Stray Elf: Lost in the System

This is a bonus Chapter!

The week, or maybe even weeks, dragged along for what seemed like forever. Slow work week, except there was no two-day resting blip interspersed between each of them. One day I was caught searching for my boots, but I found out apparently if I searched longer than a mere four hours they’ll just get me a new pair. So I was off to work another three days with no sleep with a new pair of someone else’s boots. I liked to assume the previous owner retired back to the Hells early. I would work until they told me not to, but even that did not make a difference to me.

I sighed and rested my back into the dirt after some time passed. I did not have contractor experience nor did anyone else, so the shoddy hut I made for myself had no floor. The stump I had for a “chair” ended up being too uncomfortable to sit on, so the bag of food I took from the Human merchants rested on it instead. I tried to buy it from them at first, but they spoke a different language than me and ended up surrendering the bag anyways. I gingerly left a small bag of coins in return, though I had more. I didn’t know if they took the money with their shaking hands or abandoned it there for some other Demon to steal. Surely I couldn’t be tried for larceny or anything like that because I technically paid for the food, right? Apparently, when this country finally falls fully under Demon control I could use the Tusks to buy myself a better home, but what good would that be? What if the Humans took this place back?

I heard from the Hatred goblins that some of the Demon armies are struggling against enemies south of wherever here was, which didn’t inspire confidence that I could settle down and retire. A flash of memories struck my mind making me decide not to save the coins for that. I was taken back to where I started apparently, hearing the crunching boots approach me as I lay broken in the snowstorm. That General seemed like he was amidst this sprawling army somewhere, but I didn’t want him any closer to me to answer a single one of my questions. I rolled over and fell asleep, worrying if someone might arrest me for stealing that merchant caravan’s food.

A loud crash jerked my attention away from my thoughts. but I realized I was a lot colder and my arm was numb from being in the same position for awhile. I was asleep? I shivered and sighed. I felt like I was awake the whole time during break. Another crash shook my shoddily crafted roof and rain dripped on me. Fine, I sat up. We were under attack— probably— but I was not awake or ready to fight and no one was shouting. A few more booms later and I was out. It was day, lightly shaded by the red Reaver moonlight and the gray skies. The Twin Suns were nowhere to be seen. I hesitated to leave my hut due to the heavy rain, but as soon as I did I regretted my choice instantly.

Another boom blasted somewhere much closer this time, and suddenly a loud screaming and hissing noise hurled above me. I ducked instinctively, right as something illuminated the dirt. A white glowing light flared beneath me in an instant. I blinked and tried to shut the brightness out. It was like getting flashed by a camera suddenly before everything returned back to normal. What in the Hell was that? I straightened my helmet back on. A comet? The rain suddenly halted in its wake, before returning shortly as explosions echoed somewhere near the Hatred Army’s villages.

Another streak followed whatever launched across the glittery red sky, like someone keyed a red car’s door. Others around me noticed the commotion the strange comet caused, looking upward. It was clear they didn’t know either though a sergeant’s whip cracked, causing them to get back to work instead of standing around while speculating. The rain also cleared for a moment as a humming rang out in the distance, but returned to bother my face as I briskly passed the slave soldiers to find where some of the Tusks hang out. Maybe they knew or had something to do with the weird skies today.

The forests we traveled through a few days ago were nearly wiped out, owing to the rampant construction of barracks and temporary villages across this part of Sarwitz. It was interesting to see how towns started, but the sight of the flashing comet overshadowed a town further away from my designated base. Streaks of blue lightning sliced out in jagged lines from the white comet. The red aura of the Reaver moon twisted around it as it became exposed through the fog, giving me a good glimpse of it. The thing looked like a neon blue cotton ball in contrast to the crimson sky. Someone huffed next to me as I observed the storm and that strange booming sphere doing their things.

“Being glad we ain’t nowhere near that storm, eh Light Voice?”

It was Yokgu, seemingly unbothered by the pouring rain. I watched another blue bolt of lightning strike the plains next to the town and could barely make out the outlines of people getting the Hells out of there. Should I be wearing my armor right now? Isn’t lightning attracted to metal? No, that can’t be right. It conducts it, but I doubt I could simply dodge a lightning bolt even with my Stats. A stream of magic fell upon a group of soldiers running away, seemingly vaporizing them. Or perhaps it missed, I squinted at the crater it left.

