When I woke the next morning I found my pants hanging from a rack beside me along with my boxers and socks. The strange environment immediately snapped me back. I looked around and found I was alone. After dressing I left the hut and found four girls sitting around a fire in the small clearing. "Good morning." I said, as I approached them.

"Scotty, it's damn near late afternoon. You've been asleep most of the day." Jaz said. "Say hi to Alara."

I yawned and gave the Blonde girl a small wave. "Good afternoon Alara, I'm Scott. Glad you're awake." I tried to be as cordial as I could but her eyes kept darting between my bare chest and my face. I could see fear in her eyes so I sat down on the opposite side of the fire so she wouldn't feel pressured by me. "Thanks for hanging my stuff up last night, whoever did it."

"You're welcome." Jaz said.

"What's cooking?" I asked. I tried to peer into the pot sitting in the fire but from my angle I couldn't see anything.

"We're just boiling some of that lake water so we can drink it." Becca said.

"Good thinking. So, Alara, tell us about yourself." Her face went blank, like a deer in headlights and I apologized. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to put you on the spot. Just trying to get to know you a little and trying to understand why they grabbed you."

Her accent reflected an educated background and she spoke cautiously when she answered. "Oh, well. I..um. I was traveling to Towan Port. They showed up out of nowhere. They grabbed me and one pressed a rag to my face. That's all I remember. I don't even know who they are." The girl had flawless features and platinum blonde hair which she toyed with while she spoke. It was long and shiny like one of those shampoo commercials as it reflected the midday sun.

"Well you won't have to worry about those bad men again, they are gone and I'll protect you until you get to where you're going. Were you traveling alone?"

"No, I had a companion. But they killed him. I'd rather not talk about it." She followed up quickly.

"I'm sorry. So what's at Towan Port?" I asked.

"I have a friend that lives there."

"I see. As good a place as any I suppose. We need to go somewhere other than here. How far is it?"

"I don't know." She admitted. "I don't know where we are."

"There are maps in Tomalin's hut, I'm going to go through it more thoroughly in a few minutes but hopefully you'll be able to figure out the geography." I paused. "Alara, I'm going to level with you. The four of us aren't from around here. Not by a long shot. We're going to have a ton of questions. Some may seem bizarre to you. But ultimately we need to figure out where we are with as much detail as we can. We've been sent here on a mission, one that we need to complete."

Alara looked bewildered. "What kind of mission?"

"I won't get into the details, but it's the kind of mission that involves saving the world." I shrugged. "I'm not sure how much we should tell others yet so I'd rather wait until we have a better understanding of our situation before I reveal more. But, we're the good guys."

She gave me a nod and I looked around the clearing. I didn't see any bodies, but one of the huts had a lot of blood on the ground, like drag marks, near the entrance. So, I guessed that the girls had dragged the bodies into it. "We should probably leave today with enough time to find an inn or something. I'm guessing there will be scavengers here tonight, looking for easy food." I tried to be vague but judging from Alara's reaction she fully understood my meaning.

I stood and made my way to Tomalin's hut. After I stepped inside I began to search around. Most of the chests I found were filled with random things like metal ore and mining tools. One had clothes that smelled mostly clean and after searching, I found an off-white linen shirt. I put it on and checked the small chest under the desk. Inside was a bag filled with coins of various sizes and colors and a few loose gemstones. I put the gems into the bag and checked the papers next.

There were two maps. A large local map that showed our location, as well as a small map that showed a very minimal view of the east side of the continent. The temple was marked on both and the local map showed the location for the nearby port of Towan. Using our position relative to the rest of the mountain above us I was able to work out our best route to get to Towan Port.

The rest of the papers mostly looked like bills for this or that. One was a receipt for the purchase of four-hundred slaves at the cost of eighty-thousand gold. Another was a brochure or advertisement of some kind. The church of the Rising Sun was apparently offering a reward for demonic artifacts. There was a note written at the bottom that said: Wrath Relic 1,800,000g.

'Well that's just dandy' I thought to myself. It fully explained Tomalin's reason for being here. But it also meant he was most likely on his way to the church to give them the mace right now. And, that begs the question, Would the curse on the mace drive him to find me before his greed allowed him to give the weapon to the church. I scooped up the local map and made my way outside back to the fire.

Jaz and Becca had sour expressions on their faces and I guessed that the water hadn’t tasted all too pleasant. "Water not tasty?"

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Becca opened her mouth to answer but Jaz beat her to it. "Oh no, the water's fine." She said and handed me a ladle filled with water.

I took it and looked down at it. It was a bit murky, even in the shallow spoon. "Then why the sour faces?"

"Just talking about our situation, that's all." Jaz said. But she wouldn't look me in the eye. Becca was looking at Jaz and I knew the goth well enough that I knew she was trying to prank me right now.

So I bellied up and drank the spoonful. It was awful; but I forced a smile of delight and said, "Not bad". Jaz’s mouth dropped open and she stared at me for a moment before she figured out I'd seen right through her trick.

"That shirt looks good on you." Haley said to me. All three of the other girls nodded in agreement. Tomalin had wider shoulders than me, even though we were the same height. It made the shirt a little loose.

"It's okay I guess." I said with a shrug. "Let's grab what we need and hit the road." We gathered a few more things from Tomalin’s tent before the five of us were headed down the road to the port. "Alara, what do you know of Port Towan?"

