A sound can be heard throughout the forest, only recognized as the beautiful song of a newly awakened caladrius. No person could ever forget such a wonderful song, despite how it changes daily.
That sound is the perfect sound to awaken to, as it soothes the soul and calms the newly awoken mind. It allows those who hear it to process awakening from their rest effortlessly, akin to a powerful healing song.
That sound, combined with the gentle breeze and the warm sunrise, makes for a perfect combination of comfort and joy—a combination that never fails in its quest to wake all the souls living in the forest.
However, this combination is yet to be available to one man.
"What is that noise? A songbird?" a voice echoes in a cramped chamber, coming from the mouth of a deep-voiced young man.
The man, clouded by darkness and confusion, begins to panic slightly, mainly because he cannot move anything but his head. For no more than a moment, the man struggles in his dark confinement, helplessly attempting with all his might to break free, but to no avail.
Just when he is about to give up, a feeling in his heart tells him not to give in to helplessness but to struggle harder despite how much his body refuses to move.
And that's precisely what he does.
He struggled for what felt like hours, constantly trying to move his body more and more. Eventually, he felt progress, as he could now move both arms more than an inch in every direction.
This process continued, and with each passing second, he clawed further than before. Finally, he got to the point where he was outright punching the walls of his prison with all of his strength. He could tell he was bleeding, his bones straining with every punch, but he persevered nonetheless.
Eventually, after hours of struggle, a small hole had been made in the walls of his prison. This hole was tiny; not even his pinky finger could fit through, but it allowed hope to come through. One little sliver of sunlight that lit up his bare chest and rejuvenated his body.
After a few seconds of shock, he continued to punch the wall, getting closer and closer to breaking free with every punch. With haste, he was able to put his whole fist through. His head came hours later. Then, finally, after what felt like an eternity, the man, whose identity was unknown to even himself, carefully crawled out of the tree head first and crashed unceremoniously into the forest floor.
The birds, who had previously been singing, flew away in a panic. Only the flaps of their tiny wings could be heard. Then, without any warning, the man's guttural yell of triumph erupted as he celebrated.
After he was done yelling, the man embraced his surroundings with childish wonder. Before him was a tranquil forest of untamed perfection, gorgeous to the untrained eye and even more so to the trained one. The morning sun came through the tops of the towering trees in visible rays, scattering the forest floor in a random pattern. How the wind whistled off the reddish-brown trees was wonderfully calming as well. To his left, a small stream of clear water flowed quickly, creating a bubbly sound that soothed the soul. The sight caught his eye, and he crawled the short distance to the stream.
Quickly arriving, he dipped his hands in the freezing cold water, cupping it and lifting it to his dry lips. He drank to dry up the stream, desperately and violently slurping the water until he could no longer fit any more in his stomach.
After having his fill of the most refreshing liquid in the world, the man sat there in silence for a few moments, contemplating his life.
He wondered how he got into the tree in the first place, who he was, and how he was even alive.
Yet nothing answered his thoughts.
His view panned to the forest again, and he quickly scanned his surroundings. Now that he was no longer shocked by the beauty of it all, he spotted a building not far from him. Curious, he walked silently to the building, appreciating the Bird's song, which had quickly returned to the area.
As he arrived at the building, an intense feeling of deja vu gripped his skull, causing him to wince in discomfort. Several familiar images flashed through his mind, many of which contained scenes of a family, with himself as one of the people in that family. The family consisted of four people, a woman, a man, a young lady around 10 or so, and a boy. The scenes were from the young boy's perspective, causing the man to believe the images circling through his consciousness were his memories.
The memories were happy and joyful, and laughter was often prevalent. The family would eat at the dinner table, play wrestling in the yard, or just sit and converse.
For some reason, a tear dropped from the man's left eye as he beheld the memories.
"Why do I remember these things? Am I that boy, and that- my family? If so, where are they? This house is clearly abandoned." The man spoke very softly to himself as if to organize his thoughts. And by all accounts, he was correct about the house looking abandoned.
The one-story building was modest in size, its walls made of stained logs stacked on top of one another. However, the wood was moldy and destroyed, clearly not maintained over the years. There were two visible windows on the front of the house, but both were smashed in and not functional. A tree had fallen on the house's roof and caved it in, clearly having been there a while.
Weeds and vines had made their way into every nook and cranny of the house, completely overtaking the man-made structure. The front door was wide open and pulled off the top hinge, causing it to lean slightly. On the solid wooden door was a crest of some kind, one the man recognized.
The crest was in many of the man's limited memories, and he knew it as the crest of Yggdrasil, the deity his family worshiped. The crest was in the shape of a tree with its roots visible; a simple design but meaningful nonetheless.
As he walked through the front door and into the main room, a family of raccoons scurried out the back door and into the woods. One of the parent raccoons looked back at him for nearly a minute before turning to catch up to its family, the reason for this being unknown.
