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It was almost noon; the fog had disappeared a while ago and was taken over by the shining sun. Rex had just finished harvesting his crops from a few of the fields and tilled some of the other fields. He looked up at the sun, removed his straw hat and wiped the sweat off of his brow. He took his gloves off and examined the tear in the leg of his overalls. He had torn it when he was situating one of the voes for tilling. He would have to hide this pair of overalls from Irema or else she would insist that he get a new pair. This was his favorite pair and he was trying to save up in order to hire help so there was no luxury for unnecessary spending.

He looked towards the house and saw Irema waving at him from the porch so he took his tools and stowed them back in the toolshed by the stable. He then walked up the porch and into the house.

“I didn’t hear any brushing!” Irema yelled from the kitchen.

“Oh!” he had forgotten to brush the mud off of his boots so he went back and did so before coming back in.

Irema was in the kitchen getting lunch ready. As she took out a rack of lamb out of the oven she said, “the boy woke up and he’s in a panic honey, I think that we should give him some space, he doesn’t remember how he got here, he doesn’t know where here is; I don’t even think he even knows who he is!”

“Really? I wonder why he has no memory, I’ve heard of happenings such as this before but only in the Free Cities. They call people like him Li’s.”

“Li’s?” Irema asked as she turned her head in confusion.

“Yes, it stands for ‘Lost Individuals’, people who have had their memory and past taken away by the old gods due to the deeds they’ve done in their past lives. It’s usually a result from doing either really good or really bad things, and the scabbard of his gives me the feeling that it’s the latter.”

“Well, I did notice that the boy does have quite a few scars on his body, similar to the ones I helped bandage back when you were a ranger. We’ll be careful and watch him but I meant it when I said that I won’t let him leave in any condition other than perfectly healthy.”

“I’ll take it easy on him, I just want to go over the situation with him. Could you bring some gayo soup in a little bit, maybe it’ll make him feel a little better” Rex said as he made his way towards the room where the boy was recovering.

“Of course honey” Irema replied as she went to get a cup of tea for the boy.

As Rex was walking away he heard his wife from the kitchen shout at him, “And I saw the tear in your overalls, that’s going in the trash and your getting a new pair”, he then stopped walking for a moment, put his head down and then continued walking again.

Rex made his way to the room where the boy was resting. He was suspicious of this boy and it would be an understatement if you were to call him untrusting. He had always had a hard time trusting people since long ago. He knocked on the door and paused before going in, but heard no answer from inside so he just turned the knob and opened the door slowly. He slowly entered the room and walked over to the bureau and placed his hat on it. He then walked over and sat in the reading chair in the corner of the room. He did all of this without acknowledging the boy. Although when he sat down and looked over to the bed where the boy was he saw the boy staring at him blankly.

“Are you Irema’s husband?“ the boy suddenly asked.

“Yes I am, my name is Rex and this is my farm. This farm is located in Dysi, which is at the edge of ‘The World’. I found you earlier this morning in the middle of one of my fields. I saw some birds circling around something, went to check it out and found you there injured and bleeding”, he said that as he pointed to the gash on the boy’s forehead.

The boy reached up and touched the bandage that covered the wound on his forehead as if making sure it still existed.

“My wife told me that you don’t remember anything, even your name, is that right?”

The boy nodded and said “yes” solemnly.

“It definitely is interesting that you have no memory of anything, hmmm. There are stories told about people being taken out of their old lives by the old gods, having their memory of themselves and past erased and then placed in a new environment with no recollection of who they are. These are just old wives tales but this might actually be the case with you, or you have basic memory loss and you will regain it over time.”

A puzzled look formed on the boys face.

“Now I don’t absolutely know what happened to you but its definitely a possibility for either case to be true due to your odd predicament.”

“Is there a reason why these people are taken from their old lives?”

“It is said that the past deeds of these people, who are called Li’s for Lost Individuals, are taken into account by the gods and if the gods deem that those deeds are at a certain extreme in either a bad way or a good way they relocate this individual in order to restore balance within civilization. Ive always just thought of it as a way for the gods to toy with humans though. These Li’s could either be people who have lived a pious life and are rewarded with a new life or they could be people who have been bathed in blood their entire lives and are given another chance to start over anew.” As Rex said this he glared at the boy, the boy felt his glare and looked down a little bit.

“So as far as I know, your name is Li until we find proof of your real name.”

The boy nodded, seemingly not wanting to anger this stern man named Rex before him.

Rex went on, “Now I don’t know if this phenomenon got you in the middle of my field or how you sustained such bad injuries but I don’t care. My wife is intent on nursing you until you’re healthy enough to leave on your own. Now you are welcome in this household but once you are able to you must help out here on the farm.”

The boy was still silent and then answered, “Yes sir, anything for you kind people.”

