As they pushed further through the woods, the sky got darker. The sparrow Matthew had sent above the treeline dipped below the gaps in the treetops. Before it, a thin river unfurled, with white water crashing on the rocks. Recent rainfall had made the river swell, and its current was strong, but some bends remained relatively calm. The sparrow landed on a small oak by the banks, waiting for the core and the deer to make their way through the woods.

The sun was still in the sky when Matthew, the deer, and the second dungeon sparrow found the river bank. The first sparrow lept from the branch it was on, and landed on the deer’s antler, reuniting with the group. Matthew felt a large wave of relief course through him.

He had been trying to not entertain the thought of what would happen if they hadn’t found water. While he still wasn’t quite certain on how this world worked, he had taken plenty of survivalist courses on his own. Water was essential in every way. Not only could he feel the deer’s thirst, but pretty much all food sources stemmed from water. And water always meant people, which meant they were getting closer to where Matthew had seen the smoke.

How would people react when they saw them? Would he be able to communicate with them, maybe finally get an answer to all of his questions? He didn’t think the deer was trying to be particularly unhelpful, but there was definitely a language barrier between them.

That, and Matthew wasn’t sure that he wanted to spend the rest of his life connected to a deer.

There was a possibility that this world didn’t even contain people, too, but Matthew didn’t want to think about that. If there were people, there was hope. Hope that he could try and lead a somewhat normal life, find a way to forget about his family, or at least have some time to mourn them properly.

Matthew was adventurous, but adventure was only fun when you knew you had a safe place to come home to afterwards.

They approached the river, and the deer drank greedily from the rushing water. The water was clear and cool, splashing on the deer’s face as it drank. While the water didn’t have any healing properties, it quenched the deer’s thirst and gave them a little more energy.

As the deer drank, Matthew caught sight of a glint of silver beneath the surface. Curious, he continued to watch the rippling water and saw more silver forms hit the evening light. He coaxed the deer further into the water to get closer, and made out the outlines of several fish. Once he saw them, they were highlighted in blue.

Common Rudd: Lvl 9

Matthew wondered if he could catch one, hoping to get some more food before they rested. Standing against the current, he waited for a fish to begin swimming in place as the current tried to sweep it away. Then, he dug the deer’s antlers into the river, hoping to scoop up the fish along with it, or spear one at the end of his antlers.

The fish swam away as soon as he made contact with the water and the scrape of river rock against antler made both him and the deer cringe. He pulled the antlers from the water, took a couple steps back and tried to think this through.

If the sparrows had been larger, they would have been perfect for this. He imagined they would have no problem scooping up the fish and pulling them out of the water mid-flight. At the size they were, however, the only thing they’d be able to catch were minnows, at least currently...

His aim still wasn’t exact with the Burst Attack, but he wondered if he could strike one of the fish with a blast and kill it that way. He could only hope that the magic wasn’t strong enough to explode the fish or something, because that wouldn’t be a pleasant scene.

The light was getting dimmer as the sun began to set, but the deer had better vision than Matthew was used to, so he could still see rather well. Finally setting his eyes on a fish, he charged a Burst Attack and released it towards the fish. Water was flung into the air, falling back into the river with an almost hissing sound. As the current reformed around where the fish had been, the dead fish began making its way downstream. Matthew quickly waded through the water to grab it and bring it back to shore.

He was just going to leave it at that, but he saw another fish, this one looking slightly bigger despite being the same level. A little exhilarated from all the spell casting, Matthew sent another Burst Attack into the water. The fish died in a similar fashion, but when Matthew went to retrieve it, he saw that a fin had been blasted off.

It was good to know that he was capable of that, especially when he planned to follow the river in the morning. They had a consistent source of food and water, and as long as they didn’t stray too far from it, Matthew was confident that they could stay in the forest for as long as they wanted—not that he wanted to stay here forever. It brought a wonderful sense of calm to Matthew as he realised that he finally had a sense of control. Everything up to this point had been uncertain, and even if things could change now and throw him off his rhythm, they had something to fall back on.

