As the sun shone upon the swaying figure of the towering oak, a person laying below its mighty branches shook, her eyes opening to the beams of light piercing through the leaves.
As she sat up and looked around, a picturesque lakeside surrounded came into view, surrounded by expansive forest, innumerable small animals frolicking about in the sunshine. The waters of the lake shimmered under the light of the sun, and a light breeze blew past, carrying with it the earthy scent of the woods.
Getting to her feet, the girl stepped forward, gazing into the transparent waters, the world reflected upon its glass-like surface shimmering and swaying. Her figure, clad in a lengthy white robe, stared back at her, the sun reflecting behind her like a divine halo giving an aura of majesty to the image, and for a moment she remained there, lost in the reflection.
The Meeting Place was, on the whole, perhaps one of the best supernatural phenomenons that could be found in the world. You go into an area, perhaps past a knot-filled tree or into a cave, and you emerge suddenly into lush and beautiful wilderness and countryside, unspoiled and potentially unspoilable by any means. The Meeting Place allowed you to meet someone from anywhere, for it was attached to everywhere, at certain locations. It also had other curious aspects to delve upon, but let's not focus on that for now. It's frankly too peaceful to worry about all that.
Let us, instead, look upon the lake. It was so still right now, but even if water never flowed - It probably did, somehow. - it would likely never stagnate. The white robed traveller under the oak tree could be lost in its unbroken and perfect reflection...and notice the reflection of the next big oak tree over. Specifically, the one to the right, which was tall and proud and...had an unusual being asleep in its branches. It was easy enough to make out the details, but what you might make of it...well...that's up to you.
The sleeper was lying on a thick branch with its back against the trunk of the tree, and its legs was criss-crossed down at the ankles so that they provided a balanced center to keep level on the branch at all times. Said...let's assume person, for the moment...was covered in fine black hair, like an animal, even though it was clearly humanoid and adopting the position of resting one's head back on one's hands. There were certain spots where the hair - or fur, maybe - was white, which was why its face looked like it was wearing a mask, but it was clearly natural. It was wearing a shirt with a hood and pants - both black - which were designed to allow a tail to poke out and hang loose off of the branch.
What a curious thing to find in a place liek this.
Although it took a minute, the figure did eventually notice the other reflected in the waters. Their appearance was odd, but no matter how they though about it, the figure was incapable of understanding why.
Turning toward them, the figure hesitated a moment before calling out.
"Hello?"
Looking more directly, smaller details came even easier. The shirt was a sleeveless one, the feet had subtle climbing claws like the hands, the ears were definitely animal-esque, and...the slim shape of it indicated that the unknown creature was female. Further, when it was addressed by the traveller, the eyes opened and they were both slitted and violet in color. She blinked, maybe slightly confused for having been possibly called to, then looked directly down at her. The hands parted, the legs pulled in, and she rather-fluidly altered her position into a crouch upon the branch, hands upon kneecaps with a smile.
"Hello down there."
That smile had fangs poking out. She seemed to be in a decent enough mood, or at least not giving off a sort of 'smiling predator' vibe. This black-furred, white-highlighted thing seemed reminescent of an animal that... Okay, had the traveller any memory of a kind of being which is half-animal, half human-like, often known as a Beastkin or some similar title?
"Ah, well... Have you been here long?"
Despite opening the conversation, the white robed figure didn't seem to have been expecting a reply, as they seemed unsure of what to speak of to the female beastkin. At the same time, she found herself confused, for despite recalling what the beastkin were, she couldn't remember where she had learned of them.
That...seemed to catch her off-guard for a moment. She blinked and looked around, trying to find some indication of the passage of time. There was a small problem with that, though. The Meeting Place always looked decent. It was always a clear day, it was always pleasant, and it was neither too dark nor too light for anyone who came into it. This place was peaceful and calm, 24/7. So saying, the Beastkin looked back down a bit sheepishly, even though she was likely a ferret, and said...
"I'm going to be honest, here. I have no idea how much time has passed. Hours, I would assume. I do feel rested."
She stood up and gave herself a stretch. This Beastkin stranger seemed rather limber and athletic. Getting up in that tree must've taken no effort, at all. She looked back down.
"Why? Is whoever you were meeting taking long?"
Not everyone in this places is actually meeting someone, but it was certainly performed often enough.
"Well, not really..."
It felt strange to her, the current state of things. There was a sense of emptiness, like she was missing something.
"I'm just not entirely sure what I'm doing here. I thought, maybe you had seen me arrive, since I can't remember."
Oh no.
