“Hey, Cameron,” Sofie said, stopping the beast, or Wyrmret as she learned he was called, on the way to wherever he was taking her. They were currently in the town’s outskirts, making her feel comfortable to bring up what was on her mind. “Can you… tell me what that is?”

She pointed to his neck, Cameron following her hand and looking downwards. Though he couldn’t see the chain with the snout in the way, something he cursed inwardly at, he could feel it. It stung, as if a hornet had left its mark upon his form, but the ethereal chain was indeed there. He did his best to recall what he had been told as he looked back at Sofie.

“This horrible thing? It’s called the Sign of Fog, or at least that is what everyone has told me,” He tells her. A paw reached towards his neck, teeth gritted. “Apparently, it allows me to replicate abilities of others I’m attuned with, but in exchange I’m supposed to be connected to some evil person called the Lord of Terror.”

Sofie felt as if lightning had just hit her when she learned that, pupils turning to pinpricks as she heard him speak. She was lucky he had turned his head back down for she feared her eyes would say all. She felt as if she had turned to stone. With a deep breath in, she considered her options. Her mind came to the conclusion that keeping it a secret would likely not do her any favors later. Not that being the Lord of Terror was doing her many favors to begin with, but she ignored that for the moment.

“Well, whoever they are, I will admit I’m interested why someone like myself was chosen to be with them,” Cameron said, completely oblivious to the girl right in front of him crossing her fingers as she figured out the best way to broach the topic of her nature. “Don’t exactly see myself as the evil type.”

“Um, about this Lord of Terror that you are connected to,” Sofie said, drawing the wyrmret’s attention to herself. She pointed at herself with a finger and looked away, ready for some form of retaliation. “You… might be looking at her right now.”

Cameron moved to speak but nothing came out. He looked into the Ukrainian's eyes in silence. Sofie, having yet to get chewed out, dared to look at Cameron’s, ready to defend herself from possible retaliation. The American took a deep breath, allowing himself to recollect his thoughts on how best to approach the situation. The sound of a bird in the distant cawing announced to him that the silence had gone on long enough.

“So, about two or so days ago, the Sign put me in so much pain that I ended up passing out,” He told Sofie. The girl looked away as she realized exactly what had likely caused it. “Would you mind explaining exactly why you did such a thing to me? Do you have any idea how much you scared those that were around me when it happened?”

“I swear, I had no idea that I did such a thing,” Sofie replied, taking a few steps back. “It was because of this weird aura that had engulfed me a few days ago. It activated by itself. I was attacked by bandits and only got out of it alive because of it.”

Cameron, while clearly not happy with his answer, sighed. He had no choice but to assume the girl was telling the truth. After all, no one would willingly admit to being the Lord of Terror, right? That was what he believed. That, and a voice in his head kept him from continuing his confrontation further. It wasn’t that of the replication state, or his own consciousness, but something entirely different.

“The girl clearly didn’t know what would happen. You gonna get on her for that?”

“I hate the fact you have a point,” He said, Sofie believing he was referring to what she had said. She kept her left hand on the sword, not comfortable with the way Cameron was approaching the truth she had told him. Even when he shrugged his wings and turned around, her hand stayed steady. “Next time you use this aura thing you mentioned, please keep in mind what it is doing to others, okay?”

Sofie nodded, and the two started back on their way to wherever Cameron was taking them.

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After about ten to fifteen more minutes of walking, they arrived at a farmhouse on the farthest outskirts of town. Sofie looked off at the fields - the wheat on it to be precise - one of the few to be untouched by whatever was killing most crops in the village. It did make her glad that some had been saved, the water for this farm likely being disconnected from the town well. Though the fact that others were affected was still very worrying. That wasn’t just people’s livelihood being ruined, but also food for others in far off towns and cities no doubt being affected too.

Cameron knocked on the door, a response not coming until a minute or two later when a woman, looking just three years older than Sofie, opened the door. Her outfit was a simple black dress, her hair down to her shoulder blades, and a soft warm smile on her face. For a moment, Sofie swore she saw what was her mother in the womens face, though she was far too young to be her. Far too young and far too healthy.

