Everything..was gone. Black all around, it haunted his vision. A constant pitch color of tar, like a time before fire had ever existed. In a black void the young man, Azi Montagne, writhed in agony as the only thoughts he could muster were of pain.

It wasn’t always like this, when he first opened his eyes to understand what had happened after the explosion, he thought this was the afterlife. Perhaps there was no god and that his existence was to perpetually be in darkness.

Was this it? What this death? What happens now? I-I don’t know! Someone! Anyone! He screamed, trying to fight against this sad fate. Death had taken him early and he still wished to live. Wouldn’t we all.

Silence hung as his lungs tired and his breath heaved. All he could do was think, but the more he did, the more maddening the experience. There was no stimulation, no heat, no cold, no sound, no sight, only thought.

Panicking he flailed in the black, trying to wipe it away like a blemish on a screen. It was fruitless, his arms touched nothing, and he wasn’t even sure if he had the appendages anymore. More and more time passed, and Azi went into himself.

This was like those times, those times he was yelled at by people who he wished were gentler, more understanding, more committed to helping and nurturing him. There was, but “he” was out of reach.

Suddenly, something tugged at him. He flinched, it was pain. Pain had startled him. It had been so long that he felt any sensation that it was novel and foreign. Was he alive? If he could feel this then maybe..

“N-no.” His voice going hoarse, he grimaced as a grim foreboding fell on him.

The young man descended into screaming. Something was touching him, something was hurting him! Trying to rip him to shreds.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, GRAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH, AHHHHHH, ahhhh, aHH, aa..Hhh."

His voice slowly became weaker, and weaker, the pain taking his energy and sapping his life. Second before he believed his life was ending, he thought visions of his past would flash, like they would when you’d die, instead, his voice exploded and his spirits rebounded.

He screamed even louder and in even more agonizing pain. Like before, his voice pattered out once more but before it did he felt as if more energy entered him. It came out of nowhere, no source, no place of origin.

Something was keeping him alive, constantly nurturing his life while also taking it at the same time, a cycle of renewal and decay, life and death.

Gracious as it was that it kept his consciousness alive, it served grimly to continue his suffering, to be tortured by the unknown hands of those found unwanting.

The pain changed throughout his experience. It was still so unbearable that at one point, he could feel small chunks being forcefully pressed into his body, while other parts of his flesh were being removed from his bones in a slow and agonizing manner.

The image of meat falling off the bone wormed its way in. Horrifying. So horrifying he shuddered,

His mind sundered next. It, BALLOONED! As if it were expanding to a stretch past the limit. With a pop, his thoughts went blank, falling like debris from an explosion. Out of nowhere yet again, surprise after surprise, his mind would then rebound, again and again, and Azi found himself suddenly reforming and then breaking apart unto infinity.

Then, he compressed. Pressed down, burdened, his torturous compression had a singular effect on each individual square micron of space on his skull and alternated positions of meticulous pain. It was not felt all at once, instead, it would come in random waves.

Sometimes he felt it on the left side of his brain, then the front of his face, the back of his head, his ear, mouth, chin, and then his eyes.

This looping of pain and brief relief continued for a time that none knew how long had passed. When Azi still had the ability to perceive time, it may have been years, or decades, maybe centuries had passed him by in that black void of space.

But as the clock ticked and passed him by, his perceptions dissipated and he could no longer even discern hours, minutes, or seconds. All sense of time had left Azi by now, wherever “now” was. He stopped his screams, his sense of feeling was the next to be forgotten.

Mercy? Maybe? No, it wasn’t. At the same moment he no longer felt pain, his mind broke. Shattering, he could no longer bring about higher thought. Words eluded him, vowels and sounds were all he could gurgle.

His spirit dwindled further and wisped away from him, he became smaller and smaller and smaller. All was being taken away, all would never return, he could never get it back.

There was no pain now, he should’ve been happy but he forgot that too. There was no pain or anger he could recognize, nothing to go back to. Then, out of desperation, or what little his fragment self had, he tried to recall something, anything, Anything to cut the edge off this horrid existence.. He.. couldn’t.

When he couldn’t, so many years into this black future, he tried again and again. This was..surprising? Azi almost let out a scoff, but what was that? No, never mind. This, this is..not right, no, no, no!

