Rodent sat back on the cliff and gazed at the world beyond him. He closed his eyes whenever the breeze rolled on, letting its coolness tickle his skin. He breathed deeply at those moments, feeling his lungs become fresh.

When his eyes reopened, he looked outside the valley, at the rolling hills of grass that were a lighter shade of green than he expected.

It felt like late afternoon—but Rodent couldn't be sure how time worked in this world.

"Everything else looks about the same," he said to himself, looking to the sky. Large, dark clouds started to float in faster than he had ever seen clouds move. They joined together as the place darkened, the air vibrating with tension, the starting sizzles of electricity becoming heard. "Wait. Scratch that."

Rodent stashed the notebook into his pocket and then pushed up from the ground. Looking to the sky and turning, he noticed that the clouds covered this area only—and nowhere else. The previous winds were now a lot stronger, colder, and swirling around the area.

And then a light rain started to come down, which Rodent held out a hand to feel. He turned about in place, suddenly feeling like he was being watched. His gaze snapped back to the pond and the mountain wall behind it. His head leaned back as he looked to its top, seeing a mysterious figure standing upon its ledge.

It stood there for an unknown amount of time, dressed in a thick, oversized cloak that revealed nothing and whipped with the winds. The darkness beneath the hood simply stared at Rodent.

Rodent, of course, smirked, chuckled, and started to wave.

"Yo! Hey-hey!" Rodent tried shouting over the increasing storm, waving his arm higher and faster as though the figure could not see it. "You the cause of all of this? That's awesome."

The figure's head cocked suddenly at this, looking at the man who only started to laugh, who glanced around at the growing power surrounding him and not demonstrating a single ounce of fear or cowardice or hate. The figure, recovering itself, raised a hand and turned its palm to the sky—miniature bolts of purple electricity shooting out.

Just then, the same thing happened from the clouds: great bolts of purple thundering as they shot down, arching downward and zapping the ground with a powerful blast—blowing up chunks of dirt and grass and leaving a smoking crater.

Rodent only leaned back and bellowed more laughter, pointing at the craters with a mouth as open as possible and unable to close it. He hunched forward, looking into them… blinking as his face was amazed. "Y-Yo! That. Is. BADASS!"

His hand wiped across his face as he almost couldn't believe what he saw. "That is SO cool! How are you able to do all of this?"

He looked back at the figure, who stood there with their hand raised but their magic retreating into their palm. Their confusion was felt even through the blankness beneath their hood. Then, their hand closed as they extended their index finger, striking it up and down around Rodent.

Just then, violet bolts struck around the man, the boom followed by thunder as Rodent gasped and chuckled. He leapt out from where the finger had pointed, squeezing through the space between the craters back onto the ancient matrix that created the brick-like land in front of the pond. "W-Whoa! Talk about close to comfort! What'd I do to you?"

Still, he stood there, smirking and smiling at the figure… who lowered their hand and seemed tense. The figure then yanked back its hood to reveal its face—that of a young, pale woman with long amethyst hair. Rodent blinked as he stared at the woman with a jaw now lowered.

"My god…" he began, blinking.

Just for a moment, the woman became smug, thinking she had finally scared and stunned the man. She narrowed her eyes and smiled, indulging in a different kind of delight.

"You're beautiful."

The woman's face twitched, becoming shocked and confused. Her mouth opened to nothing coming out… until her expression became disgust. That, too, only held for a few seconds—until hate and rage replaced it. Standing firm, the woman cast a flurry of bolts behind her, each exploding against the land seconds apart, a great flying of dirt, rocks, and other stuff shooting outward.

Rodent couldn't help but chuckle and clap his hands, watching as the unseen topside of the mountain had an effortlessly dug hole into its center. This continued for several moments as the clouds above started to thin, supplying the material for the woman's rage.

Until the last bolt struck the ground, and the dark clouds thinned from existence, some of their wisps remaining as they started to disperse, revealing the sky again. Rodent had stuck a finger in his mouth and started to whistle excitedly, and then he started to speak.

"Again! Again!" Rodent said as he drew out his notebook, cracked it open, and started writing. "God. The kids back home are never going to believe something like this." Once he finished writing, he turned the notebook, looking up at the woman as he started to draw. "Keep like that for a few more moments. I almost got you drawn down."

The woman, instead, leapt forward with a flip, flying downward as her cloak whipped upward. Coming close to the pond, she snapped her fingers, and the body of water soon started to swirl upward like a tornado. It caught the woman as she stood on the tip of it, the water pressing against her as its shape spread to the sides to handle her force.

