It was an odd thing for there to not be a sun to grant them light. He hadn’t gotten used to this unnatural phenomenon and he doubted he ever would. It made everything more difficult and troublesome, especially when navigating this barren terrain.

“Ah, at last,” Felghan said. “We’re almost there.”

The two of them found themselves standing on the top of a hill. From afar, he could spot a moderately sized town with torchlight motioning around along the top of a stone wall. Even though he had the alchemical substance to help make seeing in the darkness easier, he would not need it to make out this place from afar.

“So, are you still just planning on dumping me there?”

The man clicked his tongue. “I wasn’t aware I was your babysitter. I told you I would take you someplace safe. I’m not supposed to be heading in this direction. I’m supposed to be going south but since I took some pity on you and your rather unusual circumstances, I figured the least I could do for you was bring you here.”

Kiran was thankful for him even though he was apprehensive about helping him any further than he already was. He had told him about everyone who crossed over to the fourth domain, but as far as he was concerned, that was none of his business.

Felghan according to him, was nothing more than a mere wanderer going from place to place delivering messages to the few villages and towns that existed in these lands. Kiran had his doubts that that. Someone like him knew how to fight and he got the impression there was more to this person that he wanted to relay to him. Regardless of this, he would still appreciate their kindness towards them when at first things had gotten off the wrong foot.

Where they were currently headed towards was the largest town in this territory apparently. He hoped that someone there could help him locate everyone. The only problem was that he had no idea where they were or whether anyone nearby here knows of their whereabouts. It also seemed that most of the people here kept within their communities not venturing out much due to all of the dangers of doing so.

When they approached the closed gates, the guards did not hesitate in letting them in. They finally made it to the town of Cairn. Very few souls wandered about as they traversed within it together. This place was dark and gloomy full of stone buildings that had seen better days. Many of the structures had been hobbled up together and patched up over the years. Even the surrounding walls of this town were rather run down and not at all capable of withstanding a major assault if one were to occur.

Felghan began pounding on the door to somebody’s home inside the town.

“Is somebody there?”

He began to pound on their door even harder this time.

“Is that you Mary? I already told ya, that I’ll replace your shovel I broke the other day. I swear it to ya!” The man inside opened the door just enough that he could pop his head out of it. “Oh, you’re not Mary. Why it’s Felghan!”

The man came barreling through the door giving the bald man a hefty hug. The muscular burly guy let out multiple jeers as the two—who Kiran figured must’ve been friends—appeared to become reunited.

“What’d you do now Robbie? You breaking other people’s stuff still?”

The older aging fellow known as Robbie began to rub the back of their head. “It’s not like I meant for it to break. But anyways, enough about broken shovels or what have you. It’s damn good to see you again. I’ve been wondering if you’d ever show up again or stick to wandering these lands never thinking to stop by for an old pal for a moment or two.”

“I can afford such a detour from time to time.”

“I’m glad to hear of it! Although, who exactly is this with ya?” He began to eye Kiran.

“This is Kiran. They’re someone I ran into out there all alone on my travels.”

They nodded their head. “I see, I see. I’ve ever only known Felghan to wander these lands alone. Now I know of two people. Well then, come in. Stay a little while before you’re to go off again.”

“Ah, I really do need to continue. I just thought I’d passed by and say hello.”

“Nonsense! You’ve just got here haven’t ya? Why don’t you stay for a while so we can catch up on things. It’s not like I get to see you every other day.”

Felghan briefly eyed Kiran. “I suppose I can set aside my goals for a short while.”

“Now you’re talking!”

The big burly man welcomed Kiran in. The inside of his home was rather cozy if not a tad bit messy. He had an abundance of tools and trinkets just laying around in the corners of their place that had a lit hearth at one side of it providing some lovely warmth. As the door closed behind him, a big brown dog eyed him from the corner of their home. It began to eye him and lower its head as if they didn’t trust him just by how he looked.

“Don’t be shy girl, go say hello to our guest.”

