Dave

Fallen Jungle

53rd of Cycle 2, 1015

“Who are you, and why are you looting my hut,” Came a cold voice from behind me.

I have to admit that I kind of deserved this, but I didn’t expect to run into the owner of the hut so soon after leaving.

“My name is Dave, and I’m looting your hut because I’m lost,” I answered.

I glanced backward and saw a tall, slim man with long, pointy ears aiming a bow at me.

“Are you an elf?” I asked with a little tremble in my voice. He had a scary look in his eyes.

“Yes boy, I’m an elf. While we’re on the topic of stupid questions, I might as well ask if you’re a human.”

“Why yes, I am! How did you know?” I said with a grin, earning me a glare from the elf.

“Why are you here? People don’t suddenly get lost in the middle of this jungle.” He raised his bow again.

“Easy, easy man, I’m not really sure what’s going on either, so can we talk this out before you skewer me with that arrow?”

“What is there to talk out? You will return what you looted, and then you will leave.” He said coldly.

I slowly reached towards my back and took off my bow, setting it onto the ground.

“Wait, where’d you get that bow?” He asked.

“I found it under a plant. It was broken, so I tied some vine to it to fix it up.” His face paled, and I wondered if I had said something wrong.

“A plant you say? I distinctly remember leaving that bow next to a man-eater,” He paused for a moment. “Let me rephrase the question. How did you get that bow?” He sounded serious.

I gulped and started explaining what happened earlier today with the ‘man-eater’. Hypno-plant is a much better name, and I was going to have a word with whoever decided to name it ‘man-eater’.

“So you ran up to a man-eater while it was eating and just plucked my bow from right under its nose.”

“Yep,” I said with a wide grin on my face.

“You don’t see a problem with that, do you?”

“Nope.”

He sighed and lowered his bow, putting the arrow back in his quiver. “Stupid humans don’t even know how to lie properly,” He muttered.

“You said this was your bow right?” I asked, pointing towards the bow on the ground. Then I pointed at the bow in his hands, “Where’d you get that bow?”

“It’s... complicated,” He said with a sad look on his face, so I decided not to press the topic.

“Hey, um, I’m sorry for looting your hut. I didn’t mean to upset you, I just didn’t have any water or clothes.”

He paused and thought for a moment then asked, “How’d you end up here?”

“I don’t really know either. One second I was in my town, and the next, I was up in the middle of this weird jungle.” It wasn’t a complete lie, and I had no reason to tell him I’m from a different world.

I think I heard him say something about humans and poor liars under his breath again, then he turned to me and said, “You mentioned that you had no water right?” I nodded. “I can lead you to the nearby stream. We’ll part ways there.”

Why was he helping me? Shouldn’t he be mad about me looting his hut? I thought about asking him but decided not to punch the gift horse in the mouth and just nodded my head.

“I’m Jason by the way, and I’m a hunter,” He said. “What’s your class, Dave?”

“Huh? Class? What’s that?”

“Your class, Dave, what’s your class? Are you an archer? Hunter? Villager maybe?”

“I don’t know?” I asked

He pulled out a stone from his pocket and tossed it to me. Grabbing the stone, I felt it tug at something inside me, and then I saw a screen pop up in front of me.

Name: Dave

Race: Human?

Class: N/A

Skills: Archery (Basic) Lv2, Hypnosis Resistance Lv1, Survivalist (Unique)

I don’t know how long ago it happened, but apparently, I had gone crazy somewhere in this jungle.

Elven Huntress

Elf Village

53rd of Cycle 2, 1015

“Halt! Who goes there?” Yelled the armored elf standing at the gate.

“It’s me, Rea,” I called back.

The guard’s eyes lit up as he started barking orders at the people around him.

“Right this way, Lady Rea,” The guard said in a much more amicable tone.

It’s been two whole days since I left on patrol, so when I walked through the gates and saw those familiar treehouses I let out a giggle. I was finally home.

A group of heavily armored elves making a beeline towards me reminded me of what I had come home to do. “Lady Rea, the lord is waiting for you,” Came a stone-cold voice from the helmet up front. I nodded and followed my escort to the palace.

The palace was a large treehouse at the rear end of the village, and it was painted bright white. The large wooden doors opened outwards, and as we walked in the guards pointed me towards my father's personal office. Whenever father had called me into that room in the past it was always to scold me, so I gulped as I turned the doorknob and walked inside.

“Father, I’m back,” I said hesitantly. There was no answer, and the chair behind his desk was empty. Then I was suddenly tackled from the side and almost fell to the ground.

“Reeeaaaa! I was worried sick! Where have you been?” Came a teary-eyed voice from the man who was much too old and much too high ranked in our village to be doting on his daughter like this.

“F-f-father? Let go of me!”

“No! Do you know how scared I was when I heard you didn’t come back on schedule? I just gave an order to mobilize half of our hunters to comb the jungle!” He said, sobbing.

“You did what? That’s a huge overreaction! And let go of me already!” I said as I started punching him. What a brute! Blindsiding me like this is unforgivable!

After a few minutes of punching, he finally let go and took a seat behind his desk. The light shining through the window lit up his face, and I could see that he was back in serious mode. He was wearing his formal attire, which was a green hunting outfit and a white sash pulled over his chest. The white sash was the mark of a ruler in elven culture, and this particular sash had been passed down in our family for generations.

“Where were you, and what have you been doing? I hope you have a good reason for making me worry.” His words sent a chill down my spine as I was reminded that, despite being my father, this man was the lord of the village.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” I said to his surprise. “It all started two days ago when I heard a strange screech during my patrol...”

I explained the events of the past two days to my father, and his eyes went wide at the mention of a possible elven spy.

“So Jason is really dead... and now we have a spy to worry about," He said solemnly. "I had originally called you here to scold you, but you’ve done well Rea. I believe your judgment to observe this boy was correct.”

I let out a relieved sigh. Thank Freya, he wasn’t going to scold me anymore.

“I leave this mission in your hands. You will lead a team to track this boy down, then you will learn his goals and find out all the information you can. Be prepared to defend yourselves, but do not attack unprovoked,” He said in a commanding tone.

“As you wish, Father,” I said with a small bow. Yes! I finally had a chance to prove myself.