Chapter 2
When I woke up, the headache that I had felt even when asleep started fading quickly and was replaced by a dull throb at the nape of my neck.
The feeling was strange; persistent even, but not in a natural headache-type way.
I discovered while attempting to sit up, that I wasn’t wearing anything except for a pair of briefs. I couldn’t see any other clothes laying around from my vantage point.
'Great, I guess I have to wear this for now' I thought to myself and slumped back down on the bed to contemplate my next steps.
A while later, once I felt up to it, I forced myself to throw off the comfortably warm sheets, and started browsing the room’s sparse furniture for anything useful. The only thing I found for some reason was dust.
'Maybe this room is used for storing unnecessary bedroom furniture and is not an actual room for guests?' I wondered.
After a disappointing search I turned to the last thing I hadn’t checked yet. The nightstand beside the bed.
Hoping to find something wearable I opened the only drawer and thankfully found a neatly folded pair of beige pants and an accompanying simple white shirt.
Slowly I eased the shirt over my not fully healed head, wincing when the rough cloth scraped across the bandages. The pants were, in comparison to the shirt, a much less painful endeavor, though only marginally less exhausting. By the end I was already out of breath and had to lower myself to the bed carefully.
Suddenly the room tipped to the side, pitching me face first into my pillow. The sudden onset of vertigo disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared, leaving me trying to breathe through the feathery insides of the pillow.
The need for air had me subsequently pushing myself out of the bed once more, this time with heaving breaths and arms shaking from the exertion.
'What in the worlds was that?!' I yelled internally, while looking around the perfectly normal and still room.
Forlornly I stared out the partially drape-covered window when no immediate answer revealed itself and waited until I felt slightly better.
In the distance I could see a snow-covered mountain. The sky above was a deep blue with the occasional flying creature crossing my limited line of sight. The clouds drifted by slowly and occasionally revealed strange blurry sights seemingly beyond the actual sky.
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Idly I wondered what the strange vista meant for the world at large I now found myself in, when, with a start I realized that it wasn’t just the scenery and strange flying things that were unfamiliar to me; but the style of clothing worn by Toya, as well as the interior design of the room.
Then it hit me: "I don’t know where I am. I don’t know anything about this place… and I don’t know anything about myself..." I said quietly.
It was a lonely thought and it scared me.
Apart from my own name, I couldn’t remember anything except for having this feeling that told me, I once knew and had seen something different, something else that was not this.
I just didn’t know where that used to be.
***
My hand on the dark metal doorknob I slowly eased the surprisingly heavy door open. The hinges were well oiled and didn’t squeak, to my relief.
I didn’t feel like being talked to, due to recent revelations, but also didn’t want to stay in the room all day. Having decided this, I headed out the door hoping to not encounter anyone.
As I headed for the stairs that would hopefully lead downstairs, I passed numerous dusty old paintings of men and women dressed in thin, kind of leathery looking armor. Most were holding a weapon of sorts in their hands. Some, albeit few, had books, jewels or plants depicted with them.
They were mildly intriguing, but I wanted to leave this stuffy building I was in for some real fresh air and blue skies to help clear my thoughts first.
I proceeded down the hallway, paintings passing me on either side, dull green carpet that had seen better days underfoot.
Finally I saw a stairwell, so I slowed down until I carefully started inching my way down the steps, making sure to make as little noise as possible and trying to keep my balance, since I still wasn’t completely surefooted due to my current weakness.
As I neared the bottom, I heard voices talking in the distance. Not wanting to be seen and asked questions, I ducked down low behind the smoothly polished wooden banister.
In this position I squat-walked to the bottom and looked around. Before me lay a large oval room with multiple hallways leading in different directions away from the staircase. The walls here were painted a luxurious looking mix of yellow with a dusting of rosé-gold covering the paint beneath with intricate swirls depicting flower vines or ivy.
It seemed like everything downstairs was more expensive than where I had just come from. Even the paintings I saw up there paled in comparison to the ones that could be seen down here off in the different hallways.
I wondered who the Merughs were to have such wealth and still be working, assuming that was the reason for Toya to wear an apron and care for me. Unless she just liked the style... 'maybe that's normal here' I idly mused while waiting to see if anyone would come into the oval room while I traversed it.
I got startled out of my thoughts by the rhythmic clap of footsteps on worked marble quickly approaching from the hallway to my right.
Promptly I shrunk back, not wanting to be seen. 'As if this would help me stay unnoticed if someone comes up the stairs' I thought sarcastically. 'Now, let's see who these people are'.
With baited breath I awaited their arrival.