“Hey,” I started. “That doesn’t seem like a regular storm to me, right? Like, it’s different. We marched through a lot of storms before and I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“Hmm,” Yokgu squinted at the soldiers, but shrugged. It was evident that he was also not that farsighted as well. “Beats me. The mages say that Wild magic can be a right pain in the ass when it shows up. And that looks like Wild magic to me.”

Wild magic? Never heard of such a phenomenon before. Based on the way those magical lightning bolts struck the ground, they reminded me of aerial bombardments from my old world. Why did that remind me of war? I don’t recall anything about being in wartime in my previous life. I used to lie in bed scrolling on my cellphone going over the news, but I don’t even miss that flimsy device anymore. Before I could get frustrated over my amnesia, heavy footsteps stamped the ground behind us.

“You two Tusks!”

A voice hollered over the steps, pulling our attention from the strange storm. It was one of Vastil’s soldiers. Before Yokgu could utter a disdainful grunt I elbowed him and we saluted the stranger, though we were both taller than him. He eyed up at us and sighed.

“We have a… situation,” he continued anyways. “Come with me.”

“Why should I?” Yokgu towered over the man. Idiot, I thought at him. Despite how wimpy the Fair Demon looked, most of Vastil’s soldiers were Elites according to my Status, possessing Power Skills. This guy was an Elite as well, but luckily he didn’t seem to be bothered at Yokgu’s insolence this time, instead pointing his spear at him in an oddly bored manner.

“Come on, Orc,” he groaned. “Surely you don’t want to stand around watching these idiots all day? Hang on, I got an idea.”

He aimed the spear at a group of slave soldiers in a small pit. A pile of logs lay at the top haphazardly like a typical safety violation and based on the bored Fair Demon’s face, I knew what was coming next. A crackle of lightning flashed above us with thunder screeching afterwords, right as the soldier chucked his spear at the logs. That went as I expected and we watched the pile tumble and crush the slave soldiers working in the pit. The Fair Demon smirked.

“There, Tusk,” he laughed. “Now you’re relieved from babysitting.”

I glanced over at the pile of logs, then at the silent writhing slave soldiers beneath. They had their vocal cords torn out at some point in their reprocessing in the Hells, so eventually they stopped moving in silence as more logs rolled on top of them with an unceremonious crunch. How does smooshing lower lifeforms boost productivity rates among the other ones? I wondered. The sergeant overseeing them sighed, seemingly unable to stand against Vastil’s lackey as well. So we followed him anyways. It just occurred to me that he took the spear leaning against my hut. My spear. Now I understood a little bit of why Yokgu hated these guys.

Rain poured as our boots clomped over shredded sticks and the bare bones of a muddy path, but the distant booming sounds became replaced by someone — or something — screaming desperately within the compound. A fight was brewing somewhere up ahead and clashing between blades irritated my ears. The Vastil guy didn’t seem worried over the violence, opening up the shoddy and wet wooden gates for us. As we drew closer, even more yelling and gurgling overtook the storm’s noise. Did the humans not want to work here? He grinned as he ushered us through. Yokgu and I glanced at each other briefly, before my Status played a message at me.

Alert: Heavily armed hostile Crowned entity in the vicinity.

This can’t be good, I gripped my sword’s hilt. Fighting a Crowned entity was not what I had in mind today, but if I had to I could potentially level up. Perhaps this thing would grant me Souls if I get an assist?

“Go on, Tusks,” Vastil’s soldier urged. “Come join us! We’re watching a show and taking bets. See how many of the useless Damned it takes to finally defeat it.”

As we rounded the corner, I saw the Crowned entity unleashing havoc in the middle of the village. It was a knight with a dented helmet on, or whatever was left of one, with ribbons of his flesh exposed from the crowds of Damned slave soldiers piling upon him. One cut his shoulder with a lucky hit, but it didn’t seem to bother him. He was yelling something in desperation, cutting down anything that got near him.

“Vrah, a lah chon? Vrah!” He roared. His sword glowed and as he slashed once, a phantom slash followed and turned the offender into a red misty explosion. “Vrah, vrah! Usalah, a lah chon?”

Several more of Vastil’s Crowned lackeys stood around, laughing as we watched. It was like a wounded dog fighting to the death. There was no clear way of ending him for a free level up, since the human knight turned anything around him into mush. Still, the slave soldiers obeyed the Demons, since they were bound by their infernal magic. Those mute fools were grim reminders that things in this world could be much worse for me.

