Jay [https://i.imgur.com/pcx7Y9B.png]

A man runs, trailed by a band of soldiers not far behind. Less than an hour ago they were all brothers in arms, part of the Royal Regannian Regular Army. That was until he landed himself on the other side of the law due to some minor disagreements in morality.

“Ah merde!”

Jay curses to himself as he bolts around a corner into an alleyway. He moves quickly despite still wearing the full set of chainmail issued to all members of the Royal Regannian Regular Army. Why must these people be so set in their ways? They will never be able to achieve true justice like this! Why will they not just listen to me!? As he starts to turn into the next alley he sees his pursuers rounding the last corner just in time to see what direction he’s heading before he disappears into the next alley.

“He went left, hurry!”

The soldier in front yells to his team as they give chase in an orderly fashion, careful not to make a mess of the city that they’re running through. But they enter an area with smaller buildings and shorter alleys. Shorter even than the gap between them and the fugitive. They eventually lose sight of their target after chasing him through these tight alleyways. 

“Split up and search the area, he can't have made it very far yet!”

Jay hears the soldier call out but he doesn’t stop to look back. He needs to put some distance between them while he has the chance. Turning corner after corner, he does his best to shake off his pursuers. Once he’s satisfied with how much distance he’s made, he slows down so as not to draw attention to himself. Until now he’s been somewhat conspicuous running around in a manner quite unbefitting of a professional soldier for the Holy Regannian Queendom.

Having shaken his former comrades from his trail, Jay starts to make his way Southwest to the edge of the city. He has to leave the country unless he wants to live the rest of his life as a fugitive. But that’s not an option for him. He has far too much that he wants to… That he has to achieve, and he can’t do any of it while on the run from the law. 

Thus in order to continue pursuing his dreams, he resolves to defect to the neighbouring Kingdom of Terland. Luckily the city of Sharleston is the Westernmost part of Regannia, serving as their first line of defence to their neighbour. All that separates it from the Terlish town of Tonton is a small mountain range and a river running through the valley.

He knows he can’t follow the main path as the guards at the checkpoint will surely have been told to keep an eye out for him by now. With that option ruled out, the only real choice remaining is to make his way out into the fields and follow the river to Tonton. So with that decision made, he prepares to embark on his arduous journey by stocking up on some supplies for the road. He hasn't got much on himself right now due to this recent mess, but he should have enough to get the essentials. 

While technically the city neighbours Tonton, there is still quite a journey ahead of him. It would only be a day's trip away if the path wasn't so treacherous. After all, the gap is only there because neither side has been able to effectively set up defences in it. If the land were more hospitable then it would have been claimed by one of them long ago.

Now that things have calmed down for the moment, purchasing supplies is going fairly smoothly. As long as he remains careful to steer clear from any guards patrolling the area, Jay is free to shop around like he would any other day. He even gets to receive the special treatment he often sees as a soldier for one last time.

But with that done he finally makes his way out of his home city, perhaps never to return again. He lets out a melancholic sigh as he finally steps out from Sharleston. He briefly stops and looks back, thinking about all of the memories and friends that he has made there throughout the years. But he steels himself and turns back away from the city, determined to do what he must to pursue his ideals. If they will not accept my aid in upholding justice then I will simply have to take it elsewhere. They will rue the decision to force me out when they see what I will achieve in Terland.

Jay [https://i.imgur.com/pcx7Y9B.png]

The journey has been going by relatively smoothly so far, much to Jay’s relief. Who would have thought that it would be so quiet in this ever so significant strip of land. Throughout the ages countless important battles have taken place all along it, and tensions still seem so high all around. Perhaps that tension scares everyone away from it, and perhaps the monsters are disinterested in it simply due to the lack of people to prey on. Whatever the cause, Jay is just thankful that it makes his trek easier. He should be getting closer to Tonton soon, and the river has been narrowing to the point where he can almost cross it.

