposed to talk about magic you know, like at all. And, well... you don't look like you have insurance, so... Besides, what I am doing is way better anyway." Martin was right of course, but his answer did little to calm Kael's nerves down. Before he could ask again, however, Martin continued.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Um, what else did you ask? Ah! Right, the healing. Uhm so, you know about magic right? No? Well, you just awakened your magic sooo, it'll be fine, I think. Anyway, I apparently have some talent in nature magic, and one of its aspects is healing. Don't know how or why, but today is the first time I actually got to use it, you know. They said I had the talent but... So, anyway! I have been using it on you to heal you."

He was stunned. The answers prompted even more questions than they answered, but they at least explained how he was not dying right now. Shelving his questions about what, exactly, talent in nature magic and awakening was, at least for now, he directed the conversation to a topic he could understand.

"Why are you even helping me? Why did you not leave with your friends? Or are they still here, ready to finish the job?" The reaction he got was different from what he had expected. „Haa, they were not always like that.“ His voice was so quiet that Kael had trouble understanding him. „Ah sorry. It's just, I have known them for a long time and... somehow it turned out like that. They are bullies, sure. But Jason, the leader, used to be my best friend... However much I might ignore, this is just evil. I could not just leave you here.“

Kael could hear the pain, helplessness, and conviction to do better in Martin's voice. Silence returned to the alley as both teens returned to their personal thoughts. Minutes passed, and Kael could feel the pain in his back dwindle. Whatever Martin was doing to him, it seemed to be working.

Letting silence hang between them for a while, Kael tried to digest everything that had just happened. With both of them deep in their thoughts, the loud bang of some idiot's modified exhaust made them yelp.

Looking at each other for a second, they broke out into laughter together. With everything that had happened in the last few weeks, Kael felt good to just laugh again. Without caring about who heard him or what anyone might think about him, he felt his shackles of pain and anger loosen a little.

Once they calmed down a little, Kael asked his doctor: "So, when can I get back up, the floor is sadly not very comfortable? And how long was I out anyway? It seems quite late at night going by the darkness and silence.“ - "Mhh, yea you were out for a few hours I think. Oh, and I am almost done with the healing, just a few more minutes and you're good to go.“ Then there suddenly was a bright light, and Kael had to squint his eyes.

Once his eyes stopped seeing a wall of white, he was that Martin was looking at his smartphone. A few moments later, Martin clarified his answer. "Yep, 4 hours and, like, 20 minutes or something. It’s close to midnight now.“ Now that there was light, he noticed that he had not been the only one suffering tonight.

All over Martin's face and hands, Kael could see bruises and cuts in various stages of healing. Why he had not healed himself or at least tried to clean his wounds, Kael did not know. What he did know was that seeing someone that had helped him, healed and taken care of him injured, made him angry.

„That also Jason's work?“ Kael asked, pointing at Martin's injuries, when he put his smartphone somewhere beside them, giving light to the dark alley.

„Hmm? This?“ He asked, seemingly not caring about his wounds at all. „Yea, well, he did not like that we stopped him from hitting you again while you were down. Tom and Edward got involved too, and together we finally managed to get him away. Most of these are from when he was fighting against us. The rest are from before.“ Looking at the carefree smile on the healer's face somehow made Kael even more angry and sad than all of their injuries had.

„Oh the regen ran out again. Here let me apply another for good measure. That should do to get you back on your feet at least.“ Only now did Kael realize that the pain was almost completely gone. This time he had the chance to observe how he had been healed. The teen simply laid his hands on his arm, and a dim green glow appeared around his hands. Similar to Jason when he had charged his attack, he felt the energy, Mana he knew now, gather, before being somehow changed as it seeped into him. It felt almost like two different flavors of magic to him.