The Throne I Left

His mind raced as he walked through the city.

Should he leave? He had just gotten there, afterall. If nothing else, Johan really would like to sleep first but the thought of anyone recognizing him…it wasn’t worth it.

The old lady had said it was a big celebration. That meant lots of people, though who knew if anyone he knew would even be there. It had been four years, and Johan had changed a lot. Would they even recognize him now? Would Johan even recognize them?

He groaned loudly. A big festival. Such bad timing! He really should leave before someone could recognize him, but then again…he really wanted to go sightseeing.

He sighed. Sleep first.

The market suddenly stopped, and he looked up to see the buzzing life of the docks. He cursed, looking back. He had forgotten to ask about where he could find an inn.

He hadn’t seen one on the way, though maybe he would have more luck in a different street. It seemed like those were just as busy, almost filled to the brim with people walking through, though it was worth a look. Deciding quickly, he went with the one to the left.

He wasn’t paying much attention as he made his way through, looking around for any sign of an inn. He was really starting to feel the lack of sleep now.

He blinked as his dry eyes burned.

He was eyeing a building that very potentially could be an inn when suddenly he slammed into something.

He made a surprised noise, landing hard on his ass.

Did he just walk into a wall?!

“Are you ok?!” Stunned, Johan looked up to see a man standing in front of him, looking down at him in startled surprise. A big, muscular man. Johan stared. The man towering over him. He had to be at least a head and a half taller than Johan, even at his own extremely average height.

"Oh, sorry." Johan mumbled and got back on his feet, his face burning. He dusted himself off and cleared his throat as he looked around. The docks had disappeared behind him and the street was wide open, the marked booths gone, left far behind him. Instead there were now restaurants surrounding him, tables and chairs in clusters outside them, as well as an almost clear view of the Golden Chateau straight ahead. There were other buildings around as well, though.

"What’s that building?" Johan asked. Behind the gigantic man stood a huge, white hall covered in gold accents. Johan eyed the huge golden statue of a stag in front of the entrance.

The giant gave a deep sigh and with muted resignation he threw a look over his shoulder at the building.

"That's Fortune Hall" He sighed. Johan paused. His eyes widening behind his hair, he could only stare as the man bellowed a laugh at him. "It's not the real thing of course. Though they say it's an exact replica of the one in Heaven."

Looking at it with new eyes Johan finally saw the similarities. He frowned. It didn't look like it at all. The only similar parts were the simple staircase and the thick golden doors. But then again, the last time he saw it, it was actively burning to the ground. Who knew, maybe they had rebuilt it since he left.

Hiding behind indifference he answered. "Huh, well personally I imagined it to be cooler.” The giant looked baffled as Johan crossed his arms. “Anyways, what's going on? Why are you bleeding?" A thin line of blood ran the man’s forehead down to his long, blonde beard.

The surprise didn´t last much longer on the giant’s face as resignation reappeared tenfold, quickly followed by steaming anger as he angrily wiped the blood off his cheek and gritted his teeth.

"...Those-" The giant clenched his fists, glaring back at the fake Fortune Hall. He shut his eyes and sighed deeply before slowly unclenching his fists.

Johan watched with mild interest. This city was really something. They had stealing fairies, rich old ladies selling food on the street, a random building they named after Heaven’s old community hall and a bleeding, angry giant standing right in front of it. Maybe Johan should have come earlier, who knows what he had missed.

The giant cleared his throat. "I’m the chief of a fishing village on an island not far from here. A month ago, our neighboring village got caught in a massive landslide. I'll spare the details, but all of them, hundreds of people, all died. The landslide brought them straight into our fishing waters. We're a fishing village, it is our main source of income and with the resentful energy the dead turned into monsters. Hundreds of people turned into vengeful nøkks in our waters, drowning people and every living thing they can get their hands on."

He shook his head in misery. "One of ours has already died by their hands, and now the rest of us will starve. We can't fish there anymore and our money is running out. Anyone who ventures out on the water gets pulled under and killed, becoming one of them." He shook his head again, clearing his throat as tears shone in his eyes.

Johan nodded sympathetically.

