My eyes opened to see a vibrant blue sky above me. Pain throbbed in my skull. I did not perceive any of this with any level of cognizance, as my mind was as blank as a newborn's. I felt my mind grasping for the information and memory that should have been there, thoughts and words to describe the scenario I was in, but there was nothing but pain. Pain needs no words to describe it nor any past experience to associate with. Pain was my world until the nameless blue faded and I passed out.

A voice sounded in the darkness. "Well, it worked! Er, sorta. Hello? Are you in there?"

The following silence would have been deafening if I had been able to comprehend it.

"Oh, it looks like I forgot to replace your brain. Silly me! Let's see here... Physical control?" I felt my body twitch slightly. "Check. Survival instinct?" I suddenly felt very hungry and thirsty. "Check. Communication and language?" Nothing. "Nope, can't forget that!" For a few moments, an itching sensation ran through my entire being. It faded a moment later and I felt clarity enter my mind. My thoughts began to form coherent sentences again. Now that I could think, I listened to the voice that was rambling on in my mind.

The voice was male. It was deep, but not very much so. The voice sounded mischievous yet soothing at the same time. Some fragment of my mind recognized it as the voice of someone with a silver tongue, a characteristic I had learned to identify quickly in those I met. At least, I think I did so.

Enough listening. "Hey! Who are you and where are we?" I shouted at the voice. At least, as close as I could get to shouting in my mind. Wait, what is shouting anyway?

The strange voice disregarded me completely and continued rambling for a while. After some time, I felt his attention return to me.

"So, you're awake."

"Yeah, and you didn't answer my question."

He chuckled. "So I didn't. You need not concern yourself with who I am, and you'll find out where you are soon enough. Right now, your mind is in a fragile state. I don't have enough time to fix you, so you'll need to help yourself for a while."

With that I heard a loud SNAP and a bright light filled my vision. I jolted upright from where I had been laying on my back. The moon was shining brightly above. I wasn't sure, but I didn't think the moon was normally that vibrant.

I turned to get a better look at my surroundings. I appeared to be in a peaceful grove in a forest. The scenery was quite picturesque. Even at night, the world looked bright and colorful and sounded rich and full of life. The grove itself was open to the sky above. It had a little creek running right through the middle and luscious foliage edging the clearing.

"Wow, I wish I had my camera," I said to myself. No sooner had the words left my mouth that an annoying buzzing filled my head. "Wait, what is a camera anyway?" I shook my head and decided to think about something else. It was at this point I realized just how little I knew about anything.

"I know that this is grass," I muttered as I ran my hand along the ground beside me, "and I know that those are trees, which are part of a forest." The strange feeling returned. "But who am I? Where am I? Do I live here? Is anyone else here?"

I stood up to get a better appreciation of my surroundings. I don't know why I stood, it just came naturally to me. So did my movement, which I also began without thinking. It was a very strange method of transportation. At least I think it was. I would almost be falling over forward, but my lower appendages would rush forward and catch me in time to continue the momentum forward.

"Walking! That's what it's called!" The word seemed to simply appear in my mind along with it's meaning. Proud of my accomplishment, I walked around the edge of the small grove. I noticed something lying on the ground. It was made of a sturdy material and had multiple openings on it that seemed to somehow be closed. As if my limbs were moving on their own, I reached forward with my strange upper limbs and curled my little stubby things around a strap on the object, then slung the straps over my back and put the limbs through the straps.

"Why did I do that? What the heck is this thing anyway?"

A bolt of pain lanced through my head. A blur of sound and images swept through my thoughts and then ended as soon as it had began.

The sudden outburst of thoughts startled and confused me.

"These things... I must have known them at some time. Why don't I remember more of them? What is going on here?"