The main room was utterly destroyed, which had clearly once been beautiful if his memories were anything to go by. Despite the vines and plants covering nearly every surface, the man could tell where there had been a fight in this room. This was evidenced by the many gashes and slash marks on the floor and walls; even the main table was chopped clean in half. Several oil lamps were smashed on the ground, and several chairs were messily tossed to the edges of the room.
The man walked to the kitchen with purpose, and upon seeing the space, he had more memories stuffed back in his head—memories of him cooking with his mother, teaching him how to slice an onion, or even asking him for his famous tasting ability. He remembered his mother's fantastic cooking, how she always used high-quality ingredients straight from her garden, and how she seasoned everything to perfection.
Or even how she would gently say his name when correcting him...
Magni.
"My name is Magni... What happened to me?" He held his head in confusion, now having more questions than answers.
"Where are my parents? Why was I trapped in some tree? Did they abandon me? And why can't I remember more!?" Magni spoke to himself with his hands clutching his skull, which was pounding like a drum.
Magni unclenched his head and began walking around the house, discovering more and more about the place but still in the dark about himself.
Very few thoughts were undoubtedly true; this used to be his family's home, and his parents had wholly abandoned it. According to an old, beat-up map that he found on the family room floor, this house is located deep in the dragonlord's forest, with the nearest city to the east.
Magni resolved to himself that as soon as he'd discovered as much as possible about himself and this home, he would go to that city. The name was unreadable on the map, but he was sure it was safe to go. Some strange intuition drew him to that city, suggesting it was necessary to his life.
In one of the two bedrooms in the home, Magni discovered a closet, one that was completely undisturbed. After opening the doors to the closet, Magni, who was still as naked as a newborn, found some clothes that appeared to be his size. It seemed they were a combination of his parents' clothing, with dresses, jackets, and shirts galore.
After a few minutes of searching through the clothes, Magni found an outfit that suited him. He wore slightly baggy blue jeans and a white shirt beneath one of his father's many leather jackets. This one was plain and darker in color than the others, but it had the family crest on the back—a crest in the shape of a tree, or more specifically, Yggdrasil.
Magni looked in the mirror to admire his new choice in attire, only to be pleasantly surprised by his appearance. His face was comprised of both sharp and strong features: a strong jaw yet a sharp nose, strong cheekbones yet sharp eyes. His eyes were a striking blue-green that shook the soul, and combined with his golden locks, they made him quite the handsome man.
However, upon viewing himself in the mirror for the first time, Magni's head throbbed and sent him reeling in pain. He stumbled forward, having lost his balance, and slammed into the body-length mirror he had been looking at. Then his vision went blank as a new, much more vivid memory appeared in his mind.
...
"Magni, there is something you must know..." Magni's father spoke to him in that deep voice that rumbled the soul. Very few times, his father would call him Magni, not his nickname 'Fire child' or just son. He regularly reserved his name for special occasions, and today was no exception.
Thür, a mountain of a man whose presence alone made giants look small, knelt on one knee before Magni. He placed a firm hand on his son's shoulder, careful not to use too much force, and began to speak.
"I love you very much, more than anything in this world. You are my pride and joy and my greatest accomplishment. You will grow into a fine man someday, and I'm sure you will be a strong warrior like your father. But I'm afraid that you are doomed to a life of hardship because of your father's family name." His deep blue eyes shone solemnly as he spoke of his feelings for his son. He did not wish for what would come for his child or the hardships he would go through, but they were inevitable.
"Our family name, Gunvaldsen, is one of the more famous names throughout this continent. My great-grandfather, Thüren Gunvaldsen, was a great conqueror. He commanded a force of men that was nearly able to conquer the entire continent, all but one small country to the south. He was known as the Dragonic terror, a title that resulted from his evil and unspeakable methods of conquering nations and people and his strange, draconic abilities."
"Maybe keep the gore to a minimum, Thür." His wife said sternly, not to be mistaken as a suggestion. That was an order.
"Aye honey, as you wish. Anyways, that man attempted to conquer the last country to no avail. He tried over and over again, never giving up, but it was no use. He failed every time, never even stepping foot in their capital city of Savin. However, on his last attempt at conquest, which also happened to be his most successful, Thüren murdered the son of the man in charge of that country. The son was the general of the 1st brigade and In line to be the next president if everything had gone according to plan." Thür sighed helplessly.
"But as a result of his son's murder, the president himself ordered the execution of Thüren Gunvaldsen and any of his blood relatives. This order was taken very seriously, and as a result, the once peaceful nation of Gulven turned into a military powerhouse, utilizing its ability to make weapons to its fullest extent and crushing any and all resistance to this command. And soon, the president had accomplished his goal, destroying anyone with any blood relation to Thüren Gunvaldsen and destroying the Gunvalden Empire."
