All that Mattaniah could percept from the moment he was sucked in mercilessly by the force of the time machine was nothing but absolute darkness.
Soon enough, he could feel someone or something assuasively tugging on his cloths, as though endeavouring to get him to wake up. The tugging perpetuated, and although Mattaniah really wanted to get up, however, his body was just too enervated to do so.
Thus, he slept for a few more hours.
Sometime later…
Then painstakingly, Mattaniah regained consciousness and he was no longer having the sensation of someone or something tugging on his cloths anymore. And as soon as he tried to open his eyes he heard a gentle sound ring in his head:
Ding!
[Congratulations Mattaniah Albert the Time Machine has granted you a system named Hourglass!]
[Hourglass is at your disposal Mattaniah!]
[Welcome to planet Clandestine, continent Pyraneus!]
[Hourglass will help you to grow, because time is your greatest support. You will acquire Points and Appreciations after every successful completion of Missions, although Appreciations aren't certain after every completion of Missions, however Points are certain, and with Points, you can update your Collection.]
"Huh!" Opening his eyes fully, Mattaniah could now speculate that it was a bunch of writings, like a hologram and it was even soaring in midair.
Elevating his hands up in the air, Mattaniah tried to get rid of it in order to enable him to see clearly, however, his hands only just passed through it, and this made Mattaniah significantly baffled. Then the next moment, the tabs disappeared as though knowing that Mattaniah wanted it to do so.
Mattaniah sighed in relief upon seeing that it was gone, and then he slowly advanced upwards, and that was when his eyes acquainted a moderately familiar but strange face staring at him. It was a girl's face.
And then he abruptly realized that his head had been layed on the girl's laps all along, whilst he was passed out.
Mattaniah's face turn slightly red in embarrassment and he rapidly conveyed himself away from her and assumed a sitting position not too far away from the girl. However, his eyes didn't seemed to have unacknowledged the worried expression apparent on the latter's face as she stared at him.
She adjusted her sitting position, "Uhmm… are you okay?" Asked worriedly, the strange girl sitting just few feets away from him.
Still staring at her and trying to figure out who she was, Mattaniah replied, "I'm fine," after that statement there was a bit of silence between them before Mattaniah eventually spoke again out of curiosity and cautiousness. "Who are you if I may ask?"
Mattaniah could see that the young lady was wearing a white coat, which portrayed resemblance to the one back at the laboratory, but just that the one she was currently wearing was oversized.
A look of bewilderment appeared on the girl's face as she heard this, but then immediately after, it was replaced by a mundane expression.
"Matt, it's me Andrea Williams from the laboratory, remember?" said Andrea.
"It's you?" Mattaniah couldn't believe his ears. But then since the girl knew his name he could tell that it was genuine. No wonder the girl seemed awkwardly familiar. Wow! This is new.
Andrea sighed languidly as though what she was about to say held a lot of weight.
"I know it may sound and seem insane but you have to believe me when I tell you that we seem to have gone back in time. I think that the time machine might've perhaps brought us into another dimension, or so," Andrea narrated lamentably, she continued, "Looking at myself I think I'm presently back to my fifteen year old self once again. And so are you."
"What the…?" Mattaniah's lips couldn't help but part in spontaneous awe of what he just perceived.
He then glanced down at himself, just to see that he was also now back in his teenage self again.
'Holy shit! What the hell did this time machine do to us? And where the hell did it even bring us?' Mattaniah pondered greatly. And as though Andrea understood the assignment, she didn't say anything else and instead just allowed him to properly digest all the profound information that he had just heard.
Mattaniah could discern that he was still wearing his white lab coat also, which basically now appeared extremely heavy on his body due to the reduction in size and weight. Even his shoes, trousers and shirts were all oversized at present. And if his calculations were accurate, then he should be nothing less than sixteen or fifteen too just like Andrea had specified just now.
After pondering about it for awhile, Mattaniah took in a deep and proper breath, "What about Naomi and Christopher? Do you think they're out there somewhere also?"
"I suppose they might," Andrea replied with an uncertain body language. Scratching the side of her head gently, she then continued, "If my analysis are right, then I think that the reason why we ended up together in the same place is because we were holding hands whilst traveling through the time machine. Although Naomi and Christopher might not end up in the same place together, I have a feeling they must also be out there somewhere too just like we are."
"I sure do hope so," Mattaniah replied under his breaths. "Also Andrea, I'm sorry that I spilled coffee all over the time machine. If it weren't for that then we wouldn't have been in this mess today."
"It's okay, it wasn't totally your fault. It was more of Christopher's fault than yours. And besides, we've been building the machine for over a year now, and have never once tested it. So now I'm well certain that our invention wasn't a totally flop, and seeing that it has perhaps brought us into another era means that it actually works," a thoughtful smile appeared on Andrea's facials as she spoke.
"Oh, I guess it does. Thank you for not blaming me too much."
"It's nothing. It was just a mistake, and anyone could've made it."
Mattaniah currently now felt quite relieved, for a moment there, he thought Andrea was going to be excessively mad at him and blame him harshly for the situation they were in, but then it was otherwise. She seemed calm and understanding. So of course Mattaniah felt overly relieved.
