Thanks everyone for your reviews! It was great to see these positives reviews and some nice feedback. It helps me a lot to improve. It's actually my second fanfic I have ever written and in fact… I started the first one some days before that one. So I'll do my best to provide a good story and to improve my writing skill and vocabulary. I am working along with my friend Bergor for brainstorming and he is helping a lot with my grammar, so I wanted to say a special thanks to him for this. =3
Well, I hope you guys will enjoy that chapter! I worked hard on it and the more reviews I got, the faster I tried to finish it. And don't forget, reviews are really appreciated and I'll try to answer every questions I can. Have a good reading! =D
Chapter 1 - Search for help
He spent several minutes, maybe one hour, on his search for help of any kind.
So far, he had no luck.
He knew he shouldn't complain about it yet, even if his pain seemed to get worse at every step.
He looked up to study the sun's position.
He still had time before sunset.
Maybe three or four hours max until he needed to search for a shelter for the night and build a fire if possible as well.
His hair was tousled by the gentle breeze.
The feeling was really strange to him for some reason.
Like... if he hadn't felt this since so long.
He stopped for a moment and touched the top of his head, expecting to found something.
But there was nothing.
It seemed like something was missing, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
Inside of him, he had this strange feeling, like it was something important.
He shook his head and kept going.
He had no time to lose on a hat of some sort.
It will probably come back to him sooner or later.
It wasn't really the priority right now.
His attention was not totally set to where he was walking.
Many questions were crossing his mind at the moment.
But no answers were found.
He sighed in defeat.
"I suppose I shouldn't force myself to think at the moment…", he shook his head, "It isn't like this migraine would allow me to do so anyway…"
Even if he remembered something, it probably wouldn't help him that much.
He should focus more on where he's going and keeping his injury from worsening by not stumbling over something like a fool.
He suddenly froze in place when he heard leaves rustled. His worried gaze fixed where the source of noise was coming from. It was in some bushes, quite close to him. He suddenly realised something he hadn't considered yet. He was in the middle of the woods and all kind of dangerous wild animals could be found in here.
His grip on the tree got tighter and he held his breath. If something were to come out and attack him, he would be unable to defend himself or even to flee. Let's say… that he would be more than in serious trouble.
He didn't dare to move a muscle, fearing to get the attention of whatever was hiding there.
His heart was beating fast.
His nervousness grew at every seconds passing by.
Suddenly, something came out of the bushes… And he could see a little rabbit fix him with it's little round eyes before scampering off into the woods.
He stayed there… silent for a moment.
Did… he just got scared by… an adorable and harmless little rabbit?
He just started to laugh when he realised how stupid the situation was. Oh my… he just made a fool of himself right now.
As scary as the situation was at first, it felt nice right now. I guess laugh is always good to cheer up a bit in such situation.
"How embarrassing.", he shook his head and chuckled to himself, "I should stop thinking of the worse and stay calm no matter the situation. That's what a gentleman should do after all"
He suddenly seemed surprised at what he just said.
"Hm..? How curious… "
He placed his right hand under his chin, closed his eyes and tilted his head, looking thoughtful. This gesture seemed to come to him strangely naturally.
"Why did I mention this about being a gentleman?", he asked himself, "It's strangely brought me a familiar feeling when I did. Hmm.."
He stayed there, thinking a moment. He opened his eyes and he got a satisfied answer.
"I may not remember who I am, but, perhaps it must be something I would usually say. I don't see any other particular reason."
He nodded and kept going.
"I suppose habits are hard to lose, even with memory holes."
[...]
After what seemed to be like an eternity of walking, (that was actually around three hours) his state became worrisome. He began to feel weariness and this was well noticeable. His movement became slower and awkward. The pain seemed unbearable after forcing himself to walk for so long despite his condition.
He decided to stop for a moment and sat down against a tree. He closed his eyes and let escape a sigh of relief. He wished he could stay like this all day. But he didn't have all day. Sunset was near and he still had no idea where to look for help. He decided to take some well earned rest for a few minutes before continuing his search.
It was so calm… so peaceful. It was quiet, beside a few birds singing here and there and this water noise.
…
Wait a minute…
"It sound… like flowing water.", he opened his eyes, looking around curiously, "if it is the case, my chances to find help have increased."
Despise his body's protest, he got up and decided to follow the source of the flowing water noise. After a few meters, he arrived at a small open space with a river in front of him.
He smiled, clearly happy of his discovery,"A river, like I was expecting."
He looked at it thoughtfully. Yes, he did find a river, but which direction should he take from here?
He pondered, having this natural movement coming along like earlier. Eyes closed, hand on the chin, head tilted, he began to turn ideas inside his mind, searching for the right answer.
First, traversing the river was already marked as a really bad idea. The flow was too strong and with his broken leg, it would be impossible to achieve. He had no idea what was on the other side and with the night coming along, he would be freezing if his clothes were to get wet.
So… it was definitely a NO.
Then, two more option were proposed to him. He could follow the river to the right, or to the left.
The flow of the river was coming from the right. There must be a ocean or some sort at the end of it. Depending of where exactly he was situated, he could find a city or a port along with it. But there's a big chance that he came to nothing and that the ocean was actually quite far.
He thought of his other possibility: following the flow of the river to the left. There is a possibility to find a lake along with houses and farms. It seemed to be a region suitable to cultivation and farms often use strong river flow to power their water mill.
He smiled, satisfied with the answer he was searching for. He strangely felt the urge to point out in front of him, but he reminded himself that he should be careful because of his injuries and avoid making brusque movements.
He began to follow the river, but suddenly stumbled around when he did. He stopped, almost immediately, holding his head in pain. It seemed that his migraine had got worse all of a sudden. Probably the result of his exhaustion after getting so far.
Dizziness hit him and everything started to spin around him. A sick feeling clutched his stomach.
No… not now. It's not the time to lose consciousness, so close to maybe finally find help.
He closed his eyes for a moment, hoping that the feeling would go away. Taking deep breaths, he relaxed, waiting for it to stop… or at least decrease.
After some minutes, the sensation seemed to fade away.
He dared his eyes open.
"Hm… it seems back to normal.", he sighed relief.
"I shouldn't lose more time."
He resumed his walk, back with a determinate expression. But inside of him, he was worried, even a bit afraid. There was other outcomes than success and he knew it very well. But he had hope… hope that luck would stay on his side. How many chance he had to find a river in the middle of nowhere after all? And this by taking a random direction?
"There must be something ahead. There has to.."
Dizziness came back to him after a little while. Urg…! Why won't it leave him alone for a moment!
He kept his focus forward, trying to ignore the spinning landscape around him until he heard a strange sound in the wind. Something unusual to a forest.
"What in the world…?"
He listened more carefully, then heard it again.
"It sounds… like… a cow?"
His face light up with hope. He didn't care about his dizziness and pressed forward faster than his condition could allow him. He came out of the wood in an open area. He could see a large field that seemed filled with different kind of vegetables and such, a pen with cows, a medium sized red and white house and diverse other structures that clearly belonged to a farm.
He held his head again, migraine becoming more intense. It was hard to see what stood exactly in front of him. Everything was moving so fast. He thought he could make out a human shape in all this mess.
He took a step forward and tried to call the person but his words got caught in his throat. His vision became blurry until everything suddenly turned completely dark.
The last thing he could hear was a surprised shout from the figure standing in front of him and then he hit the ground.
I don't own the characters from the Professor Layton game series. Professor Layton is the property of Level-5, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.