'Two men, one is old, the other young and strong, extremely strong. One more, but I can't confirm anything about him.'
Ethan had been awake for a while but had pretended to be asleep to gather information. He knew he was lying on something soft, with a source of heat just next to him. Furthermore, he was entirely numb. He couldn't feel anything in his limbs now.
He feared that they had been cut off for a moment, but after analyzing his entire body with Ki, he realized that his limbs were merely frostbitten. It wasn't the worst-case scenario where his limbs had been cut off. Still, thankfully, someone had administered emergency treatment, allowing his Ki to stabilize his body even if he was unconscious.
It would still take him a while to fully recover.
The more important thing was...
'Where am I? And who are these people?'
He was hesitant to open his eyes in case one of them was already looking at him, but he couldn't recognize the language being spoken at all.
It wasn't the common empyrean tongue, nor was it any language he knew of. In the continent, three languages were spoken the most.
Vali, the tongue of the Empire, Kal'Sifi, the tongue of the Subcontinent, and Liuk, the tongue of the eastern lands. These were the languages Ethan had been taught, but the men here were speaking something else.
Ethan was unable to understand anything, but he had some idea. These men were his saviors, not some assassins sent to kill him.
He remembered he had passed out in the clearing, moments before a harsh blizzard came. He was still confused as to what had really happened. The battle with the beast and the Huntress, was it real or just an illusion?
And what was that... place? Where does he see his own corpse? He had so many questions, but not a single answer.
All of that would have to wait, however, until he got a good idea of where he actually was. And although most of his Ki was focused on keeping him alive, he had some of it to spare.
Spreading his Ki throughout the area, Ethan got a rough idea of where he was and who he was with. The building he appeared to be in was a church, or a town hall, one would find in a village; it had a base of stone, and everything else was a wood he didn't recognize.
And as to who he was with, there were three individuals. One appeared to be an old and weak man; his body possessed faint but lively Ki, likely the medic who had saved him. The other one...
'... Is that a damn bear?'
From the breathing he had heard alone before, he knew the man was big and powerful... But this was unexpected. Ethan wasn't expecting a literal bear-sized man to be here. He was big and strong and was brimming with strong but dormant Ki.
'... He is that strong without even Ki?'
He wouldn't like to mess with that man, not even the woman by his side. Ethan had first thought she was a man as well due to her breathing, but she was as tall as he was, and stood close to the bearish man, perhaps a member of his family.
Ethan let out a sigh in his mind. His company was quite odd, and the usage of Ki was putting a strain on his damaged body. He had been discreet throughout, in case one of the people knew how to use Ki, and it was draining.
The bearish man had stopped talking for a while, and only the old man was speaking. Ethan pretended to be asleep as the man continued talking; however, with each word being said, he was beginning to feel suspicious.
'... Is he maybe talking to me?'
As the man went on, Ethan began to hear some oddities in his speech, but because he couldn't understand anything, he didn't know what was going on, although he was beginning to have an idea.
"Hmm, now would this work? Wake Up, Child, Aware, we are."
"..."
Ethan may not have recognized anything else the man had spoken before, but he did recognize this language.
Although broken and spoken with a heavy accent, the man was now speaking a language he actually knew. Liuk, the language of the eastern lands.
"... My apologies."
Ethan answered in kind, as he opened his eyes and took a closer look at everyone present. The closest one was the old man, who wore strange clothing of animal hide and ornaments of beast bones.
'Barbarian? A Shaman?'
The other was the big man, and the woman beside him. Ethan narrowed his eyes when he saw the small ears on the top of their heads, and was confused.
'... Am I in a village of barbarians? What is that on their heads?'
He confused the ears with hair, after all... Why would there be ears at the top of one's head? It was probably their disorderly hair or an ornament of sorts.
"So, you understood this..."
'Shit.'