… Lucas…. I… rest… to fate...
With his brow furrowed, Lucas vaguely felt he heard someone speaking to him, but for some reason he just couldn't grasp what was being said. Slowly, the young boy forced his eyes open and was greeted by what appeared to be the early morning sun shining through his familiar bedroom window.
Glancing around, Lucas was surprised to see both his mother and father sitting by his bedside, leaning against each other. The scene was a little unexpected, but nothing out of the ordinary; yet for some reason, just the sight of his parents alive and well in front of him brought a tear to his eye.
It was an odd sensation, as if he was seeing something impossible, yet he knew that wasn't the case.
Confused and a little disoriented, Lucas tried to sit up, but to his dismay, he felt incredibly weak and stiff, like he hadn't moved in days.
As he struggled to prop himself up, he realized that he was covered in bandages and was in a significant amount of pain. Unable to stop himself, he let out a grunt of discomfort.
The slight movements and noise were enough to wake the other two occupants of the boy's room, and in the next moment, Anna and Drake's eyes shot open. Staring forward, seeing their baby boy struggling to get up, the pair drew sharp breaths as they leapt up and both exclaimed, ""Lucas!""
The two worried parents nearly pounced on their son as tears of joy streamed down their faces, further confusing the Lucas who was now completely lost as to what was happening.
"My precious boy, you're awake! Thank the Heavens you're awake!" Anna cried out in-between her sobs as she hugged her son tightly.
Despite trying to maintain his dignity as a father, Drake wasn't doing much better than his wife as he hugged both of them and muttered, "Good, very good! I knew my son wouldn't give up so easily!"
Lucas was truthfully feeling a bit sore and overwhelmed from the sudden outburst of affection he was receiving. Naturally, he loved his parents and knew they loved him, but he had never seen the two of them acting like this before.
All he could do for the moment was hug them back and try to comfort them, though he had no idea why.
Why are Mom and Dad so relieved I'm awake? I was just sleeping, wasn't I? It's not like I… I… As his thoughts reached that point, Lucas suddenly frowned, unable to recall what had happened to him. In fact, he didn't even remember falling asleep. He felt as if he was forgetting something, but he couldn't put his finger on what.
Shaking his head, which was still aching quite badly, Lucas waited for his mother and father to calm down a bit before he timidly asked, "Mom, Dad, why are you in my room?"
Leaning her head back, but seemingly unwilling to let go of her son, Anna asked back, "You don't remember what happened in the woods?"
"The woods?" Lucas was genuinely confused now, as he didn't recall entering the woods recently.
Thinking his son might be groggy from just waking up after lying in bed for five whole days, Drake decided to explain, "Son, when you and your mother went out hunting, there was an accident and you hurt your head. Maybe that's why you can't remember."
"My birthday?" Lucas frowned as he muttered, "I know Mom promised to take me out hunting, but wasn't that supposed to be tomorrow?"
Now it was Anna and Drake's turn to be confused, wondering why their son was asking about his birthday as if it hadn't passed already. Turning to look at each other and seeing some concern in their respective expressions, they finally decided to sit back down and ask some questions of their own.
"Lucas, do you know what day it is?" Anna started with something simple.
Lifting his right hand to his forehead and rubbing his temples, Lucas tried his hardest to think clearly, but it was like a fog was obscuring his thoughts, making it impossible for him to remember certain things he should be able to. Even something as simple as what day it was eluded him at the moment.
Seeing their son struggling, Drake and Anna decided it would be best to put this matter aside for the moment and simply focus on helping Lucas recover first.
"It's alright, son. Like I said, you hurt your head, so it's perfectly normal if your memory is a bit fuzzy," Drake comforted.
Anna hurriedly followed up, "That's right, just take your time. There's no need for you to worry. Everything is alright now that you're awake."
Despite his parents attempts to placate him, Lucas couldn't put the matter down. If it was just him not recalling certain things, he would have probably accepted his parent's explanation; however, I can understand not remembering something after hitting my head. After all, Dad told me stories about similar things happening to their companions when he was adventuring with Mom… but that doesn't explain why I feel like I now know things I shouldn't.
Right now, Lucas felt his head was a jumbled-up mess, filled with random information and memories that didn't seem to belong to him.
