My eyes opened to the sight of an unfamiliar stone ceiling.

Where am I?

Sitting up on the soft bed, I looked around the strange room I found myself in. At first glance, it was some sort of cave someone decided to build their home in. There were no windows, and the only source of light came from a few blue glowing mushrooms scattered around the walls. They lit the place rather well for their size.

There was a dark wooden door to my left and an empty bed to my right. Its owner didn't care about making it when they got up. The randomly coloured blankets it had were a complete mismatch with the rustic appearance of the handmade mattress. Looking down at my own bed, I saw it suffered from the same odd style. One of the blankets even had a cartoon character printed on it.

Taking a better look around, the entire place was decorated with conflicting tastes. The small ancient-looking kitchen in front of me was full of wooden furniture, and it even had a stone oven carved directly into the wall at the right corner. A few baskets full of vegetables and aromatic plants hung from the ceiling added a nice charm to the place.

The modern-looking knives, pots, and plates, however, stood out like a sore thumb. The glass stove placed right next to the oven made things even more confusing. Its presence made it clear that this place had access to electricity, but there was no fridge or microwave. In fact, aside from that stove, there weren’t any other electrical appliances I could see.

Next to the kitchen stood a small square table and two wooden chairs. The bookshelf behind those contained a decent amount of books.

I stood up to take a closer look at them and opened a few out of curiosity. While I could read most just fine, some of the oldest-looking ones were written by hand in a language I didn’t recognize.

“Hm?”

Was my hand always blue?

I didn’t remember. In fact, I couldn’t recall anything about myself, not even my name. Inspecting the rest of my body, I found that it was the same all over. I didn’t feel sick; quite the opposite. Still, my blue skin felt out of place for some reason. Trying to find an answer to my situation, I kept investigating the odd room.

Hanging beside the bookshelf was a reddish longbow. I tried grabbing it, but doing so caused my arm to feel tingly. As I pulled my hand from it, a small bump grew from the wooden weapon. I decided to leave it alone before something bad happened.

Under the bow, there was a single gold tipped arrow on display. It looked refined and reflected all colours of the rainbow, even under the blue light of the mushrooms. Below it, a narrow basket contained other types of arrows. Stone, wood, metal, bone, even glass tips. It was as if they were made from whatever the crafter found lying around. They also lacked the beauty of the first.

Once I was done observing the little armoury, I looked around for anything else that caught my attention. There wasn’t that much left. Other than those glowing mushrooms and a few tiny holes scattered around, the remaining walls had close to no decorations except for three paintings hanging above the beds and the nightstand. The one in the middle was a breathtaking scene of a small forest village that looked straight out of a fairy tale. The remaining two were portraits of blue-skinned people, like me.

The first one showed a family of three. There was a man, a woman, and a young girl. One thing that caught my attention was that they all had long ears and white hair. The man had red eyes, while both women’s were amethyst. Same as when I saw my hand, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t normal.

Elf

That was the word that came to my mind.

Is that what I am? An elf?

Something felt wrong about my assumption, but whatever it was, I couldn’t place it.

“Why can’t I remember?” I muttered.

The remaining portrait was that of another girl. She looked like the women from the previous painting. Same hair and eyes. Her face was also similar to theirs, so she was probably related to them.

Is that me?

This portrait was right above the bed I was sleeping in, so it was a possibility at least. I needed a mirror to confirm it, but there was none. My sight focused on the knives once more. I walked to the kitchen and pulled the broadest one out of the wooden holder.

Not good.

Its blade was painted white and ornamented with blue and green flower patterns. Every knife was the same. I searched through the cupboards, trying to find something else I could use to see my reflection. I wasn’t successful. Everything was either painted, transparent, or opaque.

Concluding there were no more clues in the room, I held+ the large knife I pulled earlier and walked towards the door. Not knowing what awaited me on the other side, I took a deep breath before opening it.

A bathroom?

A large wooden box with a hole in the middle served as a replacement for the toilet. A bucket full of ash and wood shavings was placed next to it. There was also a cupboard, a closet full of cleaning tools and products, a mirror, a stone sink, and what seemed to be a shower area. Those were the only things I could find in the small room. It made no sense.

How do I get out of here!?

I was trapped. I ran into the main room and frantically searched every nook and cranny in hopes of finding a way out. Behind the bookshelf, under the beds, the nightstand, even behind the paintings. The cave was completely sealed.

Come on! Where’s the exit!?

My heart was racing, and breathing became difficult. The thought of running out of air at any moment invaded my mind, and the tears I could no longer contain blurred my vision.

I extended my arm and reached for the wall, hoping to lean on it while I wiped my eyes clean. My hand, however, went past it as it fell into a small hole in the wall. It was then that I felt it. A soft breeze went through my fingers and into the room. Placing my ear next to the hole, I closed my eyes and listened. I could hear the sounds of crickets singing, flowing water and leaves rustling with the wind.

To my understanding, these holes were some sort of ventilation system. This meant I wasn’t running out of air anytime soon, which helped me calm down a little. Now I only needed to worry about being trapped.

I sat on my bed and placed the knife next to me whilst I evaluated my situation. I was locked alone in a room with no way out. Regardless of its odd appearance, it looked well equipped to live in it. There were two beds, and it was clear that the second one had an owner, as well. That said, were their intentions good or bad?

The fact that I could roam free within the room and even had access to multiple weapons meant that this person didn’t see me as a threat. Chances that both of us were prisoners were also quite low because of these items. Did they trust me or were they simply confident I couldn’t harm them?

Which one is it?

There was another thing I had forgotten to do because of my panic attack earlier. Walking into the bathroom once more, I looked at my reflection in the mirror. Doing so confirmed my suspicion. I was the girl in the portrait over my bed.

By that logic, the owner of the other bed was probably someone from the painting hanging above it. That bed, while wider than mine, didn’t have space for two people to sleep there comfortably, so I was sure there was only one more person. Since they looked like me, that person was probably my family, too. It was strange that I couldn’t remember anything about them or myself, but I could probably get some answers from them.

The singing crickets I heard earlier indicated it was nighttime. That meant this person, if they did exist, would probably arrive to rest soon. The best I could do was wait for them to come. I still kept the knife with me in case I was wrong. Not being able to do anything else, I sat at the table and read a book to kill time.