I come over a crest and stop in shock at what I see. A SPACESHIP! An honest to god freaking spaceship! Well, the remains of a spaceship at least. It looks like half of it is gone as it is strewn across a 100-yard field of debris. The ship looks to be torn in half and is still on fire. I switch over to Bowen and look at Tor. “Can you search your database or whatever and tell me what that is?”

He loses focus for a second as I can tell he is looking at an information screen of some kind. He looks back over at me and says “It is some kind of a Truinnar scout ship. Before you ask, It is one of the races in the System. The humanoid race that you would call Elf, Or more specifically Dark Elf... But don't call them that, they will take offense.”

I race across the field to come up on the ship when I notice bodies laying all over the place. Big, hairy, semi-invisible, bodies. Bodies that are not all dead...

I walk up to one that is not moving and see that it is a cat of some kind. I focus on it and get: “Phasing Snow Leopard (level 100)” This shelf near the top of the mountain must have been their home or resting spot and a freaking spaceship crashed right into them!

The cat is shredded with debris and shrapnel. I think “What bad luck! Boo-frickin who!” These cats would have been eating me the first chance they got! I pulled my weapon and think “Fire Spear” and slowly made my way to the ship.

As I approach the ship I notice a metal gleam in a smoking hole in a snowdrift almost 40 yards away from the ship. Since it is closer to me than the ship, I walk over to it. I make it out to be what I assume is an escape pod because lying half out of it is what appears to be a dead Dark Elf! I slowly walk to the egg-shaped pod and take a peek inside. Beside a stretcher looking bed the only thing I see is a polearm type weapon of some sort. I grab it and examine it. Truinnar Micro-edged Reaper Staff.

“Ohh, that's bad news Bubba!” Tor says.

“Why is that?” I say back.

“Because only important Truinnar get a weapon like that, that thing is worth beaucoup bucks buddy.”

I look closer at it “What's so special about this?” It's a three-foot piece of wood that looks like it extends with quarter crescent blades sticking out of all four sides like a bladed mace and a needle-like 10-inch point sticking out of the top. The blades have a fuzzy kind of edge look to them. I reach to touch one and Tor yells in my head “DON'T touch those things!”

I almost drop the weapon he surprises me so much. “What's the problem man?”

Tor has wide eyes when he says, “Those blades are sharpened down to the molecular level, If you even touch them they will take your finger off straight through the bone. Those little blades can slice through metal. Besides, that the Elf might get mad at you, she is still alive!”

“What?!” I walk over and drop to a knee and examine the Dark Elf. I can see her arm slightly twitch, there is some kind of life there. I look at her more closely. She is wearing some seriously expensive-looking space armor and a helmet that has a big dent on the top right side of it. Besides that, I can see no damage. Definitely some kind of a head injury. I get behind her and gingerly grab her under the armpits and drag her all the way out. I go to the pod and tug the stretcher looking thing and manage to tear it out. I lay it next to her and slowly pull her on top of it and reach into my inventory and take out the bear fur. I drape the bear pelt over her just leaving her head out. The pelt is three times bigger than her.

“What am I going to do with her?” I ask Tor.

“Well you could just leave her here, she looks to be in some kind of coma, she might never come out of it.”

I take a deep breathe and look around. “If one of these Snow Leopards is alive enough to regen, it will eat her alive, I can't do that.”

Tor looks around and says, “Well... There is enough metal scrap here and you have that micro edged weapon, make a sled...”

I trudge towards the ship already regretting what I am about to try when I come upon one of the severely injured Leopards. The thing is all crushed up and burnt, but it still has life in it. Its eyes are rolling around trying to focus on me. I almost can't believe that I still feel any sympathy for these monsters. I know they will all aggressively hunt me down, but I love all animals.

I place the needle on the staff near the top of its head and push down. The needle passes through the skull like its warm butter. I hear a low growl and look over twenty feet away and see another of them phasing in and out. With a sad sigh, I make my way over...

In the end, I made my mind up to check them all for life. I can't have the suffering on my conscience, and I can't risk any of them regening while I am here. After putting about 20 of them out of their misery, I approach the last one I can see and spot some movement. I lift the staff ready to slice open whatever predator is chewing on this one and am stunned to find a little cub feeding from her mother!

The Leopard cub sees me and lets out a pitiful mewl and starts stumbling towards me. I start to back up and realize how ridiculous I look. The cub is about the size of a healthy house cat, I'd guess about 12 pounds. I go to a knee and say, “Here kitty kit, come here girl.” The cub mewls and runs over to me and jumps into my arms. I give it a little scratch on the head and it starts to purr at me. It looks deep into my eyes with the beautiful blue ones of its own and I know I'm sunk... I'm already in love with it.

I walk the cub over to the Dark Elf's makeshift bed and its already fallen asleep in my arms. I open a fold of fur and tuck it in next to her, I don't know what else to do. I rummage through my pack and pull out the big leather Bota canteen and drink as much as I can. I empty it and head back to the dead mother...

