Author's Note:

Hey guys, Finally I'm back with another chapter! This one is much longer than the previous chapters, I hope you don't mine. Keep in mind this is still the beginning, so things are gonna be a little slow. But if you are really antsy to see this story moving, don't worry, the next chapter will take care of that. In fact, I'll let you in on a little spoiler at he bottom. Anyway, let's get the show on the road. Enjoy!

"Talking"

"Twisted Talking"

'Thinking'

'Twisted Thinking'

Location: Unknown

Date: Unknown

Time: Early Afternoon

I woke up with a gasp, eyes snapping open, which was a bad idea as the sun decided to blind me, forcing them closed. I must have taken a nap while fixing the deck. My heart was racing as I took deep breaths to calm myself from the nightmare I just had. It was so strange; I had never had such a realistic dream before. But, like all my nightmares before, it was already forgotten. All I could remember was the fear.

My head was pounding as I raised my hand and pressed it to my forehead. 'Oh my head…wait, why does my hand feel weird?' I held my hand out in front of me, slowly blinked my eyes as they adjusted to the brightness. The image of my hand slowly sharpened. For some reason, I had on a pair of soft, black leather fingerless gloves. I arched my eyebrow in confusion. 'When did I put gloves on?' I slowly turned my hand as I took in the craftsmanship of the glove.

The glove seemed to cover from the start of my wrist to the second knuckle of my fingers, the exception being my thumb, which was completely covered. The palm of the glove seemed to have some sort of padding on it, separated into two pieces so that I could easily close my and without any limitation. The stitching was done with a blood red thread that I barely was able to notice. The back of the glove had some sort of design stitched on it, made with the same red thread. The design depicted two crossed blades, forming an X. Finally, the knuckles of the glove seemed to have been reinforced, much like the palm of the glove, but the material being much more solid than the soft padding of the palm.

Grimacing, I unsteadily got to my feet, my headache becoming more prominent, indicating that I had been lying down for quite some time. As my vision darkened form getting up too quickly, a wave of dizziness hit me and I blindly reached my hand out in hopes of finding something to support myself with. Fortunately, my hand came in contact with a tall, flexible pole and I was able to stop myself from falling over.

'Oh God, I feel just like I did that time Mike convinced me to down that entire bottle of rum in five minutes.'

Leaning some of my weight onto the pole, I stood still, slightly hunched, waiting for the vertigo to subside. My vision was slowly becoming clear and I noticed that the gloves weren't the only change to my wardrobe. Instead of my dirty sneakers, I was wearing a pair of knee high boots made of the same supple leather as my gloves. Tucked into the boots was a pair of black skintight pants with a small strip of red going down the sides. My chest was now covered with a black sleeveless vest that was thickly woven, with a strip of red running down the sides, the same as my pants. The vest overlapped in the front and was held together by five wooden pegs attached to the front flap of the vest and put through small loops of rope attached to the right side of the vest. I felt a faint tickling sensation of the back of my neck and reached my hand behind my head. I felt a piece of cloth and tried to pull it off, only to find out that it was attached to my vest. I then slowly pulled the piece of cloth over my head, revealing it to be a small hood.

Forcing myself to not panic from these changes while my head was still reeling, I pulled the hood as far over my head as it would go. I sighed in relief as the light wasn't assaulting my eyes as much and my headache started to lessen. I closed my eyes and found comfort in the darkness; surprisingly, the vertigo seemed to fade quicker also, which was quite odd, since shutting your eyes is supposed to increase the feeling of vertigo. 'I think I'm gonna be alri-' *HRRRRRRK* *SPLASH* "...goddammit..."

Wiping my mouth with the back of my glove, I slowly straightened myself up and was about to put my head against the pole I had been using when I saw that it wasn't actually a pole. It was a bamboo tree. I'd never actually seen one in real life, but it's hard to mistake what was right in front of me.

My face and mind were blank as I slowly spun around in a circle and saw myself completely surrounded by bamboo trees. I stared at the bamboo tree that I had been leaning on. I closed my eyes, counted to five, and opened them again. It was still there. The corners of my mouth started twitching.

"…Heh…heheh….heheheh…hehehahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I'M IN A BAMBOO FOREST! A BAMBOO FOREST! HAHHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAhahahaha…heheh…he…" The absurdity of my situation caused a momentary lapse in my sanity, which was a welcome relief. All too soon, the logic center of my brain rebooted and began to comprehend the gravity of my circumstances.

I was in foreign clothing that I never bought nor saw before. I was no longer in Columbia. Nor South Carolina. Not even the United States. The bamboo forest looked too wild to be anything but a naturally grown forest. Which, as far as I knew, only grew in Asia.

