"Mhmm…" Darian was confused as his whole mind felt as though it were about to explode. His eyes were still closed, and it was clear that he wasn't fully awake yet.
Darian was currently trying to move, as if he were trying to free himself from something, but the more his body started to move, the clearer it became that he couldn't move freely.
"Mhmm…" Darian was emitting low groans. From a black vision, he was finally able to see again; even if the vision was totally blurred, thoughts were slowly coming back to him. As his consciousness returned, he realized the pain his body was currently going through; the huge hit he had received from Ashikunz was hurting again.
"No, no… don't touch me… SNOWY!" With this shout, Darian immediately opened his eyes and realized that his body was positioned vertically and he couldn't move freely. What he saw around him made his heart beat extremely fast, it was something that he was sure he would never see again. It looked exactly like a laboratory.
But this laboratory was nowhere near as simple as the ones he had used since he returned, no, this one was full of things from the old world. In fact, in front of him, he even noticed a small monitor; even if it was turned off, Darian understood immediately that it could work because of the wires leading toward it.
The whole room was an inexpressive gray color and was full of wires on the ground; all around there were multiple syringes and closed drawers. The ones that were open held many different things, stuff that ranged from simple old metallic parts to other wires.
But the thing that immediately caught Darian's attention was the number of books, the whole room was filled with them, covering many different topics. Darian was able to spot some that talked about cooking and food in general, while there were some that talked about physics, others that talked about electricity, and computers in general.
"What's thi—argh!" Darian remained confused at the sight of the environment around him until his body surged with pain, especially in his arm. As Darian moved his eyes downward, he noticed that his arm was full of bandages, seeing them, he remembered when Ashikunz slowly cut his skin with the spear.
But the things that worried Darian most weren't the bandages, they were the four-point restraints over his arms and legs that didn't let him move freely. "Steel?" whispered Darian, confused at the sight of a material so completely normal; it was strange for him to see metal that wasn't rusted in this world.
As he looked ahead, he noticed an extremely small grey table in front of him with a small stool near it. Suddenly, he heard the door opening in front of him. "Damn!" Darian tried to free himself. 'Please, let the training with Allocen be enough…' As he remembered all the strength he had used during his training with Allocen, his body still wasn't strong enough to free itself.
Suddenly, when the door opened, Darian gulped, both surprised and scared to see someone like that.
The human that came through the door, if he could ever be defined as one, was extremely similar to Sappho, but while the girl only had a small horn on her head resembling the aspect of a Krukin, this man was extremely similar to one of them.
His whole face was black, but it was as if the black hadn't taken over his entire body; in fact, a part of his skin was still pink. His eyes were totally black and his pupils had become yellow, and while most of his hair had already turned black, there was still a part that was white.
This person had a long black coat and his hands weren't those of a human, even if he still had five fingers, he had extremely small claws. The moment he noticed that Darian was awake, he smiled warmly.
"Oh, you're finally awake. I was sure I heard correctly." With that, the weird Krukin-person started to move his body while singing a small song under his breath, reaching for one of the closed drawers. "What are you?" Darian remained confused, as he couldn't believe his eyes; there was another human who was similar to the Krukins, but this one was a hundred times more similar.
The person didn't answer yet and grabbed what looked to be some new plates and cups, which were extremely beautiful. 'What? They look so good…' Darian looked at the plates and the cups on a small tray that the Krukin-person had just grabbed.
Darian looked at the plates being placed on the table in front of him while he suddenly realized something. 'Hey, I've already seen them!' he thought in his mind, not wanting to say it aloud, he was sure that these plates were the same ones from his old times.
In fact, they were from a famous brand that was becoming more popular right before he was launched on XERBAB-7. 'But I'm sure that they weren't perfect yet… how did these plates survive for this long?' Darian's expression easily allowed the Krukin-person to understand what he was thinking.
"So you actually recognize them? Or do you just like how beautiful they look?" asked the Krukin-person playfully as he sat on the stool.
"Eh? Oh, no, no… I just thought they were beautiful…" whispered Darian. The other creature understood immediately that he was telling a lie.
"C'mon, don't be so tense…" With that, from the Krukin's hands, something came out, it was a liquid that Darian didn't recognize at first, but the strong smell that came from it allowed him to understand immediately: it was tea.
The Krukin-person poured tea into Darian's cup too, until he realized something. "Damn, how stupid of me! You can't drink while staying locked up!" The creature smacked his hand against his forehead and immediately went behind Darian.
"I'll unlock the right one, alright?" With that, Darian's hand was able to move freely. "I'm sure you don't need any explanation on what it is, right?" The creature returned to his seat and started to slowly sip the tea.
Darian looked at the cup, clearly not wanting to drink it without an actual answer. "Just tell me what is happening…" Darian slowly clenched his fist while gritting his teeth, clearly angry.
"Oh right, I haven't introduced myself. How silly of me!" With that, the creature grabbed a book that was on a drawer nearby and started to read it in front of Darian.
"Are you making fun of—" Darian couldn't even finish the sentence before the creature stopped him.
"I completely forgot that it says here that in a meeting, you should always present yourself." With that, the Krukin-person left the book he was reading on the table, and Darian noticed the title: 'Guide: How to Meet New People,' with an illustration of tea under the words.
