We were simply born, we didn't know what we were, who we were, we just were. Born in a forest in fully grown bodies, 30 of us lived.

“Hello? who are all of you?” I said. “I… do not know” said another. “Well we all need names don't we?” another said. “agreed” I replied.

For some reason we were all calm, and did not take to see each other as possible enemies. For some reason, we were intelligent. “Alright, first order of business then, names. Since we dont know, lets name ourselves shall we?” I said to everyone. “Let’s go in a circle. I’ll start. I’ll be… David''

“David,” I said, feeling the name take shape in my mouth. The others looked around, curiosity mingling with apprehension.

A woman with striking green eyes and dark hair spoke next. “I’ll be Elena,” she said, her voice steady.

One by one, they followed. “Marcus,” said a tall man. “Thorne,” rumbled a gruff-looking man. The names kept coming, each person stepping forward, claiming an identity from the void.

There was an unspoken understanding that names were a starting point. We knew nothing of our origins, but we could shape our futures, starting with something as simple as a name.

When the last person had spoken, a silence settled over us. We stood in a loose circle, thirty individuals who had just begun to forge their identities.

“What now?” Elena asked, breaking the silence. “We have names, but what do we do next?”

“I think we need to understand where we are,” Marcus suggested, glancing around the dense forest that encircled us. “And what we need to survive.”

I nodded, feeling a sense of responsibility for these people. “Agreed. Let’s start by exploring the area. Pair up and stay within shouting distance.”

As we began to form pairs, the enormity of our situation began to sink in. We were strangers to ourselves and to each other, thrust into an unknown world with no past and an uncertain future.

Little did we know, we needed food and water if we wanted to survive. Soon we exhausted ourselves and met back up near where we first appeared.

Night soon fell and with it, the cold. We spent the night shivering, hungry, thirsty. We were able to sleep, but not by much. Nevertheless, dreams came. Dreams of eating, drinking, foraging, hunting, building shelter.

When we woke up, we all had this look on our faces. “I guess you guys had the same dream as I did?” I said.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Looks like something came from the void. Another gift of knowledge, aside from language. Where did this knowledge come from do you guys think? Maybe a memory?” I asked.

“You mean to say, a memory from before our appearance in this strange place?” Elena replied.

“No point in thinking about it now while we have more pressing matters to attend to” Thorne says.

"What do we do about food? We have no way of telling what can or cannot be eaten. We have from what I understand the gift of language, and the dream we all had last night. I do not know about all of you, but I know nothing aside from these. No skills of building, of hunting, nothing. Do any of you have these things?" I say.

The group exchanged uncertain glances. Thorne, with his gruff voice, spoke first. “I don’t have any skills either, but we need to start somewhere.”

Elena nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe we can figure it out together. We can experiment, see what’s safe to eat.”

Marcus stepped forward. “We can observe the animals. See what they eat and if it affects them.”

Elena chimed in, “And we can learn by trial and error. We just have to be careful and take it slow.”

I nodded, encouraged by their suggestions. “Alright. Let’s divide the tasks. Some will search for food, observing animals and testing small amounts. Others will look for water. Another group can start gathering materials for shelter.”

Thorne, and Marcus volunteered to search for food. Elena and a few others agreed to find water, while I and the rest began collecting branches and leaves.

As we moved through the forest, I felt the weight of our collective uncertainty but also a strange sense of hope. We were starting from nothing, but maybe that meant we could build anything.

The group dispersed to their tasks. Thorne, and Marcus ventured deeper into the woods, their eyes scanning for signs of edible plants and animals. Elena and the others followed the sound of flowing water, their steps cautious yet determined. I led the remaining group, gathering branches and leaves to create some form of shelter.

“Look,” Elena called out after a while, her voice tinged with excitement. “A stream!”

We hurried over to her, relief washing over us at the sight of clear, running water. Some knelt down to drink, while others filled makeshift containers fashioned from large leaves.

Nearby, Thorne and his group returned with handfuls of berries and a few plants. “We saw animals eating these,” he said, holding up the foraged food. “We think they’re safe, but we should test them slowly.”

We nodded in agreement. “Let’s focus on building a shelter now,” I suggested. “We need a place to rest and regroup.”

As the sun began its descent, casting long shadows across the forest floor, we worked together, weaving branches and leaves into a rudimentary structure. It wasn’t much, but it would provide some protection against the elements.

Elena, who had been quiet for a while, suddenly spoke up. “Do you think there are others like us out there?” she asked, her gaze distant.

“I don’t know,” I replied, “but it’s possible. We should be prepared for anything.”

Night fell, and the forest grew colder, shadows stretching and deepening around us. We huddled together for warmth, our makeshift shelter offering minimal protection against the chill.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Suddenly, it started raining. “What? Why is water pouring from the sky?” I ask, confused. Everyone else was as confused as me. “It might be dangerous. Let’s all stay inside the shelter and avoid it for now” Thorne says.

As the night continues, we hear loud thunder. It scares a handful of us, especially Pipo. Pipo was one of the smaller people in the group, he was a man but he had very feminine features.

Suddenly, a flash of light hits a nearby tree. Despite the potential dangers of the rain and the strange light, I and some other people come out of our makeshift shelters to see what was going on, out of curiosity.

We see something strange and warm flickering through the trees. Beautiful but obviously dangerous. The rain eventually puts it out and we are left astonished. What could it possibly be?

As we slept through the night, all we could think about was that strange, red, flickering thing.

Days pass, the nights as cold as always and im left pondering about the red flickering thing, which i’ve come to name as “fire”. Sick and tired of shivering every night, I come to an idea. Perhaps there was a way to create fire? I bring this up with the group one morning.

