I awoke the following day with a slightly sick stomach. The thrill of the hunt, combined with the lack of variety in food the last few days, had led to me overeating the pork, and now I was paying for it. Tee and I had done our best to butcher the animal the night before, but neither knew how to perform that task. What this resulted in was a lot of hacking and ripping at the corpse until we decided that enough meat had been removed from it. The creature was far too big to take the entire carcass back to the cave, so we took whatever we could hold and left the rest to the wildlife. After cooking the meat, we both gorged ourselves and went to sleep. Now, here I was, half awake and nauseous.

I walked out of the cave, stretched, and looked around the forest. If it weren’t for the fact that most people living here were trying to kill me, this place would be rather pretty. The coral that made up the majority of the place had so many bright and vibrant colors; it was like looking at a painting. Everything about this place seemed almost like earth but slightly off in a fantastical sort of way. My moment of admiration was cut short as Tee flew out of the cave, stopping beside me.

“Wow, I ate too much last night,” he said.

“Yeah, so did I; my stomach is such a mess this morning. It was worth it, though. To finally have a good meal in a mostly peaceful setting. Since I got here, it seems I’ve done nothing but fight or hide.”

“I must admit it was nice to have a little bit of peace for a change. I don’t expect it to last long, though. I mean, the ruler of this entire world does want you dead, after all.”

“Thanks for the reminder.”

As Tee set about tidying up the camp, I wandered off to work on my training. I had been going to different locations to train every day since we set up camp here. I never wondered too far from camp, but I figured picking a different direction every time would be an excellent way to learn the lay of the land. Today, I was going to be headed to a small clearing north of our camp to train. The clearing would give me room to see just how big a wall of fire I could summon.

It took me twenty minutes to hike from the camp to the clearing. As I walked, I casually tossed a golf ball in my hand, igniting it as I threw it and extinguishing it before I caught it. The trees started to thin away, and the bright blue sunlight grew in intensity as I approached the clearing. The sound of talking from the clearing caught my attention, and I quickly crouched behind a teal bush. Tilting my head out of my hiding place, I attempted to find where the voices came from.

Standing in the middle of the small clearing, I could make out two figures, both clad in black hooded robes. I was too far away to hear what they were speaking about, but the conversation appeared to be intense based on the hand gestures they were both making. I leaned in a little closer to try and hear what they were saying, and that’s when my sneaker found the small stick. There was a crack as the stick snapped, and in the current situation, the slight cracking might as well have been a blast from a shotgun.

Both of the figures stopped speaking immediately and turned in my direction. My body stiffened, hoping they wouldn’t notice me hiding behind the tiny bush. As they turned, I could see the front of their robes were open, revealing their outfits below. They appeared to be young women in their early 20s with greenish-yellow skin and wearing yoga pants and sports bras. This place was so weird sometimes. The women immediately saw me, my vain attempt at stealth having failed.” That’s him! Get him! “I stood quickly and summoned a ball into my left hand, and there wasn’t much to do now other than fight.

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The women both drew daggers from inside their cloaks and advanced towards me, thin smiles forming on their faces. I quickly lined up my shot and sent a small fireball sailing toward the closer of the two assailants. Right before the fireball hit the woman, she turned to the left, and the ball went past her, exploding into the clearing beyond. I realized I was in trouble as I hurried to summon a second ball.

The dagger struck my thigh before I had a chance to react. I was mid-swing when the taller of the two women flung her dagger towards me. The glint of steel reflected on the sun for less than a second before it found its target. Unfortunately for me, that target was me. I could feel the blood running down my leg and soaking my pants as I gritted my teeth and fired off a second attack. This time, I summoned a wall of flames in front of the two. I doubted they would be as dumb as the pig and walk into the inferno, but at least it would buy me a couple of seconds to deal with the weapon protruding from my leg.

The women screamed and cursed behind the wall of flames; to my dismay, these sounded like screams of frustration, not of pain. Tears ran from my eyes as I pulled the knife from my leg and immediately realized that it was a mistake. The dagger, while being the cause of my injury, had also been doing a relatively good job at stopping the bleeding; the second it was removed, a river of blood began running down my leg. My wall of fire was starting to die down, and I was in trouble.

The laughing faces of my attackers could be seen through the smoke as the flame wall smoldered away to nothing. I was desperate at this point, so I did something idiotic. I sent one last fireball their way, the biggest I could conjure. The projectile impacted directly between the two and exploded with such force it knocked me back on my ass.

The women were rocketed towards me from the explosion, or what was left of them anyway. Charred body parts and organs rained down on me as the two were ripped to shreds by the blast. I was lying on my back, covered in blood, my head pounding, and my entire body felt as if I had just run a marathon. Then, the vertigo started. I had lost a lot of blood and as far I could tell, I was still losing it. The explosion I caused was way too much; I definitely wasn’t strong enough to be doing something like that. My vision was blurring, and I could taste copper in my mouth as I lay there staring into the sky.

“Brodie!”

I heard my name in the distance, and I recognized the voice. It was Tee. The world started spinning faster, and I threw up all over myself; this was definitely the end. My time in the Caddyverse turned out to be short-lived, and honestly, it wasn’t worth it.

“Brodie!”

Tee’s voice again, this time closer. I had a brief moment of hope as I realized he would soon find me half-dead in the woods. Remembering our conversation about how he couldn’t directly help me and only guide me, that hope was quickly lost. At least he would get to watch me die and maybe give me a nice burial.

“Brodie! Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

Tee was beside me now and realized what was happening. I looked in his direction the best I could. It had become almost impossible to move my head. As I looked, I saw him shake his head and pull what appeared to be a pan flute from behind him.

“I’m going to regret doing this,” Tee said as he started to play the flute.

At this point, I was in and out of consciousness but could still make out the melody of the song he was playing. It was pleasant and calming, and as he continued to play, a feeling of warmth washed over me. Suddenly, the skin around my wound started to close, and it felt like it was knitting itself back together. The bleeding was stopping and the world began to come back into focus. I still felt like I got run over by a freight train, but the wounds that the lady had inflicted on me appeared to be gone. It seemed Tee had healed my injury somehow; so much for not being able to help.