Well, i'm bored. Here is a story to alleviate my boredom.

I felt like a piece of meat that had been left out to dry for too long.

The sun sent bees made of molten fire directly onto the few parts of my body that were exposed to the elements. My back felt like it was being cooked on the hottest part of a furnace, leaving only the clothes I had pressed against my back as the barest protection against the heat releasing itself from the sand like dirt below me. I attempted to lick my lips to alleviate the dryness I felt, but this amounted to a waste of energy and a small amount of discomfort as no saliva came to aid me. Breathing was a chore as my throat desired some form of liquid to remove the prickly, painful feeling that resided there.

I raised the top half of my body, shaking out the flakes of dried top soil from my chocolate colored hair, and looked around. I blinked unintentionally when a speck of dust found its way into one of my water deprived eyes, causing a brief moment of pain.

I saw an arid wasteland, filled with craters, stretch on until it kissed the horizon. My gaze continued upward until it came upon the sun, blazing high in the sky with an intensity rivaling a thousand times the fires of hell. It continued even further, observing the azure cloudless sky above, before finally stopping in place opposite to where I originally took my first glance at the landscape.

I stood up, neck still craned in the position I had left it in. Debris that had clung to my clothing scattered to the harsh, blazing winds. I turned my head forward to steal a glance down at my clothing due to a mild sense of curiosity that stemmed from the dusty blue jeans I was currently wearing. Along with the messily tucked in t-shirt that was protecting my torso from the sun's rays and the plain, brown shoes on my feet, I had nothing else on me or around me that seemed to belong to my person. I noticed that, along with the particles of the earth detaching themselves from my jeans, a different color of dust was floating away with it, its source being my pocket.

I placed a rough hand in front of the steam, catching the powdery substances. Crimson and gold dust... I ran my thumb over the tiny bits now resting in my palm. The gold dust felt like finely ground sugar or fine sand, while the crimson dust felt like I was holding tiny crystals of all different shapes, although no light seemed to pass through the rocks.

Ignoring the dust for the moment, I decided now would be a good time to try and look for a place to take shelter, preferably with some form of water. I turned my head, hoping that perhaps I had missed something in my earlier analysis of the veritable desert surrounding me.

I turned a bit on the spot, the heel of my show digging into the top layer of sand ever so slightly. Squinting my eyes in the new position I was in, I could barely make out what appeared to be a cliff face in the distance. Setting that as my current goal, I placed one foot in front of the other and started the long trek there.

With my point of destination set and all points of interest around me figured out, I delved into my mind to answer some questions plaguing it. Where was I? How did I get here? How did I wind up in this condition?

Then, I realized there was an even more important question that I should have been able to answer, but I could not, no matter how hard I tried. What was my name?

No name….. none. There was simply a curiously empty space where a name should have been, as if a name was once there, but had gotten up and walked away. I tried to recall some other things, to see if I could remember them.

Large buildings…

Vast, open fields…

Jungles…

Deserts…

The big blue sky…

Alone…

Yes. Alone. I remembered being alone for a long time…. The isolation. Nothing except me and the dark. And the monsters. Oh, the monsters. So many of them, always at night. Always trying to kill me.

I pulled myself out of my memories, seeing as I had confirmed my earlier fear. There were gaps in my memory. These monsters… Occasionally, I could recall being snuck up upon or finding myself against a wall where there appeared to be no other option but death, but then the memory faded and I could not remember what happened after that.

A burning sensation that I did not know I had been ignoring slowly became known as walked along. I placed a hand on the back of my neck, cooling it slightly while also giving my hand a pleasant warm sensation. I walked the next few minutes like this, in silence, with the only sounds being the sand being crushed under the soles of my shoes, the wind whistling by my ear, and the gentle rubbing of my clothing on my skin. I simply walked, not bothering to think as the thought of finding water became the only thing at the center of my mind.

The sun moved slowly across the sky, and my shadow grew longer and longer, rippling and contorting as I passed over dunes and craters. Finally, I reached the cliff, which was in fact much larger up close than I had anticipated it to be. I looked around for a possible route over it, but there appeared to be none in the viewable vicinity, so I took one hand and placed it on the cliff face, and started to climb. I had climbed mountains in the past, from what I could remember, but seeing as I was extremely dehydrated and I was in the middle of a desert, it became a much harder task.

