I opened my eyes. I was lying on the ground, on my back. Everything was spinning; my body hurt, and the only thing in my vision was a moldy, worn wooden ceiling. A ray of light was hitting my face directly, coming through one of the many holes in the ceiling.
After one or two seconds of staring at it without thinking about anything, I decided to get up, something that cost me a lot due to the pain. When I was fully standing, I looked around the entire room, which was practically empty except for a door and what appeared to be a completely shattered mirror.
I approached it, and what I could make out among the combination of its fragments left me a bit puzzled. There stood a young man… or boy, with relatively long dark brown hair, somewhat sharp features, and eyes as green as jade; his clothes were moderately worn, consisting of pants, a long-sleeved gray shirt, and leather boots.
I didn't understand who he was. Was it me? It couldn't be… or could it?
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't remember anything; memories of where I came from, what my name was, who or what I was simply didn't come to me.
It's a strange feeling, since I can think clearly—not like a newborn baby—because I can understand things and their meaning, I can even clearly think in a language. I just couldn't remember my origins.
At that moment, I heard a noise on the other side of the door. I pulled my sleeve slightly over my hand and grabbed a considerably large piece of glass from the broken mirror. I pointed it toward the door.
"Is someone there?"
The door opened and what looked like a person peeked in. "Hey, hey, wait, calm down and put that down. I won't do anything", said the man who slowly entered through the door.
"Do you know what's happening? I just woke up in this place and I have no idea what's going on," I said.
"The truth is no; I'm in exactly the same situation. I don't know how it is in your case, but I can't remember even who I am," said the man, who now that I observed him more closely looked a lot like me; he also had dark brown hair, only considerably longer than mine, green eyes, and features similar to mine, but different enough to not say he was my twin.
"I'm the same…" At that moment I lowered the piece of glass, but I didn't drop it; it's not bad to be cautious.
We both stayed for a few moments staring into nothingness, absorbed in our thoughts. A few seconds later he spoke, "We should go out and explore, see if we discover something."
After hesitating for a second, I answered, "That sounds good, let's go," I said, and I went with him and we left the room. We walked down a long hallway until we reached a somewhat large room; the entire place was completely destroyed by the passing years, clearly abandoned for a long time.
"By the way… what's your name?" I asked.
"I don't remember, and you?"
"Neither", I shook my head; certainly, the question was stupid. We had just said we didn't remember anything at all, neither of us, but it was worth asking anyway.
Upon inspecting the room we were in, I could deduce that it was some kind of mansion or something similar. We were in the foyer; there was a staircase in the middle leading to the second and it seemed like a third floor, I couldn't tell well since that part had collapsed.
We looked toward the large entrance door, or well, "door," since there was simply a large hole where the door should have been. We walked toward it to be able to go outside.
As soon as I stepped outside, I felt a warm breeze. It certainly wasn't hot, but not cold either; we were probably in spring. Seeing the exterior, I could see that we were in the middle of a rather dense forest. There were other structures that seemed to be auxiliary to the main house; it was clear at a glance that vegetation had taken over after the place was completely abandoned.
"It's strange. The place is mainly in bad condition due to time and abandonment, but… I think the place was attacked?" he commented.
"How do you know?"
"The destruction is strange; there are holes in strange places, like the one in the door. Clearly that wasn't from a natural collapse. It's like someone or something forced its way through that part."
Now that he mentioned it, he was right. That hole in the main entrance was very strange. At that moment I gripped the fragment in my right hand a little tighter, but enough so that it wouldn't tear my clothes and cut my hand.
"We should leave quickly. I don't know what happened here, but I really don't want to find out," I replied.
"I think the same. From what I can tell, in those trees on the right there is a path. We should follow it to see if it leads us to find more people."
We left the area following that stone path; it was worn and full of growing plants, signs that nobody had used it in a long time.
***
After walking for about 10 or 15 minutes, maximum, in total silence, we passed through some trees and found a wider, well-kept road; this one seemed to be traveled regularly.
"Which way should we go?" I murmured.
"It doesn't matter. I suppose it will take us somewhere anyway."
