By the time we were both done eating, the basket was licked clean. Obviously, that was the bear, as while I was fine with licking my fingers clean, I was going to draw the line at the bear’s plate. Tossing the basket out into the grass, I was fine with leaving it behind when we broke camp, it had only taken me about twenty minutes to make and there was plenty of grass out there if I needed another one.

Taking a minute to savor the feeling of a full stomach, I could only stomp on the ungrateful part of my mind that was wishing the food had been more tasty. I really needed to get rid of the first world mindset that was used to everything being on my terms. Full stomachs would no doubt be few and far between in the upcoming days.

Upon taking a deep breath to relax and clear my mind, I was definitely finding that I was noticing the underlying smell from the rotting bodies starting to creep in. Knowing we had overstayed our welcome at this particular campground, we really needed to get a move on. Standing up, I picked up the flowers, including the one that had knocked me out, and put them back into the pocket I had pulled them out of the day before. Then I started emptying everything out of the tent and packing it away.

Moving all of the food baskets to one of the sleds I had made, I started putting all of the weapons I had gathered from my goblin benefactors on the other one. Putting five of the smaller basic metal tip spears onto the sled for possible throwing weapons. I also added the spear I had damaged, both of the goblin short swords, and the three clubs that I had found so far.

Putting the bag full of cores into my pack, I thought about adding the three cores that the troll’s empowering energy had enhanced but held off on second thought. With over forty of the glowing rocks in there now, it seemed like it would be harder to find them again and I wanted to keep them separate. If I was going to choose something to add to my body, I wanted it to be as strong as possible. I was already regretting that I had put away the original core that had given me the idea of how to get rid of the evil from the trolls, making it safe for Gaian to consume, maybe if I looked hard enough after the next camp I could figure out which one it was.

While part of me wanted to go and look for it now, just to make sure I had it safely separated. I held off, searching for the original was sure to be more time consuming than I was okay with and I didn’t want to end up staying another night with all of the dead bodies nearby. Leaving that task for tonight, I took my now dry clothes down from where they were hanging and packed them away. I did take the time to change and add my dirty clothes to the large pocket in the back of my pack. Happy for once it was just the normal sweat and dirt contaminating them this time rather than blood and other unmentionables. Rolling up my sleeping bag and taking down my tent I added them to my pack, putting everything together reasonably close as to how it had been packed when I came to this world.

Snapping the now folded up kayak to the back of the pack, I thought about adding the bucket of water to the bottom. But after reconsidering the weight, I took the lid off, dumped a couple of quarts into the second bucket for Gaian to drink, and moved it to the weapon sled after twisting the lid back on. Adding my smaller sealed bucket of filtered water to the sled as I wanted to keep the weight of my pack somewhat manageable and didn’t want to break the bucket if I was forced to quickly drop the pack if I was ambushed.

With everything packed away, I took out my shovel and filled in the fire trench before rolling the grass back down over the dirt, somewhat sad I hadn’t been able to keep an ember from the fire, but it had gone out when I was unconscious and I was just going to have to use another button tonight when we made camp or maybe just go old school and use a fire starter. It probably would be better to get into the practice as I was sure this wouldn’t be the last time a fire went out without me being able to save a coal. It had been ages since I had tried just using a flint and steel, or a fire bow to start a fire; I was getting tired of being forced into situations by circumstance. If I kept up the practice now while I had backup supplies to cover my failures, when I needed the skills in the future I would be much more sure of them. With everything back to the way we had found it, minus the giant pile of bodies and a small pile of dry wood, I was ready to start trying to find civilization.

While I had been packing up the camp, I had been having a conversation with the bear. We had decided we wanted to try and make a base camp in the rabbit’s wood. That would give us the ability to make forays out into the world and get a better sense of our surroundings while giving us and our supplies a safe harbor from the goblins. Gaian seemed to be pretty sure he could communicate with them and work out some kind of trade. He seemed to think from my finding a rabbit in the goblin’s forest they needed something that grew there and that we would be able to offer some kind of trade of our services for temporary shelter.

Laughing to myself that my first quest on this world might be a flower gathering quest for the natives, I couldn’t help but be cheered by the fact that this world was starting to resemble something of a game. If I could keep that mindset, I would just set my overarching quest to that of finding my children safe and sound, and no doubt I would eventually get there. Knowing I was probably just whistling in the dark, I let myself have the delusion for now since that was probably all that was keeping me from having a breakdown.

There is nothing better than ignoring your eventual problems, pretending they don’t exist is always much better for your state of mind, rather than dealing with them upfront. Sighing to myself, I looked at the state of the steel weapons on their sled, I remembered I wanted to get some sand from our entry point. Feeling that it was better to go now before we got farther away, I hypocritically picked up my third bucket that the bear had been using as a drinking bowl. Getting the assent that he would watch over our stuff while I went on my own fetch and gathering quest before we tried to make a deal with some rabbits.