His memories were disappearing. He began forgetting them, they fell away like a flaky croissant’s edges, crumbling away from the slightest touch. That very imaginative metaphor dissipated in the next few seconds, another solemn piece of evidence that his fate ahead was clear.

He would lose everything, himself, his emotions, his ability to do anything, and now the only thing left was his memories, his soul, the building pieces of his now scattered and torn existence.

Fear, new and sudden fear overcame him as more memories left him. His favorite food, his family, his home, his ideals, obligation, responsibility, almost all of it. Azi clung to only one thing he knew he could remember and was able to use to fight against his fleeting thoughts.

This one thing was his name and in hopes to prevent himself from losing whatever he had left of his mind, or even his being at this point, he muttered his name to himself as if possessed.

"AZI AZI AZI AZI MONTAGNE AZI AAAAZIIIIIII, AZI, A, AAAZ.. ZIIII, MONNN TTTTTAGGGNNNEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Being a scattered unfeeling existence seemed almost fine, but being an existence with no actual awareness was an outcome that he’d never want. As he muttered his name, he tried to remember something positive or any kind of positive emotion he could muster from within his very being.

Would it do any good? No clue, was it helping him cope with his end? Likely.

The fear he fought made him crave to feel anything else, so he tried and tried. And this battle of self preservation was waged for an here to for unknown amount of time, he remembered something, and shouted internally.

'A story? A novel? No, was it a book? Wait, what's a book again? Ani..no.. me? No..Game. I…ahhh! Something! Fun!..Argh! ad ven, ad..ven...tur....adven.'

He then shouted out in desperation to the void, a word he could recall that gave him some form of comfort.

"Ad..venture. adventurer!. ADVEN...TURE!. ADVENTURE!!! ADVENTURE!"

For reasons Azi could not remember, he was elated by this word. He thought to himself.

'HAHAHA! This word gives me hope, no, not hope, A reason to keep going? Or to at least keep existing through pain? HAHAHAH what a JOKE! or was it a reason to allow myself to keep existing? HEHEHEHE, I’m going crazy. Adventure!' He cheered in his mind. ‘I want that, I want to hold it, to keep it to.. to..”

One part of himself reflected and the other was going insane, unable to reconcile or even comprehend or want to yield to logic.

Suddenly, an image then formed in his mind. As if lighting the dark, this image appeared as if it was already there. Displayed in front of him, in the shape of a square, the image presented itself.

It was a.. Photo? No, that didn’t make sense, but it very much had light. He could see the scenery of a snowy forest with a bright sun shining in the sky above.

The sun in its entire visage could be seen above the horizon, cresting down as the sky slowly darkened with its yielding to the moon, giving way to night.

Azi was fascinated by the sight, it reminded him of a certain scene from a recent memory before his current existence, memories so distant or forgotten that he didn’t know if they were real or not anymore, or if this current reality was real or not.

But in that possibly false memory, was a world he had seen before, from a tale or story, but the name was unknown to him. This world, this world seemed close to his heart. Uncannily, he thought it was a beautiful place filled with warmth.

A warmth he could compare to another recovered memory. It touched him, the memory of the sun's rays on his skin.

He recalled them, those times where he’d bask in the light of a sunny day or on a beach. Warm warmth. It filled his broken mind with much needed stimuli.

It was refreshing, he could taste the heat on his skin, not only causing him to sweat, but it also spread across his skin like a gentle embrace, a hug. Panic shook him when he saw that the night was approaching in the image, the chilling mood of impending death as darkness encroached pushed at him.

Terror had internalized in all his being, it was then mirrored by chills of excitement, passion, and a drive, all for the sake of running forward to keep the sun in his sights.

He thought to himself that if he could move or run forward, he would be able to have an adventure. He then asked himself again.

'Ad.. ven.. ture? What is that?'

New and old thoughts began to explode from the deep recesses of his mind. Parts he never had access to, or were broken and locked away, perhaps? They rushed to the forefront and they then became concise words.

Azi screamed out.

"I want to go there! I want to be there! I want to see it!! I want to experience it!!! DON'T GO!"