Slowly, but surely, I made my way up, grabbing the handholds and making sure to be careful what part of the cliff I placed my weight on, in fear that I may fall to my death. Eventually, my tired and weary body made it to the top, with my lungs burning so much that I swore someone had decided that shoving a torch into my esophagus was a good idea. My arms and legs hurt from the strain of pulling my body all the way up here while also feeling like jelly on a piece of warm bread. I took a rest at the top, collapsing on the ground. The sun was setting over the horizon, but had not yet touched the land, instead taunting it with its now orange glow. I could make out the large round moon raising itself high into the darkening sky, ready to bathe the land in its soft white light.

I regained a bit of strength and got up. The longer I stayed on the floor resting, the closer I would get to dying due to both lack of water and the oncoming cold front that came with the desert night. I shuffled my way over to the edge, careful of the ground beneath me as I felt it would give way beneath me at any second. I peered over the edge.

I let out a breath I had been holding. Water. A whole lot of it. It Looked like I had managed to find some sort of wetland oasis, most likely due to how the cliffs I was currently on top of were formed. The most likely created a basin to collect water over a long period of time, and sheltered it from the desert winds. Whatever the reason was, I was glad my intuition had not let me down.

My eyes flickered over the decline down to the bottom, looking for a relatively safe route down. There were no simple ways to get down. It was purely a vertical drop, with a smaller plateau jutting out from the side of the cliff before finally giving way to the valley. I looked around a bit more before I found a part of the edge that was directly above a deep part of the water below, without the plateau getting in the way. Seeing as I was thinking with thirst on my mind, I made my way over, got a bit of distance from the edge, ran forward, and jumped off into the water below.

I landed suddenly. H₂O rushed into every orifice in my face, and I quickly found water trying to make its way into my lungs. I quickly swam to the surface and took a breath of warm air, before quickly ducking my head back down and taking a quick gulp of water.

I knew the water was not good to drink, but that did not stop me from taking a few quick gulps to quench my thirst. I swam to the edge of the pond I found myself in and examined the area for a place to sleep for the night, some kindling for a fire, and perhaps some food, although I would have to say the last one was not necessary at the moment.

Seeing no openings in the rock face to use as shelter, I decided it was best to try and make one. Getting out of the water, shivering slightly as the wind blew against my now wet shirt, I journeyed over to the nearby rock face. It was extremely brittle, having cracks and pieces of rock simply falling off from it. I knocked on it with a fist, checking to make sure that my conjecture was correct. Then, I decided I was going to do it.

I spaced my feet apart, trying to get into a position that felt comfortable. Once that was done, I took a deep breath, and preformed an action that I had done many times in the past. I punched the rock with all my might.

The rock face cracked slightly. I smirked. Then, just as quickly as I had hit the rock, I pulled the same fist back, and hit it again. It cracked again. Ignoring the pain, I continued doing this for what I assumed to be four minutes straight, before the rock face imploded into a pile of rumble at my feet, which I cleared out, and walked in the now small space I had created.

I remember doing this. I remember doing this a lot. It was the first thing I did, I recalled, when I had awoken in that strange world without memory. I found that the similarities between then and now were startlingly similar. Except now I was simply missing most of my memories, and not all. The first night alone in the world…. I had just wandered around, unsure of what to do, where to go, and who I was. The last one came to me eventually, how I do not recall, but the other two plagued me for quite a time. On that first night, I saw those monsters. What they were or where they came from were lost to me, but I knew if I got near them, I would be killed. I was so desperate to get away… I just started to just punch the ground. The ground cleared, somehow, and I was safe in my little hole in the vast, wide open world.

As I started to ponder upon the memory some more, I realized I had encountered the same dilemma as earlier; I could not remember what happened next. Nor do I remember where the dirt I had punched into oblivion in my desperation went.