The deer ate both of the fish raw, which made Matthew a little bit sick to his stomach, but their Vitality increased, which was good to see. He was reminded of the fishing trips he used to take when he was younger, where he learned how to catch, clean and cook fish, but he didn’t have the hands to do any of those things right now.

After the deer was finished, a blue pop-up appeared in front of him. A bar slowly filled up, as the number next to XP grew. It stopped at [800/1960] and the bar dissipated.

Man, this really was like a video game.

He wondered how high the levels could go. The leading wolf had been at level 22, and the deer was at 18, so clearly 20 wasn’t the highest. Was 100 a possible level? Was that even considered high? He had a couple of friends who had really been into RPGs, but he hadn’t paid enough attention to really know the standard levelling system. Besides, that was acting like everything here worked like a logical system.

Matthew and the sparrows looked for a good place to rest, and they eventually settled to a place by the sides of a river, nestled in between some tree roots. While the cover wasn’t perfect, the tree’s limbs and nearby bushes made Matthew feel safe enough to let the deer lay down to rest. As the deer curled up, the sparrows landed beside its chest, basking in the light of the core. Their feathers lit up, reflecting the light, before their whole bodies glowed. Then, they fell away, turning into a stream of magic that returned to the core in the deer's chest.

He could feel their energy faintly in the back of his mind, a reminder that he could summon and call upon them. They didn’t have voices or a presence quite like the deer, but Matthew could still sense them somewhat. He was sure it would become normal, or even encouraging with time, but he was struggling to get used to the feeling of something sharing his mind with him. The deer was weird enough.

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The deer fell asleep faster than Matthew had expected, but he supposed that was fair. The both of them had had an exhausting day, that felt a lot longer than it had been. He was still reeling from the fight with the wolves, even though they had already done so much more after that. Matthew still hadn't even recovered from the fact that he was here, in this world he didn't recognize. He was trying to not think about what had happened to get him here, and it was easy to push down his memories when there was so much going on around him.

Now, it was a little harder. The deer was asleep, the forest around him was as quiet as it could get. There was emptiness, stillness, and Matthew suddenly had all the time in the world to think and remember.

To remember the home he had lost. The family, the friends. He wondered if anyone was looking for him, but then supposed he had left his body with him when the angel had brought him here. Had they already had his funeral? Had the car they had swerved to avoid hitting seen the impact and stopped to call and get help? Or had someone else found them hours or even days after? The road they were on wasn’t one frequently travelled.

Matthew wondered how his family had reacted to the news, how they had speculated about what happened. It would be a family tragedy, told by many across decades of gatherings, conversations with friends, or even strangers.

All of their things and their house would have to be divided up. He spent some time wondering who had taken what home with them, or if they had just held an estate sale and sold it all, not wanting to deal with the pain of going through all their stuff. He hoped they had made some decent money off of it.

Who would find Alice’s birthday present, purchased months in advance, already wrapped, labelled and hidden in their attic? He hoped his niece would be the one to get it, she and Alice had always had similar tastes.

Jesus, Matthew thought, this just got depressing.

He needed to stop thinking about all of this. He needed to sleep, to finally get some rest. At this point, if he didn’t crash he might not be able to function. If the deer was going to keep fighting him when it came to decisions, he wasn’t going to be the one in that matchup who was weak from sleep-deprivation.

It had been a while since he had truly slept. Being on the road wasn't all that great for sleeping, and he had taken up most of the driving, wanting Alyssa to get her rest. He had been in need of some himself before the accident, he had felt his mind drifting, his eyes not wanting to stay open.

And then they crashed, and that sure woke him up.

Or put him to eternal rest, he supposed. Could you even sleep if you were dead?

Even here, in this brand new world, Matthew hadn't slept yet. He wasn't quite sure how long he had been the core, how long he had spent as a shard in a cave. The only thing he was certain of was that it was his second night with the deer. Everything before that was an uncertain blur, where none of his memories felt quite right.

If he was a part of the cave, which is what it really had felt like, maybe he hadn’t even been able to sleep. Caves didn’t really sleep because they never were really awake. They were just there, a standing presence.

