You know, when you’re torn from your world and tossed into the ruins of it like some malevolent god's trash you tend to miss a few things. What I was missing the most right about now was coffee. That glorious cup of joe (ha! See what I did there?) really had a way of making a shithouse day just that little bit more bearable.

“… that’s what we’re most interested in.”

I shook myself from the stupor I’d fallen into the moment I joined the small crowd in this cramped meeting room. I’d zoned out the entire time Keiren was talking. The man might be the best archer I’d ever met but his voice was a monotonous drone that just about put a man to sleep. Especially one that was up most of the night.

I didn’t much care about what he had to say, I just wanted to get moving. My feet were itching and it wasn’t because of some skin infection. No. I wanted to move. I wanted to get outside the walls and start actually making progress in this game instead of drawing pictures and taking notes to be handed off to my ‘superiors’. Pfft, as if that’s what they were. They just happened to be strong enough in the beginning to build this fortress. It’s not like the rest of us had voted the Elders in. They’d just decided, and no one had fought them on it.

I kind of wanted to fight them on it. Especially Theo. I didn’t like Theo. He was the definition of an asshat.

“…that means you, Joe.”

Fuck. I wasn’t listening. “Understood.”

Keiren nodded and gestured for us all to leave. I filtered out with the rest of them and took a deep breath of the cool morning air. The sky was painted in the brilliant colors of sunrise and clear of clouds. It would be a fine day. One that didn’t at all match the turmoil coursing through me.

As I walked toward the gates I opened up my quests menu and looked at the collection I had there now.

Dead Drop

It’s so rude to read someone's private thoughts, but the diary held some important details. It’s time to go on a hunt for Tony the cable snake man. Just be careful, this guy makes people a little hot under the collar.

The Witch of Evermore

The witch is brewing a powerful potion. One that’s sure to knock the beastly Crocs on their ass. Collect the following items to get a taste of the sweet, sweet elixir. 1 x Vampire Bat Wing. 1 x Gall bladder of a King Toilet Croc. 1 x Venom of the Nightstalker Rattler. Happy hunting.

The Candlestick in the Ballroom

An unholy silence has taken over Old Man Wellington’s manor house. The man was a nut but a long-time collector of all things cryptic. Pay him a visit, and find out what happened.

Ill-gotten Crown of Reverence

The Count of Banksia has used his stolen power to shut down a prime smuggler outfit along the Condamine River. It’s time his crown was transferred to a more receptive leader. Break into the castle, retrieve the crown, and plant the evidence of his corruption.

Of the four there were only two that were doable. I hadn’t made any progress figuring out who or where Tony the toilet snake man was. The witch’s quest was too high level, even if all of us banded together. Thinking of the witch did remind me of something though. Frank was still with her. I hoped he was doing alright. His screaming had been a pain in the ass but I’d still liked having him around.

I closed the menu and bent to pet Stella as we left the gates. The rest of the Goshawks fanned out past the forest of sharpened stakes. I moved in the direction none of the others did, hoping I hadn’t missed the mention of a group task today.

Stella and I tramped through the forest, walking back and forth as we slowly made our way toward the clearing. I hoped the note I’d left on the frilly pillow this morning had been found. If she hadn’t found it then my plan for the quest wouldn’t work. We reached the little creek and I took out the rope and blanket I’d stolen from the bunkhouse. I fashioned a weird sort of sling and bent to pick up Stella.

She grumbled and tried to escape but I forced her into the sling before carefully walking back toward the trees, making sure to step exactly in my own footprints. When I reached the tree I’d spotted before I pulled the pair of us up into the branches. My arms, still angry from my unintentional climb through the window, complained more than Stella.

I don’t know if you have any experience with this, but walking along a slim branch with a wiggling dog strapped to your body is bloody hard. I did it anyway before pulling out my equally stolen grappling hook. This is where things got difficult. I’d never done anything like this before but I was determined that no one would easily find out where I went. I wasn’t planning on heading back to Oliver’s Rest after all. Hopefully, they would all just assume that I had died on a scouting mission. If Theo had anything to do with it I’m sure they wouldn’t look too hard for my corpse.

I felt a little bad about leaving my friends behind without so much as a see you later, but they didn’t need to have anything to do with this.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Done procrastinating I swung the grappling hook and tossed it toward a high branch of the tree next to my own. It took three tries but eventually, the hook grabbed hold. I gave it a hard tug just to make sure. I looped the rope and stuck my foot in the thing before swinging across to the other tree. I hit the next branch hard enough to shake loose a few leaves. I scrabbled for a hold with one hand as I got my feet under me. Stella and I were uninjured. I’d call that a success.

One down. Only about a hundred to go. I sighed and dug into it, praying my arms would manage the feat.