“Cameron, back from messing with the town militia again, I see,” She said, her voice giving off motherly vibes with its calming and soothing nature. She looked to Sofie. “I see you’ve also brought a friend. The name is Felice Oldero.”

“Sofie Yvanova. It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Oldero,” Sofie said, taking her hands off her sword and reaching it out. The farm lady took it and shook firmly. “Sorry to come unannounced, but I’m new to the area and am looking for housing for the night.”

“Don’t apologize, we are more than willing to shelter you for the night,” Felice responded, the smile never falling from her face. “Just know we don’t have a spare bed, if that is okay with you.”

Sofie let out a sigh before nodding her head. She would take what she could, more than used to sleeping on things other than an actual bed by this point. Helped that she had spent the last two days on the road resting on wood, which was somehow not the least comfortable thing she had ever slept on. She shuddered at the old memories, trying her best to swat them away from inside her mind. Her back still hated her for it to this day.

Felice motioned them both inside, Sofie taking off her shoes a moment after. It was a cozy little place, the living room and kitchen connected to each other. Sofie noticed a pot on the oven, a man likely a few years olders than Felice stirring whatever was in it. Her attention was taken away before she could get a better look at the man though, her attention drawn to a pale boy making his way out of a door. A boy that Felice and Cameron both immediately rushed over to.

“Oscar, get back in bed!” Felice ordered him, the way she commanded it once again reminded her of a mother.

“But I heard we had a guest,” The boy said, his voice weak and quiet. “Can I at least say hello?”

“She’s on the younger side, Oscar,” Cameron told the boy. “She’s also from my world but not from my time. It’s likely that she isn’t immune to this. Remember how I mentioned what happened a couple years before I ended up here?”

The boy went quiet, sulking a little before noticing Sofie looking at them from the other side of the room. He weakly waved to her, and she waved back to him with a smile. It was fake, her heart going out to the young man and hoping for a fast recovery. With that, his mother picked him up and carried him back into his room. As she did, Cameron made his way back over to her.

“What happened a few years before you ended up here?” Sofie asked the wyrmret.

“Someone ate a bat and caused a global pandemic,” He said, his answer so nonchalant and straight forward that it took Sofie a moment to register it all. When she did, she gave the American a flat look, clearly thinking he was joking. “Girl my time may be more advance but I’d argue we are still just as stupid as we were back then.”

“You have no idea just how disappointed in the future I am after hearing that,” Sofie told him, shaking her head to further show her disapproval. “How the hell did something like that even happen? I figured we would be immune to all diseases in one hundred years or so.”

“One thing I should tell you right now, anything about flying cars or whatever you have in your head, get rid of them.” Cameron replied. “Future is wildly different from what people thought it was gonna be. It ain’t bad, per se, but we are definitely not as far along as we all thought we would be.”

Sofie nodded, Cameron jumping onto a couch and tapping with a paw for her to join him. She did so, letting out a sigh as she nearly melted into the cushion. It was the comfiest thing that she had laid on in possibly her life, to the point where she almost drifted off to sleep just from making contact. She didn’t, but it was extremely tempting.

“So, you are from Earth as well,” Felice said, sitting down on a chair next to the sofa. Sofie nodded. She hoped that the fact Cameron shared such a detail with them meant they weren’t gonna immediately figure out she was the Lord of Terror. “Well no matter who you are, a friend of Cameron is a friend of ours. It is a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Sofie.”

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

Four bowls were placed down on the table, the man who was at the oven moments before sitting down next to Felice. They were the husband, that much was obvious. He wore a plain white shirt and jeans with more than their fair share of dirt and grass stains on them. To say the man was ripped was putting it lightly, Sofie figuring he must be able to carry a mountain of logs no problem. Yet, despite that muscle, he smiled so gently it gave the impression of a man who wouldn’t hurt a fly.

“This is Lucas, he’s my hubby,” Felice said, a warm smile on her face as she looked at her husband.

“A pleasure to meet you. Sofie Yvanova, I believe I heard?” Lucas asked, his voice a high tenor. Sofie could tell the man was a gentle giant just from that, a sweetness in his voice that couldn’t be matched. “I’m guessing you and Cameron aren’t from the same area of Earth.”

