Back in the present, we find Alyx still wandering in search of water, with no memory of how he got here or his own grisly demise.

As the stress of his current situation begins to really set in, Alyx has fallen on an old past time of his to keep a positive attitude, which is to say, singing and dancing. The first of which he does quite well, going from classic songs, newer melodies, and things he just makes up, one to the next in a resonate baritone.

His dancing, however, leaves much to be desired. He’s more hopping from a tree root to a tree root or towards small rocks while waving his hands about having no sense of bodily rhythm. His dancing is quite frankly so bad he manages to throw the songs he’s singing off track several times. Thank goodness no one is watching!

This goes on for about ten minutes, utterly uninterrupted before Alyx catches his first lucky break as he comes across a game trail. One of the directions the path takes is going downhill, so for Alyx, that seems like the obvious choice. The last thing he wants to do is accidentally wander up a mountainside. Besides, his gut tells him that water will be downhill, and despite not having any logic to back that up, Alyx trusts his instincts. The heck else is he supposed to do anyway? Aren’t instincts purpose-built for survival scenarios?

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“Why is he dancing? And how is he so bad at it?” Julius watched incredulously as the strangely dressed human sang and danced his way through the forest.

“There is no way he is low level. If he were, he’d never act so casual here, we live here, and we still treat the dangers of this place with more respect.”

Julius hissed in a whisper to Andrea, who was ducking behind a tree as the human spun around in a circle again. Her bow was at the ready, but no arrow was knocked, and she didn’t even spare Julius a glance before she replied.

“ It doesn’t change anything, and you know it, the more powerful he is, the bigger a threat the human becomes. Let’s say he is some big shot, then the chances he’s unaffiliated are slim to none. Our enemies are numerous.”

Pulling an arrow from her quiver, Andrea glanced over at Julius and gave him a curt nod. “ I’ll take down his left leg first, and then you take out the right. We have the advantage of surprise and range, and I don’t care how high level he is. If we cocked this up, we deserve to hand in our bows...for soul's sake, Julius, he doesn’t even have any weapons.”

Having said all she intended to on the matter, Andrea began to circle around to the left of her human target, as Julius let out a resigned sigh before the following suit but by heading around to the right. Despite Julius being reluctant to pursue this particular course of action, having now committed to it, he was the height of professionalism.

The two elven rangers might well have been mirrors of each other as they stalked their quarry through the forest. Stepping lightly as they began their incantations. A ghostly green mist swirling out from their fingertips spiraling around the arrows before inscribing themselves upon the shafts in the elven written language. When viewed from afar, the action was difficult to look at, as if an observer’s gaze simply wanted to slip away to stare at anything else.

Arrows readied, magic prepped, and almost in position, the two elves began their final approach to their target. So in tune with one another through years of hunting together that neither Andrea nor Julius sparred each other a glance, trusting in one another to do their job well.

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Alyx really should be more worried. Even he had to acknowledge that. Lost in the woods, possible kidnapped, no food, no water, no supplies of any kind really, not even a knife. It’s hard to think about that kind of stuff, though, when you are an expert at distracting yourself, and you suddenly have superhuman strength and coordination. Not to mention endurance, Alyz had been dancing himself silly for the better part of half an hour, and he wasn’t in the slightest bit tired.

“All of this is lending evidence to the idea that these words in my head aren’t just some weird hallucination” Comming to a stop next to a large boulder that the game trail wove its way around, Alyx couldn’t help but grin to himself as he hopped lightly onto the boulder, easily rising more than six feet into the air. “Fuck, that’s so cool” Turning first to his left and then to his right in the hopes of spotting a nearby stream, Alyx instead stumbled across a bear, or at least he thought it was a bear at first.

Easily bigger than your average dumpster, it was covered in brown fur and roughly the shape of a bear, which is why Alyx had thought it to be a bear. Upon raising its head and making eye contact with him, Alyx realized what he was staring at, though he could scarcely believe it. With the head of a great horned owl, with what looked like bull horns protruding from its head, it damn near looked like it had come straight from a monster manual.

Oh...and it had been foraging right next to the very boulder Alyx had hopped upon.

“SCREEE--QUOOOONNNK”

Its furious roar shook Alyx’s very bones. It was such a deep bass, not to mention being so close. With the dead eyes of someone who has retreated into shock instead of panic, Alyx let out a very insightful “huh” before turning on his heels and launching himself off of the boulder as fast as he could in the opposite direction of the Owlbear.

The breaking of twigs and the crunch of gravel, accompanied by a second roar that was not nearly far enough away for his liking, gave Alyx the distinct impression that he was being chased. “ Owls can fly, bears can climb trees...so run? Run! Run run run run run run…

A sharp exhale out creates a vacuum in the lungs, which means they will refill on their own, and you can save on stamina. Oh, man, did Alyx hope that was true, as he practically flew over the ground. Stumbling at times as he moved through the forest, around tree roots, bushes, and boulders. The sounds of heavy limbs smacking into the ground, the Owlbear crashing through bushes that he had to go around. Trying to weave around trees to evade the monster, Alyx fell into a panicked rhythm. Breathe, Glance for the best path forward, dodge around a tree or bush, leap over any obstacle in the way and then do it again.

Alyx had never run so fast in his life. In fact, even on his best day while running on the smooth pavement of a running track, he didn’t think he could match his current speed. Not that he felt like he was going fast enough, “SCEEE--QUONNK” at least the Owlbear seemed to be falling behind. Maybe things of that size just aren’t used to running? Though admittedly, Alyx wasn’t so sure of how long he could keep up this breakneck pace himself.

Luckily that question was answered for him as he tripped over a root and went into a somersaulting tumble. Alyx had no idea how fast he had been going. Still, it was enough to send him skidding ass over tea kettle for at least fifty feet before he found himself tangled up in a bush, having a wonderful upside-down view of the way he had come as the owlbear crashed into the clearing mere moments later with a loud growl.

“Fuck”

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As the pair of rangers watched, with arrows drawn on their target, aiming down their sights ready to fire. The human proved Julius correct. He was clearly some kind of idiot. Hidden in the bushed not forty feet from the owlbear themselves, they watched as he not only disturbed the beast but lead it on a merry chase. Andrea looked like she was barely suppressing her laughter, even as she followed behind the human and the owlbear, Julius moving up alongside her”

“Don’t say it,” He told her with a glare bordering on frustration and embarrassment, his voice a harsh whisper as the owlbear screeched in the distance.

Andrea’s reply dripped with sarcasm so thick it may as well have been gravy“But Julius, he’s so high level! We could be in danger if we follow him!” Letting out a long-suffering sigh, Julius rolled his eyes.” Listen, dinner and drinks on me if you tell absolutely no one.”

Andrea’s eyes practically lit up with stars at his reply. “Never. Your great-grandchildren will tell tales about this. Now come on, we still need to figure out what he was doing in the forest.”

And so the elves followed one with amusement, the other with resignation. Julius was never going to live this down.