That was the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes. Eyes? No, he had none. He had no eyes but he could see. He was perplexed by this. He felt around his face, trying to feel his skin, but he had none. He looked around, and saw he was surrounded by skeletons, but he wasn't alarmed by this fact. After all, he saw that he himself was also a skeleton when he looked down and saw his bony body. He also saw a small lantern, barely emitting enough light to see the entire room. Ah, that must have been the light he saw when he first woke up. He decided to take another look at the skeletons that surrounded him. That's odd, the skeletons surrounding him ranged from slightly off white to yellow in color, however, he was white. Pure white. Strange. He stood up for the first time, and walked around. Upon standing up, he saw more of the room than he could before, and noticed other skeletons. Other white skeletons. He noticed the other white skeletons were also moving, and beginning to stand up. Hmm. He walked around the room, inspecting everything he came across. He poked and prodded at every skeleton in the room. He noticed 2 things while doing this. 1, the 'room' he was in was more like a small, damp cave than a real room. 2, only the white skeletons were alive. No, alive might be the wrong word. Hm. He thought and thought, but could not think of a word to describe him and the other white skeletons. Capable of movement. That was the best he could think of. So, with these 2 things in mind, he sat back down and thought. He thought for a long time, but could not figure out what was happening. He tried to remember something before when he woke up as a skeleton. Nope. Nothing. For now, he comes to the conclusion that he simply didn't exist before he awoke in this bony body. Again, he tried to figure out what was happening. Yet again, nothing. He was frustrated by this, so he gave up and decided to go for a walk. On his walk, he inspected the other white skeletons to try to discover something new. Doing this, he came to one conclusion. He was the only one capable of thought. Why? He simply couldn't think of any reason for him being the only one of them that could think. This was overwhelming, so he sat down yet again. He sat there for a while, just thinking. Eventually, he heard a sort of rumbling sound. He looked around, but couldn't see anything making the noise. He looked at the other skeletons, but as expected, they ignored it. After the sound went on for a while, it stopped. Then, a few seconds after that, a loud 'crack' noise happened, and part of the wall split, revealing a passageway. Being the curious skeleton he is, he decided to go through the crack. He could barely fit inside, but he made it. On the other side was a much larger space, but still equally as damp and dark as the cave he was born in. No, born is the wrong word. Created? No, there would have to be some sort of creature besides the skeletons in order for that to be the case. Again, he couldn't think of a word that correctly described his situation. Came to be was the best he could come up with. After he gave up on finding a good word to describe his sudden awakening, he decided to go back into the smaller cave. However, when he looked back inside, he saw that the tunnel was clogged with his fellow white skeletons. How annoying. He waited until they all made it through, then he went back inside. Finally, those other white skeletons were starting to get on his nerves. Wait, actually that phrase doesn't quite work in his situation, does it. Doesn't matter, the important thing is, he's alone now. So, he sat back down and began to think, as he always did. He thought for quite a while, when he heard a noise. It was coming from the other room, so he perked through and saw that another passage had opened up, but this time, the other side wasn't empty. People. He didn't know how he knew what they were, but he did. He also knew they could be dangerous. But at the same time, he had a strange urge to attack them. That's when he noticed his fellow boney bros were attacking the humans. He was frightened of the fighting, so he retreated to the pile of off-white bones he came to be on, and for the first time since he first woke up, he slept. He didn't know how he slept, he wasn't alive after all. When he awoke, he noticed the room wasn't as empty as it was before he went to sleep. How? All of the white skeletons were back. He looked around at the off-white bones around him, trying to see if they had somehow turned into the white skeletons. No, there are still the same amount as before. How strange. He decided to check the bigger room. When he got in, he immediately noticed that the room had now been filled with off-white bones just like the ones in the smaller room. He also noticed some of them had clothes on, just like the clothes worn by the humans who had attacked earlier. How long was I… before he could finish his thought, he heard talking noises. More humans. He quickly retreated back to the smaller room before the small tunnel was filled with the white skeletons. This time, instead of crawling up and sleeping, he peeked through the crack, and watched the battle. He noticed some of the white skeletons laying down in the piles of off-white bones in an attempt to ambush one of the humans. However, this tactic never worked, and all the skeletons that tried were killed before they could fight back. Wait, no, not killed. Destroyed. After the battle was over, he went back to his spot once again and began to think. Again, he discovered 2 things. 1, humans are strong. Even with the weapons from all the previous human groups, the skeletons were no match for the humans. 2, humans were also aware that all pure white skeletons are alive, and all off-white bones are simply bones. With that, he knew what he had to do. Skeletons are weak, and humans are strong, and humans and skeletons are enemies. These facts mean that eventually the humans will come for him. So, the only choices are to either