“No, and a completely different point in my world's history from the sounds of it,” Sofie said, taking a bite of a sausage that she had found in the bowl Lucas had put before her. It was delicious, unable to keep herself from taking another bite as she continued to speak. “In my time, pretty much the entire world was at war. My homeland of Ukraine was being invaded by a country known as Germany.”

“Meaning it was nineteen forty-one, if I’m guessing correctly?” Cameron asked, Sofie nodding in reply. “I had a feeling. Germany technically made two pushes into Soviet territory. By the sounds of it, this was the first time.” He turns back to the couple. “From what I know, she is from about eighty years in the past from when I died. The war she is talking about is what we on Earth call World War Two. It was… not a pleasant time.”

The way that Cameron said all of that so matter of factly, it just made it more clear how far removed from it all he had been. To say it was unpleasant was an understatement, especially for the Soviets. The continual change of power in Russia, not to mention the civil war, and then Lenin and Stalin. Ukraine was just gaining its legs as its own country, and Russia still had a lot of control over them.

“Poor dear, to have to endure such a thing,” Felice said. “I know it isn’t much reassurance, but you are safe now. You can’t be hurt by those people anymore.”

“I know that but…” Sofie couldn’t finish what she was saying, her hands clenched in fists. “What are you supposed to do when your own people toss you to the side?”

Cameron frowned, noting how watery the Ukrainian’s eyes were getting. Not that he could blame her, barely able to imagine what it was like to live through such an event. The closest thing he had was his own arrival, though it was far quicker than a full scale invasion. He doubted anyone in that room could understand the pain that Sofie had gone through, or the amount of life lost in such an event.

“Don’t tell her. You know just as much as I do that it will only hurt her more,” Cameron looked to the cushion he was laying on as the voice in his head spoke. He opened his mouth in return but was stopped. “That goes even more so about what is happening in the current day.”

“Right,” He muttered, Sofie still hearing him though from her spot right next to him. He looked up to her. She couldn’t tell if that response was pointed at her or someone else. “Lets try and draw topics away from world war two then. How about… hobbies?”

“Hobbies? Can’t say I have too many of them,” Sofie replied, eyes still filled with tears but trying her best to not think about her own situation. She was grateful that Cameron was trying to steer things away, no matter who he had been talking to in the beginning. “I… guess I played piano a little. Don’t know much, most of the keys on ours didn’t work, but I managed to make some stuff out of it.”

“A musician then?” Lucas asked. Sofie gave an uncertain nod to the man.

“That is wonderful!” Felice spoke, hands clamped together as she smiled. “We don’t have one, but it would surely liven up the stories that Cameron tells us,” Sofie looked to the wyrmret, who was looking away clearly a little embarrassed. “I must say, Sofie, your world has quite an incredible imagination.”

“Uh, thanks,” Sofie said, not entirely sure how to respond. “What stories were you telling them?”

“None that you would know about. That isn’t an insult, they actually didn’t exist back in your time,” Cameron replied, tapping the underside of his snout as he tried to think of how best to explain things. “They were a new form of entertainment introduced around the nineteen eighties. They’re called video games. Imagine a television show, but you have control of the people in it and cause the story to play out yourself.”

Something in Sofie’s eyes lit up at that, the idea sounding insane and yet believable at the same time. A television program that had complete control definitely sounded futuristic. She didn’t have a TV herself but it caught her attention. Her curiosity had been piqued, which was shown to those around her in the form of her slamming her hands on the couch cushions. It caused Cameron to jump, the American leaning back as the Ukrainian leaned forward.

“Share one with me, please!” She asked, her smile wider than Cameron had seen in the short time he had known the girl. Realizing she was likely invading personal space, she backed up and looked away in embarrassment. “Sorry, let my curiosity get the better of me.”

“It’s fine,” Cameron told her, getting off the couch and moving behind the table. “I’ll do a simpler one, and I think I have just the story,” He turned to each member in his audience, waiting for all three to nod before clearing his throat and beginning. “Now, our story starts with a shepherd living in a far off kingdom, in a far off land…”

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Sofie wasn’t sure how long Cameron had been going, but she had been instantly hooked. A world protected by four crystals, four heroes and a fairy journeying to save the world from natural disaster. Cameron was right about it being simple on the surface, but the amount of detail he put into his telling was amazing. She had been hooked from the very beginning, not noticing as Lucas and Felice left for bed, leaving the candles lit for the two.

