Tae-Won was four days out of Startesgarde on horseback and he was tired.

“Jenjang!.” He whined to his horse, who responded with a flick of his tail. They’d been slowly working their way through this forest for two days and Tae-Won wanted nothing more than to spend the night in a soft bed with a warm meal in his belly. But he hadn’t seen any villages since the inn he’d left two mornings ago. His nights had been sleeping under the stars using his cloak as a pillow while his horse grazed nearby.

“Why is the House of Whispers so far out in Anavasa?.” He taken to talking to his mount in English as he rode. The brown stallion was his only company, but also, despite having been married to Leah for almost five years, he still was occasionally self conscious about there being a language barrier between him and his guildmates. Leah had told him constantly that he had nothing to worry about, his teacher had been amazing, but he still was nervous.

“I hope Leah got to Eldergrove safely, not being able to contact her is rough.” He wondered aloud. His horse, as usual, said nothing.

“Being away from her for a couple weeks is always hard. And last time she finished the Wildkin quest she was weird for a couple of days.” He paused for a second, “but I guess if I was doing nothing but training with Druids and fey spirits for weeks I’d be different too.”

Tae-Won rode for another hour before the midday sun was high above him, radiating heat that managed to penetrate the thick forest canopy.

“What do you say we take a rest for some lunch?” He leaned forward and patted the neck of his mount.

Looking around he spotted what looked like a break in the forest near the trail he was riding about half a mile ahead of him.

“Just a short run and then we’ll get something to eat.” He slapped his reins against his mounts neck, signaling he wanted to run and his horse obliged by breaking into a quick sprint.

“Score!” The break in the trees was a small clearing bordering a babbling creek. Tae-Won hopped down from his horse and smacked it lightly on the flank. “Get something to drink and enjoy your grass.”

Tae-Won pulled some dried jerky and water skein out of his pack and sat down against one of the large trees by the creek.

“Hope your meal tastes better than mine,” he said to the grazing animal as he worked to chew the tough meat. “Maybe tonight we’ll end up with a real meal.”

He finished his unsatisfying meal and looked over at his horse who was still happily munching on the thick green grass growing by the edge of the creek.

“Tell you what, I’m going to take a quick nap, you keep watch. Good?” His horse, as usual, said nothing. “Good.”

Tae-Won was so tired and sore from riding he was asleep in no time.

He was awoken sometime later when his horse kicked him in the ribs.

“Not now, five more minutes.” He said groggily and rolled over. His horse kicked him again.

“Okay, I’m up!” He exclaimed, opening his eyes. Around him were ten heavily armored people in dark mail and full plate. One of them stood directly over him, clearly the one who had been kicking him.

“Sorry to wake you up so rudely, friend” a man in a dark helm called over to him from atop a white horse, his voice slightly muffled by the faceplate. “We saw you sleeping and wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Tae-Won pushed himself to his feet and the person who’d woken him took several steps back.

“No harm, no foul. Just getting a little rest on a long journey.” He said, dusting himself off.

“Where are you headed?” The man asked him, his companions all remaining silent.

“Anvasa.” Tae-Won responded easily, unsure if these people were players or NPCs.

“Rogue class quest?” A woman off to the mounted man’s side asked him, the first of the group to speak up. She carried a thin staff with a growing purple crystal and was the only one wearing robes instead of full armor. A serrated dagger that looked like it was made of bone was strapped to her leather belt.

“Yeah, just hit 15 so now I’m off for some RP adventures.” He answered with a smile.

“You're traveling alone, the rest of your guild on their own quests or you just catching up after respawning?” The man on the horse asked.

“Catching up.” Tae-Won lied, something about their line of questioning was starting to make him feel nervous. “Died on floor 26 to a dragon.”

“Interesting.” The man with the helmet hopped down from his horse, his metal armor rustling from the weight of his drop. Tae-Won could see he had a long spear strapped to his back. Over his armor he wore a dark tabard with a red insignia, but Tae-Won couldn’t make it out from the distance.

“You know what I think, Erin?” The man asked the woman with the staff as he walked towards Tae-Won, raising the ornate face guard.

“What’s that, Paul?” She responded, tilting her head as if she knew he was about to tell an extra funny joke.

