Nightmare

Chapter 22

After Ferma threw my body into the cold river, this time my body was unable to recover as quickly as it usually did. Her repeated blows, which had shattered my bones and severed my head, had left a deeper mark than I had imagined.

This was no ordinary injury, but a brutal attack that drained my regenerative energy like never before. I felt as if every cell in my body was resisting recovery as if the dark forces coursing through my veins had dimmed and faded away.

The river carried me away from the dense forest surrounding the castle. The river water was cold, moving me along on a journey into the unknown.

The scenery rushed by, palm trees lining the banks, and then I began to feel a light breeze and see some buildings in the distance.

The castle gradually receded until it disappeared completely behind the winding hills. The further I went, the more helpless I felt...

As I moved away from the place, I entered a state of light hibernation. It was not complete death, but a state between life and death, where my consciousness was confused and I saw unclear scenes. In this stupor, strange images and scenes began to appear to me.

Memories of faces I had never seen before, incomprehensible whispers, and strange sensations of alternating warmth and cold. Perhaps these visions were glimpses of my past on Earth or in this world, but it seemed strange as if I were not myself.

Time passed, and I was headless, unconscious, but not completely dead. With each advance in the river, the pain slowly faded, replaced by a strange feeling of numbness.

I felt my cells trying to gather, to feel what was left of myself, but my regeneration was unnaturally slow.

I began to realize that my distance from Ferma's presence might be the reason my body was gradually regaining its strength.

Perhaps it was her mysterious power that was hindering my regeneration, and that leaving her sphere of influence was the key to my recovery.

...

...

It was like waking up from a long nightmare, as the features of the forest began to transform into vast green fields, and then into small houses scattered along the river, indicating the approach of inhabited areas.

The closer he got to civilization, the more his body began to regenerate. The severed parts of Ruthvien's body were slowly and painfully reconnecting, veins tearing and healing at the same time.

After an unknown amount of time spent floating in a coma, Ruthvien's consciousness began to return little by little.

He felt the cold water envelop his body and slowly regained his senses. After being carried by the current for several days, he opened his eyes to find himself floating on the surface of a wide river, surrounded by strange banks he had never seen before. The current had carried him far away from the castle and the familiar forest.

Ruthvien's body finally came to rest on a soft sandbank at a sharp bend in the river, where the sun was beginning to set, casting long shadows on the water.

He found himself in a completely new area, far from any signs of civilization. He looked pale, his wounds healing slowly, and birds hovered eagerly above him.

Ruthvien lay there, half-conscious, and began to remember what had happened.

...

"Where am I? The last thing I remember is Ferma and what I did. Did it work this time?"

I wondered as I struggled to open my eyes to examine my surroundings. Was this the promised hell? It looked more like a beautiful forest than a terrifying hell to me.

I tried to stand up, only to find myself quickly falling back to the ground. I looked down at my feet to see what looked like a small child's foot.

"What the hell is this!"

I screamed as I raised my hands to find them to be the hands of a small child, completely different from my own beautiful hands.

I crawled closer to the river to see what I looked like, and what I saw shocked me. My beautiful face was on the body of a small child, perhaps five years old or so.

"Did I die and come back to life in my worst nightmare, or what?"

I lay down on the ground and thought about what was happening. "Is this a nightmare? Is this real? Am I dead? Am I not dead?"

"Damn, it looks like Cleara was right."

I thought about what Cleara had said once:

"What if you cut your head off your body and put your body in one place and your head in another? Would your body regenerate or would you die?"

At the time, I shouted back at her:

"You idiot, my body would be reformed, it's a completely ineffective method."

At that time, I had tried cutting off my arms and legs to see what would happen. Would the severed arms regenerate to form a second body? Would my arms grow back on my body? Or would my arms return to my body on their own, like magnets attracted to each other?

What I noticed was that my arms grew back on my body, but they were small, and the severed arms remained where they were, without any reaction or response.

It seems that what happens after my head and body are severed from each other is similar to what happened after my arms were cut off. My body reforms and the head is the essential component for regeneration.

I thought carefully and patiently until I noticed something below my eyes that made me stop thinking from the shock.

"Where is he? Damn it, why are you so small, dear!"

I cursed when I noticed the disaster that had befallen him and put my hands on my forehead, but my small hands couldn't reach his forehead.

"What are these hands? Garbage, is that all you can do, Ferma? The next time I see you, I'll tear you to pieces to see if your head will regenerate or not!"

Memories of Ferma cutting off my head came back to my mind and my body shivered. The feeling of being caught between life and death seemed extremely disgusting.

"First, I need clothes. I need to cover my little body and find the nearest village to get information about where I am."

I thought as I scanned my surroundings for anything to cover my body with. My hope was to find my body so I could tear off the clothes I was wearing (again) and make a piece of cloth to cover this small body.

"There's no other solution, Hadi Badi Krumb Zabad Gali Bali Tali Malo Hali... From here, hoo hoo hoo."

When I couldn't find any clothes, I left it to my magic spell. I moved toward the forest and walked with difficulty between the trees, stumbling and dodging their trunks as they scratched my soft little body. It looked miserable if you looked at me from a distance. Imagine a child with a head disproportionate to his small body, walking naked and alone in the forest. It seems funny to you, right?

Suddenly, I noticed a slight wisp of smoke rising between the distant trees, and moments later I saw a small hut made of wood and mud in the middle of the green forest.

I moved forward until I reached the hut, and before sneaking in to steal a piece of clothing, I heard the rustling of leaves behind me. I turned slowly, my eyes wide, focused on the source of the sound. Out of the trees came an old, bearded man dressed in clothes made of animal skins and leaves. He carried a wooden club in one hand and a bundle of herbs in the other.

The bearded old man cried out:

"My God... What do I see?"

The bearded old man's eyes widened as he looked at me. The naked child with a large head. Expressions of bewilderment and shock were visible on his wrinkled face. The bundle of herbs fell from his trembling hands and he whispered:

"What... what is this strange creature?"

I looked at the old man with eyes filled with need and conflicting emotions. Before I could say anything, the bearded old man suddenly collapsed to the ground, unconscious, perhaps from the shock of what he had seen.

"Haha, am I really that scary?"

I laughed as I approached the old man whose soul I had caused to leave his body.