"Ouch....! My whole body is aching. It hurts so badly. Wait...! Where is this place? Where am I? Whose room is this?"
Sammy was confused as he woke up in an unfamiliar room filled with unfamiliar items.
He looked around himself, puzzled and wanted to know where he was.
He looked at his body. His right shoulder and chest were covered in bandages. He touched his right shoulder and found something unusual. He quickly opened the bandage on his shoulder and was shocked to find out that his wound was gone. The only thing that remained there was a small scar.
How did this happen? How was all my mass regenerated? Is it even possible for so much mass to regenerate?
Sammy roamed his tongue inside his mouth and found out that even his two broken teeth were back. He took a look at his chest and opened the bandage there.
Even the wound in his chest was gone, leaving just a little scar.
As he was looking at his chest, all the memories of Jason's betrayal flooded Sammy's mind. He remembered how Jason pierced his heart and how he had a cold smile on his face while doing so.
Sammy's eyes became dark, showing a gloomy expression. His heart ached badly, not because a sword had piereced through it recently,but because his best friend was the one who made it pierce through his heart.
All the depression from before was comming back to him. He was about to cry anytime now.
"Oh! young man. You are finally awake. You have been sleeping since last two days." An old lady entered the room, without Sammy even noticing.
Sammy looked at the old lady. She had wrinkles all over her face and her hair was white, but she still looked beautiful.
"I don't know what had happened with you, young man, but I can certainly tell that you have gone through some hardships recently." The old lady said as she could clearly see the look of depression on Sammy's face.
"At least once, there comes a time in everyone's life where they think that there is no point in anything anymore. But we should not give up so easily. We should face our situation head on. This is the way of life."
"You don't know what I have gone through."
Sammy replied to the lady's words.
"Well, you can tell me. If you want, I can listen to you. In situations like this, talking is the best medicine. Believe me, it will ease your heart."
Tears started falling down from Sammy's eyes. Normally, he would never even talk to someone he had just met. But he told the old lady everything. Perheps because he was so depressed and could not think properly. He just wanted the weight on this heart to be removed.
After listening to Sammy's story, old lady consoled him." Young man, fate has indeed been cruel to you. But instead of being depressed right now, you should start seeking out answers. You should atleast know why your friend betrayed you. It is possible that he was forced to do so."
Just as Sammy heard the old lady's words, questions started arising in his head. Thanks to the old lady, he was now in a calm state and started thinking what had happened and how it had happened.
Why did Jason betray me? How did my wounds heal? How was I able to survive after falling from the cliff? Why did Jason call me the Untamed monster? Now Sammy wanted to know the answers of all these questions.
"How did you heal my wounds?" Sammy asked the old lady politely.
She had a look of surprise in her eyes. She said," I did not heal your wounds. When my grandson found you at the bottom of the cliff, he could clearly see your wounds heal by themselves. We thought you had powers from the Apothecary domain."
My wounds were healed by themselves? How is it possible? And what is this Apothecary domain? Sammy was about to ask the old lady about the Apothecary domain, when a young boy around 15 entered the room. He had brown hair and a pretty face. His eyes were silver in colour.
"Hey granny, did you....oh mister! You are awake. You have been sleeping like a dead man for few days. I thought you would never wake up, but now you are awake. Atleast now I can sleep in my bed." The boy said in a humorous way.
"This is my grandson Andrew, he was the one who found you at the bottom of the cliff."
Sammy looked at Andrew and found him smiling and scratching his cheek with his finger embarrassingly.
"Well, I thank you for everything you have done for me. I would like to show my thanks by paying you, but unfortunately I don't have money." Sammy said thanking Andrew and his grandmother.
" No young man, we haven't done much. We just gave you a place to rest for few days and that's all. But still, if you want to pay us, you can take my grandson with you." The old lady told Sammy while having a smile on her face.
What? Take her grandson with me? How is that going to help?
" Take your grandson with me? But to where?" Sammy asked the old lady puzzled.
"Wherever you are going. You can take him with you."
"But why do you want to send your grandson with me?"
"I just don't want his life to be wasted in this terrible place like his father and grandfather.
You seem like a reliable fellow. I think I can trust my grandson to you."
Is this lady for real? I have been lying in her bed for two days and just woke up. Furthermore she talked to me for no more than ten minutes. And she thinks I am reliable. Are there any bad motives this lady has? No, she seems like she genuinely wants to send her grandchlid with me without meaning any harm.
"Look lady, the path I am going to follow from now on is filled with dangers. I can't even guarantee my own safety, so how can I protect him?"
" From the story you told me, I can tell that you are going to see many supernatural things from now on. You seem to have no knowledge about the supernatural. My grandson knows a little about it and can help you.There is your benefit in it too." The old lady tried to convince Sammy.
