I woke up a few minutes later with a headache. Slowly, I stood up, my muscles burning from exhaustion.

Saron and two other slaves stood at the entrance to the circle of wagons. At their feet lay three dead guards. The blood on the slave’s swords answered my unspoken questions.

Saron looked down at the bodies as the sword in his hand dripped blood. I took a second look at the sword in his hand, then looked down at my waist.

“Saron.” I shocked him out of his reverie. “Can I please have my sword back?”

He looked down at his sword for a moment, before realization hit him. “Of course. Here it is.”

I took a piece of cloth from my pocket and wiped the blood off of my sword. Sheathing the sword, I turned around to look at the rest of the slaves.

They stood there without shackles, staring at me.

I turned back to the slaves who had helped Saron guard the entrance. The two slaves, looked like brothers, they each had long uncut brown hair and similar brown eyes. The brothers had armed themselves with the dead guards’ swords.

“What are your names?” I asked them.

“I’m Leon.” The younger brother responded. “Timon” The older one added.

“Could you two guard the group while Saron and I look to see what has happened?”

“”Yes Sir”” They both answered.

I signaled for Saron to follow me. He looted a sword from one of the guards before following me.

Outside the circle of wagons lay a massacre. Dead wolves, men and elves lay everywhere.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds. Just breathing in and out.

“Will you be okay?” Saron spoke up softly.

I opened my eyes “I will be. It’s just…. I have never seen a massacre like this.”

A dark expression covered Saron’s face. “It is never easy the first time. Or any time after that.”

Sadness overcame me as I realized that a boy that looks eight years younger than my original body, could talk with such a dark voice. He couldn’t be older than eighteen.

I distracted myself with counting the bodies. Saron started stripping the bodies for anything he found useful.

“Saron?” I asked after double checking my count.

“Yes?”

“How many guards do you count here?”

“Twenty two.” He responded after a moment. “Why?”

“Counting the four we killed back there. That is twenty six. Four guards are missing.”

Saron’s eyes narrowed “Odd.”

The missing guards didn’t pop up as we searched the campsite and before long, we found our way back to the rest of the former slaves.

I pulled Leon and Timon away from the larger group, when Saron saw us moving away from the group, he walked with us. “Could you three find as many people as possible to search the dead? I hate to do it, but we need whatever weapons we can find. After that, we should grab the supply wagon and leave. I imagine that all this blood will draw something to us soon. I don’t want to be here when it arrives.”

They all agreed and the atmosphere shifted as all of the former slaves started moving. Saron thought of something and made sure that someone grabbed the horses still around.

I took the chance to rest as the former slaves gathered the supplies from the dead guards.

“Saron.” I called out.

“Yes?” He responded.

“How far away is your homeland? Can your people make it all the way there?” I asked, a little bit of my exhaustion leaking out through my voice.

He looked over the tired and malnourished slaves, now freemen. “I believe in my people and I am afraid we don’t have much of a choice. We can’t live in this country as anything other than slaves, your people see us as a lesser race.”

“I see.”

The freemen finished gathering all of the supplies and we drove the wagons towards another campsite.

*********

Days passed us by as we travelled, The freemen kept themselves hidden with hats and cloaks on the off chance that someone else traveled the road.

I rode Luna at the front of our new little caravan while Saron rode quietly on my left. I preferred his company to the guards I had been forced to travel with, they had made a point of ignoring me.

“Why did you choose to betray your own kind?” Saron asked after a few minutes of silence.

I looked at him with surprise “What do you mean?”

“Why did you choose to help us humans? You had to kill your own brethren.” Saron’s voice was guarded as he asked the question.

“Race had nothing to do with it.” I immediately responded. Biting my lip as I considered my answer to his question, I spoke after a few moments, “Where I come from, freedom is highly valued. Those slavers, what they did was- no, is truly horrible. I am someone who believes in good, and if I see someone doing something wrong, I will do everything in my power to stop it. I don’t care if they are elf, human, or beastman.”

“What an idealistic world view.” A small smile tugged at Saron’s lips as he turned his face away from me.

“I know. It is.”

“You can’t possibly stop all of the injustice in the world, hell, you can’t stop all of the injustice in a single city.” He responded in a somber tone.

I ran my fingers through my hair, they stopped when they touched my ears. Gently, I traced the outline of my ears, “That doesn’t mean I can’t try. If I don’t stop injustice, who will? The world is only unfair because people let it be that way.”

