Chapter Text
In the middle of a forest, there was a clearing.
In the middle of this clearing, there were two people, lying in a heap, their belongings scattered around them.
"Ow."
Someone said.
"Ow."
The other agreed.
One of them flailed around for a moment, trying and failing to get up, getting tangled up in the other's clinging limbs.
"Get off." They snapped, pushing the lanky, clingy one aside. Their canary-yellow shirt was covered in grass stains and dirt. Probably because they were both lying on the floor, in grass and dirt. The lanky one groaned and rolled aside, ending up on their face.
"This ground tastes awful." Canary-shirt grumbled, pushing their face off the floor with their hands.
The not lanky one looked over at them, confused. "Why would you expect it to not taste awful? It's dirt."
"Dirt?"
Canary-shirt didn't seem all that smart.
"Why are we in the dirt?"
That was actually a good question, and the other thought about that. Or, tried to. Thinking back felt like trying to dig through gravel with your face. They thought and thought, but all that happened was a vague feeling of frustration.
"...I don't know." They said, after a few minutes. "I have no idea what we're doing here."
They got up, and started collecting all of the objects on the ground nearby. A bag, rope? Some sharp objects, a... what was that, a map? Map of what, exactly? Was that a river? Which way up did it go?
"Hey." Said Canary-shirt, who seemed to have gotten up while the other was trying to make sense of the map. "Why does your face look like that?"
"Like what?" Not-lanky reached up to their face, and their fingers hit ceramic.
Huh?
Canary-shirt made a sort of spluttering sound when they did that, pointing to the other's arm. "You're made of metal!" They shouted, as if that was a surprise.
...
Wait, that WAS a surprise!
"WHY AM I MADE OF METAL?"
"WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME? I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE!"
They stopped panicking for a moment, and looked over at Canary-shirt.
"...You don't?" Their voice was softer, then. It felt... bad.
Canary-shirt seemed to notice that, and took a step back, smiling and waving their hands dismissive-
Hey, why weren't they wearing a shirt?
"No! I... I know you?" That sounded more like a question than an answer, and they frowned. "I know you? I'm sure I know you. But I don't know you. I know you but I don't KNOW know you, which is kind of-"
"What kind of person wears coat but no shirt?"
"What?"
Metal-arm pointed to their chest. "I can see your chest. All of it. Look."
Canary-shirt frowned in response to that, closing their eyes. Perhaps protecting their modesty? "Clearly you stole all the clothing! I can't see any of you other than your metal arm and your... wait, that's a mask! You can take it off!"
"What's a mask?" Asked metal-arm.
"On your face! Just-" Canary-shirt moved over and grabbed at their face, pulling it up.
Oh! Now they could see a lot more, actually.
"Oh." Oh.
"You have a face!" Canary-shirt sounded far more surprised at that than anyone should be.
"Everyone has a face."
"Good point." They frowned, looking around. "So. Where are we?"
"How should I know?" Was the obvious answer.
"...Well, you have a map."
"Yes, but I don't know WHERE the map shows."
"Where we are, obviously." Canary-shirt peered at the map rolled under the other's sleeve. "Why else would you carry a map?"
They had a good point, actually. Why would you carry a map if you didn't need it?
"Well, which way are we going, then?" Canary-shirt seemed to be more interested in the map, so maybe he'd know what was going on. He? They? No, he. They were relatively sure Canary-shirt was a he.
Canary-shirt pulled the map from under Metal-arm's... arm, and unrolled it again.
"Hmm." He said. He rotated it ninety degrees. "Hmmmmmmm..."
There was silence for several minutes.
"You have no idea, do you."
"I have no idea." He agreed. "But I think we're in the middle somewhere."
Metal-arm frowned at that sudden deduction.
"How did you figure that out, exactly?"
"Well," He said, "we're in the middle of a forest. So the middle of the map might be analogous."
That reasoning was about as flimsy as a paper tower, but at least he was trying. "How can you tell we're in the middle of a forest?"
"Well look around! It's just trees as far as the eye can see. No open space or anything, no matter how far you look." Oh, he'd actually done some looking. That was good.
Metal-arm was quiet for a while.
...
"Well." They said, after a few minutes of thinking. "What do we do now?"
"That's... a very good question." Canary-shirt rolled up the map, and shoved it in his pocket. "Pick a random direction and start walking?"
Well, that was a terrible idea. But at the same time it was still the only idea on the table at the moment, so Metal-arm nodded.
"Alright."
They both, immediately, began walking in opposite directions. At least, until Canary-shirt turned around to see where they were and walked into a tree.
That caught Metal-arm's attention, and she immediately changed direction, rushing back over to him.
"What were you doing?" She snapped.
"What were YOU doing? Shouldn't you be following me?" Was his retort.
"Well you didn't specify a direction!"
He sighed, and touched his head, where he smacked it into the tree.
"We should communicate better."
Now THAT was a good idea, finally.
"Right." Metal arm was about to ask him which direction to go in, before realising that there was perhaps a more important question to ask. "Do you... have a name?"
He looked utterly scandalised by that. "Do I Have a... do you know who I am?"
"No." She replied, bluntly. "That's why I'm asking."
"...Well! Do YOU have a name?" Was his childish reply, to which she opened her mouth to reply, and-
"..."
Nothing came to mind. There was still nothing there. She had absolutely NO idea what her name was. What the hell had happened to do this?
Someone had done this, right?
Of course someone had. They had so many enemies-
Why did they have enemies? Wait, no, the two of them were important. What, with the emperor being close to death, all his children... huh. Well, that was confusing. She hadn't even been trying to know that and she did, but she couldn't even remember her own name?
Well, name wasn't as important as status, was it? Not really.
"...You don't know, do you."
Canary-shirt pulled her from her thoughts.
"...No." She said, after a moment. "I do not."
For a moment, he seemed unhappy, but then he smiled bright and cheerful.
"Well, that makes two of us!" He said. "I've got no idea either!"
"I know we're important." She replied. It wasn't much, but it was better than offering nothing. "And we have enemies. I think."
"Well, naturally!" He waved a hand dismissively, still smiling. "That's what the bodyguards are for!"
Inexplicably, a wave of sorrow passed over her.
"Bodyguard." She corrected him.
There had been another. And now... there wasn't.
"Oh." His cheer drained away like sand through cupped hands.
More silence came, this time even more uncomfortable.
"Well, in my head, I've just been calling you Metal-Arm, to be honest." Canary-shirt said, breaking the silence kindly. "You know. Because you have a metal-" "Yes. I understand." She smiled, faintly. "I have been thinking of you as Canary-shirt."
He looked at her, both confused and insulted, looking down at his jacket. "What... why?"
"Well, the colour of your coat is... violently yellow." That was one way to put it.
"...Oh." He bounced back from that fairly quickly, dusting himself down. "Well, do you want to come up with something better? Those names are terrible."
"Not as terrible as Edward." Was her, somewhat impulsive response.
"No, not as much as Edward." Canary agreed. "Who's Edward?"
"I do not know. But his name is terrible." Somewhere, someone named Edward was rather insulted. But it was true. Edward didn't sound powerful or important.
"Why don't we just start walking, and try and remember our names on the way?" Every so often, it seemed Canary was able to give pretty good suggestions. "We don't want to be out here when night falls."
"That is a fair point." With that, she started walking, and this time, he followed her.