Otherworld Adventure

After making their way through the village, the group eventually arrived at a building that was somewhat larger than the rest.

It was made of logs and wooden planks. It looked really elegant. The wood even looked like it was polished and waxed even. Although it wasn't anything magnificent, it looked cozy to live in.

As they got closer to the house, Cecil notices that the house's front yard was well lit. He looked towards the source of the light and sees a 'light stone' embedded in the wall just above the door.

Since it was closer than the lampposts he passed by earlier, Cecil was immediately fascinated with it, pondering how could a stone actually emit such an intense light.

As they enter the house, the buffed man mutters something.

"****."

In the next instant, the dark room of the house was lit up brightly. Cecil was surprised and started looking around.

He saw that in the ceiling was another 'light stone'.

It wasn't only the front room, he noticed that all the rooms of the house had also lit up. For a second there, Cecil thought that the buffed man had used magic.

His eyes started to brighten at the thought, but when he saw the 'light stones' it instantly made him deflated.

Cecil stood by the door with a blank look when Lucia dragged him into the living room.

She sat him down on a couch.

As soon as he was on the couch, Cecil snapped out of his disappointment, he put down his luggage by the side of the couch.

Seeing that, Lucia then sat down next to him with Silver lying down on the floor by their feet.

Remembering where he was, Cecil started to nervously look around.

"Cecil?"

"Huh? Lucia what's up?"

"**** ****** Cecil! Hihihi!"

"Wha?"

Lucia calls out to Cecil, but he could only respond with a confused look since he still couldn't understand what she meant.

Seeing his daughter try and make conversation with the strange boy, the buffed man grunts a bit to catch their attention.

"**** *** * *** *** ** ******?"

"* ***** Cecil ** *** ***** ** *** *****!"

"******? ** ***** ***** ********* *****?"

"***, **** ****** ********** ****."

Cecil couldn't understand a word they were saying, he only heard Lucia say his name once and the rest was gibberish to him.

He started looking around again and saw that the woman wasn't in the room with them.

Cecil was just about to say something to Silver, but then he also joined in on the conversation the man and Lucia were having.

A nerve was threatening to pop on in his head.

'This is really annoying! I feel like a mute! If this was back on earth, I had already learned many of the different major languages of the Earth! I would never feel this way even if my father dumped me in another country!'

While the three were having their conversation, the woman walks back into the room holding a tray.

She comes up by the man and lays the tray down on the table.

On the tray there were steaming buns on a ceramic-like plate with crystal-like cups filled with black steamy liquid, by the side.

It seems she was preparing this in the house's kitchen earlier.The woman starts handing the plates and glasses out.

After doing so, she goes back into another room, which was most likely the kitchen. She comes out a short while later with another tray.

This time she comes over to Cecil's, or more exactly, to Silver's side.

She puts down what was on the tray by Silver's side. It was a bowl with big slices of dried seasoned meat. She also places down another bowl with water in it next to the meat-filled bowl.

Seeing that, Cecil looks up at the woman and bows his head.

"Thank you, Ma'am."

"Heeh? ** *** **** *** ******? You're welcome."

Cecil said his thanks in their language, which made the woman surprised.

It wasn't only her, the man was also somewhat surprised when Cecil said his thanks. Although the pronunciation was still a bit awkward, but at least he was able to convey his gratitude.

On their way to the village, Cecil asked and learned the words to "You're welcome" from Lucia. She also taught him the words to leaf, tree, vine, wood, flower, rock, dirt, water, sky etc.

Cecil could now at least identify the things he saw as they were passing by the forest, including some of the wild animals like birds and such.

During their trek through the forest, he felt a huge since of relief. There wasn't just monster animals that existed in this world, normal types of animals were also in abundance.

He was frightened at the thought of all animals in this world being monster-like.

Cecil had also asked Lucia about the things on him such as the bear fur, meat, bone, blade, knife etc.