A: fight. Not a very good option because, again, humans are strong, skeletons are weak.

B: hide. This seems like the best option for now.

The only question is, how will he hide? There are 2 rooms, the bigger one, where the humans and skeletons fight, and the smaller room, which is where the skeletons wake up. Also, humans don't seem to be aware of the small room yet, but that may change. The only notable features of both of these rooms are the off-white bones. These would be a good hiding spot, but they would leave him vulnerable to attack if he were to be found. Hmm. Suddenly, he remembered the skeletons failed battle tactic. Sure, it wasn't very successful for the skeletons before, but only because the humans knew they were there due to the color difference between the skeletons and the bones. So, logically, if a skeleton were to find a way to make themselves off-white like the bones, they would be overlooked by the humans, and safe! This was it! One small issue, even after all this time, his bones weren't getting any more yellow than they were when he woke up. The bones on the ground decayed and became even more yellow over time, but the skeletons never decayed unless they were destroyed in combat. At that point, they became no different than the bones scattered all over the floor. Obviously, he wasn't willing to give up his life to be hidden. Actually, his life wouldn't be the correct word. What is it that the skeletons lose when they are destroyed, what causes them to move around? Yet another mystery that probably won't be solved. Frustrating. So, with the goal of dirtying his bones, and the looming danger of the humans possibly discovering the small room where he was hiding, he got to work experimenting on his own body trying to figure out how to make himself look like the bones on the ground. Laying still for a long time, nope. Rubbing dirt on his body and letting it stay there for a long time, nope. He even tried replacing his own bones with the dirty ones on the ground, but that didn't work. Nothing was working, and the last time the humans were here they noticed the crack in the wall. He was really starting to panic now. He began trying things that didn't even make sense. Bashing his skull against the wall over and over again, gnawing the bones on the ground, gnawing his own bones, nothing worked. When all hope seemed lost, he decided to try one last thing before giving up and laying down to accept his death. He shaved off the top layer of one of the bones from the ground and stuck it to himself using some mud from the bigger cave. He repeated this a few times until his skull was completely covered by the bone shavings. Then, he walked over to a puddle and looked at himself. Perfect. He looked just like the bones on the ground. He quickly ran over to the bones and got to work. A while later, he finished covering his body. He walked over to the puddle again, and… perfect. He couldn't even tell the difference between himself and the bones. He wasn't even done celebrating his success when he heard the humans coming. Startled, he ran back over to his spot, sat down, got comfortable, then he watched. The humans fought the skeletons in the bigger room, and won. He heard them discover the tunnel and walk through. They walked around, looking for any white skeletons. When they finally got to him, they looked at him very closely, and… walked away. It worked. The plan worked. He could hardly believe it. After the humans left, he got up and went to the bigger room. He looked around at all the other skeletons. He felt bad for them, sure, but knowing they couldn't think like he could, he didn't really care that much. He decided to get a good look at the weapons the humans used. Mostly simple blunt weapons, but he found a few sharp ones too. He wondered why the humans were attacking the skeletons, but he knew he would probably never know. With his curiosity satisfied, he decided to rest, so he walked back into the small room, sat down, got comfortable and went to sleep.