Ch. 1
I woke up feeling the wet floor under my back. Darkness surrounding me. None of my senses are working fine, I'm feeling quite dizzy.
Suddenly my anxiety gets disturbed: "You finally woke up"- I hear a female voice say. -"My… that took a while!"-
-"Where… where am I?! Why can't I see anything? Who are you?!"- I scream, fearing for my life I start to feel horrified.
-"Calm down, you'll give us away. You're bandaged. We found you unconscious near the river, what in oblivion were you doing near Dragonbridge?"- I feel my heartrate go crazy. What in oblivion? Dragonbridge? Those words sound familiar… but I can't quite remember where I've heard them before. For now, I'm lost, in a foreign place with people I don't know…
I need to get out of here…
My bandages are taken off and in front of me appears a tough faced, brunette guy with dark eyes. He smiles but my eyes hurt, the daylight shines bright and everything goes back to black…
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-"What are you doing! You'll break my controller!"-
-"Oh shut up! It's broken anyway! You should buy another one"-
-"Yeah, but that doesn't give you the right to give it the final hit, dumbass!"- She rolls her eyes.
Man, I hate it when she gets this stubborn… I'm thinking: I have to buy a new controller, I know that. But it's just a game and my sister is jumping all over the place, leaving a mess all around and hitting my controller -my beloved and favourite one, that is- and giving it quite the hard time.
I roll my eyes and give up. She's right after all, I should have gotten rid of that controller half a year ago. I can't help but sigh. That controller was the last gift I received from my long lost best friend.
One day, he came to play at my house and when he left, he forgot his controller at my place. I let him know of course, but he said I could keep it. He knew I would take good care of it, after all… Not much time after he vanished from the face of earth… and I never got to see him again.
-"Ouch! Uhg fuck this, Keira, your stupid shit hurt me! I'm bleeding!"- I hear her scream. Damn it. I need to get rid of that controller… I will have to get rid of the last thing I have from my best friend…
-"Lis! Uhg this is your fault, I told you to leave the stupid thing be!"- I look at my friend's controller. It's broken. –"Of course you broke it, why does it surprise me!"- I roll my eyes -again- and take my sister to the bathroom where I start to clean her wound. It's small but deep and it obviously hurts her a lot. I sigh.
-"Uhg, Lis, for God's sake I told you not to touch it!" - "Oh, shut the hell up Keira, when in hell would have I imagined it would break like that and cut my finger?!"- I look at her with irony. I would have been surprised if she didn't come out hurt from a gaming session with that specific controller. It's always left me with quite too many scratches but… it was special to me so I didn't really mind it. Now, it's gone too far and I have no excuses left not to pour it to the trash, plus… it's broken.
Sigh, it's a shame.
My sister looks at me with sad eyes –"I'm sorry… I honestly didn't expect it would break so soon…"- I smile. –"Shut up, it's been three years already it would only last so long. And it was already fucked up when Peter left it that day…"- I knew It wasn't Annelise's fault. I knew it was me the only one to blame… but how could I just throw the only thing I had left from my best friend so heartlessly? I just couldn't.
-"There you go! See? It wasn't that big of a deal, you swear too much."- I say, knowing my sister's response: (And your mouth sure is pristine!) I thought to myself she would say.
-"I learned from the worst teacher"- She said. Hmm… I'm losing my touch.
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It's been three days already, since I first woke up to find a group of strangely dressed people telling me not to scream or I would give their position away. The woman, Jivete, was the weirdest one out of them all.
The group consisted of 5 people: Jivete, the middle height, dark skinned woman. Her hair was black like the night sky and her eyes were so grey I thought she wore contacts, almost silver if I dare say… I have never seen eyes quite like hers in my life. Then, there was Nikaia. A very short girl with also, a very, very, very short temper. And I thought I was cranky! Her hair was light red, almost orange and her eyes were big and green. In contrast to these quite unique looking women, there was Vyell. The not so tall but tall anyway, mid aged, brunette, dark haired kind of ugly man who took my bandages off the day I woke up in my own little pool of blood. He was mute. His tongue was fine though, so my theory is he went through a very traumatic event… moment that shut his words forever.
