A bright blue.
That was the only way Mihe could describe the sky they were falling from—nothing but a brilliant hue of blue.
Of course, Mihe could turn their head slightly to the left to see the sunrise, but they had already done that and stared for a bit too long, almost blinding themself.
Alternatively, they could attempt to fully turn around, just to see the ground they were falling towards, however, watching the ground inch closer as they approached terminal velocity wasn’t exactly what they needed to feel comforted.
Before Mihe could decide whether to dread the next few minutes looking at the ground, blind themself by the sun's glory, or bore themself by looking at nothing but blue, they fell into a cloud.
It wasn’t a pleasant feeling; each thump of the water droplets struck them with substantial force—not enough to cause pain, but enough to bring them discomfort. That was until they felt a great force against their right cheek. As their eyes opened wide, they found their head being flung backward, their body flying but not from the sky.
Very quickly, they tried to brace for the impact of hitting the ground after being sent flying by sticking their arm out. However, once their arm hit the ground, it was immediately pierced by the gravel it landed on.
“REMOVE YOURSELF TRESPASSER! YOU DISGRACE THE THREE COURTS!” A mechanical voice yelled at them.
Heavily disoriented from the rude awakening, Mihe was even more confused by the shouting, which, combined with the bright sunlight reflecting off the white gravel beneath them, the feeling of said gravel piercing their hand, and their head being bashed by something, resulted in some mild dizziness and disorientation.
They tried to get themself off the ground, and stand up properly, but stopped halfway through, distracted by the shin of the guard in front of them.
The shin was covered in a heavy, full plated armor, entirely made of a dark purple metal that bordered on black. Within the purple metal were flakes of a dark but slightly lighter material. Unlike the rest of the armor, which shone under the bright sun, this dark material did not reflect any sunlight, creating an effect akin to an anti-glitter.
Lastly, floating around the shin in a helical pattern was a shiny white metal of some kind. This metal’s wrapping tapered off around the foot.
Looking in the other direction, Mihe could see the metal gathering around the knight's chest piece, specifically near his heart.
“THAT WAS AN ORDER, SERF! REMOVE YOURSELF NOW!”
They jolted backwards, snapping their head up toward the source of the voice: a metal helmet that fully covered the knight's head, with more white detailing floating near it and a plume of hair that seemed to be made of gold.
Their eyes drifted to the knight’s right arm, which held a large halberd made of the same dark metal as the knight's armor. Just like the armor, a floating helix of the same white metal wrapped around the shaft. The head of the polearm appeared to be made of the same white metal, with some gold inlaid to create some sort of image, though Mihe couldn't see it clearly as the head glared too much sunlight to tolerate.
Then, the polearm was raised backward, preparing to swing. They immediately snapped out of their trance and started scrambling backward, putting their hand in front of their face in a futile attempt to block the polearm while closing their eyes.
“Don’t kill me! I don’t know what I was doing!” Mihe cried out.
The knight's mechanical voice barked a command at them: “REPEAT YOURSELF.”
Mihe slowly opened their eyes, only to see the knight had stopped their swing. However, the blade was extremely close to their throat; if they had taken any longer to react or were any closer, they would have lost their head.
They put their hands down and sighed with relief, while they didn't get up yet as it was too risky, they did finally make “eye contact” with the knight (or at least what Mihe thought was eye contact, as the knight's armor obscured his eyes, so they looked at where they assumed his eyes were).
“Please don’t kill me, honorable knight! I have no idea what I was doing! I have no idea where I am, who I am, or what I am! Whatever crime you accuse me of, I must certainly be innocent!” They pleaded.
The knight pulled back his polearm from Mihe's throat and crouched down to face them. Alas, their big break.
At least, it was supposed to be—until the knight grabbed them by the throat with his left hand, lifting them into the air as he stood up. To keep Mihe at eye level, he lifted them up what must've been at least a foot though they couldn't really tell how far up they were.
The knight's eyes began to glow lime green as his grip tightened around their throat.
“SPEAK LIES, AND I WILL INTRODUCE YOUR ESOPHAGUS TO YOUR SPINE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”
They couldn’t even answer if they wanted to; being picked up by their throat made it impossible for them to breathe, much less respond. Their legs flailed as they began tapping on the knight's arm. Finally, after a few taps, the knight let go.
Doubled over and gasping for air, Mihe managed to get out between breaths, “Yes... I under...stand.”
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After a few moments of gasping for air, they fully recovered from having their throat almost crushed. They looked up at the knight again, only to see slithering out of his eyes... Arms? The exact details on what they were weren't clear, but they did resemble a multitude of bright lime green appendages, the same color as the knight's glowing eyes, reaching out and grabbing light blue threads, "sticking" them to Mihe. While Mihe couldn’t physically feel those threads, something about them felt real, as if they had attached in some spiritual sense.
“REPEAT WHAT YOU SAID.”
Mihe couldn’t gather the courage to peel their eyes away from the knight’s gaze to examine what those threads were doing. Finally, they began to mutter.
“I don’t know who I—”
Before Mihe could finish, the guard swung his halberd toward their throat. Mihe instinctively tried to dodge, but it was far too late; the knight's swing was too fast.
At least it would have been, but those threads and arms from earlier all retracted back into his eyes, creating an explosion near his helmet that staggered him.
What the hell was that!? Why were there arms slithering out of his eyes!? Why did the knight swing, and why did swinging his blade cause his head to explode!? None of this makes any damn sense! What was an—
Before Mihe could finish their line of thought, the knight’s booming voice returned.
“YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH. I SHALL TAKE YOU TO THE TEBIDNATIC CHURCH FOR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALING NOW.”
The knight quickly regained his composure, his powerful aura returning as he snapped 90 degrees and began walking. Before he finished said walk, he paused and stood still before calling out to them.
“DO NOT GET LOST. I WILL NOT RETURN TO FIND YOU.”
That line forced Mihe to regain their composure, and they quickly jogged toward the knight, rubbing their cheek to feel the sting from being bashed by the butt of a halberd.
Upon catching up with the knight, they began moving at the same pace as him—a hasty step that made it difficult for Mihe to decide whether to jog or walk to keep up.
As the gravel crunched under their feet, Mihe looked around the area. They were in the middle of a radial hedge garden, sectioned off to form a grid of sorts. The hedges themselves were bizarre; beyond the standard green leaves found on bushes, they displayed multiple types of blooms. Some resembled roses, others marigolds, and even more looked like tulips and dandelions, and so on. Many flowers that shouldn’t be blooming on the branches of a hedge were thriving.
The hedges also seemed to grow directly on the white gravel, rather than on some kind of mulch one would expect.
Behind the hedges, within the gridspaces, was a sculpture made of the hedges. One in particular caught Mihe's eye: a human figure with feline ears and unusually long limbs. The flowers bloomed on this hedge to form what appeared to be... Cracks? It was an odd sight, but something about the sculpture felt comforting to them.
“HUNTER.”
They snapped to attention at the knight’s shout.
“What?”
“HUNTER. YOU ARE ADMIRING THE SCULPTURE OF HUNTER.”
Mihe nodded before turning back to the ‘cracked’ sculpture and stating, “A name? This fellow must’ve been quite handsome if so much time and effort went into making a sculpture of him.”
“YOU COMPLIMENT THE GOD OF CRUELTY.”
Cruelty? Nothing about this sculpture screamed 'cruel' to Mihe. If anything, the sculpture's posture and facial expression made it seem like a playful deity. What about him was 'cruel'?
"That's the god of cruelty? He doesn't look particularly 'cruel' to me—only playful, frankly."
“HE IS A REGENT OF ENERGY, AND HIS DOMAIN IS OVER ADVENTURING. HE IS REFERRED TO AS THE GOD OF CRUELTY FOR HIS MURDER OF OTHER GODS DURING THE GREAT GAME.”
They tilted their head. While it was clear that there was most certainly a census on Hunter being the god of cruelty, they didn't really understand anything else about his description of Hunter.
The knight proceeded to point at a different statue, this one surrounded by white flowers, forming a helical structure around his limbs. Similar to Hunter, it had a multitude of flowers ‘cracking’ its body.
“THAT IS TEBIDNA, GOD OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE LOCAL DEITY OF THE TRUE HUMANOIDS. I TAKE YOU TO THEIR CHURCH TO RESTORE YOUR MEMORIES.”
Mihe nodded before pressing, “True humanoids? What are they?”
“BEASTMEN AND HUMANS ALIKE. THE CLOSEST RACES TO THE ORIGINATOR RACE.”
Mihe’s head was starting to feel a bit stuffed with all this knowledge about the deities, but they continued to press for more information.
“I take it you’re a beastman then? You seem a bit large to be a human.”
“HALF-ORC. I WILL SHOW YOU WHAT A BEASTMAN LOOKS LIKE ON-"
The knight slightly jolted at that phrase, seeming to realize they had become so infatuated with explaining history to Mihe that they forgot the main reason for taking Mihe along.
“LET US CONTINUE TO THE CHURCH TO HEAL YOUR MEMORIES.”
The knight continued walking, with Mihe right behind him, navigating the maze and looking at the various hedges and flowers. It was quite difficult to follow him, as the knight moved quickly and refused to take smooth turns. Instead, he only opted to shift direction by turning 90 degrees, then walk in a straight line, only for the process to repeat.
To an outsider, it really would be a bizarre sight; the knight constantly making 90 degree turns as they walked along the curved gridlines and Mihe constantly switching between a walking and a jogging pace to keep up with the knight.
While walking, they racked their mind with all the information they had just learned: Tebidna, Hunter, the strange nature of the hedges and gravel they walked on—everything was too much for them to handle.
They began to open their mouth to ask the guard another question related to beastmen and humanity. However, before they could start, they were cut off by the guard, seemingly predicting that they were going to ask another question.
“I AM NOT YOUR TEACHER. STOP ASKING POINTLESS QUESTIONS LEST YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE MY HALBERD AGAIN.”
Despite the knight’s request, Mihe got the feeling he was actually enjoying the questions being asked. The issue was that they didn’t want to bet their life on a 'gut feeling,' so they abandoned any hope of trying to make sense of the situation that they had been thrusted into.
----------------------------------------
After walking for a few minutes, the two reached the edge of the hedge garden: a white marble gate wrapped in vines. The vines, like the hedges, had flowers that typically don't bloom on vines.
A woman with some kind of scales on her neck and a plain-looking man stared at the knight and then at each other, ignoring Mihe. They both appeared deeply uncomfortable with the situation until the knight spoke up.
“THEY APPEAR TO BE A FREE SERF WHO HAS AMNESIA. I AM TAKING THEM TO THE TEBIDNATIC CHURCH TO RECOVER THEIR MEMORY. STAND GUARD WHILE I AM AWAY.”
The two immediately turned back to the knight and saluted.
“SIR! YES, SIR!”
Just like that, the two guards parted and allowed the strange knight and Mihe to leave the garden, no questions asked whatsoever.