Liam opened his eyes to the straw and wooden ceiling and he turned around to look at his environment. He could hear distant laughter and chatter of children. He was in a hut. He has never been to one in the past and has only seen it in pictures of Africa.
He stood up but the sharp pain he felt in his abdomen had him grimacing and returning to the comfort of the stray bed covered with clothes.
he heard approaching footsteps and turned his head away from the rolled-down straw door of the hut.
You could say that the weakness in his bones made him give up before figuring out who the person at the doorway was. It was most likely due to the repeated traumatizing event this world prepared for him as a welcome party show.
He was close to losing his mind. He felt broken. The most traumatizing of them all was the fact that he woke up in a mass grave. Who could survive that?
Even after washing in the water like, he was trying to scrape off his skin, he could still perceive the smell of the decaying bodies he woke up among.
Whoever was coming finally pushed open the door. He tried to encourage himself to relax as he should not expect so much horror with the joyful laughter of the children he could hear outside.
That encouragement succeeded in having him relax. He relaxed visibly but his heart was beating so fast, that he was scared that it might explode.
The person moved closer and he could only tense again after finally calming down. He closed his eyes tightly and when he heard the laughter outside stop as the sound of approaching gallops got louder, he felt lucky to be able to say his last prayer.
To make matters worse, a child screamed and a few more joined. He could not pretend to be asleep anymore as he stood up hastily and looked at the man who walked into the room.
The man was taken aback by his sudden movement as he took a step back and raised his hand to indicate he meant no danger.
"Who are you?" he asked the man as he looked around the empty room for anything he could use as a weapon.
The room was too empty for him to find anything. His stomach screamed out for him to relax and lie down but he was too scared to die without trying.
The man was dressed in what he could boldly call rags. The pants the man wore were knee-length torn and might have been white but now had a dark brown color to them.
What scared him most was the man's full beard that he could swear that he had not shaved in all his life. "Who are you and what am I doing here?" he asked taking a defensive stance.
"I am sorry for scaring you, Your highness. I sent a message to the palace when I saw the posters in the village. The palace sent people to take you back to the capital," the man replied with a very sincere bow.
That did not make him relax at all rather he got very scared. More scared than ever before. Anything he gets called 'your highness', nothing good comes out of it.
"I do not need anyone to take me away to the capital or whatsoever. I must return home as soon as possible. I do not even live in the capital for goodness' sake," he told the man firmly.
"They have arrived already," the man replied with a smile that was a little hard to notice with his overgrown beards.
"Wait, I am not in Africa, right?" he asked with a confused frown.
"No, you are not, your highness," the man replied with his brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed.
He sighed. His cousin went to Africa and had to stay in the hospital for more than four months due to malaria. He was not willing to die since the world did not come to an end.
Wait!
That's right. The world was supposed to have ended. "Was the rumor about the world coming to an end a lie? But . . . I think I saw the comet with my own eyes. It was large. I saw it approach the earth and destroy the earth."
"The comet never came. The wizards and witches stopped it. They sent people to the comet and stopped it."
He scoffed. That was the most ridiculous thing he has heard in his life. there was no way they could stop the comet.
People tried, they prayed but as he heard, it was a punishment from the creator to destroy the evil-hearted humans. At least that was what his sister believed, strongly believed.
He has never believed in magic before although he was not an atheist. Perhaps his sister had succeeded in making him believe what she did without his realizing it.
"How could witches stop a comet that big?" he asked as he felt too weak to keep standing.
"The comet was destroyed many years ago. I think I was a teenager when that happened," came the man's reply.
He shook his head. That could not be possible. The man before him could be probably as old as his father who was in his mid-fifties. Does that mean he was also old?
He was about to lose his mind, none of the things said made any sense.
"Your highness, we need to return to the palace as the king awaits your arrival," a deep monotonous voice told him from outside the hut before the door of the hut was raised open.
A tall man walked in dressed in one of those costumes he has seen in the many historical movies he had watched with his friends or girlfriends.
He swallowed, the man before him had to be a knight. He frowned and stood up as he did not like the way the man looked at him intimidatingly.
It was like calling a child boss while trying them like the child they were. That respect was fake, in fact, very fake.
"Who are you?" he asked with his voice shaky involuntarily and someone like him hated such a thing to the core. How could this young man make him feel vulnerable?
"I am your guard, Mark Ash. I was assigned to guard you by the king when I became a knight," the man replied. He swallowed as the man's voice made him feel like the knight under him.