《The Elemental Marionettes》
Nameless creature
Studying all day would kill Julien sooner or later. He usually studied late into the night until sleep overcame him.
Every day, from Monday to Sunday.
Thanks to his efforts, his grades were almost perfect. Although he had flunked a few exams due to fatigue. After all, he was just a human being pursuing a career in biomedical engineering. He wasn''t a powerful being like he was in some of the games he used to play when he was younger and rebellious.
When Julien was on his way to the university, he saw a girl a little younger than him crossing the street with headphones on. He thought it was dangerous to wear headphones outside, although he did it from time to time, a habit he had picked up when he was younger.
The girl seemed perfectly safe, but just before she crossed the street, she turned around, took off her headphones, and stood looking at him. Julien looked at the light, which was still green. Out of nowhere, he felt an impulse to move toward the street, as if hypnotized. He didn''t understand what he was doing or why he was doing it. He was unable to move of his own free will. And then a loud and painful blow turned the light of day into darkness.
His eyes blinked several times before he opened them. His eyelids felt heavy. Gradually he managed to open them and saw a blonde girl smiling in front of him.
"Haritz, he woke up!"
He was lying on a firm mattress. He looked around, at the stone walls and the dim light coming through the half-open door. The door opened, and through it came a young man, also blond, who approached him at a slow pace.
"You seem to be feeling better," the man said, almost whispering.
"Where am I?" He tried to get up from the bed, but he was too weak. He felt pain all over his body.
The blond man grabbed his arm and offered to help. "You don''t have to try any harder than necessary if you''re still not feeling well."
After he sat up and leaned his back against the wall, still sitting on the bed, he looked at them. Both individuals had pointed ears and long hair, and although the girl appeared to be younger, they didn''t seem to have a significant age difference.
"Who are you?" He was confused, as he didn''t know these people, nor could he remember being there before.
"My name is Haritz," he said in a serious but gentle tone. He paused and looked at the girl. "Her name is Ina, my sister. We found you outside, unconscious. You were alone. For your well-being we decided to bring you into our house." Haritz looked at the one sitting on the bed, waiting for him to say something.
It took him a while to answer, because he was having trouble remembering things. "This is very strange."
"Is something wrong?"
"I have no idea how I got here, but... I''m trying to remember my name to introduce myself, but I can''t remember it either."
"You don''t have a name?" Ina asked, very surprised. "He must be one of those nameless creatures, Haritz."
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Haritz shook his head, dismissing Ina''s words. "Do you mean you lost your memories?"
"I suppose so? I don''t know, but I can''t remember anything."
Ina ran to the door through which Haritz had entered some time ago.
"Where are you going, Ina?" Haritz asked.
"He might be tired and that''s why he doesn''t remember anything! I''m going to get him something to eat," Ina said as she left the house.
"She''s right. You do seem tired. You should rest for a while and maybe you will remember something later."
There was a sound from outside, as if something had collapsed. The one who remembered nothing opened his eyes wide, thinking that something serious might have happened. Haritz sighed, but continued to talk to him as if everything was fine. A few minutes later, Ina returned with a bunch of small green fruits in her hands.
Ina walked up to what she thought was a nameless creature and gave him the fruits. "Eat them all, please."
He checked the fruits before eating them, but decided to trust those who had welcomed him into their home and took a bite of one. He found it delicious. While he ate in silence, Haritz and Ina watched him attentively. The eyes on him as he ate made him uncomfortable.
"We should give you a name until you remember yours," Haritz suggested.
"Haritz!" Ina whispered, looking frightened. "You can''t give a nameless creature a name!"
"He doesn''t seem to be a nameless creature. They usually have big tusks and rough skin."
"Oh, really? Well, we never leave this area, so how should I know?" she asked reproachfully.
Haritz sighed. "We''ve been over this many times, Ina." He looked at the guest. "I''ll give you a name you can use for now... How about Tree? Leaves? Trunk?"
He shrugged. He wasn''t very fond of the names Haritz suggested. "I don''t know, I guess any name will do."
Ina approached one of the bookshelves they had in their house. There were very thick books that looked a thousand years old because of how worn they were. She flipped through one of the books.
"As you agree, your name will be Leaves. I think it is a very fitting name for you."
"Jadon!" Ina shouted.
"Jadon?" Haritz asked.
"It would suit you very well, don''t you think?" Ina pointed to the book in her hands, which seemed thinner and newer than the others. "It''s the name of a character in this novel full of beautiful situations."
"Where did you get this book, Ina?"
"I think..." He paused to swallow the fruit he was chewing. "I think I like it."
After a few more conversations in which they couldn''t get any answers because he still couldn''t remember anything, the now named Jadon and the two pointy-eared individuals decided to end the day by going to sleep. Haritz let Jadon sleep in his bed while he slept on the floor.
When Jadon woke up and opened his eyes, he realized where he was. He still felt the pain all over his body, as if the rest hadn''t helped. He could hear two voices talking to each other, which he recognized as Ina and Haritz.
"If he wanted to kill us, he would have done it already," Haritz said.
"I don''t know. I remember what Ainmire said. A lot of things like that have been happening lately," Ina replied.
"I don''t believe a word that comes out of Ainmire''s mouth."
"Why? I love the stories he tells!"
"Ina... He''s nice, but his imagination is very wild and you shouldn''t believe him."
A few seconds later, Jadon heard a knock at the door. He straightened his back and sat up.
