Chapter 1:

As the darkness dissipated, a flood of colours broke through my eyes and overwhelmed my brain. The first thing that struck me was the almost painful cold feeling that enveloped me. As my eyes focused, I began to register my surroundings. A vast body of water lay before me, it was a dazzling blue with streaks of green flowing through it like a stroke of a paint brush on canvas. Beyond this was a magnificent mountain, topped with snow and shrouded in a mist of ancient power. The jagged face of the mountain towered over me and cast a shadow large enough to cover the whole lake. The sun, although hidden by the mountain, gave off a brilliant light, like liquid gold. It seeped round the edges of the mountain and flooded the valley with an intense light that burned my eyes. I slowly turned my head and noticed the pine trees that stretched vast and wide inland and hugged the sides of the lake.

I slowly rose from the ground and noticed a bundle of fur lying on the rocky shore besides me. The fur was a rusty red colour and seemed to shift slightly. I noticed hints of black fur knitted in among the red, creating a vision of an abstract charcoal fire. The mound of fur arose, revealing itself to be a large wolf. I was confronted with the moist, jet black nose and glistening golden eyes of this beast. I stared at him and he stared at me. We were one and the same, yet completely separate.

The next thing I noticed was the lack of clothes I seemed to have on. I had a deep green T-shirt and black shorts on. A golden chain hung around my neck with a small ring that hung from it. I wore black and grey hiking boots and had a dark grey backpack that sat besides the wolf.

A rumble shook the heavens and the Earth, making almost perfect ripples in the lake. Suddenly and without warning, clouds filled the sky and blocked out the glorious sun. Forks of lightening carved through the clouds and struck the ground and thunder erupted as if the gods were applauding the general stupidity of humanity. These natural phenomena stirred my companion and I and forced us to find some sort of shelter before the rain started. After about 10 minutes of walking, I found a small alcove in the side of the mountain. I had followed around the sides of the lake, too afraid to venture into the dense pine forest. The wolf followed close at my side and despite his huge size and ferocity, he gave me a sense of calm and comfort and almost nostalgia of a time that I don't remember and am unsure was ever even real. And as if the rain was waiting for us, the clouds opened up and the rain fell just as the wolf and I took shelter. I sat in the alcove and dismally examined the sheets of rain that tumbled and shattered on the ground.

"I think we might be stuck here for a little while now buddy."

I gave a little sigh and the wolf took that as an invitation to curl up and lay his head on my lap. I didn't protest. For one I couldn't, I was trapped under the weight of his giant head and second I didn't want to. The wolf's fur was soft and was useful in keeping my exposed legs warm.

I took this as the perfect opportunity to inspect the backpack that I woke up with. For some reason, the backpack was the one thing in this bizarre situation that made me nervous. Not the gigantic wolf that had its head in my lap, no, not even the fact that I had found myself on the bank of a lake I had never seen and with no recollection of how I got there or who I was, no, it was the back pack. There were two zipped up compartments at the front and a pocket on either side. On the very front was a mesh pocket that had a piece of paper in it. It seemed too obvious to be anything important, but I reached in and took the piece of paper out. It was an A4 piece of paper that had been folded once in half and I could see the indentation of writing on it. My mind was racing with millions of questions. It's amazing how such a small and insignificant thing to one person could bring such a wave of emotions and questions to someone else.