Day after day, marching, through leaf strewn paths, through quiet endless woods.

The trees stretched ever higher, up into far, blue, cloudless skies. If you looked up, they seemed to stretch forever upward. Down here, the party walked in the cool wooded shade.

The only sound as they walked was the quiet, padded fall of boots on a carpet of cosi leaves. It was soothing, almost meditative. No one spoke while they walked, except in hushed whispers. The seemingly endless woods would only briefly be interrupted by an occasional sun dappled glen, where they’d stop, spread out on the grass and break for a meal.

It was easy hiking, even for a city boy like Elrik. Occasionally their path through the woods would take them through a particularly dense thicket they couldn’t just push through. Then Senu and Agrisu would wield their great billhooks to cut a way through.

Elrik had been a city kid his whole life. He’d been taking the train to school since he was ten. He'd been walking by giant steelglass skyscrapers and dirty corner bodegas as long as he could remember. The only bit of wildlife in his life had been a feral pigeon that had taken over his apartment window.

Trudging through mile after mile of deep, quiet forest, with only the weight of his own pack on his shoulders, Elrik could feel something inside him healing.

Something bleak and cold inside him was quietly melting away.

His mind felt quiet, like the forest. Calm.

Yena walked behind him sometimes, gently nudging him with the end of her unstrung bow, correcting his feet - keeping him from leaving too obvious a trail to track. He knew Senu brought up the rear, carefully obscuring their trail, cleaning up after them.

From time to time, as his feet found their way, his thoughts wandered to other places..

How had he ended up here?

Why didn't he remember anything between walking down a street in Berlin and waking up in that cave?

[There are three generalized categories in which amnesia could be acquired by a person: head trauma, traumatic events, or physical deficiencies. The majority of amnesia and related memory issues derive from the first two categories as these are more common and the third could be considered a subcategory of the first.]

Elrik tried to sort through the the voices in his head. If he could just-

Yena quirked a small smile, "Stop".

She continued to walk, beside him now, using her bow-stave as a walking stick.

"Stop?", Elrik frowned, looking round to glance at her face.

Yena sighed, "You think too much Kassi.. this is not a good place for that. You should think less, and watch more"

Her hand played over dagger handle at her hip, Elrik noticed she tended to do that sometimes, without noticing. Yena pursed her lips as if trying to figure out how to say something complicated. "We're in the badlands Kassi. You understand? Far from anything serrik, safe or proper, yeah? Worry less, watch more. Use your good eyes"

"Good eyes?", Elrik wasn't sure he understood. It felt like he was missing a very important piece of context.

Yena sighed, "Anyone who survives out here in the badlands - west of the Yitka - instead of safe behind city walls... It's with good eyes. Blades and spears only get you so far. Out here, you blink too long -“ and she made gesture with her fingers, ”and you’re gone"

"No laws here, kassi, and no lawmen. No walls and no second chances. Out here, we're all ispik", she gestured at a fly buzzing past Elrik's face. "One mistake and-", Yena snapped her hand, quick as lightning, catching the fly, "and you're dead"

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Yena gave him a pat on the shoulder, and a small sad smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

Then she walked past him, leaving him with that to mull over.

…

If the days were quiet, the nights were cozy and boisterous.

“He was very scary. You could not fault him.” Senu, for once, was telling a story

The campfire crackled, spat and threw little sparks up in the air, to catch and drift up to the sky.

“'You might win', he said - our Agrisu, 'but many of you will die.. And you’ll probably lose anyway' and then he held open his arms with a giant bastard sword in each hand. Very scary he is, our Agrisu, when he is being reasonable” Senu nodded sagely. “Agrisu held their eyes, one and all for ten heartbeats. One by one they all looked away.”

Yena, wryly smiled at that, “to our scary Agrisu”

Senu raised a skewered rabbit in his great fist and pointed, “to Agrisu the fox bear, our great leader”

“And then? What happened? ”, Elrik asked, curious

“Then?” Senu crooked an eyebrow, “Then, while they were stepping back and gathering their courage, Agrisu turned, ran and jumped into the river” Senu grinned

“Ahahaha! Of course! It is the best time to run - when they least expect it”, Agrisu of course, laughed the loudest. Sakka rolled his eyes and sipped from his flask. Elrik smiled and lay back.

Everyone seemed to be in good spirits.

Almost everyone.

Yena smiled crooked, “Ah.. But what is scarier than a man who knows exactly when to run away? Am I not right, o great fox bear?”

“Tch”, Agrisu waved her away, annoyed “Leave it Yena”

Yena threw her hands up in surrender, “Done. It is left.” Her smile turned the least bit bitter, “See. I can learn to run away too”

Agrisu turned to face her, the laughter turned to annoyance on his face, but Yena had gotten up from the fire and walked away back to her bedroll

“What was that about?”, Elrik whispered behind him.

His grasp of the language had improved but it wasn’t all there. Senu seemed to be ignoring the exchange, and instead seemed to be suddenly enthralled by the kabob in his hand.

“History”, Sakka answered, as he sat down behind him, ”They don’t like to talk about it, but they worked together, years ago. Best to pretend not to see it”

“Were they.. Together?” Elrik really needed to bone up on some euphemisms for the language

“Together?” Sakka seemed confused by the phrasing for a second, “Ha! No, much worse - they were actually mukim once. Now, they look fine on the surface, but don’t let them fool you, no? They can’t stand to be near each other. I know our Agrisu - and very quietly he’s been losing his ishka every time she opens his mouth near him.” He nodded sagely.

“I know a little something about reading women too.. And I think every time she strokes that knife of hers she’s thinking of sticking it in Agrisu’s kidney. It’s a miracle we’ve held together this long”

“Ah” Elrik nodded, as if he understood

“But Yena said she had a job she needs his help with..” Sakka continued, “And we need the work. So everyone tries to get along, yes?”

Sakka nodded to Senu across the fire, and the giant caught his eye. Then Senu leapt up and put a huge arm around Agrisu and led him away. Elrik heard distant laughter as the two talked.

Sakka gave Elrik a pat on the back, “Come, sleep, we have work to do in the morning”

Quiet days. Boisterous nights.

It would have been almost pleasant.

If it hadn’t been for Elrik’s new morning passtime.

...

Sakka swayed to one side as Elrik leapt forward with a sharp jab.

Sakka twisted, shifting his weight, letting the staff stab the empty space he’d been a moment ago. His twist easily fell into a lunge and into the opening in Elrik’s stance..

Fast!

“Thwok!”

The staff in Sakka’s hand slammed into the Elrik’s side. Before he could recover, the lithe spearman drew his stave back and drove its end into Elrik’s midriff.

Ow

Elrik lay crumpled on the ground, hugging his bruised ribs. Sakka stood above him with a frown. He prodded him with a foot.

“Up, up! Let’s go again Kasi”

Elrik groaned

The day after the ambush Elrik had woken, to find Sakka crouched above his head, staring down at him, with a dour expression on his face. He’d asked if Elrik wanted to train with him. High on a sudden urge to improve himself and learn the skills of this new world Elrik had said yes enthusiastically.

They’d been at it every morning since, practicing since the crack of dawn

He’d started to deeply regret it.

The worst wasn’t the sharp shooting pains from his ribcage. It wasn’t the dull protesting ache from the bruise blossoming across his midriff.

No, the worst of it - was the look of sheer disbelief on Sakka’s face staring down at him.

Disbelief at Elrik’s complete lack of ability with the spear.

“Kasi…”, Sakka, tried to put the words together, “How are you this bad? Were you a scribe in a past life?”

Elrik, still down on the ground, swung out with his staff, trying to catch Sakka’s feet with a dirty shot; it missed.

Sakka neatly sidestepped and stabbed down, spearing Elrik in the thigh.

Ow

“Come on! Up!”

But Elrik was staying down. Staring at nothing.

No, not nothing. Rather, he was staring at the little piece of writing that seemed to have appeared at the corner of his vision

[Acquiring Skill: Spearsmanship 31%]