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Cold winds blew across the entirety of the Northern Hemisphere as the chilling and glistening frost covered the vast majority of the Earthen landscape, making it look like the Era of the Ice Age.
An endless amount of thick, pine trees spanned across the entire snowy terrain, making it look majestic as if a large snowy bed sheet was covering the lush, dense forests. Large mountain peaks eloped with the cold snowstorm; often embracing them or breaking under the sheer strain of such a toxic relationship.
But among such dreadful conditions to survive in, a lone shack stood unshaken under a dense clearing of the snowy pine forest. Black smoke rose from the makeshift outlets of the poorly built cottage, signifying the burning of coal and the existence of humanoid species.
Inside such a cottage, lay a crippled man of 26 years of age, suffering tremendously under the terrible assault of the fever, shivering profusely. But his eyes were much clear than the last time as he at least had the power to look at his surroundings.
Adam looked at the strange, underdeveloped shack with his scrutinizing eyes, akin to a maddened survivor. He wanted to trust the burly man who took care of him but his survival instinct told him otherwise. The man was kind. Sure. But in his 26 years of existence and dealing with internal strife and politics in his department back in his previous civilization, he knew that there was always an agenda behind every act of kindness.
'Nothing was free', he reckoned.
Just as he was going to sit up after being healed from 4 days of constant care and nourishment, three distinct knocks echoed through the small room.
Knock!
Knock
Knock
"I'm coming in!" a gruff voice chimed.
Startled, Adam hurriedly closed his eyes and laid back on his bed, covering his body with the furred bed sheet. Just then the door clicked and the man entered the room.
Despite the room being pitch dark and under the thin illumination of the moonlight, Adam made slits in his eyes while regulating his breath, to look at his supposed Saviour. In these 4 days, he had not seen the man at all! All he did was sleep and rest in this bed. And all he could feel was that his schedule of waking up and sleeping was a bit erratic.
Who fed him? Who cleaned him? He didn't know, but he knew that he was needed. That's why a cripple like him was alive.
The room slowly lit up, as the so-called Savior of Adam, lit up a peculiar lamp beside him. And just as the room illuminated with an orange hue, Adam gawked at the sight in front of him.
The walls of the room were made of large bricks of stone, with visible cracks on them. The floors were made of wood, which for some reason looked quite rotten as worms and spiders crawled on it. A large bookshelf was placed just beside his bed, overloaded with large arrays of books of various sizes and a small study table on the other end, on which the peculiar lamp was placed. However, just as Adam's eyes fell on the man, he mumbled,
"Hagrid?"
The burly man's eyes widened as he looked at Adam's shocked expression with a stupefied gaze, before bursting out with loud laughter, thumping his foot on the ground.
"Boy! How did ya know my name?" he yelled as the sorry excuse of the shack shivered under the sheer force of the man's foot. Small clumps of snow fell from the ceiling onto Adam's face but he remained unaffected as his eyes were fixed on the man, staring at him in shock.
And he was not in the wrong for him to be shocked as any man would be shocked to see the Robbie Coltrane lookalike A.K.A Hagrid from the famous Fantasy Franchise of H*rry P*tter, laughing in front of them. That too after the destruction of humanity and the re-emergence of life.
And the most insane of all things was that this guy's name was Hagrid as well!
But Adam cleared his mind and focused on the man in front of him with a hardened face. The man, identified as Hagrid, also noticed the questioning stare Adam was giving him, and to match the mood of the room, he stopped laughing.
Adam gulped as he noticed the sheer size of the gentle giant lookalike, Hagrid; however, this one looked anything but gentle.
Mustering up his courage, Adam finally spoke monotonously, "What do you want?"
Hearing such a deadpan voice, Hagrid sighed as he closed his eyes before pulling up a small stool beside the bed, essentially assaulting the poor stool with his huge butt.
For a second, Adam forgot to keep a check on his expression, as a small grin plastered on his face but he controlled himself.
Noticing the smug face Adam was trying his best to hide, Hagrid shook his head in dismay. He knew that his size was enormous for the little stool in the room and that was the reason Adam was grinning, but what could he do? So instead of reprimanding Adam's disrespectful behaviour, he started narrating his motives.
"I want nothing from ya, boy", Hagrid said, eyes affixed on Adam's frail face.
Adam stopped grinning after he heard the giant say, which finally broke into a face filled with confusion.
" Why did you save me then? You want something, right? "Adam inquired.
To which the giant shook his large head saying," It's true that I don't have anything to do with you and I couldn't care less if you would have died under the rubble of snow. But.."
"That's the thing that saved you..." said the giant while pointing at the question mark etched on his wrist.
The instant Hagrid pointed at the mark, Adam's brain went into a trance, activating his human "Fight or Flight receptors " in his brain.
His eyes constricted, and his heart thumped faster than ever as the eminent sense of danger assaulted his mind. Jerking his hand off the bed sheet he covered his right wrist, all the while eyeing the giant with eyes full of suspicion and anxiety.
Moving his butt, he moved away from the bedside of the giant until his shoulder touched the walls of the room. And then with eyes full of distrust, he asked.
"How do know about this mark?.. "
Seeing that the boy was suspicious of him, Hagrid sighed yet again.
Sigh!
"Boy, let me clarify two things. First, I am not interested in killing you or torturing you. Second, ...."Hagrid paused before rolling up his sleeves only to show the same mark etched onto his wrist.
Adam's eyes widened as he looked at the same yet terribly drawn etching onto the giant's wrist.
" How do you have the same mark?"Adam inquired with eyes full of astonishment.
'Is he one of the 9 subjects? Hell yeah!Seems like I hit the jackpot! I can use his experience in the new world and probably survive!' Thought Adam.
The giant sighed while he heard the boy exclaim like a little girl as soon as he showed his wrist. However, much to Adam's despair, the giant looked away, crushing the poor man's excitement as he softly muttered.
"I don't know..."
"..."
"..."
Silence.
Total silence.
Adam's lips twitched as soon as he registered the word, "I don't know " inside his head. And he was so angry he couldn't help but curse; but knowing that a large man was sitting in front of him, capable of crushing his skull with his bare hands; He realised that his second life was far more precious to him. He would rather not take any chances.
Adam sighed calming his head down and finally decided to confront the man properly.
"Then what do you want, good sir? As you can see that I am crippled. There is practically nothing that I can give you or be of use to you. And that Mark on my hand? It's just a mark I made when I was a child. So I don't know why you would imply that it was the reason you saved me?"
Hagrid eyed Adam as he tried to discern his body language, attempting to guess if he was indeed telling the truth or not. Nevertheless, Hagrid continued speaking.
"I want nothing from you, lad. But there is something you can give me, perhaps. And that mark. Don't try to fool me, boy.", Hagrid said while giving a wry smile.
" How can I not recognise my kin? When you are.."Hagrid paused before his eyes shone brightly at Adam as he muttered,
"The descendent of the 4th Hero..."
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