Prism and the old man

[Damira]

It is during one of my daily walks that I met him. I had just finished serving the holy ceremony with Thanigin the priest, and I was heading to Luna to run some errand. It was a beautiful days, so I decided to take the longest path to the city. The gems in the crystal forest were reflecting the rays of the sun, giving the trees and soil multiple colors, as usual. But someone not accustomed to it can be blinded for some time, so it was not unusual to meet people that were lost in that area.
But the man was more than just lost. He was lying on the ground not moving, so I ran to him, just in case he was still alive. And he was, although breathing very slowly. Perhaps I arrived just in time. He was badly injured. The scars, and the tears all over his dirty clothes were telling me he had a hard fight, probably against crystal elementals. I used the most healing spells I could, to prevent his wounds from bleeding more, and started carrying him to the church. The city was still too far, and even though I knew Thanigin wouldn’t like to have a human in his home, he wouldn’t be mad at me for trying to help someone in danger.
The man was light on my shoulders, obviously due to the fact that he hadn’t eat for a long time. He was also very old, and it was a miracle he was still alive. So I took him to the church, and put him into a bed, and left him to rest, since his life wasn’t at stake anymore.

It took the old man weeks to recover, and during all that time, he hadn’t said a single word. I also noticed he was blind. What could a blind, old man, could have been doing all alone in the crystal forest? I waited patiently for him to be strong enough to talk again, and, hopefully, answer to all my questions.

Thanigin the priest helped me take care of the man, while he was recovering from his wounds, but I knew he would ask him to leave as soon as he would be ready. The last humans to come here to the church came for the riches that were held here, and tried to pillage everything. I wasn’t born yet, so I only heard of what happened, but even so, I knew there was no way to convince the elven priest to give shelter to the human, when he would be able to walk and talk on his own.

But the gods wanted it to be another way, probably as a challenge to Thanigin, as we discovered that the old human was totally amnesiac. He didn’t even know how to speak anymore. There was no way someone like the blessed leader of the Light church would leave him helpless out of here. So I inherited the task to educate the man again, to teach him all I could, so he could be able one day to live by himself once again. It was ironic, and strangely flattering, that I, a young leonal felinus, was given the task to teach a man probably three times older than me.

But I would never have thought of refusing. All began then.