“How long do you think he’s been here?”  A voice echoes in the darkness. 

“No clue.” A higher pitched voice replied. 

 And after that the ringing returned making it impossible to hear anything else. 

There was a smell of meat cooking that invaded the void. In response to this invasion the previously unconscious young man who had been laying there opened his eyes. He tried to lift his head but couldn’t. 

“Oh, you’re awake.” A male voice spoke from behind the raging campfire. 

 The young man managed to turn his head to the side to look at the speaker. But all he saw was the campfire going. 

“Do you need help getting up?” 

The young man nodded best he could. Suddenly someone came from behind and propped him up. His head spun. He felt as if he was about to lose consciousness again. 

“You need some food, kid,” The woman that helped him up asked. “No idea how long you were out for.” 

 The first person that spoke handed a bowl over to the woman, then offered one to the young man. 

 Taking the bowl in his shaky he looks down at the contents. It was full of a brown viscous liquid with chunks of vegetables and meat in it. It must have been the meat that had woken the young man up. Lifting the bowl up to his mouth he took a sip of the stew. The bowl quickly became empty as the young man ate the stew. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since he had eaten, or if he had ever eaten. 

“Now that you’ve eaten, we have a few questions.” The man said, “If you’re able to answer that is. Can you speak?” His tone switched to a soft one. 

“I think so,” The young man croaked out, his voice scratchy.  

“Ah good, before I overstep I should introduce myself.” The man said in the same soft voice. “I am Lyon and this is my companion Neave. Now what is your name?” 

“...” The young man looked into the empty bowl trying to recall the answer to this question. “I-I don’t know.” 

“You don’t know!?” The woman, Neave, said, confused. 

“That is a problem…mmm,” Lyon seemed lost in thought. “To do anything you need a name. I know we can give you one.” 

“Give me one?” 

“Yeah, you need a name to get anywhere here. Not having one is as good as being dead… no worse than being dead. Even the dead have names.” 

“What kind of name should we give him?” Neave turned to her companion. 

“What indeed?” Lyon stood up and looked at the young man intently. “I know, Rabbit.” 

“Rabbit?” Neave sounded confused.

“Yeah, look at him. He looks just like a rabbit.” 

“You aren’t wrong. It wouldn't be the weirdest name we’ve heard, I guess.”

“Do you like the name Rabbit?” Lyon asked the boy. 

Lyon was answered with a cautious nod. 

“Well then, Rabbit.” Lyon smiled. “Do you remember anything?”

“...I don’t.” The newly named Rabbit said. “The only thing before I woke up that I can recall is darkness.” 

“So you remember nothing.” Lyon's smile didn’t seem to fade. “It could be worse, it’s not the first time we’ve met someone with amnesia. Some monster probably just cursed you, or you hit your head real hard.” 

“Your memories will probably come back at some point.” Neave reassured Rabbit. “I noticed you also didn’t have anything to identify you earlier. No guild card or anything.” 

“Guild Card.” Rabbit repeated. 

“It’s a card that proves you’re a member of the adventurer’s guild and it’s how we identify anyone that is found stranded somewhere.” Lyon explained. 

“So I didn’t have one, so that means?” 

“That you aren’t an adventurer, or at least a registered one.” Neave answered. “Not being registered is a grave crime to some, but it’s not uncommon.” 

“Why is that a crime?”
“It’s because you aren’t pa-” 

“It’s because you aren’t known to anyone,” Lyon interrupted Neave, “ and many unregistered adventurers decided to form a bandit troop, so all governments decided that adventurers need to register or they’ll face jailtime.” 

“So you two are registered adventurers?”

“Yeah,” Lyon pulled out a card, covering half of it with his hand when he showed it to Rabbit. “Now that we’ve proven we’re trustworthy, I have a request for you.” 

“What is it?” 

“Well it is less of a request and more of a gift.” Lyon put his guild card back in his bag and pulled out a piece of paper. “This is for you, I just need you to sign on the line.” 

Rabbit held the piece of paper with scribbles on it that he couldn’t read. “Sign on the line.” 

“Yeah, just write your name.” Neave handed him a needle, “You just need to prick your finger and write, Rabbit, with the blood.” 

“... how do I write?” 

“I’ll help.” Lyon moved over and sat down behind Rabbit. “Just need to prick your finger and write down R a b b i t.” he said the letters one at a time as he moved the boy’s hand writing the name he had just given him. 

“That’s what Rabbit looks like.”

“It is, now congratulations Rabbit. You now own this land.” 

“Huh.”

“And about the money.”

“The… money?” Rabbit said not knowing what money was. 

“Yes, money, the glorious gold that makes everything run.” Neave said. 

“Sadly you owe us quite a bit of it, this land wasn’t cheap.” Lyon said, “it was 2 million G.” 

“...What?” Rabbit laughed in confusion. 

“We aren’t heartless, we will not add interest to this. So take as you need to come up with the money.” Lyon patted Rabbit’s head. 

“How will I get that much?” Rabbit said, lowering his head. 

“Work, isn’t it obvious.” Lyon replied, “I’m sure you can figure something out. There’s manual labor, grave robbing, prostitution, and you can join the guild and do some odd jobs for them.” 

“Maybe you’ll get lucky and strike it rich somehow.” Neave added, “We don’t really care how, as long as you get us our money.” 

“The nearest town is directly south of here, just need to follow the path that way and you’ll be set.” Lyon grinned pointing down the dirt path. 

And with this Rabbit regretted ever waking up.