Chapter Five- Zone One- The Forest

On the path, Eric found himself facing a mysterious figure. Exercising caution Eric tried ducking down behind some bushes. This didn’t result in muchhowever; the figure was sat on an odd steed.

It was a great big golden retriever. Its floppy ears sagged on either side of its head, swinging outrageously as it stopped and turned to face Eric’sdirection. With its large black eyes, the dog gave a confused look. Its rider, a cloaked individual merely looked at Eric for a while.

“You know I saw you dive for the bushes right?” a feminine voice called out. The dog gave a bark, as if confirming its masters remark.

Eric got up and considered running, but remembered how quickly the dog closed the space between them earlier. There would be no point in running, Ericconcluded. So he considered fighting, and, as if it could read his mind, the horse-sized dog gave a wide yawn, demonstrating: one, that Eric’s’ head fitperfectly inside its mouth and, two, its teeth could, without question, snap him in half. So no, no to fighting, Eric concluded.

“What are you doing here?” Eric asked.

“Hello I’m Annie and Eric; you really should start with your name when you meet someone new.” Annie scolded him.

“Wait,” Eric scanted his eyes in disgust, “what the fuc-“

Annie pointed at him, “Language.” Giving him an angry glare.

“Don’t ‘language’ ME,” Eric started getting annoyed, “Who do you think you are?”

“I just told you,” She said blankly, as if it was the simplest thing in the world, “I’m Annie.”

“And how the fuc-” Eric tried to maintain his angry tone, Jesus this woman is hopeless.

“Language!” Annie said, as if hurt by Eric’s’ fowl tongue.

“Ok,” Eric conceded, “How did you know who I am?”

“Oh,” She said as if it was normal to know a strangers name, “Why I scanned you, silly. Which reminds me, would you like a ride, a level three like youshouldn’t be out here after dark.”

“Okay,” Eric digested that, assuming it was some kind of spell, “How do I know I can trust you? What are you doing out here?”

Annie was silenced by this; she took off her hood, revealing long brown locks of smooth well kept hair, high round cheeks on either side of a beaming redsmile. “You can trust me, you have my word.” She said, as if it was that simple, “As for what I’m doing here, well I’m on a fetch quest, you’re probablymet Tim right,” she didn’t wait for a response, “Well he’s’ my brother and I was hoping for some help.”

At Tim’s name, Eric started to feel guilty. Should he break it the news to her, despite being obnoxious she seemed like a nice person. Fuck, he was goingto tell her, this better not ruin my ride outta here, Eric thought to himself. “Right, about that,” Eric said, walking out of the bushes and back onto thepath, “You should probably kn-”

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Annie gasped, much to Eric’s’ confusion, “You don’t have shoes!” she pointed out.

“Yeah, I noticed,” Eric tried to push past this development, but Annie started sliding off of the dog, “What are you doing?”

“Get on the dog.” Annie said, gesturing to the saddle, encase Eric got lost or something.

“Listen to what I-” Before Eric could finish he was getting pushed towards the retriever, which lowered itself down for him, “look this is important,” Ericcalled out, already on top of the dog. God it felt nice to be off of the ground, Eric hadn’t released how much he put his feet through.

“You know,” Annie began, “I know a spell that’ll fix those right up, but I suppose that should wait until we’re out of the forest. Well lets get going.”She started leading the dog down the path.

“Wai-” Eric tried to speak up.

“Look,” She said in a motherly tone, “you’re practically my guest at this point, what would you have me do, leave you to walk with feet like that? Just letme take care of you.” She might as well of said, “shut up”.

Eric sighed in defeat; he was going to have to face that monster again. At the same time it could have been worse. At least he wouldn't be alone, betweenthis huge as dog, and Annie (who Eric assumed was powerful in some way), it might just turn out okay.

Then he imagined what it would be like to find out his brother was a monster like that, did he have a brother, fuck- surely that would be something anyonecould answer. Which brought to mind another thought. How did this Annie know Tim was her brother, while they were both white but they didn't exactly looksimilar.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" Eric asked after a moment of silence passed.

"Shoot cowboy." She looked back at him.

"Is Tim your real bother?" Eric asked.

Annie didn't answer at first, letting the question hang in a way that made Eric feel guilty, "No, we spawned into this world at the same time, so we spenta lot of those early days together. In my book, that counts for something right." She smiled back at Eric and he nodded in agreement.

"Then there's something I need to tell you." Eric said.

Annie sighed, "Why are you so serious?"

"Tim," Eric tried to find the right words, "He's been possessed by an echo."

Annie didn't skip a beat, walking as if she hadn't heard a thing.

"Tim's a man-eater." Eric said bluntly.

Annie kept leading her dog, "Oh, that reminds me," Annie said, "I named my dog Sir Jimmy, you know, because it’s similar to Tim."

She didn't look back at Eric, and based on her voice alone, she didn't seem phased in the slightest. Eric gave a concerned look to the back of her head,"Do you want to stop for a moment?"

Annie just kept walking and Eric really didn't know what to say anymore, so they continued in silence.