We watched the human desperately fight off more of the mob charging at him, standing taller on the small hill of dead bodies as the storm boomed in response to his cries. The man turned and stared at me and I found it difficult to maintain eye contact for some reason. No, he wasn’t looking at me, I realized. He was looking towards the source of a new noise coming from behind us. The sound of hooves thundering towards us was enough to break the crowd of jeering soldiers. A warhorse coming by was a bad sign of someone important approaching and ruining the fun.

“Vastil,” Yokgu muttered. “Damned assholes wanted us to get in trouble by bringing us here.”

I groaned. First my spear and now I’m in trouble for watching this commotion unfold? Office drama is so not my thing. Construction infighting like this was on a completely different level than even that. Vastil’s horse neighed violently, releasing a jet of flame that melted the rain with a sizzling hiss, while the Knight himself simply got off of the beast and strode by us silently.

“That human’s screwed now,” I shrugged. Yokgu looked at me incredulously, but he was unsure if he should run away or not while Vastil was distracted. Still, everyone remained silent in the Fair Demon Knight’s presence.

“Your son is screaming in the Hells now,” Vastil spoke calmly as he approached the wailing human knight. A monologue from the Fair Demon himself? That could be a mistake. I stood around waiting for the human to power up somehow from the Goddess’s blessing or something, but instead he allowed Vastil to approach him.

“Vrah, a lah chon?” The human activated multiple Skills I couldn’t recognize, but Vastil remained unfazed by the display of strength. I would not dare say he was cool aloud, but he did seem confident in the moment. He stood with a bored expression before the glowing human, while I considered taking a page of cool one liners from his book for future reference.

“It’s true, I promise you. I hear your son’s sweet screams in the Cycles, human,” Vastil’s pointed ears twitched, as if he was listening to something beyond the thunder and rain. Maybe he wasn’t lying. He drew his sword and its ring sang out a hellish chorus to drown it all out. “Let me finish your long lost search.”

Okay, he was kind of cool in the moment.

With one mighty swing from Vastil, the human knight’s top half vaporized into bloody powder. The howling wind tipped over the stumpy legs that were left standing, with their thuds joining in on the mess. Tch, I didn’t even have enough time to get an assist.

“I should have known you Tusks would be in on these fools’ little games,” Vastil sheathed his big sword. Yokgu was about to protest, but the Knight sighed. “I don’t care what you monsters do on your day off, but might I suggest not wasting my men’s time? And you—“

I barely noticed he was addressing me in time during my silent fuming.

“Don’t tell me your motherly instincts are kicking in, Nameless,” he chuckled. “The father is dead, probably going to be separated from his son forever.”

“No, sir. It’s not that,” I shrugged. “I just didn’t understand what human language he was speaking in.”

“Primitive speech,” he scoffed. “Pay no mind to what these creatures mutter. It makes no matter what garbage they spew before they are slaughtered. Their speeches are less advanced than even monsters like you,.”

Vastil took a glance at the mess he made before passing by us. As he got on his horse and glared at his men to get back to work, a sly grin spread on his face.

“Might I suggest that storm over there?”He chuckled. “Seems like a few of you Tusks might have gotten swept up in it. They were sent there awhile ago by a certain someone and might need your assistance.”

“Bastard,” Yokgu muttered as we watched the flaming warhorse ride away. “He’s the one who ordered them there.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. His monologues weren’t so bad, but the rest of him was. Maybe if I get a level up I could be more evil and make cool monologues like him, but for now, I glanced at the storm Vastil was talking about. That strange cloud still hung over that village, slinging more Wild magic bolts upon the earth. A UFO? I nearly chuckled, but luckily I stifled it in my throat before it could escape. Could it be a monster?

“Don’t tell me you’re thinking about following that bastard’s advice, Light Voice,” Yokgu growled. The look on my face must have made him cautious, because actual concern covered his. “You’re not, right?”

“What else do we have to do?” I asked. “I didn’t even know it was my day off.”

“You never know what time it is!” Yokgu pounded his legs in frustration. Why was he upset? “Your kind don’t seem like they’re in any hurry at all!”

“Why would I be?” I shrugged. Couldn’t say for the rest of my kind, since I’ve never met any.

