618
Where... am I?
Cannon fire thundered in his ears, seemingly mingled with strange beasts' roars, reminding him of the little wooden cabin in the mountains where he had lived with his parents as a child. In winter, hungry wolves always prowled through the snow.
His father had been an excellent hunter, and their home had held many fur garments and blankets. Unfortunately, his favorite deerskin cap had been lost when they moved from the mountains to the City of Serenity.
Vincent lay facedown on the ground, slowly coming around from his brief unconsciousness, only to feel as though he had returned to a nightmare.
He felt sleepy and cold, with agonizing pain stabbing through the back of his head. The ground was right before his eyes, and his mouth tasted of rust. Vincent desperately wanted to close his eyes again and get a good sleep, but a voice inside him urged him to wake up, to make sure he did not lose consciousness.
That was right. He should not have been lying on the ground, much less lying there covered in blood. He vaguely remembered darting through the city, fighting someone just a moment ago, so how had he fallen in the blink of an eye?
Vincent's consciousness was somewhat hazy, but his vision gradually cleared. He frowned and thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered everything. Enormous fear and belated dread exploded in his heart, and he desperately tried to brace himself against the ground and stand.
But then he discovered that his limbs were not quite under his control. Whenever he tried to reach out and grab something, his hands and feet twitched strangely. He recognized these symptoms. The doctors at the hospital had said they resulted from damage to a certain part of the brain.
"Go