A Cracked Star

[POV ???]

 

Feeling weightless and in pain, I open my eyes, only to widen them further as I take in the sight before me. An endless horizon, a black sea, with specks of light scattered throughout it all. Instead of panicking at the fact I’m just floating, I feel at peace as if something is protecting me. 

 

I feel a comforting warmth from the center of my body, spreading slowly as if to cover every section of my body. An instinctive feeling as if the change was always supposed to happen. The areas where I feel warmth spreading over, glowing lines can be seen spreading as they shift colors in between areas my clothing isn’t covering.  

 

The sight reminds me of something but I can’t quite think of what it is. The lines I can see look to branch out from a larger one that runs up most of my body. Roots, that’s it, I was thinking of roots, but what exactly is happening to me? Looking at my chest, I can see the place the roots are coming from, a circular object, like an orb, glowing the same lights as the roots, shifting between a dark purple, greenish brown, red, and light blue. 

 

As the roots spread, so does the warmth, that is until I feel the largest root going towards my head. As it goes further up my neck, I feel it split into smaller roots that spread throughout my brain. I can feel them lock in place, each one that locks makes the roots stop shifting to that color, until the last one finishes. 

 

Any of the original glow coming from the roots stops, disappearing from eyesight. What follows I don’t think I’ll ever forget, as it felt like something in my mind shattered, allowing for whatever was originally showing in my mind to explode out.

 

“Gah!” I yelp as I feel a sharp pain in my head, countless images feeling like something inside broke allowing for it to rush out. I start to see locations, different people, and varying races flashing in my mind one after the other. Scene after scene in no chronological order, leaving me in further pain and no time to process what I’m seeing. 

 

Eventually, through all of the pain and flashing images, I can feel something calling for me, causing me to look around as I try to stay awake. I eventually see a star that starts to look like it's glowing, giving off a feeling of home. I start to feel numb, not knowing if it’s the star’s doing or my body reacting to all the information I’m being forced to remember, slowly quickly falling asleep.

 

~~~~~

 

In the middle of the night, a heavy storm rages within a forest . The air was warm and thick, feeling as if one was in a swamp. There was one area where a bright flash occurred, an explosion, but instead of the pressure exploding out, everything that was covered in the flash was quickly pulled towards the center. 

 

From within the ball of stone, dirt, and wood, a fire could be seen to grow in intensity as if consuming everything around it. Slowly everything around the fire was consumed before it started to reveal, a woman lying within the crater, ears protruding from the top of her head and a tail on her backside. White hair, slowly turning purple and black as it reaches down towards the bottom of her back.

 

~~~~~

 

I wake up to the sound of water hitting the ground. Wincing in pain as I try to move, I’m surprised by the feeling of heaviness from my limbs. Different from the feeling I felt in the endless horizon, or whatever the place was, where it was both falling and floating at the same time. 

 

I pull myself out of the crater as my head starts to feel like before, memories surging into my mind, lives I don't remember ever living. This time however, instead of them constantly shifting, I see memory after memory, without any connection from one to the next.

 

Different lives that I know aren’t mine, I know I never lived them, but I can somehow remember and feel that they are fragmented, incomplete. I don’t understand how but the memories I’ve seen are not everything, I don’t even know if there are more or not. I don’t know for how long this goes on but eventually the memories stop showing. But by the end of it, I’m plagued with more questions than answers.

 

Out of the crater, I look around for any signs that point to where I am. Stumbling my way as best as I can through the trees, slipping every once in a while, getting mud all over my clothes and hair. I try to get all of the mud out of my fur as best as I can even with the rain, the feeling of mud mixed with my fur is going to drive me nuts. 

 

As I move on, I start thinking again about the memories I now have, fighting in my head like two armed forces. I don't understand anything though, how did I get here? Where do these memories even come from? They couldn’t have just appeared suddenly. The people who lived these lives, what happened to them?

 

Every time I try to look into the memories I feel like I’m stuck in an extremely intricate trap, with twists and turns as I try to find any similarities through them. I find myself disassociating with the sensations I feel making my way through the forest. My sight feels too sharp and the fact I can see at night is throwing me off. Sounds are clearer and I can tell where they are originating from easier than I’m used to. 

