Realistically speaking, my situation comes down to three questions.
Who am I?
Where am I?
How am I alive?
First, let us break down the 'who am I' to get started. To start, I appear to be a skeleton. I know this may sound strange, but given the reflection staring back at me from this broken mirror I've found, this is a horrible fact I have to admit.
"I know that I am a human... human... strange." I muttered to myself as memories flashed inside of my empty skull. Which was strange, right?
"No matter how I look at it, I see no skull in m-oh! I can pull my head off?" I shouted in shock as I watched myself pull my skull from my spine.
After several minutes of awe and freaking myself out, I finally managed to put my head back where it belonged. All in all, this was actually quite an interesting scenario. What's more, memories of scenarios based on fiction flooded through my skull on situations like this.
"It seems the past me was quite a fan of fantasy. It is rather strange that I cannot remember what I looked like. Even moreso my name..." I sighed as I walked to a crumbled wall and sat down on the ledge.
"Now, as for where I am, that's something else entirely." I sighed as I stared at the decrepit scenery before me.
All around was a sight straight out of a horror. Buildings long since crumbled to the ground to invite the greenery over to rest. Vehicles of a long forgotten age long since turned to red dust or are being used as hosts to plants and other creatures.
Speaking of, one of those plants was currently tearing a Zombie limb from limb in a rather gruesome manner.
"I think that's the third one? There's a faint smell of meat coming from that plant, so that's probably what brought that Zombie out. This is getting more and more confusing." I sighed softly as I rubbed the back of my neck.
It wasn't the living plant that was confusing, the Zombie it was devouring, nor the fallen city around me that made life confusing. What was confusing was how my body acted like it was still alive.
All 5 senses still worked. In fact, they worked almost to well sometimes. I was 6 stories up and a block away from that plant, yet I can still smell it faintly. And, disturbing as it was, I can hear it munching on the Zombie.
"What kind of a plant needs to chew its food?" The rhetoric question left my teeth as I stood back up.
Looking back into the room I had woken up in, it was obvious that quite a lot of time had passed. Most of the wood had all but rotted away or been eaten by maggots, while the plaster covering the concrete walls had melted or peeled away due to the elements. Not even mentioning the glass window that had been destroyed along with a large portion of the wall.
As if that was not enough, it was not even just plants and zombies in this freakish place either. In fact, the skeletal being standing in my doorway did not really surprise me one bit.
"I would like to think that I am a prisoner here, but I highly doubt you are that smart." I sighed at the skeleton, folding my arms over my chest.
The reason I say this is because this little guy here has been standing at the doorway ever since I woke up. Now, could I push him aside and walk out? Of course I could. However, it seemed that this guy was somehow holding back another dozen skeletons from barging into the room.
I do not simply mean squeeze themselves in. I mean, quite literally, climb over or through each other to get into my room to try and get me. I barely got my little guard here to step back into the doorway and push the others back.
"If I had to guess, there is something different about me that those thugs outside want. If I could, I would ask my little guard here to capture one of them for me." I sighed as I poked around the room.
Next to the full sized mirror laid a rusted metal drawer. At first I was squeamish about cutting myself, but then I looked down at my hands. Thankful I was technically alone, I gripped the edge of the drawer and lifted with all of my strength. This only made me fall onto my butt holding a large chunk of crumbling red metal in my hands.
"Right, that was not the be-" I was interrupted by a sudden thud in my room.
My head snapped to the door while I found my footing. I was shocked to see that my little guard had thrown a skeleton into the room while I was busy wrestling the drawer. What was even stranger was how the skeleton he captured seemed to cower in fear from him.
However, this was something I would have to ignore for now. It was just a random thought spoken aloud, yet this skeleton seemed to follow my order to the letter.
"Okay... how about this. Stand this one up and hold its arms behind its back." I motioned to the cowering skeleton while staring at the guard.
Sure enough, the guard grabbed the other skeleton under the arm and pulled it to its feet. Holding its arms, the skeleton was forced to face me. Strangely, I could feel the fear in this skeleton. As I stared into those empty sockets, a word crossed my mind and forced its way between my teeth.
"Subdue." As the word filled the air, the skeleton froze in place.
Just as I thought that was the end of it, the skeleton suddenly jerked its head back and let out a screech. Startled, I instinctively held my arms up to defend my face. The guard seemed unfazed as it held the thrashing prisoner in its hands.
A long minute passed before it finally collapsed on the ground. I don't mean normal collapse. It quite literally crumbled to the ground bone by bone.
"Huh." I muttered as I stared at the bone pile.
Something told me that I had failed to subdue this one. That same thing also told me that something had left my body when I spoke that word. It was not like I could feel it leaving, I just had to play it by instinct.
"Drop those bones." I waved my hand at the guard who still held the arms in his hands.
As the bones landed in the pile, I crouched down to pick up a femur and inspect it.
"If this guard is mine, then it would be best to give him a weapon. I wonder if I could create a bone hammer."
Just as the words left me, several bones lifted into the air charged by a mysterious energy. The sight caused me to let go of the femur and jump back. Before my eyes, several small and large bones melted together to form a large sledge head that fit perfectly to the femur.
If I could swallow, the gulp would have been loud. Reaching out, I gripped the hammer and examined it closely.
"This is amazing. Wait, common single handed war hammer? There's a rank to it?" My shock kept stacking ontop of each other as I paced around the room.
After giving it a couple test swings, I found that it was surprisingly light. Not only that, it seemed quite dense. I wanted to try hitting the metal cabinet to test it, but a shaking in the corner of my eye caught my attention.
The shaking came from the guard, who seemed to be staring at the hammer in anticipation. I could only tilt my head at the skeleton as I raised the hammer over my head. His head raised to watch the hammer as I waved it side to side.
A soft chuckle left me as I lowered my arm. "Alright, since you are my first, I should give you a name."
He jumped a little as if shocked. He then kicked the bones aside to kneel at the entrance of the doorway, as if begging me to give him one.
"Enthusiastic, I like it. Let's see." I muttered as I folded my arms over my ribs.
To be honest, there was not much difference between the two of us. Sure, he was a bit taller than me, but that was about it. What was obvious was how the rest feared him like he was some sort of demon. Just what did he do to make them fear him like this?
"Oh, like a guardian, hmm? Perhaps it would be best to name you like one." It was then that an image of 4 guardians in a long past Mythology played in my head. "Azure Dragon, rise and accept your new title."
As I spoke, Azure Dragon rose to his feet and stood proud. It seemed receiving a name caused him to get a little tougher, as ghost-like flames burst in his sockets and glowed a dim blue.
"I can feel this will be quite the adventure, Dragon. For now..." I stopped as I offered Dragon the hammer. "Let's start getting you some underlings. Our first step will be to conquer this building."
After gripping the hammer, Dragon turned around to stare down the remaining skeletons. At first, they seemed like they wanted to run away. However, Dragon raised the head of his hammer as if ordering their surrender.
Slowly, the others fell to their knees as if submitting themselves to their fate. Satisfied, Dragon stepped aside and knelt down to show me his deed.
"Very good. Let's see if I can get this to work." I nodded and pat Dragon on the head before walking towards the group.
"I suppose this will be survival of the fittest."