John’s eyes ripped open. He sat up and violently gasped for air, coughing when he inhaled more air and dust than his lungs could bear.

Closing his eyes again, he softly fell back to the hard ground and laid a palm on his face in a futile try to suppress his pounding headache. He sighed, ruffling through his hair that had somehow become far shorter than he remembered.

‘Fuck, I shouldn’t drink so much anymore. How did I even get this drunk, anyway? It was just a measly bottle of wine. And to think that I could dream such crazy stuff up when drunk. Maybe I should have become an artist instead of a homeless drunkard.’

The headache intensified as his most recent memories returned to him. John tentatively opened his eyes once again, glimpsing at his surroundings. He was in a shady narrow alley, barely wide enough for two people to pass each other. High, muddy yellow walls surrounded him on both sides, beyond of which a brightly burning sun was sending gentle rays down.

‘This sure brings some memories back,’ he mused. “No wonder they called me…huh? Why can’t I seem to remember my name? Why does John pop up whenever I think about it?!’

John started to panic, but stopped himself before he could fall into a dangerous train of thought. He was in an unfamiliar alley, so he should probably search for a familiar part of New Pandora to rest in before allowing himself to panic.

He mentally applauded himself for thinking of such a brilliant plan despite the pounding headache that threatened to make him pass out in pain.

He heard a strange sound that he had never heard before from his left. He looked at the end of the alley it was coming from, only to notice that an absolutely massive horse was producing it every time its feet touched the ground. All the thoughts he had a few moments ago vanished into nothing but hot air.

John ignored the pain he was feeling at the moment and stood up. It was the first time he had seen one in real life. In New Pandora, the only place you could find horses in were biology books and fairy tales. Though its exaggerated size confused him, he nonetheless pressed on.

Leaning onto the rough wall beside him, he stumbled his way towards the slowly moving animal.

“Hey kid, what do you think you’re doing?” a giant clothed in a strange tunic asked him.

John snapped out of his trance, only now noticing that the people around him seemed considerable bigger than him. They were, in fact, looking at him as if he were a strange animal that had broken out of its cage and had found its way to its former captors.

“Um,” he said, surprised at the high pitch of his voice. “Well, I just wanted to take a closer look at that majestic beast of burden there.” He pointed at the neighing horse.

The giant looked at him strangely. “Boy, you’ve probably eaten the wrong thing for dinner. That’s a fucking horse.” He shook his head and shrugged. “Well, if you insist you can go ahead and look at it all you want. It’s not like anyone will hinder you from doing so.”

He tentatively approached it until a thought struck him like a thunderbolt. ‘Why am I surrounded by giants? I may have never been tall, but I can’t seem to remember ever seeing people twice my size. Could it be that I’ve landed on a foreign planet that is populated by gigantic beings that look exactly like humans and happen to have developed the same language? Impossible. The possibility of something like that happening is even lower than that of going through a wall.’

‘Wait, did he just call me boy?’ His eyes became as wide as saucers as a terrifying realization slowly dawned upon him. Slowly his gaze moved downwards, where he discovered that his skin wasn’t as wrinkled as he remembered it to be. Or as hairy, for that matter.

In his mind, everything clicked into place. The high voice, wrinkle-less skin and height of the people around him. If he really was a child, then it would truly fit.

‘But how? Don’t tell me this is the work of that marble? No, even if it were able to, it would never do something like that without a suitable compensation. Is this the work of those strange voices, then? I don’t remember ever meeting beings that are even remotely powerful enough to accomplish something like revival, let alone reincarnation in a child’s body.’

A middle aged extremely well built man that stood out even amongst giants bumped into John, causing him to fall on his rear-end. It seemed like he didn’t even notice that he had pushed John over at first, only realizing what he had done when he almost stepped on him.

He stopped his foot in mid-air, slowly it moving aside to set it down a few centimetres next John’s head. “Oh, sorry kid.” He smiled kindly at John. “I don’t pay attention for a moment and this is what happens.” He grabbed John’s linen shirt and pulled him up, hastily dusting the dirt off him.

“Where are your parents? Don’t they know that it’s dangerous to let a child run around by itself like this? Especially in times like this, you know?” he said, stretching his massive frame to search the crowd for frantic looking people.

John, whose mind had gone haywire, slowly put a hand on his arm and pinched it. When he felt the pain that overshadowed even his headache, he grimaced.

“Oh my holy pile of steaming shit. What have you gotten yourself into?” he muttered.

The man slapped John at the back of his head, sending him headfirst into the ground again. “I will NOT hear such words coming out of your mouth again, do you understand?” he chided. “Where did you learn such dirty words? Really, kids these days have no manners. To think that they would curse such vicious words because of a simple encounter with a middle aged man! Back in the day, something like that would have been impossible. We were far better behaved than you youngsters nowadays. Unlike you, we never dared to even think of uttering such words in front of adults, you know? Hey, why aren’t you moving? HEY! Are yo...... ”

The throbbing pain came in intervals with just enough time between them to let him relax, but not enough to let him enter the sweet embrace of sleep.

It was hot, and John could barely feel some sweat running down his temple in his delirium.

He tossed and turned, but no matter what he did, he wasn’t able to sink into the blissful lands of dreams. Finally, John hesitantly opened his tired eyes. His heart was beating rapidly, as if trying to signify him that he wasn’t in a good state.

He could vaguely make out the blurry outlines of an angular face with thick, almost bushy eyebrows. The fog that covered his vision and mind obscured any other details he may have grasped in a normal situation.

Some murmurs reached his ears, but it didn’t really sound different from the constant droning he was hearing. He heard an exaggeratedly loud sigh from somewhere before feeling a cold, smooth and round object being pushed down his throat.

