**Lucas Jaeger**

Lucas woke up in an unfamiliar place with an aching shoulder and experienced a moment of disorientation. But it did not take long for it all to come crashing back into him. A new world, a different world. The morning light did not look any different, even if the room it illuminated was not something that would be seen in the modern world outside of a novelty resort.

The room was well furnished, the stone floors and walls covered by plush and well designed carpets and tapestries. Beside the bed, which was surprisingly to Lucas comfortable considering the technology available, was a wooden nightstand with an unlit candle in a silver candle holder. By the window there was a small table and two chairs and against the opposite wall were a chest and a wardrobe.

It was not unpleasant, but the difference between what he woke up to today and Lucas had woken up to every other day of his life was jarring. Sheer force of habit had him reaching towards the nightstand for his phone, before remembering that he had left it in his car for the meeting with the banker. Just as well, he supposed. It was not like he could charge it or had service here.

No, he just had demons and stab wounds here.

Lucas groaned, that was the most he could suppress his sudden desire to scream his lungs out and then go back to sleep and hope that it all went away. Ockham's Razor was hardly a catch-all, but it was a decent rule of thumb when you lacked any other evidence. It was far more likely that Lucas had gone batshit crazy than a young girl had used a magic ritual to drag him into a world where rocks and rivers fly and demon shark-mantis creatures existed. On the other hand, just like he had decided yesterday he had nothing to navigate the world with other than his own senses.

That thought had him laughing at the irony- he had always found questions about reality from philosophers to be ridiculous at best. Plato did a decent job, but it seems odd to worry about subjective reality when there is an objective reality to discover. Perhaps that was the difference between a philosopher and a scientist, but now here he was wondering how far he could trust his senses.

Well, as he had thought before, it was all he had besides a practical streak which told him that before worry about shadows on a cave wall he should find a pair of pants. Lucas had been stripped, something he was not precisely sure how to react to. Given the fresh bandages on his shoulder, he guessed he had been given an examination in case he was hurt somewhere.

Lucas got up with a wince, mentally adding a sling to the list of things he needed to get. Holding his arm still until the wound healed would be a pain both literally and figuratively without one. Unfortunately, whomever's clothes he was stealing were not quite his size.

“Bit tight around the waist and a bit short,” Lucas mumbled to himself. “Can hardly put them on with one hand and then I feel like a fatass. Wonderful start.”

He was not even going to try a shirt yet, he would probably need help with that. Instead, he went to take a look out the window and try to catch his bearings as much as he could. However, what Lucas saw drove his attempt to use banal practicality to keep his sanity right into a ditch.

Past the walls there was a mass of monsters- thousands of them. Sure, the majority of them were small goblin like creatures, but they were herded by larger ones including more than a few of the shark-mantis things Lucas had become unfortunately acquainted with. Lucas felt the rising fear and panic in his chest, and had to force himself not to hyperventilate.

If they were fucked, they would hardly have let him sleep until now, right? Lucas tried to convince himself, and did not do a very good job. Sure there are some scary freaks there, but it is mostly ugly midgets. They had numbers, but the defenders had a wall- in fact, how did the monsters intend to get in?

Presumably, they had a way and weren’t about to charge the wall and then mill around beneath it like video game characters with fucked up pathing AI. However, just as presumably, the soldiers were prepared for it or there would be more panic and he probably would have been woken up.

Lucas closed his eyes, took a deep breath in and held it for a few seconds before releasing it slowly. He then turned and left the window, watching would do him no good. Don’t worry about the army, he told himself. Instead, keep to a practical plan. Clothes that fit, including shoes or boots, a sling for his arm and some form of breakfast. Maybe some kind of weapon, as well. Except that he would have no idea how to use them, so maybe a club for now?

Surely a double doctorate scientist could figure out how to use a blunt object to smash heads.

Lucas left his room, and found himself in some kind of sitting room. Honestly, from he remembered of how the castle looked from the outside he was surprised that it had quarters like this. The thing that caught his attention though, was the duo of maids who were whispering to each other by a window. Well, presumably they were maids- they were dressed like servants of some kind with plain linens.

“Excuse me?” Lucas called out, and the two jumped and screamed in fright. He raised his hands- well, the one he could- and stayed where he was. It was probably unnecessary, but he could imagine people being highly strung right now. “You wouldn’t happen to know where I could find slightly larger clothes, would you?”

The only response Lucas got at first was the two young women’s faces draining of blood. Maybe fifteen seconds later one of them wailed and both threw themselves on the ground, much to Lucas’s shock. The girls were now sobbing and seemed to be begging him for mercy, he had no idea why though.