My heart sped up as dread began to worm its way into my stomach. Dizziness filled my head and I was unable to keep my balance this time, falling backwards onto the ground. I laid there, looking up at the bright blue sky while I began sifting through my memories to figure out how the hell I got here. It wasn't a dream because nothing I had seen so far looked familiar in any way and I had read somewhere in a science article that your brain takes images you have seen before and rearranges them while you sleep in order to process the information of the day and, in doing so, creates dreams.

Reeling in my emotions, I allowed logic to become the exclusive portion of my psyche to influence my thoughts.

"Alright, so, what do I know?" Thinking out loud always helps me organize myself and as a bonus, it calms me down when I'm stressed. "I was fixing the back deck on my day off because mom wanted me do something instead of just sitting on my ass all day. It was a Thursday. It was late July so it was starting to really get hot. I was wearing pants and sneakers with no shirt. I replaced most of the bad boards and carried them to the burn pit. I stopped to smoke a cigarette and…and…" My memory of the day stopped there. That was concerning.

I may not have the best memory when it comes to what somebody tells me to do, but I always remembered what I did during the day. And the sudden lack of memory of what I did was starting to terrify me. But what even more distressing was that I was certain that whatever happened after I smoked my cigarette was the key to figuring out how I got here.

A sudden thought flitted through my mind. If I didn't remember what happened that day, what else didn't I remember? Having no way to pinpoint what other memories were gone, if they were gone, I'd have to start from the beginning.

"Okay, let's start with the basics; I was born in Illinois. I'm 20 years old. My name is-"

"SOMEONE HELP!"

I jerked my head up. The scream chilled me to the bone. It was full of terror and anguish. But for some reason, it sounded vaguely familiar. Like I had heard a similar shriek before. Trembling, I got to my feet.

My heart was pounding in my ears, but I could still make out slight whimpering and a sadistic laugh coming from some ways in front of me. Not wanting to just alert whoever it was to my presence, I crouched down and made my way through the forest as quietly as I could. Which apparently was very quiet. I was able to detect little pebbles or twigs and carefully avoided them, while also slipping in between the dense bamboo trees without touching them.

The source of the whimpering was getting closer and it wasn't very long until I came to the edge of the forest. Green shrubs lined the exterior of the forest, looking less wild and more carefully placed. It was obvious that someone had purposely put the shrubs on the edge of the forest, which meant that I was more than likely either near a road, or approaching the edge of someone's property. I had been around enough farms to know that farmers would often would line the ends of their fields with shrubs or bushes to mark their property lines.

The voices were right behind the shrubs and nothing indicated that anyone had heard my approach. I could make out someone lightly sobbing while two other voices conversed with each other. Astonishingly, they seemed to be talking in English.

"Heh, pretty nice haul, don't you think?" a guttural voice asked.

"Yeah, this guy was just loaded with money! Too bad he decided to not just give it up," an equally gruff voice replied.

"Who cares? It's not like the coward could actually stop us and he won't try anything else after that beating we gave him. Just look at him! He's pathetic."

"Yeah, well, we better get moving soon. Don't want to risk being seen by anybody and have 'em running to the Valley."

"Right."

I licked my dry lips and raised my hands to part the shrubbery when I noticed that they were no longer trembling in the slightest. In fact, I felt completely at ease, as if I had not been sneaking through a forest, which could only be in Asia, with new clothes towards unknown voices, one that had screamed bloody murder less than two minutes ago. I hadn't even taken the time to comprehend that I was heading towards an almost definite dangerous situation. It was a rare lapse in my concern of personal safety.

But that didn't matter right now. This was obviously some sort of mugging, and the two thugs had already admitted to beating their mark into submission. Usually, something like this would have either made my blood boil or sent me running for the hills, but all I felt was a sense of calm determination to help this unfortunate person.

I parted the shrubs carefully, limiting the noise the leaves made and only creating a large enough opening to be able to analyze the situation. Needless to say, I had been expecting to see two bulky looking guys and a smaller, roughed up man. But nooooo, my already distressing day decided to become even more senseless.

There were definitely two bulky looking guys, but they weren't exactly guys. Hell, they weren't guys at all! Standing on their hind legs at what seemed to be 5' 10" and around 300 pounds, were two flippin' crocodiles! They were even wearing pants. Pants! There was also a small…pig…man…lying on the ground with what looked like a broken arm and bloody nose.

