Chapter Text
A guy with a mask held the staff he was told to ‘place this staff somewhere that needed the help of Irene.’ He hoped this was true, the Shadow Knights were leaving this village, he hoped this would genuinely do something to help and he didn't get tricked, he couldn’t do it himself, not with Shadow Knights watching his every move. He had to hope this staff would give the village help.
He found a place in the woods that wasn’t too far from the village, a small clearing. He raised his arms and stabbed the staff into the ground and waited, after a moment bright lights started coming from the staff. After a couple of minutes the bright light disappeared and there, a girl laid where the staff used to be. He was in shock.
He had no idea how some random woman could help Phoenix Drop. But he had to hope.
—
A woman woke up in the woods.
She had no memory of how she got there.
she had a thin night dress on, it was an off white color. She looked at her hands, and around her.
She seemed to be in a forest, she then noticed what seemed to be a book on the ground next to her, she grabbed it. It had a weird symbol on the front.
She was gonna open it, but she heard a twig snap and her head shot up to where the noise came from.
She could see a person standing in the woods. The person had a hood and mask covering their face, the only thing visible was their green eyes.
The person's eyes widened and they slowly backed up into the woods, the woman couldn’t let him leave, she needed help to figure out where she was.
“Excuse me!” The woman blurted out, the person turned around and booked it into the woods, the woman had no idea what to think, she needed help to find some help.
So without thinking, she grabbed the book, got up, and chased after the guy.
She ran through the woods, dodging trees, and she was surprisingly fast.
She was almost able to grab him, she stuck her arm out but she hadn’t noticed the tree root.
The person jumped over the tree root, but her foot caught it, and she was sent falling to the floor of the forest. The book was sent flying from her hand, to the ground next to her, she tried to get up but her body hurt a lot.
She looked up and the guy had stopped looking back for just a second before running again. He got further away as she stayed there, so she got up and made sure she grabbed the book. Her elbow hurt as she got up, it was scraped a bit.
She then started the chase again, ignoring her elbow, heading in his general direction. But as she ran more she found an open path, she looked at it for a moment, she also saw something in the distance, she looked between the forest and the path, that path could lead her somewhere.
So she decided she could try to find him later.
She followed the path, as she did she noticed it seemed to be the afternoon, probably, she wasn't fully sure. As she walked closer to something she saw, two men in armor?
Standing outside of a small hip high gate, that had a sign on it. She overheard the two's conversation
“The people are getting restless, sir, you know that, we still have no idea what happened to our lord, we need answers that we just aren't getting! We barely have enough food for everyone in the village that's still here! And they barely trust us guards, due to Dale, who gets drunk all the time! And the fact that we cant give them any straight answers, they know something is going on and so do we!”
The first guard had said, the guard in question had grey armor, that looked on the lighter side than heavy metal with yellow trims on the armor, if she saw correctly.
The second guard had much more armor, he had a full helmet on, but from the angle she was currently at, she couldn’t tell if it covered his face.
She decided to walk closer as the conversation went on,
“I know Zenix, but you have to understand we have almost no leads and-”
A loud snap came from a twig that was under her foot, that let her spot be known.
Both guards turn around and draw their swords, ready to attack the threat that was there.
The second guard with the full helmet lowered his sword a bit, when he saw her, while the other one kept the sword raised, seeming to not trust her.
“Hi?” She said, really nervous, she held the book close to her, she had no idea what to say, and their conversation was interesting.
“Oh, M’lady, we apologize, we thought you might've been a dangerous creature.” The guard ( with the full helmet that definitely covers his face) said, “Oh, uh it's alright.” The woman said, and smiled awkwardly, she didn’t like the fact the one guard was pointing his sword at her still.
The guard with the helmet noticed her slight hesitation and noticed the other guard and elbowed him, the other guard realized and slowly put his sword away.
“Right, m’lady if you don't mind me asking, who you are and why you might be here? I do apologize if it sounds rude, we don't get too many travelers,and there has been lots of bandits around, so we would just like to check”
The woman froze for a moment, she seemed to realize at that moment that she didn’t know who she was or why she’s here. She was literally chasing a guy to give her answers, and she lost him, just to find two guards!
She had to think of something to reverse his question so she could think of something “Uh, well, who are you two?”
The guards looked at her, then the one with the full helmet stance had changed. His stance seemed almost embarrassed, even though she couldn’t see his face. She assumed it. “Yes, my mistake, m’lady, I am sir Garrotth of phoenix drop, this is Zenix of phoenix drop, he’s my apprentice in training.”
Well now she knew who they were, which was good.
