Waking up

There was no sound and no movement in the vicinity of the million-year-old battlefield, the scenery was the aftermath of a huge battle, on the grey dirt there was countless armor and weapons all around, everything seemed to be frozen in time. A sudden cloud of darkness interrupted the long slumber of this creepy place, which came out from a sword in the middle of the battlefield. The dark clouds started to go rounds around the sword, and slowly a humanoid figure started to materialize. The process took about a candle's time to happen. A young naked boy was standing with his right hand on the sword. He opened his eyes and observed his surroundings, there was panic painted on his face, as he said out loud:

"Where the hell am I?"

"Who the hell am I?"

He noticed the sword in his hand, it was an exquisite work of art embedded with runes on its blade, there was a vial filled with a drop of red liquid built in the middle of the crossguard. He could read the runes clearly, they said 'LYNS'. He could feel a deep connection to the word Lyns, so he guessed it might be his own name.

'Why the hell I don't remember anything?'

He was filled with doubt about his situation, he did not know his own identity, or anything related to where he was. He was thinking about what exactly he knew about anything, well he seemed to recall things that were common sense, but nothing important which could help with what was happening.

The silence of the place was broken by the sound of Lyns's belly which emitted the obvious sign of starvation, and if it was not enough it was quite a cold place so Lyns felt like freezing. He decided in an instant to take a better look at the armors and the cloth pieces at hand. He quickly found some comfortable boots, pants, and sweater-like armor parts to wear. There were a lot of things to choose from, so it was easy to find a belt and a few pouches, some even had unknown coins and pocket knives in them.

Lyns, now dressed, really started to wonder how such a creepy place possibly exists and why was he even here. There was no time to think through things because the issue of hunger was really a pressing concern.

The walk out of the zone took a relatively long time and he didn't even know what direction he took. As he went out the epicenter of the gigantic battlefield, he hadn't seen a single soul, not even a plant or any kind of lifeform and despite the freezing cold there was no air movement, which seemed ridiculous, because the sun was clearly shining up in the sky. When he reached the periphery, the amount of armour and weapons were becoming scarcer, and the dirt under his feet was wetter and browner, which he took as a good sign, because where there is water, there is life.

Despite his all hope, even when he couldn't see the battlefield anymore, there was still nothing in sight, so Lyns just kept going and after about six candles time reached a somewhat shady road. He had no clue which direction to choose, so he just randomly went left.

The road was made from small black pebbles, it was better to walk on it than walking on the grey dirt, after a candle's time Lyns could see a guard post at the horizon. Upon getting closer he could see there were two lightly armed soldier, one of them came closer and asked loudly:

"Who are you?"

"Where are you coming from and what do you have to do in the free village of Zendia?"

"Hello, I am Lyns and I don't really know where I am." - replied Lyns honestly.

"Oh, so you are lost, well in that case I will escort you to the military station and we will figure out what to do next." - Said the soldier with some suspicion.

They walked for a quarter candle's time when they reached a small village, presumably Zendia, which by the looks of it had a maximum population of 2000. There weren't many people on the streets and everything gave off a countryside feeling. Those people he can see gave him looks of excitement and distance, it was clear visitors were rare.

The military station was situated on the main square in front of the smithy. It was a two-story building, made of wood. The captain who greeted them was a man in his forties, with a clean shaved face. After getting inside the captain introduced himself as Captain Geron.

"Captain, I am thankful for your warm welcome, but I have a few problems. I don't remember anything aside from my name, and I don't even know where I am. I am hungry and tired after all the walking." -said Lyns humbly.

"The winter is on our neck and you pop out of nowhere here in our village looking like a vagabond mercenary! Do you want me to deal with you or help you?! I can tell you that you don't seem to be poor based on your fancy sword and armor, so I think with something in your poach, you can easily get a night at the village's Inn."

"My guess is that you are some noble's third son, who after a life as a mercenary got beaten to amnesia and got dropped to the side of the road."

The half ironic words of the captain didn't make Lyns feel at ease, so he immediately said:

"I actually woke up naked at a huge battlefield, there were tons of armors and weapons, like these I wear and because it was extremely cold, I brought these on myself."

"Haha you have such a vivid fantasy young man, you look 19 at best, how could you manage to get on a battlefield of such, besides there is nothing in hundreds of kilometres here. We are in the most rural area of the whole continent so any war here without doubt would be pointless. I bet you are one of those people who got too many mushrooms in their body." – said Captain Geron, with the expression of someone who just heard the world's best joke.

"Thank you for your information, I might as well get some rest at the inn." -answered Lyns half-heartedly.

'What a helpful jerk' thought Lyns as he walked to the Inn which was also located on the main square.

The inn looked like; it had seen better times. He stepped inside and greeted the man at the counter. There were five people at the tables, three of them were together and they seemed to be traveling merchants, meanwhile the other two wore the same uniforms as the guards from before and they were chatting next to the counter.

After he confirmed, he could use his coins to rent a room for few days, Lyns ordered a full meal with some fine beverage and started to inquire about the village's history and about common information, the innkeeper couldn't help but ask why he was asking such basics so he shared the same he shared with the captain. The innkeeper named George was quite helpful and answered every one of his questions.

Lyns now knows that he was at the periphery of the vassal country Razanata, which was part of the Niver empire, the sole ruler of the continent Niver. From the price of the food, he calculated that he had quite a sum: 10 platinum coins, 30 gold coins, 60 silver coins and 20 copper coins. Based on his little chat with George he could buy the whole village and its vicinity just from 1 platinum coin. George told him that he was very lucky, because staying unconscious on the roads of Razanata was not something any sane person would do, there are Demons, Mad mages and Bandits that could endanger a normal human. He also mentioned that Lyns should be careful because having such a sword by his side with his really practical looking light armor could attract people's greed, so Lyns should really think through his skills with the sword or just hide it inside a sack or scabbard because this way it would just make him an easy target.

He thanked the kindness of George with a silver coin and before it was too late, he went out to visit the smithy to get a fitting scabbard for his sword. He had to pay 1 silver coin in advance and 1 more when the crafting was done, the blacksmith told him to come back 2 days later.

After going back to the inn, Lyns decided to contact the traveling merchants and persuaded them about joining them on their journey to the capital city of Razanata. He also asked about their knowledge on magic and demons, they laughed and told him that in big cities there was always at least one mage and that they had never seen any demons in their lives, but they existed because once in a while the kingdom would make a big deal about hunting down some.

Demons were described as the creatures of the dark, they were usually made out of grey and black mist with red eyes and sharp teeth that would decapitate a cow.

Mages were instead a lucky few, with strong spiritual connection to the energies of the world. They were envied by every commoner and noble because they could do impossible things, and could single handedly wage wars, of course the three merchant's opinion differed a lot about mages because they had only seen them but never witnessed their powers or anything magical.

The three merchants were called Bob, Tim and Gordes, they were part of a merchant union where traveling merchants would go around the villages and deliver the necessary goods via small sized wagons.

As the evening passed and night arrived, Lyns went to his room, which was quite spacious despite the size of the inn, it had a table and chair, a bed, and a cupboard next to it. Lyns was tired so after getting off the armor parts, he went to sleep.