Finding himself for the first time alone without a mission or schedule to adhere to, 42 couldn't make a head or tail of what to make of this situation.
What is the task? How will he get it? When will he get it?
All he knew till now was attending to the schedule prepared for him by the facility when at the facility and doing whatever he could do to advance his task when out on missions.
Devoid of both he started getting an itch to find a sharp object. It was like an instinct he didn't understand. His handy pocket knife wasn't with him.
He scoured the place looking for anything that would help him somehow. Going through the utensils he finally found a crudely crafted multi-purpose knife.
'Alright what now. Is the target going to come through that door? Should I inspect the surrounding area after all'
Trying to find himself anything to keep himself busy with he started practicing some knife moves.
His observation was right. His body was far far too weak. He didn't know how old he was, but looking at his wrist it seemed no more than 6-7 years old.
What task could possibly be done with this. It would take years to gain back sufficient strength and conditioning.
He sighed deeply and kept practicing just the forms for now.
He couldn't keep up with it for more than a few minutes however as his stomach started aching from hunger.
'ughh.. why isn't there anything to eat here'
He sat down unable to deal with the exhaustion.
'just what kind of beginning is this'
Fortunately it seemed the stars had taken a pity on him as a saviour came to the house,
"Noctis! You have woken up! Thank goodness."
'Huh? Who's there? Noctis what?'
The moment he heard the voice it was if a plug switched in his head as memories of childhood rushed back to his head.
He had taken birth in this world and was adopted by a aging couple that had no children. He didn't remember much earlier of his childhood but the husband of this woman, a hunter by profession had died of injuries from a hunt gone wrong.
Since then the woman who was now reaching here late middle age years had started working in the nearby village to keep him and herself fed.
The woman came into the small room rushing and checked up on him.
"Oh thank the good gods. I was so worried you weren't waking up no matter what this morning. How are you feeling now?"
The woman asked him but he just stared at her face unmoving.
"Noctis?" She shook him a bit.
'right that's my name now…. It's fine. I'll take it' he thought to himself with a strangely brooding face.
"Are you not feeling good at all darling?" her soft cooing voice implored.
"I'm just hungry," he replied a little off-handedly. The expressions and her tone irked him for some reason.
"Ohh. But of course. You haven't eaten anything yet. Here, I have some fruits and berries that I collected this morning from the forest."
She pulled out a basket from under the bed and offered it to him after cleaning them with a bit of water.
42, now Noctis, just took the fruits silently and ate it without even making eye contact with the woman.
The woman stayed with him for a bit, washing and then peeling or cutting the fruits and offering up to him.
Noctis tried again and again to take the knife and do it himself but was denied everytime given he was too young for that, according to Elle.
Thus it went on for some time. Noctis sitting on the bed awkwardly eating fruits handed over to him by his mother who sat on the ground by him.
After he was finish, that is Noctis stopped eating looking that the basket was already looking empty, Elle stood up and said,
"Alright then. I had to come to check upon you in the middle of my day, i was so worried. I thought I would have to seek the village chief's help. But seeing as you are doing fine now I must go back to work. I'll be back in the evening with some groceries till then you should rest. I have taken care of everything for today."
Noctis looked towards the woman with a neutral expression on his face and just nodded without saying anything.
Elle smiled and left the house once again.
Noctis sat on the same spot silently for quite some time going over the memories he had of this world.
His life up until now wasn't much to write about. They lived a bit far from the village. The village itself was a very small one quite isolated.
His 'mother' never allowed him to go to the village alone. Even with her, he had to cover his hair and ears with a cloak or any sort of head cover.
He had some thought as to why that was. His striking white hair and elongated ears were certainly very different to the people of the village, he didn't understand the level of caution though.
He had always been a frail child so even though he was trained in bow and arrow from his hunter 'father' he didn't get to try it because of Elle's worries.
From the memories he judged he was likely around 6-7 years old indeed supposing his first memory started around 3 years old.
He laid on the hard bed idly thinking deeply about next moves. He knew what he was atleast but it didn't satisfy him, to say the least.
After his father's death the family had fallen lower and lower into poverty. The woman worked for most of the day along with some occasional foraging in the forest but it didn't bring enough to keep both of them healthy. Alive, but not nearly enough.
He had to do something about that as it very much affected his growth and eventual, he hoped, viability of the task.
'....'
Alright then, he would take up hunting and foraging in the forest.