Awakening

With a start and sudden move he sat up sharply, looking around as his brows furrowed, the first thing that came to his mind was... Who was he? It was strange to remember how to breathe, how to understand his emotions and his senses.

Only for his first thought to be of who he is, what he is? Why does he feel something moving inside him, it's only a trickle but he can feel it, through his veins, through his blood, through his muscles, and everything else, only seeming to bounce against his skin as if blocked from going outside, but a strange warmth slowly entering him.

The sun? He looked up finding the canopy of leaves above him, he couldn't see the sun, this warmth is everywhere across his body, but it feels... Different than if it was just hot temperature-wise, he placed it to the back of his mind.

He then went to the rest of him, looking to his hands, his fingers, to his arms and body.

The man was well built, having a bulkier swimming physique. A simple black shirt and a black pair of pants are all he wore, no shoes and nothing else, a check to his undergarments showed that there was a much firmer fitting cloth beneath his shirt, it felt snug and comfortable.

To his pants? Nothing beneath, he understood his body more than he knew about his own life?

He put the thought away as he began to look around, he needed to be aware of his surroundings. To his right was a knife, without thinking about it he took it, it felt right in his hands, as if he felt naked without it.

His body feels used to wielding a weapon? Another thought was pushed aside.

Surrounding him were massive trees, despite his large frame, at least what he thought was large these trees would need at least for of him attempting to hug it before they could wrap around the tree.

Securing the knife in his grip he focused on more than just his sight, the smell was wonderful to him, a pleasant woodland smell, a fresh rain?

No, the ground beneath him was dry, almost strangely so like the ground was parched.

The taste of the air was pleasant, it wasn't hard to breathe, the opposite, in fact, it felt great to breathe.

Focusing on his hearing he heard the occasional noise of bird and something very small skittering through the bush.

He was in a forest with a knife, no blood, and a very small amount of clothing. Why was he here? That's when it happened, like a knife of light piercing the veil of darkness. 'Survive, Take no shortcuts.'

Did he need to survive? It was the clearest thought he's had since his eyes opened, what did it mean to take no shortcuts?

For now, he put it off, what did he need to survive?

Another thought was as clear as the one from before. 'Food, Water, Shelter.'

Food, water, and shelter. He could do that, an instinct more than confidence.

Standing up he took a moment to feel how strong his body was, something about it felt different still, like something was new but he could sense it.

He looked at the knife in his hands, it'd be convenient if he could holster it.

With that thought the knife disappeared from his hand, he stared at his empty hand for a moment, this was the most confusing thing that's happened since he woke up.

Waking up in the middle of the forest with a fuzzy mind and an equally fuzzy set of memories? Fine, perhaps not having the memories in the first place helped.

Disappearing knife? Definitely weird.

He focused on that feeling, wishing to pull it back out, and with that, the knife reappeared in his hand, that was neat. Trying it a few times he learned only two things.

One, if he needed to draw the knife, all he had to do was imagine himself pulling it from somewhere, even if that thing was just thin air, as long as he wished to pull it out, he could.

The second is he could do the same by putting it away, which made it easy for him to manipulate the knife.

Pushing his experiments to the side he needed to find shelter first, how would he do that?

𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀

What? That wasn't his own thought, like another being thought for him, what did they mean to focus?

𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲𝘀

His senses? He did as he did before, closing his eyes and focusing. He slowly went through all of his senses, first was touch and taste, he couldn't use those. Sight? He already looked around.

Hearing, the first thing was the sound of the life around him, but when he focused more on that singular sense, he heard it.

There was running water to his left, turning to his left he opened his eyes, reigning in his senses as he began to move slowly and carefully.

Observing and placing things into mental folders, for someone whose memory is fuzzy, he had a great memory, he could perfectly recall exactly how the canopy looked above him when he first woke up.

He moved slowly until he was closer to the water, getting low and pressing himself against a tree he began to observe the water.

Why was he hiding? It felt instinctive, and when he's got nothing else, it was always better to use what you've got.

He saw nothing around the water, but he did see creatures swimming through it. Fish right?

