You slowly blink your eyes open.

You are under a large tree, near a small log, and your head is swirling and your muscles ache. You hear the sound of waves in the distance, and the natural sounds of the forest fills your ears.

You gasp as you only remember one thing: Your name.

You slowly stand up, and look down to see yourself in woolen clothes, with soft leather boots and a weird, gray-green cloak on your shoulders.

As you search, you also find a belt secured along your waist. It has two knives in it, one smaller and leaner, and one longer and broader. The names hit your mind like an instinct: The Throwing Knife and Saxe Knife.

Checking your arms, you study the bruises and scratches all over your barren arms.

What happened?

You look around yourself for clues, and gasp when you see a recurve bow on the ground. After more foraging, you also find a quiver with a few arrows in it.

Shaking your head slowly, you look up at the sky, you see the tree that you first saw when you woke up with enhanced clarification, and realize that there is a severely broken branch there.

Had you fallen from the tree?

You glance at the building nearby.

Had you jumped off the building, and used the tree to save yourself?

You jump slightly when you hear the sound of thundering footfalls, and whirl around to see several blonde haired, light eyed young men, a olive-skinned black haired young woman, and an older blonde man with a hook on his arm where a hand used to be, and a peg leg right there, all looking at you in shock.

You wave a bruised hand, "Uh, Hi." You say, your voice slightly raspy, "Who are you?"

One of the young men stood straighter, sheathing his sword. He signaled to the others to put away their weapons, and you sighed in relief when one of the bigger boys dropped his large, weaponized club.

He was clearly the boss, but that just intrigued you more. He wasn't the biggest, or the oldest, but the others respect him enough to listen to him.

"I'm Hal." He said in a soft accent that you realized is Skandian. He pointed to the others, calling their names as he pointed at them, "And that is Stig, Jesper, Stefan, Ulf, Wulf, Ingvar, and Edvin."

Stig waved with a scarred hand. Jesper used a hand to mock Hal. Stefan talked in Hal's voice at the same time. Ulf and Wulf started arguing, but kept glancing at you with weird, almost scared looks. Ingvar smiled sweetly at you through dark shapes over his eyes, and Edvin was already scanning you, his eyes narrowed as he catches your cuts and bruises.

Hal pointed at the girl, "That's Lydia-"

Lydia smirked, pointing at the old man with her thumb, "And that's the old, grumpy cat."

The old man burst out laughing, it sounded more like thunder than laughter, "Aye, she's a sharp one, that lass." He winked at you in an unfazed manner, "I'm Thorn, the only one that keeps these boys in check."

You can't help it as a laugh from escaping your lips.

These strangers aren't enemies, you think in amazement, they seem to be pretty nice, actually.