"Lilith! You're already awake!" Lilo placed a burlap bag in front of the bed. He had stopped stuttering. "How long did I sleep for?", hell when did I even fall asleep?
"Half a day and a whole night."
"Ah…?... oh never mind. What do you have there? Show me what you've found."
I pushed the scratchy blanket off me and slid out of the ‘bed’, only to settle down on the way softer floor.
"Yes!"
He emptied all the contents on the floor. Three charred books, a brownstone that looked like it was hanging on a chain, the hilt of a sword but without a blade..., a dented pan, and a small box.
"Ohhh. Garbage.", I whistled with my arms crossed. Not even malice in my voice, just amazement.
Lilo began to slide restlessly back and forth.
"A-but Lilith, those were all things you always used."
"Maybe when before they were... You know, still quite useful goods?!"
"But most of it looked like that before... except the books, of course."
Aiaiai.
That hurts. And I don’t mean the pain still crashing my bones.
"Anyway… good job little one. Rest a bit while I go through things.", I didn't look at him, but I could also tell that the praise made him way too excited as he jumped up from the ground.
So, what exactly do we have here? I placed the three books in front of me and was relieved that I could read the titles even when the language was different.
"Cookbook of Lucretia ", "Alchemy of Osmodon" and what looked like a diary or notebook. It's amazing that the books survived an explosion.
Tentatively I opened the alchemy book... I turned to the first, slightly burned page:
The Doctrine of Alchemy:
Seeker, you are on a journey into the teaching of the knowledge and rules of the sustainable world. Are you willing to sacrifice everything to explore the truth of life?
The order of the teachings is as follows:
I Natural History
II Medicine
III Elements Customs
à Earth
à Fire
à Water
à Air
IV Zoology
V Potions
VI Black Arts
VII Rules of the World
Mhh, might be helpful... After all, alchemy is not only about ‘magic’ but also about science and medicine. It allows me to find out more about this world. …wonder if physics are different here. I brought myself to chuckle at that.
The notebook has Lilith's notes about her oh-so-awesome immortality and-
I guess I don't even need to look into the cookbook.
So, what else could be practical? Well, the box was pulling me in. It’s always a suspicious, menacing-looking, closed box, isn’t it? I sigh at the cliché I was about to follow. It is made of metal and has some kind of decoration on the sides and the lid that shows strange trees and a girl who seems to be all alone in this big forest. She's huddled under one of the trees and has something in her arms that I can't quite recognize.
The box is petite and looks fragile, which it obviously isn't if it survived a goddamn explosion. Besides, it doesn't open no matter how hard I pull on it or smash it into the ground and onto corners.
The rest looks useless, but I still put everything back in the bag to take with me on the trip. Maybe one can trade the stuff for gold or something. Every penny counts. I rubbed my midsection while licking my lips. After all, money is what makes the world go round.
We set off immediately after I packed the map and a knife that Lilo had in his cabin. Oh, and after I woke him up again.
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We walked for maybe 12 hours at a time until my legs literally gave way and we came to an abrupt and for me hard and rough stop.
"Is everything ok?", Lilo himself was out of breath but still asked how I was doing.
He hadn't complained once the whole way and had been pleasantly quiet. He seemed to really like Lilith and I'm slowly starting to get used to his presence... Well, as far as you can get used to someone in a period of just about 2 days.
"Everything is fucking great."
This body really can't handle anything when it comes to the physical. How old was Lilith anyway?
"Tell me, Lilo, you know I remember next to nothing... Tell me a little bit more about me while I... inspect the aria for…threats.”, I rubbed my leg “How old am I, for example?", I dragged my tired body to a rock to sit down and Lilo sat down on the floor in front of me.
“Mh…Okay. So, as far as I know, they're 19 and they're from a rich family. Your parents are both dead and and... ah, you have a brother. But your relationship with him is not good as far as I know. Last time he almost- AH! No, no! It actually doesn’t matter!"
"Mhh, I see. How long have my parents been dead?", I rub the haggard fabric of the clothes along my backside and under my arms to whisk away the sweat that had started dripping down this body.
"Since just before you started your experiments. As soon as they were dead, you immediately started spending all the gold.”, he made an exaggerated motion with his hands in the air “I don't think you were even at their funeral."
Oh, great.
"Mh hm, what's next? What else do you know about me?"
"You don't like animals and there have never really been people more in your estate than me... so I guess you don't have any joy in li... uhhh, no desire for contacts."
It’s really hard to come by, but no matter how you look at it, Lilith was an asshole... Not that I'm not, but I pray I'm at least a little bit better than them. I mean, at least I was at the funeral of my parents! But all I can do is pray.
"We'll go on until the sun goes down and then we'll sleep, ok?", I looked towards the clouds in the distance. Maybe we should find somewhere to find shelter rather than sleeping under those.
"Ok!", Lilo jumps up energetically and on we go!
…how the hell is this body only 19?