Why does he have such strange knowledge, but not the knowledge of his name?

Going towards the water he crouched next to it, looking through it, the water was pretty clear. Was it supposed to be? He felt like running water like this would be a bit, even if only a little dirty.

Placing a hand into it it was cold, cupping his hand he brought a handful of water up and sniffed at it, it smelt like... Water? Nothing he felt was wrong, taking a sip from it without swallowing is what he did next.

At first, he was hesitant, but he swished the water back and forth before spitting it out.

It tasted fine, and nothing about him said the water was harmful, this solved one of his goals.

He wasn't thirsty right now though, but wetting his tongue felt great.

With the water off the list, only food and shelter remained. He began to observe his surroundings once more, only to notice something sitting beside him.

Looking at it straight on, it was weird how he didn't notice it before, a bunny?

It was staring at him with curiosity, and it had a... horn? Two actually, the front on along its brow was small but there, but there was a much larger one at the crown of its head.

It was staring at him as blankly as he stared at it, curiosity as the both of them watched.

Was this food? The moment that thought crossed his mind the bunny began to aggressively shake its head back and forth.

Could it understand his thoughts? Another shake of its head.

The intent behind his thoughts then? This time it shook its head up and down.

Strange, communicating with a rabbit. Which, said rabbit in question seemed to lift itself, puffing out its chest as if proud of something.

Not a normal rabbit? This was met with was a nod.

Could this rabbit help at least find food? It nodded before it looked to the water beside them, to a calmer part before it jumped, landing atop the surface of the water?

Looking down to his own feet, he placed one into the water, sure enough, he couldn't walk on water like the rabbit could, strange.

Looking back to the rabbit, only to find a bird-like creature staring down at the water, but it was still the same dark color as the rabbit from before.

It can change its appearance? There was a nod from the rabb-... Bird

It turned to look at him, then back down to the river, following a fish as it moved, before then back up to him.

Catch a fish? I don't think it's that easy.

To that the bird lurched down fast and pulled back sharply, a fish flapping madly in its beak but held firm.

He watched a moment before he looked back to the water. Was it just that easy?

He flexed his fingers a bit before he began to watch fish pass by, soon as the Bird did his hand shot forward, pushing through the water with ease before his hand closed around a fish and he gripped it firmly, pulling it sharply out of the water and into the air, staring at the flapping fish.

He looked back down to the river and noticed that despite him having just grabbed one, they were still swimming past without a care in the world.

Looking back to the fish he held the only thought through his head was simply, goal two was solved, now it was just about finding shelter.

Again the bird caught its attention as its wings flapped and it lifted off the water towards him, the fish they had before gone. The bird landed on his shoulder and became what was a snake. With that, it looked towards him, then pointed elsewhere.

Did it want him to follow? It nodded.

He sensed nothing hostile, and in his current situation, it was best he simply followed the strange morphing creature. With that he did, soon he was beside a raging waterfall, following toward the raging water before the snake tapped at his cheek, then pointed itself toward the wall of the cliff.

He pressed his hand against the wall and it went straight through.

He raised a brow but stepped forward, one hand firmly holding the fish he caught earlier that still occasionally flopped in his hand. He stepped through with ease, coming into what looked to be a small cave home, a very primitive bed to one corner, and that about it, the only other noticeable thing was a floating light near the roof in the middle. It was a gentle light and it brightened slowly as he came in.

He stopped before the wall as he examined the wall, it had writing across it. Some he could make out, others looked more like scribbles to him.

He absently gazed at the wall before he felt the snake fall, looking to it and down he noticed the rabbit suddenly sprinting towards the wall and began to grind its horn into it aggressively.

It continued to do this until it looked up to the man, its small tail furiously moving as it looked up to him as if he had done something amazing.

Looking to the wall where it wrote it simply asked 'You can read English?' He nodded as he rubbed his fingers over the words, he could understand them, actually. He knew the meaning of these words as well, pulling out his knife he began to scratch beside it.

"I can, not sure how.''

With this the bunny began to jump around, despite his inability to understand the bunny's thoughts or the intent of them, he could feel something in the air around him as if it vibrated with happiness.