We went to the right and kept walking. I lost myself in my thoughts. I thought that maybe if I tried hard enough I could remember something, anything, but no memory came. It was as if my mind was blocked; I simply couldn't remember who I was, and that angered me a lot. Without realizing it, I pressed the glass in my hand too hard and made a small cut—superficial, but enough to bleed a little.
"Stop," he said in an alarmed tone. "I think I saw something move in the forest to the right, and it was fast."
I raised my hand with my improvised weapon in a "guard" position and at that moment… something jumped from one of the trees and leaped at my companion, it was a very large beast, the size of two or three adults.
It tried to bite him desperately, but luckily, he had a dry branch he had picked up while we were walking, which he quickly placed over its mouth to stop its jaw.
"Help me!!!" he screamed from under the beast. I was really in shock from what I was seeing, so I hadn't reacted quickly, but as soon as I heard him scream, I snapped back to reality and reacted.
I grabbed the glass tightly and rushed toward the animal, stabbing the fragment several times into its upper back behind the neck. The beast screeched loudly and threw itself back, which allowed the man to escape from its jaws.
Now that the beast had retreated, I could observe it more closely. It was a kind of reptile combined with a feline; it was truly strange. Some parts of its body were covered in scales, but others in fur. Its head was elongated like that of a lizard, and its face had the features of a panther, with extremely sharp teeth, especially its two main fangs. It was also bleeding heavily behind the neck where I had wounded it.
Just then the beast launched itself at us again. I felt fear—extreme fear. The "weapon" I had had completely broken, cutting my hand badly in the process. I was left without a weapon, totally defenseless against such a monstrous predator.
I was about to close my eyes, but then my companion stepped forward, placed the branch in front of him like it was a sword, and… struck. I certainly thought it was pretty foolish to face such a beast with just a dry branch, but I was totally wrong. A wave of blue light traveled through the branch, from his hand to the tip. When it hit the monster, a shockwave shot out toward it, sending it flying several meters and crashing into a tree.
I stood there staring at the branch and my companion, I didn't understand anything that had just happened. Clearly he didn't know either, since he looked at his hand in surprise.
The moment of peace didn't last long, because the beast began to get up again. Even though it had been thrown several meters, it was still huge; a blow like that would be far from killing it.
"Can you… can you do that again?" I stammered.
"No… I mean, I don't know. I don't even know what just happened."
We both looked at the beast at the same time; it had fully risen and was clearly much angrier than before. We instinctively backed away, and I began to think desperately about what to do or how to escape, but at that precise moment something with a bluish aura flew past me, whistling sharply, and struck the beast—it was an arrow.
After that, another followed, and another. After the fifth arrow, the beast fell defeated to the ground, staining everything around it with blood from so much bleeding. When we turned around, we saw an older man with a thick beard. At first glance, he looked to be in his fifties, maybe nearing sixty.
"Are you okay, boys?" the man asked.
"Yes…" we answered in unison.
"What the hell are you doing in the middle of nowhere, without horses or a carriage, and completely alone? These roads are very dangerous to travel like that," the man scolded us.
"We don't know, sir. We woke up in the middle of a cabin in the forest without remembering anything, so we followed the road looking for civilization," I replied, embarrassed. My companion looked at me with suspicion when he heard my answer.
"Do you really think I'm going to believe that?" he responded.
"It's true, I swear. We were following the road until that beast attacked us out of nowhere," I said in a desperate tone.
"He's telling the truth. We really don't remember anything, and we're very grateful you saved us, but if you don't mind… could I ask you to take us to the nearest town, or wherever you're headed?" my companion surprisingly added.
The man frowned and studied us carefully. "Tsk, fine… I'll take you. Get on the back of the cart."
"Thank you very much!" we both replied at the same time.
The man went to the front of the cart to control the horses, but before getting on he glanced slightly at us. "And well done back there, Panlagors are formidable beasts," with that he climbed up and waited for us to get on.
***
A few minutes later we were on the way to who knows where, sitting across from each other in a cart full of supplies. I tore my sleeve a bit and improvised a bandage for my hand. Luckily, the wounds were not very deep.
At that moment, the young man in front of me broke the silence. "You know… when I managed that strange 'attack', a few scattered memories came back to me, like my name, Rowan"
Before I could respond, he spoke again. "I also know yours."
Surprised, I replied, "And what is it?"
"Luke, also… I think we're… brothers?"