Dima opened his eyes, the light of the hospital lamp hurt his eyes, the guy was under anaesthesia and did not understand where he was, and a lot of people in white coats were hanging around like annoying flies.
Doctors were fighting for the life of an ordinary guy for the third day already. It's not surprising, after all, a collision with a truck, which rushes 120 km/h is no joke. The guy was literally put together in pieces, and doctors, not sparing themselves trying to revive the guy who was already halfway to death.
But everything comes to an end, all available means and methods of treatment were tried, the improvements were short-term, vanishingly short-term, literally in a couple of hours his condition worsened again, and here in the middle of the next operation the guy's body could not withstand, and he took his breath away, still looking at the light of the already exhausting hospital lamp.
...
And then Dmitri opened his eyes, and in front of him was the sky, a blue sky with clouds floating slowly across it. The boy stood up, not too surprised, he was lying on the soft summer grass. There were more questions than answers.
"Where am I?" Dima asked a nonexistent interlocutor, looking round the guy was slightly horrified, around him was a meadow, in the distance could be seen a forest and a small river, and no landmarks: no roads, buildings, or people.
"Greetings, Dmitri." There was a Chorus of voices, the sound of which came from all sides, the guy frantically looked around, but he couldn't find the source of the voices, the guy's waistbones shook, but overcoming the fear he asked.
"Who are you?"
"I am the one who brought you to this world. I have many names, but here I am known as Chorus."
'Congratulations Dima, you've drunk yourself into a white fever, and my mum said drinking too much is bad for you.'
"I'm not your hallucination, so show some respect." even though Dima said the previous phrase to himself, but Glee Club didn't seem to care.
"Where am I?" Dima waited with a gasp for an answer, his heart beat more often, if briefly the guy was very worried.
"I think I'd better explain, Dimitri you died, yes it's hard to believe, but it's true, at 12.33 on the 20th of April your heart stopped and your soul went into the astral, from where I sent you here."
"Why?" Shock hit the guy like an electric current, but he managed to almost syllable out the question.
"And you are not bad, took the news, others: all deny, rolling on the ground, shouting, trying to find me and beat me, but all in vain, most still accept it as a fait accompli, only wasting time." the voices said sadly.
"Your mission is quite simple, now you are in a country with an unremarkable name Haro, and now this kingdom is in decline, but soon it will face multiple tests, under the blows of which it will not withstand and broken along the spine will dissolve in the sands of time."
"Why do you want me? Victor didn't understand what Glee wanted from him. But if he's telling the truth and that's the way it is, he's fucked."
"It will be, if nothing is changed, and that is why I called you to this earth, you will become my messenger and the Kingdom of Haro will rise like a phoenix. The speech was deliberately pathos, and if you take into account the peculiarity of the choir's voices, it was also scary as hell."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't know what you imagined there, but how I am the most ordinary kid, I can change the whole country, I am not Caesar, Macedonian, or even Napoleon, although I feel like in a madhouse."
"If you don't want to, you have a choice, just wring your neck and the problem will solve itself." the strange voices seemed to be laughing at him and his unenviable situation.
"I don't have any other choice, like taking me back." Dima still cherished the hope that this feverish delirium would end.
"I'm afraid it won't work that way, I'm a god of choice and you have it: live and make history or die without trying." A whole Chorus of voices said it, and it seemed to the guy for a second that there were thousands of eyes around him, literally looking into his soul.
"Couldn't you tell me about it a little less one-sidedly?" There was no choice between life as it was and death, Dima chose the former.
"Well... I'm waiting for your answer." By the intonation of Glee, Dima immediately realised that his invisible interlocutor was losing patience.
"I agree." These words were given to the guy somehow quite easily, too easily, which he did not expect from himself at all, although, on the other hand, whether he has a choice.
"Very well, first go to the forest, and down the river my followers will be waiting for you. Is that clear?"
"Well, in principle, yes, but you at least tell me what to do?" Dima's task seemed impossible from the word 'impossible', he didn't look like a revolutionary at all, and he didn't have a lisp.
"Just switch on your head, your knowledge is enough." After finishing the phrase, the voices fell silent, and the strange feeling of someone else's presence disappeared without a trace.
