"hey kid!!hey ,wake up!!you can't sleep here",roared a man.He was shoving and poking at Adrian who was like a sack of dried beans,while squatting.The man was wearing tattered clothes and smelled of grease and smoke.He must be an errand boy or something of the sort.

Adrian wrinkled his brows and murmured to stop the entity that was persistenting on poking him.The shoving and poking didn't stop regardless of Adrian s disapproval.At this point Adrian was getting exasperated at who dares to touch him. He slowly opened his eyes and the moment he did that rays of sunlight stormed into his orbs forcing him to quickly shut his eyes.

"For goodness sake, why do you have to trouble me now..get up.. am begging you", pleaded the man when he saw Adrian shut his eyes after momentarily opening them .

" I will give you a bun okay!just move out of the way",the man continued.He was running out of options.He could carry Adrian but that's too exhausting. The best alternative would be to keep trying to shake him and make him move.

Adrian s head was hurting badly and spinning drastically.He attempted to move his hand to his head to massage.As he lifted his arm , ten thousand shocks of pain flowed in his arm and he immediately forgoed his efforts letting the arm fall back to his side.He was in sitting position, with his head slightly hanging to the left.His back was supported by the wooden panels of the herb house.How did he get here?That question made summersaults in his brain but he doesn't think the person next to him will answer it.Anyway the man in question was standing to his right side. Also why does his arm hurt so much. It feels like there had been a stampede on it. The confusion was starting to pile up when he heard the man speak once more.

"Argh.", with that exclamation the man reached for Adrian s body so that atleast he isn't sitting in that position like a corpse.He reached for Adrian s shoulders first and pulled with all his strength.The instant he did, a hail storm of sharp stabs ran through the entire length of Adrian s upper body that had left the wall.As soon as this pain drenched Adrian, Adrian let up an earpiercing cry which startled the man causing him to quickly let go of Adrian.He collided onto the wall like a handful of mud thrown down , because he made a thudding sound when he meet the wall.Adrian s eyes rolled and his jaw clenched as he felt his somehow wounded body get the introduced to another source of pain. A tear involuntarily left the corner of his eye,but quickly fell to the ground.

"Did you have to scream!!",asked the man, seriously annoyed by the weird kid sleeping in front of the tea room.

"Did you have to throw me?!", answered Adrian also annoyed by this man..His voice was course not the scary kind but the kind of someone in unimaginable pain .First of all it's rude to shove someone when they are sleeping.Second of all who does he think he is by touching a ki...The realisation of past events hit him like a stone .His face had been peeled off.Adrian shoot open his eyes and raised his aching hands to conceal his face from the man.

"What are you doing?", rhetorically asked the man.After he said that he stood up and placed his hands on his waist.He was seriously not having the energy to entertain what ever Adrian is serving.

Adrian s arms were shaking frivolously because of the pain but his objective to hide his face was not something he would forgo easily.Whats the point though ,this man had probably seen all he needs to see.Plus if he was to report the him what would he say, no one has ever seen Adrian s face.

That fact made Adrian to completely lower his arms successively.His conscious mind started to try recall all events that happened from the time he had his skin peeled but everything after that was a blur.Probably because the last thing he remembers is hearing is 'you are going to kill him'.He is sure that something happened around that time but he has amnesia now.

Adrian 's chest began to feel constricted.He felt the air ,out of nowhere start to get thinner and even more dry. The man wanted to walk away but he would still have to get rid of the white haired kid that looks like he is half-dead.He looked at Adrian s hair and felt somehow strange.He opened his mouth to talk when he heard sniffing sounds.Is the kid crying.He looked to the sky and looked back to the kid on ground.He exhaled heavily and squatted once more .This time he removed his hands from his waist.

'heaven give me strength', he thought to himself before he begun speaking.

