Ten years ago

  Edge of the Solarian northern jungle.

  Damien's eyes snapped wide open to the loud, clanging sound of something crashing onto the ground. Panicked, he rose sharply but was forced to a halt just as a sudden wooziness overcame him.

  While his brain was taking its time to adjust, Damien's eyes took in his surroundings.

  The first thing he noticed, seeing as he was already on top of it, was the large, soft, thing that bore his full weight. It was long, at least long enough that it reached his legs and went past it. And it was so large that Damien felt he could comfortably spread both his hands without touching the edge. Also, there was a soft, thin, material that acted as a barrier between his body and the large thing.

  With curious eyes, he looked back down on where his head had been laid a few seconds ago, finding the same soft thing, only this one was vastly smaller than the one he laid on, and softer, too.

  The next thing that crossed his mind was where he was and how he'd gotten there. The last thing he remembered was blood all over his body and darkness covering his... vision.

  Damien shivered as everything came back to him then. The creature, the chase, the slash to his rib. He touched his sides at that, feeling for the bleeding area. What he found was nothing, at least not nothing, nothingness. His injured area and the entire body at large were clean and devoid of blood, but Damien couldn't feel his body fully as something white and thick was wrapped around it. Damien was about to pull back the material covering his skin when the sudden hitch of a breath slipped into his ears.

  He looked up sharply, meeting the widened blue eyes of a young boy. They stayed like that for a few seconds, just looking at each other in part shock, part confusion. And then the boy soon jerked his head downwards, bending down arm first to pick something up while he sharply spat out words Damien couldn't make knowledge of.

  At first, Damien understood nothing of what the other boy was saying, but that soon changed a few moments and later when the previously indecipherable words began making meaning to his ears. It took a few more combinations of what the boy was saying, and Damien grimaced at the strings of otherworldly words the boy had managed to lace together.

  Soo much cursive, for such a little boy.

  Damien sat up just as the boy rose back up, holding a steel round container by its handle.

  He was a slim boy with blond hair halfway to his shoulders, but instead of being completely scrawny like Damien, he had light muscles on his frame.

  The moment the boy's eyes met Damien's again, they widened, and he froze

  "You're awake," He said slowly like he was referring to himself.

  "You're awake?" He said again, this time sounding like he was speaking to Damien. Just as Damien opened his mouth to confirm the obvious answer, the boy said again, this time loudly as the realization hit him.

  "You're awake!" His eyes widened further, and Damien idly thought that, at this point, the whole thing might soon fall off.

  The boy looked at Damien once more, shook himself out of it, and then ran out of the room with his voice echoing into the air.

  "He's awake!"

  Awkward, Damien thought.

  Now that he was the only person left in the room, Damien fully took in the place he woke up in.

  The room was a comfortably large space with an entrance place opposite Damien, which gave him full awareness of any approaching person. To his left was a transparent structure that let in natural light into the room as well as give him a full, unobstructed view of the world beyond the room. And on his right was a tall, brown, blocky structure propped up against the wall. Beside the structure was another one with four legs and a flat material laid over them, with another high back four-legged structure placed beside it.

  A window, a wardrobe, a table, and a chair.

  Damien didn't understand how he knew those things; one minute, he knew nothing about them, and then the next, his head was filled with knowledge about the things he was looking at. It was a strange sensation that he was oddly thankful for.

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  He focused on the entrance just as the approaching sounds of footsteps and whispering reached his ears.

  Three people, Damien counted.

  The first person who entered was a woman; black haired and wearing a loosely tied black scarf around her head. She was on a long brown dress with zero embellishments, and when she saw him sitting up, she rushed in.

  "No! No! No! Do not put too much strain on your body. You'll reopen your wound." She said with a strange look.

  "Oh, poor boy. Your parents must be worried sick about you. Lie down some more till your strength fully returns."

  At that time his stomach rumbled.

  "Oh, forgive me! I totally forgot how hungry you must be," she said with a palm on Damien's forehead. "Loosing that much blood would leave anyone ravenous."

  She turned back to the entrance where Damien could finally see that three more people had entered.

  "Keilan!" She said, and Damien saw the boy from earlier jolt upwards."Get the poor boy some food!"

