“Can you remember anything else?” I asked her, trying to make sure if we were in the same situation and condition.

“No…” she weakly answered while shaking her head. “I know some general knowledge… I know this place is… different.”

So it was really the same. I sighed and sat down cross-legged in front of her. This time I made sure that my robe wouldn’t reveal something unnecessary that may complicate the situation again.

“Look at me,” I told her with the most sincere attitude I could. “I need you to trust me, okay?” I waited for her affirmation. She nodded slightly, then I continued.

“We’re basically in the same situation. We need to calm down first, and try to figure things out slowly… Although we’re in a pretty huge pinch right now.” I looked over her shoulder, at the beast that was eagerly waiting for us on the shore.

She turned to look, and meeting with its fiery red eyes caused her to shake in fear. I gently place my hand on her cheek and made her face me.

“I promise I’ll get you out of here alive, okay? We’ll be able to sort things out. You just have to believe in me, and believe in yourself.”

She nodded at my words.

We only knew one thing: this wasn’t our world. There are things here that existed outside of our general knowledge, and things in our knowledge that did not exist here.

We discussed about the things we can vaguely remember, and I was relieved to find out that our general knowledge were the same. It meant we came from the same place.

No matter how hard we try to think about it now, we still could not get any idea why we are here, who brought us here, and if we could actually ever return. The last, we really did not dare think about too much.

“There was that obelisk thing on top of the hill where we were earlier,” I said as I remembered.

“Have you checked it for clues?” she asked.

“Uh, no… you woke up when I was inspecting it, and stuff happened…”

“I’m sorry,” she said apologetically. She had apologized a lot during our earlier conversations.

“By the way, since we can’t remember our names, how do we call each other? It would be kind of weird to just call you ‘you’. Well, it’s just us two now, but, you know…” I couldn’t really point out the reason why exactly.

“It’s a bit inconvenient, yes…” she agreed.

“Then, how about this? I’ll think of a name I’ll call you, while you think of a name you’ll call me. How does that sound?” I asked expectantly.

“Don’t you want to think of a name for yourself?”

“Hmm… since you’re the one who’ll be using it most of the time, it would be better for you to think of something that will roll of your tongue nicely.”

“I see…” she nodded.

We then started to seriously think of names for each other. Seeing her deep in thought and eagerly thinking of a name for me was somewhat cute.

“I’m done…” she said after a few minutes.

“Okay, let’s say it at the same time.” I was actually quite nervous. “In the count of three… two… one!”

“Sky.” “Rose.”

Her eyes widened and intensely blushed, then quickly covered her face with her hands. I was at a loss for words.

“Why R—rose?” she asked with a muffled voice. Her face was still hidden with her hands.

“Uh… sorry… I couldn’t really think of anything good, even though it was my idea. I’m really sorry!” Was the name really that embarrassing?

“Uh… Rose?” I called her. “Should I think of another?”

She took a deep breath, then removed her hands. Her face was still completely red, but she looked at me sternly and said, “It’s okay. There’s no need to change… It was just that earlier, when you called me R—rose, I felt like I remembered something for an instant.”

“An embarrassing memory?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It just suddenly happened. It sort of just flashed in my head for an instant, then I felt deeply embarrassed. I’m sorry.”

“No, you don’t need to apologize.” Then it was my turn to ask, “Why Sky?”

“Your eyes… the color is similar to the sky… and when we first met, you had the sky behind you…” she said while blushing.

“Oh…” Then her words struck me. My eyes? I crawled toward the edge of the island and looked at my reflection on the lake’s water.

Short messy black hair, pale blue eyes, a handsome face. It felt like I was looking at a stranger. No, I was looking at a stranger.

Confused at my actions, Rose approached my side and also peered at the water. Her face was filled with shock. She should be feeling the same thing as I am.

“Doesn’t feel familiar, right?” I asked her as I sat back near the middle of the island.

“Yes,” she answered weakly as she sat beside me. We were both facing the beast that had us trapped here.

“Things are getting stranger and stranger every time we discover something new,” I sighed. “Could things get any stranger than this?”

“Don’t jinx it,” she whispered while hugging her knees. She then sneezed cutely. Our robes were still wet from the incident earlier. It would not be weird if we caught a cold.

“Are you feeling cold?” I asked her full of concern.

“A little,” she answered honestly.

“You know…”

“…body warmth can help in a situation like this?” She took the words of my mouth. She then inched closer and leaned on my left side. “Don’t take advantage of the situation.”

“Yes, yes.” I said and wrapped my arm around her shoulders.

An hour had passed, or that was how it felt like. It was nearing noon. Rose had fallen asleep, and I could hear her soft breathing clearly. Every now and then, she would shiver from the cold damp robe.

The beast that was patiently guarding us earlier disappeared a few minutes ago. As I was about to wake Rose up to tell her, it returned with a small animal in its jaws. It ate it right within our view, as if trying to convey a message that we would end up just like that.

We need to think of a way out of here. We couldn’t stay here forever.

For now, I was contemplating on a plan, but its success will depend a lot on luck. It involves one of us acting as bait to distract the beast and have the other one escape to safety. We could then meet up back at the hill. I have a feeling that the stone obelisk may hold some hint to our situation.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I raised my right hand and looked at my open palm. That feeling earlier, I could still faintly remember it.