Before he could throw a fit over my annoying questions, thunder pierced our ears and an intense flash spread across the sky. The clouds parting even stopped Vastil’s men from working. The Reaver Moonfall seemed cleared out by whatever magical energy was coursing through the air. My skin tickled as we stared stupidly up at the horizon. I felt Yokgu bump my shoulder.

“You ain’t headin’ towards that, for real, right?”

I said nothing, instead feeling compelled to go to the village anyways out of spite. So I trudged my way towards the storm stricken village. It seemed less intense despite the occasional thunder and rain, so I guessed the condition wouldn’t be worse than our marches in the rain for now. I stole a spear from someone when they weren’t looking and took off.

The village wasn’t too far away, but it bordered what was left of the forest. I started to feel daunted as the blue ball became exposed again due to the parting clouds, contemplating if I should go back to my hut or not. Yokgu would make fun of me for chickening out, so I shook off that notion. Be as foreboding as you want, cloud, I’m coming.

That didn’t sound as cool in my head as I thought, I sighed as I climbed up a hill overlooking the blasted plains. I’d have to revise my own monologues and one liners some other time. Well, it certainly used to be plains, but craters covered the earth like bruises on the skin on our prisoners. The surfaces of some of them were purple hued and strangely reflective. Was that glass? I nearly took a step when I heard someone shout from the bushes next to me. An ambush amidst all of this? I whirled around. Who has time for that?

“Hey, you! Get in here!” The voice wheezed. It was a Hatred Demon’s, though his voice was more raspy than the usual accent they had. “Get in here before it sees you!”

I didn’t want to know whatever “it” was, so I hurried and jumped in the bushes. Oddly enough, the space in this foliage covered more than just the one Hatred Demon. Several pairs of eyes met with mine, all Demon. They seemed more nervous at my presence than the chaos happening above us. Silence covered the group as thunder roiled and the rain struck again.

“So?” I asked. One of the Demons started cracking up, wheezing as the others also started laughing. The glint of an empty bottle caught my eye. Drugs? I groaned. High on the job and storm gazing, I should have known. The one who called me over finally recovered from his laughing attack and pointed at me.

“Get a load of this Tusk!” He hollered. “Suicidal or what?”

“Bored, I guess,” I shrugged. They wouldn’t remember this conversation anyways.

“Death wish, more like,” another commented. “Hey, hey, you see that blue ball in the sky, right?”

“Hard to miss,” I replied.

“Holy shit,” the commenter wheezed. “Like, holy shit. Ain’t nothing from the Ack’Sa, hah!”

For whatever reason, his laughing set off another chain reaction of giggles. The hollering Hatred Demon tugged my shoulder.

“You’re missing out, Tusk,” he uttered, holding up a potion. “Humans ain’t worth for shit than getting gobbled up by that thing, but they sure got some crazy stuff. We was watching them clear out the village like foul rats, but it kept zappin’ em as they ran. One of ‘em dropped a hoard of this shit and we can’t go nowhere so…. Take this, take this.”

I hesitated for a moment, as getting high on the job didn’t seem like it would help anything, but it was my day off. I snatched it from him and he eyed me in anticipation as I downed it. The taste sizzled my throat too much to tell what kind of flavor it had, but the alert playing in my head explained the odd rush stirring inside of me.

Alert: CON, STR and DEX increased temporarily to A. Time left: 3 hours.

Alert: System has detected anomalous toxins within the host’s body. Neutralizing poisons…

Waves of wooziness and exhilaration alternated between my head. The other Hatred demons hooted and hollered while I stared at the screen. That was a new alert. Forget the buffed Stats, I’m supposed to feel like this for three hours? The one who handed me the drug took another sip of his own potion and his red chest swelled with a glowing purple underneath it - a sign that couldn’t be good for his insides. He laughed at me or the sky.

“Damn crazy Tusk, you took the whole thing!”

Oh. Was I not supposed to do that?

“Her cheeks are red as my tail!” Another pointed at me. They all laughed, but I suddenly realized how potentially compromised I was. Shit, I nearly groaned, but suddenly I noticed that the Demon’s tail was actually a deeper shade of red than the rest of him. I decided to play it cool, because a sudden lust for violence welled up inside of me and I could take them all out if they tried something.