“Lord Hero!” The one on the right wailed, “please forgive us!”

Oh, of course, that’s why. Lucas sighed, annoyed and frustrated that his time would be wasted with this kind of thing in a situation like this. His every interaction with people here had been tinged with a level of respect Lucas would expect to see for some sort of god, and fear like the same.

“Both of you shut up and get up,” Lucas’s patience from less than a few minutes ago had already been worn through. Well, he had never claimed to be patient with people, just bacteria cultures. As for these two, he pointed at the left one at random. “Now what, precisely, am I supposed to be forgiving you for?”

“F- f- for shirking our d- duties and looking at the Demons, Lord?” She answered tentatively, clearly just taking a shot in the dark and hoping that it did not get her hurt.

“First,” Lucas sighed again, hoping that the end of this got him socks at least. The stone was cold. “I am not your employer, whether or not you do your duties- it is not my responsibility to notice or care. Second, if your employer expects you to work through a monster siege- well, that just sounds foolish, doesn’t it?”

“And finally,” Lucas gestured to himself. “I just want to know where I can find clothes that fit. If you tell me that, I’ll be on my way.”

Well, he would like a guide, but despite his frustration he felt like he was bullying these young women. Maybe, given the fact Demon goblin monsters were about to attack, he should just skip this and bully her into getting what he needed. In fact, Lucas almost certainly would have done that if he was not busy convincing himself that rushing was not necessary. Down that mental road was panic and panic would not help him get what he needed any faster.

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The last question, which had originally been his first, caused the two maids to glance at each other and tense up again.

“I’m sorry my Lord,” the right one spoke again. “But we brought the clothes we thought would best fit, there probably is nothing in all of Northgate your size.”

Fucking wonderful. Lucas thought, but said, “I don’t suppose there are any alternatives?”

“I will go get you a robe, my Lord!” The right one said eagerly, and Lucas half suspected she would simply run away. Not that he would blame her, so he let her go easily. Not that he was holding them here or anything despite them seeming to think that he was.

“If there are not clothes in my size,” Lucas sighed yet again, pointedly ignoring the loud horn outside. “I don’t suppose there are any boots or shoes that would fit?”

Surprisingly, the maid thought there was and between the two maids Lucas ended up with a rather eye-catching red robe and a worn pair of soldier’s boots. The maids had to help him with the robe, and he got rid of the too tight pants after that. He couldn’t claim that having a breeze between his legs was something he was comfortable with, but better that than having the same area crushed.

They were guiding Lucas to the kitchens, flinching as the horns grew louder and were blown more frequently, when they ran into Terrasin who had been coming to look for him. Lucas noted with some amusement that they threw themselves on the ground before Terrasin too, maybe they were just excitable and were unsure about how to greet socially superior people? Not that Lucas thought that he was, not in the same sense any way. He figured he was superior to people in the way any highly educated scientist might, but all he really expected from that is that people who weren’t educated take him at his word when he said something on his own subjects.

“I just heard that you were awake, Lord Jaeger.” Terrasin dipped a curtsy towards him, “I’m glad you are, because we are leaving as soon as we can.”

Lucas was, if he was honest, rather relieved. He did not relish sitting in a stone box and relying so heavily on people he had never met, nor had much reason to trust, for safety. On the other hand…

“I realise that your group lacks any real numbers right now,” Lucas did not let him think about why they didn’t. How many people had died yesterday in the flight from that ruin? “However, don’t you think that perhaps you should stay and aid them in the battle? I don’t know where we are going, but I don’t think I would race that carriage I rode in yesterday against those shark-mantis monsters. If they fall here, I imagine we would simply be run down.”

“Northgate won’t fall so easily,” Terrasin replied as she took over for the maids in leading him, though not towards the kitchens any more. “Lady Versi could explain better than I, but this fortress was built to handle whatever could be thrown at it from Demons that could feasibly travel the Skyriver from Uri.”

“I see, that is certainly reassuring.” Lucas said calmly while in his mind he was shrieking at the thought of even bigger kinds of these “Demons.” How big do they get? Best to never find out, he supposed.

Still, mindless hordes did not form ranks. There must be some intelligence organizing them, and that intelligence would undoubtedly have some kind of plan. Then again, he would also expect the leaders here to be aware of that intelligence as well.

There were more horns now, and a loud roar that almost drowned them out. The battle was beginning, and he was heading in the opposite direction. Lucas did not mind this much, but he did feel a bit bad knowing that they would be taking soldiers with them.

