Like a newborn, Adam took his first breath in the new world asleep. Just a moment later, he groaned awake. Instinctively standing up and looking at where he woke up, he wondered how he could have ended up there.

After minutes of failing to piece together the events that had brought him there, he began to look around for any clues he could get from his environment. First was the ground. Beneath him, it was soft, carpeted with moss and twisted roots, along with the occasional tuft of grass.

‘I’m in a forest; that’s obvious enough,’ Adam thought, scrutinizing the trees around him.

Following the roots up, he found a disconcerting sight. The once innocuous trees surrounding him seemed to stretch endlessly into the sky, their canopy blocked by a thick, impenetrable mist. No trace of the pale blue sky remained beyond the veil, dancing and sparkling as it only let small beams of light shimmer through.

To make matters worse, Adam felt a sharp, stinging pain in his legs and neck. Wincing, he lowered himself to the ground. Once he was down, he took his sweet old time moving to look at his legs so he did not disturb his already pained neck.

Taking his first good look at himself, Adam noticed something was wrong. Very wrong. He noted that he was covered in short yet dainty brown fur, with skinny and stubby legs to match. Twisting his head to look at his rear, he saw an even skinnier tail sticking straight up with a white poof at the end to compliment it.

Adam had no idea what he used to look like, so he had no attachment to the idea of being a human, but he knew enough to know that he didn’t look like this.

After a moment of idiotically trying to figure out his own eye color, Adam’s real questions kicked in.

‘Where the hell am I? Why can’t I remember anything?’

Panic began to seed its roots in his head. ‘No, no, NO! This can’t be right! I know I’m a human! I used to… I used to…’ Adam’s internal voice trailed off as he failed to find anything to hold on to. Then, one final question popped into his head.

‘Am I in danger?’

Adam couldn’t answer any of his questions about himself or the world, but hopefully, by running away, he could change that last question’s answer to no. He didn’t know who or what put him there, but his gut told him that whoever it was couldn’t be trusted.

There was only one problem with that whole running plan: He didn’t quite know how to walk yet, let alone run. Refusing to give up and remain a sitting duck, Adam gave it his all and stood up on his two legs, before tripping and falling on his face immediately.

On his second attempt, he was more successful, being able to take a few slow and strenuous steps.

Adam noticed that despite violently swinging them to keep his balance, his arms still felt idle while he walked, like an internal instinct calling out to him to do something else. With this newfound feeling, Adam got an idea.

He slowly moved his way back down onto all fours. It was noticeably better on his legs almost instantly, and it only took a brief moment of crawling to get used to it. Despite occasionally smacking his hind legs while running, it was still an upgrade to not moving at all.

Without a clue where to go but still running anyway, Adam charged ahead with everything he had.

“Hey, hold on a moment!” He heard someone behind him yell. The unexpectedness of the voice caused him to turn around.

Before him stood two strange creatures. One resembled his own shape: covered in fluffy black fur long enough to sway in the wind, and adorned with faintly glowing blue rings. Its ears stood tall and sharp like knives. The second creature was orange with a peachy yellow belly and face, and a small yellow ring surrounding its neck. Adam struggled to recall what they were. ‘Umbreon’ quickly came to mind for the first, but the second creature’s name remained frustratingly out of reach.

Even more confusing was that he could only recall Umbreon; he couldn’t recall his favorite food, his mother’s name, he couldn’t even remember his own species name, Eevee! Yet still, that Umbreon was all he could recall.

“Okay, okay,” the Umbreon panted, “Thank you for stopping.”

“You look… disheveled,” the orange one spoke, eyeing Adam suspiciously. He took a deep breath before continuing. “My name is Concord, this is Chary, and we can help you!”

“Please. Thank you. My name is Adam,” he said, looking up at the two. From the way they looked back, Adam just felt like he could trust them.

“Well, nice to meet you, Adam. How about you follow us into town, and we can figure out what to do from there?” Chary replied with a reassuring smile.