He also asked Lucia to teach him how to say yes and no.

They were just basic things, so it was still an impossibility for him to hold or understand any form of conversation.

After the surprise, the woman took her seat beside the man.

Then with the exclusion of Cecil, the others continued their conversation.

What rang in Cecil's ears were the voice of the 3 speaking in an unknown language and Silver's barking .

He could pick up some of things they were saying. Things about a forest and river.

Her parent's were probably asking Lucia how she had met up with Cecil and Silver.

Silver was also barking in between their conversation, probably giving them his 2 cents.

During the conversation, the expressions of the man and woman kept alternating between seriousness and surprise.

They kept glancing at Cecil from time to time too. With how they were acting, it seems Silver, had somehow explained to them about their circ.u.mstances and how they met up with Lucia.

After an 'extensive' conversation, Lucia's parents looked like they had come to some agreement with Silver.

The man said something to the woman and the woman got up and walked out of the room.

He then turned towards Cecil and pointed at himself.

"Za***."

"Eh?"

It was the same with how Lucia tried to tell Cecil her name.

"Za*i."

"Zaki?"

"Yes, Zaki."

'Well, now I know Lucia's dad's name now.'

He pointed to Lucia and pointed back at himself.

"Lucia, ** ********."

"Da****er?"

"No, daugh**."

"Ohh, daughter."

A word he didn't know, but it seems it means something along the line of daughter or child.

So the man and woman were without a doubt Lucia's parents.

Lucia's mother came back into the room holding a book and scrolls of paper, along with what looked like a feather quill.

'Stationery of this world I guess?'

The woman smiles at Cecil and puts the book and stationery in front of him.

Zaki then says something to the woman and she also tries to introduce herself.

While pointing to herself she said her name to Cecil.

"A***."

"Anna?"

"Yes, Anna."

Anna then points at Lucia and says the same thing as Zaki.

"Lucia is my daughter."

"Okay."

Cecil was gradually starting to understand what they were saying. A small sense of accomplishment was welling up inside him.

Lucia nudges Cecil and smiles at him. Then she points towards Anna and Zaki and says a few words.

"Cecil, this is my ****** and ******."

"Uhm, m***er and fa****?"

"*othe* and **ther."

"Mother, father."

"Yes!"

That small sense of accomplishment was slowly growing bigger, only to then be coldly stomped on the next second.

"Cecil, **** **** **** *** *****."

'NOOOOO!!! Damnit, right when I was feeling happy with myself.'

After gesturing and saying somethings slowly, Cecil finally got what Lucia wanted him to do when she gave him the book.

Taking the book in hand, it was somewhat thick.

Cecil couldn't read the title on the cover of the book, but after opening it, the book turned out to be a book for learning this world's language.

On every page of the book was an ill.u.s.tration of an object and a word below it, followed by a couple of sentences written right below the picture.

"Ahh, isn't this!"

"Cecil, *** *** ***** *** ******** **** ****."

Knowing the family's kind intentions, Cecil looked up towards and stood up. He then bowed his head deeply and expressed his gratitude.

"Thank you very much!"

Cecil thanked them using Earth's language, but they seem to understand what he meant.

They all gave him a warm smile.

Feeling that it wasn't enough, Cecil went to his make-shift bag and rummaged through its contents.

He took out what was left of the roasted bear meat and hands it to Anna.

"Please take this as my thanks!"

"Ara? **** **** ******** bear's meat?"

"****? ******** bear?"

Zaki and Anna look at Cecil with astonishment and then with eyes as if they had finally believed something.

It seems like Silver told them about how they killed the bladed bear.

To Cecil, the expression of shock and surprise from the two looked a bit exaggerated.

'Was the bear really that strong? I mean, although I lucked out when I faced off against it, it had many glaring flaws that an a.d.u.l.t like Zaki could make use of.'

Putting the thought to the back of his mind, he took out the already roasted bear meat leftovers wrapped in leaves and placed it on the table.