The dog got up wagging its tail and approached Kiran. He bent down running his hand along her backside. At first she was a bit wary of him but she quickly warmed up to him. She wagged her tail more intensely as he continually pet her. Dogs can’t help but like me. Unfortunately I can’t say the same about Lar.

“Tell me Felghan, how goes your travels out there?” He grabbed a mug from a cupboard and began to fill it with some kind of drink.

“It’s been mostly quiet. Although, the two of us did have a run-in with a feral banespawn the other day.”

“No kidding.” He eyed a big great axe hung up on a stone wall. “We’ve been having more run-ins with them recently ourselves. To tell you the truth, I’m beginning to think the serpent might have something to do with it.” Or is it that dastardly owl instead of whoever this serpent happens to be?

Robbie handed over the filled mug to Felghan who happily partook of the drink. He went over to grab another mug, except this time he handed it over to Kiran. “I don’t think I could ever do your job. The thought of going from place to place all alone in the darkness just frightens me to death merely thinking about it. It’s hard enough for me to go out there with a crew of fighters to hunt those gnarly abominations down every now and then. And here you are, freely traveling all alone and encountering them with your hide still intact.”

“Someones got to do it.”

“Aye,” they said with a hefty nod. “And that person doesn’t have to be me!” Laughter filled the inside of their home from the big guy. “So,” he said facing Kiran, “what village do you come from?”

“I’m from no village in particular.”

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“You mean to tell me you live out there all on your own?”

“Well—”

Felghan put a finger to his lips causing Kiran to not elaborate any further.

“What?” Robbie said eyeing the two of them. They began to frown a little. “Keeping secrets from me are ya?”

The dog began to bark as heavy pounding slammed up against the door they had previously entered through.

“I sure hope this has nothing to do with a broken shovel,” Felghan said.

“Oh shut it you!” Robbie wandered over opening the door. “Who exactly—”

A man wearing fanciful black leather attire came strolling in walking past Robbie. He had short black hair and an intense gaze that he likely wore at all times. Felghan stood up and straightened their back as the man came to stand just a few feet away from him. Who the heck might this person be?

“I’m glad to see that not all of what the men stationed at the walls relay to me are in fact wrong. When I heard that you had suddenly arrived here, I thought that was rather strange. Tell me then Felghan, what brings you here to Cairn?”

“I stopped by to drop him off.”

The man who had the same color of hair as Kiran, eyed him warily with one hand stuffed away in a pocket. “Well, it’s fortunate that you are here. May we perhaps, speak privately?”

With a simple nod of his head, the two left out the door leaving Kiran alone with Robbie.

“What do ya know about him?” Robbie asked.

“Not very much honestly,” Kiran admitted. He began to pet his dog who he thought might’ve fallen in love with him. They rolled onto their back sticking their legs up into the air. He found himself rubbing their belly that they appeared to enjoy as well.

If Lar saw him doing this, he imagined she would be quite jealous.

After a short while, Felghan reappeared. He gestured towards him urging him to follow him outside.

He walked outside feeling the somewhat warm air. This domain’s temperature was quite a bit different than the fifth one. It was in a rather constant state of being just warm enough that his skin always felt a bit gross.

“It appears,” Felghan said, “that my plans have changed once again.”

“Have they now?”

“That man I spoke to is a lord and from what I have been told, it sounds like those people of yours may have been found.”

A huge wave of relief washed over him. It however went away quickly as he noticed the man’s glare towards him. “What’s wrong?”

They didn’t immediately respond.

“You can tell me. I can handle it.”

“Supposedly there’s signs of a major battle outside of where they’re currently encamped. A lot of people appear to have died.” That was not the kind of news he wanted to hear. He tried his hardest though to remain optimistic and hopeful. He wasn’t there to see it for himself. Perhaps it wasn’t as bad as his mind wanted to make it out to be.

“What direction are they in?”

“Towards the east for quite a bit of distance from here.”

