Starlight Necromancer

Chapter 4 - Skeleton

"How did you get into this forest?" The skeletal man asked, in a somewhat curious tone. Foster scratched the back of his head, still not quite used to this telepathy type thing.

"I don't know, I just woke up here. Fell off that fucking mountain over there, and nearly died. You know... the regular." Foster explained, and the skeletal man stopped walking for a moment. He turned around and looked into the direction that Foster had come from, and then turned back around to continue walking.

"I see. What do you wish to find here?" The skeleton asked, and Foster just shrugged, kind of frustrated because he didn't have an answer to that question, "Well I- I'm not trying to find anything, I just need to get to like a town or something. Or a road at least, where I could hitchhike... You know, figure out where I am?"

"You do not know where you are?"

"No, as I said, I just woke up here. I was... well, working, took a short break, and then suddenly appeared here. There was this weird fucking dog up there, and I fell down, and then I saw these floating boxes, and- and I sound like a freak, don't I?" Foster asked, before he remembered that he was communicating with a walking, talking skeleton in a martial-arts uniform via telepathy.

"Hm. I see." After this, the skeleton became somewhat more quiet, and the air became awkward. Foster didn't know what he was supposed to say next, but he didn't have much time to think about it either.

Because soon enough, Foster and the skeleton reached a run-down, old cabin. The wood had rotten so much that it was clear this place would soon fall apart. However, the skeleton simply walked up to the door and pulled it open without a moment's hesitation.

"Come in. And take your shoes off." The skeleton instructed Foster, who slowly nodded his head and hesitantly followed him into the cabin. He pushed his shoes off his feet, noticing that his socks were basically rock-hard after becoming soaked in his own blood... Foster would probably need to get some new shoes soon as well.

"...Take your socks off as well, please." The skeleton said after noticing the state of Foster's clothes, and the young man slowly nodded his head and did as told. After placing his shoes and socks down outside of the cabin's door, Foster was able to really take a look at the inside.

Completely different to the outside, the inside of the cabin was actually in a pretty good state. It was clean, and everything in here was sorted. There were plenty of plants set up here, as if this place belonged to someone with some kind of cottage-core fetish. The skeleton walked over toward a wooden barrel in the corner of the room, and scooped out some water into a cup before placing it on a table in front of an empty chair. He motioned to it, as if telling Foster to take a seat.

And of course, he did. The chair let out a loud creak, but it was fine. It was still rather comfortable.

"Please drink, you must be thirsty." The skeleton told Foster through telepathy, and he slowly nodded and grabbed the cup. The water seemed really quite clean, so he just went for it. It was cool and refreshing, despite how hot it was outside.

Actually, this whole place had a surprisingly cool air about it.

"Ah, you must be wondering about the temperature, correct? This place is naturally humid, so I make use of some special children to help me out. My body is befallen by mold rather easily, you see? I want to keep myself clean as well." The skeleton said. This was the longest thing that he said in a row so far. But Foster really wasn't sure what he meant with 'children', until he noticed the small plant placed onto the center of the table again.

He moved his hand toward it, and could feel a cool air emanating from this nearly white, small flower, "The plants make this room cooler?" Foster asked, and the skeleton swiftly nodded his head. He moved his hand toward the flower, and gently stroked its petals with its hand made of bones.

"Indeed so. This one, at least. Some of these children pull water from the air, and then feed it to that barrel. And others... are simply regular plants." The skeleton said, "They are all quite special in their own ways, however."

Foster looked at the skeleton, still controlled by that unnatural calmness that took him over a while ago. Despite this situation being utterly ridiculous, he got used to it already. The skeleton didn't seem to mind it that much, however.

"It has been a while since I have been able to speak to someone. Everyone that comes into this forest is usually here to kill me." The skeleton explained, "Ah, I have forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Thiodrus Argomna."

"Ah, I'm Foster, nice to meet you." He replied, smiling at the skeleton as he said so. And that surprised him even more.

"My name doesn't seem to ring a bell with you... Interesting. You are not from here, are you? Those clothes, the fact you don't speak a speck of Ardian... Are you by chance from the west? Or south?"

"Ardian..?" Foster asked, "I... Listen, man, you're right when you say I'm not from here, but I think at a different level than what you think. I'm from another world, at least I have a 'title' that says so."

The skeleton pressed his hands onto the table, leaning forward, "An 'Otherworlder'?"

"That's what the title says, at least..." Foster replied, and the skeleton slumped down onto his chair.

"How intriguing. Please... tell me your story. How did you get here?" Thiodrus asked, his excitement being clear as the question echoed through Foster's mind.

"I mean, it's not much of a story... As I said, I was working. I just reprimanded one of my coworkers because he messed up colossally... I sat down on a trash-container, and when I opened my eyes, I was up there on that mountain. I didn't know what was going on, and when I turned around, I saw that... weird thing. No idea what it was, but I was terrified... I fell down, nearly died, probably broke every bone in my body, and then those messages appeared." Foster explained, and Thiodrus interlocked his fingers with each other as he curiously listened.

Foster scratched his cheek as he continued, "There was this thing about me being a 'host' and the 'system' connecting to the 'Archaic Records'. But it couldn't, because I was about to die, so the system healed me. It was fucking painful, but it worked. Here I am, with just a few broken bones. I'll live... I hope." Foster explained, and Thiodrus still sat there. Foster was sure that if he could, this skeleton would be grinning broadly in excitement right now.

"The system intervened with your body directly? Interesting... How truly interesting! Please, may I have a look at your body? Your broken, and healed bones? Don't worry, I am quite adept at recovery magic, believe it or not. I will of course heal you in return." Thiodrus told Foster, although he was just sitting there a bit perplexed.

"Did... you just say magic?" He asked, although the moment he did ask, Foster realized something, "Of course you fucking said magic, you're an animated skeleton!"

"Well, technically I'm something more than just an animated skeleton, but yes, I am a being animated through magic, if that is what you meant. Was there no magic in your former world?" Curiously, Thiodrus stared at Foster, who simply shook his head, "No, not that I know of... I mean, the concept exists, but magic itself isn't actually real. It was kinda an umbrella-term for stuff we couldn't understand, and when we could understand it, it became... eh, other stuff."

"I see, I see! Interesting!" Thiodrus swiftly stood up from the table, "Now, Foster, please tell me more as I inspect your wounds. We don't want to waste any time, now do we?"

Foster felt shivers running all over his body from Thiodrus' weirdly penetrating stare, "Eh... S-Sure..." Foster replied, as he slowly took off his shirt. He could feel pain throughout his chest, and it was a bit tough to breathe, but it was fine. Mostly. Underneath the dried-up blood that was still covering his skin, dark blue and green bruises could be seen. His body looked like some kind of weird smudgy rainbow.

"Those seem like quite painful injuries. I'm surprised that I barely noticed anything in your expression." Thiodrus pointed out, and Foster just shrugged in response, "Eh, I've felt worse. Been stabbed a few times. A guy once shot me because my boss owed him money."

"Oh?" Thiodrus looked at Foster surprised, but he quickly shook his head, "Don't worry, he might have shot me, but now he's dead!" He laughed a bit. Usually, he wouldn't have joked about this, but his mind was way to calm in regards to anything he was thinking about.

"Ah, no! It wasn't me that killed him... he... he had cancer. That's why he needed the money back... to pay for medical bills..? It's actually a pretty sad story..." Foster replied with a wry smile, while Thiodrus simply chose to ignore Foster's rambling for now.

"I will begin with your treatment now, if you don't mind." Thiodrus said, and Foster quickly nodded his head, "Oh, yeah, please...."