Metal Poison: Restless Absolution

Chapter 5

[Two individuals stood over me. On my left, I saw a tall, blue dragon looking down at me. And on my right, I saw a crow as dark as night.]

Crow: Are you going to lie there all day, or are you going to get up?

[I grounded myself back in the moment and realized that I was lying in a pool of water. It was shallow and I could have sworn I had just floated up from the depths. I sat up and the two figures helped me stand. As I moved my body, it felt unfamiliar but also familiar, like having learned how to ride a bike but coming back to it years later. From what I could see of myself, I did look different. The black fur was the same, but for starters, I must have been half the height I once was. I noticed that I was bicoloured with white fur on my belly. Also, I was in fact naked, and this was in fact something that mattered at the present moment as opposed to with my mechanical body. I had gone back to being an organic being. In my embarrassment I covered myself up with my tail where I noticed crystalline spines were protruding, coloured like some vibrant labradorite.]

Dragon: You can check yourself out later. I'm sure you have a lot of questions and I'm here to answer them. No, you aren't dead... probably, yes this is a different world, you look like that because it is how you truly view yourself, and if you go to sleep here, you'll wake back up in your old body in the real world. Oh and finally, practically everyone here is a Blazer like you, so I wouldn't recommend talking about your real-world life with others.

Crow: Say, how many of us are there now?

Dragon: Well if we count everyone, I think he's fifty-six.

Crow: Do we count everyone? A bunch went into the forest recently.

Dragon: Hmmm good point. I guess that makes it fifty-one. Which by the way. That's another thing. Stay away from the forest.

Scorpion: What's wrong with the forest?

Dragon: To be honest, most of us don't know. It seems to separate our little paradise from the rest of the world. Whenever you get close to the edge you'll feel tempted to walk in. One thing I can say for sure is that nobody who's ever entered has ever returned.

[A feeling of foreboding hung in the air for a moment.]

Crow: You're probably going to want to come up with a name for yourself. The less people here know about your real-world counterpart the better.

Scorpion: Is that so?

Dragon: Yeah, it can be whatever you want. Celestiesque names seem to be pretty popular like Tyrestus or Amardius here. By the way, you can call me Lanius and he's Beddam.

[The dragon gestures over to his crow friend.]

Beddam: So, what about you? You kind of strike me as a Pershing.

[I thought for a second. I almost thought of using my old name before all this had gone down, but for a moment I couldn't even remember what my original name was. It did eventually come back to me, but it was like recalling what I had eaten for dinner over a week ago.]

Scorpion: I think I will go by Leonidas.

[Saying it out loud felt good; it felt right. Hopefully, the name will still sound good to me later.]

Beddam: Well, Leonidas, I suggest you find something to wear. If you go to that shack over there you'll find an assortment of clothes. Literally, just take whatever you want, it doesn't seem to ever run out of options. Kind of strange when you think of it. But, you'll find a lot of strangeness here for sure.

[Beddam points to a quaint shack further out. Taking in my surroundings it seems like the "little paradise" Lanius was describing was some kind of beachfront. The sun was so bright here it was almost difficult to look in its direction as it slowly set under the horizon. In the distance, I could see a small village made of elegant wooden buildings that had an orderly but comforting energy to them; seemingly built in an Asahanoian style. It certainly beat the brutal architecture of Vandeton. I skittered off to the clothing shack and entered. It was a lot bigger on the inside than how it appeared on the outside. There was only a single light by the entrance hanging from the ceiling, and the entire shack was filled with piles of random clothing. It was pretty warm here, so I thought to maybe find something a little more open, but there was a feeling that I might want even just a little protection in the future. I thought back to Beddam and Lanius and how they looked. I realized that they were dressed up as what one might imagine pirates would dress up as. Perhaps that was a theme that I should also go for. As I sifted through the piles of clothes, I took out ones that I might potentially like and left them by a full-body mirror near the entrance. I spent a while choosing a suitable outfit, and the process was actually pretty fun. It felt like I was on some kind of vacation doing an activity. But, every time I made that thought, it was quickly followed by the fact that I was somewhere buried in the snow in the real world being hunted down by the country I once served, having to pursue a traitorous psycho which noticeably ruined the mood. I wasn't going to be able to stay here forever, but I needed to learn more about this place.]