He gagged and tried to spit it out, but a strong force held him down and paralyzed him.

A flame that easily dwarfed the ambient heat erupted from inside his stomach, quickly spreading to the rest of his body. His whole body jerked whilst a soundless scream escaped his lips. It didn’t take long for the flame to completely engulf him, but contrary to his expectations, the pain started becoming more bearable at the exact same moment.

The throbbing became slower and slower. Gradually, John’s tiredness mostly disappeared, and he opened his heavy eyes with a groan. He smacked his lips together as he felt his dry throat.

‘Water’, he thought and groaned at the same time.

He was surrounded by walls made of roughly cut wooden planks. They weren’t even properly waxed, to the point that it would be ridiculously easy to get a splinter or two if one were to run into one. Not that he ever planned on doing so, of course. The ceiling, being made up of the same material as the floor and the walls, didn’t do much to improve the ambience.

The air was somewhat stifling, indicating that he had been here for quite some time. Either that or it was even hotter than he thought.

He let his gaze wander around, catching sight of the giant that had caused him to pass out sitting on a cushioned chair next to him. Now that John took a closer look at him, he saw that he seemed even older than he thought. The rough stubble covering his cheeks and the receding hairline coupled with a few white hairs at the fringe of his brown mane went a long way to prove that. There seemed to be a few crow feet at the corner of his eyes, too, further reinforcing his suspicions.

John estimated him to be around forty to fifty years old, but he could very well be wrong. He had never been good at guessing the age of people. Or estimating things in general.

The giant’s arms were crossed in front of his chest, exposing the upper half of a blue badge that had the head of some strange being that looked like a hideous version of an eagle engraved on it. The green robe that covered most of his body shifted as the giant opened his eyes in a flash and stood up.

“Seems like you finally woke up,” he said whilst yawning.

“Where are we?” John asked, completely ignoring the implications of the strange man’s words. “Did you bring me here? What do you want from me?”

The strange man slowly approached him whilst raising his hands in front of his chest. “Whoa, calm down kid. We’re in an inn. After you collapsed on the street-“

“Due to your actions.” John interjected.

The strange man shot him an annoyed look, but continued as if he hadn’t even heard him, “I brought you here since your parents didn’t appear even after searching for a while. It seems like you had a pretty bad fever, so I pushed a healing pellet down your throat. As you can see, it worked.”

Seeing that John didn’t have any reaction when he mentioned the healing pellet, he sighed. “You do realize that healing pellets are quite expensive, do you? They take quite a lot of aether to make.”

John awkwardly scratched the back of his head, not sure whether or not he should believe him or what to make of the strange words he was speaking. “Thanks, I guess? Is there any way I can repay you?”

The strange man shook his head. “None. Do you have parents?”

“…” He opened his mouth, only to quickly shut it again. John didn’t really know how to answer this question, especially due to the fact that he couldn’t seem to remember anything about the life of the body he was in. The only thing he woke up with was that his name was John. If he said yes, then he would have to prove it, but if he said no and he did have parents who were searching for him right now, then it would become even more problematic.

“You don’t know?” the man asked after a period of awkward silence.

“Let’s say your assumption is true. What would you do if that were the case?”

“Big words for toddler, I gotta admit that. Has anyone ever told you that your mannerisms and looks don’t match?” he remarked. “But to answer your question: I would probably help you search for them. If we still don’t find them after a few hours have passed, well, tough luck. You’ll be on your own.”

“Cruel words. So you would abandon a lovable small child like me who can’t even fend for himself?”

“These are cruel times, sonny. But since I already wasted a healing pellet on you, I guess I could show you the way to the next orphanage.”

“Seems like a deal. How long was I out for?”

The strange man looked out of the window, checking something outside. “Around an hour.” He stood up, brushing some non-existent dust off himself. “Let’s go, we don’t have any time to waste.”

“Alright.” John hopped out of the bed he was on, only now noticing that his clothes consisted of a rough linen shirt and lots of air. ‘Well, I guess it beats some combat suits I had to wear in terms of comfort.’

He noticed that the strange man had stretched his hand out, presumably for him to hold onto. He snorted and gently pushed it aside. “I think I can handle this by myself,” he said and hopped out of the bed he was sitting on.

The strange giant quirked an eyebrow at his behaviour, but retrieved his hands nonetheless. “My name’s George, by the way,” he stated, stepping through the already opened door.

John cursed his small legs as he hurried after George, only catching up to him after they had already crossed most of the corridor that led to a busy tavern. “Why are you telling me your name? I thought we’ll never see each other again after this.”

George slowed down so that they could walk side by side. “Fate often has some strange surprises in stock for one, you know? Who knows what could happen in the future?”

John looked down, his eyes glazing over as long buried memories returned.

A few seconds passed in silence, both of them lost in their own thoughts. Finally, George started noticing that John wasn’t behaving normally. He laid a hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him in order free him from his trance.

“You okay?” he gently asked.

A sigh escaped John’s lips as he shook his head furiously. “Yes, I guess I am. Just some memories, you know?”

George wanted to laugh, but couldn’t bring himself to do so. The mood just wasn’t right for that. Instead, he gave John a wry smile as they stepped through the front door. “What memories could a kid like you possibly have?”

John replied with another wry smile, putting a hand above his eyes in order to shield himself from the sudden increase of light. “Anyway, my name’s John.”

The air outside was even hotter and more humid than he remembered it to be, and it hit him like a wall as he stepped outside. “So, got any clue where the next orphanage is?”

George put a hand to his bearded chin, as if in deep thought. “No.”

“…”