After a few hours, the rain started to subside. The sounds of the radioactive downpour diminishing to nothingness. Krist finished the chores that Old Ally had given him as fast as he could. He was anxious to try to figure out what had happened to him. He had searched his memory high and low for a clue of at least where he had been before but all he could remember was the forest.
He decided that the first person to ask was Old Ally herself, she seemed to know everything that happened in Glowater. He just needed to figure out how to ask her without sounding strange, if there was one thing that he hated, it was looking like a fool without wanting to. Walking up to her, he opened his mouth to start a conversation, but was interrupted.
"Where did you go last night Krist? I know you hate sleeping here for rent but that doesn't mean that the forests are any better."
"Ally, you know that sometimes I leave," Krist answered, leaving it hanging for her to say more.
"Yes, but you know that you never should leave at night for one of your little trips. People like to see you off. It's hard to do that if you sneak off in the middle of the night."
"Sorry about that Ally," he sighed, resigning himself to tell her his problem. "The thing is, I can't remember what happened. I remember waking up yesterday and doing my chores to help pay for my stay here, but that's about it. I woke up in the forest this morning and had to race the storm."
"Ah, well that explains why you were so jittery these last few hours," she laughed. "unfortunatly for you, I have no idea what you did yesterday after your chores. You left to go out on the town and I saw you again bowling into my door."
"Well then, guess that means I should go ask some people," sighing again, "I'm really not looking forward to this." And with that, he started for the door to the street. He rubbed his cheek, 'Eesh, I guess I haven't cleaned up since yesterday.' So he turned around towards the stairs. Climbing to the second floor and going to the very last door, he pulled out his room key and opened the door.
Once in the comfort of his room, he stripped off his clothes, throwing them on his bed as he walked to the small bathroom. He took a quick shower, shaved, and went to go get dressed, as he was getting dressed, he looked into his large mirror (uncracked, a rarity that he paid a pretty penny for) to admire himself.
Tall, with large but lean muscles, and a deep, light tan; he was a fairly average gatherer. What made him stand out were the little details, scars criss-crossed his arms and chest, his thick, dark hair was kept short and neat, deep gray eyes seemed to both emenate light and darkness, while his lips were perpetually curled in a self-confident smirk.
He always loved his body, he saw it as the only thing that he had full control of in the world. He kept the best care of it that he could. He almost never did anything to put himself in danger if he could help it.
Pulling on a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt, he left his room and locked the door behind him, he went down the stairs and left to the street. He was instantly greeted by the sights and sounds of a small town. The town's 5 schoolchildren were running down the main street chasing a small dog were yelling and laughing. The few teenagers were digging drainage grooves in the roads to try to control the water in front of the stores and common areas. Adults walked around, some already putting up their road stalls to sell vegtables and other things.
One of the teenagers, a smaller girl named Lucy, saw Krist and soon the 6 of them were right up next to him. He knew they saw him as something of a hero, he was one of the only people that had autourity in the town that wasn't born with it. He was a person that showed up one day and decided that he was going to stay. His authourity wasn't based on anything more than respect and the town teenagers were the ones that gave him the most.
"Krist, Krist," a lanky boy named Mike was saying, "where did you go? Why did you go? Why did you come home so soon?"
"Calm down, calm down," Krist chuckled, an idea forming in his head. "I have a better idea, I know you all love to just get answers but what if you try to figure out on your own?"
Jackie, the oldest girl answered, "What do you mean? Like a guessing game?"
"No stupid," said Will, a larger boy, "he doesn't want to play a game." Turning his attention to Krist, "Do you?"
"Not exactly," Krist said, "what I was thinking is a sort of contest, if you can figure this out without me telling you, I will owe each of you a favor. All you have to do is talk to people around the town."
"Alright!" And they were off.
'Nice, they will take care of the heavy lifting. But it won't hurt to try to find out a bit of info on my own,' he thought, walking towards the bar.
