Chapter 847: Who am I?
’How long have I been here?’ He wondered.
His head had been ringing with pain upon waking up. It had been dull but constant, without any signs of stopping anytime soon. No matter how hard he tried to think about how he got into his current situation, he was unable to remember a single thing from before he woke up.
Fighting through the ringing pain he had eventually managed to open his eyes. At first he had seen absolutely nothing. His eyes needed time to adjust to their surroundings. His vision was slightly altered which could only mean only one thing. Right now he was in a complete pitch black room.
It took quite a bit of time before he started being able to make out the silhouettes of the things around him. Still it was a far cry from him being able to see during the day.
’Where exactly am I? How did I get here?’
As the ringing suddenly started to dull, he attempted to move his hands. Unfortunately he quickly realised that they were heavier than they should be. His attempt resulted in the sound of metal scraping across the floor. Moving the other hand and his legs resulted in the same thing happening.
He was completely chained up.
"Arghhh!" He shouted with a hoarse voice, using his mighty strength to pull against the chains, but to no avail. He could only move each of his extremities up to ten centimeters before his freedom got restricted.
’At least that annoying ringing in my head has stopped.’ After having this thought, he suddenly had another shocking realisation.
’My name... What was my name?! Why can’t I remember something as simple as my name?!’
Then he started shouting in frustration for whoever put him here to come forward. Unsurprisingly there wasn’t anyone who came forward. Frustrated he wanted to touch his head, but once again the chains stopped him from doing so.
Once he noticed that he had forgotten his name, he tried to remember other things about him... only to realise that he was drawing more and more blanks. He was unable to recall his name, his age, his outer appearance or anything about his past.
It was as if his life had just begun a few moments ago when he had opened his eyes.
His heart started beating louder and louder as he started to panic, and the walls appeared to start closing in on him from his perspective.
"Arghhhh!" He shouted again, stomping his foot on the floor so hard that part of the ground had risen. "It broke?"
This time grabbing two hands, he proceeded to tug at the chains as hard as could. He could see that they were attached to a wall further down. However, as long as they were made of the same material, he believed his almighty strength should be enough to break free from them as well
He pulled and pulled, sweat was dripping down his face, and eventually blood started to drip from around the cuffs of the bracelet the chains were attached to, and eventually he had to stop.
’It’s useless, it feels like those chains will never break!.’
Checking himself, his body appeared to be in fine condition, not counting his self inflicted injuries at least. There were no markings on him whatsoever, and there were no clues as to who he was. He got some comfort from at least wearing clothes, yet they were too simple to give him any information about himself.
The only thing that he found noteworthy was that he had a single earring on his left ear, but no weapons to use to break out of the room.
’Well, whoever trapped me in this place can’t be that stupid, but surely I had to have come in somehow?’ He started to think.
Walking towards where the chains were attached to the wall, he brushed his hand against the wall, and could feel slight bumps in the rock, and a certain watery smell.
’The wall is made out of stone?’ Then listening in carefully and placing his head against the wall, he could also hear the sound of what appeared to be running water.
’Am I in a cave of some sort? If there’s running water then that means there has to be an exit somewhere!’
Still, as he tried to move around, touching the side of the cave walls that he was in, the chains would only allow him to go so far.
Once again,his frustration peaked and he attempted to pull out his hair, something that seemed to be a habit of his despite him lacking any memories of it. While doing so, he had swung his arms up, and the blood from his wrists around the cuffs, hit his earring. At that moment, it started to light up.
The earring detached itself from his lobe and fell to the ground.
The white light started to take shape until eventually he could see it’s full form.
"A...A..Pig!?"
"Idiot! I’m a bull! Can’t you get this right after all these years?! Haven’t you punished me enough by naming me Ham because of this misunderstanding?! I clearly have a ring on my nose marking me as a bull!" Ham complained as he started to fly around with his bat wings in circles out of frustration.
"You came from my earring... What- No, who are you? Do I know you? Do you know me?" He asked, clinging on to hope.
"So they really did succeed? I couldn’t see clearly what had happened, only hear voices but there was no time to help you. Alright, let’s bring you up to speed. Your name is Fex and you’re my.." Ham paused for a second as he recognised that this was a golden opportunity "...and you’re my servant. Yes, I, the mighty Ham, am you master!"
Fex’s face told Ham that he clearly wasn’t buying that.
"I have the power to crush the ground with my bare feet, yet you’re saying I’m the servant of a little pig? Sorry bull, no I meant Ham! I doubt I would be that pathetic." Fex replied in disdain.
"Fine, I was just joking. You’re not my servant, but we’re really close in rank. Like you’re just barely above me, so you have to treat me with respect, okay?" Ham clarified.
Even though Fex was unable to remember the little bull, he was aware that he might be his only chance of getting out of this place.
"Sure, sure. Say if you know who I am, then you must know someone who could help me form the outside, right?" Fex asked.
Ham thought about it for a while and he quickly recalled one particular person who had already risked their life to save Fex in the past. He hadn’t even asked anything in return, so it was likely he would do it again.
"Yeah, Quinn. Quinn will definitely come if I call him!" Ham answered excitedly, his wings started to flap with excitement.
"Well whoever it was, they captured me alive, so they must have a use for me. Otherwise, they would have just killed me. At some point they’ll have to check up on me, or at least come to feed me." Fex stated. "All you need to do is wait for the door, window or whatever it will be to open, and then fly out of here as quick as you can. Go call Quinn and lead him back to this place!"
Ham nodded. For once his master was relying on him and he would do whatever he could to help.
The two of them waited patiently to proceed with their plan. They were unable to tell just how long they had waited and how much longer they would have to. Without anything better to do Ham started to fill Fex in about his past self.
Eventually Fex’s hearing allowed him to hear the sound of approaching footsteps somewhere, but in the cave it was hard to locate.
Ham immediately flew upwards, so he would be outside the newcomer’s perception. Soon enough a part of the cave wall moved to the side.
For a moment Fex was happy that their plan proceeded smoothly. That was until he saw that what had come inside didn’t look the least bit like a human. No, it was far too large and it bared its teeth in his direction. Its eyes were that of a monster, and its skin was tight with bulging muscles.
Seeing this thing Fex could only think one thing.
’It’s so ugly with no hair!’
As soon as the creature stepped forward, Ham immediately used the chance to slip through the gap it had come in from. Luckily the creature mistook the bull for a bat on account of his wings.
Ham continued to fly through the cave, swirling, noticing that it wasn’t a regular cave. There was a whole civilisation living here, with many beasts that looked just like the one that had entered.
Ham didn’t have time to look at them, he needed to find a way out. Unable to see a way he resorted to following the sound of running water. A few minutes later he shot outwards, finally exiting the cave.
Looking back, he saw that he had actually been behind a waterfall.
’Fex, I will come back for you! Quinn will save you, just like he did before! I know he will!’ Ham thought flying off into the distance, towards the Vampire settlement.
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