1 Prologue

At first, all I could see was darkness. I was deep in slumber, possibly to never wake up again. Not that I could sleep through the bustling noise around me.

I peeled open my heavy eyelids to take in my surroundings and was quite shocked to face an unfamiliar town. Carriages and ladies in long dresses carrying parasols to protect their fair skin from the terror of sunlight flooded the busy street. Looking down I saw that I was not nearly similar to a single one of them.

My skin was dark, a tanned color that I couldn't tell the difference of between the dirt I was covered in and my skin tone.

Rather than being adorned in a gown, I was wearing what I'm sure those fine madams would consider underwear.

The clothing was exposing.

My stomach was exposed.

But strangely enough, I wasn't embarrassed by it. I was the only one in such thin attire yet it felt "familiar" to me, rather than those heavy dresses.

Aside from my attire, another feature of mine strikes my interest.

A golden tattoo, scaling from the back of my right foot to my left cheek. It was visible on every part of my skin that was left exposed, leaving its trail up the right side of my waist and seeming to cross over my chest under my shirt, since the tattoo continued from my left shoulder up to my face. It baffled me at how this unfamiliar tattoo could shine as if actual gold had been engraved into my skin, almost as if a vine of gold had grown within my skin.

That's what it looked like.

A vine.

A vine that branched out from its roots on my foot and grew and grew and grew until a flower bloomed on my face. How that flower loomed over my very being. I swear it's evil.

Where did it come from?

Where did I come from?

Who am I?

My name is Rune, I have great magic which can be exposed to no one, and this is not where I should be. Shall we find out what happened?