Stray Elf: Lost in the System

This is a bonus Chapter!

We sat around the campfires with our stomachs practically in our mouths when Yokgu came back from his daily rampaging. Kueyo, or whatever, seemed like an eternity’s walk away and he’s been at it for several days now. For an orc, I likened his roaring and moaning to a child throwing a tantrum. It was not like I would tell him that, a part of me was terrified of every man in this unit. Silmil had her brother, but I had no one still. Even if no one really wanted to bother me. Yokgu did not try to mess with me ever since I arrived here or try things with me, but I was not so sure I could trust him even though us Tusks had to trust each other. His way of messing with me was again, quite childish compared to what I could think of what goes on between opposite sexes in militaries. Was it because he was an Orc and I was an Elf? I didn’t want to know. I trusted him to stay at a spear’s length away from me.

That’s how I would have put it originally, but the situation was getting worse. The orc arrived unusually happy this time, with fists full of dirt. No, I cringed. It wasn’t dirt in his hands, it was bugs! I took back that I trusted this man— he was crazy if he thought I would.

“Hey, Light Voice,” he laughed. “Got grub for us. A special. You in?”

“You just want me to be your test subject,” I grumbled. The men were gathering a little too closely for my liking and my turn to patrol was next. Yokgu howled as the bugs in his fists twitched and squirmed their way between his fingers. “What Circle of Hell did you scoop those out of?”

“My ass!” Yokgu hollered. The laughing continued, but luckily that cloaked my stomach growling. If I was to keep these guys from messing with me in or during my sleep I might as well be as crazy as possible. What if demons like crazy?

I snatched his hand and ripped several bugs from his fist maintaining eye contact. This level two elf isn’t— ugh— afraid of bugs. I loathed them. A red one, a blue one, and several green ones played their disgusting choruses as they wiggled on my hand. Breakfast twitches, lunch buzzes, and the dinner ones screech. Instantly, Yokgu fell dead silent.

“Y-You,” he hesitated. “You ain’t gonna eat those for real, right?”

The bugs were not what I was used to, lacking six legs and wings. Instead, they looked like tiny men with stumpy pairs of arms and legs. How odd, if I cared about that I would have set them free. Well. Down the hatch, little man. I scrunched up the red one into a little roll and slammed it down my mouth quickly before my mind could tell me to stop. I heard gasps, popping louder with the crackling fire as I crunched into the bug. I swallowed it down, without much of a fuss.

“W-Well?” Yokgu asked me.

I stuck a finger up and told him to wait. The blue one was next. It had a fat head, but I was not even sure that was its head. Down you go, too. The taste was a blend of dirt and leaves, but I figured bugs were high in protein right? Before I knew it, my tongue and mouth felt only my sweaty palms. I had eaten all of them without even noticing. I gulped the last one down.

“They taste alright, I guess,” I shrugged and scooped the rest of the bugs out of his hands. Yokgu was too shocked to speak.

“All hail the Bug-eater!” The men cheered.

Pretty soon, I was sure we would all be eating bugs since the damn supplies ran out a few days ago. They were free, and Yokgu had a knack for finding the green ones so I couldn’t complain. I could eat them all day as long as I didn’t look at them. The nickname wouldn’t stick very long, so I took my spear after chowing down the bugs and departed for my patrol route.

I was scared during my first couple of rounds, but now I used the patrols to slack off. Even if something large was stalking these woods, I did not care. Take me out of my misery, I’d say. There was a particular spot I could sit at for hours without anyone noticing I was lazing about there. The moons made it easy to tell the time and since it was the Green one, I blended in quite nicely with the rest of the woods. As I sat down on a fallen log, it occurred to me that other soldiers probably used this same spot to hide at as well. Oh well, I plopped a blue bug in my mouth. Such was the world of low level employees like us. We don’t get paid enough to do our jobs properly.

