Young Writers Society

"Of course it's real," he said, returning the man's pointed look. It was a really odd thing for someone to say, even more so than them not knowing how to use it. Even he knew how to use it, and he hadn't actually used it before! He had just seen the people in the infirmary do it. "You're weird."

He went over to the guy with the chest injury. It took a few seconds to figure out how to turn the thing on, but it wasn't that hard after that - all he did was stand on his toes again, hold it above the injury and just concentrate really hard on getting the wound to heal. A gentle light left the device and started to cover the wound. A minute or two later, and the wound was healed.

He turned back to the really injured man. "Now do you know how to use it?" he asked. "'Cause I showed it to you, and it's not that hard."

Kratzer drops his head back, panting. "Verdammt," he grunts.

Hali lowered his head and sighed softly. He couldn't help, as expected. He stood back and shuffled a foot, looking everywhere but at his new companions.

"I am useless as a human," he muttered under his breath in his native tongue. His hand strayed up to his right ear and he touched his earring absentmindedly.

James let out a sigh of relief as the man's wound seemed to magically heal with the help of the healing device, or whatever it was called. However, James's mind was also drowning in confusion as to how such a thing could even exist. What was that thing? Was it magical? How did it work? Where did it come from? He hadn't seen it in the bin before. Did the boy just have it on him?

He didn't know, but as he moved slightly in his seat and the pain in his leg shot up, he took the device from the boy's hands. Both the blue haired man and the formally mortally wounded man muttered things in languages he could not understand, so he ignored them for the moment.

"Yes. Now I know how to use it," he said quietly, as he began to unwrap his leg that he'd just bandaged up. Once it was again uncovered, he mimicked what the boy had done to get the thing to work. As he held it over his wound, he simply hoped that the same magic that came out of it before would work on him. And to his great relief - it did.

It was taking longer than it had with the other guy. But it was working. And after a few short minutes, it was completely healed. He let out a sigh of relief, set the gadget on the table, and looked up to the boy. "Thank you." He still didn't know what exactly that was, but he wasn't interested in hearing an explanation. It was clear that him and the boy were from very different places.

Instead he turned to the other fellow who'd been healed of his injury.

"You alright now?" He asked.

The man sits up, his breathing a bit more even. He’s still pretty pale as would be expected after that much blood loss but he seems present at least.

“Ja,” he answers, glancing around for a rag to wipe off the blood. Conveniently there’s one on the small table next to him. “You?”

"Peachy," he said with a nod, deciding to get up from the chair and test his leg. Amazingly, it felt fine - as if the deep damage the axe had caused was completely undone.

After a brief awkward pause, he cleared his throat.

"Well," he turned to the blue haired man. "I'm sorry for barging into your home and raiding your cabinets, but now that none of us are in immediate need of care, I was wondering if I could ask you a question."

Hali blanched. He shook his head profusely. "H-house . . . not me."

James blinked. He wasn't expecting that answer. But it also seemed like this wasn't the man's first language - or he didn't speak it very fluently.

"Oh. So... how did you get in?"

After a bit of floundering, trying to figure out how to answer, Hali hurried to the door and pulled it open and shut it again a couple of times. He looked at the others meaningfully.

James watched, catching on as soon as he man did so and nodded. He understood. “So it was unlocked. Alright.”

“So...” he turned to the others. “None of you are from here? Or have been here before?”

He had been politely listening to the conversation, even though he was itching to explore the strange little house. He had almost started doing exactly that when he heard the question that the formerly injured man asked. He spun around to look at him.

He had to say things carefully. One wrong word and he would realize that he was the same guy all the guards were looking for. "I haven't been here before," he tentatively said, crossing his arms. He didn't mention not being from the area, mainly because he still didn't know how far here was from the city.

"Nein," is Kratzer's one-word answer with a shake of his head.

The conversation had stalled, and he had found more interesting things to look at. He kept finding new things in the nooks and crannies of the little cottage - one of the cool staffs some of the guards had, some toys similar to the ones he had seen kids playing with in the center of the city and even a tablet that was almost identical to his own. They definitely shouldn't have been there. He hadn't seen them when he first entered. He was just a little creeped out by it, but they were fun to mess around with!

But even those bored him after what was only a few minutes, and he turned his attention back to the three men in the cottage. He thought for a moment. Then he hurried on over to the man with the cool hair and came to a stop in front of him.

"What's a human?" he said. "Earlier you said you were 'useless as a human'."
He imitated the guy's voice when quoting him - if it hadn't come out of his mouth, it could have easily been mistaken for belonging to the man.

"But I've never heard of a human. Is that a thing you do? Like a doctor?" he continued on, oblivious to any reactions the other people might have had to his momentary change in voice. A gasp suddenly left his mouth. "Is a human a race from another planet? Did you come through the stargate? I've always wanted to go through it! I mean, I went through it last week but it was to go to a stuffy meeting and I hate meetings and I've never gotten to go through one on my own before."

Hali jumped when he heard his own voice coming out of the kid's mouth - speaking his own language. He stared at him. The only creatures Hali knew were capable of speaking practically any language were the mermaids, and this boy was obviously not a mermaid.

And other planets? What were stargates? But the real question was . . .

Hali cleared his throat to collect himself. "Aren't you a human? I--I mean, aren't we all humans?"