He awoke and immediately shut his eyes again. Daylight, finally no longer obscured by thick fog or hidden by the night, was a foreign sensation that stung. The pain his body had passed out to escape from still lingered but in duller forms throughout his limbs, and seemed to circle around the nerves in his stomach.

He tried to rub his eyes but he couldn't lift his hands to them. In fact, he discovered he could not move his hands nor arms at all, as they were both tied behind him in thick cords. His legs were bound around the base of the stool, but he could rest his back against a tree which supported his weight and was at least some sort of relief, some sort of grounding.

"Look," said a voice, "he's awake." It sounded like the same voice of the robed one who had first held a spear to his throat when he entered the camp, but all he could see was a blur.

"Ugh," the man moaned, arching his neck back against the tree to try and rid himself of the pain.

"Shut up!" said a different robed one. "How did you find us?"

Although still exhausted, the man did not fail to see the absurdity of the command.

"You want me to shut up," he slurred, "but you also want me to say how I found you?" He shook his head and grinned. "Aha, ha, aha." The half-hearted laughs strained his chest.

He heard clothes rustling, a foot driving forward onto the ground, and then an object being sliced through the air. He winced as a heavy wooden stick struck the man on the shoulder, his body twisting in vain to avoid the blow, only being pulled more tightly against his restraints.

[You have been struck by Khayin's baton for 5 damage. 11/50 HP remaining.]

The words appeared in a flash in his mind with the sharp sting of the baton's blow. He found himself unwittingly understanding the words faster than before, like a long dormant faculty or sense was being active once more.

"Are you insane?" the man shouted at the robed one he now intuited was named Khayin. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Khayin," said one of the robed ones, "calm yourself. I believe I recognize this man."

The man's eyes were able to focus for a moment and he saw the one who just spoke was the green jewel robed one.

"Do not interrupt me, Halqat!" said Khayin. "You believe you recognize him? No, I recognize him. I recognize him, as I have recognized them all over these years. He is just one of many travelers who attempt to divert us from the way of the ancestors. We have already strayed, and we stray further by even allowing him in our midst. He should be executed at once for endangering us and bringing bad fortune to our camp."

Halqat, the green jewel robed one shook his head.

Stolen story; please report.

"I believe I know this man," Halqat asserted.

"I swear to you," Khayin said, "by the very gods of the Diggers, I too shall render the flesh on your skin scorched like the black Earth we have escaped from so long ago, if you interrupt me once more."

"Why don't you just let the guy speak," the man suggested to Khayin.

Khayin turned back with agape to the other robed ones behind him.

"This insolence must be punished!" Khayin shouted.

He winded his arm back again and whipped the baton at the man's shoulder, hitting him in the exact same spot as before, sending a shockwave that traveled from his arm and into his ribs.

[You have been struck by Khayin's baton for 5 damage. 6/50 HP remaining.]

[Caution: You are almost at 10% of your remaining HP.]

"Agh!" the man howled in pain. He tried to reach over to grab his shoulder but the bindings just dug into his skin as he struggled against the enveloping sensation of immobility, of being wrapped up with a space to escape.

"Please," the man pleaded. "I'll answer whatever I can."

"Don't speak unless we address you," said Khayin.

Khayin walked closer to the man, examined his face with a look of disgust, then turned towards the crowd of robed ones.

"This man is the one who had led the noctogorges to our camp, fellow Diggers" he orated. "We suffered injury. We damaged our weapons. And our location is now known to those vile beasts. This man is the one who is responsible. He is a bad omen, and is a sign this wandering of ours has gone on long enough."

The crowd of robed ones - presumably Diggers, as they were called by Khayin, stood in an uneasy silence. The lack of response seemed to suggest Khayin's message did not fully resonate with them.

"But he fought," said one Digger, somewhere in the group.

"Yes," said another. "Quite brashly, dangerously. But he did fight."

"Any damn fool can fight," said Khayin. "Is that who we Diggers are now? Is that how desperate we've become? To accept this recklessness which almost brought us destruction?"

But again, silence from the Diggers.

Khayin stared at the Diggers, then spun swiftly to face the man again.

"Where are you from?" Khayin asked.

"I don't know," the man said wearily.

Khayin snorted.

"You don't know," Khayin said aloud, mocking the man's response. "OK, let's try something different. Where were you before you came to our camp?"

"I was in a field," answered the man quickly. "No wait, first, I was in a body of water. A lake."

"A lake!" Khayin said in disbelief. "Not only is this man a bad omen, he is a lake-walker as well! Truly he must be slain!"

"No," explained the man, "I didn't walk on the lake - I'm not a 'lake-walker', whatever that is. I was in the lake, if it was that, and then I was traveling through the field, and -"

"Do not try to spin tales, vexing water spirit! We shall be rid you and the misfortune you bring in your wake."

Khayin drew back his hand and thumped the man with the baton once more.

[You have been struck by Khayin's baton for 5 damage. 1/50 HP remaining.]

[Caution! You are almost at 1% of your remaining HP.]

[Total loss of HP is fatal!]

The man recoiled from the blow and his eyes widened at the last words in the text that flashed before his eyes. Total loss of HP is fatal. Fatal. Even if he didn't know what this all was, what all these people, this land, these experiences were, he knew what that meant.

"Stop!" the man yelled with desperation. "I only have 1 HP left!"

Khayin furrowed his brow and spit on the ground.

"Are you telling me what to do?" he asked, making small circles at his side with the baton. "Are you commanding me?"

Khayin laughed and ran his hand along the baton.

"This does stop now," Khayin said. "Because after this, you'll be vanquished for good."

Khayin slowly raised his arm, tucking the baton behind his head, before bringing it down towards the man, aiming it right at his temple, with an unmistakable arc and follow through of his entire body.