“Here, he said tossing some clothes and a towel my way, there's a well over there, go pull up some water and wash off. I’ll take care of your friend in the meantime.

“Thanks”, those were the only words I could muttle out, I still couldn’t get a read on him but my gamer senses were tingling, something about him doesn’t make sense, for some farmer he talk a little too…well more noble like

“Goddamn you blimey little fish fecking,needle dicked ball of unadulterated horror!, Bite me again and I’ll make ya regret it” he yelled out as the wolf bit him

Nevermind he’s just like any other person I’ve met so far after leaving the castle

“Needle dick”, I’ll make sure to remember that one I thought as I chuckled to myself.

I started cranking the lever attached to the well, “This is harder than look”, soon enough I saw the bucket of water approach from the darkness

I heaved it up, picked up a cloth and began to wash myself off. Now usually I would complain that it’s cold but after falling in that river I don’t think cold water would freeze me unless there was ice in it.

“The mud never ends”, no matter how much I washed the same area there was still mud left over.

After what felt like endless scrubbing I finally washed enough of the mud and grime to look sort’ve cleanish, I put on the clothes, which were easily a few sizes to large for me, oh the banes of being a twig.

“Arf, arf”, the little wolf walked up to me with finely done splint on his right leg

“Hey, your looking better”, I said petting him

“Luckily it was just a light sprain, nothing too serious. Listen we got a lot to talk about, now I know you’ve been through a lot these past few days so I’ll go prepare some food, it’ll give you a minute to decompress your thoughts so to speak”, he said heading back into the house rubbing his hand that the wolf recently bit

I still don’t know if I can trust him but it’s not like I got a choice either

I slumped down and looked to the sky, these past few days have been a living hell and I somehow survived them, still not sure how but I did.

The little wolf walked up and layed on my stomach, “guess I can’t keep calling you wolf either, how about Price?”

“GRRRR”, guess not

“Roach..nope…mmm”, ah I know

“Grimmel?”

“Woof woof” he said jumping in my lap

You have named the dire wolf Grimmel

He has now become your companion

Relationship:Associates

“Huh?, this place really is a game, amazes me every time I see it

I continued to pet him until Vance called me inside.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I took one step inside and could tell this wasn’t a normal house, weird devices were sprung all about, gears and cogs, tools the whole ensemble.

I walked up to the dinner table, chicken and potatoes, I just about cried seeing it

Vance was already seated and motioned me to sit down

I followed his instructions anxiously waiting for him to allow me to eat.

“Dig in kid, I can tell your hungry”, he said sighing

“Thank you!”, I wasted no time digging in

“You know, you really interest me, you see I’ve seen few people in my time but you are just an anomaly, I hate a problem I can’t solve, so you really are getting to”, he asked quizzically, I was to busy eating to notice him honestly

“So I was wondering maybe you are a noble, that’s plausible but your speech doesn’t fit it, plus that slave collar is working but you seem to be taking no effect by it and besides I can’t analyze you so that perplexed me even further so I looked towards recent events. Now the most recent one I could think of was the summoning of the heroes”. I stopped dead in my tracks at those words

“But I’m not done, that was 2 months ago, so you must have been through some interesting circumstances”, he looked up at me waiting for a response.

“Quite right there mister, so what now, gonna sell me, dissect or maybe turn me into some kingdom, I wouldn’t bother. I was a miss summon so you probably won’t get much”, we locked eyes. The tension was palpable

“Yawwwn”, Grimmel gave out a big stretch

In that second we both stood up, my hand went to my pocket to find my secret weapon but before I could reach in there I was met with a crossbow aimed straight at my forehead.

“One wrong move and I’ll be scraping off brains from my floor boards, I don’t care where ya from or what ya doing here, I just enjoy a good puzzle that’s all”, there was truth in his eye, only problem is I didn’t know what was truth and what wasn't

“Okay, I won’t try anything”, I said sitting down

“So how’d ya end up here miss summon”, he asked me

“A long, long story”, I said tiredly

“Well, it just so happens that I have a free schedule today, so let’s start shall we?”

What do I have to lose by telling him anything? I’ll get a full belly out of this and maybe Grimmel will help me in a fight if my back is against the wall.

“Okay, this great story starts one morning where my alarm went off at the correct time, oh I guess you don’t have those here, so an alarm is a….”, and so I began to retell my great story of how I ended up in this strange world

Many hours later

“Ha ah ha!”Vance bellowed laughter that echoed in my ears, “You threw sand from your pocket in his eyes, wait is that why you went for pocket earlier? You put sand in there!”, he said, wiping away his tears.

“How dare you make fun of pocket sand, It is a righteous weapon that has saved me from peril more times that I could count”, I argued back

“I made the right decision to save you kid. This has been a good dinner, I don’t trust ya in the slightest so you are gonna sleep in the barn out back”, he said pointing for the door

“I’ll bring out some blankets, It shouldn’t rain tonight either so you’ll be dry”, he added

“Okay, thanks Vance”, Finally a proper place to sleep, didn’t matter if it was a house or barn just a simple roof over my head would be amazing

I stood corrected, I stood in the middle of the barn, there were cows, sheep and…”That’s a 2 headed chicken!”, the demonic thing went into a flurry as I screamed that out

“Don’t scare the animals, you are a guest in their house, not the other way round, take note of it”, he said carrying the blankets

“Thanks, again for this”, beggars can’t be choosers

“Okay kid, I’m going to hit the fairy dust”, interesting saying, Vance said as he walked out the barn

I laid the blanket down, and sat down, where Grimmel jump onto me and snuggle right on my chest, “This brings back memories”, I really miss soap

Your bond with Grimmel has increased from associate to Friends

Grimmel would fight by your side if the time called for it

“Huh?,this means you trust me boy”, You know besides Ethan, I didn’t have many IRL or real life friends so Soap really helped me through some rough time’s back home, I hope he is eating well.

I slowly drifted off to sleep as Grimmel snored on top of me