As my eyes slowly opened, they were suddenly blinded by the sharp rays of the sun. Trying to block the light, I moved my hand and brushed against the grass under me, and the scent of a forest entered my nose. My mind was in a haze as if I were just abruptly woken from a dream.
I stood up and realized I couldn't remember how I got here—or where here even was. I started to scan my surroundings, and as I did, I noticed a man sitting on a rock at the edge of a cliff behind me.
He was just sitting there. His eyes were almost glued on the blue sky—it almost seemed like he was waiting for something to happen... Or waiting for someone?
"Looks like you finally decided to wake up from your nap. You've been asleep here for at least two hours, probably longer telling by the way the grass had been indented. Have to say you should thank me for not leaving you and for letting you rest instead of just waking you up," the man said, chuckling to himself.
"Who are you? Where am I?" I asked, still cloudy about my situation.
He sighed a little standing up and turning to face me, and I could finally see who I was talking with—he seemed to be in his early twenties. He wore a long black coat and black pants, with a dark red shirt. His hair was as dark as midnight.
I stepped back, seemingly out of instinct, when I noticed the claw-like scar running down his right eye.
The man noticed I had taken a step back. He laughed to himself a little as he grabbed something off the rock, and threw it at me. It glinted in the air for a moment and fell at my feet. My eyes were drawn to it—to the sword still hidden in its sheath.
"Mind picking that up for me. I have to test your strength before we go any further, and I'd recommend having a weapon. We're going to have a quick fight—think of it as a test," the man casually declared.
"What! Why would I fight you? I'm not going to pick up that sword!" I yelled out, taking a step back from his insanity.
"You don't have to pick it up if you don't want to, but I will still test you. So, unless you like to end up in two—pick up the sword."
Out of concern of what he might do to me, I grabbed the sword. It was lighter than I would have thought, and when I pulled the sword out of the sheath, I noticed writing in a weird text along the blade.
May these flames guide you to your future.
I couldn't read the text but felt like it had just spoken to me—but I had no time to process it as the man had unbuttoned his coat and had pulled out long twin silver katanas.
"Okay, all I need you to do is make sure you don't die. You can start when you want," the man said in a tone as if this was merely a joke.
I froze while staring at him with my blade raised—my body wasn't shaking out of fear as I would have thought it would be. My mind was racing—but my body remained calm. And the longer I stared at him, the more aware I got about my body. My breathing was even, and my heart pounded in my chest, but it didn't feel like fear—it was like I was excited.
"Yeah... I'm not going to wait all day for your attack. So, let's see how you do with defenses!" the men yelled out as he lifted his foot.
He moved with the speed of fire. Each step towards me felt like he would burst into flames at any moment. And for a moment my mind cleared away everything, and I rose the sword up, blocking the attack he swung down at me.
The force alone nearly brought me to my knees, but I held out and remained on my feet. My body and mind had reacted, almost like it was out of instinct—it was strange, but it also seemed incredibly natural to me.
I began to push back with all my strength and managed to get him off me. I stared at him, and he started to smile, lowering his swords.
He was happy—but why? Was he really just testing me?
"Well, it looks like you can defend yourself at least. That's not impressive alone, but in your case—it's a start," the man said in a more civil tone. "So, tell me, do you have a name—or do I get to come up with one."
"My name? It's... Anthony," I replied, unsure of why I hesitated my own name.
"Darn—and here I thought I could have given you a name. All well, you win some, you lose some. Anyways, Anthony, I'll call this fight a draw for now. That's alright with you—right?" he said in a cheerful tone as he put away one of his katanas.
"I don't care about the match or if you call it a draw! You were planning to kill me! How can you just expect me to be okay with that?" I snapped back at him.
I blinked once, and he disappeared... Had I gone crazy and imagined the whole thing? I was honestly going to believe that, but then I was stunned by the sensation of a cold sharpened sheet of metal on my neck.
"Don't move," the man whispered in my ear. "I didn't come to kill you or hurt you, Anthony. All I wanted to do was make sure you were the person I was looking for, and that's why I was so aggressive once you woke up. Now let's start over, shall we? I'm going to move back now, and you can ask me some questions. I know you must have some."
He slowly moved his blade away from my neck, and once they were gone, my knees gave out with the relief that I wasn't dead.
"Who are you? Why did you need to do this?" I said demanding answers.
"My name is Jay—and as I said before, this was to test your strength, and luckily you passed," he answered while he put the other katana back into his coat.
"What do you mean passed?" I asked as I stood up.
"Well, at first, I hoped that you would attack me to see how much strength you had. But after seeing that wasn't going to happen, I decided just to test your defense. And just letting you know, if you didn't raise your blade, I wouldn't have actually hurt you. Also sorry about the whole neck thing, I didn't mean to scare you, I just needed you to calm down to have a reasonable conversation instead of a screaming match."
He bowed to me. I didn't know what to think—my mind was back to being hazy, and I don't know if it was because of the haziness, but I honestly felt like he was telling the truth—even if he just attacked me.
"I-It's okay, you can raise your head," I said, and he raised his head. "Where am I? I woke up here—but I can't remember where here is."
