The night was quiet and bedazzling, the stars shone so brightly and mysteriously that Edra could almost feel that they whispered to him of the wonders and secrets which they held. It was one of the few things he had found consistent since he ended up in the future, the beauty of the starry sky. It was no wonder to him why in his lifetime throughout the ages people had talked and theorized of visitors from other planets, recalling the system message he knew now that not only was there life, but that there was intelligent life. However all he could do was wonder about it while he admired the stars, they always made him feel insignificant. Maybe now more than ever did he really feel that he we part of some elaborate program, here he was as a ghost, no matter how much he could feel it, no matter how it felt real, that tidbit of information stayed with him, maybe he should care more, maybe he should find a way and exit the matrix so to speak, or become so powerful that he could force the system to send him back, revive his family, friends and wife, or redo everything but he knew that that was simply stupidity, this wasn’t earth conquered, it was an entire universe under the control of its creators, how was it any different than a god? How would he go about achieving something like that, and hadn’t he lived happily, hadn’t his parents, why would it change anything? It hadn’t been the first time he had questioned the big question of ‘why are we here’ the only difference was that now he knew, as far as the specific rules? He did not know, yet being a ghost he couldn’t help but wonder if the simulation simulated an afterlife too? How deep did it go? The more he thought the more melancholic he became, he simply lay on his back in the sky for hours, he wasn’t very high up, about 20 meters which seemed to be his limit at that level.

As the sun dawned Edra realised that morning had come, in all of its splendor and glory, his melancholic mood lightened as he slowly floated back down, he noticed that the dog from the other night was still there, peacefully sleeping. He couldn’t help but chuckle to himself, the dog had been an unwilling participant in his unruly uncontrollable mood swings, eventually tiring it out.

Clop, clop, clop… The sound of hooves brought him out of his thoughts as he looked towards the road, there in the distance he saw a small horse riding to its full ability, it wasn’t a pony but simply looked like a small grey horse, on top of it sat a small child, although Edra couldn’t be sure as they were still a distance away. There weren’t any pursuers however, which left the mad dash unexplained.

As the horse drew closer Edra began to get a better look of the rider, it wasn’t a child, but a small man with large feet with plenty of hair, even if Edra had lived in a shell all of his life he would recognize this race, it was obviously a hobbit, he looked quite young judging from his facial features, and as if he could feel someone looking the rider turned his head and for just a moment their gaze met.

. . . .

His name was Thadeus Satchet, a hobbit 2’st rank Wild Sorcerer, he was a proud young hobbit who had begun to gather some renown in the region as he enjoyed helping his fellow folks. He had just arrived in Wilkfork fishing village when he had heard that a village not far from it was being surrounded and overrun by undead, he didn’t know how much he could actually help, but he didn’t care, he had always braved whatever danger was in his way, he couldn’t have gotten a class like Wild Sorcerer if he didn’t!

As he whipped his horse in a reckless dash he began feeling slightly strange, almost as if someone was looking at him, as if someone was staring right at him, he hadn’t noticed anything earlier, but out of reflex he turned his head to the right, and there his eyes met with deep blood red pupils of a ghostly man, the shock of the sudden undead was enough to throw his mind into tumult and him and his horse crashed heavily into the bushes.

. . . .

‘Oh my’ Edra thought carelessly as he saw the small man on his small horse make a tiny, but fatal mistake as they crashed into a bush on the roadside. The shepherd dog awoke at the noise and got up lazily, it barely reacted to Edra as it stared at the crash site. Edra looked towards the dog and couldn’t help but speak aloud “let’s go take a look” as soon as he spoke the sentence he noticed that his voice sounded like it was being echoed through a tunnel, eerie and scary, he could only helplessly shake his head as he hastily floated towards the horse-crash.

. . . .

