Setting Dawn

Imagine a bug zapper and what it sounds like. Now imagine that the sound and light are encircling you and you can’t see anything past it. Ya know what’s worse than that? Add the fact that you can’t remember anything else about yourself, other than your age. In my case? I’m nine and a half. Yep. That’s me. Enjoy the ride.

“Move along child, its time to go.” A gruff voice calls as the light finally fades away and the sounds stop buzzing. I blink and am able to see. I look around, though it is hard. The world I am in is bleak, or should I say black, because that is all I saw.

“Wait for my eyes to adjust. I can’t see yet. Who are you anyway?” I respond in a mutter.

“You don’t remember?” The voice asks with a hint of amusement. He’s not a bad actor, whoever or whatever he is, but it’s the subtle things that seem to be setting me off.

“No…” I blink again, and find myself able to see clearly now. That’s not normal. “I don’t even know who I am…” I finally get a good look at the creature talking to me. It’s a giant genie like creature with a face on its stomach, and one glaring red eye up where its head is… I think that’s its head at least. The stomach area is fat. “What are you? Who are you?” An alarm is ringing in my head and random facts are coming to mind, including don’t trust cyclops… something about mythology, but this thing is really in front of me, so… yeah…

“I am Darius… your partner…” I don’t trust him. He is too calm. I know adults don’t think nine year olds are that smart, but there’s too many red flags going up with this guy.

“Alright then… who am I?” I ask, doing my best to keep my voice even. The wind is blowing threateningly at my back, and I notice for the first time what I’m wearing. A camouflage cap and jacket with a long sleeve shirt. I’m also wearing cargo pants and camo sneakers. Either I’m a commando kid, or someone thought this was what kids wear on a regular basis.

“You never told me your name.” He shrugs as though it was obvious. I frown. That’s the biggest load of crud I’ve heard ever, and I don’t even have memories to confirm it. I’m certain if there was a creature or person I called my partner, then I’d tell them who I was.

A soft “Heh!” comes from a nearby bush. Darius seems to have missed it, but I heard it. I saw a flash of light come from the bush and run right towards it. Back to being blind I guess.

“RAWRRRGH!” Darius yells. “I can’t see! Come boy, we must hurry out of here!” He just confirmed he had no idea who I am… after all… I’m a girl.

I stumble into the bush and a scaly hand grabs my arm, holding me from falling. “You just made an interesting choice. Don’t regret it.” Says a new voice, somewhat younger and definitely more like a rebellious teen. With all that’s going on, my own hand grabs where he has my arm. The sounds are too much. This new person must have noticed. He ushers me down a secret tunnel, down into some stairs. As we walk, my vision starts to clear up until we’re in a large underground room with a view of the sea. “You okay, kid?”

“Yeah, too many sounds is all… my memories are gone…”

“You keep telling people that and they’ll keep trying to take advantage of you, kid.”

“Are you going to lie and say you know me as well?” I growl as I look over the new creature. He’s taller than me, sure, but not as big as Darius. He’s also more lizard like. He’s a flat out walking-talking-lizard. He’s green scaled with two tale leaves, yes leaves, that look like knives, and the three on each arm look like swords or something. He also has a large leaf on his head that trails down like a person’s long ponytail, or like a whip. This guy is meant for battle, and yet he’s being gentle with me. He releases me. His feet are like bird claws. His hands are also claws… he’s meant for climbing and fighting… “Who are you?”

“I’m known as Grovel on account of people simply grovel at my feet if they piss me off.” I can’t help but laugh. “What’s so funny?”

“That sounds so stupid!” I point out. He gives me a smirk.

“At least I’m not saying a lie about knowing who you are.”

“Whatever, Grov…” I go and look out the cracks to the ocean. The wind is gone now, and… everything is in shades of grey and black… “Did I go color blind?”

“No… sadly, no… Our world is sorta stuck… frozen in time if you will, so not only do we have no moving water or nice little breezes, save when magic is used, but also most if not all color has been stripped away.”

“That’s… that’s horrifying.” What else can I say. I think about how I say it though… I don’t sound like a horrified person. Is there something wrong with me? I’m taking everything rather calmly. It looks like the end of the world out here… or at least like I forgot my crayons and paints…

“No sunrise, and we’re sorta stuck at the twilight of the day time shattered… so at least we have some sort of light…” Grovel grumbled as he looked around with me. The view is amazing, but it’d be better in color and moving… it looks like I’m trapped in an old black and white photo of someone’s.

“So… no Dawn or Dusk? Just… this weird limbo?” Oh, so NOW I start shaking. Jeez, slow reaction panic… why are my senses screwed up?

“That’s pretty much it… come on, I’ll bring you to where some other humans are. Its not safe to stay near here if Darius is looking for you.”

“… I… I need a name…” I can’t help but mumble.

“Kid, I don’t name things. I obviously suck at it as I can’t tell you my own name.” He rolls his eyes.

I give him my best stink eye. It’s not that good. “Then I’ll name us.”

“Pfft, sure, kid, and what are you going to name us, huh?”

“Well you’re Grov. It’s better than being told to grovel all the time… what’s that mean anyway?”

“To beg for mercy.”

“…You know how stupid that sounds, right?”

“Right back at you, kid.” He snickers. “You’re just a regular ball of sunshine, aren’t ya?”

“If there’s no dawn to be had around here… then I’ll just have to become the Dawn.”

“…you know what… that’s not a bad idea… anyway, lets get moving, Dawn.”

At that, I smirk. “Right behind ya, Grov.” And so… our journey begins…