Chapter II (cont'd):
"That is not unusual. Many years ago, it is said that one of the jail keepers but a spell on the place to slowly erase all of the memories any prisoners may have," Alezard paused, "luckily, however, the effects of the place are not permanent, so within the next few hours you should slowly begin to remember things a little bit more clearly."
"Oh... well, er, that's... good." Richard scratched his head, still not understanding a thing that was going on.
"You still look a little bit tense, Mr. Hammond," Alezard stepped away from the bed a little, "maybe you should take a bath and clean up a little," The elf motioned toward a red door with more golden symbols painted on it, "the hot spring is just through that door if you want to use it."
"Yeah... I think that would probably be a good idea.,," Richard carefully slid out of the bed. He was a little unsteady on his feet at first, but after a bit of assistance from Alezard, he was just fine. The marble felt cold under his bare feet as he walked toward the red door, but it was a bit soothing in a way - he'd gotten tired of the rusty, jagged grates that had been in the jail cell that he had been imprisoned in for the past several weeks.
"You have some clean clothing folded up in the drawer just to the right of the sink once you finish up in there." Alezard said as he sat back down at his desk and began scribbling away in his journal.
"Alright, thanks, Mr. Aluhreth." Richard stepped through the door and closed it behind him. He was greeted with a fairly regularly sized room lit only by candles. On the far side of the room was the hot spring; a few small palm trees surrounded it and the walls were covered in pale blue tile. The floor had alternating black and white square tiles which, for some reason, felt somewhat funny underneath Richard's feet.
Richard found himself mesmerized by the shadows that moved about on the walls as the candles flickered and burned. His favorite thing about them, though, was the fact that as they burned they gave off the scent of the ocean. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath; it was so strong that when he really focused, it felt as if he really were standing in the surf, watching sea gulls gliding about and feeling the wind blow through his hair.
Richard opened his eyes, letting himself come back into reality. Richard couldn't help but be somewhat curious about those candles. Alezard must have put some sort of spell on them.
He walked over to the sink and turned on the faucet. Richard opened the right-hand drawer and his clothes were there, just as Alezard had told him. He opened the left-hand drawer and found basic toiletry items, including a can of shaving cream. Richard grabbed the cream and smeared it on his face. He had grown a beard while had been imprisoned and wanted to shave it off before it got too thick. He found a sharp razor somewhere near the back of the drawer; it wasn't electric but it would do for now. He shaved the newly formed beard off, being careful not to cut himself. When he was finished, he bent over to rinse the remaining shaving cream off.
When he finished rinsing off his face, Richard looked at his reflection in the mirror. He nearly jumped out of his skin in fright, however, when he noticed his right eye. He touched the right side of his face with his hand and leaned close to the mirror.
His right eye, which had once been a soft, dark brown color, was now replaced by an eye with a violent purple color and a more cat-like pupil. Richard's heart pounded in his chest as he stared into the mirror. What the hell had they done to him while he was in jail? As soon as he was finished cleaning up, he would have to tell Alezard immediately.
Richard took a few steps back from the mirror, no longer even wanting to think about what he had just seen. It was probably just something strange about this particular room... right? Richard shrugged and sighed, walking over to the hot spring. He paused for a moment before removing his clothes and sliding into the hot water.
The bubbling water felt soothing against his skin, and he could feel the fear and stress that he had been feeling just moments ago slowly beginning to fade away, and at the same time he could feel some of his physical strength returning. Richard leaned up against the side of the hot spring and closed his eyes, taking the time to try to remember as much as he could.
He started off with the most clear memory he had. The tall one. He began to rack his brain, trying to piece things back together again. He remembered that he was very tall, much taller than he was, and had brown eyes and curly, gray hair. No, wait, that wasn't right, something was wrong... was his hair... black? No, that wasn't it.. Richard growled in frustration before taking another deep breath. He knew for sure that one of his friends was definitely very tall, and most certainly had curly gray hair. But his eyes were what confused Richard. They definitely weren't brown.
That's when it hit Richard.
The man's eyes were a blue-ish color! Suddenly, it all became clear to Richard. This man's name was Clarkson. Jeremy Clarkson. He remembered everything now - almost everything, anyway. The long haired one still confused him, though. That man had been Richard's friend as well, but... no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't remember. Richard was growing weary of digging through the deepest recesses of his memory, so he closed his eyes and relaxed, trying to at least get a little bit of rest - he would need it.
After all, Richard still had no idea about what was about to unfold...
