Ready for a new life...
Welcome to earth little space rock!
For the second time, Florance woke up somewhere unfamiliar.
He jerked upright with a gasp, his limbs tangling themselves in the sheets of the bed he was on as he flailed to free himself.
“Hey, hey Calm down! You’re okay!”
An unfamiliar voice suddenly said as the door to the bedroom swung open. Another kalon stepped inside, quickly coming to the bedside, her paws held out in a placating manner.
Florance froze mid twist, tired yellow eyes wide with fear as he made a small effort to scoot away from the unfamiliar person.
“W-who...H-ow w-w-here…”
He stammered, his voice raspy and quiet. He flinched as the kalon drew closer, paws still outstretched.
“You collapsed in front of my cabin this morning, remember? I think you may have passed out before I got you inside, but we’re in my house now. You’re safe here, I promise” The kalon said as she carefully leaned over the bed and pulled the sheets back, effectively untangling Florance.
Florance blinked a bit, slowly looking around the room as the kalon drew back. As his momentary streak of panic slowly receded he began to notice his surroundings. They were indeed in a cabin, and when he looked down he noticed that his paws and various other scrapes and scratches had been neatly bandaged. He looked back over at the blonde kalon, eyebrows still knit as he noted her soft smile and calm demeanor.
He looked back at his wrapped paws, the previous day’s events slowly coming back to him.
“Y-ou...helped me?”
He asked, looking back over to the kalon, watching as she nodded.
“Yes, how could I not?”
She asked with a little wave of her paw, as if to say it was no big deal.
“But! We can talk more about how you got here later. Right now, you need to eat something, You’re thin as a stick!”
She said, her tone cheerful, yet comfortingly quiet as she turned back to the open door and padded out into the rest of the house.
Florance stared after her, still in shock. He had not been expecting this. He hadn’t been expecting to wake up at all, yet here he was not only alive and kicking but being taken care of by a stranger? He gulped a bit, as uncertain and fearful as he was, there was an underlying part of him that wanted to trust this stranger. He couldn’t have said if it was his will to live, or the part of him that was simply desperate to have something constant to hold onto in this horribly unfair world.
“I hope you like eggs and ham, I don’t have much else at the moment.”
Florance flinched a bit, snapping out of this thoughts as the kalon returned bearing a tray of delicious smelling food, which she carefully set down on the bed next to him, along with a glass of water on the nightstand beside the bed.
For a moment, all Florance could do was stare, at the food then at the kalon.
“This is...for me? All of it?”
He asked quietly, terribly afraid of overstepping some unspoken expectation.
“Yes silly, I had breakfast earlier, Eat as much as you like, you look like you could use it!”
The kalon said with a smile, her tone just as soft and calm as before.
Florance took one last look at her, then slowly began nibbling on the food that had been set in front of him. He quickly became absorbed in the activity, suddenly aware of how ravenously hungry he was, and it wasn’t long before the tray was clean of food. At that point, he looked back to the kalon, who had been watching with amused golden eyes.
Without a word she caught his silent ‘I’m done’ and lifted the tray from the bed, carrying it off to what Florance could only assume was the kitchen.
“So, Let’s talk.”
She said as she returned and sat down on the end of the bed.
Florance nodded a tiny bit, hope flaring in his chest at the thought of getting some answers for the questions searing across his mind.
“Where did you come from? The village down the mountain?”
The kalon asked curiously, her golden eyes trained on him as if waiting for some non-verbal clue, which she seemed to get when her question was met with silence. Florance blinked sorrowfully, and stared down at his paws for a moment, his bright hair flopping in his face. He wouldn’t be able to answer any of her questions if he himself didn’t know the answers.
“Not much of a talker I guess, That’s alright. I’m going to assume you don't know how you got wherever you came from, is that right?”
She asked, a strain of compassion in her voice. She frowned as Florance nodded, still staring at his neon paw pads.
“I think I know why.”
She said lightly, and Florance sat up straight, his eyes wide, that flicker of hope growing to a roaring river as he leaned forward, almost falling over in his sudden excitement.
“Careful there, I don’t think I can give you the exact answers you’re looking for here.”
She said quickly, leaning over to steady him with one paw. He flinched away from the contact at first, then stopped himself, knowing his fear was irrational at this point, considering this kalon had been nothing but kind since he’d passed out in front of her house.
“It’s okay, I won’t hurt you! Really, I promised you you’re safe here, I intend to stand by that promise.”
She said, removing her paw from his shoulder as if to point out that she really meant no harm, and respected his space.
“I..I’m sorry I really d-don’t know where I came from, or h-how I got here...I woke up in a broken rock and there were so many people, I was terrified so I r-ran…”
He said, trying to recount the tale of the day before in one clear sentence, though he failed in the end and fell silent again, his eyes tearing up a bit at the disoriented fragments of memory.
“You have amnesia.”
The kalon said, certainty in her voice. She leaned toward him and picked up one of his paws, and guided it up to the side of his head, where his neon pads came in contact with more bandages.
“Your head was bleeding pretty badly when I found you outside, I think you can’t remember anything because of amnesia caused by blunt force trauma.”
She said, letting go of his paw as he pressed it to the bandaged spot, wincing a bit as a spike of pain shot through his head. He quickly returned his paw to his lap, blinking a bit to clear his momentarily wavy vision.
“W-what do I do about it? I don’t have a-anywhere to go, I don’t...k-know..”
Florance was growing distressed, amnesia? Was that fixable? How he not realized his head as gushing blood when he woke up the first time?
“Calm down, You’ll be okay, I can promise you that much. Sometimes amnesia goes away over time, and sometimes it doesn't. I really can't say which one it will be for you.”
The kalon began, honesty in her voice as she reached over and picked up his paw again.
“You don’t have to go anywhere, You are more than welcome to stay here, I was looking for a roommate anyway. We can figure this out together. What is your name?”
She finished calmly, still holding his paw. Florance looked up at her, wide yellow eyes tearing up again.
“I...I’m..F-florance Alexander”
He said uncertainly, the name felt right on his tongue but he couldn’t be sure. The kalon across from him only smiled and nodded a bit, as if to tell him not to worry.
“My name Is Shiloh taylor.”
Shiloh said, and lifted his hand into a handshake.
“Welcome To Earth Florance”
She finished with a smile.
Florance felt a tear drip down his face as he stare at Shiloh, a bubbling rushing feeling of cool calm relief pouring over his shoulders as he slowly shook her paw back.
“T-thank you..”
I’ll be okay now.