By the time I reached the edge of the clearing, I was drenched from head to toe in sweat. My lungs were screaming for air but no matter how I sucked the stuff in, it was never enough. I rolled up the grappling hook and stuffed it in my bum bag before awkwardly climbing down the tree until my feet sunk into the soft grass below.

I pulled Stella from her sling and placed her on the ground before leaning back and closing my eyes. It had seemed so easy in my imaginings but now the sun was almost overhead and I was ready to go back to bed. It had been the most intense workout I’d ever experienced.

“Joe! Finally, you’re here! I was about ready to give up.”

I plastered a smile on my face and turned to Miranda, hugging her back when she wrapped her arms around me.

“Hi there,” I said. “Did you make it here without leaving a trail like I asked?”

She let go of me and clapped her hands together, her face lit up by her smile. “Yes! I walked to the creek and found a deer. I killed it and then rode it here. I’ve been here for hours.”

The ease with which she snuck here almost made me tear up. I should have just organized her to pick me up on her dead beast but for some reason, it hadn’t even crossed my mind. I really am an idiot.

“Are you going to tell me why we’re doing all this? Are we staging a coup against the Elders?”

I laughed. “No, I have a new quest I need your help with. I hope you don’t mind going on an adventure with me.”

“Are you kidding? I’m thrilled. I’m so sick of running errands for Janice. All she ever wants is gems, candies, and garden slugs. It’s worse than being in the cultist's cage.”

“Seriously?”

Her cheeks pinkened just a little. “Well, it just sucks. I haven’t been able to practice my magic at all.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to do just that with me. Come on, let's go. I want to reach the castle before dark tomorrow night.”

“Where are we going that they have a castle?”

I rubbed my neck, hoping she wouldn’t fight me on the next part. “This is a personal quest. One of the rules is I can’t tell you anything about it. Will you trust me though? I promise Stella and I are a shitton more fun than Janice.”

She lifted a brow at me as the silence dragged on, then she sighed and her smile returned. “I’ll trust you, but only this once. You saved my life back in those caves, I owe you at least this much.”

I took her hands and squeezed them. “Thank you. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

It took the rest of the day and almost the entirety of the next to walk the distance between the fortress at Oliver’s Rest and the walled unnamed village housing the Count’s castle. We squatted at the top of a shrub-strewn rise as we looked down on the place.

Miranda shuddered beside me. “It’s so much bigger than the fortress.”

“Yeah, and I don’t think the people here will welcome us like the Elders did.”

She huffed. “Some welcome. All they did was make us work to make them stronger.”

“Hey, they gave us a bed and food and a safe place. It was more than we had before even if it was awful. There will be none of that here.”

“How do you know?”

I pointed toward a cluster of people wandering the town square. “Watch them for a minute.”

As she watched I pulled out one of my notebooks and started writing down my initial observations. The castle wall was too tall to climb and the gates were heavily guarded. The place where the castle wall met the Condamine River opened up into a ramshackle dock where there were more people and a handful of boats. That might be our best way in but we’d have to circle the place first, sticking to the woods and looking out for patrols.

I’d thought about bringing Sob along with us but now I was glad I hadn’t. It’s a lot harder to sneak about with a giant half-neon-blue beast even if he would have gotten us here a lot faster.

“They’re walking in patterns. They always stop in the same five places for the same amount of time.”

“Yep, this is a village of NPCs and somehow, I doubt they’re the friendly type.”

She turned her wide eyes on me. “All of them?”

I gave a hard nod. “Yep. This place didn’t exist before the Crocs took over. It was planted here. We’ll have to sneak to the docks after dark and try and find a way to blend in until we can make it to the castle. A pair of actual humans will stick out like a sore thumb.”

“I don’t like this at all. Can you at least tell me why we have to get to the castle?”

“There’s something in there I need to complete my quest. Your magic will help us do it. At the docks, we have to find a rat or something, kill it, and then you can use it to scout the place.”

She paled. “I can’t see through a rat’s eyes when I possess it. I don’t think that will work at all.”

“Have you ever tried to?”

“Well, no. But when I reanimate something I have to be able to see it. I stay in my own body, it’s only my magic that possesses the thing.”

I smiled at her and pulled her to her feet, urging her to walk with me as I started making a circle around the castle still taking notes as I did. “Plan A is we try to use your magic a little differently. If it doesn’t work, then there’s always plan B.”

“What’s plan B?”

“We’ll figure that out if we need it.”

“Great. That’s comforting,” she muttered, kicking at a rock on the ground.

“Oh, one more thing,” I said running my fingers through my stupidly long hair. “Your dress.”

“What about it?”

“Yeah, you’re going to have to wear something a little less… ostentatious.”

She glowered at me. “Been reading the dictionary have you?”

“Hey, I went to school.”

She snorted. “And flunked out no doubt.”

Well, she had me there.