17 Second Chance

When Izzy came to, her head was throbbing. She was lying in a bed, with a light breeze filtering in through the open windows.

Izzy clutched her head and then felt her heart quicken.

" My phone!" she looked frantically around from where she was and saw it lying near her bedside table. Izzy calmed down and climbed out of the bed and walked out of the room. When she opened the door, she saw Ruben and Theonymphi sitting at a table. Well, Ruben was sitting and Theonymphi was just fluttering about in the air.

" Hey," she said and they looked at her.

" You're awake" Ruben's voice was deeper than before and he looked more angelic in Izzy's eyes.

She frowned " Are you really Ruben?" she asked. Izzy could not accept that he had gone through such a change, he looked taller even just sitting in the chair and his face was simply too good-looking.

He smiled and Izzy nearly felt her soul fly away.

She stood there dazed while Theonymphi flew at her. " Ah it's amazing what you did to him," he said. He looked very excited.

Izzy shrugged and motioned to sit down. Ruben got up and offered her some warm tea.

" I just healed him" she stated but Ruben looked at her.

The 'just' was not how Ruben and Theonymphi felt. The two of them were very stunned by the transformation that occurred to Ruben.

After Izzy ' just' healed him.

She had managed to break the fallen curse that no person in the history of all of Thule, had managed to do.

She had even healed him to the extent where his powers were not only brought into the Ancient level, but he had jumped directly to level fifty.

That was an insane jump in power.

" Izzy, do you realise the gravity of what you did?" Ruben said sitting opposite her while she drank the tea.

Izzy was confused " Why? Was healing you wrong?" her defensive tone made Ruben shake his head.

" No. What you did was just so.... so amazing and I'm so thankful. You can't even grasp the level of thankfulness I have towards you. But what you've done is so unfathomable, you broke the fallen curse and made me become one of the youngest level fifty in the world."

Izzy, of course, didn't fully understand just how her powers had affected Ruben and Theonymphi's outlook.

Rather, she looked pleased.

She gave a cheeky smile " So I really am awesome, well we're awesome" Izzy said thinking of the system.

Ruben sighed he agreed that she was indeed awesome but still looked at her seriously.

" Izzy what I'm trying to say is that you cannot reveal this power to anyone".

Izzy and Ruben stared at each other. For a while.

" O-okay," she said caving in from the pressure she felt from him.

He then smiled again. She had agreed, he looked over at her carefree appearance and couldn't help but feel that she was very ignorant and innocent.

If he wasn't so indebted her and still with a conscious. Ruben would have done anything to get the power she had. He knew the types of people that she would attract if word of her extraordinary power got out.

So he decided to protect her.

Not only because he was thankful to her and had a slight grasp on her character, but because he knew of the dangers she could face or would face if she wasn't protected.

Under Ruben's powerful gaze Izzy gulped down her tea, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

" So where are we?" she asked, trying to fill the silence.

" We're in a safe place," Ruben said, " I used to hide out here before I got tracked down and left this place".

Izzy nodded. " S-so you were hunted?" she asked.

Ruben nodded the look on his face was slightly tense and Izzy felt like she shouldn't have asked.

" Yes. After I became cursed, I was hunted by; friends, family, mercenaries you name it".

Izzy thought back to Sven and the adventurers and felt sorry for Ruben. Being a Cursed One was a painful fate. You either died, became a test subject for the temple, were hunted or turned into a monster.

" Even your family?" Izzy asked she couldn't imagine what being hunted by your own family felt like.

Ruben gave a brittle smile " When they found out I was cursed I was immediately excommunicated. I-I lost everything. Everyone... even her". His voice became soft and Izzy reached out clasping his hands in her own.

" But you're free now. You can see them" she said.

Ruben shook his head sadly.

" I'm afraid it isn't that simple. No one would believe I've been cured they'd just send me to the temple to be dissected. Besides, I've been kicked out so there's no way for me to go back".

" But don't you miss them?"

" I do," he said, " But it's too painful".

From his words, Ruben gave off the feeling of being incredibly hurt by what happened to him. Izzy felt sorry for him and wanted to cheer him up.

" I understand. But now, you're free of the curse and best of all you can start living a new life!"

Ruben's blue eyes looked into Izzy's black eyes. Her eyes were full of life and untainted by the world.

He felt that maybe she was right and he could start a new life.

He looked down at her hands holding his. It had been a long time since someone even dared to touch him.

" Maybe, you're right"... he replied.