“So what is that thing?” I wheezed. It was harder to talk with this drug in my system. That made me chuckle, but the red tailed Demon glanced out at it through the brush cautiously.

“Ain’t nobody know,” he ducked back in, as if the thing could’ve spotted him. “There’s reports of these flying things all over the world. Some of ‘em idiots thought it was a dragon, but look at it. None of them do what these things do. Hanging like scavenger birds and doin’ what this one’s doin’.”

“Like a UFO?” I asked. Luckily, the helmet I had on hid my smile. I couldn’t stop this ridiculous situation I found myself in from amusing me.

“You of… What?” the drug dealer Demon’s voice trailed off. “The Moon Mages go on about how those things have dangerous magic.”

“I can see that,” I blurted.

“I know right?” A One Eyed Demon cackled. “This Tusk is kind of funny!”

“Nah, I mean. Like, unstable magical energy,” the drug dealer sighed, realizing none of us were paying attention anymore. I guessed I was laughing with them, but they were not afraid of me at least. Red Tail burped down one last potion, before something bumped into him. It was another chubby Demon behind him, but I realized there was definitely something wrong with him.

“Hey. Hey?” He shook the unresponsive Chubby Demon. I noticed glowing purple splotches began to form on his skin, but he didn’t seem like he was awake anymore. “There’s somethin’ wrong with this guy.”

“Huh?” The drug dealer peeked at him. It was then we all noticed that his armor was also splitting apart and stabbing into his gut. Perhaps the Chubby Demon didn’t start chubby initially, I started to scoot away. He was expanding. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

The others scrambled away from him as the Chubby Demon exploded, popping like a balloon and spilling guts all over whoever was closest to him. Hells, what a mess, I groaned. The body was hollowed out, with its imploded ribcages sticking into the brush that covered us from that thing outside. I don’t know if it was the drug inside of me or the temporary Stat increase that kept me calm, but I either had to get out of here or I was dead already and didn’t know it. I really had to hope my Status would fix me sooner than the three hour time limit. Or I could keep laughing.

“Gah, why didn’t he warn us he was about to pop like—“ the drug dealer Demon suddenly clutched his chest and looked at me with bulging eyes. I groaned and nearly scooted away before he started howling at me. “I’m just messin’ with—“

Another one of the Demons exploded, making the rest of us start to sober up. Panic swelled through the group just like those purple blobs, but no one seemed to be safe from the spontaneous popping. Red Tail was next to go, horror filling his eyes before he did. His guts covered us with muddy flavored blood and guts. I decided to attempt to leave, but the stench made me feel even more sick. A hand was helping me up and eventually whoever helped me and I escaped the exploding bodies. It was the drug dealer who started it all, but soon the fresh air of smelly rain and tingling magical energy helped refresh us.

“Well,” I panted. “I take it that the drug doesn’t normally cause us to blow up, right? Right?”

I turned to see the drug dealer Demon smiling at me, but his neck was mutating and slowly extending away from his torso. Fresh purple sores pumped up from his chest like water contracting and flowing through it. Through it all he smiled creepily at me, making me question if I was still alive. This is a nightmare, alright. I felt my face fall to my default look of disappointment at the horror show before me.

“See… ya… in… the Hells… Tusk,” he spoke to me through a tremendous amount of effort. Then he popped neck first, too. His head went next and finally his glowing body became shredded like it went through a wood chipper. Thunder boomed above me before I could even process the amount of disgusting carnage I witnessed.

Alert: Poisons neutralized. Host will not be affected and Soul count will remain unchanged. Stat Increase time limit has two hours left before expiring.

How convenient. I shook my head and then threw up. I thought I’ve gotten used to things dying, but I guess I was wrong. That guy’s deformed head was going to stick in my memory for an uncomfortable amount of time. A loud humming noise hovered above me, like someone just blew war horns to retreat. Well, I didn’t need to hear that call twice. The clouds parted once again as the humming turned into a violent roar. I took off, noticing something emerging from the glassed craters.

A strange squirting noise also screeched above me and suddenly my feet wobbled. The ground was shaking and before I knew it, something sent me airborne. As my vision flipped, a brilliant blast of cyan fire filled my view. Shit! I crumpled on the ground, but thanks to my temporary stat increase I was able to recover quickly. The damn monster was shooting at me! I whirled around, but I didn’t know where I was anymore. Nothing but trees and blue flames surrounded me.

