One More Day

The forest was deeper than what Aren expected, it was already more than one hour since he emerged from the ground and started to walk. 

Looking at the sun he still had around five hours before the dark, and he definitely needed to find shelter before that time. His body was also pretty tired but at the same time he was getting used to it. Based on his look and voice, he guessed that he regressed to a fourteen years old version of himself or at least physically since people from the House Valoria would age really slowly compared to others.

"Can you find anything around? Some clues about where we are, or where we should go?"

[NEGATIVE. My functionalities are limited by the hardware capacity of the SENTINEL. I can scan only inside a radius of ten meters.]

"Got it. We need to find water, and possibly some sort of trails or signs that someone passed here, it might lead us to other people", those were the tips that his father King Drake taught him in case of emergency, Aren personally never had the chance to use them but somehow this bittersweet memory was giving him some sort of strength.

"Do you know how long I was sleeping? Or why was I in that pod?"

[DATA LOST. Unfortunately all the information regarding the time spent in the pod was lost. But I can explain to Your Majesty the general functions of the pod.] 

"Well, it doesn't seem that we have many other topics to talk about while we try to survive", said while stopping to check if the trees had some sort of marks.

[I do not understand the statement. Please clarify.]

"It means 'yes'. Please explain the general functions of the pod."

A white light started to pulse softly on the SENTINEL, which Aren understood as if it was loading or searching for the information.

[The Pod Zero-One is an incubator, designed to nurture, enhance, and evolve its occupant beyond natural limitations. The occupant's health is monitored and all the needs are provided by the machine, keeping them alive but also protected from external bacterias.]

"Wait.. what do you mean by enhance, and evolve? I am clearly neither enhanced nor evolved. I cannot even use my emblem"

[The main function of the Pod Zero-One is indeed to enhance and evolve, but the process got interrupted by external intervention.]

"The earthquake! That piece of rock that almost got me killed, it probably forced the system to kick me out."

[CORRECT. The system ruled that the occupant's life would have been safer if ejected from the Pod.]

"So I guess that the Pod wouldn't have been able to feed me or keep me healthy with that big chunk of rock close to my chest. So now, I have to feed myself."

[CORRECT. But no worries, Your Majesty, VALORIA is here to support you and make sure that you stay safe.]

"Ok, but what about this to enhance and evolve? Did the system rejuvenate because of the earthquake? Who put me there?"

[DATA LOST.]

It feels like we are not going anywhere with this conversation.

Aren didn't want to spend more energy into this discussion. He kept walking and analysing the terrain to avoid falling into cracks but also to look for some kind of clue to orient himself.

"Bingo!", this time he found what he was looking for, in front of him there was a bunch of trees that were cut down. The cuts were clean, meaning that a tool was used, and the other hint was that the rest of the trunks were not around, meaning that they had been transported somewhere.

"Either someone lives here, or there is a path that can bring us somewhere with people".

He was looking for the largest space between trees, a possible path for someone to carry trunks without hitting anything. He started to walk and he was sure that he found the right way to read the path.

⁂

[FOOTPRINTS DETECTED], this time the system was showing him an arrow pointing to the ground. Those were adult male's footprints, he could deduce it from the size of the shoe. 

They seem pretty recent, which means that this place is not forgotten and that there might be people around. 

Aren started to follow the track while the system was showing the way, it took him another half an hour but they found a cabin in the woods. 

It was a pretty small structure made of wood, there was a door and windows with glasses, meaning that they could have a shelter for the night.

He noticed that the earthquake did not damage the house, but some trees around the area fell down. Looking around he could see that there were some tools laying around, mostly for woodcutting. 

"Is there anyone in the house?" 

[NEGATIVE. The area is inhabited.]

That said, Aren decided to have a look, and he wasn't surprised to find the door open. There was nothing valuable here that people would steal. It was a regular house, some chairs scattered on the floor, a small kitchen, a bed next to the fireplace, and an old rug on the floor. 

Judging by the size of the bed, the house was designed for one person only.

The kitchen was a little messy because of the earthquake but nothing really damaged.

He looked at the food and there were vegetables still fresh and some soup in a pot.

"Someone is still living here, the food has been prepared recently."

He grabbed the pot and took a spoon without even looking for a plate.

"I am sorry but it is an emergency" and so he started to eat, trying to not be that fast, and to take his time. There was also some fresh juice in a jar, which meant that the person here was possibly farming, considering also the vegetables.

He suddenly felt very tired, his new body consumed too much energy and his eyes were not used to being open for so long.

Damn, my body is still very weak. I will fall asleep in a moment. I need to lay down.

"I should be safe here for the night, VALORIA keep your system on alert. I am going to rest a little. Wake me up in case", he slowly grabbed a blanket and wrapped himself before going to bed. 

A part of him wished to wake up and be back to the palace, in his real adult body, but somehow he knew that this wasn't going to happen anytime soon.