File 2 - Is it still alive ?

Night, Amos Village

In the sky above Amos, ripples appeared and a small black sphere came out, as it was night, it went unnoticed.

The small sphere directly went inside a small stone building in a courtyard, passing through the walls and landed on a body.

The body was lying on a mattress made of straws.

“What happened?”

Feeling that he did not die, Sam was at a loss: He could feel his body, but he could not move.

He tried opening his eyes, but even when deploying his outmost efforts, he was unable to open them totally and all he saw was a blurry vision of a celling, apparently made of stone. It was odd to him. Did the observation chamber collapse?

He did not know what happened in ALICE observation chamber, but looking as he was still alive, he began to wonder what his condition was. Obviously, not good.

Unable to move, unable to see around clearly, he was at least able to breath. He though wanted to try calling for help.

“h……..h….. ”. The sound was barely audible, even him could not hear it. Did he become hearing-impaired?

Trying to move or make a sound, he spent at least one hour trying to make a noise. Giving up after a while, he mused as to why no one had come to rescue him. He was obviously alive, and teams assuring security on the surface have surely been notified that something occurred. Maybe they were on their way.

When he thought of that, he decided to rest a little. “Ah! I’m so hungry”.

A few hours passed, and he finally heard noises behind him. Someone was coming.

The person came and sat near Sam, rolled him on the side and faced his back. He couldn’t see anything as the person has been too fast to turn him around. He then felt a warm feeling between his spatula and his hunger that started to rise at prominent high was soothed instantly.

He didn’t understand what happened, but as soon as he felt sate and energized a little, he started trying making noise again, he made excruciating efforts in order to move, but all he could do was making his back and arms shake a little, turning him back to his original position.

The person in question, a middle-aged woman, stared at him, stunned.

He moved again, and then the middle-aged woman went out of the building while screaming: “it’s awake! It’s awake!”

-------

Not far away, in the main building, a man was sitting. He was big, around 2m and strong looking.

Broad shoulders and impressive arms. His muscles were bulging under his shirt.

Brown eyes, brown hair, he has a straight nose, a small mouth and high cheekbones. His facial features looked like a hawk.

Brian Lennart was drinking a cup of tea in his study while looking at the latest reports coming from the lower branch of the clan; he just came back from a business trip in Obour, and looked at the activity results from the mining, smithing, farming and herb-gathering district of the clan’s business.

Lennart family is a well-respected family in Amos village; they were honest and has been living in Amos for centuries.

The Lennart’s clan are also famous in the village for the might of their martial art experts.

“Hum, it seems our herb gathering is lacking lately, I should dispatch more people, this is one of our less lucrative business, but we can’t overlook it”. He shacked his head; it seems that lately more and more people encountered spirit beasts in the outskirt of the forest, which was alarming because one had to normally venture deep inside to meet them.

This was a big problem: few people were willing to risk their life in order to gather herbs, and the only people willing to go were adventurers or mercenaries which only goal in life seemed to try to bleed him to death with their bills.

“It seems we’ll have to check it out when Sasha and Denise comes back”. Though Brian.

At this moment, someone knocked on the door, and without waiting for Brian’s permission, rushed inside the study.

Brian frowned: “Carla, what does that mean, coming into my study without waiting for my reply? If I had been with one of my business partner, I would have been ashamed!”

Surprised and afraid, Carla immediately kowtowed and with a tone full of fearfulness replied:

“Lord Brian, I’m truly sorry for having barged in without your authorization , please forgive this lowly servant!”.

Brian looked coldly at Carla. He really despised incompetent people.

“Speak, why were you in such a rush?”

Carla did not look up but remained in the kotow position: “Lord Brian, I came to tell you that just now, ‘it’ has awoken!”

Brian looked at Carla with a doubtful gaze. “It? What are you talking about?”

Carla, still kowtowing said: “Gerad’s son! I was in Gerad son’s house to apply Mr. Mepan’s medicine like I do every day, and all of a sudden ‘it’ started to shake! This was the first time I saw ‘it’ doing that!”

Brian was so stunned that he remained in this position for several seconds before waking up.

“I need to see, quickly! Get Mr. Mepan!”

“Yes, my Lord!”

-----

Soon, Brian appeared in Sam’s room, Carla and Mr. Mapan followed him ten minutes after.

Mr. Mapan was wearing a white robe and looked rather old with his half baldhead.

He took some tools out of his bag and started examining Sam’s body.

Brian and Carla were on the side. Carla was visibly excited.

Fourteen years! For fourteen years, it has been her duty to take care of Gerad’s son. He was born with an illness forcing him to remain bedridden, and never woke up. The doctors seeing that he was still breathing advised his parents to feed him with RuneQI infused talisman, until he wakes up and start eating on his own.

That was fourteen years ago.

At first, everyone in the village viewed it as a warning, Gerad must have done something which incurred Heavens wrath! People were speaking about it everywhere in the village, it became like an attraction, they looked at the infant ‘Punished by the Heavens for his father’s sins’. People came from villages around in order to pay their respect to the gods, renewing their fate when they saw what Heavens retribution looked like.

After many years, people forgot about that event and Gerad’s son begun to be referred at like an object.

“Is it still alive?”.

“I went to its house and the foul odor made me unable to eat for three days!”

“What's it’s father doing? Isn’t it time to end it’s suffering?”

These type of comments where common occurrence in the village. Gerad lost his wife during birth, and the prospect of having a vegetable as a son finished destroying him with sadness.

Five years ago, he went adventuring swearing to find a cure, letting his son under the care of his brother, Brian.

Brian wore a very complicated expression at the moment, he did not know if Gerad’s son really woke up, but if it was the case, then the family power organization was going to undergo changes in the future.

A new son in the family was not a small matter.

While he was musing, Brian noticed Mapan’s action getting a little frantic, he asked. ”What is happening?”

Mapan turned his head, a smile covering his face. “He is indeed conscious; just now the response from his soul is promising! In addition, look! The the shaking of his hand! Truly promising!”

He spent half an hour inspecting, infusing Sam with different type of talismans. Then he turned toward Brian and asked him to follow him.

----

Sam was bewildered, at first, he felt like someone was prickling the inside of his head with a cold spoon, he couldn’t repress shacking, he tried to shout to the examiner to make him stop, but couldn’t mutter a sound.

Afterward, the disgusting sensation wore off, and he was enveloped by a warm, relaxing, and soothing sensation, he felt his muscle relax and lost consciousness.

Outside, Mapan told Brian to continue monitoring his progress while infusing him with healing talismans three time a day. Gerad’s son should be able to wake up completely in three days. Brian thanked Mapan, and only Carla noticed the corners of his mouth twitching when he received Mapan's bill.