As Lances watched the flaps of the tent swing close behind Mia, his thoughts began to drift back to his memories. Whenever he thought of the girl named Gracie and the boy named Matt, his chest ached. The memories left Lance confused; he felt like they were not his, but at the same time, they felt so accurate, so how could they not be his?

The more he thought about it, the more it gave him a headache. Lance swung his legs off the side of his cot, resting his feet on bare mats that had been layered down to make a makeshift floor. Lance stared down towards the floor, his hands cupping his face. This all felt new to him. He didn't know why but everything felt strange to him like this world wasn't his home. His few memories felt new to him, but they at least felt normal. As Lance sat there, his mind racing through the situation he was in, he realized that the only thing he could do now was adapt to it and try to figure out how to get his memories back.

Lance stood up and looked down at his body, noticing that he wasn't wearing the clothes that he had been. Gone were the splendid khaki shorts and tea shirt; instead, he wore a cotton-like shirt and brown pants that were a bit itchy. Lance's face turned red as he realized someone had changed his clothes while he had been out. "Hope it wasn't Mia," He thought.

He walked towards the tent's entrance, ducking down to accommodate his unusual tall frame. The light coming from the outside was blindingly bright. Lance cupped his hand over his eyes as he adjusted to the light. People were moving around the camp, packing tents, cookware from over the campfires, and other necessities. About two dozen people worked around each other, carrying out the work.

Lance spotted a hulking figure standing just outside of the main camp area, scanning the surrounding area of the camp with an overly large war ax in hand. Lance recognized it as the bull-like person that had cut the crag's head off. Its hulking mass was something to behold; it was easily over nine feet tall, with muscles that looked sculpted with short brown hair covering the entire body. The top half looked like a minotaur, and the bottom half looked like the body of a roided-out bull. The latter had leather armor covering it with two smaller axes hanging in loops at the base of the top torso; the chest remained unarmored and bare.

As the beast scanned the camp, he spotted Lance's lanky figure coming out of the tent, "Haha, the boy lives," the beast shouted out in a deep jolly tone with a wide smile.

"Will you shut up, Harry? Not everyone and your mother need to know what you're thinking," said a man walking in front of Mia towards Lance.

The man was around six feet tall with striking pale white skin. He had short jet black hair cut into a crew cut and a short pointy goatee. But what stuck out was the man's black ram horns that curled alongside his head and the ram legs he walked with. But besides that, he looked like a handsome pale man in his mid-twenties.

"Well g'day mate, look who finally decided to wake up, the names Walt," said Walt as he stuck his hand out.

Lance reached out and shooked Walt's hand, noticing how calloused his hand was. "Lance, Nice to meet you, Walt," said Lance.

"So you mind telling me how you got way out the hell out here," asked Walt.

"To be honest, I couldn't tell you; the first memory I have was me waking up out here," said Lance.

"Hmm, was the grass around you burnt when you first woke?"

"Nope, it looked all the same as everything else out here," said Lance looking between Mia and Walt.

"Wander, maybe," said Mia looking at Walt.

"Best guest I got," said Walt.

"That would explain the clothes and him not remembering anything," said Mia

"Your right," Walt said, pausing and looking at Lance" well, welcome to the caravan Lance the Wanderer," Walt said, slapping Lance on the shoulder.

Lance grimaced a bit from the force of the slap. "Umm, if you don't mind me asking what a Wanderer is," asked Lance.

Walt Laughed "Sorry mate, you probably have a lot of questions. Well, a wanderer is someone that appears out of thin air and they don't remember who they are or where they came from. Many of them don't fair of the best as you can tell."

"Yeah, I imagine not everyone is lucky enough to get rescued like me, huh," said Lance.

"Yeah, most end up dying from some pretty gruesome deaths, from what I hear. But wanderers are pretty rare, so not much is known about them, so don't take our word for being definitive," said Walt.

"Well, shit, I guess that helps a bit," said Lance. "Is there any way to help me get my memories back?"

"I'm sure there's some spell out there to help you recover your memories," Walt said as he looked at Mia, that looked less sure than Walt sounded.

Lanced noticed the looked that Mia had on her face. "Anyway, what can I do to help out around here? Oh, and ah, do you guys have any shoes for me to wear," Lance asked while gesturing towards his bare feet.

"Oh, Mia gotcha covered on both of that, mate," Walt said, gesturing towards what she was holding.

Mia handed over a pare leather sandal-like shoes with a few adjuting belts to help them fit. "There not much the best we got around here for you," Mia said.

