"Wake up."
A young man awakes at the sound of an eerily echoing voice. He has silver hair, light brown skin and yellow eyes. He yawns as he rubs the blurry vision from his eyes.
Where am I? He silently asks himself.
He looks at himself wearing a white long-sleeved buttoned up shirt and and light brown pants with a darker brown boots.
He then shifts his gaze to his surroundings and finds himself standing in the middle of a secluded area under a statue. The statue depicts a hooded figure standing at about six feet with different types of weapons encircling it. In front of it was a tablet which had several different symbols that proved to be illegible.
What is a statue doing in a place like this?
He stares at it for a moment. and then continues to survey the rest of his surrounding. He walks out of the area into the forest hoping to find a way out of there.
That's when he hears it.
A horrifying howl echoes through the darkness followed by sounds of heavy footsteps sprinting through the forest. After a few seconds the young man spots the source of the sounds. To his terror a giant wolf-like creature as dark as the night, with glowing green eyes, shoots out of the shadows at full speed until it stops abruptly after seeing the young man standing in its path.
He stands frozen in place at the sight of the beast in front of him. He didn't dare make any sudden movements or noises for fear of it chomping him in two.
The creature lets out an ear wrenching snarl at the obstacle in its path. Watching him with its fangs on full display prepared to attack at any given moment.
Right when it looked as if it was going to strike the young man sees a bolt of light streak through the shadows and hit the creature in the back causing it to writhe in pain before a second bolt of light strikes it in the head causing the creature to die on impact and its body go limp.
The young man could only stand with sweat dripping down his forehead having just faced a near death experience.
Then he hears the footsteps of person walking slowly out of the shadows where the creature had come from.
A man with short dark hair and pale skin wearing dark leather armor steps out of the shadows with a bow and arrow and his gray eyes sizing up the other.
The dark haired man shifts his gaze to the creature that had gone still, then looks back at the younger silver haired man.
"What are you doing in the middle of the Dark Forest at night?" The dark haired man enquired.
The other answers, "I don't know where I am or why I'm here. I just woke up here and I accidently ran into that thing."
"It is one thing for a person to be here in the Dark Forest and another being here at night, let alone waking up here." With a sigh the black haired man goes silent, pondering what to do next.
A few seconds pass then the dark haired man straightens his back having seemingly made up his mind and introduces himself.
"My name is Enes, what's yours?"
The silver haired paused and said,
"My name's Klaus."
Enes gives a nod and says, "If we stay here any longer more are bound to come and I can't fight and protect you at the same time. If you follow me I can get us both to the nearby village for the night. We'll be safe there."
"I'll follow you." Klaus replies.
Enes gives another nod and turns around gesturing for him to follow.
Klaus gives a sigh of relief and quickly follows him through the dark forest.
A few minutes pass as they continue their trek through the forest. Klaus feeling a bit awkward with the silence that had quickly filled between the two. He takes a deep breath.
"Thanks for saving me back there Mr. Enes. If not for you I would have been a midnight snack."
"No problem. And it's just Enes." Then he continues, "What were you doing there anyways? It's extremely dangerous for someone to be wandering through this forest and at night nonetheless."
"I have no idea. I just ended up here..." Klaus stops abruptly.
Enes looks at Klaus waiting for him to finish his sentence.
"...I...just ended up...here. Where is here?"
Enes gives him a puzzled look and replies, "This is the Dark Forest located in the region of Telmund in the Tenebrissian Empire."
"The Tenebrissian Empire? What is it?"
Enes stares at him silently for a few seconds then clears his throat and responds,
"The Empire is rumored to be one of the most ancient countries that has ever lived. It is most certainly the oldest among the current nations. It lies in the northeast and along the coast of the continent. It along with the other two nations split the continent in three parts. The other two countries are as follows, the Viridian Republic is on the south of the continent and the Luminous Kingdom sits in the northwest. Currently, all three nations have entered into a peace treaty to end the previous war that all three had participated in.
"Previous war?" Klaus repeats.
Enes nods continuing his seemingly endless lecture, "Yes. All three nations were involved in what is called The War for Thestis, which is subsequently the name of the continent itself. At first all three nations were locked on each other battle after battle. It continued until the Luminous Kingdom had gained an upper hand against the Viridian Republic in a battle that decimated a majority of their forces. In an attempt to save itself and its people they entered into a peace treaty with the Tenebrissian Empire who agreed. After both nations successfully entered this treaty they decided to combine their forces in an effort to combat the growing military force of the Luminous Republic. This resulted in a bloody stalemate, where for seven years the Luminous Kingdom and the combined effort of the Tenebrissian Empire and Viridian Republic led to the deaths of countless people whether they wanted to be involved or not."
Klaus nodded along to show he was listening attentively as Enes continued.
"Seven years later in the center of the continent during one of the longest and most gruesome battles of the war, a pillar of light was said to have struck during the battle with such powerful force that it caused the battle to end with massive casualties on both sides. It is estimated that over one million had perished in the catastrophic event. Although both sides did lose many of their forces, it was the Luminous Kingdom that lost the most causing the balance of power in the war to tilt. Both the Empire and the Republic forced the Luminous Kingdom into a peace treaty thus ending the long and bloody war. And the battle that took place was forever called the Pillar of Calamity, while also adding that it is now a neutral ground that is guarded by a standing force that consists of all three nations which oversees all operations regarding it."
