The sun peeks over the clouds, and the light shines down on the small encampment in the field.

Lucy is the first one to wake up. She rubs her eyes and feels a rush of energy that she didn't have yesterday, even after Palmer's healing spell. Her companions haven't stirred, so Lucy decides to let them sleep, and wanders out into the field. She's hoping to find some sign of Rabu or Malakai, so she carefully examines the area. Nothing catches her eye, but her stomach rumbles, and she realizes that she needs food. By her best estimate, it's been at least twenty-four hours since she's eaten. She glances back at her companions and realizes they will be hungry when they wake up as well.

Lucy thinks back to her character sheet. She convinced Jenkins to give her a knife, and while it wasn't on her when she woke up, she found it in the field next to her other shoe. She also had a couple of skills. Persuasion and Sling. There's nobody to persuade, but a sling could come in handy, if she could find a way to make one. She picks up a few rocks that look like they would be decent projectiles, and then walks back to the camp, where she notices Vryce stirring.

"Hey," Lucy says. "Do you mind if I cut some fabric off the bottom of your robe?"

"Why?" Vryce asks, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm going to make a sling." Lucy smiles. "Then I'm going to try and find something to eat."

"Take what you need." Vryce motions to his robe.

"Thank you." Lucy nods.

"You're going hunting?" Vryce cracks his back as he sits up. "I'll come with you."

"I didn't ask for help." Lucy gives him a side-eyed glance as she kneels and begins trimming some fabric off his robe. "I noticed a stream nearby, so I'm going to go and see if I can find some berries near the water."

"Then why do you need the sling?" Vryce raises a brow.

"I'm just trying to be careful." Lucy finishes cutting fabric from the robe, then takes her coin purse from her belt, trimming some leather from the top.

"Then let me come with you." Vryce puts a hand on the tree and stands up. "If something does happen, it will be better if there are two of us. Besides, I need to stretch my legs some. It feels like my strength has returned."

"Fine," Lucy relents, nodding in agreement.

Vryce finishes waking up, and gathers his things, opting to leave the robe behind. Lucy turns the fabric from Vryce's robe and the leather from her coin pouch into a makeshift sling. It's not perfect, but she lets a rock fly to test it, and it appears to be a decent enough weapon. Her sling proficiency is certainly noticeable, because when Vryce tries to duplicate her shot, his rock spins out of control and lands dangerously close to Leone's head.

"Come on," Lucy says, motioning to Vryce. "We don't want to kill one of our friends by accident."

"I wonder what happens if we die?" Vryce bemuses. "Do we go home, or…"

"This isn't a dream, or anything like that." Lucy says with some certainty in her voice. "I don't know how we ended up here, but I don't think we should be that eager to die."

"Jenkins did it." Vryce looks around. "I'm not sure how, but he's responsible for this."

"Maybe." Lucy shrugs. "That seems kind of strange, though. Why would he want to trap us here?"

"Plenty of reasons…" Vryce mutters under his breath.

"What?" Lucy asks, not able to make out what he said.

"Nothing." Vryce shakes his head and then points. "There's the stream. Let's look for some berries."

The duo searches near the stream and drinks some water, but they don't find any berries. After searching for almost an hour, they start to head back to the camp, but Vryce suddenly grabs Lucy's arm.

"Look!" Vryce whispers as he pulls Lucy to the ground. "There's a deer."

"And?" Lucy asks in a hushed tone.

"You could use that." Vryce motions to the sling.

"To take down a deer? Are you crazy?" Lucy's eyes get big. "I'm not even sure I could kill a squirrel with this thing."

"Try." Vryce insists. "If you don't think you can knock it out, then aim for a leg."

"Okay…" Lucy says with some hesitation in her voice.

The deer isn't very big. It's a young male that doesn't have much in the way of antlers. Lucy has no idea if she can hit the deer, or if she'll just scare it off, but she decides to give it her best shot. She drops the smoothest rock she's found into leather and starts spinning the sling, slowly walking towards the deer as she does.