“I think he’s lying.” He turned from Erin and looked directly at Tae-Won. “I think, his entire pathetic guild is on their own class quests and out of contact with our new friend.”

Tae-Won casually rested his hands on his belt, reaching into one of the many hidden pockets on the leather strap. He didn’t know who this man was, but it was obvious he was looking for a fight. He knew that he didn’t have much of a chance against a group of ten, but he hoped he could take one down with him before he was forced to respawn.

“Nope, like I said. Died to a dragon on the 26th floor.” Tae-Won said, trying to appear calm.

“Well see, we are, sorry were, part of the raid clan. We were helping clear floor 26 and I don’t remember seeing you there.” The man took another step towards Tae-Won and he could finally see the insignia was a red dragon. A flash of memory told him it was important, but he couldn’t remember why.

“Now, when I said we were part of the raid clan, I meant until a friend of yours got us kicked out.” Paul stopped a few feet in front of Tae-Won.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about that.” Tae-Won tried to feign ignorance. He finally knew why he recognized the symbol. This was the guild Ethan had warned them about having a run in with on his way back to Startesgarde.

Before Paul could say or do anything else, Tae-Won dropped the smoke pellet he’d taken from his belt. With a explosive bang, thick black smoke filled the small area. Tae-Won took his chance and vanished into Stealth. He moved as silently as he could trying to put some distance between himself and the Blood Dragons who had surrounded him.

With his would-be attackers coughing from his distraction, Tae-Won sprinted into the woods. Have to hide and then resummon my horse. Then what? Fuck! Back to Startesgarde? His panicked thoughts raced to possibile outcomes. There were ten of them and all were significantly higher level than he was.

“Where did he go?”

“Find that asshole! He couldn’t have gotten far!”

Tae-Won could hear them shouting as they looked for him. He dodged around trees, running in a broken line to throw them off his trail.

“HOOOOOT.” A large owl stared down at him from a tree branch as it screamed.

“He’s over there! My pet found him!” Fuck. Tae-Won pushed himself harder to the right. He could hear several people chasing him haphazardly through the forest.

Ahead of him he could see the road. Unconsciously, he’d headed back in that direction. If I can make it there, I can get my horse.

Holding his arms over his face, he ran through the low hanging branches to the open dirt path. With a lightning fast gesture his horse appeared directly in front of him.

Tae-Won vaulted onto the animal’s back and kicked it hard in the rips. The horse obligingly took off at a fast gallop.

“He’s back on the road!”

An arrow flew past his head, slicing into his left ear. Tae-Won winced and grabbed his injured ear, blood flowed into his hand.

“Don’t kill him!” He heard Paul yell out as the sounds of horses began to catch up to him.

Several more arrows flew past him, three landed in the backside of his galloping mount.

The horse screamed in pain and pushed itself faster. Imminent danger surged adrenaline through the animal.

Blistering heat seared the right side of his body as a fireball missed him but threw up a cloud of dust in front of him. Tae-Won chanced a look back, he needed to know just how many were now chasing after him.

Paul was now at the head of the charge. His wicked looking spear was in his hand. Right as Tae-Won saw him, Paul launched the weapon at him.

With only a split second, Tae-Won leapt from his horse. The spear impaled itself into his mount’s neck and the animal winked out of existence back into its summoning rune.

Tae-Won tried to roll out of the way of the oncoming attackers, but a dark purple mist enveloped him, locking his muscles and holding him in place.

His arms slapped to his sides and his body rolled over, completely out of his own volition.

Erin, the Warlock, reigned in her mount until she was right above him. Purple energy sparked from her eyes and fingertips as she grinned maniacally.

“You didn’t let me finish.” Paul said, dismounting and sauntering over to Tae-Won’s paralyzed body.

“I’m going to make Ethan pay for getting us kicked out of the raid clan.” He taunted him.

Tae-Won couldn’t say anything or move. He couldn’t resist the high level Hold Person spell that he’d been hit with.

He could see the hatred in Paul’s eyes as the large man walked towards him.

As soon as I get back to Grassmere I need to warm everyone! His mind raced on how he was going to protect the rest of his guild. If they got him, how many others were already taken or killed? Had they got Leah?

A heavy plate boot smashed into his face, and everything went black