Ignoring the subject, I decided to try and make the hole wider, because at the moment it was only as large as a storage cupboard. My bloody fists smashed into the rock, slowly weakening its breaking points before it eventually crumbled. I swept it into a mound of ruble using my hand, trying to create a kind of dirt blockade at the entrance of my tiny cave.

The sun, now dipping below the horizontal line separating earth and sky, warned me of the incoming darkness. A small shiver induced by fear zipped its way down my body. Although my shelter was mostly complete, I still had no source of light to keep away the monsters that plagued the land at night. Also, I had no food on my person, although I did see a few fish swimming around in the pond outside along with several other strange creatures I had never seen. Or maybe I had seen them, but my memory of them had vanished.

Deciding it was safer to simply lay low in my dirt rock combination bunker, I rested my head against the edge of the barricade and shut my eyes.

I did not give myself the luxury of sleep. No, sleep was not as important as survival. I learned that when I first tried falling asleep without a house with a bed to keep one warm. I simply rested my eyes, keeping my ears ready for any sound that may alert me to nearby enemies.

The last bits of sunlight that had been filtering in through my eyelids had finally disappeared, and I raised my guard for the night. Usually, I kept myself busy during times like these…. Digging tunnels, building structures, cooking food…. Something to keep me occupied as to keep stray thoughts from entering my head to distract me. Tonight though…. Tonight I had none of those. Just me and my thoughts in the dark.

For ten minutes or so, I disallowed myself from dwelling on things, as I knew I would get distracted and that could mean the end of me. But, without much to do but just sit and wait for the sun to come up, I allowed myself the opportunity. I was a creative person by nature, and I liked to come up with creations and inventions of all sorts. But the more I created…. The more the world around me slowed down. I remember continuing to build on the first time I realized the phenomenon. I thought I was the one slowing down, but no… it was the entire world slowing down around me. It continued to slow down until eventually…. Something horrible happened. Again, exactly what the horrible thing was escaped me, but I knew that I did not want it to happen again.

But, if I simply thought about those ideas, they could do no harm. None at all…

So I sat there, alone with my thoughts.

After what I assumed to be an hour passed by and no unnatural sounds funneled in from outside the cave, I took a quick peak through my window to the outside world.

Nothing. No monsters, no moving creatures, just a gentle wind blowing the reeds back and forth. What was going on….?

Carefully, I took a step outside my hovel, and looked around. Nothing.

I took a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief, but I refused to let my guard down. I inched forward, keeping a wary eye on my surroundings. The light of the sun had finally died out, so it was dark, but the moon was full, providing me with enough light so I could make out what was close to me.

Shuffling quietly past the reeds, I made my way around the pond to the other end, where I had spotted a small bush-like tree with some broken off branches beneath it. At the pace I was proceeding, the journey all the way around would take fifteen to thirty minutes, although it was hard to tell without a proper way to measure time.

Several times, I stopped in my tracks when I thought I had heard the sound of movement, but I continued to move forward, attributing the sound to my imagination. Eventually, I reached the tree, and started to slowly pick up the sticks. They were scattered around, probably from downdrafts of wind into the valley and storms.

Then I heard a noise I most definitely did not make up. It sounded like crunching mixed with crackling, which I would have attributed to me picking up the pieces of wood from the ground, but it happened while I had not been picking any up, and it sounded too faint to be close to me.

I looked around the tree for the source of the noise. There was no obvious source, so I broadened my search area. A small stretch from this tree was another tree of smaller stature which had been hidden from my sight earlier due to being directly behind it from that point of view. I hadn't seen it now because I was too busy trying to focus on this tree and it was dark.

I slowly put down my sticks in a nice, neat pile while taking one large one with me, just in case, and made my way over to what I assumed to be at the source of the noise.

I scanned the ground, but to no avail. I turned around, believing it was another sound I had made up, until I heard a crack. I looked up in the tree branches above me to see a bulky shape resting on the thin branches. The shape moved slightly, and there was another crack. It moved again, and finally, the branches supporting the unidentified object gave out, and gravity took over.

I became crushed underneath several branches and the large, heavy shape on top of them. I squirmed slightly, trying to find a way to roll out of the quagmire I had found myself in, and somehow got out. I got up, grabbed the stick that had flown out of my hand when the massive load dropped down on me, and aimed it at the mass.

