By the time they arrived at the town of Brinestone, Evie was wearing considerably more clothes. She sat with Nan in the back of the cart, much more comfortable in loose trousers and a dark blue fisherman’s sweater. As an added bonus, she even had a bra. Sort of. It was more of a cropped corset that tightened with flat ribbon laces, but it looked a lot like a sports bra from the front. Either way, the girls were sorted. The shoe situation was still a bit awkward; Nan’s feet were freakishly small and Marrel’s shoes were like clown shoes on Evie. So she settled for thick woolen socks and some spare leather tied to the bottom of her feet like a janky duct tape sandal.

Marrel drove the cart up front, steering a creature Evie had never seen before. Its name was Cheddar, and according to [Identify], it was a [Giant Mouse-Deer, lvl 32]. Honestly, it was really fucking cute, with large black eyes and stripes of white fur down its chest. It kind of resembled a regular deer, but with a thick, rounded body and stick-thin legs. It was adorable. And apparently, it’s favorite food was cheese. Hence, “Cheddar.”

She wanted to squeeze it.

The town of Brinestone sat on a peninsula on the east coast of Bar Island. It’s one side facing the rest of the island was blocked off by a giant stone wall that stretched at least twenty feet high – far higher than Evie would expect to see in a small town. Marrel called to a guard manning the gate, who smiled and waved them through.

On the inside of the gate, the town stretched out before them on a gentle slope down to the sea. Single and double-story buildings with slightly medieval architectures were spaced out on roads built for carts and caravans. People strolled alongside carts, chatting and waving to each other. Everyone looked human, though some did boast strange hair colors in hues of blue and green. Several folks called out to Nan and Marrel, and glanced at Evie curiously.

Marrel parked the cart at a stable. Evie hopped off the side and watched as Marrel tossed a silver coin to a teenage girl, who nodded it and wrote something down in a log. She asked, “Till the end of the day?”

Marrel nodded and began to unharness Cheddar. Evie watched the giant mouse-deer. It was just so…cute. Its eyes took up half its face, for Christ’s sake.

Nan smiled at Evie and held out a cube of hard cheese. “You can feed it to him, if you like.”

Evie snatched that cube so fucking fast. “Yes, please!”

She walked to Cheddar’s front. He pointed his nose towards Evie and began to sniff expectantly.

“Just hold your hand flat,” advised Marrel. “Regrowing a finger is right painful.”

Evie paused, hand stretched half way between her and Cheddar.

“Oh, relax,” Nan chided. “It was one time. He’s not a baby anymore. He knows better. But, yes,” she told Evie. “Keep your hand flat.” She guided Evie’s hand to right in front of the giant mouse-deer. Cheddar delicately sniffed at her hand before opening its mouth. Its tongue snaked out and grabbed the cheese, almost like an elephant, and pulled it back into its mouth. It chewed and made a couple of high-pitched squeaking noises. Evie melted.

After a moment, Cheddar pushed its head back towards her hand, and stared up at her with giant black eyes, pleading. Pleading for more cheese.

She would have paid a lot of money to feed Cheddar another treat just then.

Marrel lifted the harness from Cheddar and ran his hands along the creature’s back to smooth out its soft brown fur. With a forlorn sigh, Cheddar looked one more time at Evie’s hand, then let the teenager lead it into a stall.

Nan clapped a hand on Evie’s shoulder. “I know. He’s sneaky, that one. Next thing you know you’ll find yourself sneaking out into the barn in the middle of the night with a whole wheel of cheese. I’m pretty sure he's using an actual charm skill for it. Best not make extended eye contact, just in case.” Without pausing, she turned Evie around and pushed her towards the road.

What did she mean, ‘an actual charm skill’?

Marrel jogged up to join them. “I’m going to head over to the guard barracks and report the moss bear to the captain. I’ll meet you at the infirmary?” He bent down to kiss Nan’s cheek.

“Or the pub next door,” She replied.

Evie and Nan made their way down to a building on one of the side streets off the main avenue. It was a well-kept building, with large glass windows and flower boxes on either side of the door. Evie was startled to see scrolling writing painted across the door that…well…it wasn’t English. But she knew that it spelled out “Infirmary”.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Interesting. One more question for her list.

As they walked through the building, Nan called out, “Dacre! Are you here?”

She bustled them through a door behind the front counter, revealing a large room full of plain white cots and privacy curtains. Towards the end of the room, a short figure was recording something in a notebook next to shelves of boxes and tools.

“Dacre,” Nan called out again. “Have you gone deaf yet?”

