I slowly woke up with Abby next to me, She does not bother me. Funk, on the other hand, he freaked me out, being a talking insect and all, I poked him, “Can you please let me out?”

He sighed, “Fine,” he crawled out of the tree and I followed him, we both looked at a beautiful dawn.

Abby seemed to stay asleep, I looked at Funk, “Look about yesterday, you won fair and square, but, I think that the dark energy that I used is not my main element, did I say that right?”

Funk looked at me, “Thanks for accepting defeat, and you are saying, you claim to have dual elements?”

“Yes, I think so, this dark energy just, flew out of me when I got angry at you.”

Funk walked closer to me, “Then show me what other element you have.”

“Okay, give me a second.”

I focused on another element, it seemed to be there, just like I felt my dark energy. Thus, I tried to force it out of my body.

Funk grabbed my shoulder, “Stop!”

I looked at him, “What?”

“Whatever you are trying to do, your nose is bleeding heavily, and even your ears are starting to bleed as well, He grabbed some leaves and made them wet, here, let me help you.”

“Okay?”

He cleaned me up while letting out a deep sigh, “Whatever you have in there, it would rather not come out. You should not force it. If you do, it might kill you.”

“Wait for real?”

“Yes, whatever is going inside of you, it is locked, Maybe sealed is a better term. How you can seal somebody’s life force is a mystery to me, you should stick to dark energy, you are even having trouble using that.”

Abby yawned, and she slowly walked over to us while stretching. “Did I miss something?”

Funk nodded, “Steve almost killed himself.”

“I did not.”

“Oh, you did.”

Abby looked at me, “What did you do?”

I crossed my arms, “I just tried to use another element than my dark element, but it is sealed for some reason.”

Abby ignored me and adjusted her robe of leaves, “I can’t wait until I have a normal dress again.”

I laughed, “I cannot wait until I have clothes at all!”

Funk drew his sword, “Be on guard.”

An egg dropped from the sky, Funk spawned his dark blade, Abby seemed to focus and looked at Funk’s dark blade, She made a silver crossbow appear, along with silver arrows.

She smiled while speaking up, “Awesome, I can spawn weapons!”

When I tried it, nothing happened, I drew my steel sword, My shadow seemed to be looking at me. It scared me, and I yelled at it, “Stop looking at me.”

Both Funk and Abby looked at me, I quickly said something to throw them off. “Oh, sorry, just, nothing.”

Abby stared at me, “Who is looking at you?”

A massive crack saved me as the egg started to open. “No time to talk, we have to kill, whatever comes out of there.”

A huge Canadian goose started crawling out of the egg, it was at least five times bigger compared to us. That was not even the worst part. This goose has a knife in his beak. I chuckled, “Hey, Abby?”

“Yes?”

“Peace was never an option.” She burst out in laughter.

Funk looked at us, “I don’t know what you guys are laughing about, but that boss is about to kick our ass.”

I sighed, “It's a goose, let’s call it Harry.”

Abby smiled, “Can we keep it?”

Funk hung his head, “Why did I get stuck with these idiots?” Funk looked at me while he seemed to be thinking, “You are going to distract Harry, just block its blows, or dodge. Abby, you need to aim for the eyes with your crossbow, if you miss, don’t stress, We have no decent items with us like healing herbs or anything else, so avoid getting any major injuries if possible.”

I looked at Funk, “What will you do?”

He smiled, “I will do my part, now go, Harry seems to be angry.”

I ran towards Harry, and he slashed his knife down, I jumped aside, then it dawned upon me, I was actually fighting a giant goose with a knife. As the knife came towards me again, I raised my sword and tried to infuse it with dark energy, it worked, barely, the knife hit my sword and I actually got pushed into the ground by the weight. That is when I saw bolts fly towards Harry, one of them hit just under his right eye.

Abby called out, “Sorry, I am still getting used to how a magic crossbow works!”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Harry, however, did mind, and as he ran towards Abby, I almost got crushed by those giant webbed feet. Funk started blasting dark energy bolts at Harry, as I ran towards Harry, smaller eggs dropped in front of me, three of them, and of course, smaller geese came out with knifes, these were my size.