"Shouldn't we ask the person himself what he wants to do?" Sammy pointed at Andrew.
"I have been ready to leave this sh**ty place for ages." Andrew replied happily.
Sammy had a look of disappointment in his face.
"Don't look so disappointed mister. As granny told, I can help you. I am very lucky you know."
Luck? How will that help me? But the fact that I don't know about the supernatural is true. He might be able to help me in my journey. Maybe I should take him with me.
Sammy thought for a while and finally agreed to take Andrew with him.
"So where should we head out first? I can't wait to leave this place." Andrew looked at Sammy with shining eyes.
"Wait a little boy. You should let him rest for a while here. He has just woken up and need a little time to recover completely." His granny told him.
"No, I am completely fine. You have done enough for me. I can't be a burden for you anymore." Sammy said honestly.
"Young man, don't make decisions rashly. Haste makes waste. Stay here for a while and plan your next move carefully."
Sammy thought for a while and finally agreed to stay for a while. He stayed there for two days. In this time he explored the place where he was staying which could hardly be considered a village. It was made on rags. The old lady's house which was not even close to the normal standards was the best there. He finally knew why the old lady wanted her grandson to leave this place.
After two days, Sammy and Andrew set out for their journey. They were going to the place where Sammy thought he could find some clues, the place he had spent his entire life, Ashfem village.
....
Ashfem village
After a journey of three days, Sammy and Andrew had finally reached the village. While standing on the boundary of Ashfem village, Sammy looked at the village with eyes filled with emotions.
"So this your village. It is not very big but at least, it is better than mine. Why is anyone not outside? Is your village full of vampires who only come out at night to suck blood?" Andrew asked jokingly.
Sammy was also surprised that no one was outside.
"So are you going to visit your mother now?" Andrew asked.
"I don't have a mother. I lost my parents when I was thirteen. Since then Jason's family has been taking care of me. But they also died two year ago."Sammy replied feeling a little sad as all the memories of him Alisa and Jason spending their time together came back to him.
Alisa was orphaned ever since she was a kid and she lived with Jason and his family.
Sammy entered the village and went to Jason's house. He found nothing there, not that he was expecting to find anything. But even the things in jason's house were gone. His house was like an empty shell.
Sammy exited his house and entered the house of his neighbour expecting that he might get some answers for him. But he found nothing there either. This house was also deserted with all of its things gone.
Like this, Sammy entered one house after another and found all of the houses empty with nothing inside. The whole village was deserted. It looked like no one ever lived there.
While standing inside one of the houses, Sammy had a look of surprise and confusion in his face. The feeling of not knowing anything from before was comming back to him.
"Mister, your village looks as empty as my pocket." Andrew joked.
Sammy looked at him with a serious expression.
Suddenly Sammy saw some black dust comming from somewhere. He looked around and found out that the house he was standing in was turning into black dust.
Sammy didn't know what was happening around him, but instead of panicking, he quickly took Andrew's hand and came out of the house running.
When he left the house he found that the house next to the house they were in was also turning into dust. Not only that, the house on their left side, the house on their right side, the house ahead of them and the house behind them, every house was turning into black dust. The whole village was turning into black dust.
Sammy and Andrew left the village and were standing at its boundry.
The scene in front of their eyes was terrifying. The village in which they were roaming around a few minutes ago had completely turned into dust.
There was nothing in that area now except for the air that was filled with black dust.
Soon the enormous dust disappeared too right in front of their eyes.
"What the f**k just happened here?" Andrew asked looking confused and overwhelmed.
"I thought you knew about the supernatural. Then why are you asking me? I should be the one asking you this question." Sammy said, not being serious.
"Well, I don't know anything about houses turning into dust."
Sammy was confused, he did not know what to do now. His only hope of finding some clues was this village which had turned into dust.
He knew that he was not going to come up with anything soon. But what he didn't know was the fact that the series of surprises for him was not over yet.
Sammy and Andrew heard the voice of flapping wings. They looked at the sky and found that a black raven twice the size of an ordinary raven was flying towards them. He had four wings and as the raven came closer thay could see that the raven had four red eyes.
"This thing looks like it hasn't eaten for days. And I think we are his food." Andrew said jokingly and worriedly.
They wanted to run but the raven was so fast that they could not. The raven reached them, but didn't do any harm to them.
He dropped a piece of paper there and flew away.
"Did he not eat us because we have not taken a bath for three days?"
"This in not the time for jokes Andrew." Sammy said while picking up the closed piece of paper.
He opened the paper and found that it was empty.
"I think he forgot to write in it." Andrew said in a humorous way.
Sammy looked seriously at Andrew.
Soon out of nowhere letters slowly started to appear on the paper.
The words freshly written on the paper were
"Go to the Manstoul city and find the Everstiff rock there if you want to know the answers to your questions."