His head hits the ground hard. He feels like he's whirling, like everything is spinning around him, but he stays still, very still.
His breath hitches, reacting to the sudden change of air.
Where am I? he asks himself.
He searches for an answer in the sky, in the clouds that cover his gaze, but everything looks the same to him, even if it is different.
He doesn't know it, but he has travelled between worlds, he has jumped from one reality to another in just a second.
How, will soon become an answer.
Why, may take a little longer.
He tries to get up carefully and that's when he notices that he is completely and utterly naked. The only thing that still makes him him are the red curls that decorate his head.
He is still him, even if he doesn't know where he is.
One foot and then the other, but everything keeps moving.
Where am I? he wonders again, putting a hand to his head, trying to stop it from spinning.
He sees only green and more green, big hills that remind him of the Kingdom of Tellus. But deep inside he knows that this is not that Kingdom, it doesn't really seem to be any Kingdom he has visited with his friends.
The memories suddenly overwhelm him.
A few seconds ago he was trying to hang a chandelier in the Council meeting room in the new castle of the Fifth Kingdom, and now he was here in the middle of nowhere.
Something had happened.
Was this the work of his friend and sister-in-law Gaia?
No, she wouldn't do something like this without telling him. This was something else, something that clearly had an explanation even if he couldn't find it now.
Caelus had trained him for moments like these. First, he had to find a vantage point that would allow him to locate himself, he had already done that and it hadn't worked, he had no idea where he was. Second, he had to find a weapon, something he could defend himself with. He had his powers, but it wasn't something he wanted to use with no clothes on in the middle of nowhere. He had to walk, he had to start moving, even if it was hard, he had to try.
He starts walking down that hill, looking for a path that will lead him somewhere.
The strangest thing he feels is not fear of being lost, but the feeling that this is the exact place where he should be. Ever since Rayn and Isabelle's death, he had felt nothing but a sense of emptiness that he had tried to ignore in silence. It's the first time in months that he doesn't feel it and he's in that situation. What does that say about him? Is he completely lost in his grief?
He finds a stone path and really wishes he had his leather boots. He starts to walk along it as best he can, hopping from stone to stone, trying not to fall or hurt his feet too much.
He doesn't know where he was going, but it's better than staying where he was.
In the distance he finally sees something. Maybe it is a village, a small village.
Confirmation comes when he reads a wooden sign on the ground.
Gravestone.
He had never heard of this village, in all his life, in all his travels.
It's definitely a long way from home.
How will I get home? Finally that question comes into his head and he doesn't know the answer.
'Hey, you,' a male voice startles him from behind.
He turns around, covering his privates with his hands, totally embarrassed and unable to answer.
'What are you doing like that?'
It's a knight, dressed head to toe in shiny metal. After a few seconds, two more join him.
'What's this madman doing wandering around naked?' the second one asks the first one who had spoken to him.
'I don't know, but it seems he's a mute as well as a madman.'
He decides it's best to keep quiet, considering that anything he says will make him sound even crazier.
The question 'Where am I?' would only get him imprisoned or worse.
'You're not an enchanter, are you?' asks the third and final knight.
Enchanter, that word makes all three of them react, as if they were told the worst possible word, a word that would scare them enough to take a step back.
Enchanting sounded like magic, and magic sounded like powers. It was completely and utterly out of the question to make use of his fire powers, that would only sink him further.
'Are you an enchanter?' asks the first, reaching for his sword at his right side.
He knows that keeping quiet is no longer an option, so he reaches for a lie, something that Caelus himself would say.
'I've been robbed, all my belongings have been taken,' he tells them gesturing at his obvious lack of clothing.
At the three's hesitation, he tries to add his greatest fear back into the conversation.
'It was an enchanter, he used his magic to knock me out, I woke up a few seconds ago, completely lost.'
It is there that the three lower their defences, believing his words to be commonplace.
In that place, wherever that place was, enchanters are dangerous people.
'Those bastards...' mutters the first. 'Tell us which village you come from and we'll take you there.'
In that instant he doesn't know what to answer, so he looks for the closest possible answer.
'I'm from Gravestone, I was on my way home.'
'From Gravestone? You can't be from here, all the men have already been drafted,' the second replies.
'You've been drafted into His Majesty the King's army, right?'
He can't find a lie for that. If he says yes they will know it is not true, and if he says no, by the look on their faces, it would not be a good answer.
'Looks like we've got a deserter, boys. It's a good morning apparently,' the first one tells him. 'Rodrick, give him your cloak, we'll take him to the barracks.'
'Excuse me? Barracks?' he can't hold back.
'All men must fight in his Majesty's war against the enchanters,' the third replies, throwing his cloak at him.
He covers himself at last with something.
'Unless, of course, you are wounded. Are you wounded? Because you don't seem to be, you're just naked,' the second one tells him and leaves him with no choice.
'You've got two choices boy, either you follow us to the barracks or we take you and drag you there.'
There is no choice but to go with them, then he will try to escape and perhaps return to this place.
Gravestone, it must mean something, otherwise why would he show up right there? Something is calling him, something needs him in that village.
'I will go,' he replies at last and begins to walk on foot behind the gentlemen who laugh at him, though they have no idea who they are dealing with.
He is a Lost Man, his life has been about fighting and surviving. If that's what he has to do now, he'll do it.
'What's your name, boy? So I can put you on the form.' The first one asks him.
'Polar, my name is Polar.'