I awoke with a feeling unlike any I had ever felt before. It was somewhat discomforting, as though I were in a place I had not been before. The air was damp and I could barely see through the thick sheathing of darkness that surrounded me. This was not home. This was not where I remembered going to sleep. In fact, I could remember very little, where was I? How did I get here? Who was I? to these questions I had no real answer. Yet despite this lack of identity, I felt somewhat secure. I was not afraid, everything was foreign – yes, but it was all somehow natural. I slowly picked myself up from the ground and my eyes adjusted to my surroundings. I appeared to be in some kind of tomb, or burial site – was I buried alive? Surely not, for a flicker of light streamed in from above the small stair well several feet in front of me – this tomb, was open.
I lifted my hand in front of my face, to try and focus my eyes. What I saw, I shall never forget – for in front of my eyes was not a hand of flesh, but one of bone! Were my eyes deceiving me? How could my hand be just bone, no skin, yet I feel no pain? It was at this point in time that I began to realize I was not breathing… was I dead? Had I died in battle, sometime ago, and not made it to the safety of the gods? If I were dead, then why did I still possess a body? Slowly, as though guided by an unseen force, visions of my past filled my mind. I had a family, I had children. My mental images were so vague I could barely understand them, but I soon discovered I had indeed been killed in a great battle. Strangely none of this concerned me, I simply accepted it, it was just how things were. It was as though I had lost all feeling, I had virtually no emotion.
As my thoughts collected themselves I began to gather the strength to walk. I stumbled towards the staircase that seemed to lead to the outside world, slowly, steadily I began to climb, it was as though I was walking for the first time in my life. Every action my body made seemed completely new, I somehow possessed the knowledge required to display such motor skills, but still, everything was entirely void of familiarity.
