"Urgh, my head… it hurts so much," I thought while opening my eyes, but something felt different. It was like waking up for the first time in a while.
I heard nothing. I saw nothing but darkness. I felt cold wind passing by me, and it felt like I was sleeping on stone.
'But where am I?' No matter how hard I tried to remember something, I just couldn't remember who I was or what the hell I was doing here.
My throat burned, dry as if I hadn't spoken in years. The taste of iron lingered on my tongue.
"Ahhh," I made a noise to try to get rid of the burning feeling, but it just hurt me more.
"Cough, cough." It hurt so much, it felt like it was the first time I had spoken in my entire life.
As time passed, I became more and more anxious. 'Who am I? What am I? Where am I?' were the questions I tried to answer with my memory, but I had none of those, so I started searching my clothes and my body.
I had on me a pouch of coins, a sword even though I didn't remember how to use it, a small notebook, and a parchment, It was written on it:
"I greet thee. For the first time since the Great Fall, we have resolved to seek the last Morjen of Kaugi.
The only knowledge we possess of its whereabouts is that it has returned deep within the root of the world, hidden in the heart of the world.
Find it.
May fortune walk beside you."
'But what is a Morjen? What is the Great Fall?' The more I read the parchment, the more I felt the need to answer them. Let's just get out of here.
There was only one way for me to go, and that way was forward.
I walked so much that I had lost all notion of time. When would I reach the end?
Pluf Pluf.
'Huh? What's that noise?' I was scared because I didn't recognize the noise, and yet it was so familiar.
The noise was growing stronger as time passed. It felt like I was going toward the place where the noise came from.
The noise was strong enough to make me think that its source was just in front of me, but I found a small wall.
I tried to climb it, but I was too drained to even try, so I decided to wait a little.
As I waited, I wondered what a Morjen was, and I started remembering part of a legend, the legend of the fallen king. "Ah… I remember. A Morjen is a kind of dragon." But that left me even more perplexed. Why did I remember some basic knowledge but not who I was or what the hell I was doing here?
After having this thought, I decided to climb the small wall. It was pretty hard. I felt like dying from just a small effort, but as I lifted my head, I saw a weak moonlight, strong enough to blind me.
If I had had enough strength left, I would have left the cave, but I was too drained, and my eyes felt heavy. I fell unconscious.
"GRRR."
The roar echoed through the cave. My eyes snapped open, my heart pounding hard. Without thinking, I pushed myself up, every muscle trembling.
The noise came again, closer and stronger this time.
Panic took over. I staggered forward, slipping on the damp stone, running toward the faint light ahead.
The air grew warmer. The darkness behind me faded, replaced by a blinding light that stabbed through my vision.
I gasped, shutting my eyes and raising a hand to shield them from the brilliant light. The sunlight burned, too bright after that endless dark.
The light poured over me, soothing after the endless dark.
I stumbled forward, blinking against it.
But at least I had escaped from the thing that had roared.
The roar was gone... Or maybe it had never been real.