It was a thought that appeared unbidden in her head, as one might think the words 'Oh crap', when she stated that she could not remember. She had never encountered anyone afflicted with memory loss before, but she had still heard of such things. You get people who can't remember their lives, for various reasons, either by magic or by trauma. It was a most unpleasant thing, certainly distressing to either the victims or the victim's relations, should they find out.
"I'm sorry, but I didn't see you, and you're unknown to me. I'd ask you what you DO remember, but at a guess, the answer would be 'Very little', right?"
The ferret-being then slipped down to the ground - basically going from a crouch, to a drop, and to a crouch again in landing - then stood up straight, approaching her.
"I have no powers that could help you regain lost memories, but there is something I could try, to determine where you've been."
She indicated her own nose with a finger.
"Very sharp senses. Do you mind?"
Ah, yes... She was offering to smell her...
"Um, that's true... I think?"
She had noticed a lack of details in what little she could recall, but it took the beaskin's words for her to realize just how much she had actually forgotten.
It's not that much, right? I mean, my name is... my name is...
Morgan. Right, my name is Morgan, and I'm from... from...
As she paced around, the existential crisis Morgan was going through caused her to completely miss the beaskin's following words.
The girl seemed to be rather worried now. It seems that the panic of not being able to trace your own history hadn't set in,, prior to her awakening. Only now was the problem really starting to come to the forefront, as she wa now pacing in front of the ferret. The Beastkin waited for a moment, watching the girl with her hands on her hips.
Might have to take matters into my own hands, here.
So, she suddenly said "Hold still." and began to sniff around her. Wherever she's been the past few days, if it was a place known to the ferret, she would pick it up.
At around the time the ferret girl began sniffing her, Morgan's racing thought had begun to calm down.
Wait. Just, hold back and think for a moment.
Breathing deeply, she stood in place and muttered to herself, registering the girl in the corner of her mind, but not paying her excess attention.
"Alright. There was the city, and that ritual... And now I'm here. What's the link between these events? Memories in exchange for the spell, was there a side effect that involved teleportation?"
It didn't take her very long before there was a problem.
Hmmm... I'm not really getting anything...
It was strange. People had their fragrances. They just...well...did. Even after freshly washing, they had something about them. This girl smelled of human, and she smelled of the wilderness that was The Meeting Place, but everything else about her was surprisingly vague. She seemed to be talking about a ritual, her memory loss, and a teleportation spell...
"Well, it seems like general knowledge is still working if you can remember about spells and whatnot. I think you must have teleported, because I'm not picking up any distinct aromas about where you've been. Perhaps this ritual stole your identity, thus you can't even retrace your steps?"
It was...a guess, really. She didn't really have experience in rituals. It wasn't her type of magic.
"Let me just make sure. Do you remember the kinds of people there are in the world, the countries, and all the like? Oh, and tell me more about this ritual."
"Uh, this world is called Earth, and we should somewhere on Le'raana currently. As for nations..."
She listed off a few of the ones she could recollect, a few of the older kingdoms of the world being mentioned, but a great deal of them were ancient, little more than ruins and legends in the current era.
She glanced over at the ferret for confirmation.
The ferret nodded after every fact stated by the girl. Yeah, she seemed to have the world in general down well enough. The information missing did appear to be centered around her identity, so at least there was that. She could function as an individual, just not be whoever she was, at the present moment.
"That all seems to be in order, then. Well, just for your information, you're in The Meeting Place right now. I'm not sure what happens when you teleport into it, exactly. Perhaps the benevolence of the place will put you back in the general direction of the area you came from when you leave."
After all, this area operated under its own rules. Every person or thing that entered would return from whence it came when leaving, and every being who came in with a weapon, or lashed out suddenly with a spell, would find themselves open and vulnerable while the unarmed and defenseless were essentially invincible.
"Chances are, unless you teleported from my area, I can't help you when you DO leave."
"That's an odd name. I mean, this place looks massive, there's no way someone made it just for people to meet up with each other, right?"
Morgan was a little confused at the place's name, and slightly more so at what she had said after.
"And what do you mean teleported? How do you normally get here?"
She shrugged at this.
"I don't know the origins or if there was ever another purpose. People have used it that way is all."
As for teleporting and such, well...okay, this was about to get a might complicated.
"Well, you're the one who mentioned teleportation. I'd assumed you meant by accident, and not by the many entrances."
She gestured all around them.
"This is literally a magical land. It's a land that has clever little entrances to take you in here from all around the country, maybe the world. You walk into these places, and suddenly you're in. It also defends those who need it from harm. And by that, I mean the unarmed and not fighting."
