We set off, our feet and paws crunching on the dirt. By now the sun hung high in the sky, letting its light peek through gaps in the trees. The grass was dappled with little golden spots. What a pretty sight! It must have rained here yesterday, because the ground was still a bit damp. It smelled fresh. As we walked, I heard another song. Like the music in Seaside, it seemed to come from the air itself. The tune was very soothing: a series of slow, soft piano tones. There wasn't much of a melody to it, but it did make for calm background music to calm my nerves.

"I forgot which area was east of Seaside," I said to Echo. "Don't remember its name. I don't think I went there very often. Otherwise, it would seem more familiar to me. You know?"

I closed my eyes and tried to picture the map of the world laid out in front of me. Each area had its own symbol on the map. Seaside's symbol was a shell and an ocean wave. I could also recall a tree with gnarled roots, a curled thorny vine, a sunflower, two clinking mugs, and a leafless black tree. The lack of memory was frustrating. I knew there were more lands than just Seaside and those five other areas. But not only could I not remember what the other two or three places were, I couldn't even put names on their symbols! Argh!

"Rats! I guess we should just go into it and see if the memory gets jogged, huh?"

Echo wagged her tail. "Woof!"

"You think that's a good idea? Neat. Let's go."

On our journey eastward, my dog and I eventually came across a spot where the ground crested into hills and valleys. They were grassy on top, but the sides were rocky. We kept following a path of beaten dirt, hoping it would take us somewhere helpful. I didn't like to think about how I didn't have any idea what I was doing, so I pushed the thought to the back of my mind and focused on walking. We're going eastward. We'll find someplace that will answer my questions. We'll find other people...right?

Let's go with that. For now, we're going to walk along this path.

And then my foot just had to slip on the rock face. Before I realized what was happening, I was sliding down into a deep ditch. I fell backwards and landed in a mud puddle. A bush broke and slapped me in the face with a prickly branch. Still standing on level ground, Echo looked down at me and barked.

"Stay there, Echo," I warned her, holding up my hand. "It'll be OK."

Echo attempted to walk down the incline to help me. Her paws almost slipped.

"No, Echo," I said, more forcefully this time. "Stay. I'll find my way up. Just wait there for me."

First I tried to climb out of the ditch, crawling up the rock face on my hands and feet. That didn't work. The rock was smooth, so I couldn't get a handhold.

"Nuts." I brushed some of the mud off my clothes. "Gonna have to try something else."

I rubbed my hands together and looked around for inspiration. Maybe if I grabbed a branch and pulled myself up…? Okay, it was worth a shot. I spotted a branch hanging down and grabbed it. Bracing my feet against the rock, I attempted to climb out by using the branch like a rope. That didn't work, either. The reason the branch was hanging low was because it had already broken off the tree during a storm. Me putting my weight on it just snapped it off the tree completely. Down I went again.

"I'm dumb," I said to myself. Angrily I grabbed the branch and threw it across the ditch. Of course, it didn't go very far because the ditch was tiny, but it made me feel a little bit better. Stupid crazy terrain.

Echo was concerned for me now. She whined as she watched me try to escape my predicament. Then she barked at me a couple times, as if she was asking, "Are you sure you don't want help?"

"I've got this, Echo. I don't like to ask for help. I just...Maybe I'm not trying hard enough to climb out."

Before I could make another ill-fated attempt to escape the ditch, I heard a strange noise from above. It sounded like murmuring. Echo turned her attention away from me to look at whatever was making that noise. As it got closer, I recognized the sound. It sounded like people talking.

Wait.

There were other people here?

"Echo!" I said. "I need your help. I really do this time. Can you let those people know I'm down here?"

Echo started barking like crazy. She ran around in agitated circles, trying to get their attention.

"Good girl!" I said, giving her a thumbs-up. Then I fell quiet so I could listen to what was going on.

"What in the...Do you hear that?" a male voice asked. He sounded a bit muffled, but it was clear that he was approaching.

A female voice responded, "If I'm not crazy-"

"You're crazy."

"Okay, well, if I'm not more crazy than usual, I think I hear a dog."

"Are you sure? I thought they were all missing."

"Maybe one or two slipped away from them? We should check it out."

"Of course. It's coming from over there."

There were some approaching footsteps. I couldn't see well from my vantage point, but they must have found Echo because she stopped barking.