Putting my shovel into the bucket, I picked up a shield and one of the clubs with my left hand. Standing my undamaged spear up, I added the bucket to the end of it, resting the handle on the crosspiece. Taking a beat, I set it back down and grabbed my baggie of dried fruit, adding it to my pocket before gathering the spear back up and marching off to go back to my beginnings for the last time.

Making my way back up and over the hill seemed to be getting easier, whether that was because I was starting to lose weight, I was getting used to all of the walking or because that green energy was improving my body, I couldn’t begin to guess. Either way, I quickly made it back to the sands without breaking a sweat. Quickly shoveling the bucket half full, I debated filling it all of the way, but in the end went with leaving it where it was. I already had plenty of weight on the sleds and if we added too much, it was more than likely to rip open, with no materials to make a third one other than my tent or sleeping bag. I was reluctant to use those sources as I didn’t want to take a chance at ruining my shelter.

Heading back up the hill towards camp, I started feeling like I getting winded. It was a strange feeling because I wasn’t like I was over exerting myself from carrying the extra weight. Instead, it was like something was sapping the energy from me directly. Feeling the slightest of tugs coming from the cliffs behind me, I turned around to look behind me. At first, I wasn’t able to see anything, but then I looked up into the sky. Staring in disbelief, I dropped everything I was holding and turned and started running.

I hated leaving my stuff behind, I was really coming to love that spear. But when a dragon is flying in your direction, somehow managing to suck the very energy from your body even though you are miles away, you do everything you can to get to cover and hide your ass away. Stumbling at the ridge line and tumbling over the side, I did my best to quickly regain my feet with minimum losses to my momentum. Screaming down the hill to my furry friend, I pointed and yelled for him to make for the rabbit woods. While it might seem counterintuitive to head for a giant source of kindling while there is a dragon coming at you, I could only think that staying out in the open would be worse.

The size of that flying fortress was insane, I could tell it was miles away still but it was already starting to fill my view. I don’t know what hollywood was smoking when they made movies, but they didn’t even come close to doing that monstrosity justice. Looking more eastern than the dragons of the western variety, it had to be magic that was keeping it aloft, as the undulating body had no wings to carry it through the air. A vibrant green, it seemed to have every shade of that particular color flashing through its scales.

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I wasn’t so hubristic as to think it was coming for me personally, but when something is so big, it literally makes you feel like the term ant-sized is being generous in your favor, you just don’t want to give it the chance to crush you out of existence. Taking a second to look back over my shoulder while my feet continued their insane pace, it had to be high up in the sky as I could still see it in the air without the hillside blocking it from view. Hoping I had the ten minutes I was going to need to get to the woods that were filled with the crazy rabbits. I didn’t even have any time to be worried they might decline to let us in.

Not sure if the terror I was feeling was just the primal urge any creature feels when they come up against a power so much greater than them or if instead, it was a side effect that was coming from the energy the dragon was dragging out of me.

Looking ahead at the bear trying to drag my pack along with him, I screamed down at him to leave it. Looking back at me, the apex predator of the lower forty-eight looked up into the sky to get his own first good look at something that truly defined the word apex. He then promptly dropped the pack and started galloping away himself, leaving me behind in his desire to be undercover. I was sure that he was just anxious to start to negotiate a truce with the rabbits that held dominion over the woods we were heading to.

Not that I was going to blame him for leaving me behind if he wasn’t. If the situation were reversed, you could be sure I wouldn’t be sticking around for him. I am not a coward, and I would never leave a friend in the lurch. But when there is a force of nature coming for you and nothing you could do would change the outcome in the slightest. You look to your own safety first, so you can be there to help after the disaster is over.

Sucking wind and feeling a stitch start to form in my side, I thought about dropping to the ground and trying to hide in the grass. But despite the rain from last night wetting it down and the green color of it, I had no doubt that if it was not able to conceal my presence, I would soon be a toasty bit of ash ready to help nourish the recovering grasslands.

While a part of my brain was shouting out that something that size would have no interest in me as small as I was and I was better off just hiding. The sane part of me had no interest in testing that theory personally, that seemed like a job for a goblin volunteer. Unfortunately, all of mine had been used up in my last experiment. Not that I was hoping dragon flyovers were a regular thing here, but with my short experience in this world, it was not giving me much to go on.

I began wondering if this was why despite my high vantage point, I hadn’t seen any cities or smoke out on the plains below. When you have a lizard bigger than some storms flying overhead, I had to imagine the natives of this moon were reluctant to build giant targets to attract the attention of what I could only hope was the apex being. If that monstrosity was prey to something else, I lacked the capacity to imagine what that could possibly be. With my brain starting to take a back seat in receiving its oxygen delivery, while my legs constantly screamed for more to continue their bigger contribution to getting me to safety, I started to feel myself go lightheaded.