For instance, Keefe did not currently have anything on her or the intent to fight. She was, therefore, universally safe from harm while in here.
"When you leave, you only go back to the place you entered, nowhere else. I'd be interested to know where it takes you, but unfortunately all the entrances are likely far away from cities. You'd have to walk for hours to find out where you are, probably."
"Going by what you've said, I should end up back at the city then..."
Thinking over the beastkin's words, Morgan started running through possible scenarios for how to leave the Meeting Place, and what might happen afterwards. The most likely possibility she could come up with was that, as the beastkin said, she would exit where she came in, back at the city. There was also the possibility that it would end as a random teleportation, or maybe piggybacking on someone else's exit, but neither of those options could be calculated, so she noted them, and put them aside.
It seemed like the girl was trying to figure out what might happen to her upon leaving. That was an issue, yes, but the sad part was that no matter how much she thought about it, the only way to actually handle it was attempting to go through with it. The ferret shrugged now.
"You may as well try walking out with me, if you've nothing better to do. By the way..."
And here lies a part which had been bugging her for a couple minutes now.
"Do you have a name? Mine is Keefe. Keefe Zarla."
The Beastkin extended a hand, waiting to see if the human shook it or balked at it because of the claws. It wouldn't surprise her, though she wasn't exactly known for her viciousness...when she was just being Keefe. When she was the Ebon Knife, well...that was different. Just that...she wasn't right now.
"Oh yeah, I'm Morgan."
As she shook Keefe's hand, she paused a moment at minor thought.
"I don't think I have a last name though, is that normal?"
The thought gave her pause as she pulled her hand back.
"Well..."
Never usually get asked a question like that...
"Most people that I know have a first and a last name, but...there are a few that don't. I don't know why. You might have one and simply don't recall."
It actually reminded her a little fo something from her own experience.
"I don't like to talk about this, but when I was little, I'd been through something that I couldn't handle, so I made myself forget everything and went feral for a while until someone helped me. I didn't even remember my name, but luckily it'd been written on a necklace I had. I still can't recall a time before that. You might've had your memory stolen by pain and trauma, instead of magic. So, before you go finding a wizard to return your memory, consider the possibility that you may have blocked it out yourself."
"Alright, I'll keep that in mind."
Though she said that, there was a doubt in the back of her mind about the missing memories. It was less that they were missing, more like they were scattered. She remembered the city, and taking part in it's defense, but from a multitude of perspectives, and despite the name she had given, she could not recall a single person referencing her as that.
No matter how she looked at it, it felt more like the recollections of a group than the thought of a single individual.
"So, how do we leave here exactly?"
How do you leave?
"Well, that's actually not so hard. This place has kind of a strange effect in the transition. I came in from a specific point, but I could walk back out in any direction to leave. This way, that way, any way."
She indicated with her finger as she said the last part.
"This wide open, perpetually peaceful wilderness has a borderline where it stops being itself, and it starts being your point of entry. You could emerge from a cave or a woods or a grassy plain... There'll always be a bunch of very lush trees around when you do. They seem to be a marker. The borderline seems to appear when the area gets just a bit misty."
The ferret would've said gray and misty, but she couldn't actually tell the difference. You see, Keefe is color-blind.
"Aright. So, shall we go?"
Morgan more than ready to leave. Keefe was good company, and chatting was fun, but the longer she stayed here, a strange feeling crept up on her. It felt, off, like she wasn't supposed to be here, like this place didn't want her here.
And of course, she wanted to know what exactly was going to happen once she left as well.
"Sure. I've had my nap. No reason not to."
So, she led her in a promising direction.
"I usually don't get any unexpected visitors around here. Sometimes, not at home, either."
It wasn't going to be a long walk to the edge. This place was big, but not so large as to take all day to get anywhere.
"Wait! " A voice ca me from some near by trees, as a figure pulled away some branches . He wore simple brown, loose fiting slacks and an open cloak of green, his hood was up. The man wore no shirt and his skin was of red brown like clay.
"Hey i dont know how i ended up here and i heard you two saying you were leaving "
The slow steps of a horse on grass sounded across the clearing, almost unnoticeable with the voice of the other newcomer.
As it rode out from the edge of the forest light fell upon a tall man, who had a surprised, if amused, expression.
His eyes had a visible spark of curiosity as he regarded his surroundings and the people around him.
Blades of grass folded under his feet as he got down from the horse.
In a throaty voice he spoke:
"Excuse me, but could someone tell me what is this place? I'm not entirely sure of how i got here, but it's too different from the steppes i was travelling through to be mundane"