 

Everything feels both familiar and foreign, the main sources are from my ears and tail. I have a lifetime of both having and not having them. I’m having trouble trying to understand if it’s normal or not. Every time they move or send new information to my head, I feel a spike of pain, like my body is fighting against itself. 

 

Pushing through the pain, I slowly make my way through the forest, mostly by stumbling and slipping over tree roots or in mud. Trying to stifle all gasps of pain as I move, eventually I come across a tree with a hole wide enough for me to rest in, away from the storm. 

 

Won't be the most comfortable but gotta make do with what you got. Hopefully the storm will pass overnight, I would like to not be drenched all day. I try to take the time to start slowly looking through the memories now that I am no longer on the move.  

 

I see places and ideals that seem both advanced and behind in terms of technology between the two. Like two different worlds, one supernaturally advanced and the other scientifically advanced. 

 

One thing that appeared often in the memories from the world that was advanced supernaturally, was a transparent box that showed after saying something. I think about what it was called before eventually finding it in a small memory. I call out in my head, worried there might be something nearby, Status. 

 

Immediately, a transparent brown box appears in my line of sight. Showing my name , titles, race, class and skills. Also confirming that it can work with thoughts, good to know.

---

???  V-m1R/C$mpb3;l

Titles: Children of the Stars 

    Broken Soul Anew

    ???

 

Race: Astral Wolfkin

 

Racial Skills:

Space Affinity: I

Ice Affinity: I

Fire Affinity: I

Earth Affinity: I

 

Class: Entropy Moon

Level: 3

 

Skills:

Mana Overload: I

Detect Magic: I

Sense Soul: I

Inspect: I

 

Unique Skills:

Time-Locked Library

Soul Dominion

---

I-it’s different, this isn’t the same as the one I saw in my, no. . . her memories. Wait, so then what happened to her? Her name showed up occasionally, Stella. How do I have her memories? I’m not Stella, I can’t just suddenly have her memories. 

 

I feel myself growing more shaken, panic overtaking me as I come to the conclusion that I somehow stole these memories from Stella, and the uh, the other woman, what was her name? Dawn, Dawn, that's right, Stella and Dawn. 

 

I start to hold my head as I panic, more memories start to flash, ones I’ve seen but haven’t had time to digest beforehand. I start to cry as a pain unlike any I’ve felt up to now starts to grow from my head. 

 

I’ve never met either one befo- 

 

Then the thought hits me, did I even exist? Did I even have a life before waking up, I should have memories of my own life should I not? I can’t remember anything that I feel could be mine. What have I done, is it my fault I’m like this? No. . . no no nO NO, I didn’t do it, it wasn’t me, it couldn’t have been. 

 

As I start to panic, I start looking through my memories like a madwoman, looking, searching for any clue that could point towards how I ended up like this ignoring the pain I’m causing to myself.

 

“I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry. I don’t know what happened. You two didn’t deserve this.” I say, having given up searching as there were too many memories to look through to find out the cause of my situation. By this point I start to curl up into myself, crying. 

 

“I’m sorry, im sorry im sorry im sorry, I don’t know what I did, but if you can hear me, please just forgive me when I say I didn’t do this.” I cry even more as I start to apologize to Stella and Dawn. “I-I-I, what do I do? It scares me, seeing how you two just vanished and now I’m here, will it happen again? I don’t want to just vanish like that as well.”

 

~~~~~

 

I wake up the next morning to a clear sky realizing I passed out at some point last night. My head is sore and the area underneath my nose is sticky. Scratching at the source, I find blood piling under my fingernail, I don’t remember having a nosebleed. The rain from last night stopped at some point, making the air feel extremely thick. 

 

Getting out from the tree trunk, I stand there without moving as I think about last night and what I learned. I don’t think I have all their memories either. Does this mean I’ll have to go through that pain from seeing their memories again? 

 

As I start to wander aimlessly into the forest, my stomach starts making noise reminding me of my need to eat. I wonder if these memories can help me find food or something else that can help my current situation. My clothes are mostly dried from last night as I realize I’m wearing the clothes Dawn owned.

 

I continue to walk, memory after memory plays through my head, just this time in a more controlled manner. It’s getting easier for me to go through the memories. Though finding what I want is like finding a needle in a haystack.

 

“Ah!” As I finish that phrase, a memory flashes immediately of a time where both Stella and Dawn were with their mothers as she explains the meaning of the phrase, causing me to stagger up against a tree. The worst of these times is when both lives share memories on a topic and I remember multiple different times or events around the topic, my headache hasn’t gone away at any point.

 

Thankfully, after the first time for those memories, I’ve noticed that if I try to bring them back up, then I can remember them clearly and as much as I want.

 

I think for now I should try to find something I can use to help me gather food. I could tear up the jacket I’m wearing, there are some tears that allow for me to take it apart should a need arise that I need some type of makeshift rope, maybe even use it in a simple hare trap, if . . . they even live in this forest.

 

