A Warm Beginning

Red, a shift from the normal to something new. The cool grass gently supported my body as I laid upon it. The sound of leaves rustling in the wind gently entertained my ears, and a warm wind caressed me carefully. I could feel the embrace of light shining through the canopies of the trees while the intersection of shadow slowly moved over my body. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t in nirvana in my current position, but suddenly a thought crossed my mind, there was nothing in my mind.

“Well, that’s not good.” I said to myself as I sat up.

“Let’s see.” I took a moment to look around at my surroundings, “I was on the way to… somewhere.” I couldn’t quite remember what I was doing.

The one thing I did know was that I was not supposed to be in this, very relaxing, forest. All around me all I could see were trees. I looked up to the sky and saw nothing but a deep blue ocean of sky looking back at me. There was not a cloud to be seen. I pulled myself up and took in a deep breath.

“Alright, well, let’s see…” I spun around before stopping and pointed directly in front of me.

“Let’s go that way then.” I began forward towards where I had randomly pointed.

I had been walking straight for some time when I heard a commotion. Nearby I could hear what sounded like canine yelping and human yelling. I slapped my fist into my hand,

“That’s the sound of a person being attacked by wolves!” I was quite happy with myself for figuring that out, considering that I couldn’t remember anything.

I snapped out of my self glorification as I realized something else.

“I guess I should go help them, then.” I solidified my will as I made wide strides towards the sound of the disturbance.

As I came around a large tree and moved a branch out of my way I saw a dangerous sight in front of me. A young girl with a rugged looking sword was standing completely still, staring down several large wolves. I smiled to myself, I could feel that perhaps my forgotten memories were of me being a hero, I knew what I had to do. I raced to the girl, sliding in between her and the wolves.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you out!”

I pointed to myself as I looked back at her. The girl looked back at me with a confused look on her face. The girl was quite beautiful. She had blonde hair that stopped short of her shoulders. Her eyes were glistening green and stared intently past me. She had an old dress on which matched her blonde aesthetic, her chest-

Suddenly I felt a huge pressure against me as I was slammed to the ground. My head was spinning from hitting the ground so hard. The sound of chewing suddenly snapped me out of my stupor as a sharp pain jolted up my arm. I looked towards the source of the pain and saw one of the large wolves gnawing on my arm. Before I could even scream in pain a shadow moving at unbelievable speed flashed past my peripheries followed by a thunderous boom. I heard a great ripping sound and splattering sound followed by a red rain which briefly coated everything around me. Where the wolves once were now only stood the girl. The girl snapped her sword around in a circle before quickly sheathing it. She took a deep breath and sighed before fixing her eyes on me with a disapproving stare. She slowly walked over to me before looking at my wounded left arm.

“We are going to have to stop the bleeding on that before we can get you back to town.” The girl said with an almost annoyed tone.

She gracefully bent down next to me and gently picked my arm up before rummaging through a side pack that she had resting over her shoulder.

“What’s your name?” She asked with a forced bed-side manner.

I had to think for a moment, did I remember my name? As I thought about it a name did appear in my mind.

“Yusai.” I said with confidence.

“Too long.” She sighed with annoyance. “Let’s go with Yu.”

“Too long?” I asked, confused. “Yusai has only two syllables.”

“That’s one too many for the type of man you are.” She answered with a brutal tone.

“What type of man am I?” I asked with an honest curiosity.

I winced as she tightly wrapped a bandage around my arm.

“The type who thinks they can be a hero while being weak.”

I could see her grit her teeth. It was obvious to me that there was more to the story than that, but for now I felt that I needed to form a foundation of friendship with this individual, afterall, they had just shown me how incredibly strong they were and how weak I was. They could be extremely useful to me in the future. I paused a second as I was confused by my own thoughts. I decided to push on.

“So, what is your name?” I asked, looking up at the girl as she finished wrapping my arm. She looked away from my arm and into my eyes.

“Tiaria” She said as she reached her hand out for me to take.

I took her hand and stood up.

“Well, thanks for helping me out.” I said with a bit of bashfulness.

“Of course, regardless of how much of an idiot you are, you did try to save me and get hurt. I’ll help you at least get to town.” She replied as she turned around and began walking.

My curiosity peaked at the town I was about to see. I was slowly walking behind Tiaria, trying to match her pace.

“What town are we headed towards?” I asked, my excitement shining through my words.

“Mars’lvant, obviously.” She sounded annoyed that she had to answer what she thought was such an idiotic question.

“Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what kind of town is Mars’lvant?” I struggled to get the pronunciation right.

Tiaria stopped in her tracks and turned around facing me with a dangerous look on her face.

“You don’t know what Mars’lvant is?” She asked, I noticed her tensing up. It was obvious that not knowing the answer was dangerous to my health, but I felt it unfair to lie to my benefactor.

“Sorry, I don’t. I think I came from the opposite direction, but I don’t remember much to be honest with you.”

Tiaria straightened her stance before drawing her weapon and pointing it at me.

“I see.” She said.