Taylor Ellis woke up in a forest. There were a lot of things wrong with that. Firstly, Taylor didn’t remember falling asleep in a forest. Secondly, he was pretty sure that—*snap*. Taylor's head snapped in the direction of the noise. It was some animal. A fox? Didn’t matter. This didn’t look like any place he knew. He noticed that he was wearing a necklace. It was a green crystal pendant shaped like a moon. It wasn’t his. The clothes he was wearing however were his own and his hair was still slightly curly, going to his shoulders, a greyish-brown color. So, no transmigration, probably. That usually happened when you woke up in some strange place with flowers and stuff that could come straight from a fantasy novel. Totally normal. This was fine.

Taylor tried to stand but failed. He took a deep breath and tried again; this time it worked, but he felt unstable. He walked in no particular direction. It was slow, but after some time, he could make out voices. The language was strange—it wasn’t English, German, Latin, or Russian, but he could understand it. However, those were the only languages he spoke. He arrived at a weird place. It was a village, so far so good. It looked like an old German village, and the clothes were rather old-fashioned as well. The way the place looked felt familiar to Taylor, despite him never being there before. He felt like he stuck out with his clothes. Should he try to blend in? Was he going to stay long enough for this to matter? Taylor sighed.

Just the he noticed something. Someone had just made a fire. The problem was they used nothing instead they simply said, “Ignis Exardescit”. Well nothing aside from magic apparently. There was a small red circle before the fire started. It looked pretty. Ow. Pinching himself didn’t help Taylor. So, probably not a dream. What now? He should find out where he was. He went to someone—an old man.

“Hello, young man, can I help you?” the man asked kindly, though he looked at Taylor a bit strangely, confused by his appearance. Taylor didn’t speak at first, unsure if he could speak the language.

“Where am I?” The man looked a bit perplexed but seemed to understand what Taylor had said.

“This is Deep Hollow. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Thank you.” Taylor left. Deep Hollow was the name of a village in a novel called Hero’s Ascent. The place also looked exactly how it was described in the novel. 

That was normal. Totally something that happened. Taylor took a deep breath. Well, not like he could change anything now. He should find a quiet place to stay before the plot of the novel started. Taylor didn’t want to be a part of that mess. Suddenly, there were screams. Wow, screw you too, universe. Just when he was making plans to leave, seriously? The novel started with the village of the protagonist, Kira Hardt, being attacked. At this point, the protagonist didn’t have any experience with fighting, so he could do nothing but watch helplessly as everything he loved was destroyed. Though not for too long since he was knocked out.

As sad as that was, there was nothing Taylor could do. So, he moved to go back into the woods. Hopefully, he could make it far enough away. In the chaos, he got pushed around a lot. Was he really going to die after just waking up? What kind of bullshit was that? After a while, he managed to get to some half-destroyed house, but at least he wasn’t being pushed around anymore. Taylor took a deep breath, waiting for a few seconds before moving again. Just as he was about to look for a way out, he heard a cry from a small child directly behind him. It was a girl, probably around 14 years old. Before he could hesitate Taylor took her by the arm and pulled her toward the forest. Just as he did that, some crazy asshole threw dynamite at the place the girl had just been. The girl was crying. Taylor’s ears rang from all the chaos. His breath came too fast, but he ignored it.

He managed to get to the forest and hid in it with the girl. Did this count as kidnapping? If her family was alive, they would probably search for her. He looked to the girl and noticed she had red hair. Her eyes were also a reddish-brown color. Before he could doubt his actions, he took her further away from the battle. Though Taylor didn’t think you could call this a battle—it was more like a slaughter. After Taylor assumed they were a good distance away, he sat down. He was surprised it had been this easy to survive. That might be because the group's objective was simply to destroy everything. They didn’t really pay attention to the villagers; they were more focused on the chaos they caused. These disgusting assholes.

Taylor was brought out of his thoughts by the girl’s crying. She was breathing way too fast. Taylor was unsure what to do. How did you comfort someone after they had just witnessed their entire home and loved ones being blown to pieces? He awkwardly patted her on the head.

“My brother-” she cried. Taylor sighed, feeling a headache. He had a feeling he knew who this girl’s brother was.

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“Your brother is going to be okay.” The girl squinted at him, evaluating him.

“How are you so sure?” Not knowing how to answer, Taylor shrugged. He knew exactly who her brother was—otherwise, he wouldn’t have said anything. After all, giving someone false hope was cruel. Her breath was still too quick, but she was calming down.

“That’s not an answer.” If Taylor wasn’t wrong, he thought she was debating whether he was some overly optimistic person or just dumb. Taylor himself wouldn’t say he was very optimistic, so dumb it was, he supposed.

They stayed like that for about five more minutes before the girl got too anxious and wanted to leave.

“I have to find my brother!”

“If you go, you’ll die.” The girl flinched. It was harsh but true.

“But my brother might still be in the village.”