As they walked, their journey took them from strolling on luscious soft moss, to treading on rough dirt, and eventually stomping through thick mud. With each step they took, the trees grew shorter, and the mist gradually lifted. They rounded one last hill, and a vibrant town came into view. Though small, it was filled with buildings, alleys, and a notably large central square with a towering structure Adam couldn’t yet identify. Even from a distance, Adam could see groups of people bustling through every alleyway, each engaged in their own activities.

After staring for a while, he noticed that Concord and Chary were no longer right in front of him, so he needed to move on.

The final stretch of the path led him down a series of switchbacks, slowly bringing him closer and closer to the town.

“You were just in Foggy Grove. This is our town!” Chary exclaimed, though there was no notable reaction. Adam treaded cautiously amidst the bustling crowd, trying to not attract any attention. Everywhere he looked, eyes stared back at him with seemingly malicious intent. Not that Adam could tell if they were actually malicious or not.

Glancing through the windows of various buildings, Adam took guesses at their purposes: a library, a hotel, a house. The words describing them popped into his head with remarkable clarity. He began to visualize a plan for where he would want to go and where he would want to avoid. Adam tried to take mental notes of everywhere he went, but it was a futile task.

Just as Adam started to zone out counting concrete sheep, they arrived at a dome-shaped building. Looking through a window, the dimly lit interior boasted a range of cozy furniture. Chary opened the door and welcomed him inside.

It seemed to be a quiet place, holding an open kitchen to the left, a few chairs and a fireplace in the middle, and two beds and a boxed-off restroom on the right. Past the main features, it was decorated with stocked bookshelves, yellow rugs, and lamps.

“Here, why don’t you take a seat?” Chary suggested, pointing to an old, dusty brown couch. Somehow, it appeared to be the only dirty thing in the entire house. Even the floor seemed cleaner. Yet it was also the only piece Adam would be sitting on.

“Now, let’s talk,” Concord said, taking a seat on one of the two sofas directly across from the couch. Chary joined him moments later, settling into the second sofa.

“So, what are you?” Chary leaned in as his gaze lingered on Adam.

“I don’t know,” He confessed, “I know you’re an Umbreon, and he’s a… a B…”

“Buizel,” Concord finished his sentence with a light chuckle. “And by the way, I’m a girl.”

‘Alright, so we have an “Umbreon” and a “Buizel”.’ Adam took a mental note of what he heard. ‘So what does that make me?’

“You’re an Eevee,” Chary said firmly.

“But it feels so weird. I used to be human-” Adam started, only to be swiftly interrupted by both Chary and Concord.

“Don’t tell anyone that.” Their words matched up so perfectly that it almost sounded practiced.

“The people out there will kill you if they find out what you are. You need to keep quiet about it if you wish to survive,” The Umbreon elaborated. Adam’s eyes went wide as he processed what he just heard. ‘What?! Now I know why they’re acting so intense.’ He knew he needed to know more.

“But I still have so many questions!” Adam threw up his arms in protest, but once again, he was swiftly silenced.

Chary looked at Adam directly. “We can address those later. For now, let’s get to the point,” they inhaled. “We need you.”

“And you need us.”

Adam couldn’t help but feel a creeping unease crawl down his spine. “Well, please excuse me for asking, but why?”

“…We don’t mean it in that way. We’re not asking you to do anything dangerous, we just need a third person here for legal reasons.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The guild needs us to find a new member if we want to keep our team- and all the progress we’ve made so far, since the last guy ditched us. They didn’t give us much time to find someone, so we’re just taking whoever we can get,” Concord explained. It seemed like a fair enough deal, so why did they feel so shifty?

“How can I avoid being seen as a human?” Adam asked.

“You will need to stick with us. This is for your own good. You can’t survive out there on your own.” The Umbreon’s ominous warning only added to the queasy feeling in Adam’s stomach.

“So, what will it be?” Concord crossed her arms and stared at Adam like a disappointed parent.

