Waves crashed along the distant shoreline, black as the night sky. A single human, a silhouette, running across the cold sand. Who was he running from, he didn't even know himself. All he knew, for it was what every muscle in his body was telling him, was that he had to run. His muscles started tearing from overuse, but this silhouette was devoid of any feeling, and he kept running. He was losing his mind.

The waves crashed harder now, and suddenly he slowed, like some sort of force was holding him back. The unknown force was too strong, though, and with a bloodcurdling scream he fell to the ground. The waves pounded their hardest now, and the silhouette raised his head weakly above the black sand. He seemed to look straight at something that was not there while insanely mumbling something incoherent. Then his head fell and he was suddenly swept away by a wave.

"Why won't this guy wake up...?"

Ice cold water was dumped onto his face. He could feel, hear, and smell, but he could not move or speak. The water wasn't working to wake him up, so a different method was put to the test. He suddenly felt a sting on his right cheek, and his head lolled to the side.

"Shit... Nothing's wor-"

Suddenly, his eyes flicked open. It took a bit for his vision to focus and adjust to the light, but the first thing he saw was pearl white sand. The sand reminded him of something, but that thought was swept away before he knew what it was.

"What the hell?"

He slowly got up to find a strange animal resembling creature staring at him open mouthed. He didn't know for sure if this... Thing was friendly or not. He extended a hand in greeting. The creature took it and shook, which proved it was intelligent. An alien, maybe? He thought to himself.

"Hey there," the creature said. "My name is Jake. Jake the Squirtle."

"Uhm..." He didn't know what to reply. "Hi... My name is Artemis." He did not know how he knew what his name was, but that appeared to be the only thing left of who he once was.

He looked down to notice that instead of a hand shaking the Squirtle's paw, there was a light brown colored paw. Shocked, he pulled away. He examined his whole body now, looking very scared as he did so. Another front paw and two back paws; he was four legged. He also had a tail, tall ears, and a sort of mane of white fur around his neck.

The Squirtle seemed to notice that Artemis was surprised, but he didn't bother asking about it. Instead, he stared across the deep blue sea at the sun, which was starting to set.

"So..." The Squirtle said. "I suppose you didn't come from out there." He pointed at the ocean as he lay back against a rock. "Nothing that way at all, as far as we can tell."

Artemis decided to actually start up a real conversation with Jake for the first time. "So you're all alone here?"

"Well, it's not just me," he replied. "There's a whole village; it's where I live."

Artemis didn't answer right away. Instead he stared out at the setting sun, which was casting a red streak across the water. The water reminded him of something, but again, it was swept away before he could comprehend it. He turned to Jake. "I don't know where I'm from, honestly. But I am pretty certain that I'm not from out there." The sun was halfway below the horizon by now.

"I didn't want to be nosy and just pour out questions for you," Jake said. "But now I don't think you could answer any, anyway. Sorta strange that you washed up here completely dry, also without knowing anything about yourself."

"I did know my name," Artemis answered.

"But that just adds to the awkwardness." Jake paused for a while. It was almost night already. "Our village has been going through some strange things lately, but you're by far the strangest, no offense."

"What types of strange things?" Artemis questioned, obviously not offended.

"Well," Jake continued. "Some of our villagers have been going a bit... Mad. They're always saying stuff like, 'end of the world...' 'Gods are mad at us...' 'No hero can save us now...' It's some scary shit." The sun was completely set now, and darkness was setting in. "You're gonna need a place to stay," said Jake. "If ya want, I have an open room at my place."

Artemis pondered this for a second. He knew he had to find a way back to where he came from, but he had no idea where that was. And either way, he would need food and fresh water to even live to that day. It was pretty much a rhetorical question. "Sure," Artemis said, all the while he wasn't so sure why Jake was being so nice to him.

"Alright," Jake said, "I'll show you the way."

That night Artemis had a nightmare. He could have sworn he knew what was going to happen, but then it slipped away like almost everything else he tried to remember. In his nightmare, there was a human silhouette running across a long beach, similar to the one he and Jake were on that evening. It was black as it could be; there was no moon in sight. The human appeared to be running from nothing, but there was a faint sound of pounding footsteps from a colossal creature that wasn't there. The human was pushing himself way past the physical limits of his muscles, but he didn't seem to feel anything.

The human suddenly slowed and toppled over with a scream. He lay there for a few seconds, then he raised his head and stared at something that wasn't there. He mumbled something that Artemis heard, but didn't understand. "I will not live like this forever. Someday... Someday, I will break free. I will break free and you will pay..." There was a curt flash of blue, like eyes, where the human was staring. Then his head fell and he was washed away by a dark, unforgiving wave.