Zvanimir looked at Baba with determination, not flinching or looking away.

Baba looked back at him, less determined, but more taken aback by his request.

“You can teach me, right? I want to learn this.”

“It is not that simple soldier, Kaikavian is not that easily taught. It could take months to teach.”

Zvanimir’s expression dimmed. He wanted to learn this magical language, but he also had someone waiting for him, apparently.

“But we spoke it with the trees just now easily, is it really that difficult?”

Baba shook her head slowly.

“That was with my assistance. Without me, you could barely understand anything. “

“Some… words… remember…”

Zvanimir did his best to replicate words he had heard previously. The sound left Baba’s jaw gaping wide open.

“Stop it you fool! You don’t know how dangerous that is.”

She hastily came closer to him and pulled the axe from his hand. As the handle left the grasp of his palm, he could feel a stinging pain go through his fingers, like a thorn had just been plucked from them.

He looked at his hand and saw roots digging their way into his skin. In a panic, he quickly tried to pull them from it, but they wouldn’t move, but instead seemed to dig even deeper as he tried to struggle against them.

“It must not be used carelessly. That is why it takes so long to master.”

Zvanimir tried to bend his fingers and as he did, he could feel the roots touch the bones in his hand and crawl their way up.

“Stop moving it. The more you resist, the more it wants to go inside.”

Baba’s tone had taken on one of genuine concern in those moments.

“Will it stay like this?”

“It will go away on its own, provided you do not speak any more Kaikavian. The roots will die out and your arm will return to normal. Just do not move it anymore.”

Zvanimir relaxed his hand and they both returned to Baba’s house, leaving behind the cut down tree for the time being.

-

Once inside, Zvanimir once again gave Baba a serious look.

“Can you at least teach me the basic parts of it. I can already say some words.”

Baba remained silent, brewing more herbal drinks.

“The problem, soldier, is that you shouldn’t be able to say any words.”

“Maybe I knew it before and am remembering it now.”

Baba thought to herself for a moment and then turned around to face Zvanimir.

“That is possible, yes… And if it is so, then I have no choice but to teach you.”

She let out a long sigh and handed Zvanimir another cup before taking a sip from her own.

“If your memories of it start returning, you might end up doing gods know what to yourself.”

Zvanimir sipped his brew and began to ponder. Both him and Baba stood silently for several minutes.

His eyes were aimed at the brew, but in truth, he was staring through it and into the images of the magical new language that his mind had conjured.

He tried to remember, find ways to see if he had learned the language before, but his memory just wouldn’t serve. It was as if staring into an empty bag, hoping you’d find something you’d missed at first glance.

The silence continued on for another minute before Baba decided to break it.

“Maybe, if you remember how to speak Kaikavian, some of your other memories will also return.”

These words struck Zvanimir.

“If that’s so, then that’s even more a reason for me to learn it.”

Baba nodded her head.

“It is settled then. You will stay here with me for the time being until I have completely taught you Kaikavian.”

“Thank y…”

“Not for free of course, I will have you do chores of different sorts. Patching you up is one thing, but this, this is far more.”

Zvanimir bowed his head.

“Thank you very much, I will do my best to learn from you.”

Baba let out a slight chuckle as she gestured towards Zvanimir to raise his head.

“Now now, no need to be like that. It has been long since I have taught anyone so it will do me good too.”

Zvanimir looked at Baba. A nostalgic air had filled out the room as she uttered the words but Zvanimir felt it not right to ask just yet. He would be patient and not ask for more than she was yet willing to give.

“Well then, it is decided. However, I will be going to sleep now, it is late and I must get my beauty sleep.”

The sudden shift in atmosphere slapped Zvanimir awake.

“Sleep? But it’s not even night?”

Baba gave him a stern look.

“It is how I stay young through all these years soldier, it would do you well too.”

Zvanimir nodded.

Baba made quick work of setting up a spare bed, not that there was much to do. She had simple cloth stuffed with a mixture of hay and leaves to make into a mattress and pillow. A simple solution and far more comfortable than the stone within which Zvanimir awakened.

The woman showed him where his bed would be and promptly laid down in her own. Without saying a word to him, she turned to face the wall and fell asleep, mere seconds after closing her eyes.

Unlike her, Zvanimir found himself unable to even shut his eyes. All of this, it was so much in so little time. The Alcari, Kaikavian, even Baba herself. It was all so strange, yet it came not as a surprise to him, but something to simply accept.

For one, he had been “marked”, whatever that meant, by a creature that looked more like a walking corpse than a human. Something within him told him that this should be at least some cause for disturbance, but his body just couldn’t react to it in a meaningful way, and neither could his mind.

The matter of the Kaikavian language and Baba herself were something else entirely. It shouldn’t, but to him it somehow just made sense that this was something that could be done.

Be that as it may, it did not lessen how intrigued he was about them, both Kaikavian and Baba herself.

While laying in the makeshift bed, he occasionally turned around to glance at her. There wasn’t really any reason why, it just felt like he would see something new when he did, but nothing ever happened. She just lay there, sleeping, not sprouting strange flowers from her, or talking in strange languages.