The deer snaps it's head, and Lucy knows it's now or never. She tries to focus, spins the sling faster, and lets the rock fly. It erupts from the sling with a lot more power and accuracy than Lucy imagined. The rock swiftly closes the distance, and ricochets off the deer's leg. The deer screams and begins to stumble around.

"You did it!" Vryce lets out a woo. "Give me your knife!"

"Here." Lucy yanks the knife out of her belt and hands it to Vryce.

The blade feels so comfortable in Vryce's hand. In the real world, he was a former Marine, and he trained in hand-to-hand combat. It feels almost foreign to tap into that training, but he does it anyway. He runs across the field, and as the deer tries to sprint, he rushes it with a tackle. The deer is too injured to escape, and Vryce finishes it off with the knife, making the last cut across the deer's neck.

"I got it!" Vryce looks back with a grin, then the expression disappears from his face as he feels a light surge go through his body.

"What was that?" Lucy shudders as she experiences the same thing.

"I don't know." Vryce looks down at his hands. "You felt it too?"

"Yeah," Lucy looks around nervously. "We should get back to the camp."

Vryce picks up the deer, and slings it across both shoulders. It's heavy, but he finds that it isn't that hard to manage the weight once he starts walking.

Leon and Palmer begin to wake up as the duo approaches the camp.

"We got breakfast." Vryce says proudly, dropping the deer on the ground.

"Did you finally figure out how you use your spells?" Leone stretches his arms and yawns.

"I did it." Lucy grins. "With my sling."

"Interesting," Palmer says. "That was on your character sheet, right?"

"Yep." Lucy squats and then sits down next to the tree. "I'm way better with it than I expected."

"We'll have to build a fire." Leone says, looking around for some wood.

"I'll get the deer ready." Vryce says, reaching down to grab it by a hoof.

Vryce begins field dressing the deer, and Lucy has to look away, because it makes her a bit squeamish. Palmer studies his book, trying to decipher the prayers that are too garbled to understand. Leone gathers some wood and brings it back to the camp.

"Can I borrow the knife for a moment?" Leone asks Vryce, who is busy gutting the deer.

"Ask Lucy, it belongs to her." Vryce mostly ignores Leone, despite responding to him.

"It's okay," Lucy says and watches as Leone brings the wood over. "What are planning to do exactly? Rub two sticks together?"

"I was a Boy Scout when I was younger." Leone takes a seat and makes what resembles a tiny tent out of sticks and leaves. "Let's see if I can still remember how to start a fire."

Leone uses the knife to trim one side of a stick until it's flat, then carves out a groove and props it at an angle on his boot. He then takes a slender, but sturdy stick and begins grinding it into the groove, putting a little more pressure each time.

After almost two dozen attempts, it begins to smolder.

"Here!" Lucy moves some more leaves closer to Leon's pile of sticks. "I think you need more of these if it's going to actually work."

Leone's efforts finally pay off with a small spark ignites the leaves. He blows on it until the sticks begin to burn, and then it grows into a small fire.

"Hell yeah." Leone says. "Now we can cook that deer."

"I've never had deer before," Lucy says with a hint of concern in her voice.

"It's a little greasy, but it's edible." Leone shrugs. "It's not like we have anything else to eat."

"What about the village?" Palmer asks. "You did say dinner was on me."

"Dinner will come later." Leone nods. "I do want to check out the village, but we should try to eat something first. We don't even know if they'll have anything we can buy. We also don't know if they'll take our coins."

"What do you mean?" Lucy asks.

"Palmer noticed that some of his coins are different. So are mine." Leone motions to Lucy's coin purse. "Have you looked at yours?"

"No." She says, dumping them into her hands. "They all look the same to me."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Interesting." Palmer leans over. "All of your coins are stamped for King Brynn. We've got some different ones."

"Who knows." Lucy shrugs. "But I would imagine gold is gold to most people, especially if you two have different coins."

"Maybe," Palmer admits.

Vryce takes the knife back from Leone, cleans it, and finishes field dressing the deer. Leone handles the cooking, doing his best to roast the portions evenly over the fire. It's a lengthy process, but he's eventually able to begin handing out chunks of the kill to everyone seated around him.

"It's not terrible." Lucy grimaces a little as she chews her first bite.

"I've had worse." Vryce shrugs.