'I…am…insane. I'm insane. Full-on straight jacket in a padded room with my best friend Jeff the Singing Mattress.' There was no other explanation that fit. Everything that had happened to me in last twenty minutes was explained perfectly by me suffering some sort of mental breakdown. But my annoying logic kicked in and told me that I wasn't crazy. If I was insane, I wouldn't be able to recognize it.

Which only made this situation only more confusing. Animals that could walk and talk, clearly having sentience and having following the lines of progression that humans did. This place is frickin' weird.

I turned my attention back to the two crocs and pig. The crocs were still raiding the pig's cart, looking for anything of value. The pig was just lying there on the ground, in obvious pain, as he watched the crocs helplessly. I felt a tug in my heart. It may just be a delusion, but the situation was all too familiar to me. I remembered the times I had been beaten and broken like that from bullies that had picked on me because of my small stature.

Frowning, I analyzed the crocs. I doubted they would go away if I just appeared before them and yelled at them. I'd have to fight them. But I've never even been in a fight before! One had a sword strapped to his waist on his left, while the other was holding a club in his left hand. Crude weapons of a less advanced society. 'So, one is left-handed and the other is right-handed.' 'Club is slower, easier to disarm. Sword is more challenging. Opposite dominant hands make it difficult to adjust to the opposite angles of attack if both are fought at once,' a different voice in my head suggested.

I willed myself not to jump in surprise at the sudden new voice. It was cold, dark, and emotionless in its observation, but it was also familiar and calming. I was about to question its existence when it continued, 'Stealth is key. An unseen enemy is a feared enemy. Divide and conquer. Once one of them is down, the other will be demoralized. Fear will cloud his mind and make his actions wild and desperate. Openings to strike will appear often but go quickly. Position of eyes leaves the back a blind spot. Scales are thicker on the back, making it difficult to do damage from there. However, small spot on back of the neck is vulnerable. Hitting it with enough pinpoint force will render him unconscious.'

As the voice was speaking, I realized why I recognized it. It was my voice. I didn't realize it at first because of the lack of emotion and the combat strategies it was listing off. But it was mine, no doubt about it. I didn't question its existence, or the knowledge that it had, and instead just chalked it up on the "This place is weird" board. Besides, it was giving out really good advice. As soon as I decided to listen to my strange inner voice, I felt something that could only be described as chilling presence sweep over my mind.

Taking into consideration what the voice said, I looked around for something to distract and lure one of the crocs with. Spotting a stick lying near my feet, I picked it up and slowly made my way backwards into the forest. About 50 feet into the forest was a small clearing, about 20 feet in diameter. I held the stick with both hands and broke it as loudly as I could.

I heard the crocs stop rummaging in the cart for a few seconds before one of them spoke up, "You heard that too, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I think it came from the forest."

"What do you think it was?"

"How am I supposed to know? Why don't you go and find out?"

"What? Why me?"

"Because I said so, now go!"

"Ugh, fine."

The other voice spoke up, 'Must hide. Trees too noisy to climb. Plenty of cover and shade on the ground.' I took its advice and looked for a decently dark spot for me to hide in. I spotted a small patch of shade off to my left just as I heard the shrubs on the edge of the forest rustle. I hid as quickly as I could and laid down on my stomach. Almost a minute later, the croc with the sword slowly stepped into view about 20 feet away, his weapon drawn as he scanned the area and listened for any noises. I held my breath and laid my head down as his eyes wandered over in my direction.

A minute passed by and the croc suddenly sighed. I lifted my head slowly off the ground and took a peek at him. He was no longer looking in my direction and was starting to sheath his sword. 'Wait for his back to turn, then strike.'

The now relaxed croc turned his back and called out, "There's nothin' here, man. Let's ju-"

I had moved as soon as the croc had turned and jabbed at the base of his head where his skull met his spine. He went down instantly.

"Hey, what happened?" the other croc called out.

'His friend will be here soon. That sword will come in handy.' I untied the sword from the unconscious croc's waist and unsheathed it. It had a blade about three feet long, curved at the tip, with only a single edge. 'Large, clumsy, improperly balanced. Made for damage, not precision.' The voice paused for a second as I looked down at the croc. 'Not terrifying enough. Finding his friend dead will allow the fear to inhabit him quicker, causing him to make rasher decisions. Finding his friend gutted will make him nearly paralyzed, allowing a longer moment to strike with this farce of a weapon.'

Without a further thought, I rolled the croc on his side and stabbed the sword into his soft belly. I then jerked the sword to the side, opening him up. As the blood began to pool on the ground, I smirked. 'Too easy.'

