“I hope she won’t be too angry if she finds out about this. Just please don’t attack anyone,” Daniel told Ringcat, as the building dawn of the early morning shone on the village in the distance. He’d been walking longer and farther than he’d ever gone with limited food or water, and in severe if improving pain. Some of his minor injuries had also completely healed, whereas a small cut on Earth could take days to completely fade. It was very clear that magic had improved his body even if it didn’t appear that way.

The changes hadn’t done anything to his appetite, and neither had Quala’s gift. The food he’d been given was so close to an apple that he’d just considered it one. A different variety than what he was used to with two stems on both ends and a fibrous core instead of seeds. It had tasted good enough. Ringcat had eaten the other wholesale, though it only seemed to make him hungrier as the murder cat digested the meager meal.

They were both exhausted too. The ringcat was coming up on day three of its tribulation from when it had first set out on its hunt and continued only on feral might. Its paws ached just as much as Daniel’s feet. It dimly thought back to the prey it had found before finding its pack member. It had seen the wounded hunter. No strength left to resist, an easy meal. Then, a pack member had come out of nowhere. The pack member had been wounded, just like the hunter. Wait. The pack member was the hunter? Ringcat’s growl was inaudible vibration as the contradiction aggravated the beast. Like most things, it just made it hungrier.

The pack member, the hunter, the two-in-one, sensed its distress. A hand came down on its head to scratch it. Hands that did that to feral ringcats were normally torn off, but this one was not resisted. The action faintly reminded the ringcat of its progenitor’s grooming. It was one of the only interactions it’d had with its kind before it’d grown large enough to be considered competition instead of offspring. For whatever reason, it hadn’t been welcome in the pack after that.

At the same time, Daniel took in the sight in front of him as he gauged his approach. The village reminded Daniel of a wild west town. His mental image of one, not having encountered a real-life version. A river bisected the collection of wooden buildings that topped out at three stories. He wondered if that river fed the stream he’d encountered before, but he had no way of knowing. Then he remembered his map and checked, confirming that it did.

Beyond the main collection of houses were tents that stretched around the village proper. This assortment was less ordered and ubiquitous than the village’s construction that they completely ringed. Space was only made for two roads that led to the buildings and the river itself. Smoldering fires lit gaps in the tents and places along the exterior of the throng where men stood to guard them.

That’s where I should go. Daniel thought. In a story, this would be the part where he walked to the mayor’s office and was handed a mission to save the world. It seemed like there was already a Hero on that job, and all he wanted to do was find a place to sleep. There was some kind of disaster response effort being organized here, and the bird woman had implied he was valuable enough to be worthy of aid, though he still wasn’t sure what a Totem Warrior was. It seemed like a class by the way she’d said it, but his Focus had said he was an Artificer. To be fair to Quala, he didn’t think he looked like an Artificer right now. My phone, not my Focus, he reminded himself retroactively, trying not to let his Encyclopedia corrupt what little he had that was familiar to home.

“Ok,” Daniel said wearily to Ringcat. “When we walk down there, what are you going to do?” It stared back at him hungrily. “Nothing, right! Just don’t hurt anyone and I’m sure we’ll get you some more apples or something.”

The guard that observed Daniel and the ringcat amble down the hill clutched at her weapon, but didn’t otherwise move as Daniel walked down the slight hill. The way she was ready to react to him doing something aggressive might have made him turn back had Quala not explicitly told him to come here.

“Who are you?” the guard asked Daniel. She was another human, unarmored but holding a spear in one hand. She looked like any other medieval guardswoman but spoke like she was in a suit and touching one ear with two fingers while scanning rooftops.

“Daniel Brant,” he answered. “I’m a survivor.” You didn’t just tell people you were from another world and expect to be treated as a sane individual.

“Is this your familiar?”

“Yes,” he lied, hoping it didn’t show. Quala had cautioned him about keeping Ringcat when she’d known he was only charmed, and while Daniel did need healing, he didn’t want to just abandon the ringcat if he didn’t have to. He then added some more information based on how the guard was holding her spear. “My connection to him is weak and could break if he’s attacked.”

The blow that knocked him down was sudden and caught him off guard. The haft of the spear drove into his stomach as the guard lashed out with the nonlethal end. Ringcat gave a menacing stare but didn’t leap to his defense in what was probably a wise move. Daniel identified the guard and only saw a gray outline. Her name was Janice and she was a level one ‘Martialist’. He couldn’t see her powers, though the name appeared as a hyperlink. “You just lied to me,” she said evenly as he wheezed. “Answer my questions honestly.”

Daniel fought to drive the breath back into him. “He saved my life, I think.”

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“What? He?” Janice turned a confused look to Ringcat, giving him a second look. She turned back to Daniel and noticed his necklace. “Oh you’re one of those,” she sighed and emphasized the last word.

“A Totem Warrior?”

“The crazy kind. How long can you keep the ringcat under control?”

Daniel didn’t know. He did know lying was currently a painful activity. He settled on telling her a version of the truth. “He hasn’t attacked anyone or broken free since I found him.”

That was enough to satisfy Janice. “It’s your head if it hurts or kills anyone.” She offered him a hand and he took it.

“T-thanks.”

“Don’t thank me for compromising our security. Do you have anything to report? Status of your village, strange occurrences, nearby monsters?” She looked at the ringcat. “Present company excluded?”

“No, I’m just a traveler. Do you think there’s a chance we could-”

“See that red banner over there?” she said, guessing what he needed and cutting him off. Daniel’s eyes followed her finger and nodded. A plain red cloth was suspended from a long pole. It looked like it had been a tablecloth at some point before being poorly dyed. “Take it there and get it fed. Then see yourself to a green banner to get yourself looked after.”

“Thanks, Janice,” Daniel repeated, more earnestly than the first time. He realized his mistake moments after he’d made it.

The spear’s tip was leveled at him now. “How did you know my name?”

Daniel froze. Besides the sparkbats, this was the first time he’d been directly threatened. It was sudden. Janice had gone from gray to red in an instant and Ringcat did growl this time. “Identification feature!” he forced out.

The red faded. “My apologies, sir. I thought you were in my head for a moment.” She did look a little regretful and Daniel decided to accept the apology without further comment, considering she was still holding a spear. “Everyone’s on edge lately, be mindful of that.” Daniel stood frozen still. “You can go now.”

The red banner led Daniel to an open area within the tents and a horrid smell. It was wild, with strong overlapping scents competing for recognition that still eluded him. Pens had been set up in this space, with an opening that led to the exterior of the tents ending at a gate. There were a handful of ringcats, and they were all bigger than Ringcat. More exotic creatures as well, mixed in with exotic humanoids.

On the way, Daniel had seen a handful of the vine people, more of the avian race, and a lot more humans. He’d thought looking like he’d just come from a blood bath without toweling off would make people wary of him. On the contrary, no one seemed to pay too much attention to him, only making way for Ringcat as they walked the narrow paths through the tents.

Once at the stables he had a guess as to why. The village had proper monsters like the sparkbats in addition to those faintly reminiscent of Earth creatures. The largest had six long legs like a spider’s, though its body was more mammalian. Two chitinous arms protruded from under a neck connected to a spider’s head to make eight, while a tail covered in large spines familiar to the sparkbat’s pushed out the back. That was flexible enough that it could curl around the chimera, and it made use of the spines jutting from it while spinning a thread around the area it had been penned in.

“Assistance?” A vine man had pulled himself along the wooden fence before solidifying in front of Daniel. Its voice was oddly distinguishable from the other he’d met, but Daniel couldn’t express how it differed. The exact coloration of the vines, and how they flowed as the man moved and spoke, was likewise strangely unbalanced with the image of the prior one.

I guess they have to have some way to tell each other apart, he thought, before answering the living foliage in front of him. “Uh, hi. I was told to bring Ringcat here for food? How does that work?”

“Care.” The vine man’s way of speech made understanding its precise meaning difficult. It still got the point across. Daniel considered identifying him to try and learn more, but Janice’s reaction made him realize that was probably impolite.

“Do I need to pay anything? I don’t have any money.”

“Community.” Another one-word response, although this time a depressed space formed in its head that could be taken as a smile.

“Oh, thanks! I just come back here when I need him?”

“Yes.” It was the closest to a full sentence he was likely to get.

Ringcat was frozen while the two talked. It sensed things beyond hunters. Things that considered him prey. So many dangerous scents intermingled. Worse was the gloss of apathy over most of them. It didn’t understand this. Its instincts told it to run, overriding even the hatred that spiked from every mortal and structure it saw. But the pack member was here. It couldn’t abandon it, or do anything that would bring them harm.

“You’ll be fine, right boy?” Daniel asked Ringcat, oblivious to the beast’s woes. “Some food and some sleep. I need to get some of that too.”

“He?” The vine man seemed like it would have raised an eyebrow if it had one.

“Is he a girl? I honestly couldn’t tell.”

The vine man shook his head and just said, “More?” The faint satisfaction he’d sensed from the vine man had inverted over a few seconds. No extreme emotions either way, but it made Daniel feel like he’s slightly failed a charisma check.

“Uh, no.” Did he insult the vine man somehow? He seemed intent on getting back to other duties. “Thanks again! Sorry, it’s been a long night.” The vine man opened the fence and glanced to the ringcat expectantly. “Go on,” Daniel urged.

Ringcat didn’t want to. Its pack member was insane, but it was its pack member. And Ringcat had picked out the scent of food. It smelled mole and hare, as well as the flesh of larger creatures it could have never taken down alone. Following the hunter was the way to food? Impossible. But it was true. Instinct fought against hunger and lost.

“Good boy!” Daniel said as Ringcat padded forward. It was the first time he seemed to have directly followed an order. Progress. The vine man’s eyes, the same acorn replacements as the last one’s, gave him another enigmatic look. “Thanks again.” Daniel then decided to head for a green flag before he fell over and had to be dragged there.

As he was walking away, the entity at the gate spoke one more word as a whisper, like a curse, not quite reaching Daniel’s ears. “Spiritualist.”

…

Murdon was in the middle of debriefing a scout when they were interrupted. He’d managed four hours of sleep the last night and was grateful for each one. There was more time available but coming in and out of his armor took time. That didn’t stop him from putting it back on come morning. He needed to appear at all times ready for battle. No one could question his ability to handle the situation.

He turned to the intruder. One of the camp guards, Janice if he recalled correctly, was out of breath at his door. She spoke three words, and suddenly Murdon only had one priority.