"Why, hello there, cute stuff!" the guy said. "What are you doing out here alone?"

"Hey! That's your nickname for me!" the girl protested. "Don't call the dog cute stuff."

"But she is cute. What do you think she's doing out here?"

"Probably being hungry. Who knows how long she's been on her own?"

"Yeah, I bet you're lonely," the guy baby-talked to Echo. "You're a good girl, aren't you? Yeah yeah. What are you doing?"

Echo woofed and walked up to the edge of the slope. She pointed her nose down at me.

"Is she trying to show us something?" the girl asked.

"Arf!" Echo demanded.

"Okay, okay, let's look at it," said the guy, and he leaned over to look in the ditch. He gasped when he saw me sitting in the mud pit.

"What's the matter?" the girl asked.

"Oh my gosh! There's a person down here!" he yelled. "Are you OK, miss?"

"Hi!" I said. "I fell down here and got stuck. Can you help me out?"

Immediately the guy started rifling through his pockets, eventually pulling out a coil of rope. He unrolled it and tossed one end down to me. Bobbling the catch, I picked it off the ground and held it.

"I've got you," he promised. "Brace your feet against the rock face and I'll pull you up, 'kay?"

"OK," I said. "Thanks!"

The guy kept a firm grip on the rope. He stepped backwards one foot at a time, helping me climb up the sheer rock face. Slowly but surely, I made my way up, until I finally stepped out onto level ground. I let go of the rope, and the guy coiled it back up.

"What a way to meet someone," the girl commented. "Are you okay, miss?"

"Uh-huh," I said. "Just a little shaken up, is all."

Echo bounded over to me and licked my face. I gave her a hug and scratched her behind the ears.

"Anyway, I guess we should introduce ourselves," the girl continued. "My name is Kara Owltalon, and that's my boyfriend, Christopher Hedgethistle."

"Joy to meet ya!" Christopher waved.

They were an odd couple. Kara was a pixie girl with dark pink butterfly wings, while Christopher was a human boy with bronzed skin and dark hair. Kara didn't wear any makeup, nor did she wear shoes. She had on a tie-die shirt and wore a bunch of bead bracelets on her arms. Christopher, on the other hand, wore camo-colored clothes and a belt with dozens of small pouches on it.

"Hi, Kara Owltalon. Hi, Christopher Hedgethistle," I said. "Thanks for helping me."

"Ugh, Kara," Christopher said to his girlfriend. "Do you always have to refer to us by our full names? Now that poor girl thinks she needs to call us that all the time."

I was a little confused. "What do you want me to call you?"

"I'm fine with just 'Chris,' really," he said. "And don't call Kara by her full name all the time, 'kay? It gets kind of weird."

"Sorry," I squeaked.

"I like my full name," Kara insisted. "It gives me the good vibes."

"It gives me the weird-outs," Chris countered. "Look, I like your name, but I don't want to hear the full thing all the time. Or say it."

"But calling myself 'Owltalon' helps reaffirm our origins and sustains the connection of our souls to the life force of nature."

Chris sighed and turned to me. "Kara's a hippie, in case you haven't noticed."

"Right." I didn't know if that was supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing, so I tried to make my response sound neutral.

"Gosh!" Kara suddenly covered her mouth in surprise. "With all this excitement, we forgot to ask you what your name is! I'm sorry."

"My name is Conch...I think." It still didn't feel right.

Chris frowned. "Just 'Conch?' No way. You have a full name, don't you? What's your last name?"

I shrugged. There was a slight pause, and then Chris snapped his fingers angrily.

"I forgot that the stupid spell wiped people's memories. This poor girl doesn't even remember her own name," Chris said to Kara.

"If that's the case, we really need to bring her to the hub so they can help her. Even if she wants to go off on her own, don't let her. It's still not safe for people to wander alone."

"Hey, can I see your pack for a second?" Chris asked me.

I shrugged. Since I didn't have much of anything left in my bag, there was no need to worry about what would happen if Chris stole it. Besides, he seemed like a nice person. I slipped my satchel off my shoulder and handed it to him.

Chris opened it up and shook out the contents. A half-empty bottle of shampoo, a bow and arrow, another chef apron, stale dog treats, and a can of silly string tumbled onto the dirt ground. Apparently there was plenty of stuff left in the back that I had missed. How did I not notice a bow and arrow, of all things, in there before?

