Language
Act One: Discoveries
Chapter One
Silver Ink
It was dark. My entire world was black, and the darkness filled everything. It filled my eyes, my mind, my soul even so that I could see nothing and feel nothing. I don't think it was always like this, but I couldn't recall anything but this darkness. Though, now that I think about it, I'm almost certain that there was something before this terrible emptiness.
I might have been dreaming, or maybe I was only half awake. I don't know how long I laid there, encased in the darkness. Slowly, my sense of touch was coming back. I suddenly became very cold, like I had been lying in snow for years. My entire body ached. The ground below me felt wet, cold, and hard. I became aware of the fact that my eyes had been shut. After discovering the fact, I had the urge to open my eyes instantly, but soon became frightening of the thought of what I might see. I felt as if I had been awakened from a deep sleep. I could have been asleep for years.
As I pondered these things, it dawned on me that while I could not remember anything, I seemed to know of many things. I knew about my limbs and what they looked like and that they were the ones aching even though I could not see anything but black and couldn't recall feeling a pain like this before. I knew that I was lying on a rock, but I couldn't remember lying on a rock before. Smelling the air, I knew that it had recently rained, but I do not recall rain at all. It seemed like my mind knew everything, but I myself did not. My memories were gone, but I remembered what memories were. It was a strange discovery and a scary feeling.
Dismissing the thoughts, I came back to the predicament with my vision. I decided that I must at one point open my eyes and that nothing terrible could come from looking around that wouldn't have been worse if I kept my eyes shut.
Slowly, I opened my eyes. It was still very dark, but I could see some shapes and colors now. I looked around the dark area until my eyes fell on a portion of bright light coming from behind me. I sat up and turned around and found myself facing the exit of the cave that I was currently in. Beyond the exit were many brightly colored trees and vines. It was quite bright outside, so I had to squint when I looked at it.
I sat there looking at the forest, as it appeared to be, for a bit longer before decided that the best course of action would be to exit this damp cave and explore the outside a bit. I reasoned that I should not go very far because I may need the cave as a temporary home.
I attempted to stand up, but as soon as I did, I fell to my knees. My legs were burning and felt incredibly weak. I tried to think of why, but with a lacking memory, the only reason I could think of for the weakness would be that I hadn't used them in a while.
“Could I have been asleep for that long?” I asked myself. I gasped after I finished the statement. The sound of my own voice and the echoes around the cave surprised me. I knew how to speak and what the words I was saying meant, however I had no clue how I knew these things.
Once again ignoring my confusion, I attempted to stand again. Through sheer willpower, I stood. My knees were shaking and I felt very wobbly, but I tried my best to keep my balance. It took me a bit, but I finally got used to walking and hiked to the exit.
As soon as the sunshine hit my skin, I felt much better. I had almost forgotten how cold I was. It was reasonably hot outside, but it wasn't took terrible. I smiled.
Looking down at myself, I made another discovery. I was clothed in a warm fuzzy material that covered my arms and torso and another durable looking material was covering my legs supported by a ring of fabric. I knew what all three of these things were: a coat, pants, and belt. I took off my coat and noticed that I had on a breezy T-shirt with a tight undershirt below it. I neatly folded up the coat and set it in the cave near the mouth.
As I turned to leave, I noticed something in the corner of my eye. It appeared to be a bright green backpack. I quickly ran back into the cave and grabbed it. It wasn't too small and not too big. It seemed the perfect size for carrying around in the wilderness. It felt like something was in it, so I opened it. Inside were a few things. There was an extra pair of clothes (a t-shirt and pants), some food, a pen and journal, and most importantly a large knife.
Grinning, I grabbed the knife and looked at it. I recognized, but I didn't know where from. It had been sharpened and even polished, and it looked beautiful to me. I knew I would need to put it somewhere I could easily access. I noticed a hook and sack on my belt that looked like a perfect place to put my knife. I slid the blade into the sheath and secured it. I didn't know how I knew how to handle the knife, but I felt like I knew exactly what to do.
I took out the pen and journal and began to flip through the pages of the book. It looked like someone had been writing a lot in it. There were pages after pages of words. Almost two-thirds of the book had been filled. I quickly made another discovery: I couldn't read. I'm almost positive that I did know how to read at one point in time, but I had completely forgotten about the letters and words and what they meant. I knew that I would easily regain my memories by reading this book.
