Ch0 – A new Hero?
by bonberjeanYou blink, and you see yourself in a foggy forest. Without any visible trail or notable landmark, you pick a random direction and walk toward it.
After a while, you try to recall how you got into this forest but your memories seem cloudy, even your name is hard to recall. Do you even remember your name?
It’s… It’s Mike. You remember that your name is Mike. After remembering your name, you notice the fog clearing a little, but it’s still hard to see. Perhaps, your memories have anything to do with it?
Before you can ponder any further, you hear childish giggles. You cannot tell the source of the laughter, and it seems to be getting closer, at least you think it is. This time, you can point out its source, albeit vaguely. Following the sound, you find a trail of… fireflies? You decide to follow them since this seems to be the only visible landmark in this place.
The fireflies disperse once you get close and the next one appears, apparently guiding you toward an unknown destination.
You follow them.
You hear the giggles again, this time it seemed more… eager?
As you continue further, you start to hear some voices. It’s too quiet to point out the source and the words are incomprehensible.
Looking around, you spot a couple of… shapes? The fog thickens around them, making it difficult to identify them properly. One is small, pink, and jovial-sounding, while the other is large, black, and gives you a sense of seriousness.
They seem to talk to themselves, either ignoring you or not noticing your presence.
“Excuse me?” The two pause at your question.
Then they resume talking between themselves, but it now sounds like they are speaking in a hurry. Before you can ask again, a gust of wind blows on your face and you flinch for a fraction of a second.
When you open your eyes again, they have disappeared. You hear the laughter again, this time, it’s right…
behind…
you!
“I like you!” You hear it say behind you… when you turn to look, you see a pair of large blue eyes staring, then you…
Waking up, Mike looks around, a bit startled from his dream.
Shaking his tiredness out, Mike gets up from his bed and picks up his phone, ‘4:00 A.M.’ shows on the screen.
“Ugh… too early.” Grumbling, Mike went to the bathroom to freshen up.
When Mike just finishes leaving the bathroom, he hears the doorbell ringing.
“Mail!”
Confused, Mike dresses up quickly, wondering why someone on his door would deliver something before the morning even started. “Coming!”
Still shirtless, Mike goes to answer the front door. After opening it, he sees a package but no sign of the delivery person. “Weird…” Picking up the package, he puts it in the middle of the living room and then checks the address. He is not going to open a package that isn’t meant for him, after all.
It seems that the package is indeed for him. “Alright, let’s see what’s inside…”, the man then goes to open the drawer next to the couch to pick up a box cutter.
Mike returns to the box with the tool in hand and opens it carefully.
And inside was…
…
“A ball?” Picking it up, he sees that it is dual-colored, red and white with a circular button in the middle. Curious, Mike presses the button.
Then the ball starts vibrating and grows hot. “Oh,Shi-!” Throwing the ball away in reflex, it impacts the couch and the ball opens, a bright light is released from inside.
The light zips around, toppling a few objects and furniture along the way, and it spots Mike. The man does not like how the light starts approaching him, so he backs away from it. The light continues approaching Mike starting to change its form.
The shape solidifies and the light dims, allowing Mike to see its details, the shape is similar to a cat, a cat with pink fur, a very long tail, a big head, and a pair of large blue eyes that now stare at Mike.
If it were only that, Mike wouldn’t be too surprised, but since the cat is floating in the air and staring at him… “Oh! Crap, an alien is invading my home.” He goes to grab the closest object he can find to defend himself with, which is an umbrella.
Without thinking, he swings the makeshift weapon towards the creature, but it proves to be quite nimble and dodges the attack effortlessly. The alien seems to find this amusing, like a game of tag, as noted by the giggles it makes.
Mike continued swinging the umbrella, sometimes hitting the furniture and knocking objects over. “Stand still you little-”
“Enough!”
“Wha-?” Mike suddenly feels himself completely frozen, his limbs locked in place mid-swing.
His eyes widen when he notices that his shadow starts growing longer and then he begins to panic when a creature emerges from it.
It is a black creature with white hair, flowing in an unfelt wind, and a single piercing blue eye is visible, and it doesn’t look very amused. “Oh, Father, now there’s a demon!?”
The black creature glares at the man briefly, then addresses the pink cat. “Can you explain why you are wasting time playing with humans when you should be helping contain the Shards?”
“Mew!” It simply replies.
“You can’t be serious..!” The demon seems bewildered at this answer, Mike only gets confused. The pink cat floats towards the human, who becomes very anxious as it approaches him.
Then the cat pats Mike’s head. “Mew mew!” The black one appears to get angry at this gesture.
“No!” Now glaring at the cat, “We don’t have time for your little pet project!”
The cat is now looking at the black creature seriously, “Mew!!” It points to the human, then some direction outside Mike’s view. “Meeew! Mew?”
Mike seems apprehensive at this turn of events. “What is going on-” “Quiet, human!”
Turning back towards the cat, it continued. “And what makes you think that-” the black creature angrily points towards Mike. “-human will be able to solve the issue?”
The floating cat lets out a long string of mews and growls, then circles around Mike. The shadowy creature seems exasperated by that and starts pinching its nose, at least where the nose would be, and then it seems to relent. “Very well, you have six turns.”
Mike briefly wonders what these ‘turns’ mean, but he quickly dismisses that thought, having more important stuff to worry about, like still being bound in place by some invisible force. Then the black creature pointed aggressively at the pink cat. “And be quick, because if I have to return here…” The black creature doesn’t finish the sentence, then it starts to sink to the ground, back to Mike’s shadow, never stopping its glare.
