I woke up pissed off. I was also in the dark, in more ways than obvious lack of light.

I couldn't remember why I was so upset, but I was ready to fucking kill motherfuckers with my teeth if need be. This feeling was a deep burning pain mixed with loss and betrayal. Something terrible had happen.

And I couldn't recall a damned thing. I could vaguely pull up fragments of memories of what I thought was my early life. Blurry faces I was sure were my family. A fluffy ball of fur that grew into a fur monster of massive appetites. A smattering of other people and events. But I was completely missing anything recent. Only a vast sense of loss and rage.

How did I know that? I was completely sure myself, but I had a very strong impression that someone had done this to me. I wanted to find out who and rip them to pieces.

I pushed it down, it wouldn't help right now. There would be time later to figure things out, now I needed to take stock.

I started to pay attention to my environment. I couldn't see but I could feel grass under me, it smelt minty. If I wasn't so angry I knew I would find it comforting. I heard water nearby, and could smell it. It also carried something else... "mana" a voice in my head whispered.

That summoned a cascade of thoughts and feelings. I couldn't sort all of it, but I knew I had this mana and could use it.

Yes, I could feel it inside me coiling like a serpent. It felt like fresh green plants growing and savage hunting and storms scouring the land. I liked it. It felt proper.

I couldn't see but I could feel so I explored with my hands. Huh, I was naked, but something was wrong my body. What I was touching didn't match any of my admittedly unreliable memories.

My limbs seemed longer, but my frame more narrow. I was really shocked when I got to my face. Very sharp chin and cheekbones, more gaunt features. My ears had points, long ones. My tongue felt that my teeth were sharper and my canine were now true fangs. What the fuck? Well, they might come in handy to tear somebody's throat out.

This wasn't right, and I felt a wave of disorientation pass over me.

As my left arm brushed against my face I felt something strange there as well. Huh, it felt like a branch or a vine was coiled around my forearm and dug into my flesh at my elbow and wrist. For a moment, the branch was gravely concerning but another instinct seemed to accept the bizarre growth.

My hands started feeling the area around me just in case there happened to be some clothes close by. No luck.

I slowly got up. I didn't seem to have any injuries nor any problem with my balance.

Orienting the sound of the water proved easy. I took light measured steps towards it, I didn't want to fall in or otherwise run afoul of unseen obstacles.

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It took some time to gingerly stalk the source of the water in the dark. Close to two thousand steps. Which highlighted that my hearing was sharper than I thought it should be. My frickin' huge ears were good for something after all.

Part of me thought I had to be outside, the presence of grass and water seemed to agree. Yet the more primal part of me knew this wasn't true. No stars or moon, no random breezes, no animals sounds or scents. Something was fishy and it wasn't the water.

No when my foot found the edge of the water, the smell was overwhelming. Clean pure water infused with mana, lots of it judging by the sound.

A few minutes of investigation with my hands and feet led to an interesting discovery. It wasn't a stream nor a spring as I had suspected, it was a circle, a moat surrounding something in the center. I could sense vast quantities of mana there.

I wasn't sure I wanted to wade through the water to figure out what was there.

Taking the time to drink my fill, I pondered what to do next. I had thought the water might lead me somewhere I could get information, but that was a bust.

Finding myself playing with the mana subconsciously was interesting. I was shaping the energies both in me and in the environment. The shapes meant something even if I didn't quite recall what that could be. This was instinctive, it had to be from long habit and/or training.

I tried to dredge up anything useful in my noggin but drew a blank.

Wait, was that light in the distance? Faint blue light far above my head and quite a ways away from here.

It was growing slightly stronger ever second. An artificial dawn perhaps?

Now that it was stronger something about the light called to me. I felt my mind reach out to it.

[ Pylon #01 coming online... ]

[ No connections found... ]

[ Standby... ]

What was that?

Something about that line no connections deeply disturbed me. There was supposed to be more... more what?

There was supposed to be a system of Pylons and, and what? What am I missing?

A memory of a voice saying "Breathe" and then something about counting.

Feelings of awe and terror accompanied that voice.

Who?

If there were people around me, where did they go? Why am I alone?

"I'll take good care of your people." another voice whispered through my broken mind.

Pure hatred flared through me.

Something, someONE took my people from me!

A deep growl welled up from my gut.

Someone must pay.

I let it flow over me, that anger and pain. Once I started to get blindingly pissed, I buried it. Not to put it out, or ignore it. No, I was going to stoke these fires, so that when I got my chance I could incinerate the asshole that wronged me.

But now it did me no good to be consumed by my own rage.

The light was quite bright now. I could clearly make out a Well in front of me. So familiar yet I still had no idea what it was. It seemed to be glowing now, a silvery light. IT needed light to glow like the moon.

Moon... Well.

It was a Moon Well! I had no clue what that meant but I was absolutely certain that was the name of this type of well.

Maybe, I could find more things to unlock memories, however limited.

I was standing in a vast field of purple grass. That felt right.

I looked past the Moon Well towards the light now blazing a merry blue too bright to look at directly.

There were buildings, were they there before?

One was very tall, maybe fifty stories. It had words on the side MB: Treeside. The style of the building seemed off to me. Like it was too big, too futuristic. Yes, something a bout a broken future.

There were walls and a ceiling I could barely make out now surrounding everything.

This huge field of purple grass and the massive building I could see along with the smaller ones next to it, were contain by an even larger structure. That seemed impossible to me, though I didn't know why.

At least now, I had a clear goal. Get to those buildings and explore them.

Answers could be there.