Ikrass hated this system damned place. He didn’t like the village or the villagers. Who the fuck lived in a place where the night blinked with bright lights every few minutes? He had barely managed to sleep more than one hour, and only because he had been too exhausted to wake up at the end. He looked at his two teammates, Ulvana and Jeri, as they woke up. It looked like they had as shitty a night as himself.

On one hand they were lucky to have escaped that system-damned hole, but on the other he feared for his five friends that they had left behind. Which made the wait all the worse as they went to consult an [Elder] or [Sage] or whatever it was. Didn’t they understand the urgency of the situation? Apparently not. It didn’t help that he was not only worried, but tired as well. He hadn’t noticed it when they arrived yesterday, but the sky in this strange place blinked even in the day, only it was barely noticeable. He couldn’t wait to get out of here and back to a normal world.

Their rather normal dungeon dive hadn’t ended up like he had thought at all. The truth was that he had no idea where they were in the clusterfuck these people called their home. They had been in a known dungeon on the edge, working their way deeper when they had come across a portal. They had been cautious at first, but it seemed it was always on and they had tried to scout the other side just a bit at first. After a week they had started doing longer expeditions on the other side. It had seemed like no one had been there in a long time and it had gotten their hopes up for treasures and artifacts.

But then a horde of deformed horrors had forced them to run away and pushed them away from known rooms and explored paths. Not only had they found their way to the surface, they even had to jump to another piece of floating land in their desperation to survive. But to their horror, the new piece of land hadn’t been better. There had been a lot of monsters on it too, something they hadn’t noticed at first. They had found an ancient facility deep in the earth after they had found refuge in a cave, or one of its walls to be more exact. Still, their supplies had started to get low and they had needed to scout the surroundings to find something to eat. Anything really.

Only their friends they had left behind had almost been overrun with monsters in their absence, and they had collapsed the entrance to save themselves and the resulting monsters had gone after the three of them instead. They had risked their lives jumping from there to here. Now, the piece of land their friends were on was not even visible anymore on the horizon. A [Guide] or whatever their strange class was had told them not to worry about it and that they had marked the piece of land. It would be easy to go back now, supposedly.

He sure hoped so as they got up and stretched. He almost wanted to go back now, but without any help he knew it was hopeless. There had been at least a hundred of the monsters. He knew they shouldn’t have explored beyond that damn gate. It had to be connected to another Piece altogether. It was the only way to explain why they had suddenly found themselves so deep in this strange land.

They had been lucky to find a village of these savages. It was strange to see them live in their huts with no technology in sight. They clearly disliked them and he didn’t mind. He didn’t like them either. He knew it was a cultural shock or whatever, but it was just strange to see people in animal skins, barely resembling clothing walking around with prehistoric weapons. He had seen a few decent weapons, probably artifacts they had found. It was clear they didn’t have much metal lying around, the most common weapon was a spear.

He cleaned his face to wake up, there would be no shower today, he had lost their only water-crystal in their mad run. So like a local, he just washed using a small basin of water. It would have to do for now.

Walking out, he spotted his two friends sitting on a log and talking. He sat down opposite them on a stone as he joined the conversation.

“I still don’t understand how you slept so much last night.” Ulvana told Jeri.

“Honestly I was too exhausted. What I don’t understand is how any of these people sleep through the night.” Jeri frowned as he sat there.

“I even heard one of them snore this morning. Like, how?” He scoffed, clearly not amused that the locals could handle the visual torture all night. Ikrass looked around at the small village. They were so few. Maybe a total of a hundred people, with maybe twenty to thirty who could actually fight. How did they even survive here? He tuned out his companions as they continued to complain, they were all antsy like him. On edge.

It didn’t feel right to leave their friends trapped for so long, but it seemed they didn’t have a choice right now. The locals left them completely alone, at least the adults. Some kids were spying on them curiously. One of them was rather close and he had an idea.

“Hey kid, come here.” He told him. The kid hesitated, looked back at his friends and then came out from behind the tree. He had pointy ears, a half-elf?

“How come you live here?” He asked the kid as he gestured to everything around them.

“What do you mean mister?” The kid asked him, confused. Mister, he hadn’t heard that in a while. At least they were polite.

“I mean why here. Why not somewhere where the light doesn’t blink and wake you up all the time.” He clarified. The kid thought for a moment before answering, like trying to remember what someone told him before giving up.

“Why not?” He asked in the end. Annoying kid.

“We are a rather new village.” An adult said as she came to shoo the child away gently.

“The light is annoying for visitors, but it is also a form of protection. Beasts and monsters do not like it either.” The half-beast woman explained.

“I bet they don’t.” Jeri almost spat, clearly disgusted.

“New villages are hard to maintain. Expansion in this place is slow and… dangerous, as I’m sure you all know.” She responded politely. She nodded her head in a sort of small bow and turned to leave. The kids scattered and ran away as she walked away.

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He just hoped this guy they had sent would be back soon so they at least knew what the next step was. If worse came to worst, was it better to try and get their friends and most likely die? Or stay here for the rest of his days? No. They would all rather die trying to get out of here rather than settle in this strange land.

The day slowly crawled forwards. Time felt slow as they waited, not doing anything but feeling tired and on edge. It was the worst kind of mix and they all hated it. The ambient light that seemed to kind of come from the sky was slowly dimming when they noticed a commotion in the village. Ikrass spotted the guys they had sent away the day before coming back. There was an additional figure with them. He looked like a rather ordinary elf, if old. Their eyes met and it felt like the elf saw right through him, like he knew exactly what he was thinking about.