He then reached his hand out and touched the image. Light shined for the first time in his place, in a split moment he saw people were around him. Faces oddly similar to who thought he was before, yet they foreign and they all tilted their heads at each other, mouthing a phrase.

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“Who are you?”

His own voice startled him and it did for everyone else. But before they could they even speak again, suddenly..

A rushing feeling overcame him as he was pulled along into what seemed like a stream. He could feel nothing, no hot or cold, instead there was only motion. He was moving faster for every moment that passed.

What looked like stars flew away from him and he made out a blurry visage. He saw his reflection in those brilliant streaks of different colors. They dashed away, leaving their own unique color trailing and dazzling the void of pitch black space.

Then, he hit something, no wait.. He passed through it and he could feel again. The first real sensation in ages was astonishing, like putting on a freshly dried and warm set of clothes. That immediately soured when he felt himself falling. Like all things, gravity pushed him down.

A thud ran through his chest, then a sudden impact as his face fell forward into what he could explicitly say felt cold and soft. The taste of something oddly shaped, watery, and refreshing filled his mouth. His body was heavy, hard to move.

'Am I dead?'

He thought to himself, but was proven wrong as a slight soreness that ached on his forehead was a sign that he was intact in some manner.

Anything that lived felt pain, so he understood that as long as he felt pain or had a sense of self, he was somewhat alive, be it mentally or physically. Either way, he was alive and still knew who he was..

“.. ? Wait? Wha? What happened?”

His ragged breath caught and he tumbled as he tried to get up. His brain was on fire, the pitch black of the back of his eyelids were haunting, retrieving unneeded pain from memories he didn’t know were his.

“A dream? No, it was, no what was it. I.. I’m…Azi?”

Yes, his name was Azi, Azi Montagne and he was.. what was he again?

He was tired, he didn’t want to think. When he attempted to think about the past, he got a headache and could not remember any details. Only a vague sense of self remained which made him instinctively understand that he had fallen on his face yet again.

Azi got up from the soft floor and realized that the floor was covered in snow, no, this was the ground, there was snowy dirt in his mouth. He spat it out and looked, his head turning quick to his right and left. Surrounding him were trees without their leaves and he could hear a breeze pass by, rustling white cover bushels.

Around him were imprints of what looked like stones, but it seemed as if the stones had embedded themselves into the ground or were melted.

He had no idea of what to make of them and was more relieved that he didn't crack his skull against one of these rocks. With his hands still on his forehead, he noticed that the pressure of the pains he was previously numb to was gone, his whole body felt lighter and in addition, his memories were no longer being broken away from him.

Or? Had he just dreamed that as well? Were his earlier memories a lie? What was that place, What was that place? Who were those people? Who Am I! Wait a minute! That place, those buildings built high into the sky, contraptions that sailed and were made of metal.

“Just what is going on?”

It was as if he should have known what these things were. The logic was there, though the context wasn’t. It was missing, like a gear taken from a clock. The clock could still tick in a few sections of its mechanisms, but other parts were stalling.

For the first time in a while, for what Azi had believed he had endured was a trial or exertion, he stretched his legs and arms. Feeling as if he had just woken up from a nightmare, the idea of him somehow falling asleep in a place like this crossed his mind.

Did he live around here? No, going by how he checked and patted himself down, it seemed like circumstances were more complex.

He still could not recognize anything from his surroundings, so he had no idea how he came to be where he was, but this thought was soon a moot point as he noticed his clothes were quite damaged.

Numerous holes in his sleeves and large portions of his jeans looked ragged. He tried to remember how his attire got like this. That suddenly brought on a bout of nausea. The pain would always come back when he tried to remember or think too hard on certain topics.

For now, he removed himself from doing that for a while.

Gleaming only a little since he had no strength to probe any further, he could remember he was in so much pain that he was thrashing around, so much that he began tearing at his clothes.

Maybe I was.. Tortured? Why? What was the point?

When the bout of nausea passed, he was then able to see that while his attire was damaged, it at least covered his dignity with an adequate amount of layering. Nevertheless, his rags were not accommodating enough to his environment. Ineffective, he sneezed when a cold snowy breeze came across and frosted his bare skin.

“Achoo! Oh god, I’ll freeze to death at this rate.”