I heard rapid rustling coming towards me. 'Blood on the sword will leave a trail. Either wipe it off, or leave it to grab while the other is distracted.' I decided to leave the sword stuck in the ground so it wouldn't encumber me as I moved. Then I climbed one of the bamboo trees quickly, hoping that the other croc was making too much noise himself to notice the rusting tree. I got high enough that the croc wouldn't notice me, but low enough that I wouldn't be too hurt if I dropped down.

A few seconds later, the other croc burst through the dense bamboo, club raised high above his head. He looked around wildly for a second before his gaze caught the sight of his friend. Just as planned, the croc's eyes widened and his jaw hung limply at the scene before him. 'Not yet. Closer.'

The croc took trembling steps towards his fallen friend, his club arm hanging loosely at his side. Just as he passed the sword, I dropped down from the tree. Since he hadn't made any acknowledgement of having heard me, I assumed he was too shocked at the sight of the other croc to be able to hear anything else. He came to a stop at his friend's side and dropped to his knees. 'Perfect.'

I silently made my way over to the sword and pulled it out of the ground. The croc didn't move. I then moved and positioned myself right behind him. I raised the sword, preparing to strike him in the head. As I brought the sword down, the croc suddenly whirled around, swinging the club and catching the right side of my head.

I was sent flying and landed on my back, surprised at the strength of the blow. The sword had been jarred loose from my grasp when I was hit. I lifted my head up just in time to see a blurry croc standing above me with his club raised. 'Roll to the right.' *THUD* The croc's club smashed the ground where I had just been. He was slowly coming back in to focus as he raised his club again. 'Roll to the left.' *THUD* I could see the croc clearly now. His face was twisted in murderous rage. 'Angry and rash. Can use that as an advantage.'

The croc's club came down again. I rolled out of the way and saw the impact. He putting so much force into his swings that there were indents in the dirt and I could see small cracks starting to form on the club. I smirked. I knew what to do.

As he raised his club in the air again, I taunted him. "What's the matter? Can't hit the guy who gutted your pathetic friend?"

He roared in blind rage and brought his club down with even more force. I dodged it and the impact shattered the club. Before he could realize his mistake, I jumped up and grabbed the sword lying a few feet away from where I had landed.

The croc whipped his head towards me, shock evident on his face while he held the broken remains of his weapon. Knowing he had the superior strength, I decided to take a chance and hurled the sword at him. The sword went right into his gaping mouth and out the back of his neck. He stood there for a moment before toppling over, gurgling slightly as blood began to seep into the ground.

I smirked and walked over to his body. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head and he wasn't breathing. I looked at his waist and saw a large sack tied to it. I took it off his waist and opened it. It was filled with what looked like gold coins. No wonder they were so happy they had found that pig.

Sack in hand, I walked back towards where the injured pig was, leaving the two crocs in Mother Nature's hands. I emerged from the forest and saw the pig in the same spot as last time. He was curled on his side cradling his broken arm. I decided to get his attention and pulled down my hood.

"Hey."

He stiffened and turned his head. Horror plastered his face as he looked at me. "G-get away from me!" Well, that wasn't the reaction I was expecting.

Holding out the sack, I told him, "I got your gold here."

He never even looked at the sack, keeping his eyes only on my face before he cried, "Don't kill me! Please, don't!" At this point, the pig looked like he was becoming hysterical.

I took a step forward. "Look, I-"

I got cut off as a stone sailed by my head, narrowly missing my ear. "GET AWAY FROM ME YOU DEMON!"

'Demon?' Another stone was thrown at me. The pig was obviously not going to listen to me. The best course of action at this point was to just leave the pig alone. I hurried back into the forest, dodging any rocks thrown my way. 'What the hell is wrong with that guy? And what's with calling me a-' I froze as I entered into the clearing. '-demon?'

The cold presence that had taken over my mind left as I looked at the scene before me. It wasn't anything new, just the two crocs I had killed. But I finally realized what I had done. I, never having been in a fight before, had just killed two crocs. Or rather, two people of this odd place. One of which I had ended for no other reason than to make it easier to kill the other. All I had wanted to do was beat them up when I first saw them, but instead I ended up taking their lives.

And I enjoyed it.

Numbly, I looked down at myself. My boots were covered in blood, my hands were stained with it, and I could feel small rivulets on my face. No wonder that pig had called me a demon.

Bile rose in my throat, and I could only try not to get any on me as I fell to my knees and emptied the acid from my stomach. Tears ran down my face, mixing with the blood on it and slowly spattering on the ground.

After about five minutes, I stopped heaving and slowly got stood back up. I wiped my face with my arm and looked back at the bodies. Guilt flooded me, and I could only think of one thing to do to make some sort of atonement. I walked over to the croc that had the sword in his mouth and removed it. As I pulled it out, the sickening sound it made twisted my stomach and I almost started heaving again. With no other tool close by, I began digging two holes in the ground.

