Ludo woke up and quickly realized he was no longer in the middle of the road but on a bed (a comfortable one at that.) inside a room. Around him were various pieces of furniture of all shapes and sizes alongside dusty painting and tapestries. Regardless of how comfortable Ludo was on that bed, he did not want to linger. He quietly got up and approached a nearby window with great difficulty as he felt weaker than usual and peeked outside. There he was able to see he was in the hamlet still.

With the morning sun shining down onto them, he got a better look at it. Just as he remembered before passing out, houses large and small formed a semicircle surrounding the crude square. But what caught his attention the most was the people of all ages going about with their daily lives and a group of children playing wildly as they went from house to house playing their games. The latter filled Ludo with a brief sense of levity before being washed away by the grim reminder that he could not remember his own childhood, whenever he tried, his mind replied with a void and white noise. Still the site captivated him so much that he had not noticed someone was in the room with him.

“I see you are finally awake,” a voice said from behind him.

Ludo looked back and saw an old and slender man. Wearing a long, brown cloak and with a slight hunch, he walked past Ludo, ignoring him completely, and gazed at the antiques surrounding them. Ludo, sensing an opportunity, started to quietly climb out the building, trying to escape. Then the old man’s head snapped directly to him at an unnatural speed. His graying blue eyes glared like sharp daggers.

“Whatever you are planning on doing, drop it,” he said. “or at least allow me to ask you a few questions beforehand.”

Ludo did not dare move a single muscle after that. He had no idea who this person was, but something in those eyes of his told him that such a dumb action was exactly what the old man was expecting Ludo to do. Taking Ludo’s inaction as an agreement, the old man calmly sat on an old chair and motioned for Ludo to do the same. Ludo sat down and then the old man whistled and a few seconds later a servant came in with a large plate with two large glasses of ale. She offered one to the old man who took the glass rather enthusiastically. The servant then walked up to Ludo, offering the second glass of ale which he declined.

“Your loss.” The old man chuckled and dismissed the servant before taking a big gulp out of his glass. “What is your name?”

Ludo saw no point in lying to the old man as it could—or more correctly, would—only bring him trouble if he tried to dodge the question. And maybe if he gained his trust, he may be the only person who could help him find the answers to his many questions. In the meantime, he was calling out for Ben inside his mind but the voice never replied back. For a brief second, Ludo began to wonder if Ben even existed or if he had created it to counter his loneliness while in the forest.

“I’m Ludo.”

“Well, Ludo. How did you end up at my village?” the old man asked with a mocking smile.

The question made Ludo’s brain throb. It was probably the only question he could not give a straight answer to. What was he supposed to answer anyways? That he had woken up suddenly in the middle of the forest? Nothing he could say would help his case.

“I was lost…”

“Lost? You don’t just get lost in these woods. Especially with how hazardous these forests are.” The old man stood up and turned to face a small painting to his right. Ludo froze as he saw a sword in its sheath strapped to the old man’s hip. “Which means you are with the brigands.” The old man took a step forward and Ludo pushed himself closer to the wall, as if trying to phase through it.

“Wait a moment!” Ludo exclaimed, raising his hands to protect himself. “I’m not with any brigands, whoever they are. I’m telling you the truth, I suddenly awoke in the middle of nowhere and I can’t remember anything!”

“That’s even more of a ridiculous lie!” The old man laughed.

“But I’m telling you the truth!”

The old man kept looking at him with an unconvinced look. As he let one of his hands rest on his sword’s pommel, Ludo flinched and cowered, not daring to blink. The old man did not keep his eyes off Ludo, as if trying to dig out his soul until he scoffed and approached Ludo. His heart raced and he closed his eyes as he expected to be stabbed by the sword. But after a few long seconds, he opened his eyes again to see the old man leaning out of the window.

“If you are done panicking. I want you to look over there.” He pointed at some place faraway. Ludo reluctantly obeyed but kept his distance from him, still expecting the old man to attack him. He looked over where the old man was pointing and leaned outside the window. Looking past the buildings, he only saw the roof of the domed building in the distance.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“The domed building’s roof?”

“The temple’s roof.” The old man said. “There is were I found you, at a fork in the road. You had fainted from exhaustion and gave everyone around here something to talk about for the week.”

Ludo looked around and saw that the locals had now subtly gathered all around the square to look at him, they whispered amongst their groups and Ludo could not help but notice that some of them looked unusually different from him.

“Where did you come from?” The old man grabbed Ludo and pulled him into the room again and away from the curious onlookers.