My thoughts drifted back to the voice in my head. While he certainly hadn't been helpful, he was right about one thing. I was going to have to help myself until I could find someone. Judging by the forest I was in, that might not be for quite some time. Due to the relative brightness of the stars and the loud noises of the woodland creatures, I was able to conclude that I was far away from any of the paths-that-guide-metal-on-wheels or the big-building-clusters that polluted the sky.

I instinctively grasped my head in pain and tried to remain standing. That's when I noticed an odd smell in the small clearing. It drowned out my thoughts and made my head spin, making it even more difficult to not fall over. Thankfully, the wind shifted direction and I could breathe and think clearly once more.

I had no idea what direction to go in, no knowledge of the land (or any knowledge, for that matter), and no clue as to what I was doing. Needless to say, it sucked. I spent a good amount of time walking in circles just trying to decide which direction I should go, or if I should even move at all.

"I shouldn't stay here. Who knows what could happen to me in the middle of the forest in the dead of night?" said the worried part of my mind.

"I shouldn't move from here. I don't know where I'm going and there might already be somebody out here looking for me. Leaving could just cause more problems than it solves," said the logical part of my mind.

The foul smell clouded my thoughts again. It wasn't so bad this time since I knew what to expect, but that didn't mean it was any less revolting. It tickled my nose quite a bit, and I let out a loud sneeze that shattered the silence of the clearing.

Wait a minute... Something's wrong here. I looked apprehensively around the clearing again. Just as before, nothing to worry about. It was just an empty, quiet clearing. I was about to blame this on paranoia when the feeling got stronger.

I took a step away the trees and back into the center of the clearing. I heard twigs snapping beneath my feet. The sound they gave off was startling in the tense silence. That's when it made sense.

What happened to all those woodland creatures that had just been making so much noise?

I got my answer as two forms emerged from a particularly dense clump of bushes. They were quite large and extremely intimidating. They were also familiar, and I felt the tug on my mind that signified a missing memory. At the same time, there was something about them that wasn't familiar. Was it the predatory stance? Maybe it was the wooden body?

I gasped in pain and fell slightly to the right. It was a good thing I did, because the wolf lunged and barely missed me. I would have been wooden wolf chow if I had moved a second later. The two circled around me, seeming to wait for something. Then I realized something else was odd about these wolves. The animals I knew of that name hunted in large packs, not pairs.

As if the universe simply wanted to spite me, five more wolves appeared from the thicket. It was at this point that I rediscovered the most basic of instincts.

And so I ran. I didn't choose any particular direction. All I focused on was staying out of the jaws of the wolves, which I was doing very well. It was made easier by the thick foliage and branches that littered the forest. While the wolves had to sacrifice speed on every turn and obstacle, I hardly lost any momentum.

As the forest began to thin out, the wolves gained the advantage. I had less opportunities to force them to turn and less obstacles to throw in their way. A cold weight settled on me when I realized that they were closing in all around me, and things only got worse from there.

I was forced to run straight forward since they had circled around me, and they had chose their direction wisely. A large, empty field stretched out before me, and I was being herded right into it. Out there with no way for me to use my superior agility, their sheer speed would overwhelm me.

It turns out that they didn't need speed. I burst out onto the open field to realize that there were two more wolves already waiting for me. I turned to run the other way, but was quickly closed in a circle of wolves. I had failed. I had come this far just to die. There was nothing left that I could do.

Or is there? The thought sprung my mind back into action. The wolves aren't fleeing. They are coming after me. What if I did that to them?

As the first wolf leaped at me, I tested this new idea. My hand slammed down on top of the wolf's head in midair and it crashed to the ground. I quickly stomped on it and it shattered into pieces.

That... That felt good. What is this?

Ignoring the throbbing in my head, I let myself settle into a better stance. I remembered this now. Shoulders back, fluid movements, slight crouch, hands up. All of it was natural to me.

The second wolf tried its luck and met the same fate as the other. My foot smashed into its side and it was woodchips. The rest of the pack met the same fate. Each one of them leaped and then fell to me. It took only moments for them all to be reduced to bits and peices. Satisfied, I turned and continued onward through the open field.