As he continues along the river, Jay finds a shallower spot that he may be able to ford. It looks like it gets only about as deep as he is tall or perhaps slightly more, and it’s a mere hundred and fifty feet wide. The crossing would be easier if he could just swim across, but he’s carrying far too much for that to be possible. His armour alone would be enough to cause him to sink to the bottom like a stone. And he can’t just let all of his rations and gear get soaked even if he could. The river may still get shallower further down the path, but he’d like to cross it before he starts running into civilisation. After all, it would be best to keep his armour dry and he doesn’t want to risk running into trouble without it.

So Jay sets down his pack and begins to take off his armour. Disrobing out in the open like this leaves him uncomfortable even if he still has his undergarments. No amount of checking the horizon for company is enough to shake his feeling of unease though. It doesn’t help that when he was in the army they drilled into him the idea that a soldier’s gear is his lifeline.

After what felt like an eternity, Jay finally finishes removing his armour and packing it into his bag with everything else he wants to keep dry. He then heaves it over his head and starts walking into the river to get this over with as soon as possible. He walks with a wide stance to steady himself against the flow of the stream. It isn’t so strong that he can’t resist it, but if he isn’t careful then he could easily get washed away.

About a third of the way in the water starts rising up to his head. If it’s only for about fifty feet then Jay reckons that he should be able to make it through in one breath. He takes a few more steps forward before the water gets too high to continue. He breathes in, then out, then sucks in as much air as he can before he closes his eyes and dips his head into the water…

“Hubububuh?!”

Only to spit it all out in shock at what he sees when he opens his eyes. After the bubbles finish streaming up from his mouth he blinks a few times and squints to get a better look at what lies ahead of him. It seems he wasn’t mistaken. It’s still a bit hard to see, but it looks unmistakably like someone or something is lounging around casually at the bottom of the river. And as their eyes meet the mystery figure starts moving. At that, Jay quickly turns around hurrying back the way he came. He thrusts his head back out of the water and gasps for air.

“NOPE NOPE NOPE! What on earth did I just run into?!”

Jay screams while scrambling back to shore as quickly as he can manage. Only once he’s out of the water and back on steady footing does he stop to take a breath and regain his composure. As he turns around he sees the figure slowly rise up out of the water, as if for dramatic effect. 

In the process Jay gets a better look at the mystery figure. They appear to be a young woman with pale blue skin sporting various rough red marks, wearing some kind of swimsuit fashioned from seashells. She has long white hair that seems singed at the tips, perhaps hinting that the red marks on her body could be burns. As she raises her head and turns to him, he gets a better look at the same eyes with red irises that peered into him from the deep.

“Greetings traveller, what brings you to the domain of the Great Sage of the River?”

She asks in a deep and eerie voice while studying him with her eyes.

“I-”

Jay starts nervously before quickly regaining his composure and continuing.

“-Was just passing through on my way to Tonton. I did not mean to intrude upon your domain.”

He tries his best to hide his Regannian accent given how he may appear to locals dressed as he is… Or was. He suddenly remembers that his armour is packed away and that he’s only wearing his underwear, which also happens to be dripping wet. He stiffens up in embarrassment as he snaps back to focus on the conversation at hand. The Great Sage let out a bit of a chuckle at his response, making him all the more embarrassed.

“Oh, and where is this Tonton you speak of?”

A look of confusion appears on Jay’s face at that response, despite his best efforts to avoid showing it. Is she messing with me? How could she not know where Tonton is when she lives so close? I was certain that I had been travelling in the correct direction. Was I somehow mistaken?

“Pardon the question, but are we not currently at the foot of Mount Redview?”

The Great Sage raises an eyebrow at that question, before opening her mouth to respond.

“I don’t see how that’s relevant to the matter at hand.”

Jay begins to grow a little frustrated at how nothing is making sense to him from this situation.

“Well unless I am mistaken then Tonton should be not too far away in that direction.”