“Uhhh…” Adam twiddled his paws, trying to come up with the right words; struggling to contemplate a choice he knew he didn’t have. “Can I decide later?”

“You know what? Sure. You’re hungry, aren’t you? Maybe some food will help you make the right choice.” Chary drew in close, before getting up and going to the open kitchen in the far-right corner.

Mere moments later, he returned with a bowl full of berries and pushed it in Adam’s direction. Reluctantly, Adam accepted.

They were sweet, almost too sweet. They tasted like lemon-flavored gummies. Whether by fatigue or by being too full, every bite he took became harder than the last. He forced himself to continue, pecking down each berry, little by little. Each bite was smaller than the last, making it seem like he would never finish.

By the time he reached the final berry, only the fierce staring was keeping him eating. As he took the final bite, a sense of pride came over the Eevee, and he collapsed off the couch, immediately asleep.

Reality blurred, and Adam slipped into a dream. Adam Immediately realized what was happening, but he was powerless to stop it.

Looking around, there was nothing but the endless void surrounding him on all sides. It was so dark that he wasn’t sure if he was looking around at all.

“Did I just fall asleep with those people? As soon as I wake up, I need to get out! …If I do wake up at all.” The thought sent shivers down his spine. Adam struggled to push himself out of the dream, but something blocked him from leaving.

‘No. You must stay with them.’

“What the- Who said that?” Adam demanded. He looked around for the source, but still, nothing enveloped him

“WHO ARE YOU?” Adam ignored their warning and asked again.

‘I’ve been cursed, I can’t tell you exactly who I am, but I can tell you my name is also Adam. I cannot give you any further details.’

“What? Why couldn’t you tell me earlier? Are you me? What is the curse? How do I fix it?” He rushed out a flurry of questions, but none of them were answered.

‘…Just stay with them until you see a real way to escape, and then find a way to lift my curse so I can tell you just what is going on.’

“Okay, fine! I’ll join!”

“Wait, really? Thank you!” As soon as Concord said it, Adam realized that he had been talking out loud.

Like a newborn, Adam took his first breath in the new world asleep. Just a moment later, he groaned awake. Instinctively standing up and looking at where he woke up, he wondered how he could have ended up there.

After minutes of failing to piece together the events that had brought him there, he began to look around for any clues he could get from his environment. First was the ground. Beneath him, it was soft, carpeted with moss and twisted roots, along with the occasional tuft of grass.

‘I’m in a forest; that’s obvious enough,’ Adam thought, scrutinizing the trees around him.

Following the roots up, he found a disconcerting sight. The once innocuous trees surrounding him seemed to stretch endlessly into the sky, their canopy blocked by a thick, impenetrable mist. No trace of the pale blue sky remained beyond the veil, dancing and sparkling as it only let small beams of light shimmer through.

To make matters worse, Adam felt a sharp, stinging pain in his legs and neck. Wincing, he lowered himself to the ground. Once he was down, he took his sweet old time moving to look at his legs so he did not disturb his already pained neck.

Taking his first good look at himself, Adam noticed something was wrong. Very wrong. He noted that he was covered in short yet dainty brown fur, with skinny and stubby legs to match. Twisting his head to look at his rear, he saw an even skinnier tail sticking straight up with a white poof at the end to compliment it.

Adam had no idea what he used to look like, so he had no attachment to the idea of being a human, but he knew enough to know that he didn’t look like this.

After a moment of idiotically trying to figure out his own eye color, Adam’s real questions kicked in.

‘Where the hell am I? Why can’t I remember anything?’

Panic began to seed its roots in his head. ‘No, no, NO! This can’t be right! I know I’m a human! I used to… I used to…’ Adam’s internal voice trailed off as he failed to find anything to hold on to. Then, one final question popped into his head.

‘Am I in danger?’

Adam couldn’t answer any of his questions about himself or the world, but hopefully, by running away, he could change that last question’s answer to no. He didn’t know who or what put him there, but his gut told him that whoever it was couldn’t be trusted.