The cold felt nice to him as the new stimuli besides pain was refreshing. It was also worrying that the temperature seemed as if it were dropping, and fast.

"Where do I go now?" He said in a shivering tone. "I've got to find a place to stay, maybe a path, or river is nearby."

Azi turned around and made his way to what seemed like a clearing in the forest of trees. His pace was a bit slow, a constant chill ran up his legs due to his feet being laid bare to the snow.

No shoes, looks like I’ll be barefoot for a while.

Getting to the clearing, he could see that it was actually a ledge or ridge. He was on a mountain, that was for sure since everything ahead sloped down. Trees which looked like a mile away from here were on a much lower elevation.

The mountain descended down at an angle that was not too steep for him, he guessed. He could also see strange triangular wooden points further down the mountain in what looked like another clearing. Most beneficial to his situation was that he could see smoke, rising to the white clouds above.

Maybe 10 miles away or less, he wasn’t sure, eyeing distance was hard. It was like his eyes were still adjusting to the light.

After looking around for a few more minutes, it seemed that there were no other signs of civilization closer to where he was, so he decided then and there that he should make his way to the source of the smoke.

It was his best chance, that, or freeze to death.

Perhaps he would find people he could talk to and figure out where he was if he wanted to get home. But where was home? He stepped forward, thinking again, but that was a mistake. The next moments were quite unfortunate.

When Azi attempted to descend the mountain, he ended up slipping as he was too preoccupied in his head. He additionally got a vague feeling that he never had any previous experience when it came to climbing or any outdoor experiences besides running or walking on a FLAT PATH.

This realization, combined with his naivety in believing he could just think and walk out here in the wilds at the same time, caused him to curse in his mind for not being more attentive.

While Azi did descend the mountain, he did so while slipping and began violently rolling down the slope of the cliff in an uncontrolled manner. He thought he probably looked like an idea, and his body ached, but it didn’t hurt with all the snow that padded his fall.

Yet, he didn’t like the sensation and knew this mistake might cost him his life.

But it seemed that some small amount of luck was on his side. Not only did the snow cushion his descent, but his constant rolling came to a sudden stop as he felt something grab the back of his collar.

After Azi's eyes stopped spinning, he could see the face of his "savior" from his rolling fate. The man's features were stout, and his face had a white mustache that descended to the sides of his mouth.

Another feature caught Azi's attention, it was at the sides of his head. They had fluffy ears attached and a short tail that protruded from his rear was a truly astonishing sight, though he didn’t know why.

Wait a minute! Why don’t I have one? No, is that normal. Urgh, my head is killing me.

Azi focused, the "savior" was quite large. So large in fact, that it was made clear as Azi's legs dangled off the ground, His "savior" was holding him up to his eye level.

"Who are you?" Said the Savior. "And what are you doing out so late boy? The forest is filled with dangerous monsters and animals that could kill a man in moments. You don’t.. hmm.” The savior eyed his apparel. “Hmm, if you are not equipped properly you’ll die out here. You don’t seem like a warrior? So why are you out here? Are you lost?"

Lost?! NO! WAIT! Should he bring up the fluffy ears? No no no no, that would be weird, also maybe it was normal? I really don’t have a baseline of common sense, must be, amnesia? I think that’s what it's called. Jeez, my head is still trying to sort everything out.

In a meek voice, Azi responded. A mix of confusion was making it hard for him to talk.

"Ummm, hello? My name is Azi Montagne, y-yes, I don't know where I am. I think I lost my way or well, it is hard to explain, I think I was trying to go somewhere but I've forgotten. I remember hitting my head, then seeing the smoke up ahead, and then wanting to head there by descending the cliff. But I slipped, and now here we are."

The Savior gave Azi a scrutinizing look and came to his own decision. With practiced wording that seemed almost snooty and uptight to Azi, the Savior grinned.

"While your claim of slipping is believable as I witnessed it myself, that still does not answer the question of who you are. There is no one named Azi Montagne in any of the surrounding villages."

Befuddled by how a single man could know all the names of the people who lived in numerous villages, Azi was skeptical of this man. Perhaps, this man was trying to get something out of him, so he countered.

"How would you know that, isn't that too many names to remember?"

"Bwahhahahahahaha, don't tell me you do not know who I am?!"