~~~~~

 

I spotted a few small critters running through the forest, hares included, so I tried my best to think of a plan to capture some for food. A lot of them ended in failure, either from the hare hearing me or even seeing me sometimes when I messed up.

 

But eventually, I managed to think of a way I could possibly capture a hare, but the best I could think of was sitting in a tree above my trap with a rock that hopefully is heavy enough to either knock out or kill the hare. 

 

The spot I chose had a small pile of nuts I found on and around trees after gathering them. It probably didn’t help either that I kept making noises every once in a while, at least I acquired food for tonight. 

 

Creating a fireplace didn’t take long after searching around for small sticks and stones, I need to start the fire later though.I’ll think about that when the hare is ready to be cooked. Starting to prepare the hare, I break a few rocks on each other to create one sharp enough to cut through the skin. 

 

It takes a while, with blood covering my hands and ground, but I manage to somewhat get the majority of the fur and skin off. I wasn’t able to see much of the process from the few memories I was able to see from Stella. 

 

As I was trying to deal with the smell of the blood from the hare carcass, I heard something jumping from the trees before hitting me in the back, knocking me down. Whatever it is, I can feel it bite onto my shoulder, easily cutting into my flesh through the little bit of clothing I have. 

 

“AHHH!” The strength behind the bite gets stronger as I’m screaming in pain, my right hand grasping the creature reflexively. I start to scramble for something with my other hand to help me, eventually grabbing the rock I had started to sharpen. Using it, I stab the creature on me repeatedly until I feel it  let go. 

 

I rush to my feet to gain some distance between the two of us, now with a chance to see the creature, which I recognize as a hyena, is dead on the ground with the rock still stuck in its head. The creature has a golden brown fur with black spots covering its back. 

 

Seeing it not moving on the ground I start to relax my muscles before bringing a hand up to my shoulder now bleeding down my arm. I need to do something about this and fast, I don’t understand this gut feeling, but I can feel leaving this be will do more harm the longer I leave it alone.

 

Like before, I see Stella’s parents explaining something about first aid, only for it to quickly shift to a few more events and ending with Dawn’s mother showing some kit. Pushing through the pain of my headache, which has only gotten stronger, I start to walk over towards the creature. As I near it, I feel my hair start to stand, making me stop in my tracks. Ahead of me, back towards the treeline behind the carcass, I start to hear low sounds of growling. 

 

Looking at the cause of the sounds, I realize there are more creatures like the one that attacked me. Noticing them, I quickly turn to run as panic flares up. I need to figure out something fast before they catch up to me. 

 

“I didn’t want any of this, I still need to figure out what’s happening to me, why must I be put in this situation dammit!” I yell.

 

I quickly tire out the further I get, both from running and also from my bleeding wound. As I ran, I started to notice a weird feeling building up, from around the area of my heart. It spreads out to the rest of my body, the roots start to glow as I panic, not knowing what to do about the creatures attacking. I turn around as I hear one of them jump, catching it with my hands, throwing me to the ground. 

 

“Why won’t you just leave me alone?!” I yell at the beast as it snips at my face with its jaws. Panicking, I start to pull on the feeling that has been growing near my heart, causing it to explode out, releasing a large wave of freezing air in all directions. 

 

The creature that was on top of me was now frozen solid, pushing it aside. I sat up to see that everything in my area is a sheet of ice, including the other hyena a little further out. 

 

 “What happened?”, I say to myself as I force my hurt and exhausted body to move towards a tree.

 

*HOWL* Sitting against a tree, I raise my head as I hear a beast cry out.

 

“Of course there's more of them.” I say with a mocking tone before I hear a few more howls, slowly getting closer as I start to black out.