"He left his pregnant wife behind." The giant continued. "Our income is gone, our food source is gone. It's already been a month, we won’t last much longer. I've been visiting Fortune Hall daily, requesting their help but they refuse. We never joined under their protection so we don't get to reap the benefits, they say." The giant hissed. "They won’t even allow my people to move here, even when we are dying!"

Huh, that sucked. Those working in the cheap, replica Fortune Hall were the same kind of asshole as the ones in the real one. Too bad they were right, obviously the cheap officials wouldn't take the responsibility to deal with the nøkks, especially that many. Afterall, seeing as Death was gone the only way to get rid of them was to put them somewhere else.

Johan mused thoughtfully, it was a little weird. A whole village’s population shouldn’t be turning into nøkks, even if they did all die. Maybe a dozen or so, but no more than that. He had never heard anything like it.

Though the undead were walking with the living, maybe the souls just didn’t have anywhere else to go yet they couldn’t stay in their own bodies so they turned into monsters instead. That did make sense, considering the fairies he had met. The adults couldn’t die and the children could.

"Oof" Johan said emphatically, hand over his heart. "I’m so sorry, that sounds absolutely terrible! I can't believe they won't help you. What monsters!” Reasonable monsters. “Their job is to take care of the people, yet they reject you when you're in need?! Just like that?!" Johan shook his head in disdain. "I wish I could help you," No he didn't.

He gave the giant a sympathetic pat on the chest. "I hope it works out."

He turned to leave but only got a step away before the giant grabbed his shoulder and stopped him. Johan reeled back around, peeved.

"Wait, wait! Before you go.” The giant pleaded. “You look like an adventurer. Even if you can't do anything, maybe you know someone who can. Please spread it, we can't offer money as compensation but there's an abandoned house in the woods near our village. Anyone that helps us is free to take it."

Johan nodded and smiled comfortingly. "I'll see what I can do."

The giant nodded, looking slightly more encouraged, then let him go. This time Johan left significantly faster than before.

He huffed. What an interesting city, people just grab you on the street like nothing.

He sighed. The sun was already on its way down, casting a dark shadow over the city as it started to disappear behind the towering mountain. Lights were turning on inside and outside of buildings and sark signs turned on to shine brightly through the street as Johan walked past.

Then he saw it. An inn! The sign shines brightly from the other street, with marked booths on either side, and his mood lightened significantly as he hurried into the alley.

Hm.

He paused. Something felt weird.

He looked around. Everything seemed fine.

Then suddenly a sharp pain hit him, sending him crumbling to his knees and holding his head. He snarled and jerked around- then faltered. There was nobody there.

What just happened? Who hit him?

He stayed down on his knees, slowly lowering his hands.

Then stars flashed before his eyes as the pain came back even worse. He folded over and clutched his head with a startled gasp. White light flashed, then he was somewhere else.

In front of him was a tree. A huge weeping tree. He stood right in front of it, watching as time seemed to speed up. The leaves rapidly grew and pink flowers bloomed as the long branches lightly dusted the ground around it, the sun hight in the sky.

Then suddenly it was dark as night. The earth beneath him started moving and roots shot up through the dirt, digging panicked at the ground.

Then came silence. Ear-deafening silence. The roots hit the ground lifeless and for a second Johan stood there, completely still, heart hammering. Then the tree shook. The earth moved as if someone was hitting it from below.

Johan stumbled as he lost his footing. Pink flower petals rained from the tree and the branches whipped through the air. Then a hand shot out of the ground-

Johan opened his eyes with a gasp. His heart pounded in his ears.

He was laying on the ground in the alley, the cold, damp ground completely still beneath him. For a long moment he stayed there, on his side, staring unfocused at the big dumpster beside him.

...What? What happened?

Johan shook his head and the realization hit him. Slowly he propped himself up on his arms, feeling nauseous.

"Now..?" He whispered, body shaking, and his eyebrows drew together. "No, no. I’m not doing it."

He sat up, using the dumpster for support and shook his head violently, almost ending up back on the ground as his balance failed him.

He slowly slid down against the dumpster. Numbly he let go of it and let his head fall into his hands.

He cursed softly. What was he supposed to do now?