There were a bunch of sounds around. The sound of moving water calmly rushing rom one direction to another indicated a nearby stream. The sounds of birds chirping and singing distinctly told of the lack of predators but the presence of life. The rustling sound of grass and around and leaves above spoke of the light breeze that couldn't be felt and the forest around. There was also the light sound of footsteps and movement.

Marik opened his eyes at last. He looked around and noticed he was lying on the ground a few paces away and slightly uphill from a large stream full of clear water. As he turned his head around the other direction he heard a chuckle.

"Well now. Aren't you an interesting one, boy. The first time in hundreds of years that someone isn't afraid of me when they first see me, and they end up being not just entertaining but interesting. It seems my whim to help you survive was unnecessary. Do you remember anything from your delirium?"

Marik shook his head no as he finally he sat up and turned to look at his new conversation partner. There was what he assumed was a man from the build and voice standing there. He was relatively tall and wore a bunch of blanket-like cloth all over his body. The word robes came to his mind from somewhere. The man's skin seemed to have a tint of purple or gold somehow, making him seem almost otherworldly in nature. The ears were on the sides of his head like the people from his dreams but instead of being round they had sharply point tips pointing upwards. Wrapped around his eyes was a clean and smooth single piece of cloth that seemed to have been cut to perfectly fit his face. His long black hair was streaked with gray and moved lightly as the barest of breezes passed by them.

"Then before you ask again you questions allow me to reiterate my answers. Yes, I can see. No, I am not a woman, I wear clothes on the top half of my body because that is what's normal for me. I have never had a tail. And lastly, hahaha, whether you are safe or not is up to my whims and your perspective."

That did actually answer the things Marik was wondering about. This must have been the conversation that he had before he fell unconscious. Marik opened his mouth to speak but closed it again upon realizing he was unsure about what to say now. He didn't want to be particularly rude or offensive by just spouting off more questions without some kind of greeting but he wasn't sure exactly how to greet this strange man that had obviously already been near him for some amount of time. What time of day was it? What kind of greeting was appropriate? These questions and more flew around inside his head.

"Worry not, boy. I have no particular desire to harm you at the moment. For amusing me so, I had even intended to try and provide you medicine to counteract the venom in your veins, though it seems to have been unnecessary."

Marik tried one more time. After all, he had a feeling that he shouldn't get on this man's bad side.

"Umm. Good...morning?"

"Hahaha. After all of that, your response is a greeting? And in question form, no less! Yes, you are quite the entertainment."

"So, where am I...are we? Hmhm. Where are we?"

"Hmm? Ah. I assume from your...diaper pants...that you come from the cursed villages. We are quite far from that forest. It's a small wonder how you got separated so far. If you wish to return there I could point you in the right direction."

Marik immediately began shaking his head. He was told that he could never return to any village much less his own. A small sigh of relief escaped him as he realized he had made it. Surely Omega Gilik would be proud of him.

"Hmm. As I look more closely at you, you become more and more interesting. Perhaps the god of fate has begun a new game. Hmm. Hmm? Ah. Huh, well isn't that strange. Very well! Come, boy. I shall provide you a meal and a place to sleep for the night at least. Perhaps a small reprieve is what's needed before I continue to work on my research."

The man stepped back slightly and turned away from the direction of the water's edge as he waited for Marik to stand and follow. Marik spotted his bag nearby so he walked over and grabbed it before turning back around to see that the man had already begun to walk away. There were no visible markings to indicate where they were or what path they followed that Marik could notice, yet the man strode forward confidently towards their destination through the trees as if he were taking a normal stroll in his own yard.

Eventually they came upon a small clearing. In the middle of that clearing was something like a den but bigger, more box-like, and made of flat wood. He couldn't quite figure out how to get inside such a strange den as there seemed to be no opening and no noren. The man walked towards without any doubts, however, so Marik ran forward some in order to catch up. Once they were close enough, Marik finally noticed how part of the wall was a little different and hade something sticking out of it. Marik ran ahead to look at the strange protrusion in the wall, feeling like he had seen a similar material in his dreams. He pointed at as he turned to the still calmly approaching man.

"What is this?"

"That is a door handle."

"Adorhandel? What does this thing made of adorhandel do?"

The man stopped in his tracks and began shaking.

"Pfft. Haha. Hahahaha. AHHAHAHAHAHA!"

It seemed like the man was trying hard to contain his laughter and failing, miserably. Once the laughter had finally subsided enough for the man to speak again, while yet retaining a look of mirth, he finally answered Marik's question.

"No, boy. That's not made of...no. That is made of metal. Iron in this case. It is a handle for a door. A door handle. It allows me to open, or close, the door."

Saying such, the man reached out and shifted the metal piece upwards before pulling on it, causing the strange piece of wall to swing outwards and reveal an opening.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Wow. So it makes the wall move."

Marik was actually getting really excited. It was almost like the things in his dreams but it was also a practically new discovery. Maybe this man could show him other things he had never seen in real life before. The man was definitely a little strange but he also seemed nice. If Marik was good, then maybe the man would be willing to let him stay around for a while. Marik didn't really want to get thrown away again and he kind of like this strange, nice man.

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His research progress had begun to stagnate about a year or so ago. Hoping for some kind of inspirational spark, he had started exploring the nearby parts of the forest every morning. During one such morning he had caught something strange and new at the edge of his senses. Hoping this would be what he was looking for, he quickly headed in that direction only to discover a very young wolfkin boy lying on the ground with a dead quickshade spider nearby.

