Slayers: Between light and darkness
Disclaimer: No. My plot to take over the slayers, and everything associated with the show was a failure, so I still don't own anything… Sigh… But I won't give up!
Authors notes: I failed to mention this last time, everything written in Italic are thoughts.
Hope you enjoy chapter 2.
The girl
Where am I?
He opened his eyes. He was no longer in the forest. He was lying in a soft bed in a room. He couldn't see clearly. It was pretty dark in the room, the only source of light was some candles, there wasn't any lights from the windows either. "It must be night" he thought. It was a small room, it didn't contain much, only his bed, a chair an a small nightstand. On the nightstand, he saw a glass containing a liquid, "Water?" he thought. He reached out for it, and the movement made him realize, that his wounds had been treated, he was still sore and weak. Even the wound in his shoulder was somewhat healed, even though it was still an open wound, it wasn't that serious anymore. He got hold of the glass, "cold" he thought, "Someone must have been here recently".
He could hear something or someone on the other side of the door. His eyes quickly scanned the room once more, no way to escape, and noting to use as a weapon either. He decided to relax. Whatever it was, it couldn't be hostile. It just didn't make sense to first heal him, and then kill him. The door opened. In the dim light he had trouble seeing the person, it looked like a woman.
"So, you are awake now?", the voice was female. He tried to sit up. "Don't do that" she said "you should save your strength". He slumped back in the bed. "Who are you?" he asked. "My name is Sylphiel" she said " And what is your name?". Even though it was a simple question, he failed to give an answer. "My…. Name?" he thought " that should be easy to remember, it's…. I can't remember! Why can't I remember something as simple as my name?"
"I don't remember" he told the girl. "So, what do you remember?" she asked curiously, "Not much" he said " I woke up hurt in the forest, I got attacked by bandits and passed out, next thing I know, I was here".
Sylphiel went over to the chair and sat down. She looked a bit at him, then smiled, "well, that isn't much of a life story you have" she said " but surely there must be more, you look just as old as I am, If not a year or two older."
He sighed "Yeah, I know, but I just can't remember". He tried to move, unfortunately he bumped his injured shoulder into a bedpost. He cried out in pain, and reached for it with his healthy hand. "Oh, I'm sorry" Sylphiel said "Here, maybe this will help" She reached out for his wounded shoulder. Her hand started to glow white. His eyes went wide with fear. She saw his reaction "you don't have to be afraid, it's just a small healing spell. He relaxed, he didn't know why, but he wanted to trust this girl.
She touched his shoulder. He could feel the pain fading, when he looked at it he could see the wound close. "There, that should do it" she said. "Now you better get some sleep, the healing spell will work better that way". She stood up, and walked towards the door, just before she went out, she turned and said "please don't think to much about your past, I'm sure it will come back to you in time. Goodnight". She left the room.
"Try not to think? Easier said than done. But I guess she has a point." He closed his eyes, and cleared his mind, "Just go to sleep, don't think, just go to sleep" thinking like that finally made him drift off in a peaceful slumber.
The next day, he woke up to se the sun through his window. "how long have I been asleep?" he thought. He looked around in the room once more. He saw that some clothes was left on the chair. "I guess I should try to get dressed" he got up. He could feel that he was still very weak, but at least he didn't hurt anymore.
It took him quite awhile to get dressed, and he had to sit down and relax a few times during the process. I the end, he was fully dressed. His new clothes was noting special, just a regular pair of pants and a loose shirt, both of them in black. The boots were way to big, but for a start he could use them, there was a pretty cold stone floor in the room, and everything was better than walking on bare feet.
He looked around, and noticed a mirror in the corner of the room. Now that I think about it, I can't remember how I look like. He sat down in front of the mirror and looked at himself. His hair had a strange silver color. His eyes where green as emeralds. He burned his features into his memory, and left the mirror. He went over to the window and looked out. The town was not big, not as far as he could see anyway. The house he was in was on a small hill on the outskirts of the town. From the window he could se a forest, not more than a few 100 meters away.