"Well fuck you both, next time one of you can cook." Leone looks slightly annoyed.

"Lucy and I killed the damn thing." Vryce laughs and shakes his head.

"We have food, so we're not going to starve." Palmer leans forward. "Let's just be thankful for that."

The group eats, mostly in silence, occasionally throwing a verbal barb or two at each other. This part feels normal to them, because their games usually devolve into jokes and insults at some point, but nobody gets truly upset unless someone takes things too far.

"So, what's the plan?" Lucy asks after eating all of the deer she can stomach. "We all have our strength back now, so we can keep searching for Rabu and Malakai."

"I don't think we're going to find them," Leone says with a sigh. "They would have woken up by now if they were in the field."

"It's possible they woke up before we did and wandered into the village." Palmer motions towards it. "I think we should go ask around."

"That's probably our best shot." Lucy nods in agreement. "But we need to be careful."

"We have to treat this like a game," Leone says. "Jenkins didn't tell us much about Bryconia, but we have to assume there is some linear path we're supposed to follow."

"Yeah, but we never do what we're supposed to in these games." Vryce lets out a light chuckle. "We always wander around and get ourselves in trouble."

"That's why we have to be careful," Lucy moves closer to the Leone. "Jenkins mentioned that elves aren't treated very well, so I don't think you should be wandering around with your ears poking out like that."

"Agreed." Vryce points to his robe. "Why don't you see if you can make a hood or something out of my robe."

"Yeah, alright." Leone sighs and reaches for the robe.

"Here." Lucy hands him her knife.

"I don't think my ears will be much of a problem." Vryce rubs the slight incline near the top.

"Nah, you should be fine." Lucy smirks.

"What's our story?" Palmer asks. "We need to make sure we're on the same page if they start asking questions when we get to the village."

"We're a group of adventurers searching for our friends?" Leone shrugs. "I mean, I wrote up a backstory for my character before the power went out, but I didn't really include any of you guys in it."

"I did the same thing." Vryce nods. "But, I also didn't include anyone else."

"I was going to, but I didn't get very far." Palmer sighs. "Regardless, I think we need a better cover story than that, because we don't exactly look like adventurers. Our only weapons are a sling and a knife."

"That's why we need to get to the village." Leone chuckles. "You have to buy us some gear."

"That brings up the problem with our coins." Palmer motions to his coin purse. "We need to figure out if they will even take our money."

"Alright, how about this." Vryce ponders for a moment. "We're a group of travelers, we ran into some trouble on the way here, and got separated from our friends. We'll just ask if they've seen them, then try a few more questions if they seem friendly."

"What kind of trouble did we get into?" Lucy asks, tilting her head slightly.

"Uh, how about a wild boar?" Vryce shrugs.

"There are boars in Bryconia?" Lucy perks a brow.

"Fuck, I don't know." Vryce sighs and shakes his head. "We saw a deer, so I don't think a boar is that far of a stretch."

"Unless the villagers are hostile and decide we need to necks stretched because our story doesn't make sense." Lucy shrugs innocently. "I'm just trying to cover the bases here."

"That's another thing we need to be careful of," Palmer interjects. "The people we meet aren't going to understanding things like cover the bases. And earlier, Leone, you mentioned being a Boy Scout when you were younger. That's going to sound strange too."

"We have to roleplay," Lucy says. "We have to stick to things our characters would know."

"It's weird that we can't say our real names, because it's not like we've been totally transformed into our characters." Vryce narrows his eyes. "Leone remembered his Boy Scout training, and earlier, when I was approaching the deer, some of my Marine training seemed to kick in."

"Are you happy now that you've gotten that out of your system?" Leone smirks. "Your daily reminder to everyone that you used to be a Marine."

"Man, fuck you." Vryce shakes his head, his brows furrowing. "I was just trying to make a point."

"It's a valid point," Lucy says. "But I don't think we have time to sort all of that out right now. Let's go to the village, roleplay a little, and try to get as much information as possible."

"Alright then." Leone begins to stand up. "I'll lead the way."

