Under a canopy of pine-like needles, a man lay unconscious amidst a carpet of decaying leaves. His light grey hoodie a stark contrast to the browning forest ground. Cautiously approaching, a creature resembling a hedgehog slowly made its way towards the man. The dark blue spikes covering the creature from head to tail bristled as the creature sniffed the air, getting a better sense of the unknown scent of the man.
Ever so slowly, the creature approached, uncertain as to what it had found; the possibility of food spurred it on. As the creature neared the head of the man, the man stirred, releasing a slow groan and covering his eyes with his hands. At this movement, the creature halted, extending its spikes defensively, transforming into a bristled sphere.
The man groaned again, a pulsing headache searing his head. The pain clouded his mind, and it took a while before his mind started working again. The pain slowly diminished, afraid any rapid movement might worsen it again; the man slowly drew his hands away from his face. The sight that greeted him was a shocking one, even though he did not know why. He lay on his back, staring up into a canopy dozens of meters above him. The trees bearing the canopy were massive with brown, furrowed bark. Confused the man tried to recall where he was, but... there was nothing. Feeling panic rising he again tried to recall... something, anything. Blank. He had lost his memories? But why, then, did the forest feel so... foreign? How can something be foreign if he knew nothing?
As the man grappled with the emptiness where his memories should have been, the foreignness of the forest gnawed at him–an inexplicable feeling of alienation amidst an environment that should have offered no basis for comparison. With cautious movements, he propped himself up on his elbows, gazing around he saw more of the same in every direction, giant trees standing several meters apart with no underbrush between. The sight of the curled-up creature confused the man; in his dazed state, he could not comprehend what he was looking at. A bush? Or a strange rock? Again, he questioned the fallacy of something being strange to someone with no point of reference. The man sat up in a cross-legged position and studied his hand. For some reason, his hand felt familiar, unlike everything else around him; his clothes and body felt - normal. This told the man that he had existed before this moment, which calmed him somewhat. The knowledge that he had a before, was comforting somehow.
"Who am I?"
His throat hurt uttering the words, his voice rasping and dry. It felt wrong. Clearing his throat, he was about to try again when a sudden noise close to him focused his attention on the strange blue bush.
The noise, a subtle rustling, came as the blue "bush" moved, revealing itself not to be a bush at all but a creature with dark blue spikes growing from all over. As it uncurled, the spikes softened and receded slightly, showing a cautious curiosity. The man watched in silent awe, his initial confusion giving way to fascination. Here was a creature as mysterious as his own existence, another living being in this forest of strangeness.
The creature's eyes, small and inquisitive, fixed on the man as if pondering his presence. It took a tentative step forward, then another, its nose twitching as it sniffed the air between them. The man, remembering the pain of his awakening, stayed still, intently watching the being as it moved towards him. Suddenly the being halted and stared up at him with beady eyes, as if gauging him. Not knowing anything about this creature, the man shifted slightly to face the creature. The movement startled the creature, and faster than he could perceive, it returned to the spiked ball form it had been in previously.
"What are you?" the man asked, his voice much softer now. The creature had stopped just a couple of steps away from him, and he shimmied a little along the forest ground, getting close enough to stretch out a hand and touch the creature. In fascination, he slowly put his hand on one of the creature's long spikes. As soon as his hand made contact, the spike shot out, piercing straight through the webbing between his index and middle finger. Shocked, he jumped to his feet and rapidly backed away until his back met a tree. His hand pulsed with pain, and blood dripped from his injured hand.
The man stared at the creature, who again uncurled and sniffed the blood trail he had left on the needles strewn on the forest floor. He watched in horror as the creature gobbled down any of the needles touched by his blood. He stared in morbid fascination at the creature slowly eating its way towards him. The rapid movements had worsened his headache and his hand sent pulses of pain up his arm, but adrenaline surged through his body and he tensed his muscles. Should he run? Would the movement alert the creature to him? The creature seemed content lopping up his blood and hadn't even spared him a glance. Would running cause the creature to attack? But as things were, the creature would eventually make its way to him anyway.
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Locked in indecision, he just stood there. Watching as the creature approached, when the creature finally neared, it halted and looked up at him before curling into a spiked ball again. "Oh no. I won't fall for that again!" Slowly, he began sidestepping around the tree to his back, and when he reached the opposite side to the creature, he bolted.
The soft forest ground, devoid of any vegetation and a slight downward slope, made running easy. He ran until he felt he was at a safe distance. Maybe half a kilometer away, he stopped and assessed his surroundings again. The encounter with the creature had spiked his sense of danger, and the forest, which had seemed alien but serene, now loomed around him. The thick trees blocked his vision in all directions and he had no idea what other threats lurked out there beyond his line of sight. Or even within his line of sight, he reminded himself. He had no idea what anything around him could be; for all he knew, the ground itself could be dangerous. Still panting from fleeing the spike ball, he scanned the ground. Nothing stood out to him, the ground here was littered with leaves in various state of decay, colours from brown so dark it could be black to the deep green of freshly fallen needles, covered by a shifting light show from the streams of light coming down from above made for a chaotic mosaic. But nothing seemed dangerous.
Satisfied that the ground at least was not an immediate threat he looked to the tree in front of him. It was massive, or at least he felt it was massive; for some reason, he felt that trees were not usually this big. The trunk of the tree was easily 4 meters wide, and it stretched at least 50 meters up into the air before branches carrying needles intermingled with the surrounding trees, creating a dense canopy blocking most of the light. There were some shafts of light shining down towards the ground, all at the same angle fading quickly after exiting the canopy. He inspected the trunk of the tree; the bark had deep furrows in a random pattern, noticing something he hadn't seen before, he approached the tree and bent down. About half a meter above the ground a grey line a couple centimetre thick stretched horizontally around the tree. A little wary after what had happened with the spike ball, he considered for half a second before reaching out and touching the line. At the line, the bark abruptly stopped being bark and felt much colder and harder–like stone. He tapped the bark and then the line with his finger; the line gave off a sharper sound than the bark on the rest of the tree. Turning around he saw that the line was there on all the trees around him.
Before he had time to consider the line any further a chime sounded in his ears and a box suddenly appeared in his vision.
Message You have been offered a Companion. Accept? Yes No
Message? Message from who? Turning his head, the box followed, staying still in his vision as his surroundings moved behind it. The box was translucent with a slight blue tint to it, its borders an azure blue. He could still see behind the box but it still gave about 70% of his vision a blue hue and the text felt glaring, stuck in his vision as it was. He pondered the box for a second, he felt like this was not something that could happen, like it for some reason was impossible for a text box to appear in his vision. Putting aside the issue of the possible impossibility of the box–he considered the text. A companion? He looked around himself at the desolate forest. A companion did not seem so bad, maybe they would have some answers for him. Or this companion could be dangerous, like the spike ball? But it could also be of great help. Deciding to take a risk, as he really needed some help, and the box was beginning to annoy him. He wondered how to "press" the button. Reaching out his hand he tried using his finger to touch the button for Yes, but his hand just passed behind the box. He then tried looking at the button and blinking at it, but the box just moved with his eyes. Getting frustrated he said "I accept" out loud, but the box remained. He tried just thinking the word yes, over and over again, but still nothing. Finally, he tried willing the button for yes to move, trying to push the button with his will. The box disappeared and a searing headache brought him to the ground.