“We should get out as soon as you can walk, Eli. I’m afraid this place isn’t the most structurally sound.” Milo warned me, and I agreed. I stood up, trying to keep my balance, when he came over to help me.
I took a few small steps, leaning on Milo, and heard crunching sounds from my muscles. Each movement sent a sharp pain through my legs, frost still scraping against my bones. After a few minutes of "walking", my legs and feet warmed up a bit and I could move a bit more easily.
We reached a set of ancient-looking escalators, half embedded in stone, and covered in dust and rubble. I slowly and clumsily took step after step up the steep stairs of what remained of the escalator. After about a hundred, some boulders blocked the path, and the tunnel took a turn exchanging the dark metal steps for a smoother stone floor. We marched in a line quietly, led by Patrik who held the brass lantern, illuminating the cave walls.
“So, what's xin?” I asked. They all turned toward me curiously, and I could see in their eyes they started to believe me. I felt like an alien.
“It's a power source. It's in the atmosphere, the stones, the plants, humans, and every living being. It gives you abilities to control the world around you, or to strengthen your body.”
I started thinking as we started marching again. This was a bit familiar, although it didn't have a name back then. After the first meteors fell, before the power grid went completely offline, and while we still had communications, people were popping up, having strange abilities manifested amongst them. Some could produce fire, freeze or create water, create hurricane-like winds…
We never had the time to thoroughly investigate and research them, but one thing was clear: The cause was the meteors. The people close to impact sites were most affected, as well as weird mutations in plants and animals.
“I have some questions for you as well, old man,” Tara said, startling me as I lost my train of thought. “What's a subway?”
“It’s an electric train that runs in underground tunnels like these. They transport people. Or rather, transported.” I croaked.
“Electric?”
She seemed interested in the past and made sure to thoroughly interrogate me on every little detail. Her expression stayed the same curious but calculating as if sizing me up and constantly thinking of ways to overpower me if I turned against them. I answered all her questions the same way a parent would answer a curious child’s every “but why?” question, but my mind was racing. I was still dwelling on the things that happened, and soon the memories of my last moments before being frozen resurfaced.
My father’s face, his eyes, and the blue glow that turned me into a glacier. That’s how I was saved from the rubble and the house-sized meteor burying its way into the subway. Now I was in a completely different world, that seemed to house some kind of magical power. I don’t belong here.
After a few minutes of climbing and answering Tara’s questions about the ancient world, we finally reached the surface. The cold fresh air hit me, as I gazed up seeing the moonlight shine through the treetops. This was again a reminder of how much time passed, as the city I used to live in completely disappeared and nature slowly consumed its corpse, turning it back into a forest.
"We should settle down here for the night and move on tomorrow. It has been a long day." Tara seemed to be the leader of the small group, as the two men put down their large bags and started to set up tents.
Patrik sat down, pulled out a small box, and started refilling and cleaning his pipe. He emptied out the ash, cleaned the bowl with a towel and stuffed it with dry leaves of some kind. The orange lines glowed on the side of the bowl as he inhaled the soft white smoke. A soothing herb smell filled the air as he offered me the pipe as well. Since my lungs still felt like they were full of sand, I respectfully declined.
They offered me a tent that Milo was setting up and I graciously accepted. It was a cold night, and I had a lot to process but I wasn't feeling tired at all. Milo set up a few rocks around a pile of dry wood and picked out a metal wire, putting it on top of the pile. Tara then kneeled down next to the pit, put her hands on one of the logs, and it suddenly ignited. Orange sparks flew, the freshly made fire licking the laid down logs. My eyes widened.
“Holy...! Can you use fire magic?” I asked dumbfounded. She held up her hand, a small flame dancing atop her fingers. Now the reality of my situation really started setting in.
“Well, I can create fire, whatever you want to call that. That's how I melted the ice you were in.” I could only stare in awe. That's why I was interested in science, arguably the closest thing you can get to magic, without actually using magic. But this was completely different. I felt so overwhelmed, the new information just kept coming in.
"How did you get in the ice? That part still bugs me about this story. Did you freeze yourself?" That was a great question. I turned toward Milo to answer his question.
“Well, it's still hard to remember. But I think my father did it somehow. In the last moments... we heard a huge explosion above us. We didn't even have time to realize what was happening. The ceiling crumbled to dust, and I remember seeing him... It was like he exploded into some kind of a blue light.” Suddenly I remembered his terrified expression, knowing he was facing certain death, but still trying to save his son... I cleared my throat and held back my tears. “I think he saved me. Somehow freezing me so the meteor couldn't kill me.”
They looked at me with sorrowful expressions. There was no one else in the cave. Only I survived.
“The meteor...” Patrik mumbled; brows furrowed in a thoughtful expression. “If you were the only one left there... Your body probably absorbed all the power from that chunk of pure xin. That could explain it...”
I excused myself, and moved a bit further away into the forest. I needed to process all this, and there were too many people. I remembered the last moments with my father. Losing him hurt much more than being thawed out. Trying to distract myself, looking at the alien scenery, I got lost in the sight of the massive forest, as well as my thoughts. A few minutes later I heard soft steps and leaves crunching behind me. I quickly turned away and wiped away my tears that managed to escape.
“I’m sorry about your father. You seemed close.” Tara put her hands on my shoulder softly.
“Thanks.” I only managed to croak out this much. “The world completely changed. I don’t know what to do anymore.” I confessed. I felt lost.
“Well, maybe we could start with a simple meal?” She asked softly.
Suddenly I heard soft sizzling, and the smell of roasting meat filled my nose. My stomach grumbled loudly, completely empty. I started to understand that I somehow survived by absorbing the xin from the meteor, this magical power sustaining me, but the fact that I hadn't eaten in more than a thousand years was painfully obvious.
“Have you tried duckdeer yet?” Milo asked me, turning the meat on the improvised grill. Seeing as I haven't even heard of such a creature, I shook my head. He offered me some of the soft, tender meat with a piece of bread. I chowed down hungrily, the lightly salted taste filling my mouth. I chowed down in huge gulps but had to slow down and take smaller bites so my stomach could keep its contents.
It didn’t work. I threw up almost immediately. So instead, I ate only a few small bites of the soft bread, and that was enough to give me the worst stomach ache I ever felt. I guess starting the digestive system back up wasn’t as easy as filling your belly full after a thousand years.
Finishing the humble meal, we started getting ready for the night. Patrik volunteered to be first watch. I was thankful, having eaten a bit, a newfound exhaustion came over me and I could barely keep my eyes open on my way to the small tent. I thanked them for the meal and headed for the tent, went inside and lay down. Despite being so worn-out, somehow, I couldn't sleep, and my thoughts circled around my father. The guilt and grief tore at my insides. I blamed myself for his death and wondered if things turned out differently, he could still be here.
Having these kinds of thoughts running through my head, my body slowly gave in to the soft bed and I drifted off to sleep.
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