“Or he might have fled somewhere safe.” She pouted. Taylor didn’t like it when someone died, and he really didn’t need any blood on his hands, so he held her so that she couldn’t escape. The girl, not expecting the hug, froze at first, and Taylor felt bad, debating whether he shouldn’t have done that. After a second, though, she melted into his hug, crying even harder. Taylor thought he’d messed up but couldn’t let go for fear of the girl running to her death. So, he sighed, accepting that she would hate him—but at least she would be alive to do it. He just hoped her brother wouldn’t kill him. That would suck.

The girl, however, was surprised by this stranger’s kindness. After the noise stopped, the girl turned to Taylor.

“We should check on the people in the village!”

Taylor shook his head. “Let’s wait a bit longer to make sure they’re truly gone.”

The girl nodded her head. Taylor wondered if she wanted to stab him from how intense her gaze was. He didn’t know anything about her personality, but knowing her brother, he should be careful. After about five minutes, they left to check on the village. Taylor first looked from a safe distance to see if anyone was still there, but there was nothing. Then they entered the village. The girl immediately started checking every corner for her brother. On the other hand, Taylor went to a specific place. There, on the floor, hidden by a building, was a boy. He had red hair like the girl. Additionally, he happened to be the protagonist of the novel. Kira and his little sister, Mira. This was confirmed when the girl he saved ran to the boy and hugged him. The boy, the 18-year-old future hero, looked completely out of it. He had hit his head and passed out in the middle of the battle—the villains simply assumed he was dead. That was how he survived. The thing was, his sister, Mira, didn’t. At least she hadn’t in the novel. Taylor had changed the story. Shit.

Kira snapped out of his trance and started to frantically check his sister.

“Are you okay? Do you feel dizzy? Does anything hurt?”

She giggled with tears in her eyes.

“I’m okay. You aren’t hurt, are you?”

It was uncomfortable for Taylor. He felt like he was intruding. He turned around to leave when he was stopped by a hand grabbing him and dragging him to Kira.

“This person saved me. I was sure that I was going to die but he grabbed me and then hid with me in the forest.”

Kira nodded and then looked at Taylor. He felt even more uncomfortable under Kira’s searching gaze. If he could, he would leave. Without warning, Kira was in front of him, smiling like a 5-year-old on Christmas.

“Thank you so much! I don’t know what I would have done if anything happened to my sister.”

Not the reaction Taylor was expecting. He flinched away. Seeing this, Kira gave Taylor more room to breathe.

“It’s fine. Anyone would have done that. I should leave now. Goodbye.” He had already changed too much.

“NO!!” Two hands pulled Taylor back. Kira also looked upset over the fact that Taylor wanted to leave. What was happening?

“Are you hurt in any way?” Kira asked. “Just now, you flinched.”

‘That was because you surprised me,’ Taylor thought.

“I’m not hurt.”

“Well, can I check?”

“What?”

“I just want to make sure you’re truly okay. I also want to repay you for saving Mira!”

Mira suddenly jumped in. “Me too!”

Taylor shook his head. It was better to stay away from them. After all, Kira was going to be at the center of every conflict in the future. Taylor would die before he could even blink.

“No, thank you. You don’t need to repay me.”

Kira looked at Taylor with awe, while the other simply hoped to be left alone.

“Please, I want to.”

Mira nodded along to what her brother was saying. Taylor sighed. Kira needed to focus on defeating the main villain of the novel, not repaying some non-existent debt. Kira seemed to have realized something he looks at Taylor more intense.

“Are you new here? I don’t think I ever saw you before.” Fuck, Taylor wondered if Kira thought that he was in some way responsible for the attack. He was after all an outsider and the day he arrived so did the attack.

“I’m not from around here…” believable enough probably.

“Where are you from?” Kira looked really happy talking to Taylor especially considering what just happened.

“That doesn’t really matter. We should find a place to stay for the night.” All the houses in the village have suffered some kind of damage. In the novel Kira immediately left the village after finding his sister heavily injured. He goes to the next place, a small city called Valey, searching for a healer but Mira was dead before he even left Deep Hollow. In that moment he swore revenge on the people who were responsible for this. According to the novel Valey isn’t too far from here.

“Yes, we should probably leave especially if those people come back. There is a small city nearby where we can get a hotel.” Kira took a small pouch that is attached to his belt. “Most of our money luckily survived!”

Right while the thing looked small it could store a whole bookshelf. Magic truly is convenient.  But something was bugging Taylor. Why was Kira talking as if there were going on some journey together? Taylor got another headache. He sighs. Well since they both have the same destination for now and Taylor doesn’t know the way it wouldn’t hurt to travel together. After that Taylor will send them away.

“It’s getting late we should go. Or do you want to wait for another attack? If there is anything left that you want to take with you, you should do it now.” He hardly waits for an answer instead simply leaves. Kira and Mira looked at each other before they smiled and started following Taylor. Taylor feels fatigued but ignores it for now. ‘This was going to be a long way’ Taylor thought.