_____It was a few days after those strangers had left through their portal. Establishing peaceful relations with his country and hopefully his world. But the man, a trained a soldier and magic user, couldn’t help but feel... apprehensive of the future. He had no idea what it was that would make him so nervous and he desperately hoped it was just some fleeting feeling.
Those strangers had warned his empire about the dangers that the portals were starting to become and that they should only open a portal that was safely monitored by a specialized magic user. There had been reports of portals opening up randomly even before those six strangers had arrived. He couldn’t remember their names. Maybe he was starting to get too old now, even if he did have an elongated lifespan due to magic. He may have looked thirty years old but he was actually three times that old. The years of combat and missions might be starting to affect him and his mental health... maybe.
You’re already unstable aren’t you? Said the voice that his other personality. He chose to ignore the voice that was named Arldon. But another part of him knew that Arldon was right in some way. Arldon would take control if a situation became too violent. Thankfully, he had managed to keep Arldon hidden from everyone else.
“Korpwin.” A familiar voice said.
Korpwin wasn’t his real name, it was his nickname. More like an honorary name to be exact, though he didn’t entirely know what he had done to earn it, or what it actually stood for since he never bothered to ask. He just liked the name. Korpwin looked at the person to whom the voice belonged to. A man whom he had known for many years.
“Gerard, you know I don’t like being called that name when we’re not on a mission.” Korpwin responded with a smile.
“Sorry, I just like that name; you know?” Korpwin could’ve sworn that he saw Gerard’s mouth moving at the end of his sentence, his lips forming his name. But the sound that would normally be registering into his ears was suddenly drowned out by nothingness. There was no other way to describe the lack of sound that suddenly afflicted him.
Gerard continued to talk, this time his facial expression changed to one of confusion and worry, then to alarm. Whatever he was trying to tell Korpwin was useless as he blacked out. The thoughts that raced through his mind before he did, however, were about the strangers and their warnings, specifically from that strong magic user among them known as a Lord Commander. He couldn’t remember what the warning was about, he couldn’t remember much of anything in the split second that he still had. Korpwin didn’t have time to ponder what was happening as darkness descended upon him.
_____Gerard watched his friend disappear in a portal. He wasn’t sure if he should follow and attempt to help but he had specific orders to leave the portals alone until they could learn more about them. But this was his best friend and a valued soldier to the empire that was at stake. Gerard didn’t have time to make a decision as the portal decided for him and started to shrink. Gerard scrambled towards the portal, desperate to make it to the other side and help his friend but the portal vanished almost as soon as it had appeared. Gerard was now on his knees in the dirt, his hands trying to reach for something that was not there. Gerard slammed a fist on the ground, angered at his failure. But being a soldier he still had a duty to report the incident to his superiors. Gerard got up and started running towards his camp where the rest of his unit was stationed so that hopefully someone who was more qualified than he was could understand what the hell was going on.
_____The man slowly opened his eyes, still groggy from his experience, whatever it was that he had just experienced. He tried moving his limbs only to find that there was nothing around him but empty air. He tried looking around and saw that he was slowly being lowered to the ground. As soon as he did this, however, whatever had been keeping him aloft suddenly dissipated and he started falling like he should. The man flailed his arms to try to grab onto something, anything, to prevent him from hitting the ground too hard. This was useless as he realized that he was going to hit the ground no matter what. And realizing that he had lost his helmet didn’t help matters as he hit the ground hard and was knocked unconscious for the second time within the past few minutes.
_____The mysterious man opened his eyes slowly. He was in extreme pain and he had no idea why. He felt his head, where the pain seemed to be coming from, and felt a bump on his head. He had no idea where he was. He actually couldn’t remember much of anything, not even his name. Yet, his training that had been drilled into him harder than anything else was still something he was familiar with. He wasn’t entirely sure what his training had involved, even that was a blur, it was more like an instinct. What was the purpose of his training anyway? Was he some kind of soldier? He tried to remain calm and clear his head. Yes, that’s right, he was a soldier. Some of the memories were starting to return, just so long as he didn’t get hit on the head again he would be okay for a while.
The man started to become bored, clearly patience hadn’t been a thing he was known for back at... wherever he was from. He got up and tried to take account of the tools he had at his disposal. For one, he was wearing a cloak and some heavy-looking armor, which meant that he was well-protected against weapons, he just had no idea how effective it really was. Not far from where he had fallen were his weapons. A great sword, two smaller blades, two daggers, an ax, and a shield. No ranged weapons. He obviously didn’t specialize in ranged combat. He spotted a sack which he proceeded to rummage through to find anything of use. There was some food, he didn’t know how long it would last him, a map, which was useless, considering that he was quite possibly not even on his planet anymore. At the bottom of the sack was a crystal.
The man picked it up gingerly and held it aloft to get a better look at it. It glowed and he felt some kind of power rushing through him. He hurriedly put it back into the sack, he was still weary from the memory loss and he had no idea what the crystal was supposed to actually do. For all he knew it could be some kind of weapon, rigged to explode once something... well, once happened to it. This thought didn’t serve to calm down his nerves.
The man was well-built, he wasn’t entirely sure what kind of metal that his armor was made from but if it was heavy he didn’t notice the weight too much, maybe magic was letting it be as light as it was?