After a minute of walking, I could see more trees up ahead. As I got closer I noticed that they weren't like the forest trees from earlier. These trees were in neat rows and had shiny red things hanging on it that seemed to gleam even in the darkness of night. The only thing between me and those pretty trees was a small river. I stopped to admire it for a moment. Everything about it was amazing! The beautiful night sky, the crystal clear river, the babbling of water, the sudden rustling of the grass, the-

Rustling grass?

I turned around to be greeted by the pack of wolves that I had just beaten. I wasn't given time to figure out what was going on as they all rushed me at once. With only a split second to move, I smashed one with my leg while throwing another behind me as I dodged out of their way. The rest of the wolves fell the same way.

Then, to my horror, they got back up. As the one directly at my feet started to regenerate as if by some sort of magic, I kicked it into the river. I got ready to fight it another time, but the pieces of the wolf swirled around in the water and were unable to join together again.

Perfect.

I waded up to my knees in the water as the remaining wolves eyed me warily. One of them took a few steps into the river, but swiftly turned back upon entering the current. The wolves knew better than to try their luck in the water.

"Sorry guys, but I win this round. Better luck next time, woodchips!" I said with a good laugh. I shook the water off of me on the other side of the river and smiled. Things were going very well, considering that I knew nothing. I had no plan, no memory, and no clue what I was doing. Still, just moving around made me feel... something. I couldn't remember what it made me feel. The feeling was comforting, so it didn't really matter if the feeling had a name or not. What really mattered was finding civilization, and the orderly trees in front of me were a clear sign that I was not far from finding it.

I wandered through the tree fields for a while, aimlessly searching for any other life. After about half an hour of seeing what seemed to be the exact same trees no matter where I walked, I started to get a little worried. That's when the universe decided it would be funny to make me absolutely panic.

It started small. I could swear that I saw some tiny blur fall from the sky every once in a while. I began seeing it more and more often as time went on. I realized that it was water when one of them landed on my arm. Yeah, water. From the sky. That freaked me out.

Did the sky break or something? If water is falling from the sky, then what will happen to all of the land?

Then the water fell faster and faster. My breathing became rapid and I frantically began running, searching for some kind of way out of this sky-water. After a few minutes, I found salvation in a small shack up in a tree. There was a convenient ramp that let me run straight up to the door and inside as quickly as possible. Here, I could relax. The sky-water wouldn't get me now.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves then took in my surroundings. The room was simple. A desk in the corner, a table, a nice fuzzy thing covering the wood floor, two windows, and a few boxes. Curious, I opened the boxes up. Inside one of them was a ridiculous amount of whoopee cushions and stink bombs. Another had a large amount of art supplies. One box in particular caught my attention. The only thing in the box was a bunch of red fabrics. The material was surprisingly soft, so I threw one in my backpack. Who knows what I could use it for later?

I went ahead and threw the rest of the fabrics on the ground, making it soft enough for a good night's sleep. I was starting to feel a bit worn out from all of the running and fighting that had been required of me, and it wouldn't hurt to rest. I certainly wouldn't be going back out into that sky-water anytime soon. Tomorrow would come, and I would be ready to face it with a well rested mind.

Unless it had sky-water. That stuff was scary.

Author's Note

Author's notes. Who reads those, right?

Well, apparently you do, but that's not important. What is important is that you haven't abandoned my story yet. Thanks. I've been working on improving this as I go.

Unfortunately for you, these improvements aren't really visible until after Chapter Six, which is a decent chunk of words and four confusing plot points away from this chapter. I don't expect you to put up with bad writing for that long to get to something decent. Feel free to bail out now.

If you do decide to keep reading my story, Thanks! I promise that I will never stop trying to improve my writing as this continues.

That all said, please leave a comment letting me know what you think at some point. I thrive on feedback, so don't be shy! It's the only way I'll improve.