But Chris wasn't interested in that stuff. He found a slip of paper in the bag and studied it closely. Chris must have been nearsighted, because he held the paper really close to his face.

"Check this out, 'Conch,'" said he. "It's your registration information. "

"My what?"

"Basically the important things to know about you. It helped Kara and I jog our memories. Maybe it can do the same for you."

"What does it say?"

"Let's see...According to this, you were born in Stillwater Crossing, you have the Adventurer, Chef, Pet Trainer, and Archer classes, and you own a very cute dog named Echo. You're kind of solitary because I don't see any friends or guilds listed. No rule violations reported, so you're a good citizen, too. And...aha! Your name is Charlotte Falconblossom."

I was floored. "It is?"

He handed me the page. I checked for myself. Sure enough, the name Charlotte Falconblossom was printed on the top line, along with a grainy photograph of me. I blinked and rubbed my eyes a couple of times to make sure it was real. Echo barked happily and danced around my feet.

"Welcome to the Sunrise, Charlotte." He smiled. "It's always good when we find a new woken-up person."

"The Sunrise? What's that?" I stuffed the bow and arrow, shampoo, apron, and silly string can back in my bag and slung it over my shoulder. Echo snapped up the dog biscuits, only to make a disgusted face and spit them back out. Too stale, apparently.

"It's huge!" Kara cut in. "There used to be a Gloam spell cast on Sacred Grove that locked it into eternal night. The Great Sunset, it's called. But now the sun has risen again, and some of the Free Realmers are waking up! We're trying to round up everyone so we can stand against the Gloam. We defeated their Sunset, but we're going to have to work hard to push them out of Sacred Grove for good."

I blinked, trying to process all that. I had never heard of the Gloam or this Great Sunset that Kara was talking about. I hoped she would explain it more later.

"I'm just surprised you still have your dog." Kara pointed at Echo, who woofed at her. "The Gloam kidnapped all the pets and NPCs that used to live in Sacred Grove. They must have missed one of two, though. Why do you think Echo escaped the clutches of the Gloam?"

I shrugged. "She's a smart dog. I don't really know, Kara."

"I don't blame you. The spell that the Gloam cast to bring the Great Sunset wiped everyone's memories. They always need some kind of catalyst to bring them back. Did you have a moment like that?"

I stopped to think about that for a second. "Actually, yeah, I kind of did. I woke up in Seaside, but I had no idea what was going on until I started walking on the beach and thinking about things. I thought about how it was such a nice seaside place, and then it just sort of clicked that the place really was called Seaside."

"Nice!" Kara nodded. "What worked for Christopher and I was finding our registration information. That's what jogged the memories for us. Not only did it tell us who we are, but it helped us remember what life was like before the Great Sunset. Maybe we can find something that will do that for you."

"You'd help me find that?" I inquired.

"Well sure! I'm always glad to help a new friend. Come here." Kara held out her arms at me, offering a hug. I accepted it. Kara didn't seem to mind that I was caked in sand and mud from my adventures of this morning. It must have been a hippie thing, like Chris had said.

Speaking of Chris, he piped up, "We can't help her too much out in the Wilds, though. We should take Charlotte to the gathering in Sanctuary. Someone can help her get cleaned up, and they should know that another Realmer just woke up, anyway."

Kara snapped her fingers at Chris. "Great idea, babe! Let's go. Charlotte and I will be right behind you."

"Gotcha." Chris started heading down the path. "Don't wait up too long."

Kara slipped off one of her bracelets and put it on my wrist instead. It was a string of glass beads and shell fragments on a cord, tied with a clever knot. The beads were green and blue. They reminded me of the ocean.

"It's a friendship bracelet," Kara explained. "You should have one because you're my friend, and also, the Pioneers will know that you're a newly awakened Realmer. Chris and I are Scouts. We head out to search Sacred Grove for clues, Gloam hideouts, and stuff like that, but my favorite part is finding new Realmers. I always give them a bracelet when I find them."

"Cool." I slid the bracelet up my arm a little so it wouldn't slip. "Thanks, Kara."

"Hey, no problem!" She gave me a thumbs-up. "Now quick. We gotta catch up to Chris!"