The clearing is empty; the body of the screaming woman is gone, along with the corpse of the man whose clothes and weapon I stole. Thinking back on the funeral fire, I saw more bodies in that fire than the three I killed. The boy must have found and thrown everyone I killed in the fire. He is quite emotionally stable, not what you would expect from a child who just lost someone. I wonder if he knows I killed the woman.

I try my best to find some game to hunt in the forest as I make my way back. I want to treat the bear to a meal, but I am not sure if its diet consist of meat. I could bring some of these weird looking fruits from the smaller trees, or from what looks to be a Pomerac tree that I spot near me. Except the fruits and flowers are supposed to be pink or red, these are pitch black. A clear sign, at least to me, that they should not be eaten.

I eventually find a wild boar, which I sneak up on. The cloak I wear to help me hide in the darkness, and my failures to catch some game, increase my chances of catching the boar. I am still no expert. The boar dashes forward when it spots me, but it is already too late. I propel myself forward and my arm wraps around the wild boar. It is strong, pulling me along with it, albeit at a much slower speed than what it usally runs at. The wild boar does not run in a straight line either, it zig zaggs through the forest, smashing me into a tree. Slamming against the tree almost made almost drop my khopesh. I frantically attempt to get a good grip on the boar. After much effort, I stab the animal in the side. It screeches as we roll together on dry leaves and dirt.

The boar is fat and heavy. I drag it all the way back to the river where I saw my reflection first. I found the shallowest part of the river, so I can drag the boar across it. I take off my boots, holding them in my left hand, and usemy right to drag the wild boar. I am perceptive of my surroundings after I cross the river, as I am slightly worried of finding a dead bear lying on the ground.

I proceed up the hill and into the cave, it never crossed my mind to look behind me when I first left. The entrance to the cave is on the side of a mountain. The mountain looks to be about nine hundred meters whic is an extimate that I am preety sure of because it looks similar to one I once did some research about.

I enter the cave, and my imediately vision adjusts to adapt in the darkness. I pass the location where I  awakened after the battle, I feel a bit homesick thinking of my awakening. I am not prepared for what I see when I reach the bear.

The bear is leisurely licking something between its front legs. I switch to my reservoir mode to make sure that the glow is bright enough. The bear glows a bright blue, my worry fades knowing that the bear is now healed and healthy. As I came closer to it I try discern what is between its legs. It looks like a hairless guinea pig, but as I get closer I know what it actually is. The bear had given birth while I was gone. The mother bear growls as I get closer, which is a warning to not intrude any further.

The bear recognizes me after some time, because she stops and sits down on her hind legs. She went back to licking her cub while keeping her eyes on me. I move the boar to the side of the bear, its eyes instantly perk up. At first the bear licks its snout to smell the dead boar then savagely begins to rip into the flesh of the wild boar. I watch the bear eat for some time, stroking her fur with my bony fingers.

I spot a glow in the distant wall at the end of the cave, just at the edge of my vision. Is something else alive in the cav? I think. My curiosity is too strong to ignore the glow, and I walk towards the wall. The floating letters became more pronounce, until finally I came across two sentences written in a language I did not understand.

Someone must have been here before me. The threads that created this weaving had to be really old, more than two or three days old for sure. I am amaze it still exist, I cannot understand what is causing this spell to stay active for so long. It went against all the spell laws I know. However, I did not know many, so It can be that I am overreacting. My time is, so I have little time to study this since I want to return to the camp soon. I spend about fifteen minutes memorizing the words that meant nothing to me. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to find out what it means.

‘Het kriist hofkiin do  jun. uthiik wah ulfah do glimrel, paagoliik do vokun, rok wo bo voth vu, in do dilon, Ulokuun wah jun ahrk rah wah rah. Fos ont lost fen kos ontzos ol saag naal mahlaan gein.‘

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I brush the fur of the bear one last time. This would be my final goodbye, the mother bear did not care much, she is still busy eating the boar. It takes me a full hour again to make my way back to the camp. Isaac is still laying on his bed of furs. I look around for Nia, and it takes me some time before I find her near a tree. She is singing softly, but the singing is obviously some form of magic because leafs are spiralling around the tree.

I move closer to her, my reservoir sight still active. Trees were alive right, so why do they have no blue light around them?

“Can you teach me how to do that?” I ask Nia, hoping my thought would reach her. I stand behind her, and sit down on the short grass to watch her and listen to her sing. Her singing went on for a long period of time, and I thought my question had gone unheard. Her singing stops abruptly, and her head turns to me.

“Do what?” Nia ask.

“Do what you were just doing, controlling the leafs. Teach me the threads for it.“ I replied, quickly getting to the point. I want to learn, because the writing on the wall made my knowledge of magic look pathetic

 “I control nothing, and I cannot teach you to see mana Laoch. You see too much, so you see little. “She said, while trying to catch the falling leafs, since they are no longer being controlled. I want to tell her that is a contradiction, but I feel nothing would come of it. The first word I thought of was mana. Like the mana from rpg games. I wonder why I never thought of it as mana before? Mana is different in the games, but I feel right calling the glow I see around people mana.

 “Do only people or magical beings have mana Nia?” I asked, continuing our mental conversation. She turns around, still playing with the leafs on the ground.

“It’s not your turn yet silly. “She said, as though we were playing a board game and I move twice in one turn. I sit behind her for some time expecting her to ask me a question, but none came.

If the energy in your reservoir, or your mana said you were alive, then why not the trees? Why were trees not glowing? Trees should be one of the main things that support life on a planet. By all means they should be overflowing with mana.

I can be wrong; I have to keep telling myself that the rules of my world do not apply to this one. Some things are similar, and even the same, but at the core the world is different. Bears are the same, English seems to be the same and humans do not look much different. I hear footsteps, abruptly I turn around only to find Isaac behind me. He looks well rested, despite the short sleep.

“Are you coming with me?" He asked, I can tell he is ready to move on from here. I am not sure how I can explain this to him. I am a skeleton; skeletons are not adventurers. He is human, and can travel in both day and night. I’m skeleton, I travel at night, and burn during the day.

I want to explore the world, and I would give everything to be able to find out the reason for my existence, and why I am here. I did not want to be in this forest forever, to me that would be a worst fate than death. I cannot think of a way to safely travel. I can use the boy as a map for now.

Through our mental connection I tell Nia to reply yes to him. I will come with him, but I am sure one day I will regret the choice. I will have to fit myself into a crate, and It will be a tight fit. I'll probably break bones just trying to fit myself all the way in.

The fairy could not have been happier, and she flew quickly up to Isaac’s shoulder. I see the joy on the boy’s face, he seems so much like a child at that moment. Isaac ran off to pick up the furs he slept on, to repack them into the crates once again. I will probably have to take it out again, since I'll need an empty one. Nia came flying back to me, landing on my shoulder. I think she can sense my feelings of doubt and worry. I am still unsure, but I dedicated to finding a way for me to come along.

“Are you worried that you'll burn? “ She said, her voice like a whisper of one of my own thoughts. So, there is the question I have been awaiting, she must have given this some thought. I think she plays this game like chess. I smile mentally.

I nod my head in confirmation of her question. It is the truth, plain and simple. Nia frowns, then she jumps off my shoulder and hovers to the ground. She stares up at a tree, she was previously singing to. The same tree that Isaac had been tied to.

The fairy began to sing, her voice warming my cold soul like a fire. Then something amazing starts to happen. The tree began to fold. Branches began folding together, and it kept creasing and compressing repeatedly. I cannot find a word to describe it, only the it looked like something out of Transformers. 

“I asked the tree and he thinks that you shouldn't have to worry about the sun when you come with us.“ Nia said as she jumps on a hexagonal shape object. On closer inspection, it is a coffin. The tree had turned into a coffin? How did that even work out? The coffin is black and lined with gold around the edges. Is has two golden handles on the doors. For some reason, I could not wait to see what is on the inside.

“Are you like my fairy Godmother then? Here to grant me wishes.” I laugh to myself as I sent her the mental message. She frowns at me, stomping her tiny foot on the coffin, and pointing towards me with her little hand.

“Meanie Laoch! I'm not that old!“