I woke up the next day with the sun, fresh and reinvigorated. It's been ages since I've been this ...

Nah just kidding, the searing pain in my back rouse me from sleep. Utterly disoriented and feverish !

I felt a bead of sweat roiling along my forehead, my back was damp and burning.

I held back an howl while clenching my teeth. My throat was dry, my eyes burning and all my muscles seems to quiver under my skin.

I'm alive !

Or rather, I hope so, because if this is the afterlife ... well, it sucks !

I tried to focus my attention toward my senses. My eyes are difficult to open but I'm finally perceiving a blinding light, I don't think I have the strength for more for the moment. My skin felt like it has been bound in cloths, maybe some type of gauzes or bandages. I smelled the perfume of freshly cut grass, maybe a kind of medical ointment. At least it indicates that I haven't been saved by some backyard savages.

"ajnscnsl njzsn kaz dz"

My ears perk up at distant noises but it was difficult to make sense of anything.

It appears to be a language I don't comprehend, but again what do I even know...

Even if the meaning is evading me, I am nevertheless able to hear the frustration of one on the people talking. For a deep masculine voice to get a pitch so high ... He is stressed out. I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing for me.

The commotion was really frustrating for me. A groan escaped me when the group became even more agitated and noisy.

"tavsv vabs"

They swiftly stopped talking. Finally some peace.

One of them annoyingly started touching my arm, trying to check my pulse, but by the way he was doing it... I dearly hope for his others patients that he wasn't a real medic.

I heard cloth flutter. He must have given a signal to the others because I overheard them leave the room. The person next to me didn't depart and stayed next to me for a bit longer.

He, or rather she, judging by her rusty but feminine voice kept my arm in her hands and gently carried on talking to me.

I felt like her words were remarkably similar to a few words I knew but I was too tired and sick to think about it. I was slowly drifting toward sleep again, swayed by the pace of her melodious breathing.

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A few days later I finally recovered a bit. I was capable to open my eyes and sit in the bed.

The fever was mostly gone, but my wound in the back was still hurting.

I was felling better, which is good.

But I remember the aghast look I received from my saviors when they changed my gauzes yesterday.

Which is bad ...

By the look I was getting from them, it was all but reassuring.

This conflicting situation was tiresome.

However, I don't know what I can do to resolve it.

I made quite a lot of progress with their language. Far away from engaging in a philosophical conversation with them but enough to express my immediate need.

"food"

"water"

"sleep"

I felt like a parrot trying to fit in a human group.

Shara, the one who mostly took care of me had a grave face balanced by her warm eyes and pleasing voice. She had long hair tied in a low bun, this gave her a very serious look. She was not the most gorgeous woman I've seen, but she carried an undeniable charm. Her armor was old, dented but clean and well maintained. She seems like the elder sister of the group I had in front of me. I was pretty sure that without her they wouldn't survive two months.

She was currently scolding Kain. From what I was perceiving it was far from an unusual situation. Maybe some kind of national sport because he gave the feeling that it was routine for him.

They were arguing about me, I was not fluent enough to grasp everything but the finger pointing at me was a precious clue !

I guess it must be about money.

Or sex.

It's always one of the two !

I got the feeling that Kain was skittish and vain, not fit for being a warrior.

I may have been biased because of his face. He looked a lot more like a pretty boy or a playboy.

He lacked the aura and the confidence coming from experience in the field.

But again, it's just a personal feeling.

The last one, Ina, was the silent type. Uninterested in the conflict of her partners.

She was always doing something, her hand always hard at work. Either taking care of her gear or crafting miscellaneous stuff.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

She was the sharp one, when looking at me she was trying to look past my body, trying to resolve the enigma I represented.

Only looking Ina, no touching involved without my consent !

They were some type of ragtag team of adventurers or mercenaries.

They were young, which was a good and a bad thing.

Good, because they mustered the energy of youth and they were apparently hard working.

Bad, because only a few make it past forty in this line of work.

I don't want to break their spirit but unless they possess a gift for warfare and combat, I doubt they will survive very long. I've seen many of them die early in ...

Have I ?

Another question left unanswered.

The more I was thinking the longer the list became.

I felt like I was pretty knowledgable but I was incapable to connect the dots.

Certain ideas came to me naturally while other eluded me, despite all my effort. It's very frustrating.

My name was one of those mystery.

The group was also trying to get me to tell my name but how can I announce something I don't know ? Should I take one another just to please them ? It felt wrong to me ...

I carried on shaking my head when they asked for it, hoping that they will grow bored of asking.

At least as bored as I was of being constantly remembered that I didn't even recall my name.

Shara tried to explain to me that they needed to go somewhere for some time, maybe a mission or something like that. They asked me to stay here without moving to avoid opening my wound and that somebody will come every day to bring me food.

Seriously, I almost laughed my ass off, seeing them mimic their word to make sure I understood. The grave look in their eyes deterred me from giving in to my instinct.

But I'm pretty sure Ina saw the corner of my lips rising.

If so, she didn't mention anything to her sidekicks in front of me.

They left fully armed and quite strangely, it felt odd, being alone for the first time in a few days.

----------------------------------------

"I'm boooooooooooooored"

Seriously, I can't take it anymore.

The man that come every day to deliver food is completely uninterested in striking a conversation with me. I can't answer, true, but I'm getting better at comprehending their language. The man doesn't even look at me in the eyes.

It's been three days since the group have left and I'm bored out of my mind.

I slowly started moving my body, walking around the room.

Believe me, a small room is really quickly explored, even by a convalescent man.

I found that the window, made with dirty but real glass, was isolating me from a whole new world. We were in the center of a bustling city. Firstly I cursed myself for not moving out of bed earlier, then opened it. I allowed myself to eavesdrop the multiple conversations in the street.

Every sentence allowed me to make connexions to languages I knew and allowed me to understand more and more. It's not like I'm learning a new language but re-discovering something I formerly knew. A few sentences felt utterly wrong, but I guess the language evolved differently here.

In addition I established a sort of to-do list to remember what I needed to find in the upcoming days.

So a to-find list.

- Find who I am.

- Find what happened.

- Find where we are.

- Find how to recover my memories.

- Find what to do next.

Pretty basic I admit but I needed to express it to devise a plan of action.

I remember my dream of a few days ago, if it was even a dream. I remember taking control of all by my own will. Sadly, I feel all but almighty right now. I also record it in the things I need to look into. Don't know where it can bring me but the feeling is so vivid it's impossible to disregard it totally.

I was so focused on my train of though that even if I did hear the door opening, I didn't care to pay attention to It.

Rookie mistake.