Seeing the edge of the trees only a few hundred yards away, I clamped down on the hope that I might survive this encounter, not wanting to give any fuel out to the universe that might come back to bite me. Continuing to take in giant gulps of air, I could feel my left leg start aching as my partially healed bite wound, started leaking with the exertion finally getting to it. With just the final stretch ahead of me, I did my best to ignore the pain as I started falling into a running hobble that was all I could maintain.

Aiming for the point in the brambles that Gaian had helpfully cleared a path through with his massive bulk, I couldn’t help but wonder if he had just been willing to take thorns in his paws knowing he would be able to heal through it. Finally making it to the barrier of the trees that would hopefully keep me out of the flying fortress’s sight, I continued on deeper not being willing to stop at the edge and look out. For possibly the first time in my life, my curiosity took a back seat to safety.

Growing up in the Midwest, I thought nothing of standing outside to look for tornados when the sirens came. But no part of me had the urge to replicate that feat today. Tornados don’t get angry at an ant’s impudence and come back around to torch them. While I had no idea if the incoming monster was that petty, for once in my life I was willing to leave a question happily in the unknown category. Continuing to barrel through the undergrowth, I followed the path my friend had carved out with his bulk.

Hearing a crashing boom behind me I felt the ground tremble and the resulting shockwave knocked me to my feet. Looking at the trees swaying above me, I realized this was as far as I was going to make it. Rolling over I looked up into the branches where I started to see the first parts of the dragon begin to fly overhead. Unsure of what it had done to cause the rolling wave of force, I continued to lay on my back and just stare up in awe at the magnificence flying above me.

As I was looking up, I continued to feel a power being drawn out of me. This wasn’t the Order or Chaos from the orb that brought me here. Nor did it have the angry feeling of the kill energy, or the softness of the green after-battle refresher that the sky gods loved to fight over with me. This especially didn’t have the evil feeling of the yellow qi that had empowered the troll. This was lighter… it had an airy, almost insubstantial feeling to it. Part of me was thinking that I was almost imagining the feeling of loss. Those other energies were so much more real and had substance to them that I could manipulate, this felt like the difference between losing a breath of air and having a pint of blood taken from you.

When I had originally let go of the Order and Chaos upon finally being released onto this world I had literally fallen out of the sky with the loss. This was nothing in comparison, but at the same time, it was worrying that I hadn’t encountered this energy that was being removed from me. Maybe encounter is the wrong word, noticed might be better. I had yet to notice the energy that the dragon was removing from me. Even now that I know it was being removed from me, I couldn’t begin to tell you its characteristics. It had no feeling to it, no emotion that I could connect to.

Laying there, staring up at something I don’t even think a nuke could take out I started having an epiphany. If Order and Chaos are the basic building blocks of the universe, then that made sense that they had the heaviest feeling to them. Most stories had them as the primordial forces that were the original from which all others sprang. Taoism says the Dao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets all things. Now maybe that isn’t exactly how this world works, but it was something to think about later.

Continuing on with that analogy, I started wondering if the evil energy might just be an order lower than the originals. If that were true then there was probably a second energy on that level that was the opposite of it, probably holy or good and I just hadn’t run across the source of it yet. Finding it strange that evil was able to empower healing, I was sure I still had yet to find all of the pieces to the puzzle.

Unsure where the two after death energies came from, they didn’t seem to fit into the puzzle. They both seemed stronger than the airiness that was being dragged out of me, but while one seemed to have an emotion to it that resembled the evil of the second tier power, it also felt different, rawer and more tortured in its desire to take over, rather than the hunger that came from the troll’s core.

Trying to clarify my thoughts to myself, I realized that the trolls seemed more like it was trying to convert me, whereas the after death energy always felt like it was trying to take me over and replace me.

Continuing to feel the lightest power stream out of me, I started to think I should consider it the lowest tier I had encountered. I thought about trying to use my core to hold it back but only considered it for the slightest second. It wasn’t something I had even known I had possessed an hour ago, so it couldn’t be that important. I didn’t feel like losing it was doing me any permanent harm. If I could get it back afterward then I would consider the loss of it a tax I was happy to pay to keep the attention of a flying snake, the size of a major city, away from me. I had been staring at the body of the monster flying above me for five minutes now and it still was continuing on. Only now were its hind claws starting to come into view.

Waiting and looking on, I was somewhat sad that no more epiphanies were incoming. As the tail of it finally passed overhead and started disappearing into the distance, I rolled to my feet and continued following the trail that my friend had blazed through the undergrowth.

Coming around a massive oak tree, I almost ran into the furry butt of the bear. I called out to him excitedly, “Did you see the sight of that monster!? I can’t believe something like that can actually exist, can you!?”

When he didn’t turn to acknowledge me, as I stepped up even with him, I saw a horde of rabbits staring back at us forming a semi-circle. Wishing for the first time that I had my spear and shield with me, I settled my hands down onto my knife and ax while asking the bear.

“Okay, so how are negotiations going?”