The Last Outlaw: Part 6

3 days time, that’s how long Estel said it would take to get to the mainland from Forlond. The storm seemed to ease the more we traveled, as if it were staying in place, or rather staying around us.

“What was the last catastrophe like?” Basil asked

“It’s just as the name suggests, there was nothing but destruction and chaos” Helmund said, not quite eagerly.

“Were you infamous back then as well” Basil had asked the question in jest, but he was also quite curious as to how long Helmund had been living like this.

No. That is the basic and monotone answer that he had received from Helmund. There was something off about him that ade Basil feel uneasy, as if he had been hiding something from him. This had been the first of there many travels where Helmund didn’t bother to tell him a story.

“Tell me a story, one about your time before travels as an outlaw.” Basil usually didn’t care for the dramatic telling of events that Helmund would recount, but this time things were different.

But before Helmund could begin speaking, both of them stopped dead in their tracks.

In front of them was a young man in strange clothes that they had never seen before. Dark rust colored hair matted with dirt and debris, brown skin similar to the color of wet oakwood.

“What is that pouch hanging out of his pocket there?” Basil said as he went to reach for small black wallet.

“Don’t!” Helmund exclaimed, “Let me.” he reached down and picked up the wallet.

Helmund looked through the wallet and to his surprise found strange currency and plastic cards he had never seen before, some even had numbers on them.

“Let me see it!” Basil had never seen such interesting things in his life.

One of the cards that had numbers on them and a picture that was an exact copy of the strange man’s face.

“What is this strange language?” Helmund asked

“I don’t know, it’s not something I’ve ever seen before in my life.” Basil sadly answered.

“Pour some water on him to see if he wakes” Helmund instructed Basil.

As Basil poured some water over his eyes, the young man began to shake his head and cover his face.

“That should be enough” Basil put away the water and looked to the stranger, “Hello there, what is your name?”

The stranger, first startled at his surroundings, then confused, then happy looked up and asked’ “You can understand me?”

“We can” Helmund stated.

“That lady said it would be a while until my brain adjusted to this world’s language, I hope it hasn’t been long” stated the stranger.

“What lady?” Both Helmund and Basil questioned.

“That doesn’t matter right now, I’m guessing you can’t understand what’s on my ID card right?” the stranger said with a smug face.

Basil looked back at the small plastic card he was holding.

“It has my name there, but since you obviously can’t read, it says Maxwell Mercy. But my friends call me Max.”