When we step out of that entrance, be ready.
“For what?”
For anything. We don’t know what lies above.
Isais grimaced. The walk up the few dozen steps had sapped him. He felt as if he hadn’t slept in weeks. Berserker’s level up had healed his body’s wounds, but it seemed Isais’ magic came from his soul. And that Berserker was unable to touch. If anything bigger than a roach came at him, he figured he’d probably die. Pasht, maybe even a roach would finish him off. Isais could lie on the floor and ask it politely to slice his throat or something. Just as long as it was quick. Right now, that seemed preferable to fighting.
With a great deal of effort, he took the last three steps and strode into a world of light. Immediately he threw up a hand to protect his face as his eyes, so used to the dark, strained at the glare that beat down on him. He stood there for some moments, waiting for his vision to adjust, but also just enjoying the warmth and the energy of the sun. He hadn’t realized just how wet and cold he was until he’d left that Pasht-forsaken sewer behind.
The air smelled crisper up here too. Cleaner, free of waste. Closing his eyes, he breathed it in deeply, swallowing breaths of the stuff. Somewhere in the distance he could hear the sounds of birds calling to one another.
You gonna stand there with your eyes closed all day? Fool.
Isais sighed. The peace of the world had just been shattered. Tentatively, he opened one eye, blinking away water as he slowly adjusted to the sun. After a few moments he did the same with the other eye.
“Sure don’t look like no sewer rat.”
Isais jumped. A woman, armed with a bow and clothes the colour of the forest, strode out from the treeline and approached him. Wrinkling her nose, she sniffed dramatically. “Smells like one though.”
She began to circle him, and Isais’ feet scrambled to keep up. “Who are ya?” she asked at last, poking him with the limb of her bow as she did so.
“I’m Isais. Who are you?” he replied, trying swipe at the woman’s bow that still prodded him in the ribs.
The woman raised a single eyebrow. “Man crawls out the sewer and wants to know who I am.”
She’s pretty.
“Be quiet!” Isais hissed.
The woman in front of him scowled. “I’m making the rules. Tell me to be quiet again I’ll stick an arrow up ya arse and fire you into the nearest manticore den.”
“No, I wasn’t talking to you. Sorry.”
The woman’s head spun, taking in the green clearing. The space either side of Isais was open and lined with fresh green grass. all except the north, which contained a thick forest of trees.
“There somebody else around here ya think ya talkin’ to?”
Isais shook his head. He was beginning to feel sick. “It’s complicated. Where am I?” he added, in as much an attempt to change the topic than actually find out where he was.
Another arched eyebrow. “Ya talkin’ to me now, or not?”
“I’m talking to you,” Isais confirmed.
I think she’s a guard.
“Of course she’s a guard!” Ah Pasht. Why did he have to talk out loud? He lowered his head and kicked at the grass in frustration.
“Who says I’m a guard?”
Ask her if she thinks you’re crazy.
Isais raised his head, tried to give his most charming smile. “Sorry, it’s hard to explain. You must think I’m crazy.” Another smile.
“My thinkings are beginning tuh lean tha’ way, aye.”
She has food. Look!
“I know that!” Isais snapped, eyeing the two rabbits that hung from her belt.
The woman scowled. “Then why’d you ask?”
“No, not the crazy thing. I mean I know that you have food.”
“Food? What in pure-possums are ya talkin’ ‘bout?” The woman shoved her face uncomfortably close to his, eyes peering into his own as if trying to see into his brain. “Ya a mighty strange one, ain’t ya? Still, if ya can answer ma questions I guess I can feed ya.”
Isais nodded,he was beginning to think her assessment of him being strange was worryingly accurate. “I can answer questions,” he said, still eyeing the two skinned rabbits.
“Right ya are then. Number one- what were ya doin’ in the sewer.”
Isais cursed himself silently. “Ah, well that I can’t answer.”
Forehead ruffled, she examined him with those unwavering black eyes. “I see. ‘An how long ‘av ya’ been down there?”
Isais held his arms out apologetically. “I’m not sure about that either actually.”
“How did ya get down there?”
Isais frowned.
“Lemme guess- ya don’t know.”
Isais confirmed the woman’s suspicions with a nod.
“Well, what are ya sure about then? Ya sure ya name is even Isais?”
