Chapter 3 (Explanations of the Past)

          “To start off, you are in the land of Suren. It’s divided into 5 smaller privinces: the capital Sur is farthest west, to the south is the peninsulas of Uldas, and the island Reilhelm, Elris is to the east, and finally is the northern tip, where we currently are, Noren. All the privinces have proxy rulers, but the one who really makes all the decisions is the Overlord. The Overlord is the most powerful person in Suren, and with that power, he influences all of Suren to his own will.”

          “It was maybe two-hundred years ago that everything started to happen. Suren’s old Overlord was a kindly old elf demon. He was a powerful Magik-user, or Magik, as we call ones who control Magikal powers, and that Overlord made Suren a peaceful place to live. But then someone killed him and stole both his powers as the Overlord and as a Magik. That person proclaimed himself the new, and current, Overlord.”

          “Now this Overlord is fascinated by power, especially that of Magiks, and he decided to experiment on them to learn more about them. He used his newfound powers, and easily built a castle in the middle of Sur, and started capturing Magiks and dragging them off to the castle. When the Overlord learned one important piece of information, he told everyone in Sur. ‘All Magiks have red hair,’ he proclaimed, ‘So I want everyone to bring me the red-haired ones.’ And people really started turning in Magiks. Actually, a whole war started around it.”

          “Everyone tried to turn Magiks in to gain favor with the Overlord, while some others tried to defend Magiks, especially their friends and family. Huge battles were fought between everyone from neighbors to neighboring towns to neighboring sub-countries. The Overlord himself didn’t care about the war at all, so long as he kept getting more prisoners.”

          “I think it was around fifty years ago when mercenary companies started getting popular. With the terrible war having been on for around one-hundred years, groups of people began to sell their services to the highest bidder. The war recently just kinda died out, but mercenary companies still exist because their services are still hired out to do… well just about anything nowadays, they became the jack-of-all-trades and help people from farming, to waging war, to restoring forests, so long as there is money involved.”

          “That brings us to now, where we have you, a human, from ancient stories. Those stories tell us, as I said before, that a human from a family of the gods’ blessing will give a soul to this world once every two-hundred or so years, else they fall from favor and be cursed for eternity. But you lost your memory here, so we can’t be sure of any of that.” With that, Synalia concluded her speech on history.

          Nanashi thought for a moment, “Suren, Magiks, an Overlord, and my family is blessed by god? Doesn’t this sound like some cheesy fantasy game to you? Like some chosen hero has to defeat a power-hungry evil villain and save the world?”

          Synalia looked questioningly at Nanashi, “Fantasy game? Is that something from your world? But that aside, I don’t think you’re here to save the world. If the stories are true, you’re here for your family, and, as I said before, you are supposedly powerful enough to do whatever you want, so just live however you want to.”

          Madam, I think it is best we leave soon. The Ayra sisters will worry if we are gone too long. Suree chimed in.

          “Have we really been gone that long? Well pooh; I guess we do need to go. Now Nanashi, I’ll be gone a little while. Feel free to look around the surrounding area. Don’t stray too far though, there are monsters around. Ohh, I just remembered, before we go put this on,” Synalia said, handing Nanashi a green ball of fur.

          “What is this?” Nanashi asked, looking the strange green fur over.

          “Well, you will need a wig to hide that striking red hair of yours, now won’t you?” Synalia smiled. With that, she grabed the empty tray of food, waved goodbye to Nanashi, and started wading through the bushes from whence she came. Before leaving, Suree growled at Nanashi and then bounded after his master.

          Once again alone, Nanashi sat for awhile thinking about all of the information he was just told. “I’m in a new world. That’s cool and all but… why?” He asked himself. Almost forgotten about, Nanashi looked at the wig in his hand.

          It was a forest-green colour, well, the colour of a forest back on Earth anyway. Nanashi got a strange feeling holding it. He looked it all over, noting it being expertly made, and decided to smell it. That was the worst thing Nanashi had done since coming to this world, he dropped the wig and covered his nose from the putrid smell it had.

          A strong wind blew from the east set the wig flying. Being a gift to him, Nanashi, against his nose’s better judgment, chased after the wig. Dodging through bushes and around trees, he hardly noticed the scenery go by until he finally found the wig lying on the ground in front of a perfectly round, large lake.

Nanashi picked the wig up and looked at his reflection in the water. Looking back at him was a very short looking boy, wearing an orange t-shirt, dark green shorts with large pockets, and very noticeably red hair. He put the wig onto his head and saw his hair disappear under the it, making it look like he really had green hair.

Bending closer to get a better look at himself, Nanashi saw a dark silhouette in the water. It must have been from someone behind him, but all he really noticed was a thud, and the back of his head felt really warm. Quickly growing exhausted, Nanashi collapsed on the ground.