It had taken nearly four hours to dig the graves, but it was finally done. I had covered the mounds with stones lying around the forest and made two crosses with bamboo and vines from around the clearing. It wasn't the best job, but it was something. Without knowing anyone in this strange world that knew these two crocs or what the funeral customs were, I ended up kneeling between the two graves and whispering, "I'm so sorry."

With the funeral done, I went back to the place where I had first woken up. While I was scrounging for stones, I had stumbled back there and saw a sack that I had missed when I was trying to figure out how I had gotten here. It was just a simple brown sack that I could carry on my back. Inside it were some items.

There was a small knife, a leather canteen, a bottle with oil in it, some rope, and a small bag of jerky. But then there were the interesting stuff. A flip lighter, a small box with a sliding button on the side, a handheld crossbow with a few small bolts, and twin single edge swords that could be strapped to the back of my vest.

I was hesitant to pick up the swords due to the very recent incident, but I was given them for whatever reason and knew I needed some way to defend myself. However, I promised myself that if I ever needed to use them, I would keep the sheaths on them. It took me a couple minutes, but I was able to figure out how to strap them on. When I did, I seemed to have gained slightly better balance, as a sense of completeness fell over me. The crossbow seemed to be able to clip to my waist and the extra bolts were held on the side of the crossbow with some built in slots.

When I examined the small box, I determined that it couldn't be opened, but there was a small hole on the top of the box in line with the sliding button. When said button was slid towards the small hole, I was pleasantly surprised to see the end of a cigarette come out. Needless to say, I happily took it and lit it with the lighter before I went back to searching for stones.

Arriving at where I woke up, the sky was a purple hue as the sun began to set. It was a warm night, so a fire didn't seem necessary. Muscles strained from digging, I sat down leaning against some bamboo for a short rest. Having woken up in the afternoon, I wasn't too tired, just emotionally and mentally exhausted. It was a rollercoaster of a day so far and it didn't seem like it would get better any time soon. Taking out my box and lighter, the smell of burning tobacco soon filled the air as I finally allowed myself the time to ponder my situation.

I was in a world of anthropomorphic animals set in China. I had narrowed down where I was to a country since, to the best of my knowledge, Asia was mostly China and Russia, and Russia wasn't the ideal environment for bamboo. It seemed to be somewhat early in development judging from the clothes of the animals and the less than modern weapons they had. They also used precious metals as a source of income such as the golden coins the pig had. Earlier, it had occurred to me that I had never given the pig his money back and found the bag on the ground next to the pile of vomit in the clearing. Currently, it sat in my sack, 'hehe,' with the rest of my stuff.

So far, I have yet to see another human, and, based on the presence of what passes as people in this world, I doubt I would find one. 'Guess I'm an endangered species then.'

I thought back to the pig and how he reacted to seeing me. 'The blood may have played a part, but he only looked at my face when he was freaking out. Must have been the first time seeing a human and was terrified by how I looked. Can't really blame him, I almost freaked out when I saw him and the crocs. Probably would be best to hid my face and arms if I plan on trekking out any time soon.'

This change in wardrobe was concerning, but there wasn't really much to think about since there were no clues or information accompanied by it. None concerning the sack of equipment and supplies I have either. All I could do was just accept their presence and move on. Though, I still wasn't too eager to use those swords.

Then there was the matter of that twisted version of my voice in my head. It hasn't spoken up since the fight. 'It clearly knew how to strategize and fight, yet I have no knowledge of either of those. And when I started listening to it, I seemed to have become a different person. That cold presence that accompanied it is also concerning. Without knowing anything else about it, or where it came from, the best course of action would be to stay cautious when it decides to speak up and remain in control of myself. Losing it like I did with those crocs was just purely unacceptable. They may have been willing to rob and beat someone, but death was too harsh a punishment.'

I took one last drag and flicked away the finished cigarette.

And finally, my missing memory. Whatever lied in it was the key to how I got here. So far, it seemed that it was intact up until I took a break from fixing the deck. Everything else was there; my family, my childhood and barely begun adulthood, my schooling, my na-

My eyes slowly widened.

"…What's my name?"

Author's Note: Kind of a weird chapter, right? If anything was confusing, or something wasn't clear, please feel free to leave a review. Also just review because it helps me make the story better, and I really do want to make this story the best I can for you guys. Anyways, this is CrimsonReaper1996 saying, have a fantastic day!

Oh and spoiler alert: our character heads to the Valley in the next chapter. It doesn't go too well.