“I changed my mind, you aren’t an idealist, you are an idiot.” Saron tried to act serious, but I could hear some laughter in his voice.

“What’s the difference?” I asked honestly.

He snorted and turned his attention back to the road. Even though he was doing his best to hide it, I could see a small smile on his face.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Dust appeared in the distance, causing me to stand up in my stirrups.

“Someone is coming,” I said “You should put your hood on and make sure everyone is properly hidden.”

Saron nodded and turned his horse around to warn the other freemen.

It wasn’t long before the other travelers came into view. It was a small contingent of armored men surrounding a single carriage. They were carrying a banner with the symbol of a phoenix on it.

Luna’s speed increased as I pulled ahead of our caravan to meet these new people.

I stopped Luna ten meters away from them.

A man in full plate armor moved towards me, “Who goes there?” He asked in a curt tone.

“My name is Drew. I am a guard for the caravan behind me. Who are you?”

The man looked at me in shock. He gestured at the banner they were carrying with them, “We are Baron Luthor’s knights of course. Who are you, to not know this banner?

“I-”

“Never mind, it is not important. We are on urgent business. Does your caravan have someone skilled in the healer's arts?”

“We might, why do you ask?”

The man drew his sword and before I could react, two crossbows were pointing at me and every knight behind him had drawn his sword. “Bring us to your healer now.”

I placed my hand at the sword on my waist. “What do you need him for?” I asked with as much nonchalance as I could manage.

The knight looked at me with confusion for a moment before he laughed. “Very well, you have called my bluff." His tone grew somber "We were attacked by assassins this morning, the person we are guarding has been poisoned. I know enough to slow the poison down, but I cannot stop it with my meagre knowledge.”

Thank god that was a bluff, I have no desire to fight knights in full armor.

I sighed and got off of Luna “I am a priest of Maria, the goddess of protection. I have been gifted with spells for healing, let me see the person you are guarding.” I naturally slipped into my roleplaying as I talked.

The Knight looked at me for a moment before nodding to the men behind him. They lowered their weapons and opened a path for me to the carriage.

I walked through them to an ornate carriage. Phoenix designs were carved into every part of the carriage, a young man stood at the door to the carriage and opened it for me.

Inside lay a young woman with long red hair, underneath her back lay two wings covered in red feathers. She stared at me with unfocused blue eyes.

“Who?” She asked with a whisper.

“A healer.” I responded as I leaned over her and put my fingers to her throat.

I noted that red feathers covered the sides of her neck and parts of her shoulders.

Her pulse was faster than it should have been, but I couldn’t tell if that was because of her beast physiology, or the poison.

I don’t want to use [Heal] on her without knowing exactly what the poison is doing to her, I could try my other spell…

I placed my hand on her forehead feeling her temp, she had a high fever.

“I guess I don’t have any other options.” I whispered quietly to myself. I spoke my magic in a loud, confident voice. “[Purify].” A comforting yellow light surrounded us and lifted us both up and out of the carriage. We floated there for a moment before the light all entered her body at once. She convulsed for a moment before the light left her body through her mouth. The light was carrying some darkness out with it. The light wrapped the darkness in a ball and constricted it until both the light and the darkness left with a *pop*.

We were gently placed on the ground as the spell ended. I wavered on my feet for a moment before falling on my ass. “Damn. These graphics are way better than the game’s.” I whispered before I laid down on my back. This was the main reason I hadn’t wanted to use that spell. It was famous in the game for draining all of a priest’s mana in one use.

“Captain Jacob.” A soft musical voice came from beside me.

“Yes Milady?” The knight, now Captain Jacob removed his helmet to show a middle aged man with a slight beard. The only sign of his beastman background were brown feathers intertwined with his hair.

“Would you mind helping me off the ground?” I turned my head to see Captain Jacob lift the girl I had saved off of the ground.

“Captain Jacob, can you please explain to me what happened?” She said as she leaned on Captain Jacob, her knees unsteady.

“There isn’t much to tell Milady. We fended off the assassin's attack and traveled as fast as we could to the nearest village, on our way there, we encountered a caravan who happened to have a Priest of Maria in their midst, that priest is the boy lying on the ground right there.”

I gently waved at them as I slowly brought myself into a sitting position.

