Chirp, chirp, chirp.

The birds sang their little hearts out in the untamed forest where no intelligent race roamed. In fact, looking further beyond the forest, across the world; not a hint of an apex species had roamed the land.

For unknown pieces in ‘the game’ weren't allowed.

The location Blue chose was a forest with a narrow aggregation of trees that stretched towards the northern and southern horizons. The forest was sandwiched between an imposing chain of mountains to the east and a river flowing parallel from north to south to the west.

The sun shone directly overhead, warming up the spring air. On the edge of the forest, the roots of the trees scrabbled for purchase in the hard rocks of the mountainside, clinging grimly to it with all their strength. There was a cave there, nestled unobtrusively between two boulders with an opening that spanned three meters wide. Bears had used it as a shelter in the past. It wasn’t anything to look at from the outside, but bringing a torch into the cave would reveal how deep it was.

Just inside the entrance of the cave, an azure light flared for a few seconds. If anyone had been around to see it, the brilliance would have blinded them but the animals outside paid the cave no attention. When the glare subsided, ten figures lay passed out on the floor. They were all short, none of them more than five feet tall.

The tallest of the dwarfs was the first to wake. Holding his forehead, he tried to stand up, using his other hand to support himself. He felt the soft soil of the cave crumble beneath his palm and looked around the dim cave entrance, trying to get his bearings.

“Where am I? Who are these short people?”

Despite his pounding headache, he trudged out of the cave's mouth. His mind raced as he tried to work out where he was.

He complained aloud as he stumbled out into the forest, his thick Scottish accent causing the birds in the trees to take flight. “Why was I in a cave? I was just playing Fortress Kingdom on my desktop! Eh, what’s a desktop?”

He shook the useless thoughts out of his head and examined his surroundings; It was a forest mixed with various trees and bamboo stalks soared above him, their height immense. Compared to these giant plants, he felt short, shorter than usual. It made him feel dizzy to look up at them, so he stared down at the ground and caught sight of his hands. But they weren't his hands. All the scars he had acquired in his life were gone, and the tone of his skin had changed from a pasty white to a healthy tan.

He needed to see his face and as luck would have it, the sound of moving water could be heard nearby. Without a second thought, the dwarf started crashing through the underbrush until coming to a large rushing river.

Catching his breath, the confused person walked along the side of the river until he found a place where the water swirled off into shallow, still pools. He knelt and stared at his reflection, fighting the glare of the sun.

“This isn't my face! What was my face? My name? Why can’t I remember‽”

Trying to think about his own life brought forth stabs of mental pain. It was as though his personal memories were clouded in a thick fog, and focusing on them caused the fog to cover them deeper within itself. The more he tried to remember, the more he forgot. It was so bad that he had to give up thinking about it, at least for the moment. With a sigh, he focused on the situation at hand. The first order of business was to get used to his strange new body.

Peering down into the water, he thoroughly examined his features. He had short, bronze-colored hair and his eyes were the color of cinnamon.

His fingers traced his lips and nose, both average. The only thing that saddened him was his lack of facial hair. Anger from somewhere unknown welled up within him, causing him to roar up at the shining sun, making all the little twittering birds fly off in a panic. One even pooped right on his forehead because of the fright.

But the little man didn’t care about the feces on his face as he started punching the ground, over and over, angry at his own reflection. Though the silty dirt on the riverside was soft, he had to stop when his hands grew bruised and cut from tiny stones in the ground. He was breathing heavily.

As he knelt by the river, panting, his mind started to fill with strange knowledge. It swept away everything he knew before and replaced it with a brand new identity. He was a dwarf. This was a world with an unknown civilization and it was his role to tame it. He waited to see if more information would flood his brain, but nothing else came.

With a sigh, the dwarf sat down near the river and washed the bird shit off his face, then, lamented out loud.

“If I’m a dwarf, why don’t I have a beard?”

A branch cracked in the underbrush nearby, instantly causing him to be on alert.