Jay points Northwest in the direction that Tonton should be if he is where he thinks he is. None of this makes any sense. Unless…

“Is that so? In that case…”

The Great Sage disappears beneath the water again. Jay stands still in anticipation for a while. But when she doesn’t return for a full minute, he decides that he may as well take the opportunity to start getting dressed. He dries himself off with a rag and gets halfway through putting on his pants before she abruptly returns.

“I’ll be coming with you.”

Jay freezes in place, one leg in his pants, clearly shaken by this sudden development. She cannot be serious right now. This cannot be happening, whatever this even is. He slowly turns around to see her now standing ashore wearing a completely different, but equally drenched, outfit. Perhaps more so given that she’s now wearing a red lab coat with black accents, a matching short skirt and boots, a black shirt and stockings. All of which are completely soaked, but also a bit tattered. Perhaps not quite tattered as it doesn’t look very old, but rather that there are rough holes all over the place. Despite looking fairly new, the clothes have clearly been through a lot in their life.

“Well? Hurry up and get dressed why don’t you?”

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She crosses her arms and starts tapping her foot impatiently. Jay briefly considers protesting, but decides that he would rather take this chance to finish getting dressed as soon as possible. Wait…

“Actually we will need to cross the river first.”

“Oh, so that’s what you were doing.”

“Would you happen to be able to help me with that?”

“No.”

“I see… Well then.”

Jay sighs and takes his leg back out of his pants, puts them into his bag and heads back into the river. The Great Sage walks ahead of him as if on dry land, completely unphased by the flow of the stream and the water rising to her head. Unable to quite make sense of how he got here, Jay resigns himself to just continue along on his journey for now and figure things out on the way.

Jay [https://i.imgur.com/pcx7Y9B.png]

Ever since running into the Great Sage and crossing the river, things have gotten awkwardly quiet for Jay. Well it was quiet before when he was on his own, but now he can feel the silence. On the other hand the Great Sage doesn’t seem fazed at all by their present situation, just smiling away despite still being soaking wet from the river. I suppose that makes sense given that she is used to living in water. But what is she even doing here?

“Pray tell, what brings you to Tonton? Why do you leave your river?”

Jay decides to both break the silence and attempt to get some answers in one fell stroke.

“Why not?”

The Great Sage replies, shrugging. Well that was enlightening…

“May I ask what you plan to do when we get there?”

The Great Sage appears to ponder the question for just a moment before answering.

“No.”

Great, back to awkward silence then. The two of them continue walking along until something catches the eye of the Great Sage. She stops and stares past the foliage on the side of the path. Oh finally, something to distract me from the silence. I would take almost anything at this point. 

Jay follows her gaze down into the shrubs to find someone wandering towards seemingly nowhere. A shorter man, some kind of dwarf by the looks of it. He’s wearing a full set of chainmail and carries a large axe on his back, so he’s clearly prepared for a fight. His armour is a much darker grey than Jay’s set which is almost silver in comparison. Jay had removed the Regannian army emblem from his suit, but he is pretty sure that he still stands out around here wearing the armour of a Regannian soldier. Seeing how different the dwarf’s armour looks just goes to cement that thought for him.

It doesn’t look like the dwarf has noticed them though, and the Great Sage just resumes walking so Jay simply watches him as they continue. He seems to make turns at random, and eventually makes one that leads him to cross paths with them. At which point he finally notices them.

“Hello there travellers.”

“Hi!”

The Great Sage cheerily responds, in a completely different manner and with a much higher pitched voice than when Jay first met her.

“Ah greetings. What brings you here on this fine day?”

Jay asks, attempting to engage with the dwarf. Normally Jay would want nothing to do with a stranger interacting with him out of the blue like this, but at this point he’s thrilled to have anyone else to talk with and ease the mood.

“These days I just wander around going wherever life takes me.”

“Is that so? I take it you have had your fair share of interesting adventures then?”

“Oh my yes, I have built up plenty of stories throughout the years.”

“We’re heading to Tonton, care to come share some on the way with us?”

Please do not leave me alone with this one, I cannot take any more of this by myself.

“Sure, why not. I’ve got nothing better to do.”

Thank the Goddess. The Great Sage also smiles cheerily at the response.

“My name is Jay M’anjék Rayolah, and this is…”

Jay turns to the Great Sage who just smiles and gestures, seemingly suggesting that he introduce her. So he reluctantly continues.

“The Great Sage of the River. I recently had the… pleasure… of meeting her in the river not far down the road to the East.”

For some reason the Great Sage giggles a bit at that introduction, which annoys Jay even further.

“The Great Sage of the River? I’ve never heard of such a thing being there.”

“Oh don’t you worry about what this silly guy says, he loves to kid around. He’s just sayin’ that because I’m super smart. I’m Zyanya Patli, nice to meet ya!”

Jay starts to turn red from a mixture of anger and embarrassment. What? Has she been… This whole time? I swear!

“You-”

“What about yourself, what’s your name?”

Zyanya interjects before Jay could finish.

“Why of course, I am known as Dinjarin the Wanderer. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Jay suddenly loses the energy to continue this conversation, so he leaves Dinjarin and Zyanya to talk among themselves as he starts walking in the opposite direction.

“Hey, Tonton is this way silly! You can’t get away that easily.”

Jay sighs defeatedly and slumps over as he rejoins the group on their journey to Tonton.

Jay [https://i.imgur.com/pcx7Y9B.png]

“And then I cleaved all of their grimy heads clean off in one mighty swing like HAAH!”

Dinjarin swings his axe through the air with a crazed look on his face.

Jay has mostly been trying to stay out of the conversation as Dinjarin recounts some of his stories to Zyanya, but regardless he manages to catch some snippets which make him all the more concerned about the man they just picked up. Whoever he is, he seems to love recounting stories of his exploits with excessive gory and gruesome details. None of the details that he’s shared are too bad but his attitude makes Jay suspect that he must be holding back far worse stories. So now Jay is keeping his distance not just to stay out of the conversation, but also out of wariness towards this new character.

Jay almost runs into Dinjarin as the two ahead unexpectedly came to a stop while his focus was elsewhere. He looks up and spots a goblin and some figure cloaked in dark red talking to each other on the side of the road ahead. At the same time, the goblin seems to notice the party approaching them.

“MEEAAT!”

The goblin screams as it charges towards them.

“Come at me vile monsters!”

Dinjarin calls as he grabs the greataxe from his back and runs out to meet the goblin.

“Well if you insist.”

The cloaked figure responds calmly as they reach their hand out towards Dinjarin. Zyanya stays where she is, arms crossed and simply watches Dinjarin go. Jay considers entering the fray with him, but then realises that this could be his chance to rid himself of these two if they get overwhelmed, so he too decides to stay put.

The cloaked figure blasts Dinjarin with a bolt of fire, singeing his side and giving him a slight pause before continuing forwards. The goblin runs up to meet Dinjarin and strikes him with its scimitar. Dinjarin clearly feels it but pushes through the pain and brings his axe down onto the goblin, cleaving it in two with a single strike.

“RAAH!”

Dinjarin yells, although his breath is growing ragged and he looks quite the worse for wear after taking those two attacks.

“Um, I was talking to him.”

The cloaked figure sounds only slightly annoyed as they blast Dinjarin a second time. This time Dinjarin manages to block the blast just in time using his shield. Lucky for him because it looks like he wouldn’t be able to take another hit in his current state.

“Either of you two want to help me kill this… Whatever it is?”

Dinjarin asks, starting to look slightly nervous about his prospects in taking on this fight all alone. Zyanya just sends him a grin and a thumbs up for encouragement while Jay takes a closer look, trying to identify the cloaked figure.