“Good” Rex then stood up to leave.

Irema entered the room with a cup of kaliga tea and gave it to the boy.

“Here you go sweety, this should help settle you down a little bit.”

Before Rex left the room he turned back and said to the boy, “I am going to warn you, if your presence indirectly or directly harms my family in any way I will not hesitate to take action”, while staring sternly at him.

The boy went a little pale and just nodded silently. Rex then walked out.

“Oh don’t take him too seriously, he’s just overprotective of us, you’ll see in due time that he’s a nice guy when you get to know him” Irema comforted.

***

(Boy’s POV)

‘Li’, the boy thought. Now I have something that I can call my own, a name. The boy now named Li had just met the man named Rex and wouldn’t deny the fact that he was intimidated by the man’s presence. Rex was a stern man who seemed strict and scared him a little. On the other hand Irema was a wonderful lady who was very warm and caring. Li finished dressing in some dark blue garments that fit perfectly. Irema had given them to him and said that they were one of her sons old clothes, she had joked that she could clothe a whole orphanage from ages 0-30 because of her children. He put on some old brown work boots and walked out into the hallway and out to the dining room, still trying to wrap his head around his current circumstances.

The home looked very comfy, the aroma of cooked meat got stronger as he walked and made his mouth water; he had been in shock from losing his memory and had forgotten how hungry he was. The tea that Irema gave him earlier had eased his headache but it didn’t satisfy his hunger. Li walked over to the table at the other side of the room and paused when he got to it. There was nobody around, the table was set and the food was in the middle of the table but no one was around.

“Hello” Li said softly.

“Hello, is anyone here?” he said a little louder.

Just when he was about to shout a little louder Irema popped out from behind him.

“No need to call out honey, just sit down at the table, anywhere is fine don’t be shy.”

Li recovered from her scare and sat down as Irema went over to the kitchen to get drinks. He looked at the food on the table and closed his eyes, taking in the sweet aroma of the food around him; he could almost taste the cooked lamb in his mouth.

The front door creaked open as a man wiped his boots off on the mat outside, came in and proceeded to take off his straw hat and place it on a peg by the door where a few pegs were with various pieces of clothing such as hats, overalls and aprons on them. The man looked familiar, that’s because he looked almost exactly like Rex. He was the same height, had the same short dark brown hair and also had a stubbly beard similar to Rex, although it was maybe only half the length of Rex’s beard. The man looked at Li as he made his way to the table.

“Hey mah, is this the kid? He looks like he wants to live with this food, what did you do, starve him?”

Li realized that he had a crazed look on his face from the smell of the food and quickly regained his previously calm expression when he heard the man’s comment.

“Leave him alone and sit down already, did you tell Ruki lunch is ready?” Irema yelled from the kitchen.

As the man pulled out a chair and sat down he replied to her “No I haven’t told Ruki, dad wanted her to go sheer some of the sheep so I figured she’d get that done first.”

“Okay thanks sweetie”

“No problem mah.”

The man resembling Rex then looked at Li from across the table.

“Hey kid, names Rall. Im the second oldest son of Rex and that amazing woman in the kitchen.” He then stuck his hand out for a handshake.

“Nice to meet you, Im Li” Li replied while shaking Rall’s hand.

“So how’d you come to be at this lovely farm way out here?”

“Um I don’t know, I don’t remember anything, Li’s not even my real name.”

“Wow, so your one of them god chosen then? I’ve never seen one before but I’ve heard stories” Rall replied while looking at Li as if he was some divine relic that should be placed in a museum.

Irema came over to the table, “Hush now Rall, eat your food and stop asking Li questions, he already has enough questions for himself.”

With that she sat down and they all began to dig in to the delicious food on the table. It was a quiet meal with slight talking, most of the time the talking was coming from Irema and Rall discussing redoing the porch and making a new coop for the chickens. Li barely heard any of it as he savored the flavors from the feast before him. ‘I’ll never let myself starve ever again!’ Li’s new motto imprinted itself into his mind as he finished plate after plate of food. The only time Li talked was to thank Irema when she told him that the room he woke up in would be his for as long as he was here. She also warned Li to get some rest tonight because tomorrow they would put him to work.

After lunch was finished Li helped Irema clean the table and put leftovers in the coldbox for the rest of the family. Rall thanked his mom for the meal and went back out to do more fieldwork after eating.

Irema yelled after him, ”Let Ruki know that her lunch is in the coldbox!”

“Got it mah.”

After all of the dishes were clean Irema told Li,” Why don’t you take a look around the farm and get familiarized with it. I would show you around but I need to bake some bread for the World Fair that starts this week.”

“ Okay that sounds like a good idea.”

Li then made his way out the front door and began to explore the world as if it was his first time being in it.