The second time I woke up, I could see I was inside a little cabin in the middle of the woods, surrounded by these three people. But right when I was about to ask them again where I was, the cabin's door opened and, what at the moment seemed to me as a bear, entered carrying firewood for what it looked like an improvised chimney. This guy was Adstan.
A person I won't describe right now, but what I will say is that he is… just like me.
Finally, there was Astrid, a way too scared girl who had no memories of who she was whatsoever… -no, wait, that was me- let me describe her again: A way too scared girl who had no memories of who she was before she was also found unconscious someplace in this way too weird place. The only difference was that she had been like this for almost a month and I was just starting my journey. Astrid is a cute middle height girl around my age, her hair is long and brown and her eyes are dark, which enhances her light skin.
And now, I can begin describing Adstan: Rephrase all I just said and apply it to a guy and you have the story of his present self. He's a tall, dark haired, blue eyed young man with skill for the sword. Adstan, Astrid and I have all that same issue in common. None of us have the less idea of who we are or how we got here. I also don't know where I am, although I do have the feeling I… know this place. I just can't recall from where or if I ever was here before all this happened, which is probably the most reasonable explanation because how else could anyone explain I have a vague idea of how some of these towns are?
A few days later, when my bleeding finally stopped, we left for the next city. Jivete, Vyell and Nikaia had a pending errand to do there and considering I had no place to go… or even the slightest idea of who I am, I had no reason not to go with them. Specially when two people in my same situation were going with them. And if there's one thing I know is under these circumstances, being by myself wasn't a smart idea.
Ch. 2
-"Sigh… why do I have to pick up the pieces of the thing you broke?!"- I scream to my sister. She just smiles and looks at her wounded finger with pitiful eyes, her mouth curves into a sad expression and all I can do is let another sigh go. I guess you can actually do these things for the people you care about, if someone else had been responsible for the loss of my long lost best friend´s console controller, I would have probably killed them.
A few days later, I woke up to find my console was on and one of Annelise's favourite games was on standby. It was quite early in the morning but since it's normal for us to stay up until very late in the night playing games, I just thought she had gone to the kitchen for something to eat or drink. –"Lis? Geez it's 4 am you woke me up!"-
Silence.
-"Annelise, I'm tired, it's late, if you don't answer me I will turn off the console and you'll lose all your data."- Again, silence. Annelise isn't in the kitchen so I knock on the bathroom's door to check if she's there. A few seconds later she opens it with red eyes and tears were rolling down her cheeks.
-"OMG Lis what's wrong?!"- I ask. –"I don't know K! my finger is swallowed and it started to itch but now it hurts a lot! I'm scared… what if I got some weird infection from that old rubbish when I accidentally broke it last week?!"- I look at her, fearing the worst. –"Don't be stupid, Lis I cleaned it up before bandaging it last week, it can't be that. I think you've been playing way too much lately and it aches now because of that…"- I tell her unsure my words are the actual reason behind her problem.
I take her hand and put her finger under the water stream, it seems to ease her pain. -"Annie, I'll go wake up mom, don't move your finger from under the water stream alright?" – She nods in agreement and I leave to wake mom up. For a moment I thought I had seen her finger glowing under the water, but I immediately rub that thought off my head. How could her finger be glowing? I'm way too tired.
