" .. W-Where am i?"
Waking up from the painful dreams, Nethan slowly opening his eyes weakly to find himself in a small dark room with a bunch of glowing orbs placed inside the walls.
"I thought I had died? What even is this place?" He asked himself will trying to get on to fall back onto the floor with a somewhat bang.
His body creaked like a rusted water wheel, each movement sending a jolt of pain and sensation of ripping muscles into his brain as he instantly gave up on any movement.
Fortunately it seemed moving his head was less painful and more bearable than moving his body, so with great effort he begins looking around.
A dimly lit room with stone walls, floor and ceiling.
Vines hanging from the cracks in the ceiling and flowers blooming on the ground.
A bunch of fire flies flying around the orb in the wall like a fly to a fire.
And finally he himself, His body seems to having a lot bruises and cuts alongside a heavy layer of moisture seeped into the skin itself.
Soon, the sound of turning gears and a ringing of a metal chain reached into his ears, it was coming from a sort of contraption on the wall and soon the entire wall behind moving.
Brick by brick, the wall dismantled and shifted position with 6 or maybe 7 seconds. Soon a mechanical voice reached into his ears.
"Finally awake? I expected you to wake up a little earlier but those berries that you ate did have a sort of sleep inducing effect."
If Nethan was asked to describe the being in front of him, he would say a living armor without question.
The figure had a skin made of metal with a large crack running across it's upper torso that show a hollow inside except a sludge like material.
Nethan forgot both the pain and the torn muscles as he stood up on his legs in terror and rain to the other side of the room.
From childhood, Nethan had a crippling fear of slimy creatures that came from the disgust and hatred he felt for them after being almost chocked to death when he was a toddler.
" DON'T YOU DARE COME, I WILL BURN YOU TO ASHES IF Y– EKKK" the yelling and threatening turned into panicking and screaming as the orb He was trying to pry out refused to detach from the wall.
The living armor came closer and closer until he stood right in front of Nethan.
It leaned forward, placing it's right arm on Nethan's shoulder as it said in a mechanical voice, "Am I that scary?"
It eyes darting between itself and Nethan until he saw take quick peak at the crack in his torso and saw the blue slimy material inside it.
Understanding the problem, the living armor grabbed the slimy thing and ripped it out in one pull to reveal a small puddle like slime with bubbly puppy eyes.
"Sorry Ziti, You will have to go play somewhere else for today." The mechanical being said while placing the slimy caterpillar pup on the ground and nudges it towards the exit before turning to the Nethan again.
" Shall we check wounds first? Our new friend." It said with a sound akin to giggling before literally lifting Nethan and hoisting him onto it's shoulders.
"What is this place supposed to be? Is it a new sort of heaven or something?" Nethan remarked while looking around at the almost divine looking place.
It was a deep underground village, fully abadoned and filled with glowing luminescent plants and bugs.
In the distance, he could see a small water fall and all together it gave the village a overall peaceful and serene vibe.
The mechanical helper of his turned to him as they reached a small stream with stone pavings and stairs.
The being lifted him with its arm, raised him high above it and brought down with such speed he thought he would crash and die but it turned it's hand last second and basically spun him like a spinning a wet cloth to remove water.
" I can see a bunch of broken bones and torn muscles, it's a miracle you survived."
Raising his eyebrow, he looked at the ever changing tone of the figure in front of him before directing his thoughts to the it's remark and said, "How did I get here anyway? I only remember falling down into a water stream".
"A avalanche happened and you came in alongside the water stream. My name is Visi by the way "
"Nethan, Nethan vargis." He replied to the greeting.
Raising to its feet, Visi handed him something like a iron mug and left as if telling him to bath or something and the room temperature water stream seemed like a enchanting spring for him.
Without even waiting for Visi to leave completely, He removed his half ripped clothes to reveal his skinny frame and begins bathing with the mug.
The excitement got the better of him as he reexperienced the blood cuddling pain of broken body and layed down there for another 10 something minutes before finally recoving from the pain a little.
He slowly bathed himself and again out his clothes and lumped his way back to the place he came from to find Visi standing outside with a cloak in its hand.
"A descendant of the giants must have some dignity, put on some clothes if you have the time to show that skinny fleshless body of yours." It said while tossing the cloak to Nethan.
He felt wierded out by the near reversal of Visi's behaviour from a helper friend to a over dignified elder.
His attention immediately locked onto the now Purple eyes which were previously blue and had a guess regarding his new helper.
He came closer and looked it into the eyes, "You are not Visi are you? Do you have some sort of double personality or something?"
"Double personality? You severely underestimate us, We the eternal servants were provided with over 13 different personalities by our creator." It's voice changed again from the elderly tone to a knowledgeable librarians.
" Now prepare to face the trials." Visi gave a short quick warning before shotting towards Nethan and hit him in the chest with a palm.
His chest caved in as the already injured man flew away like a ball and crashed into some abadoned house straight through the roof.
He coughs blood and felt the soul leaving his body as he lay below the small pile of rubble, still confused of what the hell just happened.
" Did I just get hit with a martial arts skill or something, I feel lighter all of sudden."
Just when he had accepted his death, he heard the sound of something slithering onto his body, it was the slime snake Ziti.
As if filled by the power of a demon, Nethan shot to his feet and ran like a olympics athelete to the point he even jumped over the water stream and took cover behind Visi.
"Phew, I was almost scared for a moment that you weren't a descendant, Good thing I was wrong." Breathing a imaginary sigh of relief, Visit turned to the Nethan and patted him on the back.
Turns out adrenaline has quite a small duration as the pat was more than enough powerful to send Nethan tumbling down like twigs.
******
So that was pathetic but the future was even more confusing for Nethan, he spent the next few days under constant treatment from Visi.
Turns out, she believes him to be a descendant of the giants that still has some pure blood and she herself was a servant created by the giants during their prime Era.
Yes, Visi is a female. It is not easy to explain how he felt like barely dodging a bullet the day when he undressed in front of her for the bath,
the embarrassing memory keeps coming back to haunt him occasionally.
Moving on, his treatment was going decent to say the least with him regularly being fed some sort of medicine created by some plants in the village ceiling.
Visi herself called them saintbells, it was sort mix between a flower and seed where white and green petal grew on a giant seed.
While not the greatest healing medicine, it was easy to grow and make and Visit had quite a stock pulled up so she decided to use them anyway.
Also his fear of slimes have been quite effective in giving him sever anxiety during his sleep because the fact the cute slime snake was moving around everytime.
" You seem to recovering just fine, let's move to the next phase."
The mechanical maid Visi said to him while sitting on her knees in front him with a book in hand.
Nethan looked at her confused, "Next phase? Whose next phase?" He asked curiously while looking at the book in front of him.
" Your education."
The words were spoken like a asian parent ready to throw a young child to a playschool alone on the first day.
Visi grabbed him before he could make any attempt to escape, pulling him closer and right in front of the book before opening it.
For a second Nethan thought he would have to go through things like playschool teaching again but the book was not that.
It was f**king biology and gym workout.
With no answer in mind or any thing he could find to say, he just sat their looking at the book like a donkey before having the book shoved into his face along with a small magnifying glass.
"That thing will help you translate, it would do you much good if you learnt the giant's language itself from the last section , that has the alphabet."
Saying all she wanted Visit left with remaining medicine, leaving Nethan behind to process what the hell just happened.