"It's sort of a pirate town. There is no real leadership or structure for government. The king keeps a blind eye to it because there are a lot of goods and merchants that come through it. But it’s lawless for the most part.” She was quiet for a moment as we walked before adding, “There is a man named Haerek, he is sort of like an unofficial shariff. He was a pirate many years ago, and everyone respects him. So he tries to mediate disputes and catch the really bad criminals the town gets sometimes.”

We came out of the trees into a grass field with a large road through it. To my left I could hear something and had the others stop so I could listen better. I peered around the bend in the road and I could hear rapid thuds and screaming. A moment later a horse appeared. It was at full gallop with wide eyes. On its back was a man in a gray robe with a strip of cloth tied around his head. He was desperately trying to hold onto a little girl of perhaps five or six years old in the saddle behind him and both were screaming at each other as the horse charged ahead.

The girl had slipped sideways and was falling off the horse. The man was twisted in the saddle, bent at an awkward angle with one arm trying to prevent the girl from falling. He yanked desperately on the reins but the horse only sped up. Then, to our left we saw the reason for the horse’s fear. Two creatures unlike anything I'd ever seen chased after them.

Six spiked legs pounded against the dirt as the beasts drove forward. The brown carapace rippled and tails bobbed as they ran. Their bodies almost looked like a cross between a cockroach and an ankylosaurus, complete with the clubbed tail, but their head was something altogether alien. The massive jaws were shaped like pac man or a piranha plant from mario and it was filled with very large shark-like triangular teeth. A black eye sat just behind the jaw on either side. At eight feet long and four feet high, they looked really nasty. They ran with their jaws wide open and made a ululating noise that seemed to drive the horse insane with fear.

We watched in horror as the man finally lost his grip and the girl fell to the ground, tumbling to a stop. She sat up and cried, reaching out for the man while he was shouting “Kamy, Kamy” in panic and trying desperately to stop the horse.

I was halfway to the girl before I’d even consciously thought to do something to help. Each footfall slammed into the ground and launched me forward. Kinetic energy coursed through me and I forced the reverberations down each leg, greatly enhancing my speed. I reached the girl at the same time as the first creature and as it leapt into the air to pounce on the girl I slammed my shoulder into it, knocking it to the ground and away from the girl. It rolled several feet away and I turned to deal with the second.

The second creature made a grab at the girl but I punched it across the jaw. It reared back in pain and spun faster than I would have thought it would be able. Its tail struck me in the hip but I was fast enough to neutralize most of the strength from the blow. The rest of the energy I harnessed the same way I had in the water the night before, building it within me until it was ready to explode. I only needed a few more moments to hit that crescendo so as it finished its spin I kicked it in one of its large eyes.

It shrieked in pain and backed up a step, turning slightly to keep me in view of the eye on the other side of its jaw. Behind me I could hear the first creature getting to its feet and I knew I had to finish this one off quickly. I feinted an attack and the creature took the bait, spinning to lash out with its tail. I waited for it to pass and lunged forward. Placing my left hand, palm flat, against the shell of the creature just behind the jaw, I released the energy I had been building.

The entire shell on the back of the creature shattered as a hole twice the size of a bowling ball was blasted into the creature’s back beneath my hand. It screamed, falling to the ground and writhing in pain as it died. Gore erupted from the hole and I jumped back, narrowly avoiding the spray.

The first creature stoof frozen as it watched its mate die and turned to me. It regarded me for a long moment before letting out a shriek of rage. I charged it but when I was about five feet away the creature’s tongue shot out of its mouth and wrapped around my right wrist. It yanked hard and I fell to the ground. I rolled in the fall and it lost its grip.

I was flat on my back when it pounced. I saw it in the air and brought both of my feet up, catching the creature just behind the jaw. Its mouth slammed shut an inch away from my face and I kicked out, throwing it off me. It was lighter than I had expected and I made enough space that I was able to get to my feet before it could charge me again.

It came in fast with a spin but I was ready for it. I crouched low, intentionally taking the blow on the back of my shoulder. The blow stood me up and knocked me back a step. It hurt like a mother but I was able to capture the full kinetic force the blow channeled. I amplified it as much as I could in the few moments I had before slamming my fist into the shell and sending the power into the creature. Nothing happened for a moment, then, the entire underside of the creature ruptured and it cried in pain as its guts poured over the ground. I stepped away from the growing pool of blood, panting.

As my chest heaved I looked down to check on the little girl. She still sat in the same place she’d fallen. Except she wasn’t crying anymore, she was staring wide-eyed at me. “Are you okay?” I asked her. Before she could answer, the girls came running up.

“Holy shit Scott, that was awesome!” Jaz exclaimed. “Did you get hurt?”

Haley scooped the little girl up and asked her if she was okay, after getting a nod she held the girls head close and shook her gently.

Alara stood several feet away, eyes wide, watching as Becca brushed off the back of my shirt. “Next time you play the hero, try not to get so dirty. Remember what happened to your last shirt.” Becca said.

I laughed at Becca and said, ”yeah, my shoulder is going to be hurting for a while.”

“Kamy. Kamy.” The distant cry came from the man and I turned to see him running back up the path, a sword held in one hand. Haley put the little girl back on her feet and she ran for her father. When they were nearly together he dropped the sword and fell to his knees, wrapping her in a tight embrace and rocking back and forth as she cried in his arms.