A Hero

I was happy to wake up in peace. No memories or nightmares tried to shake me from my slumber last night. As I sat up in bed, I rubbed my eyes. After a minute of staring at the door, I stood up.

I slid my pink petal kimono over the form-fitting clothes on my body. This was the third day I was in this strange world, yet my clothes seemed to stay as clean as ever. Would we need to wash them? The others seemed to wear the same outfits every day. Should I ask?

I shook the thoughts from my head and exited my tiny house.

Outside the room, I saw Lerato sitting off to the side. He smiled and waved to me while shouting:

“The little briar rose has awoken!” I had no idea what he meant and just walked over to him.

“Good morning,” I said. Lerato made an honest laugh in reply.

“Well, I guess it is still morning, but you nearly slept it away,” he said.

I blinked several times and looked around. No one else was in our little base. Enas, Pythagoras, and Casey were all missing, and Orrin could not be heard at all.

“Where…” I began.

“They already left for the day; I decided to stay back so you wouldn’t wake alone,” Lerato explained.

“Oh, sorry,” I said. How long had I slept?

“Don’t worry about it! We all had a moment when the exhaustion caught up with us. After all, this world is a lot to take in at once!” Lerato said with an understanding face. I wanted to explain that I would never sleep in late normally, but I couldn’t be sure that was true with no memories.

Instead, I just sat down on a log with a warm face that was most likely very flushed.

“Are the activities the same today as yesterday?” I asked.

“If you mean walking around the world, then yes.” Lerato answered with a cheery voice.

“Doesn’t it ever get boring living in this grey world?” I asked.

Lerato’s dark eyebrows furrowed; he was puzzled by my question. We stared at each other a moment before his face lit up with understanding.

“Ah, that’s right!” he said with a laugh. “Well, you may come to understand with time,” he added.

He didn’t explain further, and I wasn’t sure exactly what information to ask more about. I figured I would let it go and move to something related.

“Why do you stay in this world?” I asked.

Lerato rubbed his chin for a moment. He stood up and waved for me to follow. As we entered the grey woods, he began to speak.

“Where I come from, I was a sort of hero,” Lerato explained. I couldn’t help but glance at his shiny clothes. Was this the sort of thing ‘heroes’ wore? For that matter, I wasn’t sure if he meant hero the same way I pictured it—a sort of brave warrior came to mind. I didn’t interrupt as Lerato continued explaining. “Or at least I was an aspiring one. In all honesty, I wasn’t very good,” he chuckled as he spoke.

“What do you mean by ‘hero’?” I asked as he made a pause in his talk.

“Ah, my apologies. In our world, we had events that gave many people powers; a hero became someone who wielded those powers for good. My grandfather, for example, was one of the first generation. He had the powers to transform into a great lion that could cross the continent in several bounds.”

Even as Lerato looked at me as we talked, he ducked to avoid hitting his head on a grey branch as we walked.

“What’s a lion?” I asked.

“Ah, a big cat in my world, and he could become many sizes larger!”

A big cat? I had some idea of what a cat was, but trying to imagine a giant one sounded terrifying. Turning into one seemed strange enough as well. What would that entail?

“Could he talk to the other lions?” I asked with curiosity. Lerato chuckled.

“Well, his powers let him speak the same language, but he always said it was impossible to understand what they said.”

“That’s vague,” I replied.

“Just a bit, huh?” Lerato added with a laugh. His face showed a nostalgic smile. “Anyway, we got off track, didn’t we? My grandfather was already a legend among the greats by the time I was born. I sought to live up to his heights but ultimately fell short and ultimately fell into this world between worlds. I guess you could say that by staying here, I believe I will be able to become a greater hero!”

“So, do you have these… powers? Are they like magic?”

“Ah, so your world used magic then,” Lerato said with a knowing nod. I must have said something insightful about my world, but I could not figure out what that was. “In results, I suppose it is similar to magic, but my powers are fixed while magic has room to grow, you see.”

I nodded, but I didn’t see what he was trying to say. He gently pulled my arm to the side so I would avoid walking into some grey foliage. It appeared suddenly as if it jumped in my way, silly as that seemed.

“Can you turn into a… lion as well?” I had to pause to remember the name of the big cat.

“Ah, no. My abilities are just as over the top, but unfortunately no large cats for me. I suppose that is good; we wouldn’t need any competition for large, furry fighters with Casey!” Lerato replied with a laugh. “But perhaps once Orrin can, we can visit my world! I’m sure someone has the power to manipulate memories, but whether they will be a hero or villain is yet unknown.”

He seemed to be thinking about my memory loss. It was kind of him to do so, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to have anyone using strange powers to mess with my head. Should the topic come up, I would have to refuse politely.

“What does Orrin have to do with it?”

“Our green friend… is special… he has a way to get out of worlds but has to wait several days before using it.”

I think I recalled Orrin saying something like that before. I had no idea what that meant, but it was at least a little reassuring to hear that I wasn’t the only one who thought of Orrin as a ‘green person.’

I didn’t have any more questions, so Lerato began to regale me with the tales of heroes in his world and how he related to each in his youth. I silently listened and nodded along as he spun the tales.