Then Mattaniah glanced sideways at the environment, and at the surroundings. He hadn't been paying prompt attention to the environment they were in before, and now that he had eventually noticed it, his lips couldn't help but part in high sophistication.
Around them were huge mountains and hills cascading the vast peripherals. Everything, including the gigantic trees and mountains were all overwrought with white snow. There was null sign of the sun, instead the sky was encumbered by chunky, dark clouds, making it blatant that a snow storm was approaching soon.
"Wow…!" Mattaniah couldn't help but marvel at the extent of its vastness.
Be it as it may, as much as the ecosystem here appeared inviting and glorious, still it seemed quite scary as they didn't know what type of beast might be lurking around in there.
Wrapping his arms around his body, Mattaniah shivered meekly as the northern wind caressed his being. Fortunately for them their cloths was now detaily oversized, so with that, they could still manage to combat the acrid wintry atmospheric condition here for sometime. He knew that they shouldn't stay here for long, and should find a shelter soon or else they might die due to the wintry atmospheric condition.
Seeing Mattaniah shivered just now, Andrea took the initiative to speak. "You seem pale. You must be feeling quite cold?"
"Yes, but it's still bearable," he answered as he rubbed his palms together to generate some heat from them. Not like Andrea would have any solution to it anyways. So, acting extremely weak might just make the girl scared and lowered their morale.
Taking the words right out of Mattaniah's mouth, "I think we should find shelter and lit a fire too. Since there are plenty mountains around, then a cave shouldn't be difficult to come by. It wouldn't be advisable to stay out here for long. A snowstorm is coming in fast. So I think it's best if we should get going now," Andrea suggested, however she soon remembered that Mattaniah was lame and couldn't walk and this made her shoulders droop. Plus, his crutches were also nowhere to be found.
That being the case, she then casted her glance around before speaking, "I'm coming back Matt, let me quickly find a stick for you to use in supporting yourself to walk. I'll be right back with it," Andrea offered, and then moved away after seeing Mattaniah nod to her words.
Mattaniah watched as Andrea walked away into the woods. He felt a little bit hassled that he had to stress Andrea by having her help him to search for a staff to walk with.
'Perhaps I should just convince her to leave without me. Moreover, if I go with her, then I'll only just slow her down,' he contemplated, uncertain about his decision.
Mattaniah exhaled and stared aggravatedly at his unfortunate leg. He despised looking at his legs, it always reminded him of the day the accident that took away his family from him happened.
Knowing that since he was crippled, his presence would only just create major setbacks on their pilgrimage, Mattaniah then decided in his mind that he would definitely tell Andrea to leave without him when she gets back.
'Stupid leg!'
He grunted in displeasure at the thought of that.
Then tentatively, Mattaniah attempted to get up from the snow covered ground and then boom he was up on his feet without the help of his crutches.
"I can stand…? Good lord! I can stand!" Mattaniah muttered in disbelief, and a smile manifested upon his dry and pale lips. His eyes lit up with ultimate joy.
'Wow! How did this happen?' He thought to himself in wonderment.
Still not believing his goodluck, he then attempted to walk, and then to his surprise again he was walking perfectly fine, like any normal person would.
'I can walk too!'
Mattaniah grinned widely at the realization of this. Out of happiness he then kicked up some snow upwards from the floor and then jumped up. He wanted to scream so loudly and joyfully, however he couldn't do that just yet.
So instead he relaxed and thought of what to do next.
'Let me go and find Andrea first,' with that thought, he began going in the direction of the place he saw Andrea going to when she was about to leave.
He was so excited to share this big news with Andrea. He knew that it would be a big relief for the girl.
He felt almost unrelatable with the feeling of being able to walk again, it's been like forever since he could feel his body weight through his feets like this. Walking now felt quite unconventional in his perspective.
Mattaniah advanced forward, he continued walking for a while, and soon he saw Andrea behind a tree. She was trying to break down one of its branches. She hadn't noticed Mattaniah yet.
Mattaniah sighed in satisfaction. He stood not too faraway from her. And as he was about to speak, he heard a sudden ding sound in his head.
Ding!
'Goddamn it!' he cursed inwardly as the window tab on the system impeded his vision almost causing him to trip.
[New Mission Alert: Survive from Snowspider's attack!]
'Snowspider's what? What is that even suppose to mean?!' Mattaniah puzzled. 'Am I starting to see things? I must be going crazy…' And just when Mattaniah was trying to understand what was written in midair and in front of him, he heard Andrea speak and a smile appeared to be on her lips.
"You can walk now," Andrea remarked, as she immediately stopped yanking on the tree branch she had been struggling to break for a while now.
Waving his hands to clear the writings away from his view, Mattaniah smiled back cheerfully at Andrea, "Yes! Not too long ago, I finally realized that I could wal…!"
Mattaniah's eyes widened at the new sight he was beholding. Not too far away from Andrea he could spot a huge shadow, and the worst part of it was that it was moving.
"Behind you Andrea! Watch out!" Mattaniah alerted at the top of his voice, fearing for Andrea's life, and wondering what sort of creature was that behind the girl.