“You let a Black Cat take care of me? Did you forget who it was that tried to kill me?” She said with anger.

“He didn’t have much choice.” I said as I stood up, my feet unsteady beneath me.

“What do you mean by that?” She tried to hide her hostility.

I’ll give her points for trying. “Considering how much darkness my spell brought out of you, I am surprised that you were still alive when I got to you. I doubt you would have lasted the journey to the nearest village.” I was partially bullshitting, but I suspected that I was right.

The sound of a horse approaching interrupted our conversation.

Saron sat on his horse, a hood on his cape covered most of his head and face. “Are you ok, Drew?” His hand moves to his blade.

“I should be fine after a few minutes. That spell just takes a lot out of me.” I responded, motioning for him to stand down. There was no need for fighting at this point.

The young woman carefully moved away from Captain Jacob and curtsied to me “I apologize for my rudeness, It has been a stressful time.” She managed to stand up from her curtsy, “My name is Charlotte Luthor. Thank you for saving my life, I owe you a debt.” She turned back to her captain with a physical effort, nearly falling down. “Let us be off Captain, we must inform father of what has happened.”

The group of knights was a flurry of motion as they mounted their horses and led Charlotte to the carriage.

In a few minutes, the carriage and the contingent of guards were off down the road.

“What was that about, Drew?” Saron asked me.

“It looks like I just earned a favor from a Baron.” I responded as I mounted Luna. “Let us continue. By the way, what is the name of the city we are going to?”

“It is called Jein.” Saron said with a neutral voice as we moved back towards the caravan.

“Is that so?” I stated with no real curiosity.

*********

That night, we set up camp in a small wooded veil.

Saron sat beside me as we ate some of the soup. “Our supplies won’t last us much longer. We don’t want to stop tomorrow, at least until we make it to Jein City.”

“I see. How are we supposed to make sure that no one discovers your true race?”

“We only need to send a few men into the city. We will just have to be extra careful.” He said as he took a bite of his soup.

“Who will we send into the city? Leon and Timon obvi-” A scream cut me off.

Saron and I both stood up, drawing our weapons. We ran towards the scream to find five of our men fighting what appeared to be a giant ant.

The men’s swords just bounced off of it’s carapace. “Timon!” I yelled at one of the men fighting the thing. He turned to look at me, “Find something heavy and blunt to hurt it with! Saron and I will lead the thing away from the camp.”

I switched places with Timon and slammed my sword into the ant’s face. Saron and Timon pulled the other men away as the thing switched its full attention to me.

I rolled out of the way as the thing bit into the spot I had been standing in. It soon became a constant dance as I dodged every move it made to kill me. My sword stayed limp in my hands, but I didn’t dare put it down, if I did, I might lose the swordsman’s class buff that was keeping my movements smooth.

It must have been only a minute or so of my dodging, but I could feel exhaustion begin to set in as my movements slowed slightly. Everything was fine, until I tripped on a root. The ant brought itself up to it full glory, about to pounce into me.

A hammer flew and hit it in the head, disorienting it enough for me to stand back up and move away.

A few seconds later, the ant was swarmed by humans as twenty or so freemen brought hammers down on it.

The thing died in a matter of seconds. I breathed a sigh of relief as the feeling of leveling up went through my entire body.

I slumped against a tree and leaned against it.

At level three, swordsman gain another ability, what is it? God -or goddess I guess-, I am tired. At level three Swordsman gains the ability... Is it...? [Pierce], that's right.. That would have been useful against the giant ant.

“Saron?” I called out to him.

“Yes Drew?”

“What was that?” I asked, some of my exhaustion leaking into my voice.

“A scout most likely. I heard about an Anther hill in the mountains. I just hadn’t realized that they traveled so far.” He responded calmly.

An older man who’s name I had forgotten interrupts our conversation to ask what we should do with the corpse.

“Do we have anyone who could use its parts?” I asked both of them.

“I will ask around.” The older man gave us both a bow before leaving.

“Saron? Why did he just bow to me?” I asked with surprise.

“It’s his way of showing respect. You healed them and led them away from bondage. you are like a leader, or hero to them.” He said the last sentence quietly. Glancing over at me, he walked over and rapped his arm around me. “Come on, you need to get some sleep.”

I leaned on him as he led me to a tent. Sleep dragged me into its sweet embrace as soon as my head hit the pillow.