When Thadeus finally came to, he was feeling awfully depressed and groggy, it was unlike his usual mood, yet he couldn’t quite shake it, as he blinked his eyes he saw the night sky, he was lying underneath an oak tree close to the road, the very same oak tree where he had seen the ghostly distraction, leading to his current predicament, he had several conditions related to the crash currently, and whereas most would disperse by daylight, he couldn’t help but feel as if all was lost with his delay, even though he knew this was not his regular mood, he couldn’t help but feel the way he felt. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and with the brightness of the moonlight he soon saw the small pile of wood in front of him, although unlit it was clear that it was a bonfire, and opposite him was his horse, a gauge had been tightened around its front leg, it wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon, he recognized the gauge as his own, yet he failed to see anyone else, except for a dirty stray shepherds dog lying next to the horse.

“Where’s your owner?” he asked with a heavy accent, while he held his head which bumped with pain.

“Well I’m not its owner, but I assume you are talking to me!” a voice erupted around him, almost as if it came from beyond, Thadeus was startled and quickly rolled away from where he was previously, he was clearly spooked, yet he still failed to see anything.

“Show yourself devil!” he sneered.

“My you sound almost Irish to my ears, although you won’t know what that is, would you now… oh my sorrow” the strange voice turned into a wail of sadness.

Thadeus too felt this strange sadness, at least he knew where his change of mood came from, it was some sort of skill which the monster used “Is it you, you vile ghost!? What have your kin done to the village of Rigsby Dale!? I swear on me last bottle of Hamped Fall Wine that I’ll avenge the villagers” he spoke through gritted teeth as his willpower was fighting the sadness that enveloped him, had he not been affected by the ‘groggy’ and ‘shook brain’ conditions which both lowered his willpower and intelligence, he wouldn’t be struggling so much, but the cards fell as they may, and he began racking his brain of which spell to chant.

“…” silence permeated the area as the sadness was lifted, instead a slight feeling of confusion spread “Apologies, my kin has done what wrongs now? I’m not entirely certain I understand what you’re talking about” soon the confusion lifted, and rage began bubbling ever so lightly as the voice continued speaking “do you know how much trouble it was to get that mutt and your tiny horse to drag you away from the road?! Do you know how much trouble it was for me to gather the firewood and bind the gauge on your horse when I have to do it all telepathically?! And what do you do? You insult me! And accuse me of crimes which I have not committed! You foul hobbit!” the rage kept increasing, but didn’t quite reach a boiling point, yet for the already short-tempered Thadeus the increase in anger was enough for him to lose his reason, of course with the conditions he was under he was not of sound mind to begin with, his left hand lit up in a pentagram of fire, and his right hand in a circle of lightning, he pushed his palms together and an unprecedented power spread out forming a pentagram and a circle in a 20 square meter radius!

The maddened hobbit laughed crazily “I caught you know you foul ghost, no undead leaves this cage of flaming silence!”

. . . .

Edra’s mood was fluctuating wildly, having contact with another person made his mood swing up and down, and before he knew it the mad hobbit had power pulsing in his hands and created a lightning and fire cage, knowing his own weaknesses he knew that he couldn’t go touching the fiery walls that held him, nor the lightning outer wall that barred him, however he couldn’t help but be confused by the small man’s action “But aren’t you caught in the same cage?” he asked incredulously as he gazed at the maniacal laughing hobbit. His question got the hobbit to shut up in a heartbeat.

“Buggers!” the hobbit exclaimed as he sat back down on the floor grumpily.

. . . .

In his hotheadedness he had trapped himself inside his own restriction spell, and also his horse and the stray mutt. It was a very powerful restriction spell, it didn’t actively destroy anyone unless you actually touched the fiery or thunderous parts, it was especially useful for the undead who usually had low intelligence and whom would mindlessly walk into the barriers, which was why Thadeus had prepared the spell the day before. As a Wild Sorcerer his spell casting functioned inherently differently, he would have to meditate or write down the formulae of the spell which he wished to use the next day, he had a current limit of 5 pre-prepared spells, and 2 active constantly useable spells, the constant spells could be toggled on and off the limitation was that they would have to cost 10-15% of his mana pool and have a casting time of 1-2 seconds, and the pre-prepared spells didn’t cost any mana as that mana was already used in the preparation period, the bonus of having the limited spells were that they could be cast fast, they packed a heavier punch than normal and he could prepare spells that currently cost up to a maximum of 70% of his mana pool. The biggest advantage he found was to use the longest casting time spells with the highest conditions, although they took a long time to prepare, if he had a day of prep time he could have 5 exceedingly powerful trump cards.

