The captain felt all of his surroundings pulling and prodding him, hoping to tear him apart. He sighed and reminisced about what he remembered.
Silence echoes
The captain laughed and sighed again; he couldn't remember anything else other than the laugh of an old man. The laugh was hearty and loud, like the feeling of a good meal. The laugh made the captain feel warm; he felt like he was being hugged tightly.
Like the embrace of a thousand lifetimes.
He could almost hear someone calling for him and a hand rubbing over his head. It was too real—way too real.
Static filled his mind.
He tried moving around and then felt a cold surface below him. He couldn't open his eyes or hear too well, but everything seemed to get louder and louder until a bright light hit him. He was back.
Back from the void and nothingness that engulfed him for god knows how long. When he awoke, there was a young girl crying, shaking him, and calling.
"Vino! Vino—Wake up, please!" A tear landed on his face, and he reached to wipe it off, but he quickly discovered that he was a lot worse for wear than he had thought. When he ran his hand along his mouth, he found that a huge cut lined down his face all the way through his chin.
He had figured out why he couldn't move; his legs were completely shattered, and his chest was in great pain. He also found that his arms were lined with cuts as well.
The girl wiped away the tears with her free arm and hugged Vino tightly. "Let's never do this again, okay?"
"Ok-ay." Vino said as blood poured out of his mouth. He felt his vision begin to fade. He resisted the feeling, but it was a lot more difficult now that he had a body.
He was out cold.
When he finally awoke, a bunch of people chattering away about his current predicament surrounded him.
When he tried to sit up, he noticed that it was much easier for him to move his body. A few people began touching and checking on him, but he didn't recognize them and pushed them away. There was a lady who looked familiar, and also the one who he had seen earlier.
A lady with white hair who tried to hug him got pushed away. There was too much going on at once. Vino checked his face, and it felt fine now.
Suddenly, a lady in white clothes that were stained with blood shooed everyone out of the room and approached him.
"Young man, do you know how much trouble you have been for us?" The nurse said this while pushing him back down into the soft bed.
Vino lifted his head and asked, "What is going on?"
The nurse's eyes widened, and she went to get someone. She returned with the same woman who was crying before. This woman had white hair and blue eyes, like she was a god of the winter. "My son, how is he?"
"Im afraid he has suffered a little memory damage; poor Vino didn't respond how he usually does. He also isn't smiling like before either."
The mother turned toward Vino and tried to give him another hug, but his face showed he really didn't know what was happening. His mother pulled back and held back even more tears.
Meanwhile, a girl was running down the hall after she heard Vino had awoken. She ran through the door, gave Vino a hug, and began crying.
"I'm sorry!" Her crying interrupted her."I didn't think the backlash would be this bad, Vino!"
She grabbed his hand and cried more. The mother was not impressed, having a look of anger in her eyes. "So you are the one who caused this? I should—"
The mother bit her tongue. She didn't want to escalate the situation any further. It was already bad enough that her son had memory loss; she didn't need to hurt his friend as well.
"Can you at least explain what you and my son were doing to cause this?"
"We were tempering his—" The banging of the rail at the end of the bed cut her off.
"You were trying to temper his soul? Are you crazy? What if he'd died or become a vegetable? He can't even remember me now!" She fell on her knees and sobbed.
A long silence.
The girl had a look of guilt, and now it was even worse that she realized he had memory loss. She knew it was risky, but Vino had asked her the other day if he could finally be as strong as his mom or her.
He was a late bloomer, so she wanted to help him but denied his request at first. The persistent Vino finally convinced her. She knew that by tempering the soul, one could strengthen their abilities. She didn't know what would happen if he tried to use her tempering technique.
"Mrs. Aria. I'm sorry that this happened. I really didn't want to do it, but he kept on and said, "
"That's enough," the mother said, stopping the girls rant. The nurse chimed in.
"He did seem to awaken some type of power, though. Look at his hand." The nurse grabbed Vino's hand; he pulled back a little before she opened his palm and revealed a simple marking that showed a crescent moon.
"A crescent, huh?" The girl had a look of fear in her eyes. Her hands began shaking, and her heart rate increased. The crescent was a symbol that appeared often, but this one faced the other direction, the waning crescent symbol. It was a symbol of evil, misfortune, or even a dark ability. It is said that being around those with the waning crescent could be extremely bad or good.
"So... he actually awakened?" Aria said it in shock. She knew he was a late bloomer, but to hear he had awakened lightened up the situation a bit. She turned to Vino and smiled.
"Honey, are you okay?" She said in a high tone
"I'm sorry, but I don't know what's going on. Where am I again?" Vino sighed and tried to think of what was going on.
"Who are you?"
These words made Aria sick. She had been forgotten once; being forgotten again is too much.
He could remember a little, but none of it made sense. The only thing he could think of at the moment was the image of that god. It made him angry.
Vino thought inwardly. I need to find out how I got here and where I'm from, but where do I even start?
"I don't remember anything except her face." Vino pointed at the girl. He had experienced a brief influx of images into his mind after he had passed out, all relating to the girl.
"Have I replaced someone?" He thought to himself.
The girl frowned and looked away, still blaming herself for what happened.
Aria sighed and grabbed a wooden bucket of water from the corner of the room. She handed it to him, and he looked down into his reflection. He had white hair, blue eyes, a nice face, and a decent scar that seemed to be healing by the second.
He confirmed his theories about replacing someone else.
"Rina, can you try and help him remember? He seems to not even recognize himself," the doctor pointed out."He should be good to go. Take him around to places you have been before. Maybe that will help."
"Rina! So that's your name!" Vino smiled and got up from the bed. Something clicked in his mind, but he didn't know why; all he knew was that Rina was his friend and didn't mean to hurt him.
"Yes, Vino! That is my name! I am glad you remembered," she replied, her voice soft and comforting, yet a tinge of sadness could be heard. "Come on, let's go for a walk."
Vino nodded, feeling a sense of trust and familiarity with Rina, even though he couldn't remember much about her. He followed her out of the room and into the hall. Vino noticed that she also had a mark on her right palm; it was a four-pointed star.
"Hey, Vino? My birthday is in a week. I'll finally be 18 and go to the academy."
"..." Vino scratched the back of his head.
"You were going to go with me, right?" She looked at him with glee.
"Sorry, I really don't remember." Vino looked down, and a frown appeared on his face.
"Right..." Rina walked in circles around Vino, pondering what to do next. She smiled and had an idea.
"Vino, now that I think about it, aren't you excited for your own birthday? Just so you know, it's in 2 weeks." She approached him from behind and wrapped her arms around his neck. He blushed and tried to turn around, but her grip was pretty good.
She suddenly kissed the back of his head, and lightning struck his mind. A memory of the past flashed by.