Chapter 02: Another World

Chief Viren asked Alfred again with a different question.

“Young Alfred, may I know what are you doing out in the woods by yourself?”

Alfred thought deeply, he didn’t know how to answer the question, he didn’t even remember why or how he got into the forest.

‘Should I lie to them that I got lost, or should I just tell them the truth that I don’t know? Well, lying here is not helpful, it is just going to make it harder to answer them. What if they ask a question about how I got lost or something like that? Oh well, I am just going to tell them the truth and lie at the same time, I am going to tell them that I don’t remember because of the attack.’ Alfred thought to himself.

“To tell you the truth, I do not know how I got there, I do not remember why I am in the forest, I think I hit my head pretty hard, I do not seem to remember anything before the attack.” Alfred answered nervously.

Chief Viren frowned.

“What do you mean you do not know? May I know the name of your tribe?”

When Chief Viren asked that, Alfred also frowned, he felt like something was wrong.

‘What does he mean by what is the name of my tribe? Do I look like I lived in the forest?’ Alfred questioned himself.

Finally, Alfred started to examine himself, to his surprise, his body was different.

‘Why do I have this muscle? I never worked out in my entire life, wait a minute there is something wrong with this situation.’ Alfred felt odd.

Chief Viren started to look at Alfred suspiciously, but before he said anything, Alfred screamed.

“Ahhhh! Where is my right foot?!”

Alfred panicked when he saw his right foot was missing, he placed both hands on his head clearly panicking

‘What happened? Where’s my right foot? What’s going on here? I don’t know anymore, am I dreaming? No, it’s not a dream, my body hurt so much, so it means this is real, then that means I’m crippled?’

When the chief saw Alfred panicking, he tried to calm him down.

“Young Alfred, you need to calm down, your wounds are going to open up if you do not stop moving”.

Chief Viren furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Alfred was not stopping, he sent a signal to Vir to stop Alfred from moving. Vir walked toward Alfred, he held him down on the bed, but Alfred still struggled. The already annoyed Vir finally lost his temper, he slapped Alfred in the face and yelled at him.

“Why are you crying like a baby for just losing a foot?! You think you are unlucky no! You should be thankful you are still alive! Do you know how many people died who got lost in the woods? How many died because their wound is much more severe than yours? How dare you cry for just losing a single foot!”

Alfred felt the scorching pain on the left side of his face, he calm down because of this. When Vir felt that Alfred has finally calmed enough, he released him, then went backed to where he came from. After that, Chief Viren continued asking Alfred as if nothing happen.

“Now can you answer me? What is the name of your tribe?”

When Alfred heard that question again for the second time, he started to doubt something.

‘This is weird, this is definitely weird! What is going on here? Wait a minute, a language that I never heard before, a body that isn’t mine, and a giant rat that shouldn’t exist, there is no way, right? Am I losing my mind?

But what if the idea in my head is true? That this is a different world? Then everything suddenly makes sense, right? No! it’s not! In the first place, the idea of a different world is already crazy, how is this making any sense?

Argh! All of this thinking is making my headache worst. I should confirm my theory by asking them questions related to the earth.’ Alfred argued with himself.

Alfred finally replied to chief Viren.

“As I said earlier I do not remember, the only thing I remember is my name and the word earth. Does any of you know the Earth?”

Chief Viren thought for a while then look at shaman Catori.

“Shaman Catori is the word earth familiar to you?”

When Alfred heard the chief Viren ask shaman Catori, he finally confirmed his theory that this world is not Earth.

‘So, it is true that this place is not on Earth. Because why would chief Viren ask Shaman Catori if she knows the word earth, If this is earth, Chief Viren should know it because who doesn’t know the name of the planet they live in, right?’ Alfred thought to himself

Shaman Catori raised her eyebrows and said.

“That word sounds familiar, but I do not really remember where I heard it, maybe from the story of our ancestors I do not really know.

When Alfred heard that Shaman Catori was familiar with the word Earth, his eyes brightened and became a little hopeful, but before Alfred could ask Shaman Catori. Chief Viren looked at Alfred again and tried to verify his answer.

“So, you are telling us that you do not remember anything except for your name and the word earth, is that right?”

Alfred nodded his head. Chief Viren took out something in his loincloth and asked Alfred.

“Do you remember this parchment?”