After another hour we finally find a cave that seems uninhabited and safe and go to sleep in.
Shit, the ground is hard!
*****
I open my eyes. The blanket that envelops me is warm but I don't feel safe. My dainty hand pushes it aside. Wait... I didn't have a blanket when I fell asleep. I look around slowly. My hand looks way too small.
I must be dreaming.
My gaze wanders through the dark room. There are a lot of beds around me, all of which have sleeping children in them. This is the orphanage where I spent a year of my life. At the same moment that I sit up, the door is kicked with a loud "Wum" and a woman, whose face I know but whose name I don't quite remember, stomps into the room with a little boy. She roughly pulls him by the arm. At first, the boy reminds me of Lilo, the one from the fantasy world.
"Nisha!", the woman comes closer and forcibly pulls me out of bed. I hit my arm on the corner of the bedside table and whimper, but she doesn't even flinch and continually pulls me out of the dormitory. I don't know how long the hallway she pulls us through is, but it feels way too long. This must be a dream. It had to be. I can’t be back here.
Finally, she pushes us into the director's room and closes the door. The director sits on his huge, soft-looking chair that I always wanted to sit on when I still lived there. We are pressed onto the chairs in front of the desk. Not half as fluffy as his chair looks.
"Tell the director what you told me!" the caregiver places her hand on the boy's shoulder.
"A-so..."
"Don't worry, she can't hurt you!" she gave me a deadly look. Confusion spreads through every inch of my head and I shift restlessly in my chair. I'm suddenly very tired and just want to go back to the bed I woke up in.
"S-she threatened me!" the boy points his index finger at me and I tilt my head. What is he talking about?
"S-she said if I don't bring her cookies from the kitchen, she'll kill me just like the guy killed her parents!"
His hand trembles and he looks at me apologetically. The memory hits me hard. Too hard. The backlash makes me nauseous. The boy's name is Lucius. In the orphanage, he was my only friend and we spent most of our time trying to turn imaginary scenarios into reality with our plays. I liked him very much. He was the first kid to treat me normally after I was forced into this house.
Until one day he was found in the kitchen at night. He had snuck in to steal cookies. He was so afraid of the consequences that he said the first thing that came to his mind. In this case, exactly what he had just explained. A lie that would make the rest of my stay here a living hell. Not only did he betray me, but he also used my story, which everyone already knew, but which I had told specifically only him in confidence. Betrayal. I don't remember exactly what happened after that. All I know is that I saw his head and the edge of the table and red and in the following weeks no one talked to me anymore. They were afraid of me. If something went wrong, it was always my fault.
And then finally the man got me out of there.
******
I opened my eyes just to slap my hands in front of them. It's been a few years since I remembered something like this.
"Hahh"
"Is everything okay Lilith?", Lilos placed his face directly in front of mine, which startled me a little as I lowered my hands down.
"Yes, yes. It's all good," I sat up. "Where do we get breakfast from now?", it’ll be hard to go to a fast-food restaurant here… or even, if things were getting rough, to steal from people. Because there were none here.
"Ah, I found berries! Eat them fast!" he shoved his hands, which were full of bright red berries, in front of my mouth.
"I see..."
I pushed his hands farther away from me and looked at the berries. They look like rowanberries. I looked at him critically, but all I saw on his face was a proud smile.
"... Maybe later.", a fake smile adorned my lips.
It may be that the berries just looked similar and are actually edible in this world, but my head tells me to keep my hands off of them. The human mind tsk. My hand reached for the knife I had placed next to me before sleeping.
"I'll be right back."
He looked very disappointed, but his pout was cute and he let me go out of the cave. I looked around. I had already noticed yesterday that this forest is very quiet. I didn't see any animals bigger than a squirrel. Everything seems so calm and perfectly empty... Creepy. I don't know if this is normal for this world, but it would probably be better to get moving again quickly. A silent forest just can’t be good.
My stomach screams in protest. Ok, ok. First, something to eat.
Wasn't there a river here or something? I think there should be one right around here if I didn’t confuse the directions on the map.
I was right. After about 2 minutes, I heard the soft splashing of the water. Jackpot! There are small fish in the river.
Lilo's eyes widened when I came back with 4 small fish. "Can you make a fire?"
"Uhhh, I've never done that before...", he stammered, his eyes fixed on the untouched berries that now laid in a faraway corner.
"Then how did you keep warm in the winter?"
"... I'm sorry... ‘winter’?"
"Winter. Are there no seasons?"
Lilo looked like he was about to start crying again.
"Hahh. When it gets very cold?"
"Oh, when it gets cold, you've usually lit a fire in your mansion. For cooking, too."
"Let me guess, you don't know how I did that either?"
He nodded slowly.
"It doesn't matter. Collect sticks, please."
He ran out. At least he's motivated... I picked up the alchemy book. Maybe it says something about making a fire.
Ah "Elements Customs Fire".
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