“Can you ride, perchance?” Terrasin asked, breaking Lucas out of his thoughts.

“If you mean a horse, no.” Lucas replied, “well, I can get on and direct it to walk- possibly even in a direction I want- but anything more than that is basically impossible for me.”

Lucas had been on a horse a few times in his life, and he did remember how to get them to move. But that was about it, and frankly, he had a hard time getting even tour horses to follow the trail at a walk. Any idiot could be thrown on a horse and have much the same success.

Unless life or limb depended on it, however, Lucas had no intention of getting on a horse now. He only had a robe and boots on and he felt like some kind of ancient streaker, and more to the point, Lucas was intelligent enough to realise that trying to ride a horse without pants on would be extremely painful at the very best.

“Then we are only left with one option,” Terrasin mumbled to herself and sighed, then perked up. “Please forgive me, Lord Jaeger. I fear that the current situation has left me a little stressed.”

“I’d appreciate it if you dropped the ‘lord’ from my name.” Lucas didn’t really acknowledge her apology, because if he did he would probably explode at her. She wasn’t torn out of her world by some kid and put in mortal danger with unknown responsibilities dropped on her towards an unknown people. Lucas was sure she had her own issues, but really. “What I certainly do not appreciate, however, is lacking understanding about what is going on. Telling me where I am going and why would be a good start.”

Terrasin caught the hint, but seemed to be hung up on the first thing he said.

“My Lord, I could never call you less.” She sounded genuinely upset at the suggestion, “I do not think you understand what you mean to us.”

“Terrasin, call me Lucas.” Titles like that just rubbed Lucas the wrong way, especially when he was confronted by it. Part of it, admittedly, was just because the whole thing was confusing. “And it would be hard to understand what you want from me after some partial conversations when I was half-delirious. Which is, as you might expect, why I as-”

A loud explosion interrupted Lucas, and he felt the ground itself shake slightly. He wondered which side had unleashed it, his suspicion was that he would not like the answer though.

“We are heading to Lyus, one of the largest cities in Francea.” Terrasin spoke as she sped up her pace. They passed through a pair of doors in the back of the keep and emerged into an idyllic looking town. The atmosphere was ruined by the sounds of the battle, but Lucas could imagine it being quite quaint normally. “I don’t know what you can do, I know you said that you did not feel you would be useful, but I have faith in you as the Hero. While I would love to head back to my own country immediately, but the truth is that there is no faith in Heroes in the South. We need Francea to be some sort of demonstration, something to bring that faith and morale back to the human countries.”

“No pressure, I know you explicitly said that you doubted you could help much, but please perform a miracle.” Lucas said sarcastically, stepping into yet another carriage. A much more solid one that he doubted would be able to be taken apart and moved by Skyriver. “But don’t worry, I have perfect- perfectly strange- faith in you and I also took you from your life and resources and now essentially own you because don’t even own clothes, save for a single stolen robe.”

Terrasin never got to reply, because the carriage was suddenly blasted to the side and both of them fell down onto one of the carriage doors that was now sliding along the pavement with an absolutely horrid noise. Lucas had the misfortune to land on his bad arm and gave out a bark of pain- but now was not the time to care about that.

There were screams from the village houses, had the Demons overwhelmed the fort so soon despite Terrasin’s confidence? A group that split off from the main force to spread terror and confusion? No, Lucas needed to think of this like the strategy games he used to play. The overall win condition for the Demons was, well, his death. Of course, Lucas felt he was a fake lure. They were coming for a hero, and Lucas hardly thought his skillset qualified.

He’d think about that later, for now, Lucas helped Terrasin up and considered the options. Terrasin’s forces would be further ahead, the soldiers of Northgate were further behind. The attacker was most likely waiting for Lucas or his companion to to climb up to the only door that wasn’t blocked, and when they popped their head out they’d lose it.

Lucas was not keen on that, and the slide had damaged the carriage roof. A few good kicks later and they had a hole. Not immediately dying on exiting was a good sign, and a nearby alley mostly shielded from view gave the pair an opportunity to run.

“Any idea what that was?” Lucas asked in a low voice as they moved through the back alleys, noting that they were just as disgusting as he expected medieval-esque back streets to be.

“No,” Terrasin frowned. “And to be honest, I’d rather not find out. We are not far away and I doubt Lady Versi would have missed the commotion, even if the commoners were not in the streets right now.”

An ominous clicking sound seemed to come from the walls themselves and raised the hair on the back of Lucas’s neck. Creepy did not do the sound justice. It was clearly an organic sound, but one made by something very heavy and very fast. The pair said nothing more and just ran.