Rising from the Ashes

Meeting Bruce Banner

All underlined text is what is translated

Lumna's POV

I had switched out my clothes for new ones as my old ones were getting worn thin, but I kept my hooded cloak from the night I arrived. I had also stolen a sharp-edged knife to use when it was absolutely necessary to defend myself. Although I suspected I would only need to use it to cut apart certain foods of this planet that were not edible from the outside, as I had learned quite painfully in other villages I had been to before.

I was walking through the town, pocketing the knife when I saw a few people in a group pointing at me and I instantly knew that I was about to be attacked, so I ran as fast as I could away from them.

In my hurry, I accidentally shoved someone aside so I yelled back a quick apology before running off.

I wove my way through carts and people riding animals, but the people were still behind me so I ran in between two buildings, hoping that I could hide there.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough as the people found me hiding behind several crates and proceeded to hit me violently with large, blunt objects. One blow landed on my neck, making my vision blurry and dotted with black spots, forcing me onto my knees and hands before I was forcefully kicked over. In my haze, I saw one of the people standing in front of me holding some kind of a silver blur and I heard a metallic noise until a voice rang out, 

“Enough!” and the people ran away, leaving me on my side on the ground with my bright orange blood running along the side of my face from a cut on my temple as my hood fell down. 

In my last few seconds of consciousness, I saw a man kneeling down in front of me before all went dark.

When I came to, I was laying in a dimly lit space and my head and neck hurt immensely. I sat up and I moaned a bit at how hard my head started to throb and I pressed my hands to my eyes when the same voice I heard before I passed out asked,

“Are you alright?” 

When my vision cleared up, I saw a man with curly black and gray hair wearing thin-rimmed glasses and professional-looking clothes sitting on a chair next to where I had been laying.

I didn’t know if this person was being genuinely friendly so I tried to back away before he held out his hands in a non-threatening manner and spoke quietly,

“I'm not going to hurt you.”

“Are you going to kill me?” I asked in a different language as it was a nervous habit of mine to switch languages when I’m scared. Luckily, the man seemed to understand the language I had switched to and answered with,

“No no, I just wanted to make sure that you're not badly injured or anything and to ask you why those people tried to kill you.”

I was about to answer when he held up a hand to stop me before continuing, “But first thing’s first, I'm Bruce.” He held out a hand to me, but I didn't know what he wanted me to do so I looked at him questioningly,

“What am I supposed to do?”

“It's a handshake?” He looked at me questioningly, “You just shake like this.”

Bruce used his other hand to take mine and made it move up and down. After he finished, I held my hand in the air for a few seconds looking at it strangely.

“Have you never handshaked anyone before?”

“No…”

“Well, what’s your name?” I looked at him blankly, not knowing what he meant.