Amnesiac Knight (Discontinued)

[Chapter Two] Mirror, Mirror

This chapter's author: Noctevi

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                 It had been an hour or so according to my internal clock—though how accurate that was, I wasn’t sure. An hour since I had woken up without any memory but my own name.

                Teresa.

                In the single hour that was the entirety of my memory, I met a young girl. A young wizard.

                Alisa.

                I travelled with her, through the forest, as we discussed possibilities—of which there were countless—as to why the both of us had awoken in the forest with amnesia.

                “Obviously, this isn’t natural,” the wizard began, “so there must be someone—or something—out there that will somehow benefit from our loss of memory.”

                I nodded. That much was certain. “And the fact that you awoke with the desire to find me—does that point to some use of magic in all of this? I can think of no other way to tamper with someone’s mind so thoroughly.”

                My companion was silent for a few short moments as the both of us climbed over a large log on the forest floor. “Yes…” she murmured. “I had already been pretty sure that it was magic that did this—but I hadn’t thought of magic being the reason why I wanted to find you.”

                “Then what’s your reasoning behind it?” I asked, intrigued.

                Alisa laughed for a few seconds, and smiled. “I had rather thought we might have been friends, and that whatever stole our memories failed to erase my desire to find you… or something.”

                I turned back to the path—as dark and gloomy as it was since we had set off—and thought about that. “That is a possibility, I must agree.”

                The young girl turned to me as we walked and grinned. “I sure hope so—I’d like to think I had friends as beautiful as you.”

                Startled, I met her gaze. “Beautiful? Really?”

                Her eyes widened, and then she seemed to remember something. “Oh, right! You don’t even know what you look like!” She giggled. “Sounds rather silly.”

                I raised an eyebrow. “And you do? Know what you look like, I mean.”

                She nodded proudly. “Of course I know what I look like.”

                “Dare I ask how?”

                Alisa laughed again. “Magic, of course.”

                I sighed, turned away from her, and kept walking.

                The young wizard pouted. “Fine, fine, I was joking. Here,” she said, rummaging with one hand in one of her wizard cloak’s pockets. After a moment, she pulled out a wand, formed of an elaborate black rod covered in golden designs, as well as a spherical blue crystal attached to one end. “You can see your reflection in the crystal.” She handed the wand to me. “Oh, it’s upside-down, though. Refraction and all that fancy stuff.”

                “Refra… what?” As my mouth formed the words, Alisa shook her head sadly.

                “Nevermind. Just look at the crystal and give the wand back, please?”

                Without replying, I held the wand up to my face so that I could see my—as she said, upside-down—reflection in the crystal.

                I had, as I already knew, long and wavy pink hair. My eyes were bright and blue—whether I was beautiful or not, though, was beyond me.

                I handed the wand back to Alisa. “Thanks.” I said to her in appreciation.

                She grinned again. “No problem!” She fiddled with the wand and her pocket for a little bit, but managed to get it back safely in the cloak.

                Alisa hopped over a small pile of rocks—and then fell over as she attempted to land. Not from clumsiness, either—the ground was shaking.

                I listened carefully, tightening my grip on the blade of my sword. The cause of the quake soon became apparent as a deafening, violent roar swept through the forest, and far above into the blue sky, I could see a massive creature—orange, winged, and scaled.

                A dragon.

                Somewhere in my brain, something seemed to click. Alisa lay on the ground, nursing what seemed to be an injured knee, but I was preoccupied with my thoughts.

                I recognized this dragon. I knew it, somehow.

                And then it came to me. The creature in the sky above the forest was Agnea, mother of dragons, protector of the dragons’ sacred breeding ground, the volcano Mount Agneos.

                I didn’t know, at the time, how I knew this sacred beast—but I knew somehow, she was precious to me.

                My thoughts were broken into by the sound of armor clinking in front of Alisa and myself. I spun around, and stared straight into the face of—myself. An exact replica of me, waving her sword in my face.

                “Hey there, copycat.” The other Teresa greeted me slyly. Her gaze briefly glanced down at Alisa, who was staring back in shock. “Got a friend, copycat? Tch, you beat me to it.”

                “B-beat you to it?” I stammered. “What are you talking about? And why do you…”

                Her eyes widened. “So you didn’t get the book, huh. I was sure you had, you being the exact same as me.”

                I simply shook my head in confusion.

                She grinned, and held up her hand that wasn’t pointing a sword in my face. She held a small book, possibly a journal by the looks of it. “This, copycat. Woke up with no memory other than my name, Teresa. Had this baby in my pocket, and it seems to predict my life, apparently.” She stuck her sword into the ground and began flipping through the pages. “Let me tell you the story of the beginning of my life,” she read. “It was an adventurous life. Filled with friends, adventures, and bloodshed.” She laughed. “Then it goes on to describe how I woke up, blah blah blah, and then… let’s see…” The other me glanced through the words in the journal once more. “Met new friends, tears and bloodshed, quests for villagers, becoming a knight… stupid things like that.”

        She smiled in such a terrifyingly sick manner that I nearly took a step back unintentionally.

        “Here’s the good part.” She looked back down once more. “And also, making a team of warriors and friends to slay the dragon of evil.”

        She began to laugh, quietly but full of twisted enjoyment and malice. “The way I see it, that bad girl up in the sky is the dragon I’m looking for. So, if I follow what the book says, I’ll get to kill the oh-so-evil dragon and save all the people! And I am in the perfect mood for a dragon hunt.”

                The utter sarcasm in her voice almost made me take a swing at her with my sword. “Agnea is not evil. You are evil, you sick creation.”

                She laughed, her expression distorted with insanity. “Creation? What, are you assuming I’m a copy of you, you sad little excuse for a knight? How do you know you aren’t a copy of me?”