“Umm, I really have no idea. Whatever your deal is, can you stop with the stiff voice? It doesn’t suit you.”

That made the Savior suspicious.

“Why would you think that my voice is stiff? Do you not see how well dressed I am? I am quite a figure from where I am from.”

The slight pride in the Savior’s voice gave it away and Azi pointed it out.

“There! Right there, the way you said “quite” seemed so forced. You could have left it out and said it a lot faster.”

“Heh.” The savior chuckled a bit, but then shuddered. Azi tensed, worried that he might have ticked him off. The Savior shuddered again, this time his shoulders shooting back. “Bwahahahahahaha Ahahahahahah, hahahahaha, bwahahahaha.”

The man let out such a loud laugh that Azi had to cover his ears. He set Azi down and patted his back. Azi looked at the Savior with a questioning gaze.

"You got me kid.” The savior bellowed. “I’m not all up to his title that I have. It's been hell of a lot more boring keeping this act up. Ahem!”

The savior coughed, his tone going more friendly, upbeat, and most of all ecstatic, like he was proud of himself but not in the, I’m better than you sense, more like the I’m great and I like my style kind of way.

“I! AM OZEN! LEADER AND KING OF ONE OF THE NATIONS OF THE GREAT EMPIRE OF YAMATO. BWAHAHAHAHAHA. You must be either uneducated or a lost foreigner to not know this.”

Azi nodded in response. “Yeah, I’m not sure where I am in fact. I didn’t even know there was an empire out here in the sticks.” Azi said.

“Well if you just don’t know, then you just don’t know. In any case, you seem like you’ll figure things out. I can already tell that you can carry yourself and decide for yourself.” Said Ozen, and he gave Azi an assured hand to his shoulder. He noted Azi’s posture, his back was ramrod straight and his feet were put together, like he was at attention or attentive to everything around him.

“You're a keen boy Azi, I like that in you, you’re mature unlike how you look and act. Perhaps this is fate that we should meet like this. The unusual circumstances of today seem interesting enough to support the idea. So what do you say, wanna come with me?"

"Sure, why not. I got nowhere else to go and I would prefer not to freeze to death or continue to roll down this mountain. If this is fate, then why not go rolling with fate rather than rolling down a mountain."

"BWAHAHAHAHA, indeed young one, indeed. I'll see to it that you are safely escorted to a nearby village personally. Hup!"

To Azi's surprise, Ozen grabbed him, put him on his back, and leapt to an incredible height that was almost halfway up an enormous tree that looked to be over 5 meters tall. He began jumping from branch to branch to make his way through the forest.

Azi screamed in his mind, too scared to even let out a peep with how fast everything was happening. Was this a kidnapping or was Ozen really trying to help him. Asi couldn’t tell. The sudden change in altitude was too fast for him to comprehend or think clearly.

Wanting to start a conversation, Ozen asked.

"So, what can you remember?"

Gripping for dear life, Azi held onto his wit, trying to at least keep a conversation up. He had no chance of getting away, nor did he want to fall to his death.

"Well I, Umm, my name and I remember that I liked traveling? My other memories are hard to fully recall, I can only remember pieces and they are hazy at best. It's foggy when I try to think about it."

Azi started to rub his head, trying to get rid of an itch and asked, realizing that Ozen’s method of traveling was strange. Going by foot made sense, but jumping like some acrobat made it seem unreal, or impractical.

"By the way, why are you jumping around? And moving so fast? Isn’t there a road out here, something we could run on."

"There are, but bandits tend to prowl there, and this is faster. Though, the forest we’re in is dangerous at this time in the evening, but if I use the trees we’ll have no trouble. And since there are only two of us out here, I believe we should hurry back to ensure our safety. I don’t have any comping equipment and we’ll likely get attacked since we seemed like an easy meal. I'm going to speed up, so hold on tight."

Giving Azi his warning, Ozen shifted him into a better position on his back. With a kick, Ozen then began speeding up and began jumping more frequently. Unable to handle Ozen's acrobatics movements, Azi’s eyes welled into tears as he held on like it was his last day on earth.

His mind felt faint from all the moving around. Unable to handle all the jostling, Azi's vision went white as he fell unconscious from a combination of fear and panic.