A dingy waypost stood short and fragile at the foot of a beaten path that started and split in three ways just in front of it. The sign was crudely stained in a red dye that came off at the corners. Clearly inscribed in it were beautifully calligraphed characters that seem wasted on such an unkempt canvas.

The characters glowed with a yellow hue that stood out starkly from the red dye surrounding it. In front of such a place the Village Chief whipped backwards towards the 4 boys that followed behind him.

"Tetsu... huu, you take her over to Llana. I have to return to my meeting with the delegate." The Village Chief commanded through strained breaths before turning to the other three boys. He clearly wasn't used to such physical exertion, having just jogged for nearly an hour.

"As for you three, you might as well go with him there. Do whatever you want, but just remember what I told you." He said cryptically, making sure to emphasize his words.

"Yes, Village Chief" Reltin answered for the group and the Village Chief nodded before walking off. Tetsu was already well on his way down the rightmost path that led into an opening in the nearby woods.

"What was it again that that old man told us to do?" Arton questioned Reltin leisurely as his eyes trailed the girl that bobbed up and down on Tetsu's fleeting shoulder.

" 'That man'? That's the village chief Arton! Show him some respect." Reltin snapped back and yelled at him but was only met with Arton's cold eyes that moved once again to meet his.

"I don't like that guy." He stared coldly into Reltin's eyes while speaking out in a monotone voice. "He's no good, my intuition says so." Arton tapped his head with his finger a few times as he said so.

"Eh.." Reltin stared back him not knowing quite what to say. Arton's rarely ever brought up his intuition but whenever he did, it was usually right. Reltin turned back to look at the fleeting back of the Village Chief with a troubled expression.

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I continued enduring the drilling at my stomach that evolved into now what felt like a javelin jabbing in and out of it. 'Were this boy's shoulders made of steel!?' I continued to cry inwardly but soon found my salvation in the form of a building that the giant had stopped on the porch of. Evident by the wooden flooring that now met my vertical eyeline as I hung over his shoulder. The flooring however was quite crude, and I could spot multiple tiny cracks and gaps between each plank.

"Llana." The giant spoke gently before knocking repeatedly and violently on the wooden door in front of him. His soft voice sounded in stark contrast to the thunderous banging that came after it, as if the calm before a storm.

I could feel a shaking from his extraneous gesture but soon realized that it was not just his arm that shook but the entire hut that was trembling under his hand as he continued to pound on the wooden door that I looked up to find was quite shabby as well. It was a wonder to me that the thing had held under such violence.

"What, what, WHAT!?" An impatient voice squeaked from the other side of the door before opening it from the other side and squealing even louder. The figure on the other side stood short as a gnome in comparison to the giant that I could only assume was staring down at her from next to me. She had to be no more than five foot tall as she looked up with exceedingly squinted eyes and a dangerous look that I assumed were aimed at the giant next to me. She wore a dirtied, blue apron atop a simple white shirt and black leggings which were also quite bruised as well as a pair of thick, brown gloves that gave her the impression of a gardener that had just come out of an intense wrestle with a bush.

"This, take her." The giant spoke in the same manner of a five-year-old child before I felt the shoulder that supported me disappear and the world spin as I was flipped forward and presented to the lady in the hut as if I was a gift basket. The sudden propulsion left me too dizzy to protest at the continuous inhumane treatment.

"Huh?" The girl's face contorted into a frown as she looked down at me and seemed to study my body. Her squinted eyes trailed over me stopping only to stare briefly at my stomach before she looked back up at the man behind me.

"What, is she supposed to be injured or something?" She snarled at him, clearly not taking me as a serious case. Well, it only made sense. I was, after all, completely fine.

"She fell. From Ice marrow. " The giant replied in more short sentences.

"From the top of Ice marrow?" The woman asked incredulously, answered only by the nod of the boy. She looked down at me again but this time with much more peculiar gaze. Her face held the same expression for a couple more moments as she looked back between me and the boy's serious face before clicking her tongue, seemingly having relented. She opened her eyes from its previously squinted state, revealing green pupils that glowed with a similarly bright green light, taking me aback and causing me to unconsciously recoil at her gaze.

Her eyes trailed me once again but this time feeling much more piercing, giving me the feeling of being completely exposed. Her eyes stopped on my stomach but only for a second before they darted up to my head and her face contorted drastically. She quickly grabbed my shoulders, propping me up on my feet before grabbing my hand and pulling me into the hut behind her, closing the door behind us. Tetsu stood outside puzzled at their sudden disappearance.

