Ludi

Exploring.

He asked WuFei to leave him alone in the music room. He had a lot to think about. 

A beautiful instrument very thin and straight, it gave him the idea of a violin, and indeed it fitted perfectly to his chin. He found something akin to a bow, and tried it. The melody was deep, like of a cello, vibrant and beautiful. He started to play what he had in his head. He did not know the instrument, but it reassured him. At home he had a violin and it was very similar to playing. He also had his paintings, his sketches, his music, his clothes, his books... all objects important to him. He couldn't have friends; not because he was shy, but because he somehow knew their intentions: material interest, carnal interest, having someone to disturb. His mother reproached him very much, but she didn't understand. The truth is he didn't miss her. 

A note slipped from the bow. The only person in the world he could miss and long for, and he didn't care. Strangely he could be in that temple, with those people. They were servants, monks, warriors, whatever. He did not feel in them what he had felt in other people in his land. He had to believe the story. He did have a power that could help these people, although he had never used it as such, since such a thing would never have occurred to him, he did not know the consequences that it would have. He didn't know that he could react like this, like with WuFei, when he tried to help him, and that embarrassed him deeply. He did not know that those sensations existed, since he always perceived the bad, and this time he was not sure how to react. 

He had managed to control the bad feelings and symptoms caused by going out for a walk through the city center, always collapsed, but something like that... 

He put the instrument aside, took a deep breath and decided to do whatever he was asked to do. He was already trapped in that place. And it was the only place where he felt totally calm. 

He left the room and found WuFei standing guard. He was expectant. You could tell from his face that he needed to know what the young boy had been thinking. 

"I… I don't understand this world very much… but I do find a lot of reason in what you have told me, Mr. Chang" WuFei was very attentive and in his face, he seemed to intuit what young Winner would say "I will help you in any way I can…" 

"Thank you very much Master Sandrock! I will not disappoint you..." WuFei had knelt before him bowing deeply "I will protect you, even if my life ends in it" 

"No, please! Wait!" Quatre made him sit up "are you going to take care of me?" 

"That's my duty... I'm guardian of this temple, the only one that still survives... I must reinforce your aura so that your power won't get out of control" 

"I understand..." Quatre blushed slightly when remembering how he had reinforced his aura a little "But please, don't call me that... also my name is Quatre..." 

"Is it alright if I call you Master Quatre? I can't use any other way..." 

"I guess that's fine…" 

Quatre was a little more relieved to see his guardian less tense, and he was guided through the beautiful temple, through all the rooms, including those of the servants, who bowed slightly to Quatre every time they saw him. 

Upon reaching the kitchen area, he noticed the large amounts of food that had accumulated in a corner, and that the servants distributed in numerous baskets. 

"It's a lot of food..." Quatre was clearly impressed with the amounts there was, and took a few fruits to get a closer look. They looked a lot like the ones he already knew, but they had a different color. 

"This harvest was very good... we save enough for 30 days, for the inhabitants of the temple, and the rest is separated for the population. They manage to harvest their own food, but lose more than half, since the land is so polluted that sometimes they cannot plant anything" 

"Do you harvest every 30 days?" 

"That's right… I don't know how it will be in the world where you come from, but here we have Monks of Green Hands, in charge of cultivating our gardens and they manage to maintain a fast and good cultivation, but some have become ill due to so much effort, and what we collect is no longer of such good quality..." He noticed Quatre's hands and made him notice what he had done "Master Quatre ... look at your hands..." 

The fruit he took, formerly a somewhat dull brown color, was now light brown and very shiny, as if it had been polished for hours, to remove all its blemishes. 

WuFei took the fruit, took out a small dagger from between his clothes, and split the fruit in half. It was dripping juice and had a very sweet and pleasant smell. Its interior color was a very bright pale brown. The guardian took another fruit equal to that of the harvested, and as with the other, he cut it in half. Its color and scent didn't come close to what Quatre had held in his hands. It had almost no scent, and WuFei dared to try both. The first one was sweet and juicy, the second one has a watery flavor and somewhat dry. 

The servants stared in shock at what had happened, had he purified the fruit? 

"Master Chang!!" A servant called unexpectedly entering the kitchens "Master Chang, come soon!" 

WuFei ran off followed by Quatre, heading for the farm fields. Among fruits and vegetables, the monks had gathered around one who lay on the ground. He was very pale, and he breathed very slowly. 

"He was exhausted... the disease caught him up" said the monk, very concerned, and the other monks were horrified that this happened inside the temple. 

"The disease?" Quatre did not understand very well, but it seemed serious. 

"It's the way what we call this epidemic ... we do not know what it is ... but we are sure that it is a product of the leak ..." WuFei realized that he had run away with the fruits in his hands, and on an impulse took the one that Quatre had held, and doing the best he could, he fed the monk, who began to sweat a dark liquid, and regained consciousness. 

"Master Chang! What did...?" 

The monks were dumbfounded at what happened. All of them knew deep inside, that no one was saved from The Disease. 

"Master Quatre" WuFei addressed Quatre very seriously who was trying to understand what was happening "How do you feel?" 

Quatre surprised and confused, tried to decipher his own feelings and symptoms, but he felt very normal. 

"I'm fine" 

"Well…" WuFei signaled to follow him while he gave orders to the monks "all the Green Hands come to the dining rooms, now… also bring those who are sick" 

"But master, the crops..." 

"Leave them ... this is more important" then he went to Quatre and guided him back to the kitchens "Master Quatre, I must ask you to help us, in what I just discovered... you purified that fruit that I gave to the monk... and he was purified and recovered… there is a way to help our people without exposing yourself to the harsh environment that could kill you in a couple of days" 

"If I leave the temple, I'll die?" Quatre was shocked at such idea… just putting one foot outside had made him ill. If he went further... 

"I'm sorry, Master Quatre ... that's the truth ... but with this" he said, showing him the fruit, "you will be able to train to leave the temple, without needing to expose yourself to the danger outside" 

Quatre understood that his life was safer in that place… although he was not quite sure how he could help, or what training he would have to do.