Sophie woke the next morning, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Sam was sitting, tending the fire. Last night she’d logged out of the game, letting Azrael stay watch. She knew that if something happened, the game would take over her avatar and act just like she would have acted. However, even then there were certain differences.

It would move like she would move, but it wouldn’t talk. Her character would act as if sleep walking, or in a trance. Sam turned when he saw her rise.

“Morning” he said. If he was a player, which she was starting to doubt, then she had never seen him log off. Although the fact that he spoke to her first surprised her a little.

Other than to ask questions, or pass on basic information he wouldn’t initiate a conversation. This was the closest he’d gotten. She unconsciously raised an eyebrow.

“Ah… anyways” he began, when she forgot to respond. “I found some water last night”.

He held up full water pouches. She took one from his grasp and gave it a sniff, before drinking it. It was water, even if it was a little strange.

She smiled at him gratefully. “Thank you” she said.

But behind the smile she was slightly annoyed. Seriously, what was with him. If he wasn’t a player then he only had one life. This meant that wandering around in the dark, in an unknown forest was asking for something to take your life. It was little things like this that really stood out and constantly threw her off. It was like he was an NPC with the tendencies, behaviour and habits of a player. It irked her.

On a principle, Sophie tried to keep villagers out of her player affairs, since they tended to die very quickly as collateral. To other players if someone died, then it didn’t matter for them. If it was an NPC that died, then they weren’t real to begin with and if it was a player that died, then it was ok, because they could simply respawn. No harm done, right? But to her, watching villagers bleed to death, get killed by bandits, or getting mauled by beasts, was the same as watching a person die in real life.

Just because they were never technically alive, or real, didn’t make the scenes any less disturbing. Even while she traveling with Sam she’d been doing most of the fighting and hunting. Despite his claims as the strongest villager in the village she’d seen those wounds. And that had been after a ‘successful’ hunt. She’d hate to lose her guide to an unsuccessful one.

She pushed those thoughts to the side, instead taking a sipping from the water pouch and accepting a meat skewer. Wait. Meat? She hadn’t gone hunting last night. Suspiciously she glanced at Sam’s daggers. Was that why he’d been out in the forest? But at night? Something didn’t add up, but she couldn’t pin down what. With a sigh she sat down beside him and ate breakfast.

***

They travelled for several more days, before spying the dragon one afternoon. It flew overhead twice. Once back towards the village and once towards the mountains. They changed course accordingly.

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The closer to the mountains they got, the rockier the ground became. The land around them also changed in other ways. The ground rose up, forming steep hills, which eventually became small mountains in their own right. The forest also thinned, giving way to sparce groves of green, while the rising slopes were dominated with bush and shrub.

Water still stayed scarce, the slopes too steep to let water pool. In the evenings while Sophie was sleeping he would take watch and refill the water pouches. He was so careful that there was no way Sophie would suspect a thing. Sometimes his own acting skills terrified him.

Eventually though, the pair encountered an unforeseen problem, eager to bar their way forward. A massive crevasse cut through the mountains on their path, water flooding through the bottom in a raging torrent.

Over time water had cut a deep channel through the mountains and even now the continuing snowmelt was continuing the age old work with thundering force.

A small goat track, barely wider than shoulder width, trailed along the side. On one side of the trail led to a long fall into the raging waters and guaranteed death. On the other side, the steep cliff face continued upwards.

Their way into the mountains was barred on one side by the cliff and they couldn’t cross the raging torrent to get to the other side.

Using [Stone Shaping] as secretly as he could Azrael reinforced the goat trail and they carefully progressed. Sometimes, A few times rocks fell down from overhead, threatening to brain them.

When he looked up, he saw a shaggy face, framed by large, curved horns, looking down at them. It was the same kind of mountain goat that he had carved the village’s dragon horn out of.

By the end of the day They had yet to reach the other end of the ravine, forcing them to stay the night in the ravine. Uneager to spend the night sleeping at death’s edge he carved out a small cave with [Stone Shaping].

Letting him settle in to their accommodations Sophie left and prayed, or at least that’s what he assumed that she did. It came as a surprise to him when he heard not the sound of praying, but arguing.

Stuck between two cliff walls her voice carried to him, even over the sound of raging water. Despite this he couldn’t quite make out what she was arguing about, or even with whom. He was curious though and slipped into [Stealth], before sneaking towards her.

“Give me more time!” Sophie argued. She paused to listen, but Azrael didn’t hear anybody speaking. “I still have a week!” Again, she paused, before replying in a more subdued tone “No, sorry.” Azrael rounded a slight corner in the ravine and saw her standing alone, one hand held up to the side of her head. Telepathy? It didn’t fit in with any of her classes.

She shifted position and Azrael saw her holding something up to her ear. It wasn’t and ability he realised, but an artifact. She was using some form of long-range communication artifact.

“No” she continued “No, I understand”.

From the way she was talking whoever was on the other end was obviously a higher rank.

“No. You won’t have to tell Melissa.”

Azrael froze when he heard the name. It brough back bad memories. He tried to find a [Calm Mind]. Melissa wasn’t that rare a name, it could be somebody else. The beast in his soul raised its hackles, equally uneasy. They were both feeling the same thing.

There was no way that Holy Empire could have found him here. There was no reason for them to seek him out. Not after what they had done to him. Was the entire dragon hunt just a ruse to get him? How had they found him? What were they plotting?

Azrael calmed himself down. There was no reason for it to be Holy Empire. Melissa probably didn’t even remember him. Everyone that wasn’t her was beneath her. He relaxed. It was just somebody with the same name. Yes, that was it. It had to be. There was no reason to panic. They didn’t know he was here.

Sophie finished her conversation.

“Glory to the Empire.”