By the time we had made it to the nearest road the sun had already begun to set. Paved with grey cobblestones the road was unlike the path that had led into Fenroot village. Before settling in to my first watch Orion approached me and pulled something out of his pocket. He presented me with a small pack of dried meat, explaining that he had convinced the blacksmith to throw a few rations into his purchase. It was a much appreciated gesture, all of the fighting and running we’d done in the past few days had been a major drain on my energy. I happily accepted the food and started to drive away the hunger that had been gnawing at me the entire day.

After he’d finished his meal Orion started a small fire and soon passed out next to it, leaving me to watch over the camp we’d made next to the side of the road. As before, the stars were beautiful against the silhouette of the horizon. The meadow we had found ourselves in after exiting the forest was open and provided a long distance from which to spot anyone coming from the north, east, or west. The breeze that blew across it brought with it smells of springtime flowers and freshly grown grass.

I realized that being born into this world could have been a lot worse. It had been a lucky coincidence that I had arrived during the spring, with its abundant growth and mild temperatures. Another piece of fortune that I had been blessed with was the fact that my rift hadn’t spawned me in a hostile or dangerous environment. My mind wandered, imagining myself stumbling around the tundra or slipping down a mountain. It would have certainly been interesting if not magnitudes more dangerous.

After being lost in thought for a while with the beauty of this world on my mind, I realised I had completely missed the presence of something approaching our camp. I jumped up and unsheathed my sword as soon as I noticed a silhouette just beyond the dancing firelight. “Who goes there!” my voice menacingly commanded. I chastised myself, I can’t believe I’d gotten distracted enough to let someone sneak this close.

“Eeke!” The small form retreated a small distance before turning around again to face me. A small voice quietly spoke through the night, “I’m sorry please, I won't bother you. Just don’t hurt me ok.” At this point Orion was back up, his spear held at the ready. He had heard my sword being drawn and was ready to face this new threat with me.

“Why were you sneaking up on us?” I asked, trying to maintain the threat in my voice. I didn’t know what this person was trying to do. Her feminine voice and feigned helplessness might just be a ploy to get us to lower our guards.

“I wasn’t trying to sneak up on you!” She pleaded, “I just wanted to see if you were a group of merchants that I could share a fire with. I see now that you have weapons and you’re probably not into sharing your fire with me so I’ll just be moving along.” I started to interrupt her to let her know that she was welcome to approach the fire so that we could make sure she wasn’t up to no good before she cut me off midway, “No no no, that’s fine. I’d rather not put myself into that kind of position. Two men with weapons and armor asking me to come closer doesn’t really sit well with my idea of life thanks.”

She was a cautious one. Rightfully so of course, she was right to not put herself into dangerous situations. If I were in her position I would have tried to play it safe too, unfortunately for her I had noticed her before she could ascertain whether we had weapons, “We don’t mean you any harm. We’re just paranoid that you might not have the best intentions.” I took a step back towards the opposite side of the fire, sword still drawn and Orion followed suit, “Here look, why don’t you step into the light and show us that you don’t have weapons. If you do that then we can put ours away.” There was a long silence before I added another thing, “I know you don’t trust us but can you justify the risk you take by remaining in the dark? I would think it would be more dangerous away from the light of the fire.”

More silence met my ears. Then I could hear a rustling noise, grass being moved aside as a body pushed through it. What emerged into the edge of the firelight was a small otter-like creature dressed in a white cloth robe, two blue lines running vertical down its length. In her hand she held a walking stick and by her side hung a satchel, no weapons were visible. Her frame was only an inch or two shorter than Orion’s yet her coat was much more smooth, making her seem thinner by comparison. Her light blue eyes sparkled in the flickering firelight as they cautiously tracked our every move.

Slowly I sheathed my sword, a sign of goodwill as I noticed her lack of weapons or armor. Orion glanced at me and relaxed the grip on his spear. Even so, she sat at the edge of the firelight as I made my way over to the fire to take a seat. My dagger was hidden within my armor if I needed it, from the look of this otter I likely wouldn’t. As she slowly stepped closer to the fire I could see how fearful she was, careful with each step as if we were about to pounce. My voice made her jump back several feet when I finally decided to speak, “It’s alright, you can take as much time as you need. I’ll start us off with the introductions. My name is Alyx and this Ferrin here is Orion.” I motioned to the Ferrin who sat down beside me.

