The light of the fire was seen, peeking from behind the still boulder. The night was as dead as before, misery of the naked fueled its darkness this time.
He sat on the ground immediately after seeing the fire, as a child hiding in a corner from something terrifying. He covered the back of his head with his hands.
The thought that he had just died, beheaded, was overwhelming. The pain of a dagger piercing one of his legs still lingered, distant, yet it was there. He checked the place of the wound but it wasn't there.
'Phantom sensations?' the man thought to himself. His father used to babble about them all the time in his childhood, having lost an arm during the great wars, his father often felt at times, like it was there, but when he looked, it wasn't. The wound caused by the piercing was similar, he knew it had happened, he knew it was there, but when he looked, it wasn't. But the light pain was still clinging there, and his legs felt somewhat numb.
'What had happened just now?' Confusion could be seen in his face, even from a distance, anyone could feel his concerning gaze. That gaze was caught by a box, the blue box with a design of blue vines, and something else he noticed this time, a flower. A flower as blue as the nightly sky, more bluer than the box itself, a deeper form of blue. It was at the front of the box, the middle of the blue petals supported by multiple blue vines was the keyhole.
The man muttered immediately after seeing the box, "Is this the slumber flower? Why hadn't I seen it when I first found it, was I blinded by the evil darkness who wanted to see me suffer?"
The man looked above at the sea of stars and felt that they were brighter than before, he felt that, this time, they helped him defeat the darkness, illuminating the slumber flower. He got down on his knees and cried out, "Oh goddess of night! Mother of the moon, stars and darkness, I owe myself to thee! I will always remember this aid!"
Was the man overreacting? No, he wasn't, the situation that has folded itself in front of him previously, and his unexpected death has caused his mind severe damage, made him insane perhaps. He was so overjoyed that he forgot about his dry throat that felt like there alot of sand stuffed in it, but it followed with a deadly cough that almost made puke blood, and that followed with the blade of cold wind cutting through his body.
The naked vulnerable shivered all over, he grabbed the box without a thought and ran towards the boulder to seek aid. The box itself felt like a normal metal box, since it was cold.
And then, nothing. Just a naked man with a box standing, in front of the two knights, smiling like a maniac, or a kid who just got candy.
"Woah mate! Why are you projecting your desires on us?" The man near the broadsword asked in utter disgust. "Perhaps, he had taken too much of it." The man who had previously thrown the dagger at the naked exclaimed.
The naked man stopped smiling and started approaching them- "Woh! No! No, stop right there! Go wear some clothes first you madman!" The man near the broadsword screamed, "And give the slumber flower to us, I don't want you to do something to it… ughh!" he added.
The naked man nodded and did what he asked. He wore his knightly armour of silver because his clothes vanished with his memories,
"So weird and vulgar of fate." He muttered to himself while laying on the ground near the fire. 'I don't know where I am, but I do know that the might of this sleep will not let me escape.' with this thought in mind, he closed his eyes.
...
Morning came, the sun was just waking up from its slumber, slowly showing itself from beneath the dry, rocky mountains with no sense of life.
A few of sunlight washed over his face, bringing him back to consciousness. He sat on his butt now covered with silver armour, "I had a truly miserable dream" he softly said to himself before opening his eyes.
Just as he opened them, he was met by the scene of two men on horses in front of him. 'Was it not a dream?! Am I—where am I?'
"Hoi! Mate? You look like you've seen a ghost, hop on quickly!" one of the men said.
He stared at them for minutes, and he kept staring, thinking, trying to understand what fate was ahead of him.
The man positioned their horses and pointed at a third horse in a close distance, "Come'on! Take your horse and get ready to leave." he then tapped the pouch attached to his horse and clicked it. It made a thud sound, "Let us get moving now, we need to deliver the flower to the king."