The setting sun did just as little to stop them, Sofie refusing to leave until the story had reached its conclusion. It just made her mind twirl with the images of the heroes Cameron told her about, her mind playing out the battle as best it could with what she was told. The more she listened, the more she wanted to experience this story – this game – that the American told her about first hand. She couldn’t, and most likely never would, but she imagined she would have enjoyed it quite a lot.

“With that, they set the airship down at the port, ready to make their way into the desert,” Cameron said. Sofie leaned in, waiting for what came next. “But I shall save what happens for another time.”

Sofie lurched forward, disappointed by the sudden conclusion. Cameron chuckled at it, noting it as something he would imagine out of an anime. He jumped onto the chair that Felice had sat in earlier, Sofie finally taking notice that the couple had left. She leaned against the couch, looking at the wrymret with another disapproving look.

“Video game stories are typically rather long. Even the smaller or simpler ones could probably have a full length novel or two made to retell them,” He told her. He pointed to the Sign of Fog on his neck area. “Don’t worry, since you and I are bound by this sign I’ll make sure to tell you more as time goes on.”

“You want to come with me? Despite the fact I’m supposedly some evil entity here?” Sofie asked.

“Hey, better than you getting into a fight and causing me to pass out again. Supposedly, staying by the Lord of Terror leads to no pain when you use your power,” Cameron told her, Sofie looking at him skeptically. She did want to hear the end of the story, but it wasn’t like she completely trusted the American either. “All I ask is for you to help me with something.”

Sofie shook her head, hating that she was right that there was more to this than he was letting on. She wanted to deny him outright, but Cameron hadn’t been antagonistic to her at all. Then, she thought back to the tavern and when she had first arrived at the farmhouse too. Both Oswald and Felice had mentioned something about him messing with the militia, now that she thought about it. It made her curious, and her curiosity overrode her rationality.

“What exactly do you need my help with?” Sofie asked him. A small smile appeared on the American’s face as he heard that.

“It… has to do with Felice and Lucas’ kid, Oscar,” Cameron explained, motioning his head towards the room that the young boy had come out of when she had first arrived. Now that Sofie thought about it, she hadn’t seen the kid since then. “You saw how he was sick, I’m sure.”

“If you are asking me to nurse him back to health, I can’t,” Sofie said.

“I don’t expect you to,” Cameron replied. “Not that I can myself. Kids got something bad that I think is along the lines of the flu, and I say “along the lines” because not every symptom matches up,” He looked down at his paws. “All I can do is hope that he gets better. I’m no doctor.”

Sofie looked from the door to Cameron, not entirely sure where he was going with this. That said, she understood his wish to help. Sofie’s thoughts turned back to her mother and her own sickness. The thought that it had been for naught, that her mother’s life most likely ended after she had died on Earth, hung in the back of her mind. Cameron was in the same position that she was now, and something about that made her fight for her mother’s life only more present in her mind.

“Then his best hope is a vaccine or medication of some kind from a nearby city,” Sofie said, hanging her head.

“Not happening,” Cameron told her. Sofie looked at him, and the look of pure anger that was in his eyes kept her quiet before she could ask what he meant. “Medical research, technological advancements, or anything else like that? Turns out that all stopped about two hundred years ago.”

Sofie’s eyes went wide, mouth hanging. Those words, the thoughts that it put into her head, it reminded her of the life her mother and father had lived before she was brought into the world; before the last czar abdicated. A world where the entirety of Europe moved on in technology as Ukraine, at the time part of Russia, was run like a backwards medieval country. She shot up, hands slamming down on the table causing the broth of the soup the family had given her to spill out.

“What?!” She shouted, not caring at all for the fact she would likely wake someone in the house. “So no one would even try to invent a cure? No one would want to help stop this from spreading?”

“Yep, and that leads me to what I want your help with,” Cameron told her, the two suddenly holding the same anger and passion in their being. “We are gonna stop this before that spread can happen. We are gonna stop those dispensing it,” His eyes narrowed, voice getting more enthusiastic and upset as he did. “Tomorrow, we are gonna pay the town militia a little visit, and you're gonna be my ticket in.”