"Who is it this early?" Haritz complained. He got up from the chair he was sitting in and approached the door.
As Haritz approached the door to open it, Jadon got out of bed and walked over to the table where Ina was still sitting. He saw that there were some plants on the table, but he couldn''t identify them. Most of them were green and red and had different shapes.
"What kind of plants do you have?" Jadon looked curiously at the plants.
"Oh! Good morning, Jadon! We were just about to have breakfast," Ina said.
"These are fruits. We brought them from the forest," Haritz replied to Jadon and then opened the door.
"Ainmire!" Ina ran out the door with a smile on her face.
Jadon also approached the door. Standing behind the door was a person who seemed to be close to Ina''s age. His hair was also long and his ears were pointed, similar to the siblings. But his eyes were of a reddish hue, unlike the gray eyes of Ina and Haritz.
He looked at the siblings, then at Jadon, but no words came out of his mouth. Ainmire cleared his throat several times. Haritz and Ina looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to say what he wanted to say. Ainmire closed his eyes, trying to compose himself. But when he opened his eyes, he ran away.
"Ainmire!" Ina and Haritz shouted in unison.
Haritz ran after Ainmire as fast as he could. "Wait!" Haritz caught up to Ainmire and grabbed him.
"Let go of me! I don''t want to go back to that house!"
Strong wind
Jadon, Ina, Haritz and Ainmire sat around the table covered with fruit.
"Are you sure?" Ainmire whispered to Haritz.
Haritz and Ina had tried to convince Ainmire that Jadon meant them no harm. They told him that they had found him very weak and had decided to take him into their home.
Ainmire stared at Jadon, analyzing him to the point of making Jadon uncomfortable. "Do you eat elves?"
"Hmm... I don''t think so," Jadon replied with a shrug.
After several questions from Ainmire to Jadon, which Jadon didn''t answer confidently, Haritz decided to change the subject and they started to eat the fruits on the table, including Ainmire. Jadon noticed Ainmire''s gaze on him all the time, but instead of feeling intimidated, he began to be amused by the funny look of contempt the red-eyed living being tried to give him.
Three days passed. The only memories Jadon had were of the time he had spent there with Haritz and Ina, and some with Ainmire, who had come to see if his elven friends were still alive. As usual, they had not left the area where they usually lived, so Jadon couldn''t see much further.
The fourth night Jadon was there, a storm came. Haritz looked out the door. "The storm is too strong."
Ina also peeked through the door. "Haritz," she said, her voice shaking. She paused before continuing. "Do you think Ainmire will be all right? Shouldn''t we invite him home for the night?"
Haritz thought for a moment before answering. "He will be fine... Anyway, we can''t leave our house while it''s raining heavily."
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Haritz closed the door at that moment. He decided it was time for everyone to go to sleep, but Ina was still worried. It usually didn''t rain that much in the area, so she didn''t know what the consequences might be.
The sound of raindrops could be heard from inside the house. Jadon had trouble sleeping. He felt he had to do something, but he didn''t know what. Sometime during the night he managed to fall asleep.
He didn''t sleep long. He woke up after a strange nightmare. When he woke up, he could only remember one word: "learn". His head hurt badly, as if he had slept for two days in a row. Everything around him was dark, but the rain seemed to have stopped.
Jadon got out of bed. He opened the door and the smell of wet earth intensified. He found the smell pleasant. He put his feet outside the house, filling his shoes with mud, and carefully closed the door to avoid waking Haritz and Ina, who were still sleeping peacefully inside. The human knew that he didn''t need a key to enter the house, so he thought it would be safe to explore the area himself, since he hadn''t encountered any danger in the past few days. He hadn''t even seen any animals.
He was surrounded by trees, some with fruits that they had eaten before. Some of these fruits were accessible, but others were not, which made him wonder how Haritz or Ina could reach them to bring them to the table to eat, since although Haritz was almost his size, Ina was considerably smaller. As he walked, he picked up some fruit, although he was smart enough to only pick up the ones he had already eaten. He was afraid that he might poison himself if he tried to taste some unknown fruit.
A few drops fell on Jadon''s face, which he wiped away with his hand.
"It''s starting to rain again," he thought.
The rain quickly became heavy. He had wandered too far from the house, and all he could see were trees. Fortunately, he saw a cave and ran into it. It was a rather narrow limestone cave that was completely empty, but seemed to extend inward. Jadon was curious. He assessed the danger of going in a few times, so just in case, he picked up two stones that were right at the entrance. They were wet.
As he moved forward, he could see strange drawings on the walls.
"A musical instrument?" he thought.
He stared at the walls for a few minutes. There were many drawings that seemed to tell stories, like the one of a man playing a stringed musical instrument, or one where a woman danced on a kind of lake and wings began to sprout.
He could still hear the rain outside, and after a long hallway full of drawings, he came to a larger room. There was furniture that seemed to be made of rock, and behind some of the furniture he could make out something blue with scales.
A sudden strong wind knocked him to the ground.
After hitting the ground, he opened his eyes. He felt pain in his back after the heavy blow. A kind of winged dragon, twice his size, stood in front of him. He didn''t have much time to observe it closely, because despite his pain, it didn''t take him long to get up and flee from the cave after seeing such a creature in front of him. He didn''t know if it was following him or not, as he didn''t hear any footsteps behind him, but he never stopped running.