It takes me a while, but I manage to milk a canteen full of milk and I head back. I put the leather bag under the fur to keep it warm and I head over to the wreckage. Using the staff I crudely cut out a square of metal and some rails. I manage to find a section of the ship that has all kinds of super-strong wiring and get to work. After an hour of work, I finally have a half-assed sled made up. The cub and the Elf aren't moving so I grab the harness I made and start to slowly drag the sled down the hill.

I hardly noticed it, but now that I am dragging this thing I realize that it must weight at least two-hundred pounds. I am pulling it, not carrying it, but it feels like it weighs nothing. I was a strong guy before, but now I must look like the hulk!

I see a few different kinds of lower-level animals that look like they are going to attack me, but I simply change into the Dire Bear and either kill them or run them off. The sun is starting to get low when I spot a cave 50 yards above me. I think I might have made it all of five miles today and I am mentally exhausted. I let out a sigh and go check on the cave.

The cave is small, maybe twenty feet deep and seven feet tall. There has been something living here for sure, but it's not here right now. I figure that anything small enough that can live in this cave I can handle, so I enter. This area is littered with caves, and this was probably a bear's hibernating den so I should be alright. I drag the sled into the cave and set Tor out front to keep lookout. He tells me that I have made a few levels today and I should allocate some stats. I check and notice that I made 4 levels.

I say to Tor “I am so low level that I feel like I should be getting more experience?”

He Says “You are leveling an advanced class, you will need to get two times the experience every level that a normal class needs. It is well worth it though because you are roughly twice the level that your stat sheet shows.”

I have 12 points to distribute and I pop them in Con and Perception. After that, I check on my patients.

The cub is snuggled right into the nape of the Elf's neck but wakes up when I pull back the fur. It gives me a sleepy face look and struggles to sit up. I chuckle and grab it pulling it to my chest and rubbing its back. It puts both front paws on my shoulders and it stares intently at me.“You are too damn beautiful!” I coo to it. The cub starts getting fidgety and wants down so I set it on the floor and laugh as it totters about falling over every now and then. It looks over and sees Tor and makes a fake attack at him.

Tor's eyes widen and he says, “The cat can see me, she must have access to my plane of existence!”

I shrug and say “Who knows what it is, It's not from this planet that's for sure.”

I rummage under the fur and pull out the canteen which was lying on the Elf's thigh. It is still warm and when I take the cap off and the cub must be able to smell it because it comes running over pawing at me. I tip the spout down near its mouth and it tries to suckle it but can't. A little raspy tongue shoots out and the cat starts lapping at the milk. After a few minutes, the cat has had its fill and starts getting the sleepy face again. I pick it up and lay it back next to the Elf where it instantly closes its eyes and starts purring.

Focusing on the Elf, I notice an indentation at the bottom of the visor covering her face and I put my finger into it and push up. The clear face plate lifts up exposing her face.

I move to the other side and take a better look at her. She has long black hair and dusky, grayish, dark skin. I suppose she is quite beautiful in an exotic, weird, fantasy kind of way. I debate whether or not to take her helmet off but decide not to. I'm not a doctor, and I'm not sure if she would start swelling if I did that.

I take my canteen and put some water on my finger. I rub it on her lips and they part a tiny bit by reflex. I dribble a few drops into her mouth and wait for her to spit or choke on it. When she doesn't, I dribble some more in and watch her. No reaction... I call over to Tor, “Hey man, If she is in a coma with no life support won't she just die on us?”

Tor shakes his head “The System is better than any life support. The health regen she has is probably high. Have you tried to focus on her and see her name yet? You can't because it's all question marks meaning she is either way too high level for us

to see it or way too rich and has spent a lot of money to hide it. Either way, she certainly has enough regen going to keep her life sustained. Sooner or later she will be completely healed.”

I pull out a bag of beef jerky and start gobbling down the strips. I move over and sit by Tor and ask him “So tell me, Ancestor if that cat could see you, are others going to be able to see you in the future when we are out hunting?”

Tor looked at me and said, “Well, I am your linked spirit companion, I will level up as you do. I will gain abilities and become more powerful just like you. I don't know how that cat can see me right now, but it must be connected to the spirit world somehow. When I become more powerful I will be able to block anything from seeing me and I will also be able to become corporeal and be able to let others see me if I want. I will be able to help you as a scout, even now I can sense a bird coming from a few hundred meters out.”

I raised my eyebrows at that. “Well that is good to know man, do you have any idea what you will become? A spy or hunter or healer?”

Tor shook his head, “I don’t have a clue for now, but when we eventually make it to a store I will be able to find out all kinds of good stuff.”

I wasn't very tired, but I didn't expect to make it through the night without some kind of trouble, so I told Tor “I'm going to try and get a few hours of napping in, do you mind staying on the watch?”

Tor shook his head, “Not at all, go try to get a little rest. I will warn you before anything gets too close.” I went back next to the sled and propped myself against the wall protecting the two vulnerable ones.