Medoly blanched. She didn’t recognize the bloody man’s voice. She was about to grab the lamp and run when the stranger spoke again.

“Calm down! I’m not dangerous! I. Am. Not. Going. To. Hurt. You... Do. You. Understand? I’m Noooormalllll!”

Medoly halted, and her brows furrowed. Did the strange man have a speech impediment? He did say he’d hurt his head… And he does have pretty nasty scars. She squinted her eyes and scrutinized him a second time.

Her first thought was… This man looks homeless. No, much worse than homeless, he looked like he’d been living in a slime dungeon for years without break. She’d seen adventurers return from a slime raid before, and the man before her looked like a slime raid veteran that despised baths more than Lord Hemistos Himself.

She also saw the blood on him, but judging from the obvious cuts and bruises littering the man’s skin, the blood was only his own. He was also trembling…

"Ma'am?"

She pinched her glabella and sighed deeply. “Huu… Dad’s going to kill me for this.”

Medoly grabbed the lamp and one of the dry towels from the basket and approached the man, her hesitation somewhat eased now that she’d made her decision. She continued walking until she was about a meter away from the man and offered the stranger the towel.

“Here, take this. And don’t call me ‘ma’am’, I’m not some bloody Dame.” She waited until the man took the towel and swung it around himself, then turned on her heel and marched off, speaking over her shoulder. “We have fresh food and clean clothes inside. I’ll even draw up a bath for you, but you’ll owe me one.”

The stranger stumbled after her, struggling to keep up with her pace.

~-~

Karsten followed the nice lady into the house, and gawked at the interior. “Medieval high-fantasy house! This is exactly what I was attempting to build back home before-mph!”

“It’s the middle of the fucking night right now, and I am already going to be in enough trouble just by bringing you in here, so, please, by Ballux’ wrath, shut up!” Shaking her head, Medoly led him to an empty bedroom on the first floor of the house. The way they were moving through the house, Karsten felt as if he was a spy on an infiltration mission.

They walked through the entrance, living room and up the stairs to the second floor hallway, and stopped in front of the first door on the right - one of five doors in the hall. Medoly carefully opened the door and ushered Karsten in, frowning a little when she saw the trail of mud left in the man’s wake.

As Karsten was admiring the room, Medoly moved to close the door, but stopped when she heard Karsten speak.

“By the way,” He said.

“Hm?”

“You didn’t answer when I asked earlier, but since you don’t want me to call you ma’am, maybe you could tell me your name?”

The Ranger hesitated for a few seconds, but in the end replied; "My Name’s Medoly. Wait here while I fill the tub. I’ll leave a clean towel and some of Henry’s clothes for you to wear.”

Karsten flashed her a wide smile. “Thank you Medoly, you’re a saint.”

She chuckled, “No, I’m a Ranger, but I’ll take it as a compliment.”

Karsten’s brows furrowed. “Wait-” But the door was already closed. “‘Ranger’…” He repeated in a mumble.

‘She could have simply meant that she likes to wander around in the forest, menacingly, while wearing a cloak and holding shortswords, but the way she said it, as if the word had a capital ‘R’... made it sound very much like she was referring to a class, doesn’t it?’

Karsten had played Dungeons and Dragons before. Not much, but enough to know what a Ranger was. Additionally, he remembered the description of Rangers in D&D being ‘rough and wild looking’, which were not suitable words to describe Medoly.

Interrupting him from his musings, Karsten heard a knock on the door. He opened it quietly and was met with Medoly pointing at a door at the end of the hall. “The bathroom is through that door. When you’re done, just pull out the stopper. Henry’s clothes and the towel are there as well, and I prepared a bucket of water for you to clean off whatever you get mud on in the process.”

Karsten smiled and nodded, “I’ll try my very best not to make a mess of your bathroom. And thank you again, really. I don’t know how long I’d last in this place if you hadn’t saved me.”

Medoly’s expression softened a bit as she inspected his face, as if checking to see if he was being genuine. “You’re welcome,” she said in the end, and walked away.

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Watching her walk down the corridor, Karstens face turned contemplative. “She definitely doesn't seem like a Ranger…” He remarked as he walked down the hall, careful so as to not bump into or dirty anything. Opening the door, what met him was a cozy, dimly lit bathroom in the same medieval-fantasy style as the rest of the house.

As much as he wanted to take his time to really admire the room, his remaining energy level was exactly zero, making him unable to do so. Karsten sluggishly peeled off his spoiled clothing and stepped into the bath. He then groaned as he felt all the tension and knots in his body that had accumulated over the course of the day nearly vanish from his soul, significantly improving his mood. His many wounds stung in the water, but the sensation didn’t even register in the slightest.

Medoly must have added something to the bathwater, because there was a nice floral scent that filled his head with images of home. Feeling his mood start to droop again, Karsten looked around and started humming - at a subdued volume so as to not wake anyone, obviously. It was a low, somewhat raspy hum that didn’t at all follow the beat of the original song.

