After that clear blunder, I got a variety of responses.

“Oh, that’s hilarious!” Narrator shout in my head.

“The color?” Log said in confusion.

“Narrator?” Groutt mumbled, barely audible over the laughter coming from Narrator.

“Okay,” I said, almost stumbling over my own words, “Let me square off a couple of things first before I get into my introduction. One: There’s a voice in my head who I call Narrator, no, I’m not insane. Two: The only color I can see is the yellow that was blinding me earlier. Nothing else. Three: I get the feeling all of us have a lot of questions and I think I have the answers to a few of them.”

I gave myself a few seconds to collect my thoughts, no help to a still laughing Narrator, and explained what happened in the forest to Groutt and Log. I left out a few key points like the magic backpack and the whole ‘sneaking out of town in the dead of night’ bit, though it still took a while to properly finish the story. Log had a look of wonder on his face the whole time as if he had never left his home and was finally hearing about the world, while Groutt had a pensive expression, as if the last few pieces of a puzzle were finally slotting into place.

“Wait, so you were the reason the forest has been sealed off?” Groutt asked once I had finished the recounting of my misadventure. He was rubbing his head, clearly trying to make sense of everything that I had told him.

“I don’t think I was the reason, but I might have sprung a trap intended for somebody else.” I responded. “Personal opinion, the guy I met at the edge of the forest was the trap-setter. Past that, I don’t have any more information than you do”

“Okay, well let me give you some information from our side. For the past two weeks, nobody from our village has been able to enter the forest due to some weird mist. If everything is aligning like I think it is, that would coincide with you entering the forest and springing the trap that guy set. By the way, based on your encounter with him, I think he’s a mage. Not helpful now, but good to know.”

“Welp, looks like we aren’t getting revenge anytime soon.” Narrator said.

“Yeah…” I responded out loud again, completely forgetting the two other people present.

“Pardon?” Groutt said, slightly confused.

“Ah, sorry. Voice in my head is trying to hold a conversation. What were you saying?”

“Okay… I’ll have to let everybody know you’re not insane.” Groutt mumbled, soft enough for me to hear, yet not loud enough to warrant a response. Maybe I should start doing that. Might help with a certain presence locked in my brain.

“Anyway,” Groutt continued, “I think it is about time we get you properly settled into the village life. I assume that’s what you would like seeing as you have made the journey all the way out here.”

Both Log and I were surprised to hear Groutt’s statement, but for very different reasons. I know why I was happy, but I can only guess as to what this meant for Log and the rest of the village members. Groutt made to get up from his chair but stopped himself as if he had remembered something.

“Oh right, since Damion will be staying with us for the next long while, you might as well take this house for yourself. Don’t need you sleeping under the stars when winter will be coming soon.”

“Achievement get: Homeowner” I heard Narrator say in the back of my head with a robotic voice. Seriously, how does he manage to make himself echo in there? Ugh…

Regardless, that solves a lot of problems. I took a little bit to really look around the room for the first time since waking up. The room itself was made out of wood beams and supports so it shouldn’t fall down anytime soon. Aside from the door directly across from the bed, there was also a wooden desk and chair off to the left. I’ll have to move the furniture eventually, but that’s another problem to deal with later. What really disturbed me was the lack of a window. Guess they don’t have glass here… There was a small hole carved in the wall with a panel that could cover it if need be, but that’s the last of the notable features.

I looked up, rousing myself from my thoughts to see Groutt already at the door, with Log nowhere in sight. I got up from the bed I had been laying in and put the bandages from earlier into the pocket of my… wait… Who changed my clothes?

“Ah, sorry about that,” I heard Groutt say. “I had to change your clothes to dress some of the wounds you picked up in the forest. Don’t worry, your belongings are in the chest at the foot of your bed.” A sudden wave of relief washed over me as I realized that I had almost lost my backpack. I hadn’t even thought about my stuff because of the ‘interacting with others’ part. I don’t even want to think how bad that would be to lose that backpack...

I looked down at myself to see what kind of clothing I had on, and I gotta say, simple is an understatement here. The clothes were all one color, not that I could tell what color it was, with two pockets in the pants and one at the front of the long sleeve shirt I had on. After the shock wore off, I moved to leave the house by way of the door Groutt was holding open.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“By the way,” Groutt started in a slightly more serious tone, “Please call me Elder Groutt or just Elder in the village. People tend to get testy when people of power are not addressed properly.”

As Elder Groutt led me out of my new home, I took in the scenery of the village, and I gotta say… I’m already a fan. Aside from my own small hut stood several others like it in a rough semicircle around a large firepit and veritable sea of small rocks that I think they use as seats. Past the firepit were some larger building that I couldn’t identify right away, though they all shared the same monochromatic wood as the main material. Looking back at the forest itself, I noticed that the wood shared the same shade of grey as the building. They probably just use the wood from those trees given the convenience and clear abundance.

“Call it whatever you want, but I like this place.” Narrator told me.

