Wandering, looking for something interesting, I climbed up another mountain. Blow away my cave will you, catgirl. What kind of dumb name is Nyaa-chan anyways. I was burning a little less for some reason. Watching her face breakdown like that, there was something strange.

I don’t remember doing anything to disappoint her, but that was the face the old men under the bridge had. There was mopey look about them, a twinkle in their eye like they were about to cry.

Being about to kill or void a person for the first time, I felt a lot stronger. For some reason, I thought that he deserved it. I looked out from the mountain, over my old home that was now desert-like expanding into the already flat grassy plains. It’s okay, I remembered every painting. I’ll just draw them again, better this time, no matter how many times that dumb catgirl shows up.

The wind grew flecked with snowflakes and I grew tired somehow. I could use the green paint to up stamina and regeneration but I couldn’t pull the will together needed to transform. The burning wasn’t there anymore. In my mind, I remembered that white light that covered everything. I felt there was something like that in my mind now, like water washed all the dirt out of my ears.

Slightly pleasant, slightly alarming. I was suspicious if that magic did something weird to me, and I was worried about how easily I caved to bloodlust.

Isn’t it fine? He was a jerk. People did a lot worse to me before I got mad before. I shivered. Ah, there it is, I missed you, not. With the fire burning a little more inside I struggled up the mountain. It was cold up here, with snow at the peak. How far had I gone?

Too long, it seemed. Maybe somewhere the days blurred together and one mountain became another. There were rams prancing about but I didn’t feel like killing again. If I was hungry, definitely, but just for useless food after threatening to kill that catgirl made me sick.

No one deserves that, at least I don’t want to be the one to do it. I shivered.

It’s cold.

I felt warmth as I woke up. I must have lost consciousness at one point. The fire from without was matching the fire within, it felt comfortable.

There was a massive hairy monster in the shape of a man roasting a ram, a large red cape far darker than mine. He was like a lump of green fur. Looks like a christmas tree. We were in a small cave, barely enough room for me and him. It was like he was one with the snow that drifted in with the wind as he looked with three dark eyes at the fire in front of him.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“H-hello,” I tried to speak to him. He was too close.

He stayed silent. It was like he was a statue, or asleep. I didn’t feel like I mattered at all, and that hurt!

“Ahgo,” he said.

“What? Ahgo, what?”

“My name is Ahgo.”

“What kind of name...did you start this fire to keep me warm?”

“You wouldn’t die without warmth. This is not that kind of world. However, the fire still burns.”

His voice was deep and majestic, like a king.

Should I run? Why bother? It didn’t seem like he would move no matter what I did, I got that feeling looking at him roast the ram.

“You wouldn’t die without food, either, I think. That hasn’t happened to me. The whole world’s like this?”

“I can’t die. But I can eat. I can’t die. But I can fight. I can’t do anything.”

His tone didn’t change at all.

“Can’t you do anything but die then?”

It’s a fair question. I’m playing around.

“Yes. Would you call that a heaven or hell?”

He’s rather serious.

“I don’t know. If I knew I couldn’t grow hungry or die before I came here, that would have been nice.”

To be free of all that burning inside, that would be nice. Would someone like that be like Ahgo?

“You envy me?”

“You... don’t look afraid. You don’t look angry. It doesn’t look like it matters to you that you’re alone. Appearances alone aren’t enough to say something like that, but to me it looks like you're immortal for another reason besides being in this world.”

I was talking weird things. The mood’s right, I don’t know why I said that.

“I would trade it to fix a failure of mine in an instant,” he grumbled.

“Whatever happened, I’d fix that failure if I could, if I could be like you.”

How embarrassing.

“Do you have some magic that can cross dimensions and shift time, little girl?”

“No, unless you want to go into a void…does that count as a dimension…”

“You are hopeless then, as am I. What will you do from here on?”

“Uh, I just met you, aren’t you going to ask my name?”

“I know more about you than you do. It pains me to tell you the truth. I was hoping you wouldn’t ask.”

“That catgirl said some weird stuff like that too. I don’t care. I’m going to find a home, and I’m staying there. I don’t care what kind of crazy world I came to, or who sent you to come get me.”

I didn’t feel angry as I said that. It’s just the truth.

“Suits me just fine. Would you like to hear a tale, of a fallen kingdom, a troll hero-king who failed his duty?”

I softened a bit. It couldn’t hurt right?

“Just for a little, then I’m going.”

I listened long into the night as snow blew around outside the cave.

I fell asleep again.

There was a bell with a rope like a necklace and a fire put out in front of me when I woke up. I looked around in a panic, hoping to find Ahgo. I wandered out of the cave, and saw him standing on the edge of a cliff on the mountain looking out over the wasteland and plains. His crimson cloak blowing in the wind.

I just stood there and felt the wind whip through my cloak and furs.

He looked back slowly, as if he knew I was there.

“Come.”

He said.