ABDUCTED: HOW THEY MET (bwwm)(completed)(EDITING)

CHAPTER 27 * My new Xeris *

"I can walk," I mumbled not really looking at him.

"Oh? How can you walk with a broken leg?" I could feel his eyes on my face.

"Broken leg?" I asked looking at me feet.

I gasped. "When did that happen?"

"Have you already forgotten you fell down a tree? Did you not notice it this entire time?"

I hadn't noticed it at all. I was too busy staring at him. I looked again as we moved out of the medical bay and to the kitchen and noticed it was encased in some gel-like substance. This must have served as a cast.

He noticed me looking as he set me down on the stool. While I touched it and confirmed that it was gel-like in nature, I noticed some movement in it. Little lights would go off here and there and little things would move about too. "That is similar to what you Earthians call a cast. Except, instead of just keeping your bones in place while they heal on their own, it aids in the healing process. You will be as good as new in a couple of days."

"Wow, that's... amazing."

He got our food while I continued looking at what was happening inside. Then it hit me. These clothes weren't the ones I was wearing when I went to the greenery.

"Who changed my clothes?" I asked a little anxious.

"Bulba."

I released a sigh of relief. Upon hearing it, he turned to look at me, then went back to what he was doing.

We ate in a comfortable silence and then he took me to the sitting area. The atmosphere suddenly changed. It became more serious.

He kept his eyes on his clasped hands before him for a while and then looked up at me. "This is all my fault, he said as he looked me in the eyes."

"How is it your fault? I'm the one who strayed off the paths when you told me not to. I should have stayed on the paths, but my curiosity got the best of me. I wanted to learn something new. I'm sorry." I finished and looked down at my lap.

"Don't apologise. Let me finish and don't interrupt me," he said still looking at me. "You wouldn't have gotten into this predicament if it wasn't for my past mistakes," he sighed.

Past mistakes?

"I told you that I grew up in a......home where there weren't any kids around. After what happened with Nala, my caretaker, I didn't let anyone get close to me. I became the pri... son I thought everyone wanted me to be. I made sure not to do anything that would make me stray from the path I had set for myself. I immersed myself in my education and had time for little else."

He had this faraway look in his eyes, like he had gone back to the past.

"Being the youngest around, I didn't expect to ever meet anyone around my age. But I did. I was fourteen when I met her. Anigra. She was two years older than me. Her father was, is, one of the greatest minds on Thanzor and hails from one of the founding families. He often came around to discuss the mission with my parents and he brought her along each time," he paused for a bit.

Anigra? They have the strangest names.

"Naturally, I kept my distance from her. I didn't know how to talk to anyone my age, let alone girls. But she persistently followed me around. Her persistence annoyed me in the beginning because she interfered with my self-imposed schedule. But after seeing how mother took a liking to her, I decided to stop trying to avoid her. After actually talking to her, I realised that she was smart, and knew quite a lot of things that I did not. I preferred her teachings to the teachings of my teachers, but only because she provided a fresh perspective to everything she taught. She had a childish air about her, but somehow, that intrigued me. I hadn't really gotten the chance to act like the child I was because of the family I was born into and because I knew the consequences of it."