“Like I told you, I just woke up!”

The room fell into a somber silence. Ludo tried his best to make out what the old man was thinking but his face was still like a statue.

“I won’t repeat—“

“I can’t remember! I just remember waking up in the forest before finding a pond and following a stream here!” Ludo yelled.

“What drivel are you saying? If you really value your life I suggest you stop lying to me.”

“I’m telling you the truth! I cannot remember anything!” Ludo exclaimed. “Why would I even lie to you!? You said it yourself. I don’t have any way of defending myself and I don’t have a clue of who these brigands are!”

The old man kept looking at Ludo with an inexpressive but stern look before removing his hand from his sword. “As much as I don’t want to trust you, I fear your story is just too absurd to make up on the spot.”

He whistled and the servant entered the room again. He was quick on his orders and the servant took Ludo to the living room. It was small but homely and yet again Ludo could have an educated guess of the health of its inhabitants as both the tables and chairs had been masterfully crafted and were decorated with a bright red fabric. Ludo sat down and a few minutes later, the servant arrived carrying drinks and food. Ludo finally realized just how hungry and thirsty he actually was as he preyed on the food offered to him, the old man sat opposite Ludo, still cautiously observing him, but his overbearing presence felt less stressful now.

“I apologize for earlier,” The old man leaned forward. “There have been reports of brigand scouting parties getting closer to us and I feared you were one of them.”

“I understand,” Ludo said. “I like this place,” he added in an attempt to flatter the old man.

It seemed like that had succeeded as the old man let escape a satisfied yet brief smile.

“Indeed it is. I founded it after…” The old man trailed off.

“After what?”

“Forget about it. You said your name was Ludo, yes?”

Ludo nodded.

“I’m Emmer.”

Ludo continued to eat in silence, only occasionally asking a question or two.

“Why do you trust me now?”

“I still have my doubts, Ludo. Your sudden appearance here was very bizarre even by our standards. But your pleas sound too genuine to be an act.”

After Ludo finished eating his brunch, Emmer took Ludo back to the room he had been in and proceeded to pull out a pair of books, each one thicker than the last from a large chest of drawers. Two of them had a sketch of a swordsman, while the third had an odd looking creature drawn on its cover. The latter interested Ludo a lot. Emmer seemed to have noticed and gave Ludo the book and he was welcomed on the very first page to a nightmarish illustration. A horned, three headed creature with a lizard’s body and a spiked tail. As if reading his mind, Emmer answered Ludo’s question.

“That’s a chimera. Or as some locals call them, half-breeds.”

“These exist!?” Ludo said, shocked at the fact.

Emmer nodded. “As I told you, the forests are not a place someone just ‘gets lost’”

While Emmer spoke, Ludo flipped the pages and was shocked to see new kinds of abominations after another. Each one looked more voracious than the last and he did not miss how almost all of them had a note on the page that only filled him with dread.

Preys on people

Ludo thanked whatever luck he had that he did not encounter any of those monsters while alone in the forest, but also understood why Emmer was suspicious of him at first. It was a dangerous world out there, which puzzled him further as if there was something he would never forget is the dangerous beasts that roam in the wild.

“Why are you showing me all this?” Ludo asked, still with one eye glued to the page.

“You lost your memories, right? It’s for the best that you get some of them back as quickly as possible.”

“Thanks and thank you for saving me yesterday.”

“That is the least I could do. But you should probably put the book away and rest now.”

“Rest? But—”

“Of course! You barely survived yesterday! Rest for today and tomorrow we will continue this conversation.”

Emmer left the room and left Ludo by himself. Accepting his fate, he sat on one of the chairs and went back to the chimera. As he read about its fearsome spit that could melt metal and the inhuman strength it possessed, he felt a slight sting on his head and a familiar voice soon after.

“You’re awake now,” Ben said enthusiastically.

“For a while now! Where were you?” Ludo replied to Ben within his mind

“I was… away.”

Ludo laughed. “How can you be away when you’re in my mind!?”

“Heh, don’t you know how large your mind is? I need to take care, because its a desert in here.”

“Is that so?” Ludo could not help but find Ben’s comment humorous, he imagined a tiny Ben walking through large dunes of sand inside of his head. “Are you trying to find my memories?”

“Yes. But enough of that, what are you reading?”

Ludo happily told him about the book and the monsters that it described. Ben sounded as surprised as he did when realizing that these existed. The day went by and Ludo could not help but find himself looking forward as to what Emmer would do to make him learn about the world again.