That was a disappointing shame, as far as he was concerned, on both the boy's part and the spider's. Quickshade spiders were very rare and very deadly. Normally he would have left the now obviously delirious boy to die at this point. It wasn't that he was actually a cruel person, of course, but that he had too many years of experience and too many dealings of similar nature to this very same situation. People feared him for what he was and often would fear more what receiving his help, even in a deadly situation, could mean. The poor boy wasn't likely to survive long enough for him to actually be able to help anyways.

Then the boy noticed him and began to ask the funniest questions. He couldn't even remember how long it had been since the last time he felt like laughing so much. He also could barely remember a time that someone's gaze on him, besides that of his fellow compatriots, was not filled with fear or anger much less being filled with innocent curiosity. Even children who had yet reached the age where they learned to speak would often run when they spotted him. On a kind of whim he decided to repay the boy for providing such amusement in what had become a rather dull life by at least putting forth an attempt to save his life.

He quickly scooped the boy and his bag into his arms and made for the river that ran near his cottage. He could likely heal the boy with things he had in his home but by the riverside were some simple plants that should slow and stop the spread of the cursed venom and the river was closer than his home. He set the boy down as gently as he could when he reached his destination and noticed the boy immediately begin to awaken once more. Looking closely, he could see the cursed venom actually dissipating in the boys veins. This was incredibly fascinating! He should bring this boy home and study him more closely.

He observed the boy carefully while engaging in some light chatting when he made another amazing observation. It had become a normal habit for him to not look too hard at the souls of people he had just met without good reason, as there could be repercussions for doing so, however he had been too caught up in examining the strange uniqueness of the boy and had accidentally caught a glimpse of it. What was that?! His soul was definitely not normal, especially at that age. This demanded his attention. He urged the boy to follow him home in return for food and bedding. This had to be the impetus he had been searching for. Even if he had to change the direction of his research slightly, just studying this boy could bring him all sorts of knowledge.

Once his home was in sight, the boy grew excited and promptly displayed just how ignorant of the world he was. It was funny. No, wait. It was more than funny, it was hilarious. He had not laughed so hard possibly in his entire life. It was kind of nice to have such innocence for company and for providing such a nice change of pace in addition to an object of study that he had been searching for he should repay this boy in what ways he thought fair. He led the boy inside, using a small bit of sorcery to light the lamps along the wall and the candle on the table.

Strangely he felt a slight tinge of fear begin to come from the boy just behind him. How unfortunate that the boy was now beginning to fear him just from showing such a simple act that he had done with hardly any effort or thought other than wanting there to be more light. He turned to address the boy, hoping to console him, but realized that the slight bit of fear was not directed toward him but towards a glass jar on a nearby shelf. What was in that jar shouldn't be anything to fear, as it was a very cheap and weak version of curse dispelling medicine, but he also knew the boy came from the cursed villages and he had heard stories about how strange things were in those places.

"Is there something about that jar that piques your interest, boy?"

"Umm. Why do you have Exile Ink?"

Why did he have what now? He vaguely recalled some mention of the cursed village members choosing to wear curse marks. Perhaps those villages were even more backwards than he had assumed. If they called the one thing that could be made easily to cleanse curses something as ridiculous as 'Exile Ink' then it was no wonder the boy seemed so innocent and ignorant. He had already decided to study this boy as much as possible and had contemplated taking him under his tutelage to some extent as repayment. The realization that doing so would require first correcting the mistaken knowledge he had been brought up with suddenly made the task seem more daunting. However, great discoveries often came after great challenges and it was said that to teach was also to be taught so he should not shy away from this task he set himself.

"Let us make a deal, boy. I have things I want from you and things I can give you. You have entertained me greatly so far, but that does not mean that we would necessarily coexist in harmony. Let us spend the next week getting to know one another to some extent and if that week proves us compatible for cohabitation then we shall strike a pact. What do you say?"

"Umm. There were a lot of words that I didn't really understand, so I don't know."

"That is fair. You are still young, after all. Perhaps I can help you understand which words were most difficult. Which word should I attempt to explain first?"

"Uh. What's a 'week'?"

His brain grinded to a short halt before restarting again. Of all the things the boy could have asked about, he didn't even know what a week was. This might be more difficult than he was ready for.

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After a short sigh the man taught Marik the words he didn't understand and explained that there was some common knowledge missing that would definitely be required before this 'trial period', as the man had called it, was over. He learned that a week was 6 days, a moon was typically called a month and had 5 weeks, a day was split into hours and minutes and seconds, a mattress was a bag on the bed that held the sleeping straw but sometimes had stuff instead of straw in it, and so many other things.

By the end of the day Marik was still trying to sort through all the new things he had learned without even going outside. The man seemed exasperated by all the things he thought Marik should know but didn't, but he never got angry and patiently answered every question Marik asked. It felt like almost no time had passed at all before Marik's eyes began to droop shut. The man led him to a bed with that mattress thing on it and let him lie down to sleep.

Just before he fully drifted off, his stomach rumbled to remind him that he hadn't eaten all day. He thought to wake himself up again and ask the man if he could have some food, but the man was already walking back out of the room while muttering to himself in a way that Marik couldn't quite understand. Giving up on the idea of eating for now, Marik decided to let sleep take him. In the morning he could try and go hunting if the man didn't have any food. He had to prove his usefulness if he didn't want to get thrown out again.