“Well, that gives me something to work with at least. As long as I know what direction they’re in, then I can make it to them.”

“I wish it were that easy, otherwise I’d send you off with a few of these vials to help you travel in the darkness and that’d be that. But there are dangers you’d run into out there on your own.”

“Then what am I supposed to do? You’ve already made it clear you aren’t wanting to lend me any further help.”

“There may be someone who can help you actually. You’ll need to come with me though. I trust that you won’t cause me any problems in doing so though. Do I have your word?”

If Kiran was honest with himself, he was a bit of a troublemaker. Not in a malicious kind of way, but instead in a way in which bad things just naturally tend to greet him regularly. “I have no intention to cause you any problems purposely.”

He eyed him skeptically. “Whatever the case, we’re going to travel a day or so away from here. Once we’re there, you may receive help. You may also not receive any. But I think you will be of interest to this, particular person since you and these people suddenly arriving here are already causing problems and they need to know about it.”

“And who might this person I’m going to meet be?”

“They’re someone I work for. Let’s leave it at that. However, I must warn you, I cannot permit you to travel to this location with this.” He pulled out a vile and shook it slightly and then placed it carefully in a leather bag meant for holding multiple vials. “You’ll have to travel in the dark or with a blindfold.”

Kiran sighed. “If I must then I will tolerate it. But are you that concerned about keeping it secretive?”

“I am very much concerned.”

“Fine. Let’s get going then.”

Their stomach began to growl. “Actually, we’ll leave for tomorrow after I have properly eaten and rested.”

* * *

Something strange rubbed up against his face. It was hot, viscous, and quite a bit sticky. He rubbed his eyes and found a big dog over on top of his body. They licked his face and breathed out hot air onto him making the thick gobs of snot atop his face only to feel worse as he fully became conscious.

He heard laughter to his right. Robbie looked as if he was going to be rolling on the floor due to how much he found this funny.

Kiran dunk his head in a bucket full of water. He washed away the dry and wet saliva that a moment ago covered his face. Was it really necessary for that dog to do that to me while I was sleeping?

He felt gross and while he didn’t hate the dog for necessarily doing that to him, he most definitely did not like waking up to this.

As the three of them sat at a table feasting upon some sausages, the dog sat next to him and moaned. It lay its paw on his thigh begging for the tiniest morsel of food. Do you really want this sausage? This stuff honestly tastes a bit weird. To a dog, it probably didn’t matter and at least to him, it was edible. There was just something about it that tasted funny to him.

The dog began to whine towards him as its paws slid down his thigh a bit. “Alright, alright. Even after what you did to me this morning, I can’t help but treat you well. Here. Have some.” He tore off a piece of the sausage with the crude knife and let the dog eat a piece of it out of his hand.

“I think she quite likes you,” Robbie said. “Which is rather rare amongst strangers.”

“She just wants his food,” Felghan said as they dove their fork into a piece of sausage.

Not long after they ate together, they prepared themselves to head out for the rest of the day or night he supposed. Since it was always night was he supposed to call it the day? Such a perplexing question needed to be answered one of these days or nights.

Robbie came up to grasp onto his hand. They both shook them whilst gripping hard enough, that it became a challenge to see who might wince first. Neither did however eventually pulling their arms back to their sides. “Well, Kiran. I hope you find those people of yours. It can’t be easy knowing you’re far away from them, but I believe you’ll make it to them if Felghan has anything to do with it.”

Considering Felghan was only doing this due to other factors, he knew he’d better rely on someone else to take on such a role if possible.

“As for you!” The big man grasped onto Felghan eager to squeeze them to death. “Next time you come on through you better damn well visit me, you hear?”

“Y-Yes,” he said struggling to breathe.

“That’s what I like to hear,” he said releasing his grasp. “Now the two of you get out of my home and get going before the night is over! Oh, and don’t let any banespawn kill ya on the way either.”

“I wouldn’t ever think to allow for that to happen,” Felghan said waving goodbye towards him.