When Wirt woke up for the first time, he felt a rough structure underneath him. Yet it wasn't uncomfortable at all. The wind gently moved the leaves above him, the sounds of the forest calming and peaceful. The boy couldn't get himself to care. He was too tired to think and just being here felt so good. He felt at home. Slowly his mind drifted back into sleep and all of Wirt's senses went numb.
When the boy awoke for the second time his body felt heavy. Slowly he started to peel his eyes open. Light flooded the darkness and noises the silence. The light grew more intense with every passing second and the sound seemed to be coming nearer. Wirt's body still felt numb, he couldn't really feel his fingers and toes yet.
Suddenly the way to bright was dimmed by a figure leaning over Wirt. As his vision turned sharper he could make out more. "Mom…" he croaked, throat feeling like sandpaper, dry and rough.
"Oh my god! Wirt!" Her voice sounded like she had been crying. "Are you alright? How do you feel? What were you thinking." The worry in her voice became more noticeable with each word she said.
The woman sat down next to Wirt. The boy turned his head to face his mother. "… What happened?" he asked. His memory was fuzzy, the last thing he could remember was … a forest? No that couldn't be.
"Wirt." His mother's voice was soft and caring. "You... you felt down the stairs. Somebody had thrown something through the window." She sobbed. "You fell down into the glass. Do you know how worried I was? I got a phone call from the hospital. At 3 am!"
"'M sorry Mom," Wirt whispered, voice still weak. It was difficult to keep his eyes open.
"Don't be." She ruffled through Wirt's hair. "I just… Why were you even up?"
"Heard something…" He yawned "Couldn't sleep."
The woman smiled, kissing Wirt's forehead. "Then sleep now."
Wirt nodded weakly and the world faded to black again.
When he woke up for the third time, Wirt heard voices. He tried to open his eyes but… everything just felt so heavy. He was so tired, he could barely make out the words that were said.
"… healthy." An unknown woman's voice said, sounding a bit freaked out. Why did she sound so freaked out? Wirt asked himself, wasn't healthy good? God, he couldn't think straight.
"I mean, that could be a mistake." Mom, Wirt realizes. "Or the doctor before could have been wrong." She sounded unsure, worried. Wirt wanted to help her, to say that everything will be okay. But he couldn't move, couldn't even open his eyes. All his muscles felt like glued into place.
"I mean" his mother continued "his arm can not just heal overnight… not to mention, that he had glass shards sticking out of it only a few hours ago." Her voice was shaking. "I… I saw it. And yet you say there is nothing?"
"Please calm down." The other woman stated, voice monotone and cold. "I can just give you the information I received. I know that it should be impossible." She took a deep breath. "Fact is: The broken bone is healed as well as all the wounds caused by the glass. This is the first time I heard about something like this."
The weight on Wirt's bed shifted, his mother was sitting down next to him. "Does anyone have an idea why?" She asked exhausted.
"Well," the other woman's voice dropped, turning into a whisper. Wirt could barely make out what was being said. "there was something strange…"
His mother shifted on his bed. "Stranger than the suddenly healed arm?"
"Well, there apparently was some unidentified liquid in his blood…" Wirt couldn't hear more, the rest he received was just a quiet undecipherable mumble. His mind too tired to comprehend those words.
"I expect to be the first one, who is informed." His mother stated, she turned around to ruffle through Wirt's hair again, but Wirt was already fast asleep.
"Wakey, wakey, dear Brother o' mine."
Wirt turned around, eyes still closed. "Come on Greg…" he muttered, "Let me sleep."
"No-ho!" His younger brother started shaking him. "You have slept waaaaaay too long!"
Wirt tried to curl himself together in his bed- this wasn't his bed! It was too soft, the blanket too heavy. Wirt sat up, breathing heavily. As he saw the white walls he groaned. "I'm in the hospital." He stated.
"But of course!" Greg sat on the bed, legs swinging over the side. "And the doctors have already fixed you up completely."
Disbelieving, Wirt lifted his broken- formerly broken arm. Nothing. It was as if there never was a scratch on it. The boy vaguely remembered somebody talking about… this but couldn't quite put his finger on where this information had come from.
"Mom said, you fell down the stairs." Greg said, still smiling brightly as if 'falling down the stairs' was a trip to the amusement park.
"Yeah…" Wirt said. "There… was something…"
"The broken window?" Greg asked. "Don't worry! Detective Greg will find the culprit who did it."
"Thanks, Greg." Wirt let a small smile ghost over his lips. "But I don't mean the window. It felt like… not from here." He wasn't entirely sure why he was telling Greg this but when Wirt saw the big eyes of the younger kid starring up to him, he immediately regretted bringing it up.
"Not from here? You mean like from The Unknown?" When they returned, it was clear that they had been in another 'world'. While Wirt did his research on near-death-experiences, Greg decided that The Unknown was some kind of magical land, where they were sent to defeat The Beast. Oh, how often he had come to Wirt over those past four years to ask him if they would return there. "Were you there?" Greg continued with his childish enthusiasm. "Have you seen Beatrice, or Auntie Whispers, or the Woodsman? I miss them…"
Wirt wasn't entirely sure how to answer to that. Unlike Greg, he feared The Unknown, even though he missed some of the people/birds he met there.
"There are my two boys!" Wirt and Greg turned around, their mother standing in the doorframe. "Having fun?"
"Yes!" Greg nearly shouted. "Wirt maybe saw something from The Unknown!"
Their mother's eyes darkened at the mention of 'The Unknown'. Greg had told her and his father a lot about this place and the 'adventures' they had. Both of them did not believe him and were concerned when Wirt mentioned having had the same 'dream'. "Greg, mind getting me and your brother some water? You can ask the nice lady at the entrance."
Greg saluted. "Aye aye, Captain Mom."
The woman copied the salute as the small boy left the room. She signed and pulled a chair next to Wirt's bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Not… not bad actually," Wirt confessed. "My arm… is fine."
His mother sighed. "Do you remember anything, that could have caused that?"
"Instant healing?" Wirt snorted "No."
"Well, there was a possibility. Anyway, I talked to the doctors and they said you can go home today since there is nothing wrong with you…"She smiled. "Even though they haven't found an explanation to the 'why'."
"So, I'm going home again?"
"Yes." She nodded. "Please don't talk with your brother about this hallucination."
Wirt swallowed. The Unknown. The hallucination. The accident. "I didn't bring it up." He mumbled, "And I don't want to talk about that."
"I understand…" she smiled sadly. "I don't want to think about losing you ever again." She hugged the boy tightly and after a few seconds, Wirt returned the hug. They stayed like this for quite some time not daring to let go of each other. When Greg returned they included him into the hug, still silent able to convey their feelings without words.