Mike stumbles, his limbs no longer locked in place. Not expecting it, he drops the umbrella, and the cat turns to the man because of the noise. Mike gets a bit nervous at the attention. “Uhh… Good kitty?” The cat floats closer to Mike, and Mike takes a step backward.
His back hits against the wall, the pink cat is now very close to his face.
“Mew!” Then its eyes glow blue. Mike’s vision darkens and he loses consciousness.
Before he falls to the ground, a blue glow envelops his body, preventing him from hitting the hard tiled floor and he begins floating in the air. With a flash of light, both of them vanish.
Opening his eyes, Mike finds himself in a daze, unable to focus on anything specific around him. He notices that he’s standing on top of an endless expanse of water or some other liquid, his steps making small ripples. Besides that, the environment is surrounded by a dense, somewhat familiar, fog.
In a trance, Mike walks in a random direction. After some time, the human’s mind starts to clear gradually, he begins wondering where he is and how he got to this place.
He looks around and notices something different in the fog, some shadowy lump, curious, he gets closer.
It seems to be a pedestal, on top of it is a book. The book has a hard, red cover and the pages are yellowed, showing that it is quite old.
Mike goes to open the book carefully, but the moment he touches the cover, the book zaps his finger. “Yeouch!”
The book starts floating and Mike takes a few steps back in surprise, before he can do anything else, he hears a voice echo all around him. “I am the boon of knowledge, before you can proceed further, you must choose one that will help you!”
Confused, Mike looks around for the source of the voice, but then, he notices that there are two other pedestals around him now, each with a different object floating.
The one on the left is a floating orb. And the one on the right is a floating… apple?
When Mike focuses on the orb, the voice continues. “I am the boon of wisdom, with me at your side there will always be a friend willing to help you.”
Changing his focus to the apple, the voice goes on. “I am the boon of nature, with me at your side you’ll always find something that aids you.”
Mike then returns his gaze to the book, where the voice finishes. “And with me at your side, you will know what to expect.”
“Now… choose!” Then the voice stops, waiting for his choice. With his choice made, Mike then points towards… …the… …kkzzztz…
“Gah!!” Mike woke up abruptly, panting after experiencing some nightmare. “What an awful dre- wait… what happened to my voice?” Instinctively reaching for his throat, Mike notices something unfamiliar when he touches it.
Nervous, he glances down, seeing a mix of brown, yellow and black fur. He touches the fur on the belly.
He felt his belly being touched, and saw the fur also getting slightly messy, which bothered him a bit. “Wha-? What happened to me!?” When he moved, that body responded in kind, he’s starting to realize that he is no longer human.
“Oh…no! I got abducted and experimented by an alien!?” In a panic now, Mike starts to hyperventilate. “What do I do-!?”
Before he can ramble further, Mike hears a loud roar in the distance. Startled, he cautiously looks for the source.
After a few moments, nothing else comes up, and Mike finally notices that he’s in the middle of a forest, completely unfamiliar to him. “A-alright, Mike. Find where you are first, then freak out later…”
“Oh boy, I’m already speaking in third person.” With his new stubby hamster-like arms, he attempts to regain his focus and determination by slapping the sides of his face.
And getting zapped by something in his cheeks for his attempts. “Yeouch!!”
“What the-?” Mike gets slightly startled by that shock, confused as to why the slap hurt much more than the shock itself.
He then touches his cheeks again, albeit much more gently this time, and finds out how sensitive they feel.
“A-alright… Let’s figure out what the alien did to me later, for now, I need to find some kind of shelter.” With a plan in mind, Mike ventures into the forest, hoping to find a path, road or at least some easy landmark.
After some time exploring, Mike manages to hear the sound of rushing water. “A river!?” With some hope, he increases his pace, following the sound. Then he reaches the river.
The river is fairly wide, not very deep and its current is quite gentle, with a few plants decorating its natural landscape. Mike walks toward the river’s margin and can feel how pleasant and cool the water is once he gets to the border.
The water feels pleasant on his paws, cool and refreshing. Mike then abandons all decorum and starts drinking the water, just now realizing how thirsty he is. Satisfied, he began to relax a little, but then, his belly started growling, demanding sustenance. “I should find something to eat…”.
Following the river’s margin, Mike tries to find something edible, he doesn’t know if- whatever he is now – needs something unique to eat or if he can eat the same things he was already familiar with…
Mike notices the sky getting an orange tint, he has been searching for something for quite some time and couldn’t find anything edible. He is getting desperate, and even tries to eat the leaves of the rare bush that he can reach at some point, much to his regret. “Bleh!” Mike spits out the leaf he tried to chew. “Tastes awful!”
Mike now starts to feel woozy and lightheaded, the sun now has fully set and the visibility is greatly reduced. His growling belly is the only thing breaking the silence of the forest. “So… hungry…”
His hunger starts to drive him crazy. “Why am I so hungry? Need… to… eat something… so bad…” Panting and with ragged breath, Mike manages to smell something pleasant. Smelling the air like a wild animal, his mouth waters while he follows the scent.
After following the scent for a while, he notices a light ahead, getting closer, he sees that the light is from a campfire. There’s a yellow creature watching the fire, it’s back against Mike’s current position.
Mike smells the air a little more, trying to find the source of the smell, and that smell is coming from the yellow creature, not being able to handle his hunger anymore. He dashes towards it…
A shrill scream can be heard from a great distance in that forest, scaring away a lot of its denizens from the source…
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