It was blackness, a blurry blackness. It looked as if my eyes were closed. I could see the light appearing at the center, blurry and indistinct. I smelled a brisk odor of grilled chicken, the outside bloom of birch, grass, and leaves. I could see the bright light along the center begin to grow, and the blackness around surrounding the white light begin to dissipate along my peripherals. I could hear a mere whisper of words—people speaking around me? It was but a muffle. I began to hear the clink of coins, crowded footsteps, and carts rolling, bumping, and moving. The first thing I began to hear was someone yelling out to the left and further away: "Fresh tea! Fresh tea for sale! Freshly brewed, farmed, and collected just outside Nabes! Only 5 Lichen!" I could hear it clearly as it was yelled, and off in the distance, the white light was only growing more and more encompassing, now fully clear and open, the blurriness washing away to me witnessing crowds of people ignoring me and going on about their day.

  I looked up. I could see a clear blue sky, and to the left, what appeared to be a long white gradient line striking along the sky, unexplained to me in the moment. What was that gradient in the sky? I stared at it for a bit; it wasn't a cloud, and whatever it was, it was certainly high up! As I stared up at it, someone suddenly bumped into me.

  My left shoulder was shoved forward and off to the side. I maintained my grip on a piece of stone wall that was only at the height of my thigh. I felt water along my right hand, realizing there had been a fountain behind me, thankfully to catch my balance from some rude person.

  "Move it, peasant!" I turned to look up. There I saw a huge, dark-skinned man wielding a huge longsword draped along his back, along with a buckler shield and a shiny helmet draped only by a string around his neck. He was huge; he had to have been around 10 feet (3 meters) tall. I became wide-eyed as I held myself up on the fountain. Looking up, my mouth was agape trying to figure out my surroundings. I could only help but look up at the man who just bumped into me. He had a huge nose! It was a giant's nose, roughly 12 inches (30 cm) in size; his nose turned and wobbled as the giant continued to lumber forward with his huge weapon.

  I didn't know whether to be terrified or enthralled; my left arm reached back to the stone wall of the fountain, forcing me to sit upon the rim. After a few blinks, my vision became clearer. I was in the middle of a town square! I could see the shops, the people, carts moving about, a circular courtyard, and a huge river rolling through the middle feeding a fountain. There were many bridges around the fountain, and I was in the middle of it.

  I looked down to witness cobblestones, red and orange, well-worn and smoothed from long periods of time of thousands of people's use. The grout was white and stained with moss in patches. I could smell the dirt and the people around me. It was a populous area. What happened? How did I get here? I held my hands out, and my skin was pale, five fingers with a thumb on each hand. Forearms that looked skinny and frail. Dirt caked my elbows and hands. It had looked as if I had been sleeping outside for weeks along my arms. Looking down, a pair of tattered boots, far too big for me, yet strangely comfortable and lived in. I could see a pair of pale green shorts with a red-orange patch haphazardly stitched over what obviously seemed like there previously was a hole behind the patch.

  I held out my shirt from the bottom to get a good look at it. It was tan colored and had holes all over it, likely from an insect or years of use. Dirt caked the garb, which was made of some sort of coarse linen. Whoever I was, pauper was my profession! My waist had a frayed rope around it to hold up my pants. Where am I? It's so bright and loud outside.

  By now, the giant had walked off, but I saw more strange creatures around me! A tall bird-like creature, a tiny man with huge fuzzy ears darting around the crowd, naught but 3 feet tall! A cart of a large snouted creature with huge furry forearms. Where am I?! I turned to look at the fountain. It was a porous grey stone along the rim. I turned around and looked at the fountain spewing water along a large base that supported a great marble statue. The water was clear and rippling from the several spouts that could be seen at the base; there had to be at minimum ten separate spouts that would spray and wash glistening droplets and mist, making a small rainbow along the side.

  There was a statue of white marble. It looked as if it was polished and cared for at least on a weekly basis. I saw many figures in grandiose royal clothing with a crown, many of which were characters with staves and pointed magical hats with carved figures of jewelry. I saw another statue of a bird-like creature with giant feathers for fingers pointing outward, holding the stone cap as if it were flowing in the wind, carved in the marble, with huge eyes looking forward. Around the bird creature's neck was a golden set of 10 feathers across their chest, displaying some form of importance, being made of different material from the marble. Whoever they were, they were those of great renown. The sound of the crowd came back; I found myself trapped in thought, having muffled the activity around me.

  "There is no way I'm going to take a raggety herb like that for 10 lichen (was said like Lee-chen); I will offer you no more than 5 for each, and I'll buy the bushel!" It was some sort of a pointy-eared man raving and holding coins, looking to a gruffy smiling woman holding several bushels of herbs behind her and hanging from an orange tarp stand. It was well tended to and made of wood, and I could even see a few guarding the herbs; they may have been of value to prevent theft.

