(Chapter rewritten 5/8/20)

W-Where am I? Everything hurts. Am I dead?

"I WON'T LET YOU DIE!!" A familiar voice broke the silence.

Everything went white then dimmed to a dark blue. It was cold. What is happening? What is this place? Rays of light caught her eye. She tried to take in a breath but water began to fill her lungs.

The cold water was beginning to shock her body.

This snapped her back into focus and she clawed for the surface. Her lungs were screaming at her. She finally broke the surface and began to gasp for air. The water in her lungs was making it difficult to breathe. She was just offshore and began to paddle to the beach.

She crawled up onto the beach just far enough that her face was out of the water and collapsed. She was exhausted, her side hurt, and she couldn't breathe.

She began to cough up water before everything went black again.
—-
The boy sighed, kicking a stone as he walked. Training today didn't go well, as usual. He could easily do fire-type spells, the other types of spells however, were chaotic and hard to control.

They often became too chaotic and would destroy something, or even worse, hurt someone.

He came to a familiar path. He turned and went down the sloped path. The dirt and gravel path crunched beneath his boots. Soon he could hear the sound of waves.

The path eventually stopped and the golden sand began. He would often come here to think or to relax. The beach was his getaway.

The sun was beginning to set and the sky was a beautiful pink and orange.

He walked along the beach until he noticed something on the shore. He carefully moved closer to investigate.

As he got closer, he realized that it was a girl. She was covered in several scrapes, bruises, and burns. Most concerning was the large gash on her side. Blood was beginning to stain the sand underneath her and discolored the waves that lapped the shore.

He quickly rushed over to her and gently shook her, "Hey! Are you okay?! Say something!"

She groaned as she began to regain consciousness again. She again started to cough up water. When she stopped, the boy sighed in relief.

The girl covered her eyes from the bright sun as the boy spoke up, "Thank Notch you are alright. I was really worried."

The girl began to look around frantically, "What? W-Where am I?!"

The boy frowned, "You're on the beach outside of Dalhurst. What happened to you?"

The girl looked terrified, she sat up and began to think, what did happen to her? "I-I don't know..."

The boy became concerned, "Do you remember anything?"

"My name... is Paint.." she answered, still unsure if that was correct.

The boy stood up and held out his hand to her, why was this familiar? "I'm Chance. Let's go back to my house, I need to clean those injuries of yours."

Paint examined her body, just now realizing how bad she looked and felt. She carefully grabbed his hand and he pulled her up.

She stumbled slightly, she was in pretty bad shape. After standing for a moment, she seemed to be fine.

Chance was easily taller than Paint. She tilted her head slightly to look up at him. He smiled back at her and waved, "Come on. My house isn't that far."

Paint looked around as they walked. This place was unfamiliar to her. Actually, everything was unfamiliar.

Chance was watching Paint out of the corner of his eye, she was lost and confused. He couldn't blame her for being scared at a time like this.

Maybe, just maybe, they could get her memories back.

They made their way into Dalhurst. It wasn't a big city, but it was large compared to the other cities around it.

"We'll get your memory back. Don't worry. We'll find out what happened to you."

As they walked, a guy passed them. As Chance and Paint continued walking, he stopped and looked at them. Scars littered his body but the one across his eye was the most visible. He narrowed his eyes before quickly running off.

He eventually came to an old-rundown building outside of the city. The upper part of the house was destroyed. Luckily, that's not where he was going. He found the door to the basement. He quickly made his way down.

They had worked for years making this place their own. They had rooms for each of them and added other parts to their "base" that they called home.

Soon he noticed a small figure appear from one of the bedrooms. Desmond was short compared to him. Desmond looked at Arturo with confusion.

Arturo walked past the smaller boy, "I just saw Paint."

"Paint? That's impossible!"

Arturo paused, "There's no mistaking it. We have to tell him."

He pushed open the door to the main bedroom.

"Domonik."

Domonik glanced over to see two boys. The one with the scar spoke up again, "Domonik. We have some news."

"Well? Speak up." Domonik fussed.

The smaller boy continued, "Paint is alive."

They had Domonik's full attention. He turned to face them, "That's impossible. You saw what happened, no one could survive a fall like that."

The boy with the scar continued, "I'm not lying, Paint is alive. Something is wrong with her, her memory is gone."

Domonik stopped, her missing memory would make things much easier. A smile crept onto his face, "Arturo, Desmond, thank you for bringing this to my attention."

The two boys looked at each other then the boy with the scar spoke up again, "What does this mean?"

Domonik moved over to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder, "Oh Arturo, you're so naive. We are going to go after her."

Domonik raised his hand up for Arturo to see. A small flame danced in his palm, "I'm going to accomplish what that weak excuse of a god could not." He then clenched his fist tightly, extinguishing the small flame.