When Henryk regained consciousness from sleep, it took him a long time to gather himself to open his eyes.
When he finally broke down and opened his eyes, he realized he'd been lying on soft, thick grass the entire time. He looked around, but saw nothing but the grass, which was almost too green, and the coniferous forest to the north, half a kilometer away.
"What the hell happened?" he said aloud.
The boy tried to remember how he'd gotten to this point, but the last thing he remembered was the bus driver's broad smile and a huge burst of light. After that, he realized he must have lost consciousness. But how had he gotten here?
When he regained some composure, he noticed that his backpack was lying on his bare knees because he was wearing short black shorts.
Henryk quickly looked into it so quickly that his zipper almost got stuck.
,,I guess nothing's missing."
The only things in the backpack were: a few notebooks, an English book, a half-eaten pack of gum, a pencil case, chips and ice tea from Frog, and his phone.
Zielczyk was happy to hear that nothing was missing from his backpack.
But he quickly remembered the situation he was in.
"Great, what am I supposed to do now?" he said quietly to himself.
After a moment of thought, he went in the opposite direction from the coniferous forest.
On the way he tried to call someone: the police, his father or his sister, but there were zero bars on the screen.
"Of course, there's never a signal when you need it!" He shouted, irritated by his bad luck.
The sky was cloudless, and the sun was as warm as if it were the middle of summer. Henryk didn't take long to pull himself together, quickly taking off his black hoodie and tucking it under his arm. He was pleased that it was enough, and he didn't have to take off his green short-sleeved T-shirt to avoid the heat.
The boy walked ahead for another half an hour when he finally found a field of potatoes, and in the middle of it he saw two farmers collecting potatoes into bags.
Henryk shot up like lightning, almost tripping over his own feet. He shouted to them as loudly as he could. The farmers quickly turned to face him.
When he reached them he had no idea what to say.
,,Because, this..." Henryk stammered, wondering what to say next. What was he supposed to say? That someone must have kidnapped him and left him in the middle of a field.
,,Got something going on, kid?" asked the first farmer, not letting Henry finish.
They both looked literally identical, with gray beards, hats on their probably bald heads, and they wore the same blue suspenders.
,,Because I wanted to know..." The still confused boy began. "Where am I anyway?"
Only now did Henryk realize he'd gone to those farmers a bit too quickly. What if they were working with the person who brought him here? He cursed his recklessness.
The farmers, hearing the boy's question, looked at each other with a rather serious expression on their faces.
,,Are you out of this country that you ask so stupidly, kid?"
The boy denied, nodding sideways because he claimed that he was still in Poland because the farmer spoke to him liquid Polish.
,,I wanted to ask what town we are in?"
The farmers looked at each other seriously again, and then what the second of the farmers said Henryk made the words run out later.
,,We are in Aivir, boy."
Henryk was not on the tongue, but only one managed to say one.
,,That where are we?"
The first farmer frowned as if these words offended him.
"You want to say, kid ..." - he began to change the tone of speech to the lower one. "That you haven't heard of Aivir? One of the villages belonging to the Kingdom of Tharomund? Alfred Alanson kingdom?"
The boy did not know what this farmer was talking about. Kingdom, king? Henry, admittedly, was never the best of geography, but he still thought that he knew all the towns and voivodships of his own country. Without thinking about it, the boy, despite his surprise, nodded his head, letting them understand that he had not heard of any village of Aivir.
The second farmer approached the first and began to whisper something in his ear, and his beard rubbed against the neck of the first farmer. It lasted over a minute, but finally they finished, and when it happened, the farmers literally made a gesture with a hand meaning that the boy would follow them.
"Nice synchronization". Henryk thought following them.
They walked over a whipped hour, when in the distance the boy saw wooden houses animals like cows and chickens around these houses, something started not to play here.
"What is this supposed to be?" Henryk thought, "What is this native from the Middle Ages?"
A calm, idyllic landscape stretched around the village. There were no electric poles or street lanterns. There could not even be a power plant nearby.
"We are almost here." He said the first of the farmers, pulling Henry out of the idea. "I would like to introduce you to someone."
"Who?" He asked Henryk without hiding the surprise on his face. None of the farmers replied that he did not tell him to follow them. Henryk, having no other choice, followed them.
They were in the middle of the village. It wasn't very teeming with life there. Sometimes Henryk saw a man in a window without glass. But a few steps away he saw the carriage with black horses, and the front stall as on some market.
,,I INVITE. I invite the honorable tourist!" He shouted the male voice behind the stall.
He was a little man with Henryk with chestnut hair, wrapped in a short pony: according to Henryk, such a hairstyle does not match the man too much, but nevertheless she did not look particularly bad on him. The man looked for a boy for about 40 years.
"Maybe you would like to buy things not out of this world?!" He shouted towards the boy.
"Not from this world?" Henry said questioningly approaching the stall.
"Exactly, expensive tourist! I literally sell things out of this world! "
"Oh, what do you have there?"
The man with a pony smiled broadly and took a wooden chest from a medium -sized stand. What he took out of her literally took Henryk's voice.
"Here is a road tourist vase made of a strange material that can bend."
In fact, it wasn't even a vase. It was only a plastic packaging after cleaning glass with water inside. The boy fell even more when the seller put artificial roses inside.
"What are you trying to push me here?" The boy asked with a malicious smile.
"What do you mean?" The seller asked, raising his eyebrows in consternation, extinguishing his current smile.
"Well, let's start with the fact that it is not even a vase and it is to be too absurd that these things are out of this world."
The man made a face of embarrassed. He looked at the alleged vase for a few moments, and then his eyes landed on the boy with a question.
"That, what?"
Henryk literally fell down. He couldn't believe that someone did not know what the glass was. Henryk wanted to explain, but one of the farmers finally interrupted.
"What did you sell this time to the count?"
The seller reluctantly looked away from Henryk. It was obvious that he was interested.
,, Aaaaa. Something I sold not expensive enough. "He said with a stupid smile without repelling." Well, but it's hard."
,,I see. Unfortunately, I have to apologize to you, but I have to lead this young man to the count."
"Oh, please, say hello to me."
Farmer with a nodded head that he would do it and he told Henry that you had to go further.
Henryk has just noticed now that the second farmer would disappear somewhere. When he asked where the second, unfortunately, the farmer ignored the question. He continued to lead him through the village when finally Henry had finally noticed a house other than the others. It was a birch wood house, which was twice as large as other houses around.
"Wow, but a nice cottage." He commented on the boy admiring the house. He could only dream about such a house. His own home was at least four times smaller than before.
"Likes?" Asked the farmer as proudly as if this house belonged to him. "Before you is the house of Count Korin."
Henryk itself felt some discomfort. County? He had no idea what was happening around him, but he had a strange impression not to enter this house. But unfortunately he ignored the premonition and together with the farmer they went towards the front door.
"Everything will be okay ..." he said so that the man next to him would not hear him not to go to the paranoic with him. "Is there right?"