Something crashed in the distance, shaking me awake. An attack? I fumbled in the dark for my spear. I scanned the place. Bobbing lights glinted through the branches. Ah, a search party. I stood up properly, hoping that they wouldn’t notice I’ve been here the whole time. Those trees shaking like that, pulling apart meant that someone probably was deserting or on the run. How foolish, I sighed. I doubt humans would let a demon live with them and that Dark God’s Generals in charge of them probably didn’t treat runners well if they caught them. Something shifted in the branches near me. Why did they pick me to run to? I groaned. Now I have to lie.

“Psst! Bug-eater!” Someone whispered at me from behind the bushes. “Fancy a spot for me, eh?”

“Tch, is this some kind of prank the Orc’s got you in?” I sighed at the bush. A bunch of leaves parted and a black Pestilence imp peeked out at me. What the hell is he doing here? I folded my arms and stared at him. “What’s in it for me?”

“D-Don’t do me like that, Bug-eater!” He pleaded. “L-Look, I’m sorry for callin’ ya Bug-eater. Nameless just got too much syllables for this ol’ tongue!”

“That’s—“ I counted my fingers. “Two syllables. Even less than Bug-eater.”

“You know what I mean, Nameless,” he sighed. The torches were getting closer, sending the imp into a panic. “I’ll make it up for you if you spot me. An imp special, eh? Eh?”

It was too late for me to respond. The demons attached to the torches caught up to me. The bush’s leaves closed and I was forced to improvise. The group of the soldiers closed on me, staring at me. I yawned.

“Nameless?” The important looking one out of the group barked at me. He was one of the Knight’s guys.

“W-Why so bright, man?” I grumbled, accidentally dropping my spear. Shit. The soldier stared at me in annoyance. “No one’s attacking anything here, sir. Not on my watch.”

I awkwardly picked up my spear and saluted.

“What?” The man gave an exasperated sigh. “We’re searching for one of you Tusks. On the run, by the Ack’Sa.”

“On the run?” I groggily asked. “Ain’t no one’s on the run here, sir. Not on my watch.”

The torches bobbed up and down, making me shield my eyes. It felt like someone was doing a sobriety check on me, as if I was pulled over. Vastil’s soldier clearly had enough of me, but it was evident that he did not notice the imp in the bush.

“Keep an eye open, Nameless,” he poked my chest plate. “He can’t be too far from here, but we’re wasting time. Go on, lads!”

The soldiers all filed through the woods, leaving me all alone again. A snickering came from the bush, making me sigh. I sat back down on my resting log and soon the ugly Pestilence imp emerged from the bush.

“Your acting’s pretty good, mate,” he chuckled. “You’d fool an Arcadian with it.”

“Very funny,” I groaned. I didn’t mean to appear so incompetent, but it worked. I didn’t even know what an Arcadian was. We sat in silence for a moment, but I interrupted him before he could speak. “Look, man. I don’t really care for the reasoning of why you’re in trouble with those guys, but keep me out of it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the imp frowned. At least I thought it was a frown. Was that apprehension in his voice? Were imps capable of feeling anything like that? “Just tryin’ to catch my breath, you know? You know what, I should go.”

He stood up to go, but I yanked his shoulder.

“What about this so-called reward?” I couldn’t say “imp special” without feeling awkward.

“Oo, right, right,” He turned. I held my hips and looked at him with a stern glare. Was I getting scammed? “Hells, you’s a stickler. Palm please.”

Now I’m definitely getting scammed, but I held my palm in front of him. The imp was half my height, but he gripped it with a stinky hand and hovered his other over it. Magic? From a Pestilence creature, this was bad. A sharp burning pain suddenly carved itself on my palm as his hands glowed, but I did my best to not scream in pain. Instead, I kept my voice steady as the imp murmured his chant.

“Ow,” I said monotonously after he let my palm go. The imp’s face looked disappointed. “What?”

