Chapter 1 - Who am I?

I felt frigid and senseless. My head was throbbing with unbearable pain, but the cold numbed a bit of it. I couldn't move my limbs. I just stayed there, unmoving, trying to concentrate on only inhaling and exhaling. Trying to stay conscious.

After some time, I decided to try and sit upright. With my eyes shut, I started to move upwards, ignoring the protests of my body. As I moved, I felt something delicate and cold move beneath my body. It felt like snow. I sat there for a few more seconds, trying to get rid of the dizziness that clouded my brain.

Slowly and cautiously I opened my eyes.

My eyes were fulfilled with an extraordinary landscape. Far away snowcapped mountains went aimlessly high and wide. Behind me a forest lied, stretching as far as the eye could see coating smaller mountains with a dark, green blanket. Further down below me was a small village with lights faintly twinkling in the dark. The sky was beautifully plastered with stars, with no moon in presence.

As I was admiring the view, my head was swivelling with questions. Where am l? Why am I here? Why was I laying in the snow? As I was trying to find explanations to my questions, a slow realization came to mind... I don't remember anything... Who am I?! Where do I come from?! Why can't I recall anything?! What is my name?!

My brain was a hurricane of thoughts and questions, the cold not numbing the ongoing headache anymore. I tried to calm down. I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth. I did that for a few minutes, trying to sort out my emotions.

Once I calmed down, I decided to study the surrounding areas. By doing this, I might find something that can tell me about myself. I stood up. Once I was stable, I started to walk around in the deep snow. There was not much around me. I found a black coat, which I quickly shrugged on before I got frostbite.

I walked a bit further up behind me towards the forest edge. There I saw a small brown leather backpack. I picked it up and zipped it open, studying the contents inside. There was a green wool sweater, a bottle of cold water and a packet of some type of jelly candy. I removed my coat and put on the sweater and shrugged the coat on again, hoping for better warmth insulation.

I opened the water bottle, a took a few sips. It felt refreshing drinking the cool water and the headache started to ease up a bit after I ate a few of the jelly candies. I put the remaining things back in the backpack and slid them on my left shoulder. What was I supposed to do now?

I thought the best option would be to go down to the village and hope that they would be able to help me. It was quite a distance, so I needed to move fast. As I started walking towards the village I heard something shuffle on my right in the forest.

"H-hello... I-is anyone there?" My voice was shaky with fear and my legs were trembling. It was silent for a moment and then I heard loud footsteps running in my direction. Without a thought, I started backing away fast, in the opposite direction where the noise was coming from.

Trees blurred past me as I ran deeper into the forest. A foolish mistake but my instincts told me to move away. I could still hear the thunderous footsteps that were following, encouraging me to run even faster. It was difficult because of the deep snowfall. All of a sudden a voice said out of breath," Stop! I'm not going to hurt you!"

It caught me off guard and I tripped, losing my balance. I fell face-first into a tree stump. My vision was black with stars and I whined in pain. My eyes were closed to their own accord and I was slowly drifting back into the dark waters of unconsciousness. Just before the darkness consumed me I heard the same voice that caught me off guard. " Don't worry. I am here for you..."