There was only one problem with that whole running plan: He didn’t quite know how to walk yet, let alone run. Refusing to give up and remain a sitting duck, Adam gave it his all and stood up on his two legs, before tripping and falling on his face immediately.

On his second attempt, he was more successful, being able to take a few slow and strenuous steps.

Adam noticed that despite violently swinging them to keep his balance, his arms still felt idle while he walked, like an internal instinct calling out to him to do something else. With this newfound feeling, Adam got an idea.

He slowly moved his way back down onto all fours. It was noticeably better on his legs almost instantly, and it only took a brief moment of crawling to get used to it. Despite occasionally smacking his hind legs while running, it was still an upgrade to not moving at all.

Without a clue where to go but still running anyway, Adam charged ahead with everything he had.

“Hey, hold on a moment!” He heard someone behind him yell. The unexpectedness of the voice caused him to turn around.

Before him stood two strange creatures. One resembled his own shape: covered in fluffy black fur long enough to sway in the wind, and adorned with faintly glowing blue rings. Its ears stood tall and sharp like knives. The second creature was orange with a peachy yellow belly and face, and a small yellow ring surrounding its neck. Adam struggled to recall what they were. ‘Umbreon’ quickly came to mind for the first, but the second creature’s name remained frustratingly out of reach.

Even more confusing was that he could only recall Umbreon; he couldn’t recall his favorite food, his mother’s name, he couldn’t even remember his own species name, Eevee! Yet still, that Umbreon was all he could recall.

“Okay, okay,” the Umbreon panted, “Thank you for stopping.”

“You look… disheveled,” the orange one spoke, eyeing Adam suspiciously. He took a deep breath before continuing. “My name is Concord, this is Chary, and we can help you!”

“Please. Thank you. My name is Adam,” he said, looking up at the two. From the way they looked back, Adam just felt like he could trust them.

“Well, nice to meet you, Adam. How about you follow us into town, and we can figure out what to do from there?” Chary replied with a reassuring smile.

As they walked, their journey took them from strolling on luscious soft moss, to treading on rough dirt, and eventually stomping through thick mud. With each step they took, the trees grew shorter, and the mist gradually lifted. They rounded one last hill, and a vibrant town came into view. Though small, it was filled with buildings, alleys, and a notably large central square with a towering structure Adam couldn’t yet identify. Even from a distance, Adam could see groups of people bustling through every alleyway, each engaged in their own activities.

After staring for a while, he noticed that Concord and Chary were no longer right in front of him, so he needed to move on.

The final stretch of the path led him down a series of switchbacks, slowly bringing him closer and closer to the town.

“You were just in Foggy Grove. This is our town!” Chary exclaimed, though there was no notable reaction. Adam treaded cautiously amidst the bustling crowd, trying to not attract any attention. Everywhere he looked, eyes stared back at him with seemingly malicious intent. Not that Adam could tell if they were actually malicious or not.

Glancing through the windows of various buildings, Adam took guesses at their purposes: a library, a hotel, a house. The words describing them popped into his head with remarkable clarity. He began to visualize a plan for where he would want to go and where he would want to avoid. Adam tried to take mental notes of everywhere he went, but it was a futile task.

Just as Adam started to zone out counting concrete sheep, they arrived at a dome-shaped building. Looking through a window, the dimly lit interior boasted a range of cozy furniture. Chary opened the door and welcomed him inside.

It seemed to be a quiet place, holding an open kitchen to the left, a few chairs and a fireplace in the middle, and two beds and a boxed-off restroom on the right. Past the main features, it was decorated with stocked bookshelves, yellow rugs, and lamps.

“Here, why don’t you take a seat?” Chary suggested, pointing to an old, dusty brown couch. Somehow, it appeared to be the only dirty thing in the entire house. Even the floor seemed cleaner. Yet it was also the only piece Adam would be sitting on.

“Now, let’s talk,” Concord said, taking a seat on one of the two sofas directly across from the couch. Chary joined him moments later, settling into the second sofa.

