Where the World Has Gone

[Fellow Rabbit]

Dane

Dane slowly awoke into a place he didn't recognize. He was outside. A thick fog shrouded the air in every direction, blocking his vision after only a few meters. As he started to stand up, he could see rubble scattered on the ground around him. There were patches of green grass here and there, some of which had been burned away, and deeper into the fog he could see the dim silhouette of a thicket of trees. The only sound was a sort of ambient white noise that sounded very far away. Only occasionally did an animal dare break the silence with its own sound. The smell of the earth permeated the air, accentuated by the essence of petrichor brought about by the mist.

From his surroundings, he could surmise no indication of where he was. And from his memory, he could gather no recollection of what brought him here.  On his person, he noted he was wearing light clothing under a vest and wore no footwear, but between his fur and paw pads, what he had on was enough to counter the chilly weather. Fastened to his waistline was a short sword. Too his frustration, none of this jogged his memory.

"Where am I?" he said absently. He still felt disoriented. Should he go into the forest and try to make sense of things there? Or should he venture the other way, into the void that had no promise of anything at all? He sighed. The forest would do for now. If all else failed, there was nothing to prevent him from returning to try the nondescript void instead. At least with the forest, there was some semblance of familiarity despite his lack of experience in one.

He took one last look around where he awoke to make sure he didn't drop anything he might need, then started his journey, his hand on his short sword, knowing only vaguely how to use it, but nevertheless feeling prepared if something were to attack.

[Fellow Rabbit]

Dane

More and more trees began to take shape as Dane moved in closer to the forest, revealing that he was probably on the edge of a large forest. Something seemed strange about it beyond the eerie atmosphere the mist provided. As he entered, he remained cautious. Careful not to move too fast without paying the utmost attention to anything that could take him by surprise. He scanned the ground to avoid stepping on something dangerous. He surveyed what he could make out of the trees around him to catch anything that might be sneaking up on him before it was too late. He listened intently for any sounds that should raise an alarm. He was far enough in now that he could no longer see the edge of the woods through the mist behind him and so far there was nothing out of the ordinary.

He stepped over a fallen tree, each end of which stretched far into the mist. Thus far he hadn't seen any other life. Even the intermittent animal noises he heard when he first awoke seemed to have vanished. It was as if he was the only creature now roaming the forest, and the thought rather irked him. What was he even meant to be looking for here? He hadn't a clue where he was or how he got there. Heck, he barely even know who he was beyond the bare minimum of his name and appearance. And what he was... well, he called himself human, but a voice at the back of his mind led him to believe even that wasn't quite right. He was merely a lost soul wandering through a barren forest without direction or purpose.

He had lost the concept of time before long, searching for something that might direct him to the answers he needed, but to no avail. He hadn't searched the whole woodland, but he had gone long enough that he had lost hope of finding what he was looking for. Sighing, he turned to retrace his steps. As far as he could tell, he had not deviated far from a straight line since entering the forest; his way out should be directly behind him. If he could find the fallen log from before, then he could follow it to where he climbed over and follow the rest of the path out. With any luck, he could find something in the featureless void he had forgone in lieu of the woods.

"A strange one you are." A whisper broke the silence. It came from no single direction in particular, but rather sounded to come from all around him at once.

Dane stopped in his tracks and gripped the handle of his short sword, unaware quite how to react. He scanned the woods thoroughly in the hopes of catching a glimpse of whatever spoke to him. Nothing. Not before him, behind him, beside him, or above him. And again it was silent.

"W-who's there?" He felt a slight tremble as he unsheathed a couple inches of his sword. For an excruciating moment, mere silence followed, but again it was broken by an eerie whisper.

"You see us," it said.

Dane was terribly uneasy, but the entity's vague answer only seemed to make things worse. "I see no one."

Silence filled the air once again. Dane searched the mist from where he stood, but around him was only nature.

"You seem dazed. Did you not behold the flash of light? The breaking earth?"

Dane blinked. What was that supposed to mean? There was no flash of light as long as he had been conscious. He wasn't comprehending the riddle.

"I know not what you mean."

"Beyond the forest; from the southwest whence you came; were a flash of light and sound."

A moment of silence, then the voice spoke again.

"A blast. An explosion. Your kind - rather those your shape - waged many a war with such barbarity."

"A bomb?" He was vaguely familiar with those, but he didn't recall the last time he had heard one. Certainly not since he awoke, and he didn't wake on account of one, either. "And what of 'my shape'?"

"Indeed a 'bomb'. It seems you've much to relearn. Pray it is revealed with haste."

He noted a distinct avoidance of the matter of his shape. He would undoubtedly find out what that was to mean; another matter suddenly took precedence. "To what could I owe such haste?"

"Even my sight is clouded of this mist, but it is unmistakable: a new war looms on the horizon."

"And what brings such a conflict?"

The voice fell silent. It seemed with every answer he received, a great deal many more questions arose in its place. Even with what he had been told, it was as though he was even more in the dark than when he began. It didn't ease the air of trepidation building around him, but now in silence, he could better keep his guard up.

A sound somewhere between a snapping twig and grinding bark crack the air to his side. From the corner of his eye, he thought he noticed movement. It was small - seemingly too small for even a bird or a chipmunk. Slowly he unsheathed the rest of his sword as he crept toward the area.

"Use your courage wisely, young Dane." The whisper returned, and now seemed to come from everywhere but in front of him.

Dane twisted around, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever was speaking to him, but he saw nothing. The fact that it knew his name made him still more edgy. "How do you know my name?"

"You are being hunted."

It came from immediately behind him, and Dane spun back around. And what he saw caused him to throw what sense he might have gained from his exchange with the voice of the forest out the window. There, on the tree on which he thought he saw movement a moment earlier, looking ominously back at him, was what looked like an eye, and with everything in him, he knew he had to get out of that forest. He jumped back and then turned to run as fast as his legs would carry him. He hadn't time to determine where the path was that he had taken out of the forest, but he believed this was the way. His sword in hand, he sprinted as fast as his legs would carry him, relieved when he again came across the fallen tree from before. He quickly hopped over it and followed the familiar path back out of the forest. The whole time, not another whisper was spoken to him.

He looked back, panting, now seeing the forest in a far more foreboding light.

[Fellow Rabbit]

Dane

Opposite the forest was a whole lot of emptiness from what Dane could see. He stepped back up to the place he had awoken from, looking over all the rubble that littered ground. It was mostly small rocks and it appeared to grow slightly more dense as he moved to its center. Was this what the forest voice was talking about? Was there some kind of rock that had been blown apart? It would make sense that a piece of it hitting him in the head would mess with his memory, he supposed, but what was he doing in this area with no one else around? Or were the people he was travelling with kidnapped? There was so much that could be going on in this moment, and it seemed awfully urgent if what little he had learned in the forest was true.

Something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. It was a light off in the distance, only barely visible through the unrelenting fog. Wary, he took a few steps toward it. It seemed to be moving, and from that movement he could tell it wasn't actually all that far off at all. He tightened his grip on his sword as he continued forward. After a few meters, he found himself on the edge of some kind of body of water. He thought it unusual that he couldn't tell without seeing it, but it was so calm that it didn't make a sound.

Then, in the direction of the light, he faintly heard the sloshing of water. Someone rowing a boat, he surmised. The light's movement did seem to sway as if it were affixed to a boat. He glanced around, searching for some kind of cover in case something went awry. A new face wouldn't be unwelcome, but he was still very tense from his encounter in the forest. Slowly, he moved behind a rock sticking out of the ground a few feet from the water's edge, peeking around its corner to watch the light as it grew ever closer to the shore.