The light gradually returned to my world, and I finally became aware of my body, which was lying flat on some hard surface.
As I lay there, I remembered many things.
First, I remembered that I had legs, arms, and a head. I remembered what form I was in as a human being.
Then, I remembered who I had been. I remembered the bed I used to sleep in. Was I lying in it now?
No, my bed was soft, much softer than whatever I currently felt against my spine.
I remembered the busy streets of Hoodsdale and the small, musty room I lived in. I remembered my job as a soldier. But there was something else too, and I strained to pull it out of my memory.
What was it?
I opened my eyes.
What I saw was the sky.
Dark clouds swirled overhead, and I remembered the beauty of the world. The mere sight of it was a privilege, one that outweighed all pain and all sadness.
Something else was in my field of vision, though, and it caught my eye. I lifted my head to better see what this unknown object was.
Ahh. I remember.
I looked at the people who stood before me.
What were their names…
One by one, they came back to me.
Eve, Corvus, Blake, Nikki.
I remembered how I'd come to join them and the time I'd spent living with them. I remembered how I'd enjoyed myself and, finally, I remembered how those pleasant times had come to an end.
As I gathered my thoughts, I realized something that was a great surprise to me. These people… they looked no different from before.
I wondered about this.
Eve was young. It wouldn't make sense for her to still look the same after such a long time had passed.
Setting that question aside, I sat up and took in my surroundings.
I'd been lying on a steep slope. The ground was cool, hard snow, and I recognized that I was high up on a mountain.
I clenched and unclenched my hands, gazing down at them, feeling the smooth movements of my fluid-filled joints and the contractions of my muscles.
I took a deep breath, relishing the cold air as it flooded into my lungs.
Then I heard a faint voice. Did it say my name?
Again, I raised my head.
Eve.
My own eyes looked into hers, but she turned and left.
Standing up, I followed, in pursuit of what I'd forgotten.
– – – – –
We walked, and then we stopped.
Time passed differently than I'd remembered–it hardly seemed to pass at all.
I looked around, observing our new location.
Several animals gathered around us.
What are those? I wondered.
The name for them was in the back of my mind, but I was unable to retrieve it.
Water began falling from the sky.
Rain.
It was cold, I suppose, but I didn't really feel anything.
I stood and, in gaps between clouds, I looked out on the vast land that was laid out before me, and I became engrossed in it.
The harsh, rocky terrain of the mountain descended for miles before blending into steep, green hills that stretched out as far as the eye could see.
The air was bleak and gray all around me.
This is nice, I thought. I feel calm.
Fog obscured my vision.
In the back of my mind, I heard noises, but far more interesting was the swirling mist that had replaced the grand sights from before.
It swayed and flowed, its strands interweaving and melting away as the wind dissolved them. Clouds came to life before me, and clouds died, returning back to the empty air from which they had been born.
I was thoroughly enjoying myself, but after only a few moments had passed, I noticed that a portion of my view had become blocked by the animals.
At first, I was disappointed, but then, I decided to take the opportunity to observe the creatures from this closer distance.
They were large and had dense, sharp gray fur. Their eyes were narrow, and they had long snouts.
Showing their teeth, they rushed towards me with great speed.
Wolf.
The memory of their name came back to me suddenly, and I was relieved.
My last name.
As the wolves approached me, I realized that they looked quite hostile.
I gazed curiously into their eyes.
They were within an arm's reach when I instinctively kicked out at them to protect myself.
I need to stay alive.
I need to get stronger.
Blood flowed to my limbs as the memories flowed back into my mind.
There were many of them, and they closed in, leaving me with enemies on all sides.
It was difficult to keep them away, and, although I held a gun and pulled the trigger, my shots didn't seem to do anything.
I tossed the weapon aside.
What's that?
I felt something on my leg, and turned to see a wolf that had been out of view.
I hadn't realized how close it had gotten, and a piece of flesh was missing from my upper leg.
I was bleeding, but my movements hadn't been significantly impaired.
The animals gathered tighter and tighter, and I fought hard with my hands.
They lashed out at me from all directions, but I swung back, covering every single attack.
They were a swarm of bees with no hive, blindly pursuing some predetermined objective.
And no matter how powerful my punches were or how many wolves I could take at once, I realized that there were too many.
I would be killed. Inevitably.
Killed? I wondered as blood sprayed into my eyes.
No… that's not right. I won this chance, so it'd be a waste to die.
I remembered the elements and how they'd made me stronger.
Yeah…
Blake had described the idea of a rogue's core to me, so I tore my hands into the chest of one of the beasts.
Its thick fur, skin, and even ribcage provided little resistance to my stabbing fingers.
The other wolves piled on top of me, biting deeply into my flesh, but I chose to ignore them.
My fingers found something hard, and I pulled three elements out of the wolf, along with its heart.
I stuffed everything into my mouth and chewed once or twice before swallowing.
Having received many injuries, my body was finally beginning to fail.
I needed immediate power.
In the past, the elements had left me incapacitated for a while. In fact, an element was the very thing that had broken me. But there was only one option now: absorb the elements and their authorities instantly.
It wasn't impossible. I could see one outcome and one outcome alone.
I survived that world, so I can't die.
As expected, I felt changes within my body.
My wounds, which had only been increasing in both number and severity, seemed to hinder me a little less.
But there was something else too… some other reserve had opened.
What's this?
I had no time to think and gritted my teeth as I stared face to face with my snarling counterparts.
Snatching the next wolf that came into my reach, I hurled it into the faces of two others. It felt light in my hands.
Without even looking, I grabbed fistfuls of fur and thrashed the heavy rodents.
A thousand claws slashed towards my face. A hundred mouths breathed down my neck. My arms and legs flew as I emptied my body's supplies.
The question was simple: who had more to give?
A combination of rain, sweat, and blood drenched my body. Almost every inch of me was covered in gashes, and my muscles were threatening to tear in two if I strained them any further.
My eyes were wild, and, as I crushed bones with my bare hands, it became a battle of beast vs. beast.
One by one, I brought every last animal to the ground.
A final whimper could be heard before all went silent.
Falling to my knees, I tilted my head to the sky.
Across the entire mountainside, I was the only one still capable of breathing.
The sun was finally setting, and darkness began to swallow up the mountain.
My chest heaved rapidly with tight, rattling breaths.
When I looked down at my injuries, I wondered at how I was still alive. The animals' teeth had shredded me to pieces.
My body calmed, and my breaths slowed. My adrenaline spike reversed in direction, eyelids drooping as I struggled to maintain consciousness.
Just as I was about to collapse face-first into the snow, I heard something.
Ahh… I thought. I didn't kill all of them.
Footsteps.
My body had hit its time limit. I'd decided that I would bring down every opponent, and as soon as I'd accomplished that, my limbs had lost their will to swing even a single punch.
What can I do? I wondered.
But just as I dropped my eyes to face my final enemy–
BOOOOOOOOOOM
The sky lit up and the mountain shook with rolling thunder. What stood before me was no wolf–it was a human being.