Felix opened his eyes, expecting to look straight up at something familiar, though that was not the case, and he was gazing at something much more terrifying. A gray moon with an eye that cried tears of blood on a sky just as red.
He looked around, shaken, as a buzzing sound seemed to be coming from inside his mind.
He saw a barren landscape of jagged cliffs and crimson rock.
At the bottom of the cliff he was on, there was a sea of red sand and strange grotesque creatures walking across the surface.
Soon, one of the creatures took off to the skies.
'Those things have wings?'
His already heavy breathing sped up and the buzzing intensified. As he thought things couldn't get worse, he felt as though someone, or something, was watching him. He slowly turned around, reluctant to see what kind of monster was staring him down, but too curious to ignore it.
As soon as he saw it in his peripheral vision, he immediately backed away.
It was a gigantic building-sized creature with one giant eye whose head was sticking over the cliff. Staring at Felix.
Not in an intimidating way, though not in a friendly way either.
It was just… staring.
It had no emotion, so it could easily kill him with no remorse, as if he were just a bug. And apparently, in this case, he was.
The buzzing was now becoming distorted and unimaginably loud. Felix couldn't take it anymore, and he collapsed from pure shock. His hair tangled with the sand as he fell unconscious.
***
Gasp!
Felix shot up, and his eyes bolted around him. It appeared he was in a cave of some sort…
But then he noticed he was in a blanket next to a fire.
He didn't know whether to be afraid or not, but this place seemed safe, so he decided he could think about what to do next.
First of all, why was he here? Wait… Why was he here? What happened before he was here? Who is he?
A strong feeling of anxiety befell Felix.
He remembered nothing. Not his name. not his past. Not even his age. Therefore, he had no idea what to do next. But as he dug deeper into his mind, he remembered one thing.
To follow the moon's bleeding eye.
He didn't recall where he learned this from, nor did he know what exactly the moon's eye led to. All he knew was that it led to something important to him. Something so intimate and personal that it could bring his sense of self back, because right now…
He didn't have one.
Suddenly, footsteps came from outside the cave, shuffling in the sand. His eyes darted to the cave entrance as he reached for a rock at his side, only there was no rock or weapon, and he was naked and defenseless.'Wait, I'm naked!'
He had only just realized, and whoever came into the cave would see him!
As he panicked, a man around his age stepped into the cave.
"Oh, you're awake? Morning, sunshine."
The man smirked as he set his backpack down near the cave wall, not reacting to Felix's nudity. He had messy white hair and was dressed in animal skins likely fashioned from the winged creatures that dwelled at the bottom of the cliffs.
Which was likely where they were.
As Felix realized the man was not a threat, he quickly started asking questions, which was the only reasonable thing in this moment.
"Where am I? Why am I naked? What was that giant creature? Why can't I remember anything? -"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down there."
The man chuckled.
"I was asking these same questions when I first got here, and to be honest, I still am… but…"
'But? But what? Tell me!'
Felix resisted the urge to beat the information out of the man, for he was taking too long to reply. Though it was only a few seconds before he sighed and said,
"I found this red monolith up on the cliffs with a chest next to it. Inside this chest was a scroll. Obviously, I quickly tried to read it, but it was written in a language I couldn't understand. Suddenly, I heard a cry and saw a weirdo screaming at a titan who soon fell unconscious… You are the weirdo in question. But alas, I brought your sorry ass back here hoping you might be able to translate that scroll."
The man opened his backpack and tossed the scroll to Felix, so he quickly caught it before it could be ruined by the sand. What a reckless act!
He looked up at the man for confirmation, and opened the scroll.
Though Felix expected strange runes he couldn't decipher, that was not the case.
They were runes Felix could read.
Suddenly, the buzzing noise returned, only more intense.