He then opened the leaf and found that although it was now cold, a unique fragrance came from the meat as soon as it was exposed to the air.

Smelling that, Lucia's mouth begins to water and she immediately cuts up a small portion of the meat and stuffs it into her mouth.

Cecil smiles gently at her and looks towards Zaki. He seems a bit embarrassed for the lack of manners his daughter had.

Cecil didn't mind it and gestured towards him to have a bite himself.

With a smile, Anna stands up with the raw meat that Cecil passed to her in hand and said something to Zaki while walking towards the room that was probably the kitchen.

Zaki looks at Cecil with a serious face and then smiles warmly. He then gets up and walks toward the same room that Anna had entered.

Cecil turned towards Lucia who was stuffing her face.

"Lucia, thank you."

"Hehe, you're welcome, Cecil."

Cecil points towards himself and says something to her again.

"Cel, you can all me Cel."

"Ca~l?

"Cel."

"Cel!"

Cecil turned his attention to the book again and grabbed a scroll and the quill.

The book made things easier for him to learn. He looked through a couple of simple pictures such as rocks, grass, water, etc. and wrote the words on the scroll.

He wrote a couple of words, almost filling in half of the scroll. He made sure to space the letters apart and then wrote down the equivalent meaning of the words in Earth's language right below.

It was harder than he thought. The words and letters didn't exactly match Earth's language's equivalent. Just like the difference of words or letters between foreign languages

Being a little stumped, Cecil stares hard at the paper and all of a sudden, Lucia grabs the quill from his hand.

She starts righting down letters on a scroll and starts pointing at them while pronouncing what they sound like.

"*!"

"Ei?"

"*!"

"A."

"Yes!"

'Why the heck didn't I think of asking her to teach me? I feel so stupid now.'

After Cecil went through this world's entire alphabet with Lucia over and over again for about an hour, a delicious aroma drifted from the room that Lucia's parents went into earlier.

The trio's nose begin to tingle at the delicious smell. Silver gets up with his tail wagging vigorously. Lucia cheers and leads Cecil by the hand to the room where the scent was coming from.

'The room really was the kitchen.'

Cecil thought.

The room had a table in the middle with a cupboard at the far end of the room where there was a stone box beside it and there was water running from a wooden tube above it into the box. This was probably the sink.

Beside the sink was another long table. At the end of the table there was a pit on the ground with a fire burning in it. Above the pit was a hollowed stone structure that continued past the ceiling above.

There was also an open door at the left side of the room from where they entered. Taking a peek inside Cecil saw a lot of plants and other foodstuffs.

Finishing his observation, he sees Lucia's mother setting the table and Lucia's father lightly roasting the bear meat from earlier while sprinkling something on it.

He was doing it skillfully. There weren't even any burnt marks on it even after roasting the already roasted meat for so long.

Lucia's mother welcomes them and gestures for them to sit. She also prepared a small table for Silver at the side which had a big plate on it.

Lucia pulls Cecil to a chair before taking her seat at the chair beside it. Cecil takes his seat while anticipating the meal to come. It would undoubtedly taste much better than the unseasoned meat he roasted earlier today.

After a couple more minutes, Lucia's father picks up the meat and settles it on the table at the side of the fire pit. He takes out a knife and starts cutting up the meat into smaller sizes.

Lucia's mother takes another plate brings it to the table and starts putting bread on it. She then heads back and grabs a pot that was steaming and brings it to the table.

Lucia's father also brings the cut up meat to the table. He also doesn't forget to leave a large portion for Silver.

After the food was set, Lucia's parents take their seats in front of Cecil and Lucia. They say something aloud, but Cecil still couldn't understand. Especially with how fast they talked.

After they said something, the 2 including Lucia close their eyes and start chanting something together.

'A prayer?'

Cecil follows them and closes his eyes. He then says a small prayer inside his heart.

'I hope my family is also saying their graces while having dinner right now.'