“Aw, you’s none fun! Normally they scream and they cry after my magics hit ‘em,” he gave a nervous chuckle, but looked over his shoulder before continuing. He pointed at the strange carving on my hand. “This here’s a Rune. Yeah, that’s right. A Rune. That’s my magics, what those bozos are after. One use. Got it?”

“Got it,” I guessed. He didn’t seem to understand that I did not know a single thing about magic. “How do I use it?”

“Oh, right,” the imp closed his eyes. He held his hand up to his forehead. “Do this and recite, ‘Come as you are.’ It’ll shatter and make that bug scraping hand of yours all pretty again, mate. I’m off! See ya!”

“Huh, see you,” I said quietly as I inspected the odd Rune on my hand. The imp scurried away, leaving me alone on the log. The marking was black as a burn charring, scarring the skin with an esoteric pentagram. Colbalt glittering lights dotted within the inky darkness, making me realize someone above was watching me through it. It was like a tattoo, except with magical starlight glowing within the pools of black. I clicked my tongue. “Tch. I forgot to ask him what reciting that does.”

The next night I didn’t see any of Vastil’s fellows, nor the imp. In my head, I’d like to imagine he escaped and is living his best life somewhere else, but we Tusks know the answer to the question of survival out there alone. As I sat down in front of the campfire, Yokgu came back along with the two siblings. He surprisingly had been munching on bugs he found, but scowled at me as he ate. I returned his angry mug with a blank stare.

“Bah, one more day of this,” he grunted, throwing a screeching green bug in his mouth.

“Two,” Ake slithered behind him and unfurled his tail. “Two more days.”

“You got to be kidding me,” Yokgu groaned. His disappointment made me chuckle. “Did you just chuckle?”

“No,” I sighed, itching my hand.

“What’s that?” Samuel pointed at the rune.

“Ho?” Yokgu stared at it, but his eyes grew wide. “A Rune? That belongs to that—“

This idiot was going to blow my cover! I almost protested but the snakeman rattled, quieting the group down.

“Shush, orc,” Ake cut him off. “No reporting here. On one condition.”

“What?” I asked. Of course, mercy was not an option with these guys. I knew what he was going to say next.

“You use it,” his thin lips split into a mischievous smile as his forked tongue flicked out.

I held up my palm and looked at the pentagram. Truthfully, I was scared of losing my hand if I recited that phrase, but judging by the state of it I might as well use the Rune. My hand had boils and other Pestilence on it, which my Status said nothing about. Well, here goes.

“Come as you are,” I recited the phrase while still holding it up. The boils and poison marks sluiced off my palm, becoming black sludge as my hand burst with cyan light. It was similar to the Cold Moon’s magic, but no one said it was. I felt a tingling sensation as the macabre process began, but surprisingly no pain. The black slop slipped off and dissolved into mist which hovered before the campfire.

“It’s forming something!”

A wave of ooh’s and ahh’s pushed over the crowd. I squinted at the mist, which was forming the remarkable detailed shape of a person. No way, I stared at it. It was like a hologram, beginning to glow a soft and flickering cobalt blue like the magic before. I knew exactly who this person was. Black hair, brown sunken eyes, wearing a suit and tie. An exceedingly average office worker, this woman was me from my old life!

“Who is that?” Yokgu laughed. “A human?”

“I dunno,” I shrugged, hoping my shocked expression didn’t show too much. Another hand shoved me playfully.

“One of your victims?” Ake inspected the hologram with a greedy grin. The others hooted and howled.

“Victims?” Silmil eyed me suspiciously. I shook my head, but Yokgu laughed over me.

“Yeah! The Nameless loves to play with human women!” Yokgu punched me lightly in the shoulder. “Don’t you, Light Voice?”

“Not really,” I muttered, but I kept my eyes on my old self. That truly was me, but I felt nothing for my old reflection or the lonely office memories that it gave me. I wish I knew myself better than that, but perhaps that’s all I became towards the end of my life in that old world. A shell of a person, lost in her work.

I went to bed shortly after the reflection faded away finally, but I did not even dream of my old self.