Four hours later.

Seven hours since arrival.

When I woke back up, I was once again in the chapel. I could tell that before most of my senses came back to me. It was scents filling my nose which led the charge, and from the smells I could tell I was there. Scents of the same incense I had smelled before in the chapel–a mixture of cinnamon and burning sandalwood– mixed with the smell of wood polish and old, well cared for leather. New was the smell of frying meat and a cook fire. Was I in danger? My heartbeat picked up before my hearing answered it for me.

“Marlie, Edbert brought him in from out in all the way in the Tidewarrens themself?”

My eyelids were still too heavy to open, my body too exhausted to sit up, and my mouth too dry to speak. I could only listen.

“Yes, that’s true Charlie. He made it out there and by the accounting given from Alec the herder - he was there when the Jackanack wave hit the Warrens.”

“Young Alec said the kid survived a stomp from an alpha Jackanack and turned the tide of his combat with it when Wade fell from the tree with his young egg friend.”

“I thought he looked tough… but he’s lucky he didn’t die.”

It was about then that I could move my eyelids, but I kept them mostly shut. If I played unconscious, I could get a covert glance at the deep voiced man who was currently talking to arch-priestess Marlie. The light being too bright and wanting to cause me a migraine only added to the situation.

“It was not some amount of luck, Charles. You know very well that every person is allowed exactly once to be knocked down to zero health points and be allowed to survive. Besides that, I AM,” and she raised her voice for emphasis with the am, “After all, an arch-priestess. I could heal anyone in the town blind-folded and low on Mana Points with little issue. Not even accounting for the fact that Cadecoatl is over level fifty.”

The man in front of me was strong, tall, and fit. While balding, it seemed more like his hair had simply migrated from the top of his head to his face, chin, and cheeks. His beard would have made a tabletop roleplaying game dwarf jealous and had it ask for grooming tips.

Did this world have dwarves? No, no distractions, Wade! I needed to get as much information as I could get. I couldn’t get caught on things like Marlie had a level fifty Cadecoatl, whatever a level fifty meant in the grand scheme of things. I couldn’t let my mind wander about other races of sentients either.

“Sure, Marlie, but it wasn’t the gods or your skill with healing that I was questioning. He might not even get to you in time to have you heal him. Next time he might die, especially if he lets his temper lead him.”

It was then that I realized that my whole body wasn’t groggy because I threw out my fist at him in an attempt to punch the man. I don’t know where it came from, but anger at my situation, or simple youthful hormones driving my body. But as I threw my punch, it didn’t come close to landing. He simply caught my hand, and with a gentle reproach that fit a man of his stature, he gave a smirk. In his grasp there was no excessive pressure, no tug to pull me forward and off the stone slab where I was again sitting. Just the challenging expression.

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“You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to land a hit on me, Mister Calhoun.”

He let my hand go, and I noticed this guy was dressed in a dark green tunic checkered with yellow. A matching shade of green dominated his trousers, and upon his feet were a pair of fine boots made of dark brown leather. A matching deep green hat which seemed as if it couldn’t decide if it was a cowboy hat, a park ranger hat finished off the look.

“I am the Baron and Lord of Tidewarren, Wade. Charles Darville is my name. You can call me Charlie. I’m sorry I was not here when you awoke the first time. I would say that it simply escaped me, but that would be a lie. I was testing you. I know it’s unorthodox, but I’ve never been what people say is orthodox around these parts. Before we get down to business, though? You need to eat. ”

I knew the tone, hell I had used that tone before. It wasn’t optional, and soon I found a flat metal plate and a fork pushed into my lap. What I identified as eggs, some sort of sausage link, flatbread, a baked potato, and a sauteed vegetable that I instantly recognized as some leaves of the strange root vegetable plant I had seen in the grasslands which were apparently the namesake of this region.

I didn’t give any backtalk. I didn’t even fantasize about using the fork to stab Charlie. There wasn’t time for it because my body screamed at me as if I had been starving for it. I proceeded to tuck into the offered food without another word or thought. I can’t promise I even actually processed the tastes of the food as anything other than ‘absolutely delicious because I’m too hungry to argue’. Maybe I had been hangry.

I don’t know how much time passed as I ate, but the Lord of Tidewarren waited patiently for me to finish. He seemed to be happy that I was enjoying the food and not the patronizing donkey that I had expected him to be. When I was finished, Marlie offered me a glass which I quickly realized was milk likely harvested from those cattle I had seen browsing on the grasses of the Tidewarren. I trusted for the moment, and I drank the milk.

When it was empty, a creature rushed forward to take the dishes and plates. I initially assumed it to be a pink stuffed rabbit toy before it moved, but as I took in its details, I saw it was a teddy bear-like humanoid rabbit monster with a mane of hair like that of the tops of the Tidewarren root vegetable I had seen.

I focused on the Lord of Tidewarren though, ignoring Marlie and what I presumed to be one of the arch-priestesses’ other monster partners.

“So. You say you were testing me. Why is that?”

“Do you hire the first person to apply for your cashier position without vetting them?”

I hadn’t applied, so that was redundant, but it did make me think about what he was saying. Not the question itself, but what it meant. It felt like something that implied that he was an outworlder, and so I shrugged.

“Sure would if they got dropped on my shop’s door by a pelican, I guess.”

His friendly smirk was ever present and as he looked to see that Marlie had departed, he walked towards the door.

“Walk with me, Wade. I know that Marlie might have led to some misunderstandings, and that information that the system itself might have given you could have as well – but I’m not your average Hekatondronan lord.”

With the words finished, he began to put a sword belt on, and then two crossing suspenders that held bandoleers in place. On the bandoleers were eight of those D8-shaped reliquaries.

I didn’t really have a choice, because even if I had successfully escaped the town legitimately the first time. Though I was beginning to doubt that I had actually escaped and not been allowed to leave. So I put my feet upon the polished stones of the chapel and noticed that the strange beehive was on the stone altar I had been upon before. It was in a mesh bag which had a strap that made it into a satchel. I picked it up and slung it over my shoulder. It might really just be a beehive-shaped rock, but instinct demanded it of me.

I followed him out of the chapel.