Once they arrived at their headquarters Zal picked up the sleepy Cyll burrito and brought him inside.
From the looks of it the investigation would have to wait. Cyll was clearly exhausted with dark purple bags under his eyes and could barely keep his eyelids open. Lowell and Solace went their separate ways while Zal followed Loreleia into her clinic to find a bed for the boy.
After they tucked him in, Loreleia took a small sample of his hair.
"What's that for?"
"Shhh! Keep your voice down. Don't wake him up."
"Oops sorry."
Loreleia motioned for Zal to follow her into her office. Once inside she quietly shut the door.
"You saw those small horns on his head correct?"
"Those black bumps? I thought they were moles."
Loreleia had to stop her urge to facepalm.
"No you big oaf! Those are horns. I've seen and read about many beast folk and beasts but have never heard horns like those. They don't look like much but there's a strong power coming from them. There is no creature known to man that has this characteristic. Do you know what this means?"
"No."
Honestly, Loreleia has no idea how she hasn't used violence on this man yet. How did he even get a job here? His brain is just a useless muscle!
"It means he could be an undiscovered species! Or maybe even one lost in history books. I'm going to run this sample in the database to get an idea of what we're working with. Just think about it for a minute. Why was he wandering in an area so close to the Forest of Darkness? There are rumors of people going in an out of that place but no actual information of what it contains. I'm thinking that one of those mysterious people held Cyll captive somewhere in there. At first I thought that perhaps it's just a case of a lone beast accidentally making its way into Eastrey. But I soon realized that that couldn't be it. No feral beast would be wearing clothes and the boy could understand our language. Unless he came into contact with people before, it's impossible for him to know how to speak. And if you're thinking that maybe other intelligent beast taught him, that's impossible too! There have been several instances were small creatures have come out of the forest but every time they turn around to go back, the barrier stops him. Now if you're thinking that—"
At some point in time Zal fell asleep on the lounge chair.
Loreleia often gets too worked up and so absorbed in her own conversations that after a while it just lulls him to sleep.
"Damn it muscle brains!"
For now she'll extract the genetic material from the sample. Focusing on her work always improves her mood.
——-
By the time Cyll woke up, it was already the next afternoon.
At first he completely forgot where he was and tried to grab his phone off the nightstand like usual. But when he rolled over his whole body started to badly ache, jolting him back to his new reality.
Yesterday he came across a city after walking around blind for hours.
Now he's probably with that group of people he decided to trust. And it look like that gamble pain off. The room he was in contained ten hospital beds in total, each separated by a white privacy curtain. Currently the room was unoccupied besides himself.
Above his head was an IV drip and to his side was the red nurse call button. Hospital facilities in this world seems to be almost identical to earth's.
Once he finished preparing himself mentally for his performance he pressed the red button.
Moments later Loreleia came out of a small room off to the side labeled 'Office'.
"Hello Cyll how are you feeling today?"
"I'm feeling much better Miss..."
Cyll couldn't help but feel guilty after forgetting her name. He was just told yesterday and he already forgot.
Loreleia noticed him shifting awkwardly so quickly answered cheerfully while giving him a valid excuse.
"Oh it's alright! Too much happened yesterday so it's only normal to forget. Not only that but it's also a bit of an uncommon name."
As his body visibly relaxed as he let out a relieved sigh she couldn't help but be thankful for all those classes she had to take about communicating with the victims of a serious crime.
If she upsets the boy causing him to shut down or triggers some sort of PTSD her boss will have her head.
"Well, now that your awake how about you take a nice hot shower? Then after that we can go eat lunch in the cafeteria."
Cyll almost broke character by jumping out of bed in of excitement. Dirt was practically absorbed into his skin by now. Nothing can beat steaming hot water pouring down your body, melting all your fatigue and stress away. And food? He doesn't feel hungry even after exerting so much energy and sleeping for over 24 hours. Cyll's starting to believe that those myths on earth are true for this world too. It's not that good of news but for now he decided to put it aside. Live in the moment right?
"Um alright, where do I go to take one?"
"Let me walk you to the locker room. There's already a towel and change of clothes ready for you on a shelf inside. If you need something while you're in there just shout and I'll come in."
Although it's the men's room no one should be there during this time of day so it'll be fine if she has to take a quick peak to help the kid.
———-
Alright done setting the stage. I'm thinking of putting something 'steamy' in the next chapter? Pun intended lol.
Also I'd like to take a moment to explain a few things about the MC and this being an adult novel.
First of all MC is currently mentally 22.
Regarding how he looks and how I'm using words like boy/kid/little, I'm going to eventually explain that he looks to be 18ish but has a bit of a baby face still.(IRL example is that I'm 25 year old guy who also has a bit of a baby face and I get mistaken). He doesn't age. He can't age. He is basically a seed of a fruit if you really think about it. His appearance atm is just based off of how weak his powers currently are. I just want to be clear that up as everyone is an adult here and I don't want confusion.
*SPOILER*
.
Later on he does regain the adult form he should of originally had and loses the incomplete weak body completely.