Right, this is the wilderness. I can’t be careless and let my guard down. From the information, I was given this isn’t Earth anymore. I don’t know what kind of beasts this forest holds. I need a weapon, he thought.

His eyes darted around the area until he spotted a palm-sized rock from the riverside he could use as a makeshift weapon. He picked it up, then turned and lunged at whatever was moving through the brush.

He landed on top of whatever it was, and raised his rock above his head, ready to strike. Before he brought the stone crashing down, he looked at his victim and saw a set of clear blue eyes. He had tackled another dwarf.

This must have been one of the other dwarfs from the cave he wandered away. He guessed that they were a female from how she looked and her age was… Well, actually he couldn’t tell what her age was as he didn’t know how dwarfs aged. She had bright red cheeks and long black hair that was tangled from his tackle.

He rolled off her and apologized. “I’m sorry about tackling you! Are you alright?”

She slowly stood up and dusted herself off, taking a few steps away from her assailant. She looked at him warily, and he squirmed awkwardly under her gaze.

“I was alright until you so rudely tackled me. Where did you learn your manners?”

“I mean it’s the wilderness. Who knows what’s out here.”

Her voice took on a taunting tone. “So you’re not sorry for tackling me to the ground?”

“Nonono I am sorry. It’s just… Nevermind I think we got off on the wrong foot. I didn’t hurt you did I? Why are you here and what’s your name?”

The girl paused and let her eyes linger on the male dwarf before answering. “The ground was quite soft so I didn’t break anything. Why I'm here is because I saw you running away so I followed after you to see if you knew where we are. As for my name it’s… it’s—” The dwarf thought, scrunching up her face.

“I can’t remember. What’s your name?” she asked.

He shifted uncomfortably. “It’s the same for me. I can’t remember anything. I guess you can call me… Urist... Yeah, that sounds good. It’s my name for now. Until I can remember it, at least.” He smiled proudly.

“Since you picked a name, I guess I will pick one as well.” She paused for a second, then nodded firmly. “Hmmm, I got it. From now on, I am known as Uria.”

Urist tilted his head. “Why did you choose a name so close to mine?”

“Does it not fit me?” Uria ducked her head, cheeks red.

Urist was dazed by how Uria switched gears from cold and distant to embarrassment. It reminded him of… Feeling an ache of pain and clouds filling his mind, Urist gave up on the thought.

“No. It’s a great name.”

Uria’s mood improved immediately. She clapped her hands together with a bright smile and turned around. “Great. Then since you don’t have any clue why we’re here, let’s head back to the cave and see if anyone else knows anything.”

Confused, Urist watched as Uria ran on ahead without waiting from him. “Wha- Hey, wait up!”

They made their way back to the cave, having not gone far enough into the woods that getting lost was a problem. When they arrived, they found all the others huddled around an object just outside the cave entrance. They were poking it with sticks, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. Pushing his way through the circle of people, Urist saw that the object was a large white box. It had smooth white walls and a red ribbon tied in a bow at the top. The package was twice the size of a regular dwarf in height and seven feet wide.

All of these dwarfs were just as confused as he had been a little while ago. While Urist hadn’t made any progress understanding his life, he at least had explored this world a little. He coughed to get their attention, which startled the pack of dwarfs. When they turned to him, Urist almost broke into tears at the sight. All of the men had such majestic beards! He controlled himself, and neither wept nor shouted.

“What are you guys doing?”

A few of them muttered and mumbled to each other, waiting for someone to speak up. One of the more confident dwarfs stepped forward.

“This box just appeared out of nowhere. We don’t know if it’s dangerous, so we decided to poke it with sticks until we figured it out,” the confident dwarf said. He was one of the beefier male dwarfs in the group, sporting a majestic black beard to match his dark amber eyes.

Urist nodded. “I see. Let me try to open it.”

One of the other males turned to Urist, “We don’t know what's in it. Is it wise to open something that might be dangerous?”Smiling, Urist turned to the dwarfs. “Let’s see what's here!”

After all who would be scared of just a white box? He pulled one of the ribbons that held the box shut, and it unfolded like a box of beef fried rice.