"No." Lucy shakes her head and hops to her feet. "You need to hang in the back and let us do the talking. You're already going to draw a lot of attention because you're practically a giant. We don't want them looking close enough to realize you're an elf."

"Fine." Leone grumbles under his breath. "I'll just wear my hood and keep my head down."

The group puts out their fire, tidies up their camp, and moves the remains of the deer into the wooded area. Then they begin nervously walking towards the village. As they get closer, they can tell that the village is quite small, but there are farms and livestock protected by fences made from sharpened stakes that are bound together with some kind of twine. The houses are a mixture of wooden huts, thatch houses, and a couple of stone structures that appear to be under construction.

"Nobody seems to be rolling out the red carpet." Leone says softly to his companions as they enter the village.

"They don't even know what this is." Lucy hisses. "And stay quiet!"

"Sorry," Leone mutters. "You're so fucking bossy."

"Quiet!" Lucy hisses again, this time her eyes reflect enough urgency for Leone to listen.

The villagers appear to be human, and Leone is right, they don't seem to be very welcoming. A few eye the group as they walk through the village, and others immediately go indoors. The group tries to be cordial, smiling and nodding to the villagers, hoping to ease their concerns, but it doesn't appear to work.

Finally, as they approach the center of the village, a man walks out of the largest wooden structure, and stares them down. He's dressed like a warrior, with chain mail, a sword hanging at his side, and a coif in his hand that he could slide on if necessary.

"Hello." Palmer holds up a hand, trying to appear non-threatening. "My friends and I ran into some trouble on the road and a couple of us got separated the group. Have you seen any other travelers recently?"

"No," the man replies flatly. "You're poorly armed for travelers."

"Yes, we've come to realize that," Lucy smiles. "But we do have a little coin, if you have supplies to sell."

"If you're looking for weapons, they're all spoken for," the man says. "We do sell rations, basic supplies, and some leather goods at our store."

"Is there anywhere to get a drink?" Vryce looks around. "A tavern, perhaps?"

"It'll be a couple of hours before the tavern opens," the man says with some hesitation in his voice. "Unfortunately, we don't serve strangers there."

"What?" Vryce blinks in surprise. "Why?"

"The last thing we need is a bunch of drunkards tearing up our village," the man scoffs. "If that's what you're looking for, I'd like to kindly ask you to continue on your journey. Your friends aren't here."

"Wait!" A woman comes running up to the group, and goes right to Palmer, pointing at his tabard. "I recognize that symbol. Are you a holy man? A healer?"

"Um, yes." Palmer says with hesitation in his voice. "I am."

"Please, can you help my daughter? She has been sick for almost a week and it's getting worse." The woman's eyes are red-rimmed, and it looks like she's had a lot of sleepless, tear-filled nights.

"Melinda, the strangers are leaving," the man interjects. "I've already sent a message to Logis, so a healer should be coming soon."

"Palmer's right here, though." Lucy says, seizing the opportunity in front of her. "He would be happy to help."

"I have some medical training as well." Vryce says with a devious grin teasing the edge of his lips. "I may also be able to provide some assistance."

"No," Lucy hisses at Vryce. "Palmer can handle this."

"Please let him try," Melinda says to the armored man. "What if it was your daughter?"

"Fine," he replies with a sigh and levels his gaze at Palmer. "But we will not pay you for your service, because we did not send for you."

"I do not require payment." Palmer says, before turning to the woman. "Where is your daughter?"

"Follow me," the woman says, taking Palmer's hand.

The others trail behind the duo, and the armored man walks behind them. Melinda leads Palmer to a small thatch shack that is not big enough for everyone. Lucy goes inside with Palmer, while Vryce and Leone remain outside with the armored man.

"You're the ones who made camp nearby, right?" The armored man asks.

"Yes." Vryce nods. "I guess you saw our fire?"

"Indeed," the man replies. "I was hoping you would be on your way after you were done."

"I'm guessing you don't get many travelers out this way?" Vryce perks a brow.

"No, mostly merchants and sell-swords, but we have little use for either," the man shakes his head. "The merchants always try to charge us twice what they sell their merchandise for in Logis, and if we really need something, it's easy enough for us to send someone there to get it for a better price."

