#84 - Found
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bodyandsoul100.
Kalin woke up slowly, feeling that something was vastly out of place. He shifted slightly and discovered that, while he wasn't on a mattress of any sort, there was a thick pad of some sort beneath him. Though stiff, he had definitely slept in many less comfortable situations.
What finally struck him as out of place was the pain: it was gone. Pain had been such a part of his life for the past decade; it had been a life when a good day brought aches and pains, when on a bad day, he often ended up unconscious. And on the worst… He rubbed the stump where his hand should have been.
But there was no pain. He blinked and his eyes adjusted; the light was dim. Looking around, he saw he was in some kind of stone cave. He didn't remember how he got there… He remembered running for his life, with the Warriors not far behind; he remembered the cliff, the feeling of his heals scraping against it, and the open air behind him.
He remembered the sensation of falling, the sense of finality. And he was filled with absolute certainty that he should be dead. And yet here he was, waking up in a make shift bed somewhere…He sat up, felt dizzy for a moment, but it passed.
"Good evening."
"Huh?" Kalin blinked, as someone stepped into his vision. It was a man; he was tall and broad shouldered. Kalin winced back immediately, a reaction that had become instinctive. The man crouched down next to him, and Kalin's eyes widened. His hair was black, streaked white at the temples, and he was wearing a light shirt made of gauzy silver material. "You're a Knight," Kalin added, stunned.
"My name is Jall," the Knight said. He was speaking the language of Arpiar, the same as Kalin. He sounded like a native speaker—which Kalin was not—and his voice was lightly accented. Southwestern, Kalin realized. He had the same accent as Kieris's family.
"Mine is Kalin," Kalin said quietly. For the first time in a decade, he offered his name and didn't receive a stinging blow in response. Slaves had no names, but Kalin had never been able to give his up.
Jall nodded. "Kalin Malistar," he said.
"What?" Kalin blinked. He still felt very tired and disoriented, and the surname he Knight had given felt oddly familiar, but he couldn't remember having heard it before.
"Kalin Malistar," Jall repeated. "We know who you are. We were sent here to find you."
"You were?"
Jall nodded. "We've been looking for you for over a month," he said. "We had only our faith to guide us, we didn't even know your name. But here you are, just as She promised."
Kalin took a deep breath. He knew what that meant, he was pretty sure. But it was all so overwhelming… He shut his eyes and put a hand to his forehead for a moment, trying to wrap his head around this. But when he opened his eyes he ran his hand through his hair. It fell forward, between his fingers, and his eyes went wide again.
His own hair was now streaked with white strands, just as the Knight's was.
"You were looking for me?" he asked.
Jall nodded. "We found you," he said simply.
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temira) wrote,
tired
