Do you know what it feels like to wake up one morning and not know who you are, or where you are; even where you may have come from?
This is my story.
The sun shining in my eyes is what woke me up. That and the monstrous headache that made me feel like someone was chopping my brain into small bits for a soufflé. I sat up slowly and looked around. I was sleeping on a white bed in a small cabin or tent. I wasn't sure.
I swung my feet around, so I could sit up properly and let them hang off the side of the bed.
There wasn't anyone in here, just a couple large pots of water and five other beds. I might have been scared if I wasn't so confused. I looked down at myself. My stomach was wrapped in gauze and I was wearing only small white shorts and a cloth wrapped around my chest. My feet were bare and cut up, but my hands were small and soft.
I hopped out of the bed – quite painfully, actually, I had forgotten about my feet and my shoulders felt on fire – to walk over to the pot of water closest to my bed.
I looked down into it tosee a girl with a very confused look upon her face. She – or I should say – I, even though I didn't know who I was, had shoulder length, white blonde hair. My eyes were a really light blue, except for the outer edge, which was dark blue, almost black.
I stood up and moved out of that room. Hobbled, is more what I did. A small woman was sitting behind a table, and jumped when I came in.
"Oh, you're awake! Praise be to Yevon!"
I just stared at her. Who was Yevon?
She walked over to a chest behind me and pulled out some odd clothing.
First, she handed me spandexy black pants. She waited, so I put them on, and she handed me faded blue shorts, which I pulled on over the spandex pants. She then handed me a shirt. It was mostly purple, but around the neck was the brown halter. That was a little more difficult to work out, especially with my bad shoulders and my stomach that was feeling a little disoriented. The lady helped me though, and then she handed me these socks that matched my shirt and tall brown boots.
"That's what you washed up wearing. We cleaned them up, of course and…oh! I have your bag and…staff too." The woman said, taking a brown bag embroidered with green, yellow and purple strings, from a hook. She wrapped the strap around my stomach carefully and fastened it. Then she took a tall staff out from a small cabinet and handed it to me. The pole was black and long and on top of it sat a blazing, deep red bulb. I touched the glass ball, which I noticed was kind of heavy, and it seemed to almost burn under my skin.
Something about that glass ball stirred me up, leaving me with a disgruntled and unrest feeling.
"We were all very scared for you when you showed up. What's your name, anyway?" The woman asked.
I looked at her solemnly and shrugged. "I—I don't…know." I said.
"Oh dear," she replied, stepping forward. "Why don't you go out and talk to Wakka and Tidus? They're the ones that found you yesterday."
I just nodded, like I knew what the hell she was talking about.
"Before you go out there, dear." She said, and dug in her robes. She threw something over me, but I began to feel a lot better.
"Thank you," I said, and left the hut, clutching my staff tightly.
It was very bright outside, very bright and very green. Small children were running around happily, the breeze was blowing and the smell of sea water clung to the air, filling me with a contented feeling.
I shielded my eyes from the sun as I looked around.
"Hey!" I heard someone yell.
I turned to see who it was—a tall, red haired man was running toward me. He had tall bangs that stood up and curled over, and he was wearing yellow pants that had sort of suspenders connected to his vest.
"Thank Yevon you're okay, we weren't sure you were going to make it!" he said. He had an accent, at least to my voice he did. But then again, maybe I had an accent and I forgot to use it?
"We?" I asked.
"Yeah, me and Tidus. My name is Wakka." He held out his hand, and I shook it, but I didn't know what to say.
"Where you from…uh…" he said after a few awkward moments. I figured he wanted to know my name, but I really didn't know what to tell him.
"Well…" I offered.
He looked hopeful.
"I…don't know my name. And I don't know where I came from." I put my head in my palm. My brains were still a bit jumbled and not knowing where I was from or even my name was really frustrating…and sad.
"Hey, that's alright. Come on, you can meet Tidus, yeah? He washed up like you…except he wasn't unconscious and he did this amazing kick flip…um…" he scratched the back of his head.
I just shrugged.