I drew in closer, poking the fallen object. It wriggled slightly, and I drew back, hiding behind a particularly tall patch of grass. From my new vantage point, I tried to observe the unidentified fallen object for any further developments, but the only results I received was that it grew and shrank ever so slightly as time passed.

I put two and two together and concluded that some sort of sleeping animal had fallen on top of me.

Closing the gap, I decided the stick would provide sufficient protection from any sort of dangerous animal, or at least provide a distraction while I ran away.

I pushed away some sticks covering the animal in question and found that it was wearing some sort of cloak. I relaxed my arms.

Human, huh?

I do not think I had ever met another human. Not from what I recall. I remember, at one point meeting up with what I thought were others, but then they would fade away, and out of existence... I played it off as my mind trying to compensate for the loneliness through hallucinations. I remember being happy, though. Even false company was still company...

I flipped the person on the branches on his or her back so I could get a better look at him or her. One loud crunching noise later, I could now make out a rugged face with age lines and dark blue, flat, pointy hair. Judging by his facial features, I put his age close to thirty, perhaps a bit later. His skin tone was a shade darker than mine, or at least i thought it was, since it was dark out. He was taller than I, by about four inches or so. Last I checked, I was around five foot eight, so that made put him at a solid six feet. He was ruggedly built, and had a wide variety of tattoos on him. Examining him a bit closer, I found a large bruise centered on the chest region.

I observed him a bit longer to see if he would wake, but he did not. He did however, twitch and shiver, pointing out that he was in pain, possibly from a broken or cracked rib, and was freezing in the night cold.

I sighed. I could leave him. In the short term, he would most likely be a boon, taking up resources that I have deemed scarce. He would also be taking my time just nursing him back to health. In the long run, if he decided to stick with me, the resource issue would pop up again. I would also have to somehow protect him as well as myself in some manner, instead of just myself.

I was a survivalist. Leaving him would be the best option if I wanted a higher chance to live.

However...

I sighed. I lifted him up from his midsection and hoisted him over a shoulder. I was a human first and foremost, and being human meant looking out for those in need. This stranger was most definitely in need.

Using my other hand, I gathered some of the sticks around the tree and picked up my earlier stack from the other tree before making my way back to base.

This time, I did not bother being careful. My outline in the dark was now much too bulky to properly hide, and I felt safe enough with the thought that nothing was coming tonight to murder me.

Once I reached my base of operations, I set down the body in the corner and began work on finding some ores and and stone to create something to start a fire. Punching the walls' breaking points took a fair but of time, but eventually I found what I had been looking for. There was a bit of flint buried in the wall near the opening of the cave, and a bit further in, I found some raw iron ore. I small smile crept crept up to my face.

Taking some raw iron ore, I smashed it against the flint, and was pleased to see a mess of sparks fly off it. I went back outside and procured a bundle of dried out weeds growing out of the side of the cliff, and placed it on top of my piles of branches that I had set aside for a fireplace. Then I let some sparks fly, and made myself a burgeoning fire.

I dragged the body over to the flames and took a closer look at exactly who I was dragging. Aside from the observations made earlier, there was nothing new to note that I could see immediately. He had some gold jewelry on him in the form of rings, but other than that, he has no obvious forms of material wealth. On his wrist, however, there was a peculiar gold band with a gold skull dangling from it on a chain. His cloak, which was battered slightly, and had a high collar, possibly to protect his neck from the sun, was a bright red color. However, there was nothing else on it to indicate who this man was. The tattoos I had spotted earlier were of tribal design, now that I could see them up close.

My first impression was that he was a thief, or part of a band of thieves. It would make a bit of sense, with the amount of gold on him. Perhaps the gold band with the skull was the status of the leader then...

I cleared my mind of those guesses. I did not make assumptions. Assumptions would get me killed. I decided to ask him when he awoke. In the meantime, I decided to go ahead and find some more materials in the walls...

And for that, I would need a pickaxe.

Guess I still had more work to do.

This would be something i would like to continue, but i'm not totally sure i will.