Chapter 3 Awoken At The Inn

With the slave seal now in place on the creature's back, it lay resting in a bed upstairs in an inn room, with Lily by his side in a chair. The room was rather cliché, it had a bed in the corner with a window right beside it and a small dresser against the same wall as the bed, the window had a curtain that wasn't too shabby, it was red and covered the window completely not letting in even an ounce of sunlight in. Apart from the dozens of toys, clothes, and even some open books that cluttered the floor the room was pretty much average in every possible way, though, the room seemed as if it had a different atmosphere than what it usually had, especially with the creature breathing heavily while bandaged up in bed. The creature had been laying in that bed for quite a while now, and Lily, the girl sitting there beside him has been waiting by his side just as long, though she isn't awake right now she has done her best to watch over him and even spent the first few days going without any sleep. The only reason she's currently asleep now is because her body finally reached a certain point of exhaustion, that and the creature's condition has finally stabilized somewhat, though his condition is still far from being great. Though Lily was asleep, Thomas finally opened his and shot up from where he was laying, breathing even heavier than before. Now that he was awake, he stared at Lily for a short while and then glanced around the messy room. Thomas then glanced down at himself to see that some bandages were wrapped over his wounds, although there was quite a bit of blood on the bandages, he didn't seem to mind in the slightest.

After observing his surroundings and injuries, he stood up from the bed and began to observe the books lying around the room. Although he couldn't read and didn't understand much, it did seem to understand that the books held some value to him compared to everything else in the room. The creature picked one of the books up and began to attempt to understand it. Although it couldn't make any sense of the words, he knew they meant something because he kept seeing the same symbols written together but differently again and again, and the pictures in the book changed on every page. After flipping through the book he came across a picture of a girl cleaning a room, after staring at the page for a moment the creature set the book aside and began to fold clothes like the book instructed, and set the books on the dresser in a small pile, and as for the toys he set those neatly on top of the dresser as well. After doing this, he turned his attention back to Lily, who was still asleep in the chair. Thomas stared at her for a bit but seemed a bit afraid when her head fell slightly to the side, causing her to wake up. Once Lily was awake, she stared at the bed still not realizing what was going on but then soon realizing that Thomas had moved from the bed. Lily seemed incredibly worried once she noticed and quickly stood up to head towards the door, but just before she could start moving to the door, she realized that Thomas was standing beside her shaking out of fear in her now clean room. Lily stared at him for a moment, shocked as she said, "You're finally awake!" Although Lily seemed excited to finally see him move after such a long time, it seemed as though Thomas was afraid of this girl who was slightly smaller than him. As the two stood there, Lily said, "The slave trader said you couldn't talk or understand anyone… is that true?"

The creature stared at her for another short while before calming down and realizing that she meant him no harm; however, the creature looked as though it didn't want her to approach him. Lily thought for a short while and then said, "I guess you can't understand me… but maybe I'll be able to teach you." Lily quickly grabbed onto his arm and pulled him to the chair as she said, "I'm sure it won't be too difficult, I even have some books to teach you." Lily pushed him down into the chair she was sleeping in and then grabbed a book as she said, "I learned how to read a while ago so the books I have may not be good for you but a few of them are picture books, so I'm sure I'll be able to teach you." After grabbing the books that Thomas piled up, she sat down on the bed and then set them beside herself. Lily grabbed the book Thomas had a moment ago and pointed to the title as she said, "This is the book's title, it usually tells you something about the book, although this one just says Little Jill's Journey, it's a book that starts off as her doing chores but pretty soon it becomes an adventure because her father is kidnapped while she's cleaning!" Lily stared at Thomas excitedly as she said, "You probably don't understand any of this right now, but we'll work on it." Lily thought for a moment and then said, "Let's see… maybe we can try something different." After thinking for a short while, Lily excitedly said, "I know, let's have you say my name." Thomas continued to stare at her with a look of confusion as she pointed to her mouth and said, "Just repeat after me and watch my mouth movements." Lily seemed excited to hear him speak as she said, "Now then, say Lily, it's easy, just try it, I'll say it one more time so watch closely, Lily." As she said, this, Thomas watched her mouth closely and then pointed at his own mouth as he repeated the exact words she said.

Lily stared at him in shock as she said, "T-that's right, but can you just say my name?" Thomas stared at her and watched her mouth once more as she said, "Just my name this time, Lily." Thomas stared at her for a moment or two and then said, "Lily." As he said this, she seemed really excited and stood up grabbing his hands, startling him as she shouted "That's right you did it! You were able to say my name properly!" Lily continued to hold his hands as Jason busted into the room shouting, "What's going! You're not hurt, are you?" Lily stared at them for a moment and then said, "Oh, … you were just excited because he finally woke up after all this time." Lily stared at Jason for a moment and then turned her attention back to Thomas as she excitedly said, "Now try to say his name, come on say, Jason!" Thomas glanced at the man for a moment and then said, "Jason." Lily quickly glanced at Jason excitedly as if she was waiting to see him act all excited towards what he had said but instead, Jason said, "So… you're teaching it how to talk?" Lily nodded excitedly as she said, "Yeah, he woke up a few minutes ago, so he must be a quick learner." Jason stood there for a moment and then said, "I may not speak it fluently, but I may be able to say a few things in demi-human." Lily stared at him with even more excitement than before, and then said, "Really? So, I'll be able to understand him a bit." Jason nodded as he said, "Well… hopefully… I'm not exactly familiar with the language, so it may not be too accurate." Jason cleared his throat and then began to speak in a language that neither Lily nor Thomas could understand, and then waited for a response. Thomas stared at him intently and then completely ignored him, turning his attention back to Lily. Jason flinched as he asked, "Was it something I said?" Lily glanced at Thomas and then set the book down beside herself back onto the pile as she said, "Maybe he doesn't understand that either."

Jason stared at Thomas as he said, "Well, … he won't be of much use if he can't understand us." Thomas grabbed another book from the bottom of the pile and held it as he said "Lily… and… Jason." Jason stared at him for a moment and said, "At least he seems eager to learn." Lily stared at the book he was holding and then said, "Yeah… but it might take a while." Jason stared at him for a moment and then said, "For the time being let's just have breakfast, and then after that, I'll bring some paper and an ink pen up, we'll start by teaching him the alphabet, once he remembers that we'll teach him using the books you have here." Lily seemed incredibly excited about this as she said, "I wanna help teach him how to write!" Jason nodded as he said, "Of course, he is technically your responsibility after all." After hearing this, Lily hopped off her bed and dashed out the door as she shouted, "Then I'll wait downstairs for you!" Once Lily was gone, Jason glanced at Thomas and said, "Come on, you gotta come downstairs too." Jason stood there for a moment and then sighed as he said, "Right… you can't understand me." After saying this, Jason walked over and grabbed Thomas's hand, causing him to become startled. Jason began to pull him slightly as he said, "Come on, follow me downstairs." Thomas stared at Jason with a fearful expression and then tried to pull away from Jason. Jason stood there holding his hand as he said, "I'm not gonna harm you, you don't have to worry, I'm nothing like those people at the slave shop." Thomas stared at him intently for a short while and then realized that he was far weaker than him, and to ensure that Jason wouldn't get angry at him, Thomas stood up and followed him while being led by the hand. As Jason led Thomas downstairs, he muttered, "The slave merchant did say he would be weak… but who would've guessed that he wouldn't even be able to pull away from me… maybe after we teach him how to speak, we'll get someone staying at the inn to teach him how to fight."