“Hush, Nan,” the person called back in a hoarse, gravelly voice. “I almost never have time to inventory, and I need to put in an order for the mainland tonight.”

Nan huffed. “Liza goes to the mainland every single day. You can give her your order tomorrow.”

“But Cedric only goes to the capital once a month, and they have the best prices on bandages and healing potions,” lectured the figure. “And I have a fiduciary responsibility not to misuse town funds!”

“Dacre,” Nan huffed. “I do actually need you for something.”

“What?!” From the corner of the shelves, a rather short, rather old man emerged, wearing massive thick glasses and a long black jacket. His white hair was patchy, though his beard went well past his collar bone. He saw Evie and stopped.

“Oh,” he said. “Hello.” He started to pick his ear, paused, and rubbed his finger on his jacket. “How can I help?”

Nan directed Evie to one of the cots. “Sweetheart, why don’t you sit down for a moment. I’ll just chat with Dacre for a moment and let him know about our day.”

Evie nodded while Nan pulled Dacre into one of the back rooms. She could almost hear their conversation. Every once in a while, she could hear Dacre let out a “What do you mean?” or a “Surely not” or a “Did you say a moss bear?”

After a few minutes, Dacre and Nan returned to Evie.

“Ahem, apologies for earlier,” Dacre began. “Dacre of West Kambia, at your service. I am one of the healers here at Brinestone.”

“Don’t let him fool you,” Nan faux-whispered. “He’s the the best healer on the island.”

“ANYWAY,” coughed Dacre. “Nan tells me you’ve had something of a confusing day. Nan is a wonderful healer, of course, and I would trust her opinion on any case. She has asked me to take a look, because I have some more experience with intangible injuries – those to the mind and the soul. Would it be alright if I examine you? I promise, it won’t hurt.”

Evie hesitated. “Will you be able to read my thoughts, or see my memories or something?”

Dacre shook his head. “An important question to ask, but no. I’m no Mind Mage. Just an old man with a few extra tricks up my sleeve.”

Evie hesitated. What if he could see into her mind, and see random snapshot memories of cars? Of guns? Of her vibrator? But on the other hand, she couldn’t exactly say, no, I’m fine, nothing’s wrong with me, I’m an interdimensional space traveler with no idea what’s going on.

“Sure,” she decided. “Go for it.”

Dacre nodded and stepped closer. Though she was sitting, they were the same height. He must have been well under five feet tall.

Dacre placed his hands on either side of her forehead. In her peripheral vision, Evie could see his hands begin to glow. It felt…strange. Warm. A little like one of those head scratchers that tickled like crazy. She fought the urge to giggle and shimmy away.

“Hmm. No lingering curses so far as I can tell. No soul damage, either. Her mind feels fine,” Dacre murmured. “Except…you’ve spent an exceptional amount of time in a state of stress. I can feel it. Your humors are out of balance. So much anxiety and worry. It’s changed the essence of your brain. Even now, at rest, your mind is operating as if danger is right around the corner.”

Evie felt his words like a visceral thing. Damn, she thought. That hit a bit too close to home.

He hummed and moved one hand to her forehead. “Different parts of the brain work during moments of extreme stress,” he told her. “It’s led to some asymmetry. If you stay in this state for too long, without a healer who knows what to look for, it could lead to heart problems, wisdom reduction, insomnia, melancholy, even infertility.”

Nan patted Evie’s back as Dacre continued his work. “And you say you have no idea where you are, or how you got here?”

Evie nodded. It was true enough.

He hummed again. “No signs of damage to the hippocampus, or the temporal lobe. I would say it was an extreme stress response, if not for your status.”

Evie frowned. “My status?”

Dacre nodded. “Have you checked it lately?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean,” she replied.

Dacre stopped and stepped back. “Your status. Your class. Your System screen.”

Evie looked from Nan to Dacre and shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The two healers looked at each other for a long moment. “Well,” Dacre slowly ventured. “Let’s try something. Evie, I want you to close your eyes, and think of your full given name. Say it in your mind.”

Evie frowned, but closed her eyes. If she didn’t know better, she would say it sounded like a prank. But she was also in a world of moss bears and giant mouse-deer.

So, she thought of her name, and it appeared.

Evelyn Becker, Level 1 Race: Human Class: N/A Health: 15/15 Stamina: 7/15 Mana: 0 Strength: 2 Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 5 Endurance: 2 Vitality: 3 Wisdom: 2 Unassigned Stat Points: 0 Class Skills: N/A General Skills: [Identify, Level 1]

She felt her jaw drop. “Holy shit.”