He tried to listen to the running of the river, the soft and constant trickling of water and let it slow his mind down. Matthew was exhausted. Not physically, he wasn't even sure he could tire physically seeing as the shard wasn't really able to move or do much of anything that wasn't magic. But mentally exhausted.

He missed his kids. He missed his wife. He missed a time when he actually felt like he understood the world, where he knew how to play the game of life and reach some kind of success. Matthew had forgotten what it was like to be so unfamiliar with the world around him. He wasn't even sure if he had ever been this unfamiliar with his surroundings.

He tried to tell himself that it didn't matter. That he was stuck here anyway, with a mutated deer and weird sparrows that appeared when he summoned them. This was his life, and like his former one, he had to learn how to live it, how to play whatever game this world had in store for him.

But he wanted his former life back. He didn't want to forget it. He didn't want to stop being angry.

If there was any way to go back, any way to get some kind of vengeance for what happened to his family, what happened to him, he wasn't going to find it by forgetting everything.

The river trickled on. Matthew's mind still wouldn't stop.

I just want to rest, goddammit, he mentally groaned.

The only upside to all of this was the deer's vitality, slowly climbing in the back of Matthew's awareness. It was a good sight to see. The deer was covered in all sorts of injuries, and Matthew was worried if they kept going on like that, the deer would collapse or they'd be found and finished off by a predator. Matthew didn't know what would happen to him if the deer died, but he didn't think it would be anything good.

Even though the wounds were healing, they were healing strangely. Matthew did his best to brush it off as a weird magic thing, but the wounds were scaring over black, and in the darkness, they glowed with a slight blue and red sheen. It reminded him of the black veins that bulged whenever they casted magic.

He had spent a lot of time being upset that the deer was attached to him, but he hadn’t thought about what was happening to the deer. He didn’t know what normal was in this place, but he was disturbed by the possibility that somehow he was affecting the deer and causing it to change in weird, unnatural ways. The black blood had looked sickly, not like some kind of cool magic thing.

Matthew was thinking about the angel when he heard a noise. Leaves rustled in the forest near them. For a moment, Matthew wanted to blame it on some nocturnal woodland creature, like a possum or a raccoon. But after a couple of seconds, an uneasy feeling welled in his gut, and he nudged the deer mentally.

There was no response. The deer was deep in sleep, not noticing the train of fast and scattered thoughts in their shared mental space.

Another rustle, and what Matthew thought sounded like a voice.

Wake up, wake up, wake up! Matthew tried taking control of the deer's body, but it was slow to respond to him. He managed to move the deer slightly, but he wasn't going to be able to do anything unless the creature actually woke up.

What could be near them? He didn’t want to think about what weird creatures could live in this world, what could be stalking out at night, but he did know one thing: nighttime was never safe. Whatever was lurking out there had to be a predator of some sort, nocturnal herbivores didn’t really exist. And they were mostly rested, but Matthew still wasn’t confident they could handle a fight. And he really, really didn’t want to deal with wolves again.

There's something out there, Matthew told it. We have to get up! Matthew thought he could feel the deer starting to wake, but it wasn't fast enough.

Danger, Danger, Danger, he flooded their shared mental space. The deer communicated to him through emotions, so he'd do the same. He filled all the deer's thoughts with 'danger' and in an instant, the deer bolted up.

It wobbled a little, unsure of its legs, and then looked around frantically for what Matthew was warning it about.

There was a whistle through the air, and Matthew heard something thud against the wood of the tree they were sleeping under. He turned to look at what had almost hit their left ear, and saw the white-feathered shaft of an arrow.

Matthew didn't even have to tell the deer to run, it was already bolting through the woods.

Behind them, four figures broke through the darkness, revealing themselves in front of the bushes they had been hiding in. One, holding the bow he had presumably used to fire the arrow, paused for a moment before calling out to the others.

There was a response, and though Matthew could hear it perfectly despite the blood pounding in his ears, he couldn't understand it. All he was able to pick up on was the excitement in their voice.

The figures began to follow behind, running through the woods and the brush as Matthew urged the deer to go faster.

The hunt was on.