“So, what are you?” Chary leaned in as his gaze lingered on Adam.

“I don’t know,” He confessed, “I know you’re an Umbreon, and he’s a… a B…”

“Buizel,” Concord finished his sentence with a light chuckle. “And by the way, I’m a girl.”

‘Alright, so we have an “Umbreon” and a “Buizel”.’ Adam took a mental note of what he heard. ‘So what does that make me?’

“You’re an Eevee,” Chary said firmly.

“But it feels so weird. I used to be human-” Adam started, only to be swiftly interrupted by both Chary and Concord.

“Don’t tell anyone that.” Their words matched up so perfectly that it almost sounded practiced.

“The people out there will kill you if they find out what you are. You need to keep quiet about it if you wish to survive,” The Umbreon elaborated. Adam’s eyes went wide as he processed what he just heard. ‘What?! Now I know why they’re acting so intense.’ He knew he needed to know more.

“But I still have so many questions!” Adam threw up his arms in protest, but once again, he was swiftly silenced.

Chary looked at Adam directly. “We can address those later. For now, let’s get to the point,” they inhaled. “We need you.”

“And you need us.”

Adam couldn’t help but feel a creeping unease crawl down his spine. “Well, please excuse me for asking, but why?”

“…We don’t mean it in that way. We’re not asking you to do anything dangerous, we just need a third person here for legal reasons.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The guild needs us to find a new member if we want to keep our team- and all the progress we’ve made so far, since the last guy ditched us. They didn’t give us much time to find someone, so we’re just taking whoever we can get,” Concord explained. It seemed like a fair enough deal, so why did they feel so shifty?

“How can I avoid being seen as a human?” Adam asked.

“You will need to stick with us. This is for your own good. You can’t survive out there on your own.” The Umbreon’s ominous warning only added to the queasy feeling in Adam’s stomach.

“So, what will it be?” Concord crossed her arms and stared at Adam like a disappointed parent.

“Uhhh…” Adam twiddled his paws, trying to come up with the right words; struggling to contemplate a choice he knew he didn’t have. “Can I decide later?”

“You know what? Sure. You’re hungry, aren’t you? Maybe some food will help you make the right choice.” Chary drew in close, before getting up and going to the open kitchen in the far-right corner.

Mere moments later, he returned with a bowl full of berries and pushed it in Adam’s direction. Reluctantly, Adam accepted.

They were sweet, almost too sweet. They tasted like lemon-flavored gummies. Whether by fatigue or by being too full, every bite he took became harder than the last. He forced himself to continue, pecking down each berry, little by little. Each bite was smaller than the last, making it seem like he would never finish.

By the time he reached the final berry, only the fierce staring was keeping him eating. As he took the final bite, a sense of pride came over the Eevee, and he collapsed off the couch, immediately asleep.

Reality blurred, and Adam slipped into a dream. Adam Immediately realized what was happening, but he was powerless to stop it.

Looking around, there was nothing but the endless void surrounding him on all sides. It was so dark that he wasn’t sure if he was looking around at all.

“Did I just fall asleep with those people? As soon as I wake up, I need to get out! …If I do wake up at all.” The thought sent shivers down his spine. Adam struggled to push himself out of the dream, but something blocked him from leaving.

‘No. You must stay with them.’

“What the- Who said that?” Adam demanded. He looked around for the source, but still, nothing enveloped him

“WHO ARE YOU?” Adam ignored their warning and asked again.

‘I’ve been cursed, I can’t tell you exactly who I am, but I can tell you my name is also Adam. I cannot give you any further details.’

“What? Why couldn’t you tell me earlier? Are you me? What is the curse? How do I fix it?” He rushed out a flurry of questions, but none of them were answered.

‘…Just stay with them until you see a real way to escape, and then find a way to lift my curse so I can tell you just what is going on.’

“Okay, fine! I’ll join!”

“Wait, really? Thank you!” As soon as Concord said it, Adam realized that he had been talking out loud.