At this the otter came forward again and introduced herself, “My name is Shiza, pleasure to meet you.” She’d finally worked up the courage to sit down on the opposite side of the fire, “Sorry about my skittishness. You can never be too cautious when meeting random people much bigger than you.”

Orion was quick to pipe up, no doubt trying to change the subject and put her at ease, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Musteve around here. Doesn’t your race live halfway across the continent?”

She nodded, “Yes but how I got here is a long story and not the kind of thing I usually share with strangers.” She was quiet for a moment before continuing, “I was hoping I would make it to Valenta before nightfall but I got a bit sidetracked by some monsters and had to go around.”

My ears perked up at the mention of monsters, “What monsters did you run into on your way here?” I hoped she hadn’t run into any nearby. The thought of facing a pack of tardogs in the middle of the night was unsettling and the thought of having to face an alpha in the dark was downright terrifying.

I could see her hand hadn’t moved from the inside of her bag since she’d sat down. She was still probably afraid that we were going to try something and had some sort of weapon in there, “I had to get off the road and hide when I noticed a few tardogs about midday. I’ve never seen them around here so I almost got caught off guard. Truth be told, the only reason I’m sitting at this campfire now is because I don’t want to get caught alone in the dark by one of those beasts.”

Well at least we were on the same page. When she asked what brought us to our camping spot we told her about Fenroot village and how it had been overrun by monsters. She was taken aback when we informed her about the alpha, tardogs, and the tarspewer. Never having heard of a tarspewer she was horrified by its power. She confessed to Orion that she had never been to his former village but told him she was sorry for his loss. The rest of the night was spent chatting away and telling stories.

Most of the stories came from Orion and Shiza which was fine with me as I didn’t have a lot of stories to tell anyway. The stories were mostly about bartering as it turned out that Shiza was a sort of traveling merchant. She had just transported an order of mana potion supplies to a nearby village and was heading back to Valenta to collect her payment from her guild. It sounded like an unfair system, having to travel all the way back to the city of origin to get paid for a contract. It prevented the transport of goods without the guild’s say because merchants couldn’t then buy goods from the village and ship them back to the city for a profit. Talks went on like this until the sun was just about to poke its head above the horizon.

“Hey, we’re heading to Valenta too, why don't you join us on the road?” Orion yawned, his back stretching as he stood up and scraped some dirt on the fire.

Shiza seemed taken aback at first and then stammered to answer the Ferrin, “Are… are you sure? I can’t afford to pay for an escort and if we come under attack I’ll be pretty useless.”

I chimed in at this point. She’d already basically paid for one with the information she’d shared about her guild, which would turn out to be very useful if I ever had to deal with them. “That’s fine, it’s not a problem. Like he said, we’re already heading there so there’s really no point in trying to go separately anyway.”

At this she jumped up and did a full 360. Then she excitedly helped us pack our camp. I kept an eye on everything she touched to make sure she wasn’t just a really convincing thief. To my great surprise, everything that she had helped us pack was right where it should’ve been. She seemed genuinely joyous to have made new acquaintances. How could she have gone from as distrustful as she was last night to this? I still didn’t fully trust Orion and yet here was a creature who not only completely gave her trust to random strangers after only one night of talking, but also had accepted an escort to town from those strangers while completely unarmed.

As we set off toward the city I could only wonder if she was at fault for her blind faith in others or if I was the one at fault for my inherent distrust.

No… it was her… it was stupid to trust random people.

Shiza

Musteve (Level 2)

3/200 Experience

40/40 Health ----

30/30 Stamina ------

60/60 Mana --

10/10 Spirit ---

‘0’ Stat Points Available

Racial Ability - Unavailable

Skills: (Staff G) (Healing Magic G) (Barter G)