Nothing particularly interesting happened after Sata put her blade tipped fingers back in, so Jamie went about his own business and looked for a backpack. Afterwards, he selected the books that looked the most interesting and carefully placed them inside. In other words he killed someone and robbed their library. So far, on this strange day, he died in a fire, was sent to another world, broke into a stranger’s home, ate illegal fruit, found out the stranger had been kidnapping travelers and apparently torturing them for an entire week according to the conscious victims, brutally murdered said stranger, and learned that he is a major statistical anomaly. In fact, according to Ajak (the satyr guy), he was the only person he was aware of to ever have a question mark in their stats, and that’s not even taking into consideration the numbers themselves. Ajak was apparently the son of a pretty prominent stat technician, and would get him an appointment when they got back to the city. But for now, he had to sleep. Not right now, of course! He chose a particularly comfy spot on the floor, where he started reading up on the plants. He flipped through. Harrowarth trees were the yew like trees he’d seen. Oh, turns out that while berries were in fact even deadlier than he thought, they can be treated to not only be edible but also to increase mind strength… and also cause you to see some hidden spirits, who may or may not be hostile. The berries are supposed to be dried, and beaten into a powder, which will then be heated and mixed thoroughly in a concoction containing carowat petals and dorroth fruit. They have to be made just right, otherwise they will cause the eater to turn into one of the hidden spirits, which while they will be enlightened, sanity is not included. Because of this they are even more outlawed than sunfruit. Eh, it’s not like he’s going to make it- without knowing what he’s doing, of course. He’d have to grab a few more before he left the area. Apparently they were native to a place called Heth-Rothathh, which is known for its rather strange plant life. And just overall strangeness. He’d have to visit later. He probably read through the book until eleven o’clock, if time worked the same way here as it did on Earth. It was at this point when he actually started to feel tired. He put down the book, yawning and stretching. Well, he was certain to wake up and think that this was all a weird dream…

———————————————————

Well, that was a weird dream, wasn’t it? Oh, never mind that actually happened. Huh. He groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. Well, it was eight o’clock, or at least this world’s equivalent, so it was time to get to work. Too bad he wouldn’t be getting any coffee, especially because that meant suffering from the withdrawal. He could already feel a headache coming on… Well, he would probably feel better after some food. He glanced in the other room, where Sata and the others were sleeping. Everyone who was the most injured seemed to be almost perfectly healed, which was good. No deaths today, he guessed. Man, he totally jinxed it, didn’t he… No matter, he just had to get started on the food. He would make some for them, as well. If they would wake up easily enough.

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Sata would have sliced open his face had he not dodged her blow.

“What the fuck, Jam guy! What was your name again?” She felt bad for forgetting, but hey, she was terrible with names. Jamie couldn’t care less though.

“Jamie. Jamie Steve. What would you like for breakfast?”

She stared, perplexed.

Did she not know what breakfast was? “… Breakfast is the first meal of the day-”

He could tell by her face that she was genuinely concerned as to what Jamie’s deal was. “I know what breakfast is. I’m just wondering what the hell you’re doing up?”

Was this not a normal time to be awake? “I don’t know. I like to keep a tight schedule. We should be leaving soon if we’re going to get to the city. Do you know where the city is? I don’t, all I know are these woods.”

She stared, and then glanced away. Jamie squinted. Uh oh… “You do know where the city is, right?”

“Uh… north?” she muttered. She groaned. “Yeah, me and the party got lost on our way to Renthis City.” She hadn’t mentioned exactly what happened to put her party in the situation they were in when he found them.

“And, the weird dead lady? I’m guessing she promised to give you directions?”

Sata sighed, grimacing. Truth be told, she had the nagging sense that it was her fault that they were abducted. She was the elected leader of the group. If she could have just recognized the woman as dangerous… “Yup. Then she poisoned our food. Dunno why. I think she said something about appeasing a pain god.” Weird.

“Well, I’m glad she’s dead.” Sata looked uncomfortable with this remark.

“Are you okay? Like, in the head…? Later today, Ajak’s gonna give us all a counseling session, and I think you might have some issues…”

Jamie? Having issues? No…! He shrugged. “Eh, I’m sure I’m alright. Now, what would you like to eat?”

“Uh, I dunno. I really like raw eggs…” He guessed that her kind was immune to salmonella, then.

“Great! And everyone else?”

Sata clicked her tongue. “Well, Ajak likes vegetables, Kalia likes fish, and Dorvow also likes fish…” “And what about the other guy?” He was referring to the humanoid with the oddly twisted face and the pale blue skin. Sata looked surprised.

“What do you mean? It’s just us!” Jamie widened his eyes, looking down at the apparently invisible guy, who was fast asleep. He pointed at him, hoping he wasn’t insane.

Sata winced. “…Well, do you have a spirit seer skill?”

“Why, is he a spirit?”

“You tell me!”

Jamie was silent. Sata herself was the one who helped him to his feet when they were leaving the dungeon. So why couldn’t she see him? Eh, it didn’t really matter at this point. “I’m making food. You can go back to sleep if you w-”

He broke off after the sound of a large crash and a horrible ear splitting shrieking coming from behind him. He swallowed nervously, not ready to see… whatever caused that.

“…That sounded like a problem…”

Sata nodded, pupils tiny slits. “Yup…”

No use ignoring it forever. In fact, ignoring it would likely get him killed. Jamie turned around, gasping. Whatever it was, it wasn’t just a problem. It was a HUGE problem.

“Well shit!”