“Of course my name is Isais,” he replied. But then, was he sure? The name had been given to him when he woke. Did that mean it was his real name? He began to feel dizzy.
“Well Mr Isais, Ya as mad as a Chickajed in a pea field, but ya look as if ya gonna crumple any second now. Sit here, I’ll be back fast as ya know it.”
Isais didn’t need to be asked twice. He more collapsed to the ground than he did sit. Watching as the strange woman disappeared into the treeline, he lay back, hooking his arm and using it to pillow his head.
If she doesn’t come back, you’ll have to get up again.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I don’t think I will. I think I’ll just die here,” Isais muttered, enjoying the feel of soft grass, still damp with morning dew beneath his body. Above him a creamy blue sky set the backdrop for slow moving clouds of pure white. It was quite the most beautiful thing Isais had ever seen. At least in the day or so that he had memories of.
He raised his head at the sound of crunching grass. The woman’s boots came into view as she returned, soft and almost knee high they appeared to me made of some sort of animal skin. Then Isais saw the rest of her slim legs, before the two rabbits at her waist- and then the rest of her.
He licked his lips.
“That better be for the rabbits and not me,” the woman warned as she tossed a bundle of loose sticks to the grass before crossing her legs and sitting down opposite him.
“It was for the rabbits,” Isais said sheepishly. He had no idea how she did it, but the woman had an uncanny way of making him feel uncomfortable. As if he was always on the back food and constantly sure he was saying the wrong thing. He put it down to his exhaustion.
“Know how tuh make uh fire?”
Isais hesitated. “I’m not sure.”
To his surprise, the woman laughed. It was a rich sound, pure and honest. “Well why does tha’ no surprise me?”
Isais watched as she expertly and quickly arranged the sticks into a pile before drawing a sharp hunting knife from her side. She began then to cut a groove into the largest of the sticks. Isais lened closer, engrossed in the slow, sweeping movements.
“What’s the dried grass for?” he asked, gesturing.
“Shut up and watch, sewer boy.”
And so he did. After she was finished with the largest stick, she sharpened the point of a second, smaller one. She then began to rub the sharpened end into the groove she had carved. To Isais’ amazement, the sticks began to smoke. Satisfied, the woodswoman then took the pile of grass and held it to the smoking wood, blowing on it softly.
Moments later they had fire.
Isais shook his head. “Very impressive.”
“Ach if you think tha’s impressive then ya very likely to die in these ‘ere woods. This is child’s play.”
Isais fell silent. He was beginning to realize the enormity of his situation. Lost and alone in a world inhabited by who knew what, with nothing but the ripped clothes on his back. However, his fears quickly disappeared like their campfire’s smoke on the wind, as the smell of roasting rabbit filled the air around them. Hunger, it seemed, was a sensation stronger even than fear.
Impaling the two rabbits on sharpened sticks, the woman placed them over the fire on their small spits. Fat dripped began to drip into the flames, making them fizzle and sputter as Isais’ stomach rebelled and lurched as if it attempted to lunge for the meat itself. His stomach bellowed then, the sound loud and embarrassing.
The woman chuckled. “Just a few moments longer.”
Those few moments seemed to go agonizingly slow for Isais as his hunger and the rich smell of meat threatened to unman him.
“Here.” The woman tossed him a rabbit, still on its stick. “Careful, it’ll be hot,” she warned.
Isais grabbed for the stick, blew once on the rabbit and then began to devour it. It burned his mouth and his stomach, but he didn’t care. Across the fire, the hunter woman watched it happen before shrugging quietly and reaching for her own rabbit.
They ate in silence, Isais finishing his meal far too quickly. To his immense gratitude the woman tossed him the rest of hers and he ate that too. Finally satisfied, he belched loudly and leaned back. Strength had returned to him and he felt better than he had in hours.
Roasted Rabbit
10% testosterone reboost
70% fatigue reduction
20% stamina replenishment.
Effects last for 8 hours.
Isais had been expecting something to flash before his eyes and so had been ready for it. He was pleased to not show a reaction to the image. Pasht knows he didn't need to give the woman any more reason to think he was crazy.
"Testoster-what?" He asked out loud.
Smooth.Idiot. But I have no idea.