“So, m’lady, I'll ask again, who are you and what are your intentions?”
She had to smile and act completely normal, she didn’t know who she was, she thought about it and it would probably sound a bit weird if she said she was chasing someone, but she really wasn’t sure she had other options.
She knew lying wasn’t the best idea, these guys literally had swords, but they might think she's crazy if she tells them the truth, so she came up with what she thought was best and would make her sound crazy,
“Well you see, I stumbled into these parts and I have little memories. I only just stumbled across this village,I only hoped this village might give me the answers I'm looking for.”
She told the guards, and they seemed to believe it. She was thankful they weren't suspicious, they seemed to believe her, or well the one with the full helmet did, the other one had a weird look in his eye, like he didn’t trust her.
The guard was about to say something, but a loud scream came from somewhere,
“Garrotth!”
The voice yelled and out of the gate came a woman with light blonde hair
“Dale fell into the well again and dragged in someone else, I need your help to get him out.”
The woman said, sounding a bit freaked out.
The guard, Garrotth, sighed “Okay Molly, m’lady, Zenix will show you around the village, I have to go help Dale out of the well.”
Garrotth walked off with the woman who was named Molly, if she was correct, and now she was left with the guard, Zenix.
“Ugh, why’d I get stuck with you?”
The guard said as he started walking into the village, the woman quickly followed him.
As they walked she looked around the small village, it seemed to be barely holding on. The paths were definitely uneven, houses were too small even for one person.
She hadn’t noticed the guard guy had stopped until she ran into his back. She immediately stepped back “Sor-sorry!” She let out quickly, the guard glared at her slightly, but looked ahead again “Oh who is that?” a new voice asked.
The woman moved from behind him and saw a guy with black hair that wore a bright green shirt.
She awkwardly waved at the new person, the guy looked slightly down and smiled, “Hi I'm Brendon, I'm a farmer and a carpenter, mostly a carpenter, I'm really not the best at farming… but it’s nice to meet you.”
He was taller than her by a bit, she noticed.
He stuck his hand out to her, she stared at it for a moment before sticking her hand out to him, he just smiled and took her hand and shook it twice. He then let go, still smiling, she brought her hand back to her, looking at it a bit confusedly.
“Well since you two now know each other I have more important things to attend to,”
The Guard- Zenix- said, he then turned around and walked in a different direction.
The two stared at where he left, then Brendon stared at her, “Oh, I never got your name.” Brendon said, giving her a moment to say it.
“I…i don’t remember my name”
She said carefully.
Brendon looked at her confusedly for a moment, then said “That’s alright, a friend of mine told me it’s not about the name, it’s about how people see you. And what people can use your name for, that really depends on your actions as a person. Or some mushy stuff like that, I don't fully remember” Brendon said, a bit awkward but smiling nonetheless.
She was a bit shocked by this, she started smiling, she might’ve been still confused but she was willing to go with it.“Okay!” She said, still confusedly smiling
“Though we do need to call you something,my sister really likes animals, do you like cats?” She nodded “Well what if we had your name be something to do with cats, like..” Brendon started to list off cat names, and she kept shaking her head not really liking them.
A name, from what he had told her, was something important, she had to come up with something good. “Hmm, what about mittens or kitty?” She shook her head at them, she didn’t believe they fit her as a person.
“Well I'm not sure then, do you have anything you can think of?” he asked, she was in thought for a moment.
“What about…Aph-mau?” she asked him, and Brendon smiled “I like it, it fits pretty well, and it sounds like you're meowing the last part.”
Aphmau was gonna say thanks, but they heard footsteps coming towards them.
They both looked at where the footsteps were coming from, it was Garroth, if she remembered.
“Ah, brendon- oh hello m’lady, I thought you were with Zenix.”
Brendon just smiled at Garroth. “Yea, he left her with me, said he was going to do something more important,”
Aphmau nodded at this. Garroth sighed “I..will talk to him about that, anyways m’lady-” “Aphmau.” She told him. She wasn’t sure what he was thinking, due to his helmet.
“Ah, my apologies m’lady Aphmau, as I was saying, welcome to our humble village please make yourself comfortable here.”
Aphmau nodded “Thank you, Garroth” Aphmau said with a smile.
Garroth tensed for a moment before nodding and walked off, leaving her with Brendon
Brendon then looked over at her and his eyes widened. “Oh, I didn't even realize, you are still in your nightgown, we should probably take you to Donna, she’s a woman who moved here a few months ago, from a village that was basically in the water, she’s also my friend.” Aphmau smiled and nodded, and they then started walking to this ‘Donna’s’ place.