When the man finally awoke again, there was no one there. He called out several times, but he was alone. Where was he?
The room was dark and tiny, with a single small window set above him behind his head, letting in a feeble stream of dusty light. He was laying on a bed, covered in bandages. Everything ached, but worse- some parts didn’t seem to feel at all. How long had he been there? Where was there?
Just as a desperate anxiety was starting to creep in, as he couldn’t actually get up and was stuck in the bed, alone, in this strange room…he heard a door close softly, somewhere below him; downstairs presumably.
There were no more sounds for a while. For some reason he was scared to call out now. Was he a prisoner? He didn’t want it known he was awake. The air smelled of fowl and fresh soil. Then a footstep on a stair.
Then another, closer and closer. The man clenched his fists, helpless, his head able to move just enough to see a gap in the wall that must be the stairs.
An incredibly cozy looking young woman appeared, carrying a tray which she nearly dropped when she noticed the man was awake. Hurriedly she set the tray down and disappeared back down the stairs, muttering excitedly to herself.
Soon she reappeared, accompanied by several other figures that all came and gathered around the bed. The man looked up in crazed fear.
It took a while to convince him that he was not in danger, but instead had been rescued from it. He was recovering in the farmhouse near where he’d first been found, nearly dead from strangely savage wounds.
The young woman that ran the farm had set off some time ago, saying she had to deliver a letter to someone in the city, they explained to the patient. He had no idea what they were talking about. His wounds and shock were too great. He knew his name, and that was all. The past was simply gone.
As the man recovered his health and his strength returned, the farm lay fallow and began to look abandoned. There was no one in the village to tend it, and the woman did not seem to be coming back any time soon. Eventually it was decided that the man would take over the farm in her absence, with an occasional little help from the townsfolk now and then as he recovered. The children in the village even made up a little story for him, and soon he fit right in.