Thadeus cursed his own impulsiveness; the cage would last 1 hour in total, all he could do was stare towards the ghost that was barely visible in the flaming cage. What was it that it said? That it had helped him? That he had accused it of crimes of which it was innocent, it was quite a bit to take in, he had never conversed with a ghost before, he had never met a rational one, or at least semi rational?

. . . .

Edra couldn’t see much of the hobbit through the fiery barriers, but he did see the outline, he had noticed earlier that he looked slightly older than him, but of course he didn’t know the living age of hobbits, so he couldn’t be sure, his clothing was what he’d have expected of a hobbit with no shoes, brown trousers, a leather belt with a white shirt tucked in, with a vest covering his upper body and a woolen long coat, well long for a hobbit, his hair was strawberry blonde and neatly combed with some sort of grease, he had had masculine features and a stubby beard.

While Edra was contemplating the encounter, and his current predicament, the hobbit spoke up unceremoniously with a thither in his voice, he was obviously uncomfortable with the entire situation “So, eh, mr ghost?” he began lightly “so you, erh, you aren’t part of the assault on the village near here?”

“… Sorry sir hobbit, but I don’t know where I am, so how can I be part of an assault on this, what was it you called it? Rigsby Dale?” his voice echoed in an unnerving manner, Edra realised that this was not helping his cause, but there was little he could do about it, was it his race and class’s doing? Or was it the title ‘Ghost’ that added spookiness? He tried turning it off, but he couldn’t.

“Eh, ye don’t know where ye are?” as the hobbit got more comfortable, his grammar fell slightly out of sync, and he shortened some of his words “well tell me lad, where do ye come from then?”

Memories passed through Edra’s head, some his own, some not “I guess you could say that I’m from Brütsch kingdom” he sighed melancholically.

“Brr…Kingdom, never heard of it lad, do you know any neighboring kingdom’s? this here is DuniiGan country, and we’re in the South Hold of the Left Minister’s land holdings”

Edra tried to remember if he had read anything like it, but he didn’t remember anything at all regarding this DuniiGan country “I know that the endless desert is in the south and that the snowy kingdom of Hagh is in the north”

“What are ye talkin’ ‘bout lad, the Endless Dunes are in the north, and the only snowy kingdoms are in the mountains in the west, and none of them are called Hagh…” Thadeus trailed off as a realization hit him, he could hardly believe the thought that struck his mind at this point “did ye say that the Endless Dunes are in the south lad?”

Edra too began to connect the dots “The Endless Desert” he corrected “I’d be darned” he whispered at first “I’d be darned!” he yelled loudly, I’m on a different continent entirely!!!” he yelled in despair. The mood instantly sank for everyone present, the poor shepherd whimpered, and so did the horse.

Thadeus felt the despair, but his mind was too excited about what he had heard, so there was civilization on the other side of the dunes “Are, are all ye ghosts on the northern continent like ye-self?” he asked politely.

“I don’t know, I just died, I think?” Edra said slightly confused at the prospect of being far away from Bardo, and from his murderer.

. . . .

The hour soon passed, and Thadeus gathered some more fireworks and soon he was sitting around a bonfire together with a shepherd dog and his injured horse, having a conversation with a ghost floating and flickering next to him, it was all very odd he thought.

After Thadeus explained his situation Edra readily agreed to come with him, albeit he wasn’t sure as to whether he could be of help or not.

The following morning Thadeus left hastily, a blood-red mist floating above him, and injured horse halting next to him and a stray mutt following behind them all.

‘I’m going to die wee mother!’ he thought to himself as he staunchly continued onwards towards the infested village of Rigsby Dale.