The traveler

The Forbidden Name

Ouch, my head.

What happened?
I'm trying as hard as I can to remember what happened, but I can't seem to do so. Think about facts. Facts are good. I'm lying on a bed. A bed? Maybe I was just dreaming. Yes, that's probably just it. I was dreaming, and now I can open my eyes and see that – hang on, it's day? Have I slept that long? No, that's not possible. Ow, my head. No, a dream is definitely not possible, unless I fell out of my bed, fell on my head, and somehow managed to crawl back in. Facts. Ow, my head. Focus on the facts. What's my name again? Good lord, even that is gone.

Maybe I should try walking.
No, don't. Ow, what happened to my leg? I can't see that clearly yet, but when I look at my leg, I clearly see red. On my other leg there's red as well. Who put me here? Something must've happened and someone nursed me. No, that's an assumption. Facts. Look outside. There's a forest. So I'm in a house in the middle of a forest, with a hurting head and two wounded legs.

"Oh, you're awake!"
I don't even get the time to really think about what happened. All of a sudden, I see someone standing next to my bed. Who is he? What does he want?
"Are you doing fine?"
I try talking.
"Yes, thank you."
He keeps staring at me, then he says "Are you?"
"Yes, yes".
And it's not until he kept staring that I realized I didn't hear myself. Am I deaf? No, because I can hear him. That means I can't talk. How is that even possible? I can think, I can hear him, but I can't talk. That means it's not innate. I must've lost the ability somehow.
"Will you stop ignoring me?"
I try signing with my arms. But they also hurt a lot. With a lot of effort, I manage to make it clear.
"What are you doing?"
Or not, apparently.

Facts. What is that man wearing? A red cloak, chainmail, leather boots, and a bow on his back. Hang on, what is this? Am I in a medieval theme park or something? No, then I wouldn't be wounded this much. Any other explanations? Well, it could be possible that the Pokémon version of Doctor Who came by, first used Sleeping Powder, then used Time Travel and finally used Texas Chainsaw Massacre on me. Oh boy, my sense of bad humor hasn't gone away yet.
Ow, my head.
"Do you actually hear me?"
I nod.
"Can you talk?"
I shake my head.
"Oh..."
He clearly doesn't know what to say.
Suddenly I think about something. Yes, that's it. This can't be the middle ages, because he hasn't asked me about all the weird, modern-day stuff I have on me. Pfew. Either this is all a dream, or a joke. What day is it? Could be the first of April. But who would hurt both my legs and my arms and then knock me out just for a joke? Facts. Facts, Pierce. Oh, is that my name? Maybe. Yes, it has to be.
But hang on, what if all my futuristic stuff was gone before he found me? I don't know what happened... it could be...

"Here's some water," the man says.
Again, with a lot of effort, I manage to take it and drink it. There's a weird taste to it...
"It's poisoned!" he says.
I immediately spit it out and start to panic.
"Just kidding!" he says and starts to laugh. "I just mixed some herbs in there to make you feel better."
I can't help laughing too, despite being terribly scared.
Then he looks at me.
"So you can talk now!" he says.
I didn't even realize it.
"Yes I can," I said, just to try something out.
"Those herbs really are special then..." he says.
"I'm Pierce," I said. "Nice to meet you."
"My name is Merithorn. Nice to meet you too."
I think it's clear that I'm in the middle ages now.
"What year is it?" I ask.
"What's a year?" he replies.
Now I'm starting to panic.
"Never mind about that. What happened to me?"
"I have no idea. You were lying in the woods, half dead when I found you. I don't know what happened, maybe you were attacked by..."
He stopped right there.
"By whom?"
"I can't say their name."
"Why not?"
"Because..." Again, he stopped. "I can't tell you that either."
"Is there anything you can tell me that can help me remember anything?"
"I'm afraid not... the people I'm talking about can erase people's minds."
"You mean that everything in my life is just lost?"
He looked down and left.

So far this is what I have. I'm lying wounded in the woods. Merithorn found me and took care of me. I couldn't talk until he gave me water with some unknown herbs. The people who are responsible for it are part of The Forbidden Name. (I'm so amazing at giving names to things.) Unknown what they do, unknown what they did to me, unknown why me. Almost everything is unknown, even the reason I'm actually here, and not just working in my normal life, which seems so far away.