"Ow."

My vision cleared. We were NOT standