Pieces of Sonder

A few silver coins dropped in place of the squirrel.

“You should take them,” Freya said to K13. She sat down on the ground and took her shaman bag out of her inventory. Rummaging through it with one hand, she pulled out pain killers and a disinfectant.

The half-armored man shook his head. In a quiet voice, he said, “We should split it.”

He counted the pieces of silver and handed four to Freya.

“Thanks, you really earned all of them though,” Freya said. “I’m not- I’m not sure I would have lasted much longer.”

Shaking, Freya poured the disinfectant on her wound. Searing pain shot through her arm. Her Self Healing still had another two minutes of cooldown. Clamping her mouth shut to make sure the nausea didn’t make her lose her breakfast, she closed her eyes and waited. 

Shitty squirrel. Stupid me. It was a level lower than me. I should have been able to deal with it, Freya thought to herself.

Bile rose up her throat. To distract herself, she turned her attention to K13.

He stood a few meters away, his helmet slightly tilted her direction. An orange and brown flannel poked out from his bronze chest plate armor. He had no armor on below his belt. Freya assumed he hadn’t had the chance to equip fully when he dashed in to help. A heavy-looking helmet covered most of his face. When he looked down, it was difficult to see his eyes.

It was tough to imagine this man’s music entranced her just a day ago.

“I heard you playing yesterday,” Freya confessed. “It was really beautiful.”

K13 looked even more sharply down. Very quietly he said, “You think so?”

“Yes, I’ve never heard music like it.”

He shuffled his feet. 

Freya rested her head back against a tree. Now that the fight was over, her pain kept increasing. Radiating from her missing flesh, the burning pain from her open nerve endings made her head swim. The pain throbbed with each frantic heartbeat. She took slow deep breaths. Her matted hair stuck to her sweaty forehead. Finally, she saw the cooldown timer disappear. 

“Self Healing,” Freya said aloud and watched her wound.

Tissue began to form. An itchy prickling sensation spread. As more muscle reformed, her arm began to respond again. In the end, only half of her muscle regrew under a thin layer of red skin. It wasn’t completely healed, but Freya felt much better. Her narrowed vision returned to normal, and her heartbeat stopped beating out of her chest.

She stood up and dusted herself off. I should level that skill up more. That would have taken months of healing. No, perhaps worse than that. I might have thought of amputating if I couldn’t get a wizard to help.

Dismissing the thought, she turned to K13 who was still standing awkwardly a few meters away.

“Thank you again for your help. Further that way seems to be a practice field. I’m going to head back to the main road.”

Freya retraced her steps, heading towards the slight opening in the trees indicating the main trail. K13 hesitantly followed after her. 

“Have- have you seen a loneswell?” K13 asked.

Freya turned around. That was the loudest she had heard him speak so far.

“A loneswell?”

“It’s a bird. Black. With a red mark,” he explained, returning back to his quiet voice.

She cocked her head to the side, “No, I don’t think I’ve seen one. I’ve never heard of them. Are they related to the game?”

K13 touched his helmet, “Yes?”

Perhaps that’s a weird thing to ask, Freya thought. Everything here relates to the game to them.

“Why are you looking for it?”

Looking at the ground, his armor clinked as he shifted, “For a quest. I need to record its song.”

“I see,” said Freya. “That’s right, do you have a team you’re with? My party is actually looking for a tank right now. Maybe Heilong—one of my teammates, can help you find a loneswell. She’s a marksman and is good at tracking things.”

He shook his head.

“I’m not in a team. I’m- I’m not really interested in joining one...”

“Oh, are you a solo player?” Freya asked, remembering the term Infamous Biscuit used before.

K13 nodded. 

“That’s too bad. You seem pretty good,” Freya said, genuinely disappointed. If they wanted to do any higher level dungeons, they needed to find a tank. She continued to walk towards the road.

She called back to K13, “Still, I can help you look for a loneswell, I owe you.”

“Thank you. But it may be difficult to find.”

They reached the main road. Freya made a mental note of the surroundings, so she didn’t accidentally wander into the practice field again. 

Now on even ground, Freya noticed K13 was close to her height. He took off his helmet and began to unstrap his armor. He looked younger than Freya first thought.

“There may be only one loneswell left,” K13 said, speaking quietly. “They are also very reclusive.”

“How big are they? Are they like hawks or small songbirds?”

“I think like a sparrow.”

Freya looked around at the vast woods, “Do you know of anything that will attract them?”

“Um, I heard they like chestnuts.”

“So chestnut groves would be good to search- oh no,” Freya remembered where she had just seen a large chestnut grove. 

“What?” K13 asked.

“The practice field where that squirrel came from was full of chestnut trees. The squirrel was called ‘greater chestnut squirrel.’ Seems like a big coincidence.”

K13 scratched his head, “That’s a problem. But if the loneswell is in the practice field...”

“I would like a rematch,” Freya said, clenching her fist. “But I don’t think I’m ready right now.”

Her arm was still severely damaged. The pain was negligible, but she couldn’t properly throw a punch. Her HP bar was almost full, but her injury hadn’t fully recovered. As she understood it, her health points only told how far away she was from death, not necessarily the status of her body. Right now her Self Healing skill mostly raised her HP and could only perform minor physical repairs. She’d need more rounds of healing to get her arm fully back. 

K13 took a long case and a stone out of his inventory. He set both on the ground and open the case to reveal a red violin.

“Maybe this distance will be enough,” he said. “Loneswells will respond to music. Maybe it will still hear and respond without being in the practice field.”

Nestling the violin against his neck and shoulder, he quickly played his bow across each string and adjusted the pegs. Then he began playing in earnest. Beautiful but eerie at the same time, a shiver crawled down Freya’s back. His fingers danced over the strings, and she felt herself move along with each stroke of his bow.

After several minutes he stopped, “Doesn’t seem like there will be a response.”

Freya shook herself a little to snap back, “Maybe you’ll have to clear the practice field and then play.”

Beep!

[Infamous Biscuit: We found a wizard to make the enchantment, and he just completed the order!]

[Infamous Biscuit: Are you free to meet now?]

Freya looked at K13, “Are you sure you don’t want to work with a team? At least temporarily?”