“Agreed.” I replied, remembering to not actually speak out loud lest I draw weird stares. Well, I would have if there was anybody around to hear us talk. Aside from Log, Groutt, and I, this part of the village wasn’t occupied in the slightest.

Okay, actually no. There is one thing that kind of unnerved me. There seemed to be these semi-transparent blobs of yellow goo floating absolutely everywhere; And when I say everywhere, I mean it. If the glow coming from my room was annoying, then I might as well be staring into a sun every time I so much as glanced in the direction of one of the blobs.

“Are you okay Damion?” Log asked, noticing that I had started blocking out the blobs with my hand. “Your eyes bothering you?”

“You could say that,” I replied, “How do you not go blind with all of these yellow suns around?”

“What do you mean by yellow suns?” Groutt said. I couldn’t tell if he was asking a question by how quietly he spoke, but I figured a response could help regardless.

“It’s like there are these pig-sized masses floating in the air all around us. They give off a really bright light so it’s kind of hard to look at for too long, like looking directly at the sun but not nearly as intense.”

While I was giving my explanation to Groutt, I must have stopped paying attention to where I was walking, as I suddenly found myself right in the middle of one of the blobs. To nobody’s surprise (at least not to my surprise), I screamed. After which, I promptly fell to the dirt and rolled around while squeezing my eyes closed as I tried not to blind myself for the second time. Well, first time. The real first time wasn’t my doing.

Upon hearing my collapse, I heard footsteps getting closer and some shocked words.

“Are you okay Damion?” Groutt said in a hurried voice.

“Yup, just fine.” I replied through clenched teeth. I momentarily opened my eyes to regain my vision only to close them just as quickly. Why do this? Well you see, in my eternal wisdom and grace, I managed to roll right into the center of a second yellow blob which blinded me even faster than the first one…

It was at this moment that I finally realized that I should probably focus on walking when I get up instead of telling stories and zoning out in broad daylight, or in my case, broad yellow-blob-light.

After attempting to regain my sight for the second time now, I slowly got up to keep the blood from rushing to my head and shook off the growing headache I had picked up. After assuring Groutt and Log I was okay, my two companions cautiously led me towards one of the larger buildings I had seen earlier. The structure was built out of the same roughly cut wood from the forest that my home was made out of, confirming my theory from earlier. Though the wood seemed to be a lot thicker and wider, probably because of the size of the entire building. There was a sign I couldn’t read just to the left of the door, but I chose to ignore it before dodging another yellow mass of goo and walking through the door.

“Oh, I think I know where we’ll be for the next few years…” Narrator said after reading the look on my face. What laid before me was a sprawling mass of wood, paper, and books that expanded out in all directions for hundreds of feet. Even with all of the color drained out of it, the library still managed to awe me with its mass of papers in as many shades of black and white as I could count. Books were piled high in shelves scattered around the floor of the library, far enough away to not be in the way of somebody working, but close enough to reach from one of the numerous tables or benches. There were only two other people in the building that I could see and both of them looked up at me after I put myself through the entryway and into the building itself. One of them was pouring over a set of books and papers in the farthest corner and immediately looked back at their books after making sure I wasn’t important. The other abruptly stood up and started walking towards Groutt, Log, and I while wearing a large smile.

As far as I could tell, the man didn’t seem all that remarkable at first glance. He was wearing the same style of clothes as I was, though the shade of grey was much darker with various splotches of black I can only hope came from ink and not blood. As he got closer, I could take in his appearance a lot better, as I was still reeling from the momentary blindness I gave myself earlier. He had soft features, almost reminiscent of a child’s, and a rat’s nest of lightly color hair that was stained by the same substance that covered his clothes. Though what drew my attention the most were his eyes. While not as stand-out as my newly acquired rocks, they were completely white. Like, I could see his iris’, but they were basically a thin ring of black that enclosed no other colors.

“Well well well, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a new face around here.” The man said in a rough voice, like he hadn’t spoken in days. After clearing his throat, he started again in a much smoother voice, kind of like a professional singer’s. “Sorry about that, I’ve been holed up in here for way too long. The name’s Stivv”

Stivv extended his hand towards me and I took it and immediately regretted it.

“Ooh, that’s gotta hurt.” Narrator said in a hushed tone.

As much as I hate to agree with him, I don’t think the vice grip that latched onto my wrist would allow me to refute him. Seriously, what is this dude on? As soon as he grasped my hand, I winced in pain due to the pressure, to which Stivv retracted his hand and quickly apologized.

“I’m sorry kiddo, I forgot that you’re new here.” Stivv stammered, obviously not aware the limitations of the average human body.

“No worries.” I responded. “I get the feeling people don’t often come around these parts…”

“Don’t say it.” Narrator warned me, knowing exactly what my next sentence would be as well as the fact that I didn’t care what he thought.

“So I gotta ask, blood or ink?”

“Ink.” Stivv responded. “I think…”