The wait was over at last.

Not missing a beat, the group walked towards them and they all stood up naturally. It felt wrong to sit down somehow. The old elf looked at them one by one with a gentle smile.

“I take it you are the travelers unlucky enough to end up in Nightblink?” He asked them.

“Master Ilyz…” One of the warriors behind him gently admonished him.

“Sorry dear. I just know how annoying the flashes of lights are for outsiders. Only you and yours are immune to them, but for the rest of us? It is not pleasant.” He explained gently and the warrior nodded back, conceding the point.

“I take it you all barely slept.” The elf called Ilyz said and they all nodded miserably. He regarded them for a moment before he opened his mouth again.

“I will see if I can remedy your sleepless nights tonight and we can all talk tomorrow morning on what to do.” He told them.

“You cannot be serious. Time is of the essence here. I’m not sure we can wait until tomorrow.” Ikrass said and looked at his friends who nodded. The old elf turned to look at them. He stared at them silently for a bit.

“You are in no condition to think straight or rationally right now, and even less to save your friends. You all need a good night's sleep in any case.” He told them an Ikrass opened his mouth to argue with the elf but couldn’t find a good argument to make his case. The elf waited for a bit but as nothing came he turned to leave.

“Wait.” Jeri asked him.

“Is there nothing we can do now?” He continued and turned to his two friends. Ilyz stopped, turned and looked at them with a gentle but sad smile.

“You could do nothing when it happened. Is that correct?” And they nodded somberly at that.

“So what makes you think you would do better right now? If we were to leave I’d argue we would have to leave you behind. You are all sleep deprived and I wouldn’t trust you to have my friends' backs. Do you disagree?” He said and it was… hard to hear for them, but in the end they agreed. When he put it like that, there wasn’t much more to say or do.

They defeatedly filed into their cursed hut, resigned to wait. Ikrass didn’t know how the old elf would help them sleep through the night but he could soon hear him chant gently outside. Was he going to put them to sleep with a lullaby? They could feel magic slowly drape itself over their common hut as the night slowly made its presence known with blinks of light attacking their retinas. They could still hear him chanting outside as they sat on their beds. How were they supposed to sleep when their friends were out there? Worse, how were they supposed to get a good night’s rest with the blinking?

As suddenly as the calming voice of the elf stopped, they all noticed something. There were no more flashes of lights. It felt so strange after more than a day in this place. They all laughed as they noticed the blinking had stopped! It had been torture beyond belief for Ikrass and he almost cried. He was so tired and on edge, and desperate too. But maybe it would be okay.

They all laid down and found sleep in the next moments as their heads hit their not so comfy pillows. It really didn’t matter right now.

—

Ikrass woke up and couldn’t believe how much better he felt. He woke up the other two, cleaned his face in a basin of water and walked outside. To his surprise, Ilyz was already waiting on the log they usually used. He half bowed his head in respect and thanks to this old elf, thankful for a full night of rest.

“Thank you master Ilyz.” He said respectfully.

“Don’t mention it.” The old geezer waved it aside.

“How old are you, if I may ask?” He said, curious.

“Old enough to know we have better things to discuss, no?” The elf smiled at him. He gave him the nice grandpa vibe. Ikrass suspected he was old old. He knew elves had long lives, very long lives in fact. He wondered how old they had to be for their hair to turn gray. He was brought out of his thoughts as his friends both walked out of the hut.

“Let us not waste any more time then.” Ilyz clasped his hands as he gestured for them to sit down. They did as they all turned serious.

“Tell me how you came here and what happened.” The elf asked and all three of them looked at each other before they somehow ended up looking at Ikrass. He hesitated, unsure of how to start.

“How much do you know of the… outside?” He prodded the old man.

“I am aware of your planet Dust and your spaceships young man, no need to spare any details.” The mysterious grandpa told him and he couldn’t help but stop and wonder how he knew so much. Probably previous travelers, right? Anyways, now wasn’t the time.

He started by telling him why they were even here and everything that had happened. The dungeon with a portal, the horde pushing them out, the cave they had found, and their last escape here. Only once he was done did Ilyz ask a question.

“What is in that cave exactly? Do you know, or are you guessing?” He asked and Ikrass thought about it for a moment.

“Well, we didn’t venture deeper. But we saw text on a wall, it was written ‘Hangar’ with an arrow. Of course we couldn’t follow as we would have to dig out that way but the cave went deeper in another direction that might lead inside the facility.” Ikrass explained.

“So you do not know if there are any working spaceships at all.”

“No.” Ikrass answered and the old elf pondered his words for a bit. Then he slowly stood up as he looked at them.

“I take it you are all ready to go?” It took them by surprise and they hurried to take all their gear from their hut as they followed master Ilyz to the village where a group of warriors were already waiting. They were at least ten, and Ikrass couldn’t help but ask the obvious.

“Will this be enough?” He looked around and one of the warriors laughed at him.

“We are not here to help, only to keep master Ilyz safe. He will be enough to save your friends.” The warrior smirked at him. They all filed after the old elf to the edge of this Piece where master Ilyz himself summoned a portal for them. Ikrass saw that familiar orange-red grass they had fled from, no monsters in sight yet, but he knew the lurking spiders were sure to be close by.

“Let us hope we are not too late.” Ilyz said as he went through the portal, and they all followed suit.