Ten years ago

  Edge of the Northern Solarian jungle.

  Damien's eyes snapped wide open to the loud, clanging sound of something crashing heavily onto the ground. Panicked, he rose sharply and froze, grimacing just as a sudden wave of intense dizziness washed over him.

  While his brain was taking its time to adjust, his eyes took in his surroundings.

  The first thing he noticed, seeing as he was already on top of it, was the large, soft, thingy that bore his weight. It was long, at least long enough that it reached his legs with more space to spare. And it was so large that Damien felt he could comfortably spread both his hands without touching the edges. He noted a soft, thin, material right beneath him, like a barrier between his body and the large thing. A bed and a bedsheet, the knowledge came to him soon after.

  With curious eyes, he looked back down on where his head had been laid a few seconds ago, finding the same soft thing, only this one was vastly smaller than the one, he laid on, and softer, too. What was it?

  The next question that crossed his mind was where he was and how he'd gotten there. The last thing he remembered was blood all over his body and darkness covering his...

  Damien shivered as everything came rushing In; The beast, the chase, the slash to his rib. He touched his sides, feeling for the bleeding area, but to his shock he found nothing, at least not nothing, nothing. He looked down, finding his injured area and the entire body at large clean and devoid of blood and the hanging trails of his innards. But Damien couldn't feel his body fully as something white and thick was wrapped around it. He moved to pull it off when the soft whisper of a gasp slipped into his ears.

  He looked up sharply, meeting the widened blue eyes of a young creature. A creature just like him. They stayed still for a few seconds as they stared into each other's eyes, with looks ranging from shock to part confusion. And then the boy jerked his head downwards, bending down arm first to pick something up from the ground while he spat out words Damien's weird internal translator quickly made sense of.

  He grimaced. So much cussive, all from one with such tiny mouth.

  He sat up just as the other boy rose back up, holding a steel round container by its handle.

  He was of slim build with a wall of blond hair halfway down to his shoulders—not scrawny like Damien, no, this one had the shadows of light muscles framing his body.

  The moment the boy's eyes met Damien's again, they widened, and he froze

  "You're awake," He said slowly like he was referring to himself.

  "You're awake?" He repeated again, this time sounding like he was speaking to Damien. And just as Damien opened his mouth to confirm the obvious answer, the boy said again, this time loudly as the realization hit him.

  "You're awake!" His eyes widened further, and Damien idly wondered if the whole thing wasn't going to fall off given how much it was bulging.

  The boy looked at Damien once more, shook himself out of it, and then ran out of the room with his voice echoing loudly into the air.

  "He's awake!"

  Awkward, Damien thought, watching the entrance and the quickly disappearing stranger.

  Now that he was the only person left in the room, he fully took in the place he was in.

  The room was a comfortably large space with an opening right opposite him, which luckily, he thought, would give him full awareness of any approaching person. To his left was a transparent structure that let in natural light into the room and also gave him a full, unobstructed view of the world outside.

  To his right was a tall, brown, blocky structure propped up against the wall, beside which stood another one with four legs and a flat surface, with another high-backed, four-legged structure placed beside it.

  A window, a wardrobe, a table, and a chair.

  Damien didn't understand how he knew those things; one minute, he knew nothing about them, and then the moment he set his eyes on them, his head was immediately filled with knowledge about them. It was a strange sensation that he was oddly thankful for, even though it weirded him out.

  His attention snapped back to the entrance just as the sounds of approaching footsteps, followed by sharp whispering, reached his ears.

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  Three people, Damien counted.

  The first person that entered was a woman; black haired and wearing a loosely tied black scarf around her head. She was on a long brown dress with zero embellishments, and when she saw him sitting up, she exclaimed loudly and rushed forward.

  "No! No! No! Do not strain your body, child. You'll reopen your wound," she shouted as she gently pushed him back down. Damien, confused, could do nothing but let her lay him back on the bed. "Oh, poor boy. Your parents must be worried sick about you. Lie down some more till your strength fully returns."

  Suddenly, a loud grumbling sound echoed out, and everyone looked down at his belly.

  "Oh, forgive me! I totally forgot how hungry you must be," she said and then gently laid a palm on his forehead. "Losing that much blood would leave anyone ravenous."

  She turned back to the entrance where Damien could finally see that three more people had entered.

  "Keilan!" She said, and Damien saw the boy from earlier jolt upwards."Get the poor boy some food!"

  The boy, Keilan, ran out with a nod, passing by the side of another woman entering the room.