“If I want to get my memories back, then I'll need to find someone who can read this to me.” I decided. That was my goal now. I was certain that if I looked for long enough, I would find a town or some sort of civilization. However, I had no clue how long it would take me to do that, so I had to be extra careful. I had to have a back-up plan for everything. I might be here without help from other for a while. Survival would be my top priority.
After setting aside the extra clothes next to my coat, I put on the backpack and headed back outside. My legs still hurt, but they didn't feel nearly as unstable as when I first stood up. I stopped at the mouth of the cave. The cave's entrance was quite large, infact the entire cave was quite spacious. However, in the middle of the cave was a large river. The river flowed out of the cave and directly into a waterfall. I wasn't too high up, but I did still feel scared.
I easily climbed down to the bottom of the cave. I began to look around and found myself looking at the waterfall. It was incredibly beautiful. Water was gushing down the cliff and spraying mist into the air. When the sun shone upon it, it created several rainbows and turned the mist silver. It was an amazing sight. I began to wonder if the water was drink able. I couldn't remember anything about waterfall water being drinkable and since I was unsure I decided just to avoid drinking it until I was certain it wouldn't kill me.
Turning away from the waterfall, I began to hike through the forest. I knew that I was bound to find a town eventually. From what I saw at the top of the waterfall, the quickest way to the edge of the forest was this way. I saw some sort of castle off in the distance, so I knew there had to be something there. It did look very far away, so I didn't think I would be able to travel there any time soon, but there was bound to be someone around with a city that close.
I looked up at the sky. The sun seemed to be almost in the middle of the sky meaning it was somewhere around noon. I doubted I woke at 8:00 and the sun's position confirmed my suspicion.
After walking for a while, I began to wonder why I was in that cave in the first place. Why are my memories gone? Where did that backpack come from? Why was I wearing a coat? The last question was especially strange. It appeared to be summer, and while the cave was cold, I couldn't think of a reason why I would have been wearing a coat. If I had been on a camping trip and hit my head or something, I wouldn't have brought a coat. All other explanations I could think of didn't make since with the coat.
I couldn't help feel as if someone had given me the coat and backpack because they knew I was going to be stuck here for a long time.
“A long time...” I sighed. My legs were aching even more from walking. I hadn't seen many signs of civilization. I saw a few rabbits and squirrels and lots of wildlife. I was about to head back to the cave when I noticed a large dirt path. I had seen little pathways here and then made by animals, but this one was diffidently man-made. I stepped onto the path from the side and looked down it both ways. On one end, it seemed to go up a large hill and disappear into the horizon, the other end turned and disappeared into the trees. I didn't know which way would lead me to the edge of the forest. I thought about going to the hill and looking around, but the trees on the sides of the path would block my view. The end that turned seemed mysterious and dangerous. Either way could be beneficial or dangerous.
I walked to the middle of the pathway, facing the hill. I sighed and took a step towards the hill when I noticed that the ground was shaking. I stood still for a bit, then noticed that it was beginning to shake more and more. I began to hear the sound of lots hoofsteps, like a stampede and it was coming from behind me. I turned around and saw six figures dart around the curve of the road. Each were brightly colored and looked absolutely terrified.
They appeared to be horses or ponies, but looked very strange. One was a shade of lavender and had a horn an her head like a unicorn. There was another one, a white one with curled purple hair, who shared this quality. Two of them, a pastel yellow one with light pink hair and a cyan one with rainbow hair, had wings, and the rainbow-haired one was using them to fly above the others. I then noticed that the purple one also had a pair of wings. The remaining two, a orange one with a yellow ponytail and a hat and a pink one, had neither a horn or wings. They were running extremely fast towards, although they did not appear to notice me. They were all looking behind them.
Then a seventh creature appeared behind them, however it was quite different from the other six. It had the head of a lion and the tail or a scorpion with the wings of a bat. I recognized the creature as a....
“Manticore.” I muttered. As soon as I said that, the one of the six ponies, who were now almost to me, turned its head and saw me. I heard a shriek and saw her try to stop. Her scream, or at least it sounded like a her, got the attention of the others who then saw me and did as the first, each skidding to a stop. I jumped out of the way of the uncontrollable ponies and the slid past me coming to a stop behind where I stood. The monster was hot on their tails and was directly in front of me now and it held up its paw to smash me. I heard it roar and was almost paralyzed by fear. I thought to myself, “I am so dead.”