When I thought that there was nothing I could do, I forced myself to discard that thought and tried to risk it all. What happened afterwards was beyond common sense. I managed to outrun a hunting beast that was steps ahead of me.

I clenched my fist, closed my eyes, and tried to relive the sensation. Slowly, I pulled my hand to my side, in a position where I can throw a punch easily.

I concentrated on my fist, elbow, and shoulder. Then, I threw a punch. There was nothing out of the ordinary with it. It was an ordinary punch.

Rose stirred in my left arm. My movements seemed to have disturbed her sleep. Her eyes flutter open, followed by a cute yawn. She then blushed and moved away a few inches from me. I could only chuckle at her actions.

“Could you watch over it for me?” I asked her while gesturing with my head toward the beast on the shore.

“Huh?” Her brows furrowed with confusion.

“I want to try something out. We don’t want that thing suddenly disappearing from our sight. If we thought that it was gone and left this place, we might suddenly get attacked out of nowhere.”

“I see… Okay.” She nodded her head cutely.

I turned around and sat cross-legged while facing the opposite direction, then closed my eyes once again. An image of a bald-headed man wearing priest robes trying to achieve enlightenment entered my mind for a second. I shook my head and forced out all distracting thoughts.

Breathing deeply, I could feel the warm rays of the sun beating against my skin. A cool gust of wind blew, bringing along with it the scent of the forest, and the sound of rustling leaves and lapping water. I could hear the faint breath of the girl behind me, and also feel the warmth of her existence. Beyond her, blood lust seeped out of a pair of eyes. My senses were strangely acute.

Slowly, I gathered my senses to within my body. Air was breathed through my mouth, and exhaled through my nose. Oxygen was absorbed by my blood through my lungs, and carbon dioxide was traded out. The rich warm blood flowed through my arteries, supplying every cell of my body with the energy it needs.

Where did that strange power came from? Mind over matter? Was it one of those mysterious phenomenons of the world? But this place is strangely different from what I know… Dragons, an unusual beast, strange plants… Could it be that the common sense I possess is not applicable in this world? Then what works? What is the common sense here?

What do I want to do?

Survive.

How?

Fight.

Fight against a powerful foe with no odds of winning?

Then, I’ll increase the odds.

With what?

Power. I will attain power.

I opened my eyes and disrupted my own thoughts. Am I losing my mind?

I turned to look at the girl behind me. She was attentively observing the beast across the lake. Her short hair would sway every time she made a slight movement or whenever the wind blew. We may have gotten a bad start, but I know that she trusts me now. It may only be because she has no one else to rely on right now aside from me. Even if that was so, it doesn’t really change anything. As she only have me, right now, I, too, also only have her.

I want to protect her. This feeling grew stronger inside me.

With eyes shut tight once more, I pursued this swelling emotion inside me. It was warm and gentle, yet I could feel it resonating within into something stronger and more intense.

Then, I forcefully calmed these raging emotions. While I was thinking all this, I noticed that my body temperature seemed to have increased. As I calmed down, the heat on my skin and in my body receded and pulled back inside me, concentrating on a single point. It was on my forehead.

I focused my consciousness on that point, and the heat on my forehead increased until it felt like it was being poked by a glowing hot iron rod. My body temperature suddenly plummeted, and an incredible headache began.

Through the intense pain, my mind emptied and I lost my senses. I couldn’t hear nor feel a thing. I couldn’t open my eyes. What is going on?

Then an image appeared in my mind. I saw a cold light hovering in the darkness. Barely visible strands of light were connected to this cold light. Something was flowing in the strands toward it. The cold light grew to the size of a fist, then a much thicker strand appeared from beneath and crawled downward.

After a distance of two hands, the strand started to curl and formed another ball of light. This time, it was filled with warmth. The ball of light quickly grew and thin strands appeared around it, extending in all directions.

Once more, a thick strand appeared and crawled downward. After a hand and a half distance, it formed once again into another ball of light, filled with intense energy. From it, the energy travelled through thin strands of light, spreading in all directions.

The strands of light from the three balls of energy extended, intersected, and formed a figure. It was the figure of a human body.

I gasped as I opened my eyes.

My head was cold, my chest was warm, and my abdomen was filled with force.

What is this? Something happened to my body… something strange and indescribable. Even though I should be extremely surprised, I was actually quite calm. I could feel a huge amount of vitality flowing within me. It felt like I could do anything.

I stood up and took a deep breath. I pulled my arms firmly to my side with my fists closed tight. My feet were shoulder width apart and firmly pressed against the soil.

Power was flowing inside me; I could feel it clearly. It was the same power that suddenly surged in my body earlier.

With a thought, the power flowed into my arm as I started the motions of a punch. Exhaling, I threw my right fist forward. The energy condensed in my arm travelled through my fists and was released into the air along with my punch.

Boom! A small shock wave was formed.

I finally did it. It was similar to what I felt before. This is it!

I turned to look at Rose. She was staring at me wide-eyed.

With a confident smile, I said, “I have a plan.”