Limits

I looked straight in the eyes of the doctor and said "I choose death" To which he started saying "Good choice bo… Wait, you choose death?". This time it was my turn to make him look shocked and astonished. I chose death, because I choose not to live for someone else's sake. But you wouldn't be able to read that if I died, which means I didn't.

The old man's face looked grim and he asked "Why? You don't want to live?" to which I answered "No, I want to live. But I want to live for my sake not yours!" He was again stunned and said "What do you mean?" I answered "What I mean is, I don't intend to do your bindings for you. You probably know I want revenge for what they did to me and I will get it, with or without your help. I should be dead anyway because of my own stupidity". He looked me in the eyes and sighted "So you are this kind of human" I was stunned this time 'What did he mean?' So I asked "What do you mean?" to which he responded "You are even rarer than my type of people. You are an unyielding person, that is why you are still alive" I asked "What does it mean?"

He answered "It means you have your own path in life, and nothing can change this path. I assume you only have one goal in life right?" To which I was bewildered. It was true I only wanted to explore my life, so he wasn't wrong. By my facial expression he already guessed the answer and said "As I thought. Good, even very good. I will not kill you. Even better, I will pass my legacy onto you. You are not pure evil like me but you are something worse. You are better than the perfect disciple I could ever find"

I was lost for words. I chose death and he still wants to give me his skills what was that situation? So I asked "Why?, I chose death" to which he said "Don't worry boy. I will not impose any conditions on you. Just accept my legacy and you will be able to do what you want to do". I thought about it and decided to accept. If I had to do nothing for him why not take it. Besides, I wanted to learn such skills for a very long time now and he decided not to kill me so why not take it.

I said "Fine, I will take your legacy". The old man laughed and said "It felt like I was the one having honour of accepting you but nevermind." he then continued "I will only impart the skills to you and will help you with nothing else. So your current wounds are yours to take care of. Meet me tomorrow as usual and I will start your training"

He opened the door and sat on his chair as usual. I couldn't get up because I still had this drug inside of me. So I laid there. Nick didn't seem to care as well. After about 15 minutes, the village chief Rand came in. He looked at the doctor and then at me. He furrowed his brows and asked Nick "Why is he in such a poor state?" to which nick replied "He killed the other slave. Although at her request. This is his punishment"

Rand's brows eased up a bit then said "Ok, I won't take this matter any further but I don't want him to bleed to death either" to which Nick replied "He will take care of himself, I will not treat him" Rand again furrowed his brows and said "Why?" to which Nick said "That is part of his punishment. Don't worry he will not die. Just let him rest for few days" to which Rand replied strongly "Fine" and left.

Nick returned to his so called sleep on his chair and I laid there, unable to move my body at all. I laid like this for quite some time maybe even 3 hours, when I finally could move my hands and feet. There was a lot of pain in all parts of my body so I still stayed there for another hour and waited for the drug to stop working. The blood stopped coming out a long time ago and after this additional hour I was able to get up and move a bit.

I went to the treatment room to get some medicine and bandages. I used some medicine on my legs first and wrapped the wounded areas with the bandages. Then I took care of my arms, then stomach. After all that it was already dark outside, I limped back to my house to get some rest.

When I arrived there, I saw that the quilt and the bed has been stained with blood of Dina. I was too tired to care about that, so I simply laid on that and went to sleep. There was a dinner waiting for me but I decided I will eat it in the morning.

I woke up in the morning the next day with a very familiar feeling of starvation. I lost a lot of blood and also I didn't eat much yesterday. Adding all that, the condition of my body got a bit worse again. I tried to move but everything hurt like hell. After a while of fiddling and painful groans I managed to grab the food and devour it.

It was not enough, but it never was. I laid there and examined my body. I could see that the wounds were bleeding while I slept but now they were fine. As long as I didn't do excessive movements, I should be able to walk or move my hands. It was just that the pain was intensified when I moved. 'Nick knew where to aim to create the most pain' I thought.

I didn't get out of the bed to do my tasks. I already knew that I had couple of days off, besides Nick wanted to see me today. 'What the hell can he teach me in this state?' I thought. Nevertheless I would have to visit him anyway. I wanted to know what type of things he will tell me. At around 9am I expected my breakfast but it never arrived, nor did it arrive at 12pm. I thought 'Ok so I have couple of days off but they will not give me food. That's great!' I was already very hungry. The loss of blood due to my injuries as well as the lack of food caused my skin to start and become dried again. I thought to myself 'Great! Now, all my fishing and trying to get my strength back will go to waste'.

I was very hungry by 12.30pm and decided I will go see Nick sooner. I didn't care about anything else now but food. I hoped I could find something at Nick's house. I got up from my bed with difficulty and limped slowly outside my house. Then I headed to Nick's house which was about 5 minutes away when walking normal pace. Of course I didn't walk at a normal pace, it took me 20 minutes to get there.

I was already exhausted and when I finally arrived I pressed the door handle and… nothing. The doors were closed. I knocked couple of times but heard nothing. 'He must've gone out somewhere. NOW! Of all times!' I thought. I slumped down supporting my back on the door. I didn't have much strength left. Besides I used a lot of it just to get to that damned doctor's house.

I laid there in silence with my eyes closed. I waited and waited and could feel the hunger becoming not just starvation but also some kind of weird rage. I was angry because I had nothing to eat.

Finally, about 2 hours after I got there, Nick showed up. To my surprise from inside the house. I was even more angry 'This bastard was there all the time!' I only had strength to say one sentence "You fucking bastard!" and I lost conscious.

When I woke up, I was at the treatment table. I felt very weak but I could not feel the starvation anymore, just hunger. Nick came over to the table and said "You should have said you needed food earlier". I thought that I will jump straight off from the bed and punch that idiot square in his stupid face. He then said "Your body is very weak. I'm amazed how you managed to live till now. I'm even more amazed how you could do those tasks with this broken body". I didn't like his tone. He was quite happy about it.

I managed to squeeze out one sentence again "Go die stupid bastard!" He then said "Alright, alright" then pulled open my mouth and threw something in. I didn't care what it was, I just ate it. Then he opened it again and threw another something. He fed me like this couple of times and said "I will provide you with more food from now on. But I can't give you loads at once, this can actually harm you instead of helping you".

After eating I could feel some of my strength coming back. I still felt very weak but at least I could move my hands and legs a bit. Nick then said "Your body is burning the food away. It's the first time I see this kind of thing" then continued "I will feed you once in a while today so you can function properly, at the same time I will explain some stuff to you". He then moved me to his private room and closed the door.