Jay’s eyes grow slightly wide at what he sees. Beneath the cloak he sees the glint of a full set of scale mail covering the body of the figure. But that isn’t what shocks him the most. Rather, it is the red face glistening at him from under the hood, unlike that of any humanoid race he’s familiar with. It’s almost as if…

Dinjarin raises his axe once more and lumbers towards the cloaked figure. He brings his axe down, but the figure pulls out a small shield from behind their cloak and parries the strike. Dinjarin’s axe swings harmlessly into the ground with significant force, blowing the hood back from the head of the cloaked figure in the process.

“Hey, what was that for?”

Says the cloaked figure, their face now visible without the obstruction of the hood. A face which is… Translucent. Almost like…

“An ooze?”

Jay says in shock as the cloaked figure reaches out and grabs Dinjarin. Red ooze pours out from its sleeves and wraps itself around him, holding him securely in place.

“Why yes that is correct. By the way, would any of you happen to know why this man is currently acting so violent?”

The humanoid ooze asks while holding Dinjarin in place as he struggles within its grip. Zyanya just gives a slightly exasperated shrug in response.

“Well you did shoot fire at him… Twice…”

Jay offers his response with a sigh.

“You all heard him specifically ask for it though, didn’t you? I thought that it would have been rude not to oblige such a simple request. That doesn’t explain what could have possibly made him angry enough to become this violent though.”

The ooze says with a confused look on its face. Jay lets out a pained sigh. I am starting to think that this day is somehow going to be even worse than the day I was chased out of my own home.

“Unhand me at once monster!”

Dinjarin screams as he struggles in place.

“Alright Din, calm down alright? You’ll let him go if he calms down won’t ya?”

Zyanya says, stepping in to defuse the situation much to Jay’s surprise.

“Hey, what? I object to that! Besides, oozes very clearly fall under the banner of monsters!”

Dinjarin says, obviously not getting any calmer.

“Perhaps, but when have you ever heard of an ooze that can talk, let alone one with a humanoid form?”

Jay decides to also join in defusing the situation. He’s seen plenty enough action for one day already.

“Oh come on, it’s not that strange. Just about everyone else in my village can talk too, although usually not in your language seeing as how we don’t really get many visitors.”

The ooze retorts before it sighs and begins to let go of Dinjarin, its gooey tendrils retreating back into its sleeves. Dinjarin shivers and shakes some remaining slimy residue off of himself once he finally escapes the clutches of the strange ooze.

“Hrmph, I don’t see how a bit of backtalk changes anything!”

Dinjarin harrumphs and glares at the ooze with malice before he spots something on its wrist.

“Hey, is that what you used to shoot those flames at me? Where in the hells did you find such a contraption?”

Dinjarin asks as he points at the device on the ooze’s wrist.

“Oh this little thing? Why I made it myself of course. Same as my armour. I haven’t really been able to do much trade around here you know? See, the flames build up in this chamber here then I just have to point and release them. Simple right?”

Dinjarin’s eyes go wide as he admires the craftsmanship of the contraption while the ooze explains how it works.

“Hey, that’s cheating! You’re supposed to use magic to shoot fire like this!”

Zyanya exclaims as she raises both her hands and begins to bathe the corpse of the slain goblin in her own magical fire, far outshining the mere motes that the ooze had been able to shoot. She then crosses her arms and begins pouting at the supposed injustice before her.

“Actually I’d say that being able to just make flames out of nothing using magic is the real cheat here.”

Dinjarin comments and shakes his head in disapproval.

“Yeah that’s pretty impressive, I don’t think I can manage anything quite like that.”

The ooze responds and Zyanya begins to smirk, seemingly satisfied at having sufficiently shown off her skills.

“Hrmph, ya better learn to respect the name Zyanya then!”

“Hmm, sure. I am Djel by the way, nice to meet you!”

“Hey Jay, I like this one! Can we keep him?”

Zyanya asks with a twinkle in her eyes and a giant smile on her face. Jay just sighs and plants his face into his palms, accepting the reality that he is unable to escape from.

“As if I have any control over that.”