It was just an old woman who lived in solitude and spoke to nature as if it were people. But there was more to it, Zvanimir was sure of it. She didn’t only speak to them, she respected them, listened to them.

Yes, that was it.

She listened. That must be it. The world wanted to be heard, and if that was so, he too would listen. In a sense, the fact that his memories might return to him if he learned Kaikavian were just an added benefit, the true value of it was learning to hear the world.

And maybe, just maybe, the world had something to tell him. Maybe the world could answer some of the questions that plagued him.

Who am I?

What should I do?

Is anyone waiting for me?

What does Zvanimir mean?

What is this world I am in?

-

A void.

It is all consuming, material yet not there. Its presence can be felt, but not acknowledged by those in existence. It seeps through the cracks in the ground, the skies, the world itself.

The antithesis of existence given form only to serve as a ground for those corporeal to witness it. Within this void, a field comes into being. The field littered with barren grey earth, a mirror of the valley Zvanimir had found himself in.

This place, I know it. I’ve been here before. But that means…

His thought was cut short by the sound of hooves approaching him.

Before Zvanimir stood once again the Alcar. His body still merged to that of his steed, spear ready in his hand. He began to walk circles around Zvanimir, tracing a line in the dirt with the tip of his spear.

“ⰔⰕⰋⰎⰎ“

Zvanimir didn’t understand the words, but the message was clear.

If I stay in this place, I’ll die.

The Alcar completed his cursed circle around Zvanimir and the moment he looked away, Zvanimir began to run.

Not this time. I’m rested now, I can escape him. I just need to find where.

Zvanimir’s dash was one of desperation, of pure instinct, there was little thought to it.

Meanwhile, the Alcar lifted his spear to the sky and began to pace slowly and methodically. To an onlooker, it might have looked like a ceremonial march, but for Zvanimir it was no such thing.

After Zvanimir had run a bit more than one hundred metres, the Alcar smiled to himself and lowered his spear. The horse readying itself as the charge began and the sound of the cursed hooves reached Zvanimir’s ears.

No, not again! Not this time. Think! Think!

The sound became louder with every second, but the fear did not release Zvanimir from its grasp. He could not get his mind to form any useful thoughts and so he resigned himself to running from the Alcar, occasionally glancing over his own shoulder to see the creature’s position.

I’ll jump, that will work.

The Alcar was coming close and there was little time left to do anything. His last chance at surviving, a simple evasion. Would it be enough?

The spear headed straight for Zvanimir’s shoulder, exactly where the mark had been left. He managed to throw himself to the side rather than jump in the hopes of evading the spear tip. It did little to help him in the end.

While in the air, falling to the side, he saw the Alcar swiftly, inhumanly so, adjust the course of himself and his spear in the direction of Zvanimir’s shoulder. It would certainly strike him, there was no helping him.

“ⰘⰑⰎⰄ”

A shining woman in platinum robes appeared between Zvanimir and the Alcar, preventing his spear from moving any further.

“ⰘⰅ ⰋⰔ ⰏⰀⰓⰍⰅⰄ“

The Alcar stopped dead in its tracks and retorted angrily.

Wait a second…

A conversation ensued between the Alcar and the woman in white, but not one Zvanimir could follow. Few words had been exchanged and he understood none of them.

Who is she?

The Alcar lowered his spear and began to move away from the two. Relief struck Zvanimir as his safety had seemingly been assured.

The woman turned to face him, but the light was so bright that he couldn’t make out any of her features.

“This was but the first night, all I have done was buy you time. You must defeat him on your own ⰄⰅⰏⰅⰕⰓⰋⰖⰔ”

Her hands touched his face for a second and she began to disappear into the nothingness around them.

“No! Wait! I…”

The woman faded away…

-

…Baba was holding Zvanimir down as his body rapidly convulsed. His screams filled her home and she very well knew why.

“…Have questions!”

Zvanimir awakened abruptly to the sight of Baba holding onto him firmly. He tried to calm himself, but the experience he had just had would not allow his muscles to relax.

Baba let go of him the second he was awake and quickly went to gather a cup.

“Here, drink quickly. It will calm you and make sure you do not faint from shock.”

Zvanimir couldn’t move his body the way he wanted to, it was impossible to do as instructed.

“Curses, come here.”

Baba grabbed his head and began pouring the liquid down his throat with as much force as was needed. The concoction had been quickly prepared and still had some remains of the herbs in it, all of which Zvanimir drank as it was poured into his mouth. A small price to pay in Baba’s mind.

“This should not happen, at least not yet. It is only the first night.”

Baba grumbled to herself as Zvanimir slowly sank back onto the bed, his body now numb and light, devoid of any tension.

Who was that woman?

“Who was that woman?”

Baba put her finger on her lips and shushed Zvanimir.

“Don’t speak now, we need to calm your mind first.”

But I wanted to know why she saved me.

“But I wanted to know why she saved me.”

Baba listened to the rambling of her soon to be student and couldn’t help but let out a long-winded sigh.

“You’ll be just like her, won’t you soldier.”