Upon nearing the pond, the water returned to inside of it bit by bit until the woman came to stand upon its surface—walking across the water without getting wet. Rodent immediately flipped to another page and started to draw the scene of her walking across the water toward him.

That was until a hand clasped his throat and rose him from the ground.

Rodent blinked, struggling to look down, seeing his feet above the ground.

Then his gaze snapped to the woman's arms, finding that they weren't all that big and blinking again.

"Y-Yew… wusin' s-strwength?" Rodent could barely choke out. "Owr… i-is thwhat… mwa… gic?"

The woman glared at him… face scrunched up in rage… before growling and casting him down to the side.

Rodent struck the ground and slid across it, coming to gasp for breath while feeling at his throat, knowing that, with a little bit extra force—she could have crunched and collapsed it. His head shook as he blinked to recover. Remaining on the ground, he looked up at the side of the woman, who stood there glancing at him.

Just then, he spoke. "Did I… do something to make you mad?"

"D-Did you do something to make me—YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE SCARED RIGHT NOW!" The woman turned and glared down at him. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE CRYING AND SCREAMING! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WONDERING WHY ALL OF THIS IS HAPPENING TO YOU AS I TAKE AWAY YOUR LIFE WITHOUT JUST CAUSE! FEAR! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE IN FEAR!"

Rodent blinked after being told all of that. "Oh." He glanced to the side, stole a breath, and then looked back at the lady. "Did you want me to try being all of that stuff now? Might need to give me a few seconds to recover—you did great work on my throat."

The lady sighed, waved off a hand, and went to lean against one of the columns next to the pond. Her head was lowered, and her face was covered by a hand. The air wasn't pleasant around her, and it did not look like she wanted to speak for quite a while.

Rodent, meanwhile, lay on his side as he recovered, feeling the uncomfortable air around him and sensing that he was partly to blame for it. His mind searched for the right words as he glanced about the ground. "Y-Y'know… if it was anyone else… I'm pretty sure they would have been all those things you wanted them to be."

"Shut it," the woman replied, and though her face was covered, her furrowed forehead could still be seen. "I'm not going to be reassured by my victim."

"V-Victim?" Rodent stuttered and gasped. "Y-You m-mean y-you're g-going t-to—"

"WILL YOU KNOCK THAT OFF!" the woman yelled, removing her hand and glaring at him. "I know you're not actually scared."

"Damn it."

Rodent struck the ground with a fist and then rose from it, coming to dust himself off before glancing around the area—catching view of the cane the old man had given him. Though he wanted to check on it… doing so currently did not seem wise.

"All that cool magic stuff you were doing," Rodent said as he turned to the woman. "Can anyone do that? Or is that just a you thing?"

The woman glared up at him. "And what makes you think I will tell you anything?"

"I mean… I just wanted to see if I could do cool tricks." Rodent returned as he faced her. "It's not like you can give me anything capable of defeating you, right?"

The woman's face scrunched slightly. "What is wrong with you?"

"Many things."

"Why aren't you more concerned with the fact that I'm going to kill you?" the woman responded as he stood fully again. "Or even the reason why I'm going to kill you?"

"We're all going to die someday," Rodent responded. "I already made my peace with that a long time ago." He then shrugged. "I guess it would be nice to know the reason why you want me dead—but I don't want to be a hassle for you."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The woman curled a fist and smashed it into the collum. Though the force rocked the ground and the sound echoed through the area, the material did not break, not one tiny bit.

The lady exhaled steam. "Are you a trick of some sort?"

"A trick?"

"Through one of these… 'ponds'… an important person is supposed to come through… someone that I'm supposed to kill." Her fierce, violet eyes concentrated on him. "A hero is supposed to be made here. Yet… when I look at you… I just don't see it."

"Oh! Hehehehe! Is that what this is about?" Rodent chuckled and smiled, going to fish his notebook out from his jacket. "You don't have anything to worry about. I gave up trying to be a hero a long time ago." Opening the book, he came next to the woman—who shifted as their shoulders brushed. "See? I just made a list of things I want to do while I'm here—and none of it talks about wanting to be a hero."

The woman glared at him for a few seconds and then glanced at the page—blinking. "I… what is this?"

Rodent blinked in response, turning away from her slightly. "What do you mean? It's a list."

"It's just lines and symbols and shapes." The lady shook her head and backed away. "I can't read that."

"Can you read?"

The woman raised a hand and curled it into a fist with purple bolts shooting out around it. "Care to ask that again?"

"Right. Bad question." Rodent thought about it for a second and flipped through the pages to an empty one. Taking out his pen, he handed it to the lady. "Here. Take this. Write something on the page—anything."

The lady looked at the pen. "W-What is that? A weapon?"

"No." Rodent clicked it several times and then drew something on the page. "See? It's like a quill dipped in ink—if you have that here."

The woman narrowed her eyes on him again but exhaled as she took the pen, looking at the page. "Is this some sort of trick? I detect no magic from the book."

"No trick," Rodent said, and though he was a stranger and a target to the woman, she could somehow believe his words. "Just a test. I want to see something."

The lady wrote in the notebook.

"Mind if I get your autograph while you're at it?"

She glared at him and thrust the notebook back at him.

Rodent looked at the text.

Then glanced at her.

"Kill myself?" Rodent repeated aloud. "Really?"

The woman suddenly seemed remorseful as her head lowered and glanced aside. "Sorry."

"It's alright." Then, a thought struck him. “But wait… that means… I can read what you wrote." He looked at the ground, needing to concentrate all his intelligence (what little he had) on this problem. "But you can't read what I wrote." He blinked twice before looking back at the woman. "Right now. What language are we speaking?"

She glared. "Are you an idiot? We're speaking it right now."

"Just…" Rodent squeezed his eyes and raised a hand. "Answer the question."

She crossed her arms. "Kralven."

"Kralven? But…” Rodent exhaled, thinking. "I'm speaking English. My ears hear English—even from you." His lips touched, rubbed together. "But now that I think about it… everything feels slightly off… ever since I started talking to you."

"Hmph!"

"Not like that!" Rodent returned with a pleading face and surrounding palms. "Just… my thoughts are in English… which is the language that I speak back where I'm from." He let out a breath as his mind came to an answer. "But as I talk to you… even though I think I'm speaking in English… my lips… they're moving differently from how I would expect them to move."

He massaged his chin and felt how it moved as he talked.

"But it's not enough to be greatly noticeable to myself…" He then stopped focusing on how his mouth moved. "And even when I looked at what you wrote, even though I'd never seen anything like it before, somehow… the words just appeared in my head."

"T-That… t-that was your gift?" asked the violet-haired woman whose mouth did not close. "The ability to speak our tongue? Nothing more?"

"Let's not throw out that idea right away." Rodent chuckled and raised his hand to the sky, feeling the air between his fingertips. He attempted to take the world's energy into himself and cast it out in a power. "I might have another trick up my sleeve!"

And with that, he made a fist and struck it downward, expecting to make a crater in the ground before him, for lightning to strike, a tornado to form, or a hundred other silly ideas. What happened, of course, was nothing. Rodent came to stand normally afterward.

"Nope!" He leaned back and had himself a good laugh. "As much as a loser in this world as I was in the one before!"

The woman stood behind him, confused and could not work out how someone cast from their world into certain death in this one could be so cheerful and carefree. Had he not realized the situation that he was in? Did he think it was a dream? Was this a strange way of coping?

"H-How… can you laugh?" the lady finally asked. "I know not of what your world is like… but surely all of this must be a great change." Her head shook, and her smooth and silk hair flew. "You'll die. To me. To the land. To its creatures. Everything."

Rodent glanced back over his shoulder and nodded. "Mhm."

"So… why are you not in fear?"

Rodent's eyes searched the ground as he thought about it. "Just never really saw the point in it, really."

Her eyes glared into his. "You are a fool."

"That's right."

The lady shook her head again, not knowing what to say or do, her meaning and purpose for being here almost becoming null. Never had she met a person like this individual—no book had spoken of this kind of temperment. Coming to close her eyes and refocus, the woman breathed, knowing still what must be done.

"In either case," the lady began. "I came here to ensure that those who come through the pond are killed."

"That sucks."

"It… sucks?" The lady blinked—not used to that kind of language. "Sucks as in… it sucks for you?"

"Not really," Rodent said, coming to lower onto his knees, sitting on the back of his legs. "Sucks for you."

The lady's head was shaking, and her mouth was opening and closing, and it was as though the world had reversed the rules it abided by. "S-Sucks f-for me? But… you are the one that is dying."

"Exactly! I'm dead!" Rodent chuckled as he settled into place, looking beyond the valley's exit, imagining the adventure he would have gone on. "There's nothing that can affect me while I'm like that. But being forced to kill people? That's a kind of life I wouldn't want to live."

The woman nearly made a choking sound as she drew a blade from her hip, and the sound echoed throughout the contained area. Her grumbling became louder as she held up the sword. "Nobody is forcing me to do such a thing!"

"You are being forced," Rodent said. "I can feel your soul. It doesn't crave murder."

She drew the sword to the side of his neck. "YOU DOUBT I'LL KILL YOU! IS THAT WHY YOU ARE SO CHEERFUL?"

Rodent shook his head, cutting the side of his neck on the blade, though not reacting to that at all. "Nope. I believe you can do it." He settled again. "I just don't see doing such making you happy." He hummed. "That's all."

The lady stood behind the man on his knees with a sword to his throat and with the ability to remove his every last atom from existence. She was the most powerful person she knew—next to her father—and cannot fathom how… she felt inferior to this person.

"D-Do you…" the lady breathed… regaining her strength. "Have any last words?"

Rodent chuckled, hunching forward and hanging his head, and with arms crossed behind his back, he fiddled with the ring on his finger. "Nope."

The lady stood there for a while as the winds blew on the scene, a refreshing breeze that seemed to make the dead man smile more. The lady felt her hair float from her shoulders, which also started to lower.

She enjoyed the breeze just as he was.

And then the lady looked out to the world that Rodent was gazing at.

She tried to imagine him in it.

"You… you know a great deal about your world… the people in it?"

Rodent shook from his tranquillity. "To a degree."

The lady proceeded to think.

"The world out there," she began. "You understand you won't last long in it, correct?"

Rodent shrugged. "Probably."

"And that even if you were to somehow survive—that I would just end up killing you anyway?"

"Most likely."

"Yet… you'd still do it anyway?"

"Why not?"

The lady closed her eyes.

Without vision, she could sheathe her sword, which clicked as it slotted into place.

"You are not the hero that I feared would be here," the lady said. "More like you are bound to this world—those who must be killed before they can alter important events." She then stepped back. "To kill you now would be to lose a valuable asset. Your knowedge might BEimporant should something happen in my other interactions."

Rodent glared at her. "I won't help you kill others."

"I doubt you would be much help in that capacity anyway," the lady returned. "But should the need arise, you can tell me of your world and those in it." She looked elsewhere. "No matter where you go, I shall find you, unless you should already fall before that comes to be."

Rodent blinked. "You're… letting me go?"

"Only because there is nothing to be lost in doing so," the lady said, "and everything to be gained." Her head shook. "But I am not doing you a favour. You will die. I've only changed when that will happen."

"Hehe!" Rodent jumped up to his feet and whipped around, and before the young lady could think of what he might do, the young man charged at her and wrapped his arms around her. He then squeezed her against himself while dishing out all the love he could. "Thank you, thank you! It would have been cruel to finally make it to another world and not see the faintest part of it!"

The lady choked and gasped, wrapped in strong arms that embraced her fully and drew her against a chest that was strong and smooth—that pleasantly rubbed against her. She felt another's existence fully and how much it felt for her.

The woman, of course, screeched and broke out from this hold, pushing the man away and stepping back to draw her sword… coming to only lay her hand on the handle. She glared at him with a blush that she did not know she had—for never had she blushed. "Enough! I-I know not of what you just did… but it will never be allowed to happen again."

Rodent, meanwhile, chuckled and saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

"Mhmp!" the lady had clouds form around her, each dark and amyest, which started to float into her form. "Don't forget you're just a rodent in this world. One that's soon to be exterminated." Soon, wind swirled around her, and the clouds became cyclones that started to burst upward. "Remember my name, rodent! I, Sila Fermont, will be your executor… and you will die in Forcona!"

Rodent blinked as his arm dropped and hung at hearing his name spoken again, and though he tried to speak, his throat choked at the words, and all he could do was reach out for the round, contained storm that both shot into the sky and then zipped out of view across it.

The man stood there for a while, unsure of what to make of things, knowing that he was hunted despite having done nothing wrong in a world he knew nothing about, all without much notice. Yet, there was only one thing that got his heart going.

When his hand dropped again, it did so next to his pocket, which he felt empty.

"H-Hey!" Rodent called with a hand beside his mouth, shouting at the sky. "You stole my pen!"

----------------------------------------

LOCATION:

DYMO'S POND

A man-made pond from an unknown time.

Used by the Hero to Cleanse himself.