  The boy, Keilan, ran out with a nod, passing by the side of the other woman in the room. She was an old woman, Damien saw, with strands of grey peaking out of the green scarf around her head. Her face was wrinkled and her stance was wobbling on the walking stick she leaned on. But despite all that, Damien instinctively knew that she was nowhere near weak. There was strength in the way she carried herself, even through the hunched posture.

  She approached Damien and her eyes roamed over his body with such intensity that Damien almost squirmed, but with effort, he held himself.

  The woman smiled and gave him an approving nod at that.

  "From what I can see he looks fine. Mara, please pull off the bandages."

  The first woman, who Damien now recognized as Mara, nodded and did as bidden, unwrapping the white things around Damien's stomach.

  The moment it was fully removed, the air moved in to wrap around him, and with barely contained curiosity, he moved his hands around the area, smiling in relief when he felt it smooth and whole, with only quickly vanishing red lines the only evidence to the injury.

  Looking up, Damien was startled to find himself surrounded by three adults who had different expressions ranging from surprise to a little bit of alarm.

  "I didn't think children could have such quick healing," the third person said, a man whose face Damien's mind was beginning to piece together as the person whose spear had killed the large cat. He was also of middle age looking, like Mara; and his arms were packed with such muscles that made Damien wary of getting anywhere close to them.

  From the muscles and the obvious use of a weapon when he'd killed the cat, Damien judged him as from a warrior caste.

  "It shouldn't be possible this quickly with a child as young as him," the old woman said with a scrutinizing look at Damien. "From the feel of the ambient energy around, it seems he's started absorbing cosmo, and at an astounding rate, too. He's barely fifteen, that shouldn't be possible at this age."

  Looking back at Damien, she asked. "What is your name, boy?"

  "Damien," He answered confidently, which was strange because he felt anything but.

  She nodded. "Where are you from?"

  This time, confusion was beginning to creep up on his features. "I don't know."

  Everybody mirrored his confusion at the answer.

  "You don't know where you're from?" the old woman asked again.

  Damien suppressed his body's urgent want to squirm and then answered.

  "I— I—I don't know where I'm from."

  "Then how did you find your way into the jungle?" This time, it was the man who asked.

  "I don't know, I just woke up there." Damien was beginning to get more uncomfortable. No matter how he tried, his mind couldn't come up with anything before he woke up in that jungle.

  "Then what of your parents? won't anyone get worried when they find out you're missing?" Mara asked, worried.

  "I don't have one; at least, I don't think so."

  At this, everyone quieted.

  "Do you know anything that could help us locate where you're from so that we could take you back there safely? There must be someone looking for you."

  This time, Damien decided to come clean. "I don't remember anything from before I woke up."

  This time worry turned to shock.

  The man asked, "You don't remember anything at all?"

  Damien nodded.

  "How old are you?" The old woman asked.

  Damien shook his head, his voice a whisper. "I don't know."

  "Monarch's balls!" Everyone turned around to see Keilan standing at the entrance, his eyes as wide as saucers.

  "Language!" Mara scolded while the man beside her shook with barely contained laughter, though his face went instantly neutral when Mara turned a glare towards him.

  The old woman, though without a smile on her face, said nothing.

  Mara turned back to Damien. "Since you don't have anyone looking for you, and we don't want you living out on the streets, would you be okay staying with us?" She asked.

  Damien didn't have to think about it long, he nodded. He had just gotten to know the woman and all he'd been getting was positivity all around.

  Mara smiled and turned to the old woman. "Healer Salem, is he okay to move?" She asked.

  The healer studied him again some more. "From what I can see, he looks okay. I'll want him to come by my place sometime later for more checkups; just In case there's a side effect to his... Rapid healing."

  Mara nodded, then turned back to Damien. "Go with Keilan; he'll take you to the kitchen to get some food to eat and afterward show you around."

  Damien nodded, looking at Keilan, who had a big smile on his face. With obvious excitement, he began waving Damien over.

  Damien shifted down the bed, wobbling a little when his feet touched down. It didn't last long, though, and then Damien was off, leaving the now discussing adults to their now heated discussion.