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  There was a huge cart that rolled along being tugged by two large bird creatures as if they were horses. They weren't an ostrich; they were different from any creature I've seen before. There were two of them dragging; they had stalky yet girthy legs and pulled the large cart forward. The cart itself had metal embroidered along the spokes and wood wheels. I could see it had a makeshift series of wooden bows softening the blow of the road ahead, on or off-road. There were two commandeering it, one in armor and another in a dark blue robe holding the reins. I could see lanterns unlit in the day hanging from each corner of the cart as it roared by.

  Where am I?

  I held my head; it was somewhat piercing, a light headache as if I had been asleep for too long. I rubbed my hair, realizing it had been matted. It was colored black as I pulled my hand back, seeing one strand on my hand.

  "Just got here?" I heard a soft voice to my left. I turned as I sat on the fountain edge and saw one of those huge bird creatures; this one had blue feathers across their arms and face. They had huge eyes with large black pupils and thin green irises staring forward directly at me. The eyes blinked with a second set of unknown lids along the insides of their eyes. I couldn't tell in the moment if they were male or female, but the soft voice sounded female. She had feathers similar to the statue I saw, but only six feathers, not ten like I saw on the statue.

  "Erm, hello, did you just get here?" It was clearly the voice of a female. I could see her beak move. Her eyes were wide and looking directly at me, almost too close for comfort. I was already stressed from the noise, the giant, and the loud yells of what sounded like merchants, and now this creature was shoving a huge orange beak toward my face; she could have bitten half my face off!

  "AAAAAAAA!" I screamed at her in my panic.

  "AAAAAAAAA!" She screamed back, lifting herself, no longer leaning down to meet me at eye level. She had to have been 8 feet tall. Why was everyone so tall in this strange place? My yells were generally muffled by the large crowd around us and the noise of the fountain. She stood up straight, and I could see she had a pair of priestly white robes and a wide blue embroidered ribbon that dangled all the way down to her feet.

  "Why are you screaming, child?" She spoke calmly again, now this time standing straight and tall. I could see the sleeves of her robe were large and white. She had large golden bracelets of gold around each of her arms with huge feather-like fingers, which bent as if they were fingers over a gnarled wood staff.

  I looked to her after having calmed a bit, realizing she wasn't anywhere close to as threatening as she was tall. "What are you?"

  She looked back and sat down next to me after a moment of calm. "Ah, well, that explains it. You did just get here. Welcome to Vuuhkrai (pronounced Voo-cry), child." I looked up at her and blinked a few times, then looked back out to the large square around me in what appeared to be hundreds of foreign people's minds, minding their own business, doing business with one another, or passing on by.

  "Voo-cry?" I looked back at her; now that she was sitting, it was a lot easier to see her and her giant black eyes with thin green irises staring forward.

  "Yes, Vuuhkrai. You have been brought here to the fountain to have claim of your destiny!" She held her hands out; I could see all of her fingers were of large wing feathers, somehow capable of bending while holding the gnarled staff. I could hear the clink of her golden bangles around her wrists. She had chains and pearls along her neck and shoulder, a fancy set of white robes with golden embroidery along the sides. I could see her feet were large talons that had been cared for and manicured and cut into beautiful polished claws, and her legs were formed in a digitigrade structure (where the toes appeared on the ground, and the rest of the foot was lifted, similar to a dog or a cat). She looked down at me, while her eyes, which were huge, practically the size of my face, looked down at me as she turned her head.

  "How did I get here?" I held my hands out, seeing the dirt caked on them, as if I had been begging for the past several weeks.

  "Nobody knows really, only that it is the way of things, child. But rest assured, this is your destiny. Knowing those like you, you have no memory of your past."

  I looked back at her and thought for a moment. Nothing came. I tried to think about what it was like as a child, what I did, what my family was like, who my friends were, what job I took, and what I did, but none of it came to mind. I scoured in my thoughts; I could speak. I was able to understand this strange creature speaking to me, but as I blinked and darted my eyes back and forth trying to remember, none would come.

  "Let's start simple. What is your name and profession?" She spoke calmly, explaining with a soft, gentle movement of her feathered arm and hand.

  "Navin," I knew. Somehow it came without even thinking of it, without recall, without the memories of a long past coming to me. This, however, I knew my name. It was somewhere to start, albeit a small grounding to reality that I clung to, realizing I had not been lost in madness.

  "And what is your profession? Better yet, what are you *trying to become*?" It was such an odd question. How could I know such a destiny with no knowledge of my past? How did I know what I could be? I claimed not to understand the logic behind it, nor could I understand how, but somehow, it spoke to me; it was as clear as my name!

  "Great fighter of claymore, madam." Somehow it seemed appropriate to refer to her as a madam. She was soft-spoken, with plenty of jewelry, embroidered clean clothes, and a well-cared-for visage, despite her eagle-like face.