Chapter 17: Chapter 17 - New world
Nothing made sense. One moment he lay dying on the gallery floor and the next moment, he was in a stranger's body. It was all…. dream-like.
Maybe he was dead, and this was…... afterlife?
"Kui?" the middle-aged lady approached him and gently helped him sit up. "You need to rest. Your wound is bleeding. Doctor." She called to the older man hurriedly.
the old man dawdled close and started to change his old bandages.
Kui watched it blankly. As soon as the bandages were gone, he was able to get a good look at his wound. Instantly he was shocked. There were about twenty deep tooth marks on his thigh. Each tooth mark looked about five inches cutting deeply into his muscles. The span of the jaw was about 20 cm or so. there were only a few creatures that could leave a massive bite mark.
"Shark bite?" he whispered softly.
The middle-aged lady frowned slightly. "The Mer folks usually let us hybrids fish freely. Tsk, who would have known…" She gently wiped his sweat off with a clean cloth. "You stay strong. You have us."
Kui nodded silently. He still couldn't piece together what was going on.
'What Mer folks? what hybrids?'
It sounded like an old wife's tale.
He silently let the old doctor smear some sort of golden gooey substance on his wounds.
"What is that?" it smelled sweet and a bit like herbs.
"Pinflower Honey, it can help prevent rot," he gently applied it with a brush.
'Honey? Does it really work?' he frowned slightly. "don't you have any other medicine?"
wounds this big can easily fester. and in this damp unhygienic hut, he would definitely lose his legs.
or worse loose his life to sepsis
The old man gazed at him; eyes slightly wide open. "Our cliff doesn't have many herbs. Honey is the only thing accessible to us. I'm sorry I don't have any herbs in hand. I'll try to scavenge for more,"
"Yes, we will join you too. Us old wives are bored staying at home all the time,"
The old doctor seemed satisfied with it. "But you have to get your husband's permission."
They all laughed and agreed.
Kui blankly gazed at them all. "Where is this?"
The one question silenced the whole crowd. They all looked at him with varied looks of worry.
"t-this is valley of Mers…. Do you not remember anything?"
Kui shook his head. It was better to admit that he did not remember anything to learn everything he could about this place. It might be a dream but the sensation of burning pain proved to him that this was all real.
Just like those Mer dreams he had every night.
His eyes widened. "Are mermaids real?"
They all looked at each other. "Yes, they are. Old man what is wrong with him?"
The old man touched the back of his head with a frown. "Maybe he hit the back of his head on the reef? That could explain his situation. I have not seen anyone in his situation before,"
They all silently gazed at him with frowns.
Kui was still stunned by the answer he got. Mermaids were real. This…. something is wrong. In his dreams, he only met the merman in a weird cave of some sort. He had not seen anything else.
His fingertips dug into the soft rocky soil under his bed. He gently sniffed it.
The earthy scent foiled his nostrils.
'I was right. It's too real. Maybe I... I did die. and now I've transmigrated to some other world?'
He stood up with difficulty and hobbled outside his hut.
Cold salty air hit his face, cooling his already pale skin. The sight in front of him halted his hurried steps.
"Oh my god."
he was currently on a high cliff overlooking a beautiful blue ocean.
Gaping he watched the shimmering ocean in a daze. Down below he could spot a few huge sharks swimming around.
"You shouldn't be walking around kid," the old man grabbed him by his hand and dragged him back to the hut.
"This is real. They are real.... this is not a dream, right?"
"It's real, kid. come eat something. Your body is already skin and bones," he handed a bowl of porridge to him.
Kui ate it contemplating what was going on. 'This place doesn't look that different from my dreams. I saw the sea and that Mer. This place also has Mers and the sea view. Then… the painting. Did that come into existence?'
The magic brush can make anything he wrote with it happen. But it can't bring inanimate objects to life.
'Wait… after I drew that cockroach, I did see one. Then… maybe the painting came to life.'
That could explain the strange Mers eyes that had followed him all around in the gallery.
'But how did I come to this world?'
As he was thinking this, he felt a small poke on his butt.
He pulled himself up and took out a small broken brush.
'This brush brought me here!!!'
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone