Scout set her pack on the ground next to her after made herself comfy on the cold dirt inside Savage's fortress. Scant few leaves surrounded the two of them, indicating that Savage had raked most of them out or stored them somewhere.

He wore a set of what looked to be homemade bone armor, with an interlocking rib cage breastplate, kneecap knee pads, and what looked to be a femur battle-skirt of all things. It reached down above his knees and the femurs clacked against each other with every one of his movements. What looked like foot bones made up the pauldrons, with several other leg and arm bones tied together to cover his limbs. He wore no helmet, but she wouldn't put it past him to fashion one later.

Considering what he had just told her about the chair in his cabin… this armor was made out of goblin bones. She saw that he wore a chain mail shirt below the armor, but seemed to be a tad to small for his frame. The cloth of his shirt strained against the chain armor, pressing out in between the ringlets. Savage hadn't been wearing any armor the night she first saw him… He must have found the chain recently, and as for the bone armor… Well, he would have to replace the bones when they got broken. Maybe that's what had happened, his previous set had been destroyed and he delved into the caverns to collect more goblin bones.

What kind of nut case would you have to be to want to wear something like that? A mad man. A Savage. He sat right across from her, staring intensely with a clenched jaw. That did make her nervous, but it was nothing compared to Prowler's angry gaze. She didn't come unprepared either, and still had the speed potion in her pouch.

Technically she wasn't supposed to be talking with Savage, but Prowler didn't have to know about it. When she made her report yesterday, he had ordered her to check on him regularly. She was supposed to tell Prowler if Savage began poking through the caves down below. Prowler really didn't want anyone else besides the Blackwings doing that, but so far Savage seemed content staying in his fortress.

Prowler knew that Savage had cleaned out one cave already, but he theorized that Savage was merely trying to clean out the goblin filth around his land. Prowler didn't think that there was anything important in the caves around Savage's fort, but he wanted to explore them first. Prowler still wouldn't tell her why they had come here, but it had something to do with the caves. Their employer; whoever that was, must have thought there was something valuable in the twisting caverns below this forest, though Scout had no idea as to what.

Prowler had forbidden her from exploring them. He cited the goblins as the reason but was that really the case? She knew how to hide her scent from gobs, so it wasn't that he feared her getting caught by them… maybe. Her curiosity peaked, and she grit her teeth. Scout would have to try her hardest to resist the urge to go delving into the caves down below, but she knew that eventually she'd succumb to her urges.

Kinda like what was happening now. Savage and Scout stared into one another's eyes for a long while, not blinking. Her eyes began to sting when Savage finally spoke.

"I think," He began, voice low and rough "That we should take turns with our questions. I ask one, you ask one and so on." He said.

She looked to his right hand. It barely shook. That was good. It was odd how Prowler and Savage had the same tell for their state of mind. At least, so far that was the one identical characteristic she had spotted between them. The shaking of their right hand was a giveaway to their mental state. If she could help Savage with his state of mind… would she be able to do the same for Prowler? It hadn't worked any of the previous times she'd tried… but she still held out hope that he would get better eventually.

Scout nodded at his words, and he nodded in turn.

"Okay… so…" He said, seemingly at a loss for what to ask her.

Eventually, he came up with a single question.

"Are dwarves real?"

She stared at him. Was he joking with her? He seemed completely serious. Scout let the question hang in the air until finally responding.

"Yes." She said flatly.

Oddly, Savage smirked, nodding to himself contentedly.

"Awesome." He said simply.

He really was mad… but she already knew that. Had he never seen a dwarf before? They were almost as common as humans! What if he grew up in this forest? Raised by wolves and the like? No… if he was raised by wolves then he'd be clad in a loincloth and sleeping in the caves. He was, or had been, a civilized man. The longhouse and walls she suspected he built attested to that. What had driven him to this state?

Savage then began rummaging through his bag, pulling out several sticks and layering them over each other to form a tepee. He then brought out some dry autumn leaves, crunching them up and placing them beneath the sticks. Savage was starting a fire? Where was his flint and steel? He then brought out this odd little yellow device the size of her thumb.

Savage rubbed his finger down a metal circle near its top, and a flame appeared from atop the device. She stared in awe. This wasn't a spell, Savage hadn't said anything to cast it. He then stuck the miniature flame into the tinder, setting it alight. He then let go of the red pad underneath his thumb, extinguishing the flame.

She pointed to it "What is that thing?" She asked as he blew into the flame.

Eric looked to it, then back to her "It's a lighter."

A lighter? It was so neat. Could it do that forever? Or did it need to be replaced? Did it take fuel or was it a magic item? She opened her mouth to ask, but Savage spoke first.

"Why is there two moons?" He asked her.

She stared again, dumbfounded.

"Because." She responded.

Savage frowned at her "Really? Because?"

Scout sputtered "I-it's just the way it's always been! Why wouldn't there be two moons?"

Eric waved a hand dismissively "Never mind, you go." He told her.

His right hand was still only shaking lightly, almost imperceptible.

"So… is the lighter magic?" She asked, inciting a laugh from Savage.

"Nah."

Scout narrowed her eyes and pouted.

"It's filled with something called butane." He told her.

Butane? What was that? Some kind of flammable liquid like gasoline? She had never heard of it before. Not exactly her field of expertise. If Prowler had recruited an alchemist then maybe she could find out… but she wouldn't want that to happen to another poor soul. Eric coughed, and scratched his beard. The flame was quickly eating into the sticks, soon they would have a nice little campfire to keep them warm.

"What's this world called?" He asked her, tone completely serious.

Scout threw her hands up in frustration "Are you messing with me or something?"

Eric's right hand began to shake at a slightly higher frequency.

"Are you going to answer or not!?" He shouted at her, causing her to flinch.

Savage was scary as hell. She needed to use softer tones if she wanted to sate her curiosity about him to the fullest.

"It's Earth." She said, voice gentle.

Eric stared again, eyebrow raised.

"No it isn't." He said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, it is." She responded softly "It's named after the Earth Mother. You know, the great goddess? Kind of a big deal?"

Eric remained silent, and put a shaky hand to his forehead "This is fucked."

What was the issue here? Why was the name 'Earth' such a problem for him?

"This is so fucked..." He mumbled to himself "Am I in the future? Or in the past? No… definitely not MY earth… just a coincidence..." He continued. "There are TWO moons… The moon didn't split..."

Scout stared again. She was going to have to assume that he was a bumpkin who barely knew how to breathe from this point on. That would save her from staring in shock. At least she hoped so.

"So," She said, interrupting his mad muttering "Where are you from?"

"Canada." He said simply, then continued muttering "Can't be earth… how would dwarves evolve on earth? The scars on the two moons are different than the one on earth… and the stars are all wrong...Gotta see a map of the world sometime, see if the continents are shaped similar… yeah."

She cleared her throat to get his attention. He looked up sharply at her.

"You got a map of the world on you?" He asked her.

She shook her head "Nope, but I do have a map of the country. You wanna see it?"

He nodded enthusiastically. She then rummaged through her own bag, pulling out a long scroll of parchment. She slowly handed it to him, and he took it gently, unrolling the paper and reading the map. After a few moments he nodded to himself assuredly, his shaking hand almost stilling.

"Yep. There's no way this is MY earth." He said matter of factly.

"Whatever you say Savage." She said as he handed back the parchment.

The flame was now a comfy orange, the sticks engulfed entirely. Savage began stacking more sticks, making sure not to smother the flames before they could grow in strength. The fire caught in his eyes and he smiled at his little fire. Was he a pyromaniac? He might be, there were a couple of guys back at camp that were like that. Now… what did he mean when he said 'MY earth'? What was he on about when he was talking about the two moons? The scars are different? The stars are wrong? Savage may actually be madder than Prowler.

"Do you have any friends around here?" Scout asked.

Savage blinked and sat back from the flame, leaning back on both hands. He then shook his head solemnly.

"No friends anywhere." He said silently.

Scout frowned. Poor guy…

"What happened to them?" She asked.

Savage shook his head "It's my turn."

She sat back, and nodded.

"Do you got any friends around here?" He asked her, narrowing his eyes.

"I wouldn't exactly call them friends, there's only one of them I care anything for." She said with a wave of her hand "You should stay away from them Savage. They aren't good people."

"That include you?" He asked her flatly.

She remained silent for a long while.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Yes, it does." She told him.

They both remained quiet for a long time, staring into the flames as the sky began to darken. Had they really been sitting here for that long? Time flies when your having fun. Was this fun? Scout considered. Yes, it was fun in a way. The constant sense of danger and uncovering a mystery was such a thrill to her

"Why are they bad?" He asked her.

"I… Helped make them that way." She said slowly.

"What?" He asked her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

The firelight underlit his face as he leaned forward, face unreadable. His hand shook only lightly.

"I would rather not say. If that's alright with you. Since I won't answer this one, you can ask another question, shoot." Scout told Savage, looking to the dirt in shame.

That gnawing guilt came back, eating at her core for what she had done to those poor men back in camp. Sure, the newest members had all joined willingly, the brand hadn't been required for them. Not that it even worked anymore, the charges had long since been used up. That was why Medic had to be kept under guard, he didn't have a brand, just like Scout herself. Unlike Medic though, Scout was loyal.

Medic may not be with the Blackwings willingly, but at least he had a chance of one day being free… but the first couple hundred men she found? They would be bound to Prowler until he died, and she had led him right to them.

"So if they're all bad people; includin' yourself, your boss must be the king asshole. Who is he?" Savage asked, his right hand shaking slightly faster.

"His name is Prowler, he's our boss… and really he isn't so bad. He just has a temper, that's all." She said, slightly offended by the name Savage granted Prowler "He really is a good guy at heart, he just gets mixed up sometimes. He'll get better, he always does."

What was she doing!? Scout had intended to just brush off the question like the one previous, but having the chance to talk to someone outside of the Blackwings for once felt so liberating. She had so much she wanted to vent about, and here Savage was, ready to listen!

"Really, he's the closest thing to a father I've ever had you know? He told me that he didn't want me working for him right? But I insisted on it, I pretty much forced him to have me work for him, I had to, I couldn't leave him behind, I couldn't-" She took a deep breath "Sorry, I lost myself there."

"Uh, so he's your dad?" He asked, leaning back away from the fire.

It was then that Scout noticed that she had leaned toward Savage in her tirade, something that Savage clearly didn't appreciate, giving his body language. He looked akin a compressed spring, ready to jump at the first quick motion. Slowly, she leaned back, keeping an eye on Savage's shaking hand. Getting too close like that really upped the frequency.

"Sorry again… and no, he's not my dad. He'd the closest thing I have to it though." She said quietly.

"You're fine, but keep your distance." He said, frowning at her "And for the love of God would you quit moving so damn fast?"

She nodded. What had he went through to be so scared of quick movements? Scout understood sudden jerks could make one flinch, but she didn't feel like she was moving that fast. Could it be the goblins that made him this way? Having to look out for any sudden movements while hunting in the woods or building his fort had likely kept him alive thus far.

"So… if you don't mind me asking, what made you so, uh, jumpy?" Scout asked.

Savage actually looked surprised by the question, and kept silent a long while before he answered.

He told her a story that shocked and absorbed her. A struggle to survive, isolated from family and friends on hostile land. Savage told her that it wasn't this forest they were in currently that made him this way. He kept referring to the land he was stranded upon as 'The Peninsula'. It was a horrid place infested with disgusting multi-limbed monstrosities and aggressive human natives. The humans he described were primitive, using only the most basic tools and wearing practically nothing.

What caught her interest the most was his description of the obsidian ruins and artifacts that resided in the caves beneath the Peninsula. Cyclopean and unknowable to mortal minds, they could bring the dead back to life, although eventually those revived would become the twisted monsters Savage had described to her earlier in the tale. He'd been living there for months apparently, before somehow finding himself transported into a cave. The very same cave he had emerged from when Scout first laid eyes upon him.

There, in that goblin cave, resided the same obsidian gates that could be found on the Peninsula. Her curiosity soared to the sky as he described the artifacts and ruins. Scout would have to go into the caves now, with or without Prowler knowing. What if that was why the Blackwings were here? Had their employer hired them to find these artifacts? Savage spoke of the ancient devices with clear disdain and vitriol, mouth frothing as he raved about how evil they were.

She did not interrupt him. The shaking of his hand was at an all-time high, and the slobber at his mouth didn't help with calming her down. This wasn't anything she hadn't seen before, unfortunately. She knew when she'd have to run. It seemed that the only similarity between Prowler and Savage when it came to their madness was the shaking of their right hand and their anger. Prowler did not froth and rave… not with the intensity that Savage did.

"Those fucking bastards took everything from me! Cross too, that son of a bitch! I'll pluck his eyes out in hell!"

He went on like that for a long time, Scout keeping silent the entire time. She knew that if she spoke or even moved, that Savage might lunge for her right then and there. A feeling of unease crept in, over the course of his rant. She wanted to be away from here, but feared angering Savage. She kept a firm hand on the potion in her pocket, something that Savage thankfully took no notice of during his rant. She tuned him out as she came to a realization. That had been his first night here… and the clearing certainly hadn't been here before… how was it possible that he cleared all those trees and built this fort by himself? She thought she'd seen fresh sawdust, but had chalked that up to the sawed sticks jammed into the stumps.

Clearly he was capable of some kind of magic, there was no way one man could cut down trees and build a fortress this quickly without some kind of magical aid. Was he a druid? She immediately struck that from her mind. A druid wouldn't murder the trees of his forest for any reason. So what was he? She thought on that a long while, observing Savage as he angrily waved his arms to and fro. She couldn't find any sort of markings or magic items on his person.

No wand, no robe, nothing. Scout eventually gave up on this line of thinking. She'd ask him about it another time, assuming that he was going to stop his mad tirade.

Eventually, after a lot more screaming, his mood calmed, and the shaking of his hand was almost stilled. He fell silent at the end of his rave for a long time. Scout still didn't speak. Even though he claimed that the 'Ancient Civilization' and 'Cross' took everything from him, he didn't say exactly what they had done to him. Who was Cross? Savage talked about him with particular hate, sometimes referring to him as the 'Red Man'.

"I..." Savage said quietly, head slumped to his chest "I'm sorry."

Scout took a deep breath "Are you okay now?"

Savage nodded in response, looking up with bloodshot brown eyes. There was a deep agony there, barely suppressed. Whatever had happened to him, it had been Cross's fault. Along with the creators of the artifacts. She would have to keep that in mind when eventually she took a trip down below into those depths. Scout would have to find a way to relay some of this information to Prowler, but she'd have to omit a lot of it.

She didn't want to give Prowler a reason to come out to Savage's fort. Best that he thought Savage was just that, a wild man who just wanted to be left alone. She felt bad about lying to Prowler, but she didn't want this on her conscience. Savage was just a man who recently went through daunting trials, he'd get out of his madness one day. She couldn't say the same for Prowler.

She inwardly grimaced at that. Looks like she finally admitted it to herself. There was no saving Prowler… but she still couldn't bring herself to leave him…

"I'm crazy. You know that right? You shouldn't come back." He told her, gaze level with hers.

Scout stared at him. He was right, he was crazy and she shouldn't come back. Yet… she was still curious about him, and if she could actually help someone with their madness… perhaps that would make her feel better about her failure to save Prowler. She smiled warmly at Savage, a confused furrowing of his brow the response.

"I'll be back again. Can't say when but if you're home I'll come knocking."

He stared at her, like she was an exotic bird that had just told him the sky was purple. Looking at the darkening sky, she pursed her lips. She had work to do tonight. Scout would have to go farther into the forest than she ever had before, and she was wasting time. She couldn't help it of course, but the guilt of letting Prowler down got to her.

"I have to get going Savage. It was nice talking with you. Stay safe alright?" She told him.

Savage continued to stare for a long while as she rose slowly to her feet, dusting off her outfit and walking toward the gate with careful steps. He then stood, and marched right up to the gate, pushing it open for her.

"You too. See you later." He said, the words seeming to surprise him.

"See you." She finished, stepping through the gate.

She moved through the horrifying clearing of stumps and strung up corpses, not looking back until she reached the treeline. Scout looked back to see that the gate was still open, Savage watching as she left.

Then she disappeared into the woods, carrying out her mission after re-donning her body glove.

Eventually, she reached what had to be the center of the forest.

And what she found there terrified her and sent her running straight back to camp to report to Prowler.