"I'm called Zrelekai. Nice to meet you!" With that, Zrelekai smiled warmly and pointed his open hand towards Darian, who looked at the hand and then looked away, annoyed. 'It's the one Catripple was about to tell us about… I need to know what this creature is…' thought Darian as he looked again at Zrelekai, who had just grabbed the book again.
"Guess I must have done something wrong…" whispered Zrelekai, confused, as he read the book again, trying to see if he had missed something.
"Tell me… are we in Ardoris?" asked Darian. He knew that asking a lot of questions could be bad. 'He's still being nice to me…' With that, Darian realized that as long as he kept things easy, he would definitely be able to understand more.
"Oh, I guess it just needed time!" Zrelekai put the book back on the table and looked directly at Darian.
"Exactly! We're currently in Ardoris, and I guess you must be wondering about a lot of things, right?" he asked while smirking.
"Where are my companions?" Without even answering, Darian spoke with a serious tone as he looked at Zrelekai sipping his tea.
Before answering, Zrelekai drank some more of the tea and then placed it on the saucer. "You should definitely try this, it's made with lemon and watermelon!" said Zrelekai. Darian knew that he shouldn't be grumpy, but looking at Zrelekai's way of acting, he couldn't help but feel slightly mad.
"I'll try…" said Darian, a bit unsure. He grabbed the cup in his hand and looked curiously at the liquid. "Don't worry, it isn't poisoned," joked Zrelekai, seeing Darian was unsure about trying the tea.
Darian slowly started to sip the tea, and surprisingly, it was extremely good. 'The taste is the same as in my time…' thought Darian, surprised. He was sure that he would never be able to try most of the flavors of his time again.
"And… here it says that usually people eat something, too… but I can't find what it is…" Zrelekai kept reading the book. Darian slowly put the cup back on the table. "Oh right, cookies!" With that, Zrelekai pointed his finger at Darian's plate and some cookies were created, then he did the same with his own plate.
"Please, help yourself. I swear they are good," said Zrelekai as he took a bite of a cookie. Darian looked at them; these cookies were extremely normal, they didn't even have chocolate chips. The moment he took one in his hands, he realized they were barely crunchy, in fact, they were extremely soft.
'Well, at least they are cookies… right?' thought Darian as he gulped before eating the cookie. The taste was extremely strange; Darian immediately recognized that they were made with watermelon.
"By the way, all of your companions are still alive; you don't have to worry about them." Zrelekai checked the last thing in the book before closing it again.
"All of them? Snowy, too?" asked Darian after he swallowed the cookie. Even if it tasted extremely bad, he surely couldn't spit it out in Zrelekai's face, even if he wanted to.
"Snowy? Oh, do you mean that creature that came out of your body?" asked Zrelekai as he suddenly got up from the chair. Darian, surprised by this action, nodded his head.
"Don't worry, that weird creature is doing alright… still, I've found something really curious…" With that, Zrelekai started to walk towards Darian with his hands behind his back and a creepy expression.
"In that diary of yours, you've said that creature is completely made of snow and you've said that the laws of physics don't apply to it…" With that, Zrelekai grabbed something from his pockets, it was Darian's diary.
Darian, seeing his diary in this weird creature's hands, got extremely angry. "Hey, leave that!" he shouted as he tried to grab the diary with his hand. Zrelekai, taken by surprise, was able to pull it away at the last moment. "Hey, don't touch it! With your hands, you can only eat for now." With that, Zrelekai returned, annoyed, to his seat and started to read the diary.
"So… I've seen that you've studied many Krukins… classified them… but what surprises me the most is something else." As Zrelekai kept reading Darian's diary, Darian felt Zrelekai's heart beating faster his breaths were becoming quicker and it was clear that Zrelekai couldn't contain his excitement anymore.
"But the thing that was able to hook me the most… how were you able to study these creatures this much? What things do you even have?" Darian didn't know what to answer, he didn't want to reveal to someone like this that he was actually from the old world, so he decided to remain quiet and just looked Zrelekai in the eyes.
"You see… all the things you had in the backpack surprised me. You had some weird seeds… what were they?" Darian suddenly remembered that he hadn't removed all the seeds he had taken from the rocket he gathered on XERBAB-7.
"Don't touch them!" shouted Darian, mad. Zrelekai laughed softly, surprised. "Oh, don't worry, I don't have any reason to. I'm not interested in plants, after all, but it seems like you are, right? In the diary, you've got a lot of things about them, too."
With that, Zrelekai kept reading the diary. "It seems like you're what could be defined as a biologist…" Zrelekai closed the diary in his hand and looked directly at Darian with a creepy look on his face. "Am I right?"
Darian didn't move his head. "How are you so sure of this?" Darian understood that this person might have a very deep knowledge of the old world, so it was useless to hide this from him.
"Well, I've read that a biologist is someone who studies plants and knows a lot about them… tell me, what more do you know?" asked Zrelekai as he returned to Darian's side. While walking, he grabbed a cookie and kept eating it even as his face was in front of Darian's, all the crumbs falling near Darian.