"I see." Vryce nods. "Well we're not selling anything, even our services. We're simply looking for our friends."

Suddenly, Palmer comes charging out of the shack, his eyes reflecting a hint of panic. "I need water from the Spring of the Moon."

"What?" Vryce blinks in confusion.

"Oh, you're that kind of healer," the armored man's expression grows dark. "Water from the Spring of the Moon isn't magic. It's just a stupid legend merchants made up to sell healing potions that don't actually do anything."

"It'll work," Palmer insists. "Where is the Spring of the Moon?"

"You don't have to go there, we've got some of the water," the armored man groans. "I'll give you some just to prove that you're wrong. It's not like it's good for anything else."

The man stomps towards his house and Vryce immediately looks to Palmer.

"What happened?" Vryce asks. "Why are you asking that water?"

"She's poisoned. The water will cure her." Palmer stares at the man as he disappears into his house.

"How do you know?" Vryce seems bewildered.

"I'm not sure," Palmer sighs. "When I tried to pray, it was like something blocked the magic, and I just knew what would help her."

"That's weird." Leone says, breaking his silence since there is nobody else around.

The armored man returns with a small leather flask and offers it to Palmer. Palmer removes the cap, sniffs it, and nods before walking back into Melinda's shack.

"After this, you will leave immediately," the man insists. "You got Melinda's hopes up for nothing. It would have been better if you just refused to help."

Vryce wants to reply, and not in a pleasant way, so he bites his tongue. They wait in silence, although Leone does drop his head and mutter a small prayer that it will work, much like he would have done in the real world. A few seconds later, there is a shriek from inside the thatch shack.

"Your friend better not have hurt her!" the armored man pushes his way inside.

Vryce and Leone rush to the door, and inside the shack, they can see a young girl sitting up on her bed. Palmer holds her hands in his, utters the same prayer that healed Lucy, and blue light resonates from his hands. A few seconds later, the four displaced friends all experience a light surge. Lucy and Vryce recognize it as the feeling they experienced after killing the deer. Palmer and Leone seem confused by it.

"What the fuck was that?" Leone whispers to Vryce.

"I've felt it before, but we should talk about it later." Vryce waves off Leone's question. "For now, I think we need to try and use the goodwill Palmer just earned to our advantage."

"Agreed," Leone whispers.

Palmer says a few things to Melinda and puts the flask in her hand, then he exits the shack with Lucy. The armored man isn't far behind. Other villagers start to gather around the thatch structure, and it doesn't take long for word of what happened to spread.

"Killian!" An older man using a stick for support steps forward and addresses the armored man. "We should welcome these travelers and offer them any assistance we can. I do not believe they mean us any harm."

"The water from the Spring of the Moon has never healed anyone before." Killian eyes Palmer with a suspicious glare. "How did you make it work?"

"The girl was poisoned," Palmer says. "If anyone else shows similar symptoms, the water will work. It's an antidote."

Killian seems to be contemplating what Palmer said, and he looks around at the other villagers for a moment before turning back to the group.

"You can stay," Killian says, letting his hand fall away from his sword. "You can shop, drink at the tavern, and we'll make sure you have somewhere to sleep tonight. There is a merchant coming tomorrow, and he may have some supplies that will help you on the rest of your journey to find your friends. He's one of the few that doesn't overcharge for everything."

"Thank you," Lucy says with a gracious smile.

"No, thank you," Killian replies, glancing towards the thatch shack. "Melinda has been praying non-stop since her daughter got sick. I'm a suspicious man because it's my job to keep this village safe, but I will not ignore a sign from the gods."

Killian walks back to his house and disappears inside. The other villagers remain at Melinda's house for while, talk with the group, and give them directions so they can navigate the Village of Roth. Then they slowly disperse, and return to their homes.

"So, what do we do now?" Leone whispers.

"We'll shop and pick up a few things after we figure out which coins to use, then we'll go to the tavern when it opens." Vryce smiles. "We need information, and drunk people love to talk, right?"

"Fair point," Lucy admits with a laugh.

After everything that has happened since arriving in Bryconia, all of them feel like they could use a drink, even the ones who didn't really partake of it in the real world.