More of those strange squirting noises released from the sky, but after a glimpse I found that they were lasers being shot down upon the earth. What in the hell? The beams shredded everything they touched, but I was able to squeeze through fallen trees into a small cave.

“Hells,” I muttered. I wasn’t sure if it would detonate this place, but it seemed like it was just firing indiscriminately rather than targeting me specifically. Something made a noise behind me and I turned to see a face standing there, wide-eyed and terrified. “Shit!”

It was a human! I tried to pull out my sword, but the human held his arms up in an X. I paused, recognizing that an X meant amongst both Demon and Human soldiers that they didn’t mean any trouble. He uttered something in that primitive language, but eventually relaxed and fell silent when he noticed I didn’t understand him. I guessed by his resigned look and shredded armor that we were just supposed to wait out the monster’s storm, however long that might be.

So I squatted down and even though the human soldier was here first, he cautiously joined me. Together, we sat out in silence and I waited out the Stat buff as well as avoided thinking about those dead Demons I became fast friends with. Soldiers didn’t have opportunities to make friends, as we didn’t know who would make it tomorrow but I wished them well in the Hells. Or whatever. The rain stopped, so it was my time to get the hell out of there.

As I stood up and checked on what the human was doing, I noticed he was too scared to leave the cave. I sighed. I guess I could leave him here since even though it was chaos here with that monster lurking in the skies, the Demons were also waiting around for humans on the other side.

“See you, man,” I told him awkwardly and headed out. Nothing went to plan and I felt like I somehow made everything worse, but the sky was dark again and clear as if nothing was up there shooting laser beams of strange magic for a few hours straight. I could see the Demon villages start to light their torches and thanked them silently for that. I could use another day off now that this was over.

A glow caught my eye as I was trudging in the forest. No hostile alerts were lurking in these woods, probably due to the sky monster attacks, so I stuck in here on my way back instead of being out in the open. I drew my sword, not wanting to take any new chances since the glow was standing in the way. Cyan, I sniffed something off. I couldn’t tell what was happening to my senses, but my nose was beginning to make me see cyan. That didn’t make any sense, I rubbed my ears and could smell the grime on my fingers much harsher than just sticking them up my nostrils.

What the hell? Did it come back just to mess with me? Well, let’s have it! This low leveled Elf isn’t going to die without a fight! I let out a roar and charged at the cyan light. I hacked a tree out the way and got a full glimpse of the source, stopping in my tracks as the smell burned through my temples. Seeing the light made me feel something intense: Hatred.

Jingling and beeping noises whirred in a chorus, locking me in place. What kind of magic was this? I tried to roar again, swing my sword, do anything — but the strange artifact seemed to be watching me as I stood helplessly. A voice invaded my mouth, while the smell of electricity tickled my ears.

YOU ARE NOT A MAN.

HEAR ME, O HUMBLE SINNER.

MANKIND CAME FROM MY FLESH.

I DIED, THEY CAME.

FROM THE SOIL OF MY BLOOD,

MANKIND CAME AND TOOK WHAT WAS MINE.

NOW I SEETHE WITH RIGHTEOUS HATRED.

AND WATCH WHAT HAS BECOME OF MY GIFTS.

FROM THE HEAVENS.

THE HUMBLE SHALL INHERIT THIS WORLD.

YOU SHALL BE THE ONE WHO GIVES ME THE FLESH BACK TO MY RAGING BONES.

The sight of a strange machine-like statue floated from the cyan light, with many eyes watching me. Did I take drugs again or what? I had trouble looking at it, since my senses seemed to be drastically affected by its presence. The creature made more beeping noises before vanishing. A force released me and my face fell on dirt. I felt my body jerk awake and I breathed in heavily. Please be air inside my throat and not a color or something, I begged no one in particular. Pressing myself up, I felt cold sweat drip down my face and my hand bumped into a wooden stool. A stool? I glanced at the thing and saw the silhouette of the bag of food I left on the chair.

I was back in my hut! I was alive! Thank god or Ack’Sa or whoever that it was just a dream. I rolled over. What in the hell did I just witness? A wave of hopelessness flooded over me, but relief to be back here quickly overcame me. The details were already getting fuzzy, but perhaps that strange monster wiped my memories.

Good riddance, I scoffed. I decided I didn’t need it, rolling over as the Cold Moonfall colored the land in a deep blue.