1 1 Waking

The first sensation that I can distinctly recall is the feeling of a light warmth brushing softly against my skin, lighting up the darkness to a muffled red. It was that same light that forced out a sneeze, and that's how I woke up.

Sight was the second sensation, for as soon as my eyes opened, I was blinded by a light that certainly wasn't as soft, as well as the greens and blues of my surroundings.

After adjusting, I could suddenly feel the long, healthy grass blades against my palms. They were strong and difficult to pull up both in handfuls and as themselves, so I settled with just stroking them. There were flowers, too, and now that my vision had completely cleared up, pinks, whites and an assortment of other colours along with their spring scents became prominent.

The person next to me did not wake up so pleasantly.

She snapped me from my newely awoken bliss with a shrill shriek, frightening the small snake sleeping on her chest.

I couldn't see why the fuss was necessary. It was a tiny creature whose scales reflected the clear daylight, its eyes a sparkling golden green - the colour of barely ripened wheat... the point is that it was a cute little thing that surely was not deserving of such a rude awakening.

I was quick to rescue it, leaning over sharply and cupping it in my hands close to my neck. The woman began mumbling randomly, and I could only guess what exactly she was saying, though the gratitude in her words was difficult to ignore.

The little catsnake began licking my thumb, snuggling into my fingers in a gratitude I held in far higher regard than that of the girl's.

I occupied myself with the pretty picture of the animal in my hands. It just looked so out of place, such a delicate life fawning over my rough and calloused hands. It didn't look right despite it feeling so natural, and I suppose that's why I didn't notice how much time had passed until someone else pointed it out to me.

That someone was not the woman, but a man. He was short in stature and held himself rather meekly. He looked like the sort you'd stereotypically find in a library, his nose buried in a book while his spectacles tried to fall into it.

"Uhm, excuse me, sir?" he stuttered out, swallowing his words with such skill that, if it weren't for the snake's reaction to his abrupt presence, I wouldn't have paid any heed to him.

My head jerked up as soon as I noticed; it's rude to ignore those speaking to you, after all.

The boy flinched violently but continued when he recognised my polite recognition. "They're... they're wondering if you could stand up... you've been sitting there for awhile."

I glanced over behind him, craning my neck slightly, and saw the woman from earlier as well as four others. Two guys - one boy and one man - and a girl and another woman.

I yawned and slowly stood up, lowering the catsnake onto my shoulder and swinging my body weight to quicken the process.

"Yeah, I can stand." it was only really at that moment, as I stretched out my spine to its utmost capacity, that I realised just exactly how short the boy was in comparison to me.

He should've been a young adult with his face, but he was as tall as a mid-teen with pubescent issues.

Evidently he had realised the height difference as well, shock filling his large grey eyes... it didn't matter.

I plastered a smile onto my face. I didn't know why I was smiling as there wasn't really any reason to, but it certainly was comforting to see them all relax a little as I made my way over to them.

"You called?" my eyes softened, but I felt no different. Library-boy shuffled over before anyone had the chance to say anything, snake-woman flashing a charming smile at me as he did so.

"Uhm, so... we need to figure out where we are." library-boy was the first one to break the silence, a fact that came as somewhat of a surprise.

"Do we?" I answered mostly without thought. I honestly didn't see the point - why not just enjoy the nameless place as it was?

"I... think so. It just feels unfamiliar; it's making me nervous." he gave an honest self-assessment, as broken as it was.

"I agree. The sooner we get away from this snake infested field, the better." snake-woman butted in. The catsnake, now loosely hanging around my neck, slightly shivered in displeasure.

"Well, we're in a field bordering a forest and I can't see water. So... we're outside." the other boy spoke up, causing us all to look at him. Now, although I can't be certain what kind of emotion they were trying to portray, I know for certain that I looked at him in pure bafflement.

And, just how was that useless deduction worth anything at all?

The man beside dumb-boy coughed into his hand falsely, trying to change the direction of the discussion, "I suggest we try to find some kind of civilisation. Once we do, I can speak with them to see where we are."

Although not as bad as dumb-boy, his statement still provoked a response of confusion from me. Again, what is with the obviousness?

After a few moments of awkward silence, the girl spoke up, "It's probably for the best if we begin introducing ourselves, though."

I hesitated, allowing myself to process her words, but quickly nodded along with the rest of them. What she'd spouted was the most practical plan of them all. "Alright, I'll go first," upon seeing our collective agreement, she continued, "my name is--" she cut herself off abruptly.

"Something wrong?"

"No, no, I just... can't remember my name... I--" the poor girl was then interrupted by me-man.

"Well, I can. That means I begin! My name is... uh..." he stuttered to a stop not dissimilar to sweet-girl.

One by one, we tried and failed to introduce ourselves to the rest of the group. The lack of names prompted each of us to try and think about who they were, but still nothing came up.

All information relating to our identities seemed to have just disappeared, if it was ever there in the first place.

Eventually, after tension had risen to its peak, the woman who had not yet spoken suddenly burst out, "To hell with our names! We still need something to call each other. Come on, let's make some up. I'm sick of this..." she began harshly but slowly became quieter, seemingly contemplating something.

"Then... should we use descriptors? Like you, Arrogant." library-boy directed his question to me-man innocently.

"Arrogant? What does that mean?"

"It means you think you're the best."

"I knew that; I was just testing you! Arrogant... sounds perfect. Except, I am the best."

...you can't fault him for honesty, at the very least.

In such a fashion, we chose names for each other. Me-man became Arrogant, library-boy became Quiet, dumb-boy became White, snake-woman became Gold, sweet-girl became Polite, angry-woman became Force and I was renamed Gentle. I'm not quite sure where my name came from, but Polite insisted on it. On the other hand, Gold wanted me to be called Saviour or Sweetheart. I had a choice between those three names and my decision should have been obvious.

Gold is a strange woman who doesn't like snakes - why would I choose her suggestions?