"Fucking awesome, total fucking flash royale!" The sun was scorching the top of his head, and the slight breeze wasn't much help, but without it, it was much worse. The sun was scorching the top of his head, and the faint breeze didn't help, but without it it would have been much worse. He made it to the woods and after a couple of minutes he reached a small stream. The boy looked at his reflection in the water.
"Well, the tail, extra arms, legs and eyes I do not observe, well, thank you and on it, stop, and what is it? Dima found a strange symbol on his hand, in its centre there was an eye with sun rays coming from it, and two crossed crescents on the background." What the fuck was that? Okay.
If we exclude this symbol, the guy was wearing a faceless leather jacket, a grey T-shirt, blue jeans, and sports shoes - white, of course.
'Everyone knows that white shoes are more suitable for forest hiking than anything else,' the guy's sarcasm was justified, as he was still struggling with his confused feelings of fear and anxiety, and he tried to cope with them as best he could.
And then he had the brilliant idea to rummage through his pockets, and after a short search he had a lighter, a packet of cigarettes, a folding knife, and some gum. 'what would we do without fresh breath'.
The water in the river was surprisingly crystal clear, and he orientated himself downstream. The shore was quite flat, uninhabited, there was no path or anything like it. And cursing everything in the world guy, breaking his legs on invisible in the grass bumps went to meet his fate.
...
In the room of the abbot, there was a pleasant silence occasionally interrupted by the singing of summer birds, the man followed the usual routine and dealt with the papers, the pen in his hands glittered like a sword, and from the look of a huge pile of documents melted literally before his eyes, in each of his movements was accuracy, grace and discipline. The abbot did not particularly like paperwork, but as a decent man tried to fulfil his duties faithfully. However, it was not always possible, as mountains of paper on the table do not grow by themselves.
A knock at the door knocked him out of the measured work process. The man put down his pen, slightly adjusted his dressing gown, and shouted loudly. - Come in! Quickly opening the massive door to the room, entered a young, lean guy, dressed modestly - a white dressing gown and slippers - that's the whole outfit. After making a deep bow, he spoke.
"Abbot Hin, you have a message from Ason, the messenger said it was something important." In his hand, the guy was holding a wax sealed scroll.
"Yes, bring it here, I'll look at it immediately." The boy ran to the table and placed the scroll on the table, bowed and left. The abbot took the scroll in his hands and examined it carefully: the scroll was intact, the seal of the Mena clan was in its place, untouched.
"What have you been scribbling to me, old man Ason?" Hin said to himself, as he was interrupted for the second time that morning.
The air in the room rippled slightly, the light from the windows became barely discernible, and a swarm of voices addressed Hin. His message was short and simple.
"The time has come, look for him downstream on the Ao River."
And before Hin could realise or do anything, it was over and the room was once again filled with sunlight and chirping birds.
"Guardian, is something wrong?" The same young man who brought the message burst into the room, Hin quickly looked around, a small black puddle with islands of broken glass spilled under the table. 'Hmmm... must have tipped it over from the surprise.'
"Gather the cavalry to be ready and waiting for me in the courtyard in ten minutes," Hin was as serious as possible, and the messenger, realising that the situation was not easy stood at attention, listening to the order. Hin gave a wave of his hand, and the boy ran out of the room. The monk went to the window and looked out for a moment.
"Well, I hope it will be worth it." Said the man and began to put on his armour.
...
Dima had been walking along the damn shore for three hours already, of course it had been worse, he should know about it, because the shore could turn out to be an icy pavement, summer could turn out to be a harsh winter with snowfall, and he was drunk as well. And even so he somehow got where he needed to go, but the guy was disturbed by one unpleasant fact: he didn't see any people at all, or any presence of them: no paths, rubbish or campfires - nothing.
'I don't think I've been thrown out on a deserted island, but it doesn't matter, we have to find people, and we'll deal with the rest later.' Smoking a cigarette, the guy walked on, on the left stretched the river with sandy banks, on the right the forest was thick enough that already at a depth of 10 metres everything merged into a solid green mush.
"Why don't people live here, the place is gorgeous, sit, build a summer house, catch fish, admire the sunsets." At the word fish Dima's stomach rumbled a little, the guy stopped. 'Of course people are people, but I want to eat, I don't know if I'll go out today, so let's go fishing, and then we'll see.'
Satisfied with his determination, the boy turned into the forest, looking for a long enough stick. A pair of attentive eyes were already looking at him.