He recalled his childhood, running around, playing with his friends, sword fighting with his Big Sister Eris, learning about how to handle the blacksmith's hammer from his Dad, and eating his Mother's home-cooked meals, but he also recalled shining cities filled with buildings that towered up into the sky, giant ships that sailed through the stars at incredible speed, and the faces of many people he swore he had never met before.
What is happening to me?! What is all this!? Lucas held his head in frustration.
The memories he identified as his own were quite clear, though some seemed to be missing or incomplete, which was frustrating enough in its own right, but the other memories he had now were much blurrier and difficult to access. It was almost like they were stories he was told by someone in passing long ago, but he was certain he had never heard such fantastical tales before in his life.
Lucas wanted to ask his parents about all this, but he wasn't even sure how to go about doing that.
For a time, the young boy felt like he was running in circles, uncertain of what he should do or say. Fortunately for him, another issue suddenly cropped up that overwhelmed all his other thoughts. Clutching his stomach, which just now growled loudly, Lucas looked up at his mother and complained, "I'm hungry…"
Anna and Drake, whose emotions had been swung up and down wildly since they saw their son wake up, suddenly couldn't help bursting into laughter as they nodded and said, "That's understandable. You haven't eaten anything for the past five days!"
"F-Five…. Five days?" Lucas gawked, wondering if he had heard right.
"En, you've been unconscious for the past five days," Anna nodded, "You really worried your Mother and Father to death!"
"I'm… I'm sorry?" Lucas didn't quite know how to respond to this sudden revelation.
Gently patting his son's shoulder, Drake shook his head, "You have nothing to be sorry about, Lucas. All that matters is that you're alright."
Nodding unconsciously, Lucas tried to get up from his bed, only to find himself feeling a bit unbalanced.
Seeing this, his parents hurriedly insisted he stay in bed, shifting him so his back was against the wall so he could remain upright. After telling Lucas to not move around, Anna went out to fetch Herbalist Erwin while Drake went to the kitchen to prepare a light meal for the three of them.
Now that he was alone with his thoughts, Lucas ignored the complaints of his tummy as he tried to make sense of the strange images in his head; unfortunately, he didn't make much progress on that front.
Despite still feeling a massive headache, Lucas somehow realized that he was oddly able to recall a great many things about his own life in more detail than before, and with much greater ease. It was almost as if his mind and thoughts were sharper than before, though he had no real way to determine if what he was feeling was real or not.
After struggling for a quarter-hour or so and not making any real progress, Lucas simply decided that he would take his time to slowly explore these vague, extra memories he seemed to possess. If they were nothing more than some kind of fantasy he had dreamed up or heard about somewhere, he could probably just ignore them, but if they were something more, maybe they would be useful in some way.
At the very least, Lucas felt he could now tell his friends some interesting stories about another world filled with wonders and mysteries.
About half-an-hour after they had left, both Anna and Drake returned to their son's room, together with a bearded old man Lucas was only slightly familiar with.
Old Man Erwin was actually quite surprised to see Lucas awake, as he had secretly felt that the chances of the boy passing away were much higher than not. Still, he kept that grim opinion to himself and did a simple examination, eventually determining that other than being a little dehydrated and malnourished, Lucas was fine.
If anything, the boy's reflexes seemed to be sharper than before, which was a bit odd seeing how his mind and body should be sluggish after having laid in bed for so long without moving.
In any case, since he couldn't find anything wrong with Lucas, Herbalist Erwin gave the boy's parents a prescription for a recovery tonic used to help with boosting stamina and told them to only feed him light foods for the next couple of days before bidding the family goodbye.
Drake, who was not unfamiliar with injuries from back in his youth, already knew not to feed his son anything heavy, so he had only cooked up a bowl of thin porridge, much to Lucas' chagrin as he felt hungry enough to eat a whole boar.
After sharing their morning meal, where out of solidarity the two adults ate the same porridge as Lucas, Drake turned to his wife and said, "Anna, I'll stay with Lucas for today, so you should go report to Charles and Sasha about his recovery."
"En, I'll do that. I'm sure Eris will also come running over as soon as she hears Lucas is awake as well," Anna smiled and nodded, taking note of how her son's ears seemed to perk up at the mention of his Big Sister coming to visit.
Patting Lucas's head while she chuckled to herself, Anna, for the first time in five days, felt the weight which had been pressing on her chest lifting, allowing her to breath a sigh of relief. Although it remained to be seen if there were any lingering effects from the accident, at least her son was awake, alert, and eating now.