Whoosh.

The first thing I remember is the touch of cool end-of-summer wind.

I stretched my hands out over the grass. It was soft, and warm, and the earth beneath it cool and firm.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. It was bright, but it didn’t bother me- nothing bothered me.

I was at peace.

The world was at peace.

I smiled.

I tilted my head back, and saw the trim borders of a forest, and I felt at home. It seemed to me that I was as much a part of the earth as they were. My body was still and planted in the soil, my hair blew lightly with each gust of wind, the same as the branches that bobbed gently above me. I took a deep breath in through my nose, and recognized something deep and rich. I tasted the comforting flavors of moss, and sap, and decomposing leaves on the air. Squirrels, or some other small forest creature, chittered away just beyond my sight. I opened my mouth to exhale.

No.

I tried to open my mouth.

I couldn’t.

I choked a moment on the air that had nowhere to go, before it found its way out through my nose. Propping myself up with one hand, I desperately groped at my face. My mouth was there, but my lips were sealed. Somehow… someone had glued my mouth shut!? There wasn’t a single gap. I probed the inside with my tongue.

No.

I tried to do that.

I couldn’t feel my tongue.

I couldn’t feel the entire inside of my mouth.

I could feel my heartbeat, though. It pounded unbearably loud in my head, at  hummingbird speed. That wasn't healthy for a...

Uh...

...Person?

Something inside me told me not to finish that thought.  I frowned, pushing at it anyways.  

I groped my face. Two eyes, two ears, a nose, a chin, all as it should be. I continued groping, moving down. My chest moved up and down when I breathed. I had five fingers on each hand. I was wearing a plain, off-white tunic that felt like a burlap bag, with a thin brown rope as a belt. Why would I be wearing a tunic?? My hands reached my crotch, and I paused.

I looked at my hands again. I looked very carefully. The tree line was behind me, and I was sitting in full, unobstructed sunlight.

So why was my skin green?

I felt around between my legs again, panic rising. One hole. No genitals. I pulled a clump of shoulder-length hair in front of my face, suddenly and desperately needing to know what color it was. I didn’t remember what color it should be. I didn’t remember what race I was, or what sex I was, or what country I was from.

My hair was white.

I didn’t know what I was supposed to look like, but this wasn’t it.

Panic rose up through my stomach and chest, and settled in my neck, strangling me. I couldn’t open my mouth. I couldn’t breathe. This wasn’t right. Who was I? Where was I? What was my name? How did I get here?? Oh my god I can’t breathe!

I dug my nails into the crease of my lips, trying to pry them apart. Were my lips always this thin? My mouth this small? It didn’t matter. I was suffocating, I needed more air, NOW, or I was going to die. I dug my nails in deeper, dragging them against my skin. It was painful now, I felt something wet and cool on my fingers, but I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t breathe!

“Hey there!” a friendly voice called from below.

PERSON, was all my panicked brain could think.

NAKED.

TUNIC.

I yanked at a handful of my tunic and shoved it between my exposed mannequin crotch, my panic having shifted to another source as I instinctively began breathing through my nose again. I squinted my eyes in the sunlight and looked around for the source of the sound. Every fiber in my being told me to run, but I needed to know in which direction. 

Who else was here?