Nicolas hears some rustling in the bushes and hears a young feminine voice shouting out "Lionel! Lionel! Where are you?"
The girl comes out from the bushes and sees Nicolas, the girl with her pink hair runs over to him, she jumps on him while crying
"Lionel, I finally found you, you are safe now"
Nicolas is lost for words. 'Lionel?'
The girl squeezes him tightly as she brushes her cheek on his lean body.
"Finally I found you.. we were all worried about you, Lionel we were all worried"
Nicolas's mind is still unraveled, he doesn't know what to focus his mind on his. Who is Lionel? Who are the we?, Nicolas struggles but finds a way to push the teary-eyed pink-haired girl off him
"Sorry, my head is fuzzy… who are you?"
The girl blinks, her expression arrested in surprise, the girl finds it hard to come up with the words to say
"Huh? Lionel did something bad happen to you?"
"I believe so… I just woke up and the back of my head had blood on it, so I cleaned it in that lake, the last thing I remember is looking up at the sky before waking up"
Immediately the girl begins to cry, Nicolas doesn't know how to react in this situation his body wants to move but his mind tells him to stay put and observe the situation
"Those terrible boys actually did something to you, my name…. My name is Isabella" she says
Nicolas' eyes widened and thoughts ran across his mind "Ah, i see now, this body that i occupy now had a whole life for himself, friends, family but none of them know he is dead and i took over… Lionel whoever you were, i am so sorry for what happened to you, i have to know your life and what led to your death and it seems Isabella is the key"
Nicolas walks close to Isabella and puts her sobbing face on his chest
"You can stop crying, i am here now and i
am alright"
The weather goes cold with the cool breeze of the coming night blows through them, Isabella body shivers while Lionel's body can't handle this cold as he falls to the ground coughing hardly
Isabella quickly brings him up and takes him out of the forest. As they leave, Lionel looks around and he doesn't recognize any of this from his past life
"Where are we going?"
"Your memory hasn't come back yet? We are going to a safe place Leo… we are going home"
Minutes pass and they are in front of the gate of a beautiful village with its bright candle light shining over it, the village of "Fiora". Lionel's body is surprisingly warm and relaxed as he steps into the village, he walks the streets of the village with Isabella.
He sees children playing with each other, adults having conversations and a cheerful light mood is shining throughout the village, Lionel is taken aback with the state of the human world
'What is going on? I thought the world was supposed to be in ruin, or at best small remains of stability… but everyone here is cheerful'
He gently whispers in the ear of Isabella "I don't remember much but i do know that the hero failed and the evil spirits took over the world"
Isabella gaze shockingly turns cold,she utters "Yes the failed hero almost brought an end to our world from the stories they told us as kids, but by the grace of the rebel faction that rose up in the face of ruin saved us but not completely. Most parts of the world are under the evil spirits control but few like this place are not, luckily for us we are far away from the sight of the evil spirits"
Lionel looks up, releasing a huge sigh "Thank goodness for the rebels right?"
Isabella grabs his hand "Come, let's go home fast, your parents must still be worried"
'Parents?'
As Isabella drags him as they run home fast, they appear outside a big brown inn called "Anderson's"
"Quickly let's go inside"
"Where is this" Lionel says
"Don't tell me you don't know where this is? It's home" Isabella says with a bright smile across her face
As she opens the door, she pulls Lionel in with her. Lionel comes in stepping onto its squeaky wooden floor, he notices the calm atmosphere of people eating, drinking and relaxing in their chairs waiting for time to pass
Lionel looks straight at a blonde woman taking someone's order, the woman's eyes locks into his own and immediately she runs into the kitchen
"What was that about"
"Just wait and see" Isabella says with a cheeky smile
Not even a second later, a man and his wife run towards Lionel carrying him up showering him with warm embraces. Tears flow out of the eyes of the couple
"Our boy is alive, he survived those terrible hooligans" the husband said
"I wish we were around to stop them" said the wife
Lionel being held tightly by this two makes him weak and hard for him to put out words "P-p-please c-can y-you p-put m-m-me d-down"
They quickly put him down and brush him off
"Lionel we are so sorry for not being here when you were in danger, we promise next time we will never let that happen again" the wife said
Lionel chuckles slightly as he brings up the courage to say this"You two are my mother and father right?"
The couple are surprised by what he said, they turn to themselves not knowing what to do or say
Isabella clears up the confusion "Sadly his head was bashed in and his memory is all fuzzy"
The mother falls on her knees unable to control her tears, she blames herself for what happened to her son, the husband gets on one knee to console her
"Isabella please take him to his room, his mother has just had a bad day"
Isabella grabs his hands and takes Lionel to his room. She drops him there, while assuring him she will be back to chat with him on more things he might have forgotten.
She closes the door on her way out, Lionel looks around the neatly kept room, he stares at the book shelf, he goes to pick out some books there and sees the interest of the former soul inhibiting this body.
The books are based on world history, tales of adventure and picture fantasy. He looks at the half cracked mirror, he removes his shirt and takes a proper look at his new self.
"Hmph what a sight, this body is so lean, roughed up and doesn't have what I need to achieve anything….. I have a lot of work to do"
He lies down on his bed and stares at the ceiling for a few minutes when he remembers his companion spirit 'Lena'. As he is about to call her out, he hears loud commotion in the dining hall.
He comes out to know what is going on. Lionel sees three huge men, the one making the loud noises among them was a man with a scar on his right cheek
"Where is your weak coward of a boy hiding"
"Don't you dare speak of my son in that way" the father said
The scarred face man steps up to him "We told you people what we wanted and you failed to deliver and we showed you the consequences. Sadly our boys failed in properly handling him, but luckily someone caught a glimpse of him coming in here, so just bring him out right now or face full punishment"
"Over our dead bodies" the mother said
"Well if you say so, then i shall-"
"STOP!" Lionel screams as he confidently comes out
The scarred face man chuckles "Oh won't you look at that, the boy is coming out on his own, and may i say he is walking differently"
As Lionel approaches him, he stares at him like a hunter looking down on his food, Lionel says to himself 'I may have been many things in my past but one thing i wasn't was a coward'
"Hey scar face, feel this"
Lionel clenches his right fist tightly and delivers a punch to his liver
The whole room goes silent