"What was the pillar of light?"
Enes pauses thoughtfully and then continues,
"No one completely knows what it was. Some believe it to be a sort of divine intervention from the gods to end the bloodshed. Others think that it was an attack initiated by the Luminous Kingdom that ended up becoming a double-edged sword as well as the reason they lost the war. Another theory is that an unknown third party intervened hoping to use this as an opportunity to eliminate the major forces of all three nations in a bid to take the continent. However, none of these speculations are definitive so at present it is known as an unsolved mystery."
Klaus takes sometime to collect his thoughts and process all the information. Then looks over to Enes and asks,
"Why do people suspect it came from the Luminous Kingdom? Why not the Empire or the Republic?"
Enes clears his throat before answering,
"The Luminous Kingdom is mostly known for its military wielding light attributes as its main weapon as well as worshipping the god of light, so it is more likely that the attack would have originated from them rather than the other nations. This is especially since they specialize in light attributes more than any other nation."
Klaus gives a confused look to Enes.
"What is an attribute?"
Enes stops walking and looks at Klaus who also stopped when he did. Enes carefully observed an almost stern yet worried look hoping Klaus was joking or being ignorant. However, when all Enes could see was Klaus being genuinely serious and gives a sigh.
"Where are you from?" Enes asked sternly.
"It is disturbing that you don't know many of the things that is commonly known amongst most people here regarding history. This means you are probably not from any of the nations on the Thestis continent. Even if you had forgotten about the history of the war, you would still know what attributes are but you don't. So I ask again, where are you from?"
Klaus noticed that the tone in Enes' voice had grown a bit more serious so he considered his answer carefully.
"I am from a land far away from here and I don't know if I'll ever be able to return."
Enes continues to hold a stern glare at Klaus before letting out another heavy sigh.
"Never mind. If you don't want to tell me where your from that's fine. I wanted to ascertain if you were an evil person. From what I can tell you don't harbor any ill will or malicious intentions, so whatever secrets you have keep it. I have no problems with it."
Enes continues walking and a few seconds later,
"We're here."
Just as Enes had said those words a village had appeared, seemingly, out of no where. In front of it were large fields of wheat that look close to being ready to harvest. The village itself was large with a border wall made of sturdy wood encircling it. At the entrance of the village stood two guards in front. One of them raised their hand while the other had a crossbow pointed at us.
The guard raises his voice in a stern manner and says,
"Halt! What is your business here?"
"We are seeking shelter for the night" Enes replies.
The other guard quickly interjects. "You came from the direction of the Dark Forest."
"We did. I was out hunting for nightmares when I came across this person. I am only trying to find a safe place for us to settle for the night."
The guard with the crossbow looks over Klaus then back to Enes.
"Why would you be hunting nightmares? They are one of the most dangerous monsters in these parts, even more dangerous if encountered at night. Coming across one at night could mean certain death."
Enes lets out a sigh before slowly reaching into his pocket and shows them a badge that has the insignia of a balancing scale.
The eyes of both guards widen before they both salute Enes and mumble an apology before letting us enter the village.
Klaus stares over at Enes and asks, "What was that about?"
Enes answers without looking at him, "Nothing much."
Klaus then says subtly a bit sarcastically, "Sure.", while adding silently, not like guards who wouldn't let us in then after showing them a badge not only allowed us in but saluted you means anything at all, right? Looks like I'm not the only one hiding a secret.
Both Enes and Klaus continue silently to what looks like an inn. When entering the inn there was a lady behind a bar who greeted them then Enes asks for a room with two beds for a night. Enes reaches into his pocket and fishes out two silver coins and hands them to the lady who, in turn, hands him a key to the room. Once they enter the room Klaus sits on one of the beds as Enes decides to fetch water and put on the hearth in their room for bathing.
After both of them washed up, Enes pulls out bread from a satchel that he'd been carrying and gave some to Klaus who accepted appreciatively. After eating they both decided to call it a night and head straight to their own bed.
Klaus could only let out a sigh of relief having not encountered any more dangers that night. He was also thankful that his recent companion hadn't pushed the issue of his origins. Especially since he could barely understand what was going on. He knew telling anyone that he is from a world that is far different from theirs is only asking for trouble. Before he could tell anyone about his predicament or search for clues about getting back home he had to first think of a way to survive the world he's in now.
I'm such an unlucky bastard.
-----
The next morning Klaus is nudged awake by Enes who informs him that they'll be having breakfast soon which is being brought to their room by a servant of the inn.
During breakfast Enes decides to tell Klaus a little bit of the common knowledge on the continent to help him better understand his surroundings as well as everyday life.
"Firstly, there are laws that everyone must abide by or they could arrested, fined, imprisoned, forced into labor camps, or executed. For example....." Enes begins to give some examples from everyday laws that are usually enforced authorities or broken by civilians.
"Secondly and importantly you need to learn about attributes. Do you have a class?"
"Uh.... no?"