I get to my parent's bedroom. Our father was out on a business trip, so I didn't have to be very silent when waking mom up. -"Mom… MOM! Wake up! Something's up with Lis." - "Mmm… What? Go to bed it's late…"- She replies. Next, I proceed to jump over her and I start to shake her with my hands. - "Mom, Annelise's finger is very swallowed and it hurts her! Please wake up!"-. When I finally got her to get out of bed, she's obviously angry. But my sister's hand wasn't looking any good and I wasn't going to let her suffer just because I didn't want to be punished for not being in bed at 4 am…
We go upstairs and go straight to the bathroom where I left my sister 10 minutes ago. The lights were on, the water tap was still open, and water was running down from it, but my sister was nowhere to be found. We looked everywhere, her bedroom, behind the bathtub's curtain, the backyard, my bedroom, wardrobes, beds… even the roof, but it was like she had vanished. Like ashes taken by the wind…
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-"Where do you think they're taking us?"- I hear a voice ask from behind me. –"I don't know, but they rescued us and wherever they plan to go, I follow"- The other voice replied. I look behind me, it was Astrid talking with Adstan. She looked quite worried, I could see her knees shivering from where I was standing. Jivete had tell us to walk in a row, she would be first as she was the most powerful one in our group. She was very skilled with daggers and melee attacks. Some days after my arrival to this Godforsaken land, I learned Jivete was a Dark Elf. She explained her race was good with dark magic and she considers herself quite the skilful sorceress. Oh God… where did I get myself into?
Behind Jivete, followed Nikaia. She was a Dwarf. Her strength surprised me when she used a hammer, three times her height to smack a giant's foot so it would… or "he" would? Well, whatever, so the giant would release Vyell from… its hand… or his hand… well, doesn't matter. Thing is Nikaia was a strong dwarf and you could say she was also Jivete's right hand. I was third in row. Jivete told me to walk behind Nikaia, and right behind me, came Adstan and Astrid. You could say we were the most protected ones as we were right in the centre of the group… more or less. Finally, at the end of the row came Vyell, he was strong and silent, just like a ninja. I still haven't found out what he's good at and since he can't talk… or doesn't want to, I can't directly ask him.
I could see Adstan ignore Astrid's shivering and I stopped. I felt some sort of weird feeling for Astrid. For me she was like a little sister who needed my protection. In that moment I felt like my head was about to explode, my head hurt so bad I fell on my knees, I could hear like something breaking inside and the pain increased significantly after that… then I lost consciousness and I cannot remember anything else from that day.
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It's been a week since my sister's disappearance. I haven't been able to sleep and my eyebags developed eyebags under their eyebags. You could say I was more a panda than human. My mom had called the police and they didn't find any trace of Annelise. No one could have abducted her; the only possibility was that she had left by her own means and will. But it's impossible she just left in the 10 minutes it took me to wake my mom up, so she could check up on my sister. I'm tired and depressed. I haven't turned on the console ever since my sister vanished, so the thing must have shut itself down automatically. I don't care… but what if my sister miraculously comes back? Or we find her and the goddamn console is broken because I didn't shut it down properly? Uhg, fuck this.
I walk into my room and get close to the device. I notice it isn't shut down, as I knew it wouldn't, but it looks different. The light that would normally turn a certain colour is flickering now… I get closer and touch the button to turn it on. Nothing abnormal happens. Then I turn it off and everything goes just like it normally would but it doesn't switches off… -"What the hell is wrong with you piece of rubbish!?"- I scream in despair. It's the last drop that filled my can. My best friend went missing three years ago but I somehow got used to the idea of him not being there anymore, then, the last thing I had from him breaks because my sister couldn't be nice enough. Still, it was already broken, and it hurt her so I had to get rid of it and now my sister goes missing. I cannot take it. I miss her more than I ever thought I would, she was my partner in games and she was also my confident whenever I did something that would have made mom lose her fragile mind. We never had pets, so I was all by myself… I felt so lonely I broke in tears; my knees gave in to my weight and I fall to the floor in front of the TV.
-"Ouch!"- I scream between my sobbing. Something had buried its way into my leg, it was a piece of the old controller my sister had broken about two weeks ago…
Awesome. Now not only I'm hurt inside but I also wounded my goddamn leg. Why am I so useless and weak?! It's like I can't do anything right, maybe I didn't clean my sister's wound well enough, maybe I did something terrible to my best friend to make him leave and maybe I'm also the reason why dad is never home. I've always known I'm useless… I have never been good at anything and now I don't even have a reason to keep trying anymore.
