A soft humming sound of a lullaby danced in his ears. It sounded so familiar. So comforting. He wanted to know who was humming it. Who the voice belonged to.
   The soothing sensation was suddenly shattered by the images and sensations that flooded his mind. He saw a dark forest through someone or something's eyes, and the smell of ash and death. The ground was hard, cold, and covered with burnt flora and ash. Dark, twisted, burnt trees loomed in the darkness like shadows. Their branches creaking eerily in the wind. The sliver of the sun rising on the horizon. The bone breaking pain following. Then nothing.

Ignatius's eyes cracked open slightly, closing back shut at the fierce glare of the sun.
   His whole body still hurt from last night. He just wanted to lay here and not move.
   He soon fell back into a deep sleep.

The sound of water splashing softly made him reawaken.
   He opened his eyes slightly, trying to gauge what time of day it was and where he was.
   A cool cloth was pressed gently to his burning forehead.
   "Shh." Someone whispered. "Try to get some more rest. You've been though a lot." The voice told him, continuing to dab his forehead with the wet cloth.
   He tried to make out who it was hovering above him but everything was too blurry for him to make out who it was.
   "Please try to get some sleep," the voice—he was pretty sure it was feminine—told him once again.
   He closed his eyes, and fell back into the darkness.

The next time he awoke, he felt a little bit better. Well enough to at least make out his surroundings.
   He was laying down on the ground covered with a blanket to conceal his nakedness, and what felt like bandages around his chest and abdomen.
   He was still in the burnt forest where the air smelled like ash and death.
   It was no longer day time, and the moon was out, filling the whole dark land with its silvery light.
   Who had been helping him? And why?
   He tried to sit up but it hurt too much to do so. But he just tried again.
   "Oh, you're awake," the girl's voice said. "You shouldn't try and get up." She said, rushing over to him, and slowly easing him back down onto his back.
   "Why?" He asked creakily.
   "Here, drink this. It will help." She said, holding a small wooden bowl in front of him.
   He hesitated. The last time someone offered him a drink of something he was drugged. But she seemed nice enough. Her blue-green eyes, the color of the ocean, only held compassion and kindness. There was a not a single trace of deceit.
   He tried to sit back up to accept the bowl, but the girl didn't allow him to sit up. She slid her hand under his head and lifted his head up so he could drink the liquid in the bowl.
   It tasted horrible, like ash and acid, and made him want to gag, but he held the liquid down surprisingly.
   "You've been asleep for a whole day." The girl said suddenly. "What—what happened to you."
   He looked up at the dark sky. He really didn't want to talk about it. Just thinking about it was enough to back the painful experience of his bones breaking.
   "Nothing." He said, and turned his head away from her.
   He knew he should be more nice to her after helping him, but he just really didn't want to talk about whatever happened last night.
   "It wasn't nothing. When I found you, you were unconscious and your back was bleeding from several wounds. Did someone attack you or—,"
   "I said it was nothing." He told her more firmly.
   She didn't respond for a moment. "Well, if it wasn't 'nothing' then tell me where you got those injuries on your back from."
   Now it was his turn to be quite for a moment.
"I got them from a man who hated me." He said bitterly, still remembering the touch of the whip on his back.
   "Oh. Sorry. I didn't know. Here's some clothes if you want to change. I'm going to go get some water." She said, placing a bundle of clothes next to him, and getting up and walked into the dark forest.
   When he was sure she was gone, he struggled into the clothes she had left for him. They were a little big but he didn't care. Better than being nude.
   Feeling as if he should do something to help and be kind to her and to help repay her for everything she had done for him, he went to go collect some wood for the burning out fire.
   His body still screamed in pain with every step he took, but he didn't let it stop him.
   When he came back to the makeshift camp, the girl was already there, looking alarmed at his sudden disappearance.
   "There you are." She breathed in relief. "I didn't know where you had gone off to. I though you were mad at me for prying."