While the geese came for me, I let out a deep sigh, alright, keep an eye on your footing. Do not look down, and try not to get parried, by geese.

I infused my sword with dark energy, I seemed to be getting the hang of how that works. The first goose arrived and swung his knife at me, I blocked the incoming blow and pushed away it’s knife, then I slid forward and raised my sword. The goose got ripped apart. However, the second goose jumped on me, I quickly lifted my sword to stop the knife from getting rammed into my chest. As I struggled to get the goose off my chest, the other goose jumped on my chest as well.

After sliding, I should have gotten up faster. Suddenly, I saw a bolt fly through the sky and hit the second goose, right in his brain, he fell to the ground, it died instantly. Then a dark energy bolt hit the third one, I slowly got up and crawled to the third goose and stabbed my sword through its brain. I felt the earth shake, Harry came my way, He had a bolt in his eye, it bled, but Harry was not down for the count.

As the giant knife came at me, I rolled aside. Abby ran towards me, and she threw her crossbow into the air and spawned a silver sword. As the knife came down again, she lifted her sword and stopped the incoming blow. “Thanks, Abby,”

she grunted while straining herself, “Just, help me.” I got up and looked at Funk, I put my hands together as I let my sword fall. He nodded and ran towards me, he jumped on my hands and I boosted him up, Funk did a front flip and landed on top of Harry’s head.

I looked at Abby, she nodded. I jumped on her shoulders, using them to boost myself up, I almost fell, but Funk grabbed my hand and pulled me up, Funk handed me his normal sword, he spawned two dark swords. We thrust our swords downwards, into Harry’s brain. He started shaking, and blood spurted out of his wound like a geyser. Funk and I held on as Harry slowly tumbled to the ground.

Both of us rolled over the ground. Funk got up and looked at me, “Are you okay, Steve?”

“Just some minor injuries,” then I called out towards Abby, “How are you holding up, Abby?”

She called back, “I think I strained my wrists.” Harry suddenly moved and slammed Abby aside.

I ran towards Harry and picked up my sword. With a strong jab, I pushed the sword in his eye before he raised his head again.

Funk put his hands next to his side, he let out a long sigh, “Watch out, Steve!”

Then Funk called out, “Here comes some dark energy!”

He started shooting spikes of dark magic at Harry, most of them hit Harry, blood spurted out where he got hit. Funk fell down on one knee. It seemed he exerted himself by using that attack. Harry fell down with a loud thud and let out one last spasm as more blood streamed out of him.

I ran over to Abby, she had landed in a bush. “Hey, how are you doing?” She had blood all over her left leg, I stretched my hand and helped her up.

She sighed, “You know, that double tap thing might not be so bad after all. Harry surprised me there. I am fine, just my leg hurts, You look injured, Steve.”

“These are just some minor cuts, It will help if I get some armor, first, we need to get to Brickton.”

Abby nodded, Funk slowly walked over and spoke up, “Harry is dead for real, how are you, Abby?”

“I am fine, thanks, Funk. Why did you not use your wings to fly?”

He smiled, “Those things? They are mostly decorations anyway. This whole body is just ugly and a decoration. Sorry, I am oversharing, we should loot Harry, clean up camp. And continue our journey.”

We had walked over to Harry, Funk looked at me, “Go ahead, loot him.”

“Thanks, Funk.” When I looted Harry, I found some goose meat, along with some coins. Something dawned upon me. Alice said, magical beings can use energy, Humans have no capabilities for magic, I looked at Abby. She has magic, Something is up with her, she is clearly not human, But wait a minute, if she is not human because she can use energy. And I can use energy, then I am not human either.

But, two non-humans, meeting each other in a reality full of humans. That is no coincidence. Is fate fucking with me? Who can give me the answers that I seek? Does Abby even know, or did she not realize this yet? There must be bigger forces at play here, maybe Alice has some answers, if we can ever find her, which is becoming more and more unlikely.