Flood of knowledge

'I'm made of wood.' Kelan didn't know whether to laugh or cry, 'this has to be a dream right? I'm at the hospital in a coma and this is something my imagination created for me.' He was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed the old man was now standing next to him trying to get his attention.

"<Hello? Can you hear me?>" The old man said. (AN: <> indicates unknown language). Kelan soon realized the old man was standing next to him but he couldn't understand what he was saying, he slowly turned his head to look at the man. "<Ah, good. Do you know who you were? Could you start by telling me your name?>" The old man looked at Kelan expecting an answer, unfortunately his questions fell deaf ears. Kelan tilted his head to the side utterly confused by this man's language, it was unlike anything he had ever heard before. Noticing his lack of response the old man sighed in exasperation, "<Great,>" he said, "<Another failure.>" He began walking towards the stairs disappointedly shaking his head, when he suddenly felt a tug at his wrist.

Kelan couldn't understand the man but the memory of the car crash was still fresh in his mind, he was still scared out of his wits and confused as all get out. He didn't want to be left alone in a strange place. He tried to tell the man he couldn't understand him, but soon realized he couldn't speak.

Kelan slowly brought one of his wooden hands up to his face and found that he had no mouth! 'How am I supposed to communicate without a mouth!' He thought.

The old man had a confused look on his face, Kelan began to panic and tried to think of something. The gears in his head started turning and he realized, 'I can used charades!'

He pointed at the man with his wooden pointer finger, then made an opening and closing gesture like a crab claw, he then pointed at himself and shrugged. 'Please, please, PLEASE be enough to get the message across.' He thought as he started to pray to any higher power willing to listen.

Fate was on his side as the old man had realized what the gesture meant. He began twirling his fingers in the air speaking that gibberish again, then in a flash of light he disappeared.

Kelan was dumbfounded. 'I thought I was expressive enough, maybe not.' Upset that his plan had failed he slumped forward slightly, he looked down and found he was sitting on what appeared to be and alter of some kind. It was completely black with glossy shine, similar to obsidian but distinctly different. He also noticed that surrounding the alter were runic symbols, they were evenly spaced in a 6 foot radius around the alter.

In another flash of light the old man was back time holding a small blue crystal that was double terminated, no larger than his index finger. With an almost excited expression the man approached Kelan then proceeded to make him lay flat on his back on the black alter. The old man placed his hand on Kelan's chest and slightly pushed down making an audible click, like a hidden door his chest swung open and reveal a strange contraption made of glass, tubes, and metal. Upon closer inspection Kelan noticed a fist sized glass orb that had ghostly blue, almost ethereal, glow.

The old man gently opened a small panel on the device that revealed six empty slots that could fit crystals of the same size, and placed the crystal in his hand in one of the slots, then proceeded to close the panel again. As soon as that happened Kelan felt like someone had stuck a rod through his brain as new information flooded into his psyche. The strange words the old man said to him before became clear, then strange symbols and squiggles entered next and soon they turned into a coherent alphabet and then words and phrases.

While this was happening Kelan's wooden body had begun convulsing and shaking erratically, the old man attempted to hold him down so he couldn't harm himself. The whole ordeal only lasted a minute, but felt like hours to Kelan. When everything stopped he turned his head towards the old man who was staring at him intently, he then asked a clear tone "Are you alright? Can you understand my words?"