Home sweet home.

Jack couldn’t keep a smile off his face as he was approaching the Great Tree Cottage. He was finally here. After defeating the horde of blind mutants the previous night, he’d blacked out, completely exhausted. Well, he hadn’t actually defeated them. Instead, they simply disappeared as the sun began to rise. At least, he’d managed to survive the sudden night attack.

He’d regained consciousness in the middle of the next day, the sun high in the sky. His leather armor was torn in many places where the mutants’ claws and teeth ripped it. All the wounds he’d received in the battle had been superficial and healed by the time he came around.

Jack had no idea where the blind mutants had come from, but it clearly had something to do with the witch’s curse. There were none of them during the day, and the horde that had attacked him the previous night had disappeared as soon as the sun began to rise. Which most likely meant that another horde of mutants would come at him after nightfall. He had to get home before that happened. He managed to get through the previous night, but there was no telling if he would get so lucky the next time. So he consulted the map and set off for home.

The trip from the Darkwoods to the Sungrove took him a few hours. By the time he was nearing his home, the sun had already begun to set. It wouldn’t be long before it got dark. He really needed to find a way to fast travel from one location to another.

The initial joy of seeing his huge treehouse was replaced by caution. He slowed down until he stopped about thirty yards from the great tree on which his house was built. Something was wrong, but it took him a second to realize what was bothering him. The elevator platform wasn’t at the ground level, which meant that somebody had used it to ascend to his treehouse. Somebody had barged into his home while he was absent, and from the looks of it, they were still inside his treehouse.

There was a crack of fallen branches being stepped on behind him. Jack spun around in time to see two men step out from around the nearest tree trunk. They wore leather light armor and had shortswords hanging at their hips. One of them had a crossbow across his back. Jack wasn’t surprised by seeing other people. He’d already known that he wasn’t the only person in this forest and was well aware that sooner or later, he would meet other people. In fact, he’d been looking forward to it. However, the two guys before him didn’t look friendly at all, and Jack’s hand instinctively reached for the hilt of his sword.

One of the strangers raised his hand in a placating manner.

“We ain’t gonna cause you any trouble, friend,” he said.

Jack glanced between them, still tense. “Who are you people?”

“I’m Mercer and this is Dregu.”

Jack stared at the two for a moment. While they acted in a friendly way, they didn’t strike him as good people. At least, such was his first impression of them, but he decided to give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

“I’m Jack,” he finally answered.

“Nice to meet you, Jack,” Mercer said, trying hard to look like a good guy. He made a movement as if he was going to stick out his hand for a handshake but thought better of it for some reason.

Jack simply nodded, waiting for them to tell him what the hell they were doing here and what they wanted from him. He had a strong feeling that something was off here.

“This is your house over there I assume,” Mercer said, waving his hand at the great tree behind Jack.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Yeah,” he replied, his gaze never leaving the two strangers in front of him. They were giving off really bad vibes.

“Nice house you got there,” Dregu opened his mouth for the first time. “You live all alone there?”

“What do you think?” Jack said, having no interest in telling them the truth.

“Well, this house is huge,” Dregu said. “A few people could live there. However, we’ve been here for more than twenty-four hours and you are the first person whom we saw come here. So I assume you’re the only resident of this place.”

Jack didn’t like where it was going.

“What do you want?” He asked in a harsher voice than he’d intended.

Mercer picked up on his mood. “Look, man, we don’t have to be enemies.”

“Let’s get straight to business,” Jack said. “What do you people want from me?”

“Very well,” Mercer nodded. “There’s a person in your treehouse. His name is David.”

Jack couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder at the treehouse behind him. There wasn’t any movement behind any of the windows. He turned his attention back to the strangers.

“That guy is our enemy,” Mercer continued. “He attacked us out of nowhere, but when he realized he couldn’t defeat the two of us, he escaped. We chased him here, but before we could catch him, he got into your house where he’s currently staying.”

He was obviously lying. Jack didn’t have to be a detective to tell that what Mercer had just told him was a blatant lie. Something else had happened between these two strangers and the guy named David. He was about to say something, but then he noticed Dregu frown as he looked past Jack at something behind his back. Jack glanced over his shoulder once more and saw a guy step onto the balcony of his treehouse. He leaned over the wooden railing and shouted, “Hey there. My name’s David.”

Jack heard Dregu curse under his breath, but he ignored him. He continued to stare at David who obviously was addressing him.

“I’m Jack,” he shouted back to David. “What is going on here?”

He needed to hear both sides of this story before taking sides.

“This is your house, right?” David asked. “Jack, I’m sorry for barging into it, but I had no choice. These two guys kept me captive for a few days. They tortured me. They made me eat various things so they could learn what was edible and what was not. I almost died because of that.” He raised one of his hands high in the air. “They broke all my fingers on my left hand when I tried to resist. But I escaped from them and took shelter in your house before they could’ve caught me.”

“I hear you,” Jack said back to David when he finished speaking, and then he turned his attention back to Mercer and Dregu.

The two of them no longer tried to pretend to be good guys. Well, Mercer no longer pretended to be who he wasn’t, and as for Dregu, he hadn’t tried to pretend to be a good person to begin with.

“Okay, I’m gonna level with you,” Mercer said, with a hard expression on his face. “What he just told you is the truth. But it has nothing to do with you. We have no beef with you, so just give us that asshole and we’ll be out of your hair. Like I said in the beginning, we don’t have to be enemies.”

But Jack knew that it was just another lie. He saw how Dregu looked at his treehouse. He really liked it, and it was totally understandable. What was not to like about it? It was huge, it was sturdy, and it was high above the ground. Mercer and Dregu wouldn’t mind taking this place from him to themselves. The only reason they hadn’t killed Jack yet was because they didn’t know how to get up to his treehouse. There seemingly was no way to call the elevator down, but they must’ve thought that Jack knew another way to get up. So they needed him alive for now. Or maybe they planned to take him hostage to torture him and test potential food on him like they’d done with David.

But it wasn’t the only reason Jack wasn’t going to obey. These two strangers were bullies, and there was one thing Jack knew about bullies. You can’t negotiate with them. You can only beat them to a pulp because that’s the only language they understand. At least, it was Jack’s point of view on the matter. He didn’t know how or when he’d come to such a conclusion, though. Probably it was his personal experience, but having no memories about his past life, it was hard to know for sure.

There wasn’t anything to discuss anymore. He had to fight them as there was no other way to settle this conflict. And he had to attack them first because it would give him a bit of an advantage over them. So Jack pretended to think about Mercer’s offer for a second. Then in one swift, fluid motion he drew his sword and swung it at the nearest opponent.