"You are in the land where fantasies come true. A world filled with mysteries beyond belief. Where your dreams and nightmares can come true... The Great Elemental Empire!" he yelled out with the excitement of a child. "Also, I'll only allow you one more question for now."
I frowned since I was limited to just one more question, but that just meant I couldn't waste it on something trivial—and then it came to me.
"Why am I here?" I asked, staring into his eyes.
I finally noticed his eyes—eyes that burned with a flaming red only found in the hottest of flames. And even though he had a scar over his right eye, his eye was perfectly fine—almost like the scratch stopped and continued after passing his eye... like his eye wasn't permitted to be damaged.
"Hm, that's a hard one to answer..." he said with a grin, "but I would say that you're here to be a solution to a problem, or at least I hope you can be. After some time, of course."
"Everything you said was vague. I still don't understand what is happening here, but I'll help you if that means you can get me back to my world," I said with little understanding of my situation.
His eyes became daggers of seriousness and almost seemed like they would pierce me at any moment.
"Tell me, Anthony... how do you know that this isn't your world?"
With that one line—my mind cracked.
"I-I don't know, I just do... I can feel it. Who am I? I'm not sure anymore!"
I fell to my knees as I broke down.
At that moment, I was lost. I didn't know anything, and all my emotions overwhelmed my mind in one go, and then Jay walked up to me and knelt down to my eye level. I stared at his eye and felt like my emotion slowly calmed down as he placed a hand on my shoulder.
"That's irrelevant right now. What's important now is whether you will stay broken on the ground or stand up and fight for the truth that you desire to reach. Which path will you choose, Anthony?"
"I-I'll help you if that what it takes. I-I need to understand wh-why I'm here and return to my world."
He helped me back to my feet, and my mind calmed down. I didn't understand why—but it felt like I could trust him. I didn't know if it was because my emotions were all over the place... but I felt like I knew him—or at least someone like him.
"Alright then, let's shake on it," he said while extending out his hand.
Out of the need to want to end this whole situation, I grabbed it with little hesitation.
"And with that, our pact is formed. This might sting a little by the way," he said, smiling as my hand started to smoke.
"What did you just do to me? What is this? Did you just brand me?" I yelled in pain as I moved away from him.
"It's a crest that proves your alliance with us, the followers of the Fire Temple, and disciples of our Guardian!" Jay said with passion in his voice.
"What do you mean Fire Temple and Guardian? And why is it still on fire!" I yelled out.
"Don't worry, I'll explain everything as soon as we're in a better location, you never know who's listening, and it will be getting dark soon. We should get back into the village. Also, calm down, the fire will go out—just calm down."
I calmed down, and the fire disappeared, and in its place was a crest shaped like a burning flame. It almost seemed like it was glowing a brilliant crimson red color.
"Alright, you seem to know everything, how are we supposed to get to the village?" I said, lowering my hand to my side.
"I have a carriage... did you not notice? It's right there."
He pointed behind me and turning around, I noticed the open carriage lead by a single black horse—and how I didn't see that was beyond me.
"...Yeah, I saw that I just wanted to see if you did."
"Sure... Well, we are going to The River Village, it's right between that river and the forest. It's just a small village, the population peaks at around 500. It's right there," he said with a gesture off the cliff, but we were too far to see anything. "It should only take an hour to get there, but you should still rest on the way. I'll wake you when we get there."
Jay got into the carriage behind his horse, but I hesitated for a moment, and Jay noticed.
"Listen, Anthony. I'm not here to hurt you. I already told you I need your help. You can come and rest before your body collapses in the carriage or you can do it out here... I hear the animals love fresh meat."
I weighed my options and climbed into the carriage—I didn't want to be food. Jay laughed a little, and we started to move. My body started to relax, and suddenly, my eyes were closed shut.
———
The wind blew past me with the scent of blood, and my eyes opened with fear. I stood at the edge of a cliff, but it wasn't the place I was before—I didn't even know it was the same world. The land looked like the color had been sucked away from it. Like the life that gave birth to this world was slowly dying, and in the distance—I saw something that was pure fantasy.
A man stood there, and it seemed like he was staring up at me—but this man was entirely engulfed in flames that shined as intense and overwhelming as the deepest depths of purgatory.
A flame that countered light itself... a pure black fire.
I had to be at least several hundred feet away from him, but I still felt the wrath and madness that radiated from his body. But then suddenly, everything around me narrowed out until it was just me, and this embodiment of rage.
I was frozen in place by my fear, and then the world started to howl and scream at me—I was overwhelmed by fear.
"Can you trust that man? The man who has killed more people then you will ever know... Or even care for!" a voice drilled into my head over and over.
———
I was jolted awake by Jay as he shook me. He asked me if I was okay since I was abnormally sweating and panting. I didn't know what to say and nodded my head.
"We're here... Come, let me help you up," Jay said, helping me out the carriage.
My heart was beating faster than usual. I knew I was dreaming... but I couldn't remember what had caused my fear. I glanced around, trying to calm down and noticed we got out in front of a building with a sign swinging with the wind—Aiko's Hotel.