"What was tha'?" The woman asked?
“I said it’s very peaceful here,” he commented.
She frowned. "Sure ya' did. Well, don’t let tha’ peace fool ya’. All sorts of critters and crawlers live in these woods.”
As if to confirm her words, a strange creature flew across Isais’ eyeline. He sat up to watch it. A grey ball of fur, no eyes, two holes for a nose and a mouth that took up most of its body…or was it just a head? Two leathery wings either side of its body/head allowed it to flap ungracefully through the air above them. What perhaps made it most strange of all, however, was the heavy silver chain that hung from its body like a necklace. Only it had no neck. Or even shoulders. The chain dangled and swayed as the creature flew, the added weight dragging it towards the ground.
Isais opened his mouth to say something, when an arrow flew through the air in front of him. It took the beast dead centre. There was a squeak and it tumbled to the floor where it lay, still and most certainly dead. Drawing her knife, the woman approached the thing and, satisfied it certainly was no longer alive, she used her knife to hook the chain from it. Returning, she tossed it to Isais, who fumbled the catch and instead had to pick it from the ground beside him.
He was right, it was a necklace. But that only made the situation all the stranger and more raised more questions.
“Take it,” the woman offered, gesturing at the necklace.
“You don’t want it?”
“I ‘av a much better one. Ach I know ya not gonna wanna wear such a thing, but it has a tiny bit o’ power to it and a man in ya sorry position needs all tha’ help he can get.”
Isais frowned but, on his helper’s advice, placed the necklace over his head. He felt an immediate tingling in his body and something flashed before his eyes:
Necklace of Impotent Skill
3% increase in charm when speaking to people who like shiny things
5% attack defense when attacks are aimed directly at this necklace.
Isais was sure the woman was laughing at him then. She waited as if expecting him to take the item off. “Thank you,” he said instead and smiled. Then, remembering where the necklace had come from, “What is— was— that thing?”
She returned his smile, though her eyes twinkled with what Isais was sure was mockery. “We call ‘em flitter-critters. On their own they’re harmless, but they usually hunt in packs. Can strip a cow to the bone in minutes. Ain’t pretty. They love shiny things though. Looks like tha’ one found himself a grand ol’ shiny thing.” She chuckled. “The weight most likely made it fall behind the rest o’ its pack, luckily for us.”
Someone approaches.
Isais frowned. “H—” he caught the word in his mouth and swallowed it before he could look even more foolish by further talking to himself. Holding his hand to his mouth, he quickly pretended to cough.
The look on the woman’s face told him she didn’t buy it at all, but fortunately he was saved from her questions by a new voice that called out.
“Ho the camp!”
Told you, Berserker said smugly.
Isais looked up.
“Ho there, Bylon!” The woman called back.
A tall man emerged from the treeline then. Armed and dressed in a very similar fashion to Isais’ companion. He made his way to the fire in long, confident strides and stood over them. “Good huntin’?” he asked in a deep voice.
“Aye. Found me a stray,”
It took Isais a moment to realize they were talking about him and he fidgeted uncomfortably.
“So ah see. Takin’ ‘im back tuh ta village?”
“Aye. If ya’ good tuh take over muh watch?”
“That ah am, sister. Safe travels.”
“Safe watch, brother.” The two gripped each other’s wrists then as if in some secret code before, the woman spun and beckoned Isais.
“Come Mr Isais. Muh village ain’t far and I ‘spect they’ll ‘av a few more questions for ya.”
Isais rose and grimaced. He had no wish to answer more troublesome questions that would only serve to remind him how little he knew. Still, with no better plan and the faint hope in his heart that someone in the village might know him, he followed the hunter woman. Coughing awkwardly, he fell in beside her. “So,” another cough. “I still don’t know what your name is.”
She looked at him with dark eyes that sparkled with dots of white with captured sunlight. Shiny black hair tied up loosely fell over pale skin. “My name is…”
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[https://i.imgur.com/BXI740E.png]
[https://i.imgur.com/jar20v0.png]
Note: You have unspent skill points.
[https://i.imgur.com/LMl53Yr.png]
[https://i.imgur.com/YT3uk8I.png]
Note: You have unspent skill points.
[https://i.imgur.com/QJzxpF2.jpg]
Ranger: ????