He set an arm around me and we walked down the path, past a few different huts.
"Here we are. Tidus, you in there?" he called.
After a moment, a tall, not quite as tall as Wakka, but tall, blonde guy came out of the hut.
"Hey, hey! She's awake." He exclaimed. He didn't have an accent.
And even though this was probably my cue to say something, anything like, 'thanks' maybe, the words didn't come out.
"Hey, Tidus, you guys kinda have something in common, yeah. She doesn't remember her name, or where she came from—but she's lost like you, eh?" Wakka told him.
"Yeah, I guess that would mean you're pretty lost." He sympathized, I think.
"At least," Okay, why were the only things coming out of my mouth stupid? I don't know.
He laughed, though, and Wakka too.
"You're alright." He said to me.
I shrugged again. To shrug is to symbolize that you do not know. Yeah, wasn't that the truth.
"You should go in the temple and pray. Perhaps your memories will start to come back to you." Wakka said suddenly.
Tidus just looked at me.
"Um…alright."
"You do know the prayer, right?"
No, I thought, I can't say I do, buddy.
"Like this."
He put one foot back, spread his arms, bending down. As he stood straight, he moved his hands one over the other as if a ball were between them, and bowed.
"You try," he said.
I threw my staff to Tidus, who, thankfully, caught it and did just as Wakka showed me.
"Great! You're better than Tidus." Wakka cried.
I laughed a little, and then followed the boys to the temple. Tidus handed me my staff and winked. I blinked in return and moved over to a tall statue.
"That is High Summoner Braska." A soft voice said.
I didn't bother to look at who was speaking, just listened.
"He defeated Sin ten years ago, and we recently got this statue put in here."
I looked at it for a moment, and bowed, like Wakka showed me. I didn't know what the hell Sin was, other than what I did all the time by swearing, but I didn't care.
I just wanted to remember my name...
I heard yelling behind me. I turned to see Tidus dash up a case of stairs and into a room.
Wakka followed, but I was not going to be left behind. I ran up the stairs full speed and caught up with Wakka.
"Wait!" I cried.
He turned around, looking shocked.
"Let me come with you, too." I said.
It was very dark. We followed a hall and went down two cases of stairs. We found Tidus who was looking a little guilty, and we entered a large circular room. The biggest door was across from us, up another case of stairs. There was a very tall, furry, animal type man standing half way up the stairs. He had a dull horn on his head and a long tail that was wrapping around his legs and twitching.
"What in the world is going on, Wakka?" A woman with long, long black hair asked.
Wakka looked exasperated, the woman just looked pissed.
"Tidus, he wanted to go into the Cloister of Trials to get Yuna after he heard she'd been in here over a day." Wakka explained.
"She just may be excommunicated for his rash actions." The woman hissed.
I looked over at Tidus, but he wasn't paying any attention to Wakka or the woman, he was looking anxiously up at the large door.
I put my hand on Wakka's shoulder. "Come on, it can't be that bad." I said, "he was just worried, is all."
"So this is the girl you found." It was not a question.
I looked at the woman. She had a long dress on, a very neat one. It was fur around the shoulders, and belted about a million times in the front.
"I am Lulu." She said. I shook her hand too.
"I…don't know my name."
"She lost her memory, washing up on shore like that."
Thank you, Captain Obvious.
"Perhaps you got too close to Sin? It could be his toxin gripping your memory…" She suggested.
I just stared at her. Sin, again, eh?
"Ah, well, you're not exactly alone." Lulu said.
Just then, the big door opened, scaring me half to death.
A girl, who looked about my age (what was my age again?), stumbled out. She paused, and almost fell down the stairs, but the animal man caught her.
Tidus must have been feeling embarrassed, because he jumped forward too, like he could have caught her.
"I've done it, I've become a Summoner!" She said, beaming.
Something about it struck me familiar. I clutched my staff a bit tighter.
Lulu and Wakka looked pleased and walked up to her.
"What's a Summoner, again?" I asked Tidus. More stupid words.
Tidus shrugged.