"Look kid,I don't know what you are going through but my advice is to get out of here. Look for a job elsewhere and when you're grown enough you can come look for work here, ok?", the man said softly but still uncomfortable because he hates kids. After a few seconds Adrian nodded at the man s words.The man felt accomplished because he managed to convince an adolescent.He reached for Adrian s shoulder but remembered the scream from earlier on. He quickly retracted his hand and stood up to leave. He turned away and just as he took a step away, Adrian peered over to him.Despite the lose hair hanging over Adrian s face,he could see the man clearly but the man couldn't see Adrian clearly.

This man looks atmost in his early thirties.Why does he keep referring to Adrian as a 'kid'? Adrian watched the man pick up a tray of tea leaves and head out gate of the herb compound. The herb house was like a shack in a medium sized compound in the palace. The shack is at the far back of the compound and the rest of the compound is just medium sized patches of herbs that have to be picked only when used or would lose their freshness.This means that they can't be delivered to the palace like all the other hebs.

He knows that he has to move but his body feels like it had been dragged on concrete for five days. It hurts to breathe but it's so much better than if someone else comes here and prompts him to explain himself. He tried to get himself off the wall but it hurt so much. He had to master the courage to move inspite of the avalanches of nerve shattering pain.He placed his arms on the ground and tightly shut his eyes and tears dropped from his eyes.He lost strength and breathed heavily as his arms gave up.He panted a few times while trying to prop himself off the floor .On the fourth attempt he was already sweating, clearly showing that his muscles are completely worn out.He bit his lower lip tightly and this time shifted his whole body to the left and supported it on his arms.He manged to pull his legs so that he is kneeling on his fours.At this point Adrian was trying hard not to throw up the blood boiling in his stomach.He fought to swallow the blood.Tears were still streaming from his face while he was fighting back his gag reflex. Why is he fighting to not vomit.Simple, he is uncapable of telling whether he will still have strength after doing so..

He was still on his fours when he thought about where he is going to go.Thats right.Where in earth would he go where he wouldn't be kicked out in this state...Reed..As soon as this name came into his mind ,he raised his face just a little and hope was restored...Wait, where is Reed??Adrian s heart skipped a beat and he started to puff and huff for air. He pulled his legs so as to be standing on his feet and supported by his hands.He did that but it was far from easy.Once he accomplished that ,now his fight is going to be with gravity.

He was already nauseous,and it was gettinng hard to stop the vomit when assuming this position. he forced himself up and as his altitude increased, the struggle to not fall over was far from lessening.This is the first time in his life he had ever fought this hard to stand up.He was even breaking a sweat.

Finally he was on his two feet...But he lost his stability and fell onto the wall . He held onto the wall for dear life because he doesn't know if he fell whether he would be able to stand again.He took three breaths and on the four ,he pushed himself from the wall.As soon as he was on his two feet,he started to move his feet.He moved liked he was being pushed or like a lamb running out of kerosene.He took every step, each feeling like he is walking on barbered wire.He staggered with every step but there is no way he is going to stop.

"I must find Reed",he muttured as he staggered out of the herb garden compound.

He left the gate still looking like a drunk man. He was wearing peasant clothes so hee is not likely to draw any attention to himself.He can't just walk to the palace in this state at all, even if he wanted to be would probably pass out on the stairs. The pain he was in was too much that he was feeling like he would drop dead any moment. He walked about half a mile before he saw a group of soldiers.

They must know where Reed is.He didn't stop moving even he was a thread away from collapsing. He made small movements towards the soldiers.Just beyond that corner and then I will find Reed ,he thought to himself. Each step was making his eyelids heavier and heavier. Breathing was becoming a far fetched dream as he was panting for air.He passed the corner and just as he was about to raise his hand to call out the guards,his energy bar hit sub zero.His body started to lose altitude. He fell to the side..... however he never touched the ground.

Someone had caught Adrian midair,and swooshed to behind the corner with fragile Adrian in their grasp.Adrian couldn't make out the identity of the person but instead fell unconscious in the arms of a stranger.