Chapter 2 - Mahogany... A fine building material.

James awoke with a headache that screamed at him with the force of a middle school choir, and with as much tact as one as well. he had no idea on where the hell he was or why he was even still able to breathe. The last thing he remembered is putting himself in a situation where the pills alone should have ended him, let alone the fall he took. He reasoned that it's not often that someone falls off a 5 story building onto asphalt and survives, but yet here he was.

Swinging his legs to the side of the bed he was on, James noticed something. To his side he found an ornate bottle with a "drink me" label on it just within arms reach. Shrugging, he popped the topper on it and made a toast to whatever silent god decided to spare him before downing the thing. thankfully it went down quite smoothly compared to some of the other drinks that he had tried in the past, and as a bonus, it tasted like a mixture of banana, strawberry, and guava. After drinking that, he began to feel the pain start to finally fade away.

With a sigh, he finally looked around the room that he awoke in, and noticed that it had cobblestone flooring and walls, though they did have paintings hung on them of various scenes and fields. the cobblestone flooring looked worn with some history, while the door on the far end was a sturdy wood like mahogany, a fine building material. There seemed to be a dresser in the far corner as well, along with a padded chair next to the table that set next to the bed. A cabinet also stood along the opposite wall to the dresser next to two paintings hung up on either side of it.

James shook his head and finally stood up, and realized that he no longer had clothes on. the surprise only lasted for a moment before he shrugged it off, and decided to raid the dresser in the corner for something to at least use as pants, reasoning that if they had him in here, the items in the room must be available for him to use at his own discretion. the dresser was full of various clothing of differing sizes, and it took him a good while, but he eventually found a full set of clothes that actually fit. The only thing he regretted is the boxers that he found, as he was more of a briefs man, and was missing the support that those offer. He did find some shoes below the dresser, but unfortunately those were too small for his feet.

After finally finishing dressing as much as he could, James stepped away from the dresser and looked down at himself, realizing that the clothes that he found did not fit him well, and made him look like a beggar. The pants were way too baggy, as he had to put on a larger size due to his long legs, and the shirt was a bit tight due to the others fitting like a dress. Sighing, he made his way to the door and tried the handle on it.

Locked.

James sighed and went to look at the cabinet to see if he could get anything to eat, because he was beginning to feel a few hunger pangs. He opened the door and found a small plate of dried jerky, which he immediately began to chew on. Needless to say, as soon as he had the jerky in his mouth halfway, the door's lock began to jiggle and click as if a key was being inserted into the hole. Hearing this, James immediately closed the cabinet door and began stuffing the Jerky into his gullet as fast as humanly possible as he stumbled over to the bed to sit.

James managed to swallow as the door opened up to reveal a small girl in a white robe walk in, talking to someone behind her, the conversation finally coming through the door after it opened. "...at you're apprehensive considering his condition when he came thorough, but he has shown signs of getting bett..." she paused noticing that James was staring at them with interest.

"Do go on" James said with a smirk, "It looked like the conversation was just geting good."

The robed girl clapped with what James could only describe as actual sparkles in her eyes, and ran up to him with excitement.

"Are you feeling better?" She asked, grabbing his hands in hers, and sliding the chair over for her to sit down on, " You have been asleep for about three days now."

Three days? Thought James, confused. 'I put enough pills in me to knock out a family of gorillas, and it only lasts for three days?' He was starting to think that he might be part cockroach at this point considering what hasn't killed him at this point. Shaking his head to clear the thoughts, he looked at the girl and decided to ask a few questions.

"I do feel better, but where am I?" asked James.

The girl smiled and waved in the person in the doorway, which looked just like a knight, considering the armor and sword. The only thing out of place is the tray in his hands that had a vase with a flower in it, and another bottle like the one he drank at his awakening. The girl stood up and grabbed the bottle on the tray and placed it into James' hands.

"Drink this" she said, "It should help a bit more now that you're actually able to drink it."

James was still taken aback by his situation. The girl was staring at him and he could swear that he was hallucinating due to the sparkles that he was seeing in front of her eyes. James looked at the bottle, before grabbing the one that was on his side table and shaking in slightly in front of her while saying, "I don't know if this medicine has any limits on drinking, but I've just drank one of these a few minutes ago."

he let her take the bottle from his hands and pushed the full one into the hand that held the bottle previously and told him to drink it. James shrugged and downed the bottle and had that strawberry-banana-guava flavor wash the jerky flavor down his throat. after finishing it, the let out a breath of relief at his now cleared up head, as now he was clear-headed when compared to previously where his head was still a bit muddled with thoughts.

"So, I obviously have many questions about the situation right now, and from the look on his face, I'm sure you have some for me too." said James, gesturing to the man standing guard on the far end of the room. Hearing this, the guardsman raised an eyebrow, and the girl giggled at his joke.

"That we do, but are you feeling better?" said the woman, she started with a smirk, but then her face was tinged with both guilt and worry and said, "It's been a week since you were brought here, but you haven't woken up once since. We were worried for you, as we weren't expecting you to be wounded like that."

James just smiled softly at her before patting her head and standing up.

"Don't worry about that." he said with a cheeky grin "I'm right as rain thanks to whatever was in those glass bottles, and a bit of food from the cupboard over there."

Although the girl jumped at getting patted on the head, she smiled when she heard that he was doing alright. James walked over to the guard next to the door, and offered his hand to him before saying, "I don't think I've formally introduced myself. My name is James."

The guardsman looked at the hand offered for a moment, before grabbing it firmly and saying with a gruff voice, "Henry, vice captain of the knight squad."

They shook their hands before releasing with a nod to one another. He then turned to the girl and asked, "And what about you? What is your name?"

"Elise" She said with a grin, the sparkles somehow returning to her eyes.

James nodded and gestured to the door before asking, "So, how about we start moving. I don't know about you two, but I'm still a little bit peckish after my week of sleeping and could definitely use something to eat. We can always talk on the way."

With that, Henry and Elise nodded and the trio walked out of the room.