The man decided that the first thing he would try to remember would be his name... it was annoying not knowing your own name especially when you would need it to meet other people to try to get you back to your home planet... if they could even understand you. Hmm, that could be a problem. He thought to himself. The man surveyed his surroundings. He noted that he was in a forest with some odd-looking trees, like someone had taken a knife to them and painstakingly carved faces into them. At least the sun was shining bright. The man gathered his belongings and shouldered and sheathed his weapons and tried to conceal all but the great sword and shield as best as he could under his cloak. Whatever kind of inhabitants lived around here he wouldn’t want to appear too threatening to them or too weak. Though, he had no idea if he was entirely ready for a fight.
The man scratched his head, feeling that something was missing. He continued scratching a particularly annoying itch on his head until his hand came away with blood and a few strands of black hair. Blood... why was he bleeding? The man thought for a minute. Then the thought hit him. His helmet! He needed that to make sure his head was safe and to stop being hit on the head and losing more bits of his memory. He espied his helmet, which was laying on the ground completely out of place, and he went to pick it up.
The man put on the helmet. And it wasn’t as comfortable as it looked. In fact, it was kind of annoying, maybe it was because of the bump and wound on his head. He decided that he would only wear it if he might get into a fight and attached it to his belt. The man was about to ponder which way he should head first in search of civilization when he heard the sound of wood creaking. He turned to look at the source of the sound and saw that the tree behind him was in a different position than it used to be a few seconds ago. The man still didn’t know his name but he somehow still knew Arldon’s name. Listen, I know we don’t get along sometimes. But believe me when our partnership is normally mutually beneficial to the both of us, and I think it would be beneficial for both of us if you got us out of here... like now. Arldon said. Wait, why can I remember your name but not my own? The man replied to his alter-ego. Hell if I know. The man took one last look at the tree and automatically decided that he did not like this forest and knew which direction he would be heading... the opposite direction of that tree.
_____He didn’t know how long he had been walking, his memories didn’t start returning any faster, and Arldon had been getting extremely bored and with the constant talking on his part didn’t help at all to return his memories. Nor did his lack of cooperation to help him figure out his own damn name, to which Arldon’s excuse was that he didn’t possess any more information on his missing memories than his counterpart did. Which may or may not be true. The man’s training didn’t seem to cover the mysteries of the mind.
It wasn’t long until he heard a voice. It was soft, shy, like a nervous mother or some other variation of what he was hearing. Though he couldn’t make out the words. He decided to get closer to the voice, sentient beings meant people, and he needed help to get home.
He didn’t want to appear out of nowhere, so he climbed the closest tree to get a good look at whoever was talking, What he saw was something extremely strange. There were animals, livestock, but what didn’t make sense was that there was a bear in the midst. The bear should be eating those creatures shouldn’t it? And he couldn’t see any sign of the person speaking. Yet the voice, now much louder, at least to him due to his sensitive hearing, spoke once more.
By now the man was in complete shock and confusion because he saw a pale, light grayish gold creature with a pink mane and wings... and it was talking.
He had never been confronted by such a situation before. What was he supposed to do? Should he try to talk with it? Should he kill it? No, probably not a good idea with that bear down there. The man realized that he couldn’t even understand a word the creature was saying, which would obviously complicate communication and understanding. The man thought desperately to think of something, anything, to help him in this new problem, and new problems seemed to be popping up faster for him than anything else right now. Okay, think. What can help me? I think I must be able to use magic because of that stone in my bag. Wait, what about those strangers from that other world? How did they communicate with us when they didn’t know our language? I swear, they must’ve used some kind of spell and taught to me. How else would I have been able to understand them? The thought came quickly to him but the memory of was not pleasant in its return to its proper place inside his head. The man uttered a few silent words to avoid startling the creature and activated the spell, a translation spell. He must’ve done something wrong as the spell was having trouble deciphering new words and the words needed to be repeated in order for him to understand. But at least that problem was partially out of the way.
He continued to weigh his options when he accidentally had one of his weapons clang against the tree, due to him fidgeting uncomfortably, making a rather loud and unwanted sound. The creature, which seemed to be some kind of small horse, horses were a rarity on his world, looked up in alarm and said something the translation spell didn’t have time to translate into his mind quite yet as his concentration was now broken completely and he lost his balance and fell out of the tree.
Thoughts raced through his head as he started to fall. First, was that he was horrible at stealth and his training probably didn’t cover such tactics. Secondly, in hindsight it would’ve probably been wise to wear his helmet as he was absolutely sure he was about to hit his head again and lose consciousness a third time in the last twenty four hours. It turns out that he was right about the second thing and he blacked out... again.
_____Fluttershy ran towards the strange creature. Completely unsure what it was but she made sure not to get too close. Fluttershy went picked up a stick with her mouth and gently poked the creature with it and with a small squeal, retreated back behind the tree and hide. Nothing happened. Her animal friends clustered around her and the strange creature. Fluttershy nearly retreated away again when the creature made a sound until she realized it was groaning. She looked closer at it and saw that it was bleeding from its head.
“Oh, my.” Fluttershy said in a worried voice. She didn’t know what this creature was, or if it was friendly since it was spying on her, but she couldn’t just leave it here without helping it first. “Come on, we can’t just leave it here. Let’s get him to my cottage. Or is it a she? Oh dear.”