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-"For the love of everything that's worth it, will you stop fainting already?! I'm tired of having Jivete make me carry you around!"- I hear Adstan scream seconds after he notices my senses came back and I've woken up -once again- from my lost of consciousness. –"Adstan! Shut up, let her be! You know how it's like to be in her shoes! She's been exposed to too much stress."- Jivete replies with a hard look on her face. I can't see Adstan's face because he's carrying me on his back, but I can imagine him rolling his eyes already.
Adstan is not a very friendly guy. Not very talkative either, the few times I've seen him talk is whenever Jivete orders him to do something, whenever Astrid tries to make chitchat… but mostly when he's practicing with the sword and curses all his training long. –"You're fucking useless, woman."-.
Hurt.
My chest tightens up. His harsh words pull a string somewhere inside my head and tears start rolling down my eyes. I don't know why I feel this way, but Adstan's words pierce heavily into my mind. I try to stop the sobbing but Adstan notices and abruptly stops walking. –"Great, now you're crying…"- I hear him whisper. I can't stop, I start crying uncontrollably.
He puts me down and I notice a low pain in my leg but my chest hurts way more and I ignore it. None of the other group members notice we've stopped and keep walking, then, Adstan turns around and opens his mouth but stops right after. Next, he proceeds to play with his sword's hilt and looks someplace further than this reality –"Listen, crying won't solve anything. I get you're tired and wounded and probably very confused, but losing it will not help you in this situation, so please stop crying… I hate it when girls cry, you're all so troublesome!"- He sighs. I know what he's saying is true, but I can't hide it any longer… who am I? what am I doing here? Who was I before being my present self? Why do I keep fainting for everything? Have I always been so weak? So many questions inside my head, I wonder… will I ever get an answer to them?
-"Adstan… who am I? I don't even remember my name"- I cry. I see him make an awkward smile, he's uncomfortable with the situation but… I can't stop crying and I've already started talking. I can't just stop now. –"I don't know you…"- He starts –"wish I knew you before so I could help, but uh- if I'm dead honest here… I don't even remember my own name…"-That surprises me. His own name? Isn't his name Adstan? –"Y-your name?"- Finally, he looks at me in the eye and smiles. –"Same situation here, remember? Jivete gave me the name after a whole week of headaches, so don't feel like you're the only one who doesn't know anything about themselves."- Adstan states harshly and leaves. I stay still. Can't move a finger, but I managed to stop crying. Is this a normal thing in this world then?
After Adstan comes back with the rest of the group, that I can no longer see after a while, Nikaia comes my direction with quite an angry face and looking for me. She's moody but her expression changes once she sees me unable to move from the spot Adstan had left me. –"Are you ok, girl?"- She asks. I nod, unable to talk. Nikaia then proceeds to take me and carry me on her shoulder. She's quite short, but her strength helps her carry me without major issue. After what it felt like an eternity she stops and puts me back on the floor. My knees give in and I fall hard on them. –"Alright. We can't keep this going, you're slowing us down. I can't help you with your memories, but I will give you the freedom I gave your amnesiac partners not so long ago before your arrival: A name."- I look at the person talking and discover it was Jivete. She was looking down at me, hands on her hips and giving quite an annoyed stare at my weak and useless being. –"Fayre."- She says and offers me a soft smile. Fayre. The moment Jivete pronounced the name made the heaviness I've been feeling on my chest lighten up, it made me feel a lot better, actually… even, maybe, kind of… free. I look at Astrid and go from face to face after hers, everyone was smiling, even Vyell. Well… everyone except from Adstan who was leaning against a tree looking everywhere but where we were standing -or from where I was lying-.
-"Alright then, Fayre. I have been thinking about this after Astrid joined the group, but now it's not an option. We need to train you guys, because you're slowing us down and we need to finish the con- uhm… quest we've on our hands."- In that moment Nikaia, who's always frowning, jumped with a surprised look on her face and made a gesture but Jivete gave her a severe look and she sighted. -Vyell, I want you to teach Fayre and Astrid some of your knowledge in lesser magic. Also, help Adstan with his sword training." Jivete ordered and Vyell nods in agreement. Meanwhile, Nikaia's mood went from a startled face to an uncomfortable look. Sigh… I'm not sure I can fully trust these people…