An unknown amount of time later, the little boy lazily opens his eyelids only to notice the warmth provided by a fine khaki coloured blanket.

“You’re awake” says an aged voice, the little boy now remembers about the old man from last night. With great effort he raises his head slightly off the ground and looks at the old man.

Now that it is day the boy is able to see the finer details on the old man’s face. he has a purple tattoo on the right side of his neck depicting a tree that constantly sways about almost as if there is a light breeze. There are some green dots on the bridge of his nose that move positions every now and then.

Finally, the old man has a warm smile on his face, it is a smile that fills the little boy with security, this smile gives of the sense of experience, it gives the impression that the old man has experienced the ravages of time and was able to smile through it without any regrets.

The old man himself is wearing a long sleeved shirt that is a strange bright green tucked into a pair of deep purple trousers. On the left hand side of the shirt above the heart area is a logo that is the same as the tattoo on the man’s neck. The man’s feet are bare, but oddly enough even though it is likely he has been treading through the sewage of others there is a lack of dirt on his peach coloured feet.

“Here” says the old man “Open your mouth, child”, the little boy notices in the man’s hand is a wooden bowl and a wooden cup.

The boy can guess what is in the bowl due to the smell, purple Kruy, the mere thought of the aftertaste makes the little boy want to cry.

The boy does as the man says and opens his mouth, more than last time only by an extra centimetre but still a little improvement. The old man helps the boy eat the food and drink the water in the wooden cup, once this is done he places the objects next to a relatively large duffle bag that is a bright orange in colour. After this is done he sits next to the boy on the floor.

“My name is Master Ulam, I am a member of the druid alliance north of here. If you have the ability child can you tell me your name?”.

The little boy thinks for a while and responds to Ulam “K … K … KAT … KATO” in a husky exhausted voice the little child named Kato reveals his name.

“Kato is it? Hmm” Ulam has a pondering look on his face.

“Well little Kato, may I inquire as to where your family are?”

Kato exhausted from saying his name can only shake his head slowly to question asked by Ulam.

Ulam still with his warm smile gently strokes Kato’s dirty hair and says “I am sorry to hear that Little Kato; I have business in this city so I shall stay with you a while until you get back to sufficient health.”

Kato looks at the Ulam with reddening eyes. He thought We have never met yet this man shows kindness to me like a family member.

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Ulam noticing Kato’s emotions smiles towards him. He stands up walks to his bright orange bag and picks up the bowl, a small sparkle of light appears and Ulam walks over to Kato with the bowl and a yellow coloured cloth.

“first lets clean you up a bit” the smiling Ulam states as he soaks the cloth, rinses it and begins to gently rub Kato’s face.

Seeing the care, the old man gives him, Kato is reminded of his mother. He cannot say that his mother is a pretty woman but neither can he say she is ugly. She is wearing a dirty yellow apron and is currently cooking a meal for the family. He remembers his little brother who is sitting on the floor playing with a small wood carving made by his father.

“Kaatooo” his little brother Airin yells, “come play until dinner is ready”.

Kato who is sitting at a table playing with his own wood carving ignores his brother.

“MOM” Airin yells with a slightly broken voice “Kato is ignoring me”.

“Kato play with Airin for a little bit please, food is almost ready” says his mother in a calm manner as stirs the pot of soup.

“Fine” says Kato in an irritated mood.

The memory experiences an abrupt change, the house is on fire, his brother is lying in a pool of his own blood, tears dripping down his face and a sword cut from the top left side of his chest to the bottom right side of his stomach. His mother is lying face up on the floor with her legs spread and a ragged dagger cut across her throat.

4 men all wearing red long sleeved shirts with a light plate armour on top emblazoned with the symbol of a red horse archer are standing over the corpses of his family.

One of them notices Kato and thrusts a long sword into his left eye. Just as its about to pierce into his brain he comes out of the memory, once again exhausted tears and snot dripping down his face.

“Shhh little Kato it is all fine now” says Ulam hugging Kato’s half cleaned face in his chest.

Kato raises his tear stained face and looks at Ulam who still has his warm smile on his aged face, “no one shall hurt you now, it’s okay” 

Kato lowers his head into Ulam’s Bright green shirt, strangely enough Kato’s tears and snot drip from his shirt without soaking in it.

“I just cleaned your face and you dirty it again with your tears.” Says Ulam in a joking tone, still with his warm aged smile.

Kato lets out a light giggle and relaxes on Ulam’s chest, a sense of comfort is gained which bring the two people closer.

………………………………

“There all clean” says an aged voice. “what a handsome young lad you are now”

Ulam who has just finished cleaning Kato’s body and hair looks at the skinny face. Bright green eyes, an unhealthy blonde coloured hair, pale white skin with a few scars here and there and chapped lips. A major improvement from before.

Ulam looks at Kato’s body which has been cleaned and sees the various infected cuts and extremely malnutrition body and the white coloured skin.

Ulam sits at the bottom of Kato’s small and skinny feet and places his left hand on his right foot and his right hand on his left food. He closes his eyes and mutters a few words, next a strange orange bubble appears around Ulam’s hand.

Ulam slowly brings his hands up the boy’s body rubbing across each inch of his front. A strange but warm sensation passes though Kato’s body and he watches as the wounds caused from fighting over food with vermin and people are slowly healed.

Ulam slowly opens his eyes again, a drop of sweat falls down the left side of his face and he smiles towards Kato. “I was able to heal your cuts and remove the infections in your body. But my magic will only go so far and won’t help you to build up muscle and fat unfortunately.”

Kato can only nod to Ulam slowly as he realises he is beginning to gain more strength in order to do things.

“Once I have finished with my affair for today I shall be back and I shall begin to teach you the basics of magic. You would however most likely be unable to read so some elementary teaching is required for you to be able to read and write.”

Kato who doesn’t understand the concept of magic can only nod his head towards Ulam whilst anticipating his future lessons from his new teacher.