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"Thanks, anything is better than walking around barefoot," said Lance as he slipped the sandals on and adjusted the straps to fit.

While Lance fitted his new shoes, Mia went over to the tent and started to chant a spell, Lance watched her as she began to draw in the air and a neon orange trail formed a ritual glyph hovering in the air. As she finished the chant, she pushed it towards the tent. It implicitly started to put itself away. It was folding down until it was the size of a rolled-up sleeping bag.

Lanced stared at it in amazment. "Pretty cool, huh," asked Walt

"Yeah, the first time I've seen magic," admitted Lance

"Well, stick around with us, and you'll get to see plenty of more," said Walt, smiley like he was trying to show off his toothy grin. "Plus, not every team has a healer as good as ours."

"Team," Asked Lance

"Yeah, we're adventures; most of us form teams between three and six and take on assignments issued by the local adventure hall in whatever town we're staying in. The pay is pretty good, plus the local wenches love to fight over the famous ones," said Walt with a lecherous look showing through.

"You wish," said Mia shoving the tent bag into Walt's gut," some of us do it for the money and satisfaction of helping out those in need."

"Hey Walt, time to get moving," said Harry as he came totting up to the trio.

Lance looked around at the camp; it was packed up and loaded into the carts. "Good to see you up and kicking; I'm Harry, by the way, since these two forgot to introduce us," Harry said, looking at Walt.

"Hey, I never forget to introduce you," Walt said in defense

"Oh yeah, how can I forget the last time you introduced me to the village children," said Harry.

"Hey, that was the best laugh any of us had had in ages, mate,"

Lance towards Mia, "what happened last time."

Mia started to giggle like a child. "I introduced Harry here as a bloodthirsty monster out to eat all the children," Walt said before beginning to laugh.

"Watching them all running terrified of you was hilarious," said Mia.

"It wasn't that funny, you damn idiots; how is anyone supposed to take us seriously, let alone the kid here," said Garry

"So what assignment are you guys on now," asked Lance laughing a bit at the close friends messing with Harry.

"Just a basic caravan escort job," said Harry, cutting off Walt before he could answer.

"Is that why there's only the three of you guarding it," Asked Lance.

"Pretty much, the hall was low on adventurers, and they deemed this as a low-risk C rank job, so we got put on it, so far, it's been smooth sailing, but we still got a few more days before we hit the city," said Harry.

"Mate, what the hell," said Walt.

"What," asked Harry

"You just jinxed us," Walt said, shaking his head as he turned to make his way towards the front of the caravan that started its slog along the gravel road.

"Did not," said Harry

"Did too," Mia said as she started following behind Walt.

Harry turned towards Lance. "Two things to remember about satyrs, they are superstitious, and two, they like to bang everything that will let them,"

"Stopped filling the kid's head with your shit Harry," Shouted Walt.

Harry chuckled "it's true, and you know it, Walt," He shouted back as he started to take up the rear guards of the caravan.

"Well, you guys seem like a fun bunch to hang around," Lance said with a wry smile.

"Oh, you get used to it after a bit; maybe Walt will let you stick around after this job finishes. We've needed a porter for a while now; how about Lance? We'll even throw in personal lessons on adventuring," Harry said.

"Well, sounds like the best option to me, not like I could do much by myself," Lance said.

"What do you mean," asked Harry

"Oh yeah, they didn't tell you I'm a wanderer, don't have much of a memory before the other day," said Lance

"What really? Not only are you tall for a human, but you're a wanderer too; you're most definitely going to be our porter now; before you know it, we'll have you thickened up and ready for the academy,"

"What's the academy?"

"Oh, once your hit twenty, you'll be eligible to enter the academy if you can pass the assessment."

"How hard is the assessment," asked Lance

"Not very, just a fight exam and a mental one to ensure you're not a complete nut case. Also, how old are you, Lance," asked Harry

"Seventeen, I think."

"That gives us three years to get you ready that's more than enough time," said Harry with a hard pat on Lance's back and a big goofy grin.

Lance smiled as the infectious mood started to work on Lance.

...............................................................................................................................

"You hear that dumbass back there," asked Mia

"Yup looks like we got a trainee now," said Walt

As the caravan started to move, a trio of Men used spells to spy upon it. "Looks like we got a big catch today,"

"Sure does," said the second man as he licked his lips, "Let's go tell the boss and see how he wants to do it,"

The three men hopped on three giant grey beasts and rode off startlingly fast.