"But how are we alive if we're related to that man, Dad? We're his blood relatives, right? Or was someone adopted along the way, haha?" Magni questioned, clearly much more intelligent than the average 8-year-old.
"Haha, you are so smart, my fire child. We are related to that man by blood. The issue is that a long time ago, your great-grandmother, the daughter of Thüren, was spared by a mercenary of Gulven. That mercenary would then defect, having fallen in love with her. They ran away to the
Kingdom of Estrallus, changing their names and hiding in plain sight. They never forgot who they were, however. By the time your grandfather, Hermanio Gunvaldsen, named after a friend of your great-grandmother, was ten, they had been found again, being pursued by Gulven's soldiers. They ran and soon found themselves deep in the Dragonlord's forest. A forest the soldiers refused to go into as a result of the numerous monsters that inhabit it. Your grandfather, along with his sister and wife, built this home in the forest, hoping to live a peaceful life."
"Then what happened? If they built this house, why haven't I met any of them yet?" Magni asked his father, eyes laden with worry.
"When I left home to become an adventurer and make a name for myself, my family cut me off. They said what I was doing was tantamount to suicide and that no matter what, they would not be a part of that. And, as the angst-filled teenager that I was, I rejected them right back. It wasn't until later that I realized what I had done was completely awful, but it was too late by then." Thür heaved a foreworn sigh and continued, "After I met your mother, I gathered the courage to see my family again and hopefully introduce her to them. Only to be gutted by the horrible sight that was my slaughtered family. They had been killed and left to rot by the Gulven assassination corps. And I had only been a few days too late." Magni, seeing his father in the worst state he's ever been in, hugged his father to comfort him. Magni's mother also joined the family hug, comforting her husband in silence.
After more than a few silent moments, Thür spoke up, "Thank you, Magni, thank you, Vellaria. You two are everything I could hope for in life... AHEM, anyways, enough of the sappy stuff, on with the story. Now, where was I? Ah yes. After burying my family members in the graveyard out back, your mother and I continued our lives until we eventually moved back to this house, cleaned it up, and settled down. Not long after, you came around, and our lives were filled with sleeplessness and joy. Any questions?"
"So basically, if I ever leave this house and go on an adventurer, I'll be hunted by Gulvenians until I die?" The boy said plainly, clearly understanding the gist of it.
"Haaa- Yes, unfortunately. Although you are taking this news surprisingly well, I was expecting at least some freaking out, y'know?"
The family broke out into laughter, and the memory faded out.
…
After exiting the vivid, dreamlike memory, Magni heaved himself off the ground and stood before the shattered mirror. A mirror he used to stand in front of with his loving parents and laugh, joke, or even have serious discussions. The second tear of the day was shed silently, fragmenting into thousands through the shattered glass of the family mirror.
"Wait, so my family name is Gunvaldsen? My dad's name was Thür, and my mother was Vellaria... I still have so many questions, like what happened in this house? Where were my parents, and why was I stuck in a tree? Alrighty then, let's start by actually inspecting the tree." Magni did just that, walking the short distance in the direction of the tree that he punched his way out of, but alas, he was unlucky. The tree had disappeared entirely from this land, and it wasn't that he just couldn't find it. There was a massive hole in the ground where the tree was supposed to be. Like it had been ripped from the ground, roots and all.
"Okay, that's weird. How did that even happen? I'm sure all I did to that tree was punch a hole in it." Magni walked around a little to confirm his suspicions, but he was correct. The tree had dematerialized, leaving a massive hole.
Deciding not to think too deeply about why it disappeared, Magni walked back to his house and searched through it even more. To his surprise, a ton of stuff that looked super useful was hidden in his parents' room: a complete map of the continent, a seemingly endless bag, several hunting knives, a tent and sleep roll, a bunch of other survival supplies, and two weapons. Both weapons were his parents' heirlooms of their respective families and were to be passed down to the next generation.
One weapon was a runic bow, which, as described in some of his slowly returning memories, requires no arrows to fire. Magni is unsure what that means, but he'll figure it out eventually.
The other weapon is a two-handed battle ax that belonged to his father. It's incredibly light, but only because it's enchanted to always allow the user to wield it. In reality, it likely weighs over a thousand kilos, according to Thür.
After three days of searching and looking around, Magni had been unable to find any trace of his parents or where they had gone. Not to mention, his memories had yet to return fully, meaning whatever was going to trigger their return wouldn't be in this cabin in the woods.
So Magni left, fully prepared for the journey ahead of him. He didn't know what to do when he got to Edensville, but he had another strange feeling that everything would eventually work out. He turned and gave a wayward look at his destroyed cottage home. He thought about how good his life had been here, how he didn't know what happened, and most importantly, about his parents.
But after staring at the house for five minutes, he turned back to the beaten path to Edensville, never to return.