“We need to find a way to make whatever that flickering red thing was” I said.  “Without it, we won’t last long in this cold.”

Marcus nodded. “But how do we do that? Does anyone know?”

Silence fell as we exchanged uncertain glances. Finally, Elena spoke up. “We need to try. We can rub sticks together, right? We’ve seen friction create heat when we worked.”

Thorne looked at the branches around us. “We have enough wood. Let’s gather some dry leaves and smaller twigs. Maybe we can make it work.”

We divided the tasks, each of us determined to contribute. Thorne and Marcus collected dry leaves and twigs, while Elena and I tried to find suitable sticks. Elena watched us, offering suggestions as we worked.

Hours passed, and our efforts seemed futile. Frustration grew as we rubbed sticks together, hoping for a spark that never came. Our hands grew blistered and raw, and the cold night deepened around us.

Eventually, we had to accept defeat. “We’ll have to get through the night again without fire,” I said, my voice heavy with exhaustion.

“We need to keep trying,” Marcus said, his voice resolute. “We can’t give up. We’ll learn, and we’ll survive.”

Nods of agreement circled around the group.

During the morning as we ate our meager meal of foraged berries and roots, I spoke up, voicing the thoughts that had been troubling me. "I noticed something. There are things we know, and there are things we don't know. We haven't started from nothing, but there is plenty that we don't know. And these dreams we sometimes have, what do they mean? How is this so? Why are we here?"

The group fell silent, pondering my words. Marcus broke the silence first. "It's strange. We know how to speak, how to recognize some basic things, but beyond that, it's like there's a wall in our minds."

Elena nodded thoughtfully. "We don't remember where we came from, but we have instincts, bits of knowledge. Maybe it means something. Maybe we're meant to figure it out as we go."

Thorne added, "It's like we've been given a starting point, but the rest is up to us. We need to focus on survival first. The answers might come later."

Elena looked around at the dense forest, her eyes filled with determination. "We need to keep experimenting, keep learning from everything around us. Every failure is a lesson, every success a step forward."

Encouraged by her words, we set about our tasks with renewed vigor. We decided to dedicate part of our day to continuing our attempts at making fire. The other part would be spent gathering food, improving our shelter, and exploring the area for resources.

In the afternoon, while exploring a rocky area by the stream, Elena and I found an unusual type of stone. It was harder and produced small sparks when struck against another rock. Intrigued, we brought some of the stones back to camp.

"Look what we found," Elena said, showing the stones to the group. "These rocks make sparks when you hit them together."

Marcus took one and struck it against another, producing a brief spark. "This could be the key. If we can use these sparks to start a fire, we might have a chance."

We gathered dry leaves and small twigs, forming a small pile. Thorne and Marcus took turns striking the stones together over the tinder. After several attempts, a spark caught, and a tiny flame flickered to life.

"Quick, feed it!" Elena urged, and we carefully added more twigs and leaves until the flame grew stronger. The warmth spread through our small circle, bringing smiles of relief and triumph.

"We did it," I said, the fire's light reflecting in our eyes. "We made fire."

That night, we sat around the fire, its warmth and light a testament to our perseverance. The forest seemed less foreboding, the shadows less menacing. The fire was more than just warmth; it was a symbol of our ability to adapt and survive.

As the days went by and our routines settled into a semblance of order, a new challenge emerged: time. We lacked a way to measure it precisely, causing confusion and inefficiency in our daily activities. Meetings were missed, tasks overlapped, and coordination became increasingly difficult without a reliable sense of time.

I raised the issue with the group during one of our gatherings around the fire. "We need a way to track time," I said, voicing the frustration we all felt. "Without it, we're working blindly, guessing when to start and finish tasks."

Marcus, always pragmatic, nodded in agreement. "You've always been the one asking the deeper questions, David. It makes sense for you to figure this out."

Elena chimed in, her voice carrying a hint of optimism amid the challenge. "You're observant, David. I'm sure you'll find a solution."

Encouraged by their support, I set out to tackle the problem. I began by observing the sun's movement throughout the day, noting its position at different times and marking the ground with stones to track its path. Each day, I made adjustments, refining my observations and experimenting with different methods to measure time.

Days turned into weeks as I meticulously recorded the sun's movements. I experimented with constructing makeshift inventions that track time, I call these sundials, using sticks and rocks to create markers that cast shadows indicating the time of day. Some attempts were more successful than others, but each failure taught me something new.

Through trial and error, I eventually constructed a more accurate sundial, carefully aligning a gnomon to cast a clear shadow on marked lines representing hours. It wasn't perfect, but it provided a reliable enough measure of time for us to schedule tasks and coordinate our daily lives more effectively.

Excitedly, I gathered the group one evening and demonstrated my makeshift sundial. "With this, we can now track time throughout the day," I explained, pointing to the moving shadow. "It's not exact, but it gives us a way to organize ourselves better."

The group gathered around, studying the sundial with interest and offering suggestions for improvement. As the fire crackled nearby, casting flickering shadows on our faces, I felt a sense of accomplishment and relief. But that relief was shattered in an instant when someone from the group who had been out late foraging came back hurt and afraid.

His name was Pipo, someone who was smaller than the rest of the men, with blonde hair and feminine features. He said he was hurt by a small, green, person like being. Pipo said it acted more like an animal though and attacked him. He was able to get away but not before getting a bad cut on his arm.

We had previously had to take care of cuts before so we figured out that if we put pressure on it the bleeding would stop eventually, but we never dealt with a cut this big. Nevertheless we treated it as we would normally and hoped for the best.

Everyone’s faces were grim and one thought went through everyone’s mind: We had to develop weapons to defend ourselves with.