He turned from the window. "What about that girl, Sylphiel, from yesterday?" he thought "I wonder if she is still somewhere around here". He decided to go look for her, or someone else who could give him some answers. He went through the door. There was no one in the hallway. He could hear someone in the room on the right side off the hall. As he entered the room, he saw Sylphiel. She was standing in a small kitchen. "Oh you're awake now?" she said "I was just preparing some food for you." "Food" he thought "I feel like I haven't eaten in ages".
"Sounds good" he said "I'm starving". She just smiled at him " It's no surprise that you are hungry, it's almost 4 days since you ate something, as far as I know". He looked puzzled, "4 days? What do you mean?".
She turned back to her cooking "You have been sleeping for 3 days straight. As you remember, you woke up yesterday, but you didn't eat anything at that time. Sit down". He went over to the small table in the corner and sat down. She gave him a bowl of soup and blushed a bit "I know soup isn't a normal breakfast, but I thought I should make something your stomach could handle". He looked at her, and then started laughing a bit. "You shouldn't worry about that, you know. The way I feel right now, I could eat my boots, and still think it was the best meal I ever had". Both of them laughed at that, but then he turned serious again, "of course, I couldn't remember any other meal I ever had" he said, his voice held a bit of bitterness in it.
Sylphiel sat down at the chair on the other side of the table. "So, you still don't remember your name, or where you come from?" she asked. He got a sad expression in his eyes "No, I have told you all I remember". Sylphiel looked at him for a short while and said "Well, you are going to need a name, we can't call you something like *The nameless, mysterious stranger* forever can we?". He laughed a bit, " I see your point, that name would be stupid, but I have no idea what to call myself". Sylphiel looked down for a second, then raised her head, something was different in her eyes, they were still smiling, but somehow they now looked a bit sad too. "How about we call you Eruk?".
He thought about it for a while, "I like it" he said, "but it looks like it makes you sad. Does it mean something special for you?" She looked down once again, the sad look was more clear this time. "It is … was, my fathers name" she finally said. That hit him pretty hard. The girl was only trying to make him feel better, "sorry, I didn't want to make you sad, Sylphiel" he said. The sad look vanished from her face "Oh no, my father … died a few years ago, but it still makes me a bit sad to think about it. If you like the name, you should stick with it".
He looked at her face, to find any indication that she didn't meant what she said, but found none such traces. "Ok, if you don't have a problem with calling me Eruk, then I don't have a problem with it either. She smiled, "then your name shall be Eruk" she said "at least until you remember your real name"
They finished eating. Eruk felt tired once again. He didn't go to sleep at once though, he decided to ask Sylphiel some more questions. There was so many things he didn't know. "I know that she isn't able to tell me much about my past" Eruk thought, but he hoped that she could at least tell him how he got here. Sylphiel seemed happy to tell him all that she knew about his being here. She started by telling him, that after he passed out in the bandit camp, he was saved by a guard patrol from New Sairaag, the town he was currently in. He was brought to her, because of her healing magic. By her mentioning of magic, he seemed a bit confused once again.
"What exactly is this *magic* you're talking about?" he asked. She didn't answer at once, but then said "to explain how magic works, I would need a really, really long time. I think we should save that for another time, when you are feeling a bit better" Eruk looked a bit disappointed, but Sylphiel explained that magic was a very difficult thing to comprehend, and that it was a force not taken too lightly. Eruk had to agree, that he wasn't feeling ready for an extensive lesson yet.
"I was thinking" Sylphiel said after a while "tomorrow I should show you the city, perhaps there is something you are able to recognize". That sounded like a great idea to him.
He then went to bed, hoping to regain some of his strength for the next day.
Authors notes:
There you are. Our mysterious main character now has a name. But who is he really? Can Sylphiel help him regain his memory, or will it take something else? So many questions, and still no answers. But maybe more will be revealed in the next chapter?