Alfred looked at the parchment, he tried to remember if he has seen it somewhere, but he didn’t recall any in his memory.

“I do not remember that parchment.”

Vir finally lost his temper.”

“Father this person is suspicious! Do you believe that he doesn’t remember anything? Then if he does not remember anything then he is useless to us! We should just imprison this deceiver!”

This time chief Viren didn’t stop Vir, instead, he just stared at Alfred, because of that Alfred started to feel anxious again.

‘Why does he like to put me in prison so much? I need to think of a way to get out of this predicament, if not I’m going to be imprisoned. What should I do? Think… think ah yes! He said that I am useless to them, what if I make myself useful, but how?

I’m crippled now so I can’t really help with manual labor. Wait, if this is a tribe, then it means they have poor technology, I have some knowledge from my previous world maybe that can help me?

Wait no-no-no, if I just said I know some stuff from another world are they just going to believe me? Not even I would believe it if someone told me he has knowledge from a different world. I will even think that person is crazy, then what should I do?’

While Alfred is thinking, Chief Viren finally spoke.

“Young Alfred do you know this language?”

Chief Viren pointed at the parchment, when Alfred saw the writings inside, he got shocked and blurted out.

“Isn’t that English?!”

All of the Elder’s eyes brightened, but the most excited one was Shaman Catori, after all, she was hungry for knowledge.

“Are you saying that this ancient language is called English?” Shaman Catori eagerly asked.

Alfred got surprised when Shaman Catori said that English was an ancient language.

‘Wait, what does she mean by ancient language? Is that mean that someone used the language from the earth here before?’.

Suddenly Alfred got an idea of how to become useful to them, he pretended to be deeply in thought, he held his answer and waited for the Elders to be impatient.

“When I saw the language earlier it just came to my mind that this language is called English, I do not know why but it just did.”

The Elders started to get more excited. Shaman Catori finally can’t stop herself.

“Can you read them?”

‘Should I tell them that I could read them? But what if they force me to teach it to them, then they will dispose of me after learning everything? because I’m not useful anymore? Yes, let’s be careful here and think this thru, I don’t know these people. First, let’s just say I can read them, but I don’t remember them all, yes that’s it.’ Alfred thought of a planned

Alfred borrowed the parchment to Chief Viren to try reading it.

“Yes, I can read some of them, but I do not remember all of the words. I feel like I know the Language but at the same time I do not”

“That is fine as long as you can read them, it means there is a chance that you will be able to remember them; can you tell us what this parchment is about?”. Shaman Catori reassured Alfred

Alfred read the title of the parchment out loud in English.

“Rune Formation”

Alfred frowned.

“Do you know what Rune formation is?”

The Elders became confused, this is the first time they heard this word.

“Why do you ask about this rune formation? Is this word related to the parchment?” Chief Viren asked

Alfred nodded his head.

“Yes, it is some kind of a letter about rune formation, I do not know what rune formation is though, Chief Viren can I borrow this parchment to study? Maybe I can recall some of my memory if I try to study this”.

Chief Viren slightly smiled and nodded.

“But of course, it is yours in the first place, when we found you this parchment is inside of your clothes”

Alfred got surprised by this.

‘So, it means this parchment belongs to the previous owner of this body, but why does he have this parchment with him? and why the letter on the parchment is written in English?’

Alfred looked at the Chief Viren, then he remembered that he never thank them for saving him.

“I am sorry, I forgot to thank you first for saving my life, I am just really confused, I hope you can forgive me.”

Chief Viren waves his hand.

“Do not mention it, we should probably go and let you rest, if you do not have anywhere to go you can stay here in our tribe. I hope we can help each other”.

When chief Viren stood up, the other two elders also followed him, but before they left Elder Ahote smiled at Alfred

“We should go young Alfred, I also hope you can help our tribe”

Alfred also smiled back.

“Thank you elder Ahote, I hope so too, so I can repay all of you for your kindness.”

After Chief Viren and Elder Ahote walked outside, Vir glared at Alfred for a second, then followed the two Elders. Shaman Catori was left behind.

“Young Alfred, I will go too, I hope you can teach me this ancient language in the future”

Alfred smiled.

“Do not worry shaman Catori, if I regain my memories, I will definitely teach you English in the future. I am also in your care, and I hope you also teach me a lot of things”

Shaman Catori walked outside while laughing.