Chapter 30: Changes
“Shit! What the fuck!”
A red haired youth jumped up from his bed in a cold sweat. Deep emotions of confusion and unwarranted anxiety filled his entire being. Slowly, he looked around himself to find he was in a medium space room, cozily decorated with pleasant tapestry, various indoor plants and soft fur rugs. Various items such as a large mirror, shelves filled with books and a violin leaned on the room’s walls.
'...what?'
Zan took a look at the walls, preparing himself, only to find that they were made of a brown colored wood. He sighed in relief to find that they weren't green and nor were they throbbing with twisted life.
Now that he thought about it, the wood was not gray and its brown color was not as beautiful as the library he had just been in. It was simply normal wood from an ordinary forest.
'Ordinary…? Normal…?'
"Normal" had become a weird word to him as of late. From everything that happened to him ever since he found Mila's laboratory dungeon, to his bizarre visions and out of body experiences, the term "normal" was something he found strange but comforting.
The youth wanted to take a moment to simply enjoy the mundane present, even if he had no idea how he ended up in this place. The term "normal" was like home, that he felt all too far away from. Now that he had a taste of it, he wanted to truly revel in it. But first…he had to make sure that everything really was fucking normal.
Zan took one more look around the place to spot for any abnormalities but his eye couldn't find anything out of place. As good as he could see, this room really was just a normal cabin bedroom, almost like his old home.
'Wait…'
The realization set in that he no longer had a night vision filter in his eyes. It let him see in the pure darkness of the flesh room and in the library illuminated by the green lights, it turned his colorful vision into a monotone one. Now it was different. The contrast of light and shadow brought upon by the burning candles and dark night looked absolutely beautiful across the backdrop of the cozy cabin.
That epiphany also helped him to realize that he was physically in bed, tucked in with layers of comforting sheets. Compared to floating above the floor, he really enjoyed the warm and soothing texture of the blankets. The grounding sensation of physical reality…it was calming. He almost forgot this feeling.
Zan finally sighed in relief. He allowed himself to let go for a moment and laid his head back onto the soft pillows. The youth couldn't help himself however from putting both hands behind his head, stereotypical of how the village delinquents used to relax themselves in the outdoor fields of soft green grass.
'Ahh even more comforting.'
'...I'm not used to soft pillows.'
Breathing deeply in and out, the youth watched the shadows dance as the flames from the candles flickered. The shapes that it made on the wooden ceiling was a calming and peaceful thing, enough for him to empty all his thoughts on.
…
It was more than a moment, maybe it was an hour but however short or long that amount of time was Zan knew he fully enjoyed every minute spent. A quiet night, a chilly room warmed by candles and the protection of blankets, it was bliss compared to the chaos that was the past few weeks. The breeze of the wind through the window was something that he particularly missed. Wait. What?
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
‘...I’m outside?’
‘...she really let me out of her dungeon basement…’
Zan continued to stare at the ceiling despite the realization. This comfort was not something he wanted to end too soon.
‘Who knows when I’ll have a calm moment like this again? I’ll explore this place later.’
The youth started to think about all the events that took place, and even the future and what he planned to do going forward.
‘I…lost.’
Zan clenched his fists. After waking up, it was the first time he could really think about everything. He had never lost before, at least not in a one on one. That was something he took pride in but now he had lost that achievement. Balon’s face and his huge head and his sharp jawline popped up in the youth’s face and he started to punch the air.
‘Fuck! Whatever. Am I someone who gets stuck in the past?’
‘Shit’s simple! I just gotta get stronger and beat his ass!’
‘Right. I remember now. There’s levels for energy and strength. What were they again?’
‘Wait…Was all of that real?’
The youth started to ponder on his visions and out of body experiences. Were they all real? Or was it just a dream within a dream within a dream? The first vision was of that tower, that definitely had to be a dream. Did it mean something?
‘Ahh whatever probably not.’
The second dream was an out of body experience where he saw his body being reconstructed by flesh maggots, casting a healing spell by moving weirdly really really fast. Oh! Don’t forget the walls and the floor and the ceiling were made out of living flesh.
‘I have to be going crazy…’
Now he thought about it…
Zan threw the blankets off and looked at his body. There was an obvious discoloration between his left leg, right arm and the rest of his body. His first thought to this was…
‘Wait where are my clothes?’
‘At least I have these boxers on…Wait! Doesn't that mean she changed my underwear!?’
The youth shook his head, snapping himself back to the main point.
Zan stood up from the bed, walking over to the large mirror diagonally from him. The person that he saw in the mirror, was definitely not the same person he was a few weeks ago. The red haired youth observed that he was at least 3 inches taller than he was before, and his body that used to be skinny was now at a healthy muscular weight. The youth looked to be 5’7 with 145 pounds of pure muscle.
Though…actually he was heavier. In the mirror, Zan observed that his left leg and right arm were visibly more pale than the rest of his body, but he also noticed that they both held more weight to them also. His right arm and left leg had a certain heft to them. Comparing his arms, they looked proportional yet one felt like muscle and the other felt like steel. The youth brought his right leg up and then let it fall down effortlessly, then he did the same with the other.
Zan was an amazing fighter with ingenious senses. He felt the weird sensation instantly, when it clearly took much more effort to raise his left leg. As he dropped it down, he focused his eyes and found that his vision seemed to magically sharpen. A soft boom rang out when Zan’s left leg hit the wood. The wooden floor…broke as his foot left a shallow imprint upon the pressed ground.
‘Shit…I hope she doesn’t mind.’
Zan took one last look in the mirror and saw that of the pair of brown eyes he once had, his left eye’s iris was bright red.
‘What the…’
‘...It…looks pretty cool on me hehe.’
‘Does this mean…everything was real?’
‘No, maybe it was just a dream and she did something else! Yeah!’
The thought of those flesh tubes inserting themselves into his body and his bloodstream was abhorrent. Nevermind the flesh maggots that swam inside his body and…possibly became his new appendages…
‘What about the orb? The spider? The living library? That boy…should be the spirit of the hand who should be Mila’s son.’
‘Maybe it is all real…’
A gust of chilly wind hit Zan like a truck and he remembered to himself that he was finally outside. No longer was he stuck in those goddamned underground caves, he was free!
‘I just need some fresh air.’
The red haired youth walked over to the front door and grabbed at the metal knob. As he put pressure on it to turn it, he found that the metal knob crumpled into a tiny ball under the enormous strength of his right hand.
‘...’
Already in motion of pushing the door, he heard a break as the hinges came off of the door.
‘...’
‘I really hope she doesn’t mind…’
Gently, he placed the broken door on the ground leaning on the left wall of the hallway. Looking forward he saw another room facing the room he just came out of. The door was slightly open for some reason and what was Zan if not nosey?
Very gently he pushed the door with his left hand. What met him was a room full of children’s toys and books. A small desk and chair was arranged next to him as he passed through the door. On the walls of the small room was a map detailing the surrounding kingdoms and geography, and numerous diagrams of the various constellations. Together, the small room gave off a warm and snug feeling.
‘Cute.’
Zan then placed his attention towards the twin sized bed. The bed sheets and pillow cases were black but riddled with white stars. And on top of those stars, laid a small severed left hand, sprawled open with its palm facing towards the ceiling. Suddenly it twitched. Then in graceful fashion, pushed off the bed into a frontflip, landing straight onto Zan’s shoulder.
“...”
“...”
“...What’s up dude?”
“...”
“...Okay…”
“Let’s go then.”
Together, both the odd looking youth and reanimated left hand journeyed into the living room.