She was brought of her daze by an increasingly loud clacking noise. Somehow she managed to turn her attention away her very distracting surroundings to focus on the noise. Slowly her mind became clearer. The noise came from the way her teeth were here hitting each other. Why were they doing that? This seemed like it was something she should be able to grasp, but she wasn’t. It was as though something was disconnected in her head, and this along with the way her surroundings seemed so… wrong was causing a growing sense of alarm.


    Disturbed she fully turned her thoughts towards what was the cause of the noise, her teeth. But something about that seemed wrong, because well, her teeth were only making thenoise because her jaw was moving. Why was her jaw moving by the way? Lightly patting her jaw as the rain bore down on her she frowned, it wasn’t only her jaw that was moving at it’s own behest. Her arm were moving in a way that made themvery difficult to maneuver. In fact now that she thought about ither entire body was… shivering? Yes, that sounded right. Shivering was what her body was doing and it was doing that because it was cold. Too cold. Something snapped into place.


    She needed to move, and she needed to do it now or she was going to reach the early stages of hypothermia and hypothermia was something that she had to avoid. She needed shelter from the rain, that she was certain of. There was a knowing in her now that hadn’t been there before. She knew she needed shelter from the rain and she knew what shelter was.


    Turning back to her surroundings she made her decision. A large old tree with purple leaves and fat roots with large grooves in between them that she could easily fit into. Though reaching it was going to be harder than she had thought. She had lost sensation in her hands and feet now,and as she made her first shaky attempt to stand she slipped. The ground surroundingher was slopingdownwards with her at the center,and as time went on the earth had become over saturatedwith the rain.Leaving her sitting in a particularly muddy puddle.Her second and third attempts met the same fate, with her falling over as soon as she tried supporting the majority of her weight on her legs. The conditions put together with an increasing incapability to make her body do what she wished made itnext toimpossible.


    Eventually she went for the second best alternative and began a slowcrawl towards the tree. It wasn’t very far but when she finally but her hand on the gnarled bark of a root her she was exhausted. The exercise had begun returning the blood flow to her extremities which were now experiencing a very odd prickling sensation. Shewasutterly covered in mud from having fallen down severalmoretimes as her trembling arms lost the ability to support her.From the occasional twinges of pain from her palms and kneesshe suspected that beneath her covering of mud were many smallcuts from the grassshe had grabbed onto in order to avoid sliding back into the slight hollow she had awakened in.


    So there she sat, in the groove between two fat roots and very grateful ofthe sizable branches and purple leaves above her that kept her safe from the majorityof therain. For a moment she closed her eyes and just breathed, listening to the dull roar of rain striking leaves . When she opened her eyes again she had come to a conclusion. She now had something she hadn’t had when she woke and it was helping her begin to piece together what was going on. There was an increasingawareness of the factthat she knew things, many things. With that also came the knowledge that there was supposed to be memories connected to that knowledge. She had memories now but they began from the moment she woke,and she was supposed to have had ones from before because-


    he opened her eyes and stared down at her hands. She was supposed to have memories from before, because she was an adult human, and her knowledge told her thatgrownhumans didn′t just come into existence, something existed before that. There was also the way her knowledge was telling her that in order to know things you had to learn them and you were supposed to be able to recall doing so. But whenever she tried to remember things the way she remembered crawling through the mud there was a disconnect. Nothing happened and thiswas beginningto alarm her as she tried and failed again and again.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    She didn’t notice how her breathing grew more and more shallow and her pulse began to elevate, but she did notice the growing cold sensation in her chest and the way her scalp began prickling in a very similar way as her hands and feet had. Scared by the growing sense of dangerand the way her body was reacting she turned to her scattered knowledge, hoping for direction on what to domake it go away just likewiththe cold. Something was different this time though as her mind wasgrowingsluggish and she kept getting distracted by the way she seemed to be unable to get enough air. Eventually her mindsupplied her with the required actions for this situation. As she placed two fingertips against her jugular and covered an ear with the otherhandshe thought of how utterly ridiculous this was. She began counting the beats of her heart and focused on breathing slowly.What purpose did fear without reason serve?


    She didn’t know what she had lost with her memories but she knew there wasn’t anything she could do about it right now was there? So why was she so worked up aboutit? And honestly, she thought as she watched the purple forest before her, she had far worsethings to fear.


    Eventually the panic that had gripped her subsided andshe began tofeel very tired andshe laid herself down on her side. She just needed to close her eyes for a few seconds, and that was fine wasn’t it?


    Eventually darkness began to fall and with it came a chill. Unbeknownst to her the old tree shewasslumbering beneathwas about to experienceone ofthe coldest nightsit ever would. Had she been awake she would have undoubtedly had another panic attack as the temperature began reaching unbearable levels, but she wasn’t awake. The rain had stopped long ago but the mud covering her was still wet and grew colder along with everything else, her breath turned a milky white and still she didn’t wake. She would have been frozen solid at dawn, and that would have been the end of her story.


    But it wasn’t, because just as her story was about to end someone, or rather something passed throughthe verymeadowthat was supposed to be her end.


    He was tall, far taller than most humans could ever hope to be. He halted his journey and scented the air, searchingforwhatever had caught disturbed his forest. As he turned his gaze towards the old tree a grin split his face, displaying sharp teeth that more closely resembled fangs than anything else. Walking towards her the moonlight caught on golden symbols that seemed to cover his upper body. Finally he was able to truly view the younghuman that rested under one of his trees. It had been a very long time since he had last come across one of her kind. But, he thought as he watched the shaking little thing, it wasn’t going to live for much longer.


    Now he found himself with achoice, he could either let nature take it’s course, or he could, as he was ever so fond of doing, intervene. He usually favored the ever beautiful but cruel laws of nature above all...The knowledgethough,of how much chaosshe and those who followedherwould cause. He smirkedat the thought, humanity had always been the bringers of change after all. And if the first human in millennia belonged to him well, the outrage this would cause would most certainly make things more interesting. He made his decision, and the woman on the forest floor squirmed a bit as the image of a golden tree began etching itself into her back. When dawn broke the little human would have no knowledge this encounter. Nor would she be aware of how badly frostbite had ravaged her body. As the being watchedlife return to once dead flesh and colour return to the humans skinhe shook his head, humans always so careless.But wasn′t that what made them so much fun? Satisfied with his work he turned away from the oblivious human. Whistling he continued his journeythrough the forest of Yenar, the moonlight catching on the golden tree covering his back as he walked away.