   He looked at her strangely. No one had ever thought about his feelings before. No one had cared if they made him mad or upset. Ignacio had never cared if he hurt Ignatius in so many physical and mental ways. Haco, Flint, and Enya had never cared if they beat him half to death and left him there to lick his wounds and recover. Why did she care? Shouldn't she care about herself? For all she knew he was a criminal or something of the sort. The question was still: Why did she help him?
   "Here, let me help you with that. You shouldn't even be walking around, less carrying things." She said, trying to take the wood from his arms.
   "I can do it." He told her, and continued over to the fire.
   Placing the wood next to the fire, he placed a few pieces in, not minding the burning heat on his skin.
   "Thank you." She said to him.
   He turned to look at her. She was looking to the side and twisting a strand of blonde hair with cyan highlights around her finger like she was nervous.
   "I should be the one thanking you. You saved my life after all." He told her, and gave her the bow of the highest respect only reserved for the royal family.
   He could have sworn he saw a slight tinge of pink on her cheeks like she was embarrassed.
   All the traces of embarrassment was wiped off her face as she recomposed herself.
   "You're welcome...sorry I don't know your name."
   "Ignatius."
  She smiled warmly at him, and held out a hand to shake. He took it.
   "Nice to meet you, Ignatius. I'm Anahita." She said, letting go of his hand.
   "Thank you, Anahita, once again for saving my life. You are a saint for doing so."
Her face became red again as she turned her head away to clearly hide her emotions.
Once she had regained control of herself, she was able to face him again.
"Oh, and I like the tattoo on your back. The lashes made it hard to see but it still looked pretty cool. I know a friend who has one like it." Anahita said.
"Wait. What?" He asked, completely bewildered. He didn't have a tattoo on his back.
"There's a tattoo on your back. I'm saying it looks...What are you doing?" She asked him.
"I don't have a tattoo on my back." He said, ducking out of his shirt and pulling off the banadages around his chest and abdomen and straining his head around to see this 'tattoo' Anahita said was there. He could only see a patch of red against his dark skin. Anahita was telling the truth. But she apparently didn't mention that all of his lash marks were gone. How was that even possible?
"Your wounds! They're gone! But...how?" She asked coming to look as well.
"That's what I would like to know, especially the tattoo part. I've never had a tattoo in my whole life."
Things weren't adding up. First there was the crazy speed thing in his fight with Enya. Second was the word on his back that the physician saw. Thirdly was his lovely transformation last night or whatever insane things the voice inside his head was saying last night. And now the miraculous disappearance of his wounds that were replaced with a tattoo. What in the name of the Sun was happening to him?
Anahita muttered something to herself.
"What did you say?" He asked.
"There's a word written here on your back. It's hard to make out but," her fingers brushed in the middle of his back, "I think it says...Elddreki. Does that mean anything to you?"
He was stunned. Not again with the word thing on his back.
"No." He responded, slipping back into his shirt, and letting the bandages fall to the ground.
"I'm going to go clear my head." He told her.
"Do you want some company?"
"No thanks. I just need some time to think." He declined her offer, and headed off into the dead, burnt woods.
So many emotions and thoughts swirled through his mind as he walked. He couldn't figure out what was going on. What happened to him last night?
Then all of a suddenly he felt like he was being watched.
He stopped where he was, and looked around slowly. But no one was there.
The crack of a branch made him turn towards the noise.
No one was there once again.
Maybe this was all a dream, and he was still in The Fire Lands asleep, awaiting his punishment from Ignacio.
Another snap of branches made him whirl around to face no one but empty air.
"Murderer." A voice wafted from the trees.
He turned towards the voice.
"Who's there?" He asked.
"We don't want your kind here, human! You must die for you kind's sins!" A melodic voice yelled from the trees.
He was about to try and reason with the voice, but a flash of pain erupted in the back of his head, and everything around him went black.