The first impression is the most important one of all

I felt like a deer in headlights, I could see everyone’s stares on me while I was kneeling down in the altar. Even the woman with the staff seemed to be waiting for me to say something.

Seconds tickled by, and finally, in the midst of the mounting dread I was feeling when surrounded by the completely unfamiliar environment I was in, I found what I should do.

First impressions are the most important thing they say. So, I wanted to do a good one.

I have no idea where I am, or who these people are, but at the very least, I should introduce myself shouldn’t I?

I planned to get up, stand straight, and say “My name is Pole Rast, a pleasure to meet you all”. It was not perfect, but the instinct to introduce myself in front of a crowd seemed to be a core memory of mine that resurfaced in the middle of my impending panic attack.

I quickly put my feet in the ground, trying to stand up with vigor, but my legs instantly buckled under me. Of course, I had forgotten about how just a moment ago I was barreling down a mountain, but my body did not forget.

The pain and soreness struck all at once, and as a continuation of what I was doing before being so rudely interrupted, I fell down the stone stairs in front of the altar.

I think I lost consciousness somewhere around the middle portion of the pyramid. At the very least, I don’t remember hitting the bottom of the stairs. Somehow, I feel that was the only saving grace from the whole situation.

When I woke up again my body did not wait at all before reminding me of what had happened. I was sore all over, I could barely move at all, my voice reduced to whispering groans as I did my best to sit down. Doing so was especially hard, as my left arm was plastered in a hard shell and tied in front of me. I tried to look around, but the room was so dark I could not distinguish anything but a streak of light coming from the half open door.

“Hey, wait a bit kid, don’t want to hurt you any more than that.”

As my eyes got used to the dark I slowly managed to distinguish the silhouette of the man who spoke to me. He seemed to be at least in his forties, no, maybe sixties. He had a very unkempt beard that clashed horribly with the rest of his unwrinkled face, but made him look twenty years older than he really was.

The man opened the door and entered, leaving aside a very strange smoking pipe outside before bringing me my water canteen. Carefully, he helped me drink a bit, before I started coughing it all out.

“Careful, careful. Drink it slowly.”

After managing to patch my sore throat, I finally managed to talk.

“Where am I?” Was the first thing that came out.

“That’s kind of a hard question to ask from the start, you know. If I were you, I would start asking if I got hurt when falling down the stairs.” He said, with a small chuckle. “You didn’t ask, but you should know that you may have splintered your arm’s bone. It’s not a full fracture, but you’ll need to be very careful with that now. You are bruised all over and have some nasty hematomas, but with rest, you should be fine in a few days.”

“Uh-huh… Where am I?”

I knew I had to listen to him, that it was important, but once again, my brain was not all quite there to do so. The walls seemed to be paper thin, through the open door, I could see someone peeking over, seeing me, and then running back wherever they had come from. Now even more worried for my safety, I just had to ask.

“Where am I? What do you want with me? How did I get here?”

I would have scurried away back into the wall if moving at all didn’t hurt so much.

“Hey there, wait a moment, calm down. Big breaths, please.” The man said, taking big breaths himself as a show. “I will explain everything, but first you need to calm down or you’ll hurt yourself even more.”

After a moment, I started to breathe at his pace, and soon enough, I calmed down again.

“See? Everything’s fine. I know it’s confusing, but everything will be okay. This has been a rough start, but how about we start with our introductions. My name is Howard Thompton. What’s your name?” He said, pointing to himself, before extending his hand to me, waiting for an answer.

I looked at him, unsure if I should answer. I could barely think of talking when it felt like my entire body had started throbbing, hurting all over. Finally, I concentrated.

“My name is Pole Rast.” I said, between winces of pain.

“Is so very nice to meet you, Pole. I know this has been a rough introduction, but you must know that you are welcome here in the village.” Howard answered, with as wide of a smile as he could give.

“Why am I here?” Was the next thing I managed to say.

“That’s another complicated question, really. Let’s say that people around here need your help.” He said, lowering his voice, choosing his words very carefully.

“My help?”

Now I really started disbelieving the words of this man. Whatever they wanted, I sure as hell could not help with that.

“Why? Why me?”

If this man was not spouting bullshit, then there was something he was omitting.

“Well, not exactly YOUR help, but you are the best suited for the task right now, you now? Let me put it like this. That ritual in the pyramid was supposed to bring us someone who could help, and the world decided that person should be you.” Howard answered, speaking even slower than before.

Forget about my body, my head is throbbing now. God, what did I do to deserve this pain?

“How… Why? I was on an excursion… How did I get here?”

I could hear the answers he had given me, but they barely managed to register by that point. I tried to make sense of it, but even doing questions had become difficult.

“I know it’s very confusing but it all will make sense soon. I think you should rest. Good thing is, I revised you and it doesn’t seem like you have a commotion. Which is actually impressive, considering how many stairs you tumbled down from.” Howard said, trying to make me lay down again.

Unable to offer resistance, I allowed him to put me back down into the very hard pillow I was resting my head in before. In any other situation, I would probably be unable to sleep, but the fog in my mind was growing, and soon enough I was barely conscious.

Before fully slipping out, I managed to see a shape. Someone else was standing in the door next to Howard, looking at me with shiny and beautiful yellow eyes.

“Is the sacrifice awake?”

At the very least, that’s what I think I heard, before falling into unconsciousness again.