Reunited 2

As Lin followed the path, the forest started to thin out and signs of life became clear.

There were posts with a language Lin didn't recognize and a well maintained dirt road that he started to follow. As Lin got closer, the fog in his head started to lift once more. Soon, he could recall names of roads and parts of the language he had seen.

By midday he had finally encountered a town. The people there seemed happy, trading their wares, talking to neighbors, and doing chores. The size of the town was minuscule compared to the cities in his old world, but still looked to have a decent population and amenities.

One thing that struck Lin as odd was the old style housing, and he could not see asphalt or technology in sight. The clothing of the townspeople was odd too, they all

looked like they would have fit in at a renaissance fair.

Originally he thought he was still on Earth, just somewhere he didn't recognize, but that idea slowly seemed to be wrong.

When he entered the crowd, heads turned and people whispered. Lin stopped and looked around, trying to guess why.

He saw his reflection in a small window, and hit himself on the forehead with his palm.

"I am such an idiot…" He was still covered in blood and mud from the river, of course people would stare. Some people started to approach him, while others quickly walked off with a destination in mind.

One of the people that had approached him was a tall, well built, rough man with messy short hair. His clothes looked simple and fairly tidy, with minimal dirt and scratches on it. He stood menacingly in front of Lin, towering over him. Lin was shocked at the height difference until he remembered how he was still a child in this body. The silence between the two was awkward, and seemed to have underlying tension.

In an instant, the man's facial expression changed. He fell to his knees and hugged the air out of Lin's lungs.

Taken aback, Lin just stood there in confusion. The man had started to blubber out words through tears, but being new to the world he could not understand a word of what the man was saying. Lin ended up just patting him on the shoulder with his free arm. If this one man's scene wasn't enough, two people, a thin man and a stocky woman, came running down the road they were on. As they got closer Lin could make out their faces which were twisted with a mix of emotions, despair, hopefulness, and worry.

Once they were about fifteen feet apart, Lin was struck by a headache so strong he started to stumble back. The man who had been holding him had loosened his grip, weakened from sobbing. Just as soon as it began, it was over, and Lin had just been flooded with memories and feelings that were not his own.

He caught himself from falling with his left foot, and tears began to well in his eyes as he twisted himself out of the man's grasp and started running towards the couple. Now knowing the language, he called out the only words he could think of in a choked sob.

"PAPA!! MAMAA!!" The reunited family collapsed into each other's arms and the warmth of a family's love greeted Lin for the first time in a long while.

-

Days had passed, and Lin had started to adjust to daily life. After returning to the village and encountering his family he regained most of the body's memories, feelings, and thoughts. Now it almost felt like there were two people in his head.

Lin learned the body's name was Alvar, and that he was 8 years old. It was also obvious Lin was adopted by his parents, his skin was a warm tan while his parents were much paler in comparison, despite the darkening from age and sun. His mother's hair was also a golden blond, and his fathers was light brown. Neither had the strange coloration of Lin's hair, in fact he could not find a single person in the village with hair that would have been considered odd or unnatural in his old world, nor anyone that looked anything like Alvar.

There were many other things that didn't match up, his eye color, teeth, hands, and even his ears which had a small point at the end. It seemed Alvar knew this too since his earliest memories were at age 6, when he had been found in the forest by his new parents. Sadly his memories stopped at that, and no clues could be found about Alvar birth parents.

This didn't matter much to either Lin or Alvar, because they were both content with the family they had.

Lin had also started to look into Alvar's 'death'. Everyone believed he hit his head and got lost, but something bugged Lin. Memories were still blurry around the accident, but he definitely remembered other people being present.

"Eh, whatever." Lin had little interest or desire to figure out the mystery, so he quickly gave up and decided to focus on finishing a crisp, red apple he had been eating.

As he wandered through town he waved at neighbors, nodding and occasionally walking up to them for small talk. Lin enjoyed this peace, and had decided very quickly that all he wanted was to have a peaceful, content life in this village for as long as possible.

However, Lin realized life without technology got boring quite quickly. So he decided to pick up his old passion and carve again. This time, he was going to carve Yukiko so that her image never faded and he could see her whenever he wanted.

With a borrowed knife from the kitchen and some extra firewood that was about the size of Lin plopped himself beneath a tree and began his work under the early morning sun.

Since he was making something that had much more meaning to him than usual, he put in more effort. With each chip and slice he could see the piece of wood resemble Yukiko even more, and he fell into a trance. Hours passed in what felt like minutes and while ignoring the growling in his stomach he kept on working. It felt like he could see all of the parts he needed to take away to make it perfect, and almost looked as if all he was doing was removing Yukiko from being sealed in wood.

A couple hours after noon Lin had miraculously finished with incredible speed. This speed was unusual even for Lin considering the size and detail, but for some reason this didn't strike as odd to him.

As he held the small watermelon-sized sculpture he felt bittersweet. He brought it close to his chest, closed his eyes, and held it, wishing to see Yukiko again with all his heart.

With his eyes closed, Lin did not notice the green and gold glow that started to surround him and the sculpture, bringing warmth to everything around him. Without warning the sculpture began to change, from the heart out it slowly cracked and transformed.

It grew slightly in size, its carved texture became fur, and its eyes slowly became real.

Feeling this change Lin dropped the cat and watched horrified as it bended and shifted its bones into all the right places, until its heart started pumping blood through its veins.

Once the process was done, he was staring face to face with what seemed to be Yukiko.

"What in the genuine fuck just happened."