  She was an old-looking woman, he noted, with strands of grey peaking out under the green scarf wrapped around her head. Her face was wrinkled and her stance was shaky, held upright only by the cane she leaned on. But despite all that, Damien instinctively knew that she was nowhere near weak. There was strength in the way she carried herself, even through the hunched posture.

  She approached him and her eyes roamed over his body with such intensity that Damien almost squirmed, but with effort, he held himself.

  The woman smiled and gave him an approving nod at that.

  "From what I can see, he looks fine. Mara, please pull off the bandages."

  The first woman, whom Damien now recognized as Mara, nodded and did as bidden, unwrapping the white thing around Damien's stomach.

  The moment it was fully removed, he relaxed just as the cool embrace of the wind flowed in to wrap around his body, and with barely contained curiosity, he moved his hands around the area, smiling in relief when he felt it smooth and whole, with only quickly vanishing red lines as the only evidence of the injury.

  Looking up, Damien was startled to find himself surrounded by three adults who had differing expressions on their faces, each ranging from surprise to a little bit of alarm.

  "I didn't think it was possible for children to have such quick healing," the third person said, a man whose face Damien's mind was beginning to piece together as the person whose spear had killed the large cat. He was also of middle age, like Mara; and his arms were packed full with muscles that made Damien instantly wary of getting anywhere close to them.

  "That is because it is not. At least, not this early, certainly not on a child as young as him," the old woman said with a scrutinizing look. "From the feel of the ambient energy, it seems he's begun absorbing essence, and at an astounding rate, too. He's barely fifteen, this should not be possible."

  The woman looked up at Damien's face. "What is your name, boy?"

  "Damien," He answered confidently and instantly, which was strange because he felt anything but.

  She nodded. "Where are you from?"

  This time, confusion crept up his features. "I... I don't know."

  Everybody mirrored his confusion at that.

  "You don't know where you're from?" She asked again.

  Damien suppressed his body's urgent need to squirm, and then he answered.

  "I, I—I don't know where I'm from."

  "Then how did you find your way into the jungle?" This time, it was the man who asked.

  "I don't know, I just woke up there." Damien was beginning to get uncomfortable. No matter how he tried, his mind couldn't come up with anything before he woke up in that jungle.

  "Then what of your parents? won't anyone get worried when they find out you're missing?" Mara asked, worried.

  "Parents?"

  Confusion. "Your mother? Your father? A guardian? The older person who looks after you?"

  Damien blinked repeatedly, confused. He scoured his mind for any inkling of what they meant, but all he came up with was a white void and a quickly building headache.

  "I—I don't have one... at least, I don't think so?"

  At this, everyone quieted.

  "Do you know anything at all that could help us locate where you came from so we could take you back there safely? There must be someone searching for you."

  This time, Damien decided to just come clean. "I don't remember anything from before I woke up."

  This time worry turned to shock.

  The man asked, "You don't remember anything at all?"

  He nodded.

  "How old are you?" The old woman asked.

  Damien shook his head, his voice cracked, a whisper. "I—I don't know."

  "Monarch's balls!" Somebody exclaimed and everyone turned around to see Keilan standing at the entrance, his eyes as wide as saucers.

  "Language!" Mara scolded while the man beside her shook with barely contained chuckle, though his face went instantly neutral when Mara turned a glare towards him.

  The old woman, though without a smile on her face, said nothing.

  Mara turned back to Damien. "Since you say you don't have anyone looking for you, and we don't want you living out on the streets, would you be okay staying with us?" She asked.

  Damien didn't have to think about it for long, he nodded. He had just gotten to know the woman and all he'd been getting was positivity all around. Maybe he'd come to regret it later on, but for now, he'd stay with them. He had nowhere to go, after all.

  Mara smiled and turned to the old woman. "Healer Salem, is he okay to move?"

  The healer studied him again some more. "From what I can see, he looks okay. I'll want him to come by my place sometime later for more checkups; just In case there's a side effect to his... Rapid healing."

  Mara nodded, then turned back to Damien. "Go with Keilan, he'll take you to the kitchen to get some food to eat and afterward show you around."

  Damien nodded and looked at Keilan. The other boy had a big smile on his face and his body shook with obvious excitement. He was practically hopping as he waved Damien over.

  Damien shifted down from the bed, wobbling a little when his feet touched the floor. It didn't last long, though, and then he was off, leaving the now discussing adults to their now heated discussion.