Prologue

I have been on my own for as long as I can remember. My first memory is me waking up in a forest, on my back, and pain ripped through my entire body. My surroundings were alien, and nothing seemed to make any sense to me. The sound of a twig snapping, or animals moving throughout the forest would set me on edge. I had not known what my name was, who I was, or where I came from. Nor did I know if anyone would search for me, noticing that I had disappeared.

But that was many moons ago. Now I have grown taller, stronger, and have memorized the forest from top to bottom. During that time of growing, I had made a bow with arrows, and a knife. Each were particularly useful and every time I went out on a hunt, I knew I was getting better with my aim and my stealth, making it a little too easy to kill game. But that was what happened during the day, what happened at night was more frightful than anything I had ever experienced. Even more so than waking up alone in the middle of the woods.

Sometimes I would get vivid visions, no memories. They were much too vivid and seemed too real to be mere visions. They felt like they held fragments of my past in them, in these memories, and they were just now coming back to me. I was excited at first, hoping that they would tell me about how I ended up in the middle of a forest with no memory on how I got here, or who I was.

Most of the time the memories would be beautiful. Full of wonderful colors and blue skies. I could feel the warm sun shining down on me and laughter filled the summer air. Flowers, long strands of grass, and trees would sway with the wing, tickling my skin. That only happened if I were truly lucky. Lots of the memories were dark, and horrific. I could feel pain overflowing all throughout my body. Blades would carve its way through my back, arms, and any skin that was left uncovered. The air would be stained with the smell of blood and rum. Evil laughter would make its way to my ears and travel into my brain. Permanently drilling the terrible sound into my head, never to escape. That happened almost every single night… even this one.

Screams made their way out of my mouth and into the night when the terrible dream ended, alerting every animal that was unfortunately nearby. I woke up in a cold sweat, my unruly, curly auburn hair was plastered to my sun kissed skin. However, as soon as I had woken up, the dream disappeared, and I could no longer remember what it was about. It was like I could not comprehend that this had happened to me, that this was my past. After I had calmed my breathing a bit, I frantically looked over the skin that I was able to see with a quick glance. There was nothing but white, jagged lines running in all directions along my arms, legs, and stomach. They were clearly scars, which just proved that what I had gone though was not just a "bad dream".

What had happened to me? I had not the slightest clue, but I was determined to find out, that is if I ever remember. Blinking my eyes, I sat up and rubbed the last remains of the terrifying memory out of my eyes. I stretched out my back of any kinks from lying on the forest floor with a yawn. I could tell that I was almost dawn, the orange-yellow sun peeking up over the horizon. Sunrises and sunsets were unbelievably beautiful… wherever I was, but all I knew was that I had not run into any villages or its inhabitants yet, so that must've meant that the mysterious land I was on was uninhabited.

Looking at my rations I had, it did not look too good. So, I decided that it was time to go searching for food. I started to gather and get ready for the day long hunt. Picking up my handmade bow and arrow I slung it over my shoulder, also grabbing my knife and stuck it in my right leather boot where there was a secret compartment in case, I needed to use it. Then I looked around for my mask that I wore so branches would not whack me in the face, which lessened the scratches I would get on my face. The mask was also great for camouflage. It covered up my mouth and nose and rested right on my cheekbones. Once I gathered everything, I made my way into the wilderness.

After walking through the forest for what seemed like forever, I stumbled upon what looked like a little pocket of this entirely separate world that I didn't even notice before, even if it was located in the middle of the forest. It was mesmerizing. The sun shone down and made the light sparkle off the lake that was in the middle of this whole in the earth. Green grass made the whole place pop as birds flew throughout the tranquil place. It seemed like a great place to make camp, way better than the camp I had currently.

As I walked to perimeter of the large hole, I finally found a path and made my way down. I thought back to try and remember the last time I had washed, and grimaced. It was probably a good idea to take a quick dip. Only for a while, then I would go back to my hunting. Maybe I could even move my camp here, it would be great! I would be out of the way of predators and I had a source of water just a couple of feet away. It seemed like a great idea, so I put it in my schedule to transfer my little trinkets to the lake.

Carefully making my way down the boulder that lowered to the ground below I walked over to the lake. When I got to the lake's shore, I took off my mask, knelt on my knees, and dipped my hands in the water to take a drink of water. The crisp water rushed over my tongue, quickly quenching the thirst I did not know I had. My reflection stared back at me then, full auburn curls were a tangled mess around my head, even though I tried to keep it in braid to prevent that. Freckles were spotted here and there on my face, and the green eyes that stared back at me did not seem to be me. It is not every day I get to see what I look like. It's weird. But what was even more weird was the faint scar that ran the length of my cheek. My fingers ghosted over the white line that seemed to stand out against my tan, the dirt on me not helping at all. It was not rough, but I could tell that it was once a very deep cut.

Growling, I lashed out at the water, sending sprays of it onto the shore. "What in Thor's name happened to me?" I exclaimed, putting my head in my hands, "why can't I remember anything?" That was not completely true, I was getting visions in my dreams that probably contained memories of my past, but I did not know if that was true yet. Or did I? I groaned and stood up; this was all too confusing. Figuring that washing away the dirt would in turn was away my problems, I started to take off my boots that had a fur ring around the top and continued from there.

I did not know how long I was in that lake, but it was long enough to get weeks of dirt and grime off my body. Getting out, I allowed the sun to dry me off, relishing in the heat and the feeling of being clean. Once I was dry and dressed, I brushed my tangled hair with my fingers and did my best to braid my shoulder length curls. I searched for my leather strip so I could tie it off and then I'd-

Snap!

Quickly turning around, I saw something flash in the corner of my eye. There was a big rock a few feet away from me, and without thinking I dashed for it and hid, fearing what was out there. A wild boar? I cannot run into those things again. Scary buggers. A cougar? Or maybe a- My thoughts were cut off by heavy footsteps, that were way too close for comfort. I reached for my bow and arrow, surely, I would be able to shoot it with my arrows. But all I felt was air, there was no arrows left. My stomach sank, oh no. I had left them by the lake, and there was no way I was going to be able to get them now, unless I wanted to get eaten by whatever was out there. My heartbeat quickened, along with my breathing and it was making my mask hot. How am I going to defend myself now? I thought, reaching into my boot, grabbing my knife, with this little knife?

Slowly, so I wouldn't make a noise, I edged my way to the side of the boulder, to maybe catch a glimpse of what had startled me so much. Peering around one side I could see the lake and my bow and arrow laying next to it. Not seeing anything suspicious on this side I rolled over to the opposite side and peered over. I could feel my blood drain from my face and everything else ran cold; it was the absolute worst thing I was expecting.

It was… a dragon.