Then, seconds before its paw would have killed me, my instincts took over. I grabbed my knife and yanked it out of the sheath. As the paw came down on me, I swiped it with my knife with such speed and precision that one of its toes came right off. My eyes widened as I saw myself perform such a deed. I looked down at the knife, amazing at it seemingly superpower-like ability. The blood that coated the blade was a strange shade of brown, nothing like the red that I expected it to be.
The wounded Manticore roared in pain and grasped its wounded paw. While it was distracted, I ran up to it and pounced on it, cutting it several times in the stomach. The same brown liquid that coated my knife poured out of the wounds and the Manticore fell to the ground. It looked like it was still alive and in a great deal of pain. I walked over to its head looking at its fur and thinking of how it would make a great carpet. Maybe, I could sell it to someone. Was Manticore fur valuable? I thought. I couldn't remember. I looked at its eyes. It seemed to be wincing in the pain. It let out a weak roar. I felt bad for the creature. I actually wasn't planning to hurt it....I don't know what happened.
I sighed, nothing I could do know except for ending its misery.
I placed my knife above the creature's heart and raised the weapon. I was about to swing down the knife into his heart when a voice stopped me.
“WAIT!” It was a shrill cry, almost a plea. Surprised, I stopped and looked around for the person who screamed. My eyes feel back onto the ponies, who were know looking at me in terror. One of them, the yellow one, had tears in her eyes. “Stop, please.” she whimpered.
I thought I was going mad at first. “Did that pony just talk?!?!” I thought. I lowered my hand with the knife and turned to face the butter-colored Pegasus. I was pretty sure that horses didn't talk, but I couldn't be sure so I tried to act unsurprised.
“Its in pain, it would be worse to leave it like this.” I responded. All six of the ponies seemed surprised. The blue one in the air looked tense, like she was ready to strike at me at any second. I tightened by grip on my knife in case she decided to make a move. The yellow one looked like she was about to faint. The purple one looked as tense as the blue one with a uneasy expression on her face. The orange one opened her mouth and produced a series of strange noises that resembled neighs, but had a pattern that could only be described as a language. I had no clue what she was saying though. The orange one also appeared to be talking to the yellow one, but she kept her eyes on me. The yellow one who spoke to me responded, but I couldn't understand her. She seemed to have switched to the other ponies' language.
“How do you know my language?” I asked her firmly. She turned back to me with frightened turquoise eyes. She began to speak, but seemed too scared. I began to get very annoyed with her and desperate for an explanation. “Answer me!” I yelled and brought back out my knife in a fighting position.
This was a bad move on my part. The hostility in my voice was apparent to the five other ponies. The purple one's horn began to glow along with the white one's. The pink one, who had previously been bouncing up and down stopped and stood still. I looked over at the rainbow-haired one and saw that she was trying to dash over and strike me, but was being held my the tail by the orange one. I was easily out numbered here and the six ponies seemed to already be on edge after the Manticore thing.
The purple one began to talk to me in a harsh tone, like some sort of warning. She looked me straight in the eyes and I couldn't help but think how ridiculous everything was. Here I was with a knife facing six colorful ponies, two with glowing horns and three with wings, and acting like this was normal. Part of me was screaming at me about how bizarre the entire thing was, and another part of me was pointing out how this could be normal since I had no way of know either way.
“Look I don't want to hurt you...” I began in a nicer tone, holding up my hands and knife in a gesture of surrender, but apparently the purple one didn't like me talking because a beam of purple energy shot out from her horn and hit my hand holding the knife. It felt like someone had poured acid on my hand. I let out a small scream and dropped the knife. The purple one shouted something that sounded like she was repeating something she said earlier. I saw the yellow one trying to stop her from shooting. The pain in my hand was blinding. My vision was glinting red now, my anger shining through. I shook my hand, trying to shake away the pain and picked up the knife.
I was about to charge when I took a look around. The sky was red and the sun was setting. I had to leave now if I wanted to make it to my cave. Fighting the six of them would be suicide. I had to wait and recover. I also needed to figure out a few things before I went around fighting people, or ponies for that matter.
I put the knife back in the sheath, surprising them. Then, I jumped out of the path and into the forest. I began to run towards the cave hoping that they wouldn't follow. I became aware of my surroundings and bits of my memories came back to me and I stopped. I realized in an instant that trees didn't look like what I was looking at. I realized that Manticores were a Greek myth....they aren't real. I realized that ponies don't talk; they don't even look like that. I realized that the purple beam was magic, and magic isn't real. I realized that this....was not my world, my...earth. Now only one thing was certain:
I was the enemy.