Warm blood flowed from the Odaka onto my hand and arm. The glint of the knife in the man’s back stung my eyes as disbelief shut down my mind. All of time halted as the realization of my actions hit me.

The robed man dropped his own knife and stumbled from Golem’s torso, landing on the ground below. A few moments later he and his golem stopped moving, and the world was silent.

I looked to the little girl, who had fallen to her knees in relief, and smiled. The remaining Odaka cursed me to the hells below as he fled, his chaha’oh jumping from Golem and fleeing with its master.

I had done it. I had saved Golem. I was strong and brave, just as I had always known I was.

And at this moment...well at this moment I had an exposed Heartstone beating beneath me. Its warm, pulsing glow invited me in.

It wanted me; it needed me.

My chance. My chance had finally come.

I cast the knife from my hands and knelt. Golem, still stuck beneath the limp bodies of two golems, matched my eyes.

“Don’t!” the little girl called as she descended from the plateau above. Now the vermin showed me respect.

Perhaps if she had been nicer, perhaps if she had become my friend, I may have felt something of remorse as I pulled Golem’s Heartstone from its exposed chest.

But I didn’t.

Truthfully, I felt more relief than remorse.

Finally, my banishment would end. Mother, Father, Sister. I was coming home.

The Heartstone continued to beat within my hands as I leapt from Golem’s chest. A stinging sensation went through my bare hand as I cradled the Heartstone. The stone was...well it was magnificent really. A crystal of life, soon for both me and Golem alike.

Golem. What a damn stupid name. I would change that first.

“Please don’t,” the little girl begged, now no more than a few meters from where I stood.

The ecstasy, the pure and prominent pleasure sent chills through every portion of my body. How I hated that little girl. The small, lame, pathetic girl. She could ignore me no longer, disrespect me no more, as Golem would be my slave.

“You see, little girl,” my smile, my eyes reflected the glow of my genius that laid within my hands. “You mistake me for a better man.”

As I pulled the Heartstone into me, willing its power, its life to merge with my own, the feeling of victory peaked, and then…faded away.

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In fact, every feeling seemed to fade from me.

My knees buckled; my lungs tightened. What was this pain, this torture, this hell?

The Heartstone fell from my hands as my body collapsed. My vision faded, the sound of Golem moving from beneath its prison pounded in my ears.

The girl’s blurry face came into view as she picked up the Heartstone in her gloved hands. She smiled as she knelt before me.

“And you, ignorant man, mistake me for a simpler girl.”

The trail of blood behind me piqued the interest of the forest’s wildlife. The howls from the trees around me seemed to close in on my position. The growing blizzard would not keep them from their meal.

I tried to hurry as I stumbled through the forest, my vision only a small hole in the darkness.

What had that child done to me? My body sporadically responded to my commands, and the blood that dripped from the blisters on my exposed hand increased in flow. I needed shelter desperately.

Perhaps it was a hallucination, perhaps it was luck, but I soon found myself crawling through a familiar scene.

The rocky walls, the packed down sandy ground, the scorch marks upon the far wall.

It was the cave. The cave I had started this disastrous experience in. I would have laughed at the irony had my mouth responded.

Howls echoed from the cave entrance.

My consciousness teetered on a razor blade. I knew I could not pass out here.

The howls crept closer.

My stomach growled, and the remaining sparks in my brain brought a distant memory, one that seemed too many moons away.

I remembered that vile, arrogant little girl, climbing through an opening in the back of the cave and returning with food each time.

Even in this state, it took me mere moments to find the opening.

Unfortunately, I was much larger than she and thus could not fit through the opening in my present wardrobe.

Bitter cold nipped my exposed skin, but the glowing eyes that approached my position hastened my decision.

I quickly stripped my beedliéi and outer pants before I squeezed through the opening.

Just in time as well, as two large, furry snouts pushed through the small opening as my feet cleared it.

But I was safe for the moment.

It was near dark in this part of the cave, the only light provided by a small hole in the ceiling above.

Food. There was food and I needed it.

I shook my head, pushing my mind to hold for a few minutes longer. I inspected my surroundings, taking in every centimeter through touch and what little sight I had left.

No food. The only thing I found was answers. Answers and more ravenous growls.

In one corner, I found Pocan Root, and subsequently, an answer to my blistered hand and waning consciousness. The other corner, the one I finally halted my search in, was littered with the drawings and scribbles of a child. Some of a mother and father holding a little girl’s hand. Others of a mighty golem covering the girl with its hulking body.

And finally, the last thing I saw as my eyes slowly dropped, as my predator’s gnashes grew more ravenous, was what appeared to be the most recent addition: a picture of a crooked man. The crooked man lay at the feet of a young girl, his arm outstretched towards her, as if begging like some common slave. The young girl stood tall before the crooked man. Her shoulders were high and a triumphant smile lie fixed upon her face.