My still untrained steps almost caused me to trip over myself multiple times but with extreme focus I somehow managed to keep myself upright until the woman pushed me down onto a bed that was nearly double my size. I sat down at the bedside and my eyes drifted around the room surrounding me. The interior was about what you'd expect from a typical cabin in the woods. A few buckets sat on the ground around what seemed to be seeds that littered the floor, above them was a tool rack on which hung a pan, tweezers, and a variety of other tools that didn't quite fit in a gardener's kit. Although I called it a bed, the cloth I sat on was nothing much more than that: a thick fur blanket that covered a wooden frame which not even a soldier would be able to sleep on comfortably.

"Sorry, that bed was made to fit even that blockhead outside, so you'll just have to deal with it." She said, rummaging through a variety of flasks and trays on a table that covered the length of an entire wall. She seemingly found what she needed as she turned around with two flasks of a strange yellow liquid in one hand, and a tray of red herbs in the other that looked similar to chili peppers.

"y-yeah no, it's ok." I spoke in a soft tone, still uncomfortable with the alien voice that came from my mouth. The woman put the unusual vessels on a cart that was just by the bedside before putting her hand over my head and asking me to lay down. I was still very much confused by the entire situation but feeling her gentle touch and seeing the concern in her eyes, I complied.

"How do you feel?" The woman asked as she grabbed some tools from the rack nearby and began to do something with the ingredients on the cart I couldn't quite see from my prone position on the bed.

"I'm fine, a bit of a headache if anything." I replied feeling guilty that she was still under the impression I was gravely injured. The woman approached and sat by me on the bed. Her left hand was cupped, as if she was holding something in it. She put her right hand on my head once again and opened her squinted eyes to reveal her green eyes once more.

"What is that?" I asked, inwardly cringing at how the soft voice that came out of me sounded like the tone of a five-year-old asking why the sky is blue.

"What? these?" She asked, pointing at her eyes with the hand that left my forehead, winking them at the same time as a bad joke. I nodded at her question, and she smiled in a motherly way that reminded me of my long-passed memory. "Have you never met a healer before?" She asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"A healer?" I asked incredulously, thinking she was pulling a prank on me, but her expression didn't change.

"Did you not even have a healer in the tribe you came from?" The woman asked me, curiosity but more prominently concern visible on her face.

"Tribe? what tribe?" I asked, my mind now running in circles trying to figure out what the hell was going on. new body, new voice, new place, glowing eyes. What the hell was happening to me.

"I think you might have a brain hemorrhage." The woman explained. "I can try to heal you but it's going to hurt. A lot." She said with a serious tone.

'A brain hemorrhage?' The idea was ludicrous at first and honestly too scary to consider, but after some consideration it didn't seem so unbelievable. Trouble walking, a headache, coupled with the fact that I heard my voice differently and that I was seeing things it wasn't so crazy. The idea of being operated on by a tribesman out in the middle of nowhere, however, was honestly terrifying and I was reluctant to agree to go through with it. Maybe it was because she could see the fear in my eyes, but the woman brought her hand down to mine and held it gently before speaking.

"I know it's scary but if I don't do anything, you won't survive. You have to be brave." Her words broke me out of the spell of fear I was under, and I inwardly slapped myself for behaving like such a child. I took a few deep breaths before looking at her and nodding with determination. The woman brought her cupped hand up to my mouth before dropping unfamiliar herbs with the texture of dry leaves in my mouth. She brought a flask of water with another swift movement, and I slurped it down quickly, swallowing the strange substance and sending it flushing down my throat. I expected her to bring out a scalpel or some other sharp tool, but she moved her hands over me instead,

The woman brought her right hand once up to my forehead, while her left one sat idle on my chest. Suddenly both hands began to emit the same dull green hue that shone from her eyes, and I began to feel an intense burning in my chest. The burning quickly progressed into strangely familiar searing pain, and I convulsed in agony. My head began to rush back with memories locked away in the deepest vault of my mind. That day's events flooded my mind. A cold brew coffee to start my morning, driving to work, teaching my classes for the day, helping the students write their final exam papers, the long drive home, sitting in my chair alone watching as the continuous pitter patter of the rain struck my windows, the same sudden searing pain in my chest, my final breath as the crickets continued to chirp and the sky continued to rain down its indifference.

I opened my eyes abruptly and howled out in pain as the memory struck me along with the already intense searing on my chest from the woman's hands. I nearly lost my consciousness before the pain slowly faded away and I was left panting in relief, sweat trickling down my forehead. I felt as though I had just run a marathon. As I lay down exhausted, my empty head was occupied only by the memory of the cold and unforgiving grasp of death.

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