Karsten continued to lay in the pleasant smelling water for a few minutes, then pulled out the stopper for the drain, got up and dried himself off with the clean towel.

He dunked the piece of cloth into the bucket and cleaned the interior surface of the bathtub. Then, he carefully poured the water from the bucket onto the sides of the tub to rinse it off, making sure he wasn’t spilling any water on the floor. After all was done, he walked over to the neatly folded clothes that were laying on a wooden stool in the opposing corner of the room. He was worried this ‘Henry’s clothes wouldn’t fit him, but that luckily turned out to be a completely unnecessary concern as the clothes fit him as if they were his own.

Looking himself over, Karsten felt giddy. What he was currently wearing was the quintessential medieval fantasy outfit. It consisted of brown pants that stopped a couple inches above his ankles, a white linen shirt with a woven in metal brooch that kept the two ends of the collar together, soft, beige socks and a brown vest that looked like it came straight out of The Hobbit. “Ye-he-hes,” Karsten hummed with a laugh and tugged at his vest. “This is perfect. All I need now is a lute, or something, and the persona is complete.”

He carefully exited the bathroom and returned to his room, surprised that the muddy trail he’d left on the floor was already gone.

He didn’t even bother getting under the covers. As soon as his head met the pillow, he was out.

~-~

Sunlight filtered in through the window and filled the room with a warm yellow hue, making everything it touched look soft. The dust, drifting slothily through the air, was made visible by the light and the effect created a blissful atmosphere.

On the bed, a human-sized lump of blankets slightly shifted.

The sound of knocking filled the room, but was only met by silence. The knock came again, still silence. After a few more seconds of silence, the door swung open brashly and a Medoly marched in with a plate in one hand and a cup in the other.

“Karsten?” Medoly asked the lump of blankets. Still hearing no answer, she poked at the lump with her foot. The human-sized lump jerked, and, slowly, a human head stuck out from underneath.

“Ugh… ‘morning.” Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Karsten sat up and greeted her. Then, an ear-deafening stomach-growl filled the room as his nose picked up the scent of the food. Hunger burning in his eyes, Karsten pointed to the dish in Medoly’s hand. “Is that meant for me?” He asked, his eyes brimming with hope.

“It’s pana with sweet-cirn-root,” She chuckled. “Nothing too fancy, but from the declaration from your stomach it seems you’d be happy to eat just about anything right now. Here,” She said, offering the food and drink to the bed-headed man.

Karsten immediately accepted the plate and cup from her and started wolfing it down. “M-thank you! Thith ith really delithuth. What’th pana and thweet-thirn-root?”

Medoly blinked, then looked at him oddly. She supposed she could understand not knowing what pana fish was, as it wasn’t very common in these parts, but sweet-cirn-root was the number one staple food for the people of the entire southern part of the continent. Even if a person had only lived here a day, they would know that. Thinking as such, Medoly felt her jibe from yesterday about him having basically lived in the dungeon might’ve not been too far off the mark… Examining him again, noting his absolute lack of manners, as well as the general oddness that he exuded, she couldn’t help but feel like she’d hit the nail on the head.

Medoly also hadn’t forgotten the man’s remark from yesterday about ‘dying and coming to another world’. Obviously, he wasn’t dead, and although other worlds existed, there were sure as the Hells no humans there, other than maybe the most extreme High Levellers.

She observed the eating Karsten for a while before her face lit up in understanding, then pity.. Those eyes were looking at her so dumbly.

How hadn’t she realized this before?

The man before her probably had a very complex background. She didn’t know what had happened to him, but it was obvious he suffered from amnesia, and probably a complex set of other challenges as well. Obviously, judging from the state she’d found him in yesterday, he had lived a very hard life up until now because of this. Thinking back to how coldly she’d treated him the night before, Medoly couldn’t help but feel like a shameless bully. She had saved him, yes, but she had also been… rather snappy, she admitted to herself.

Her conscience told her she needed to help him more, maybe let him stay for a few more days. But she knew her father would kick him out when he found the man, disabled or not.

“Haaaaaaaa…”

No, if she really wanted to help him, there was only one thing she could do. She had to show him the ropes of living in this place - and that would start with bringing him to the Adventurers guild. If he was going to be able to live on his own, he needed to learn how to earn his own money.

Adopting a gentle expression, she took the now-spotless plate from the young man and spoke to him in a warm and clear tone. “I am now going to bring you to a place where you can get what you need to get started in this city. In this place, you will learn how to make money, which is something you need to know how to do to be able to take care of yourself. You might even make a few friends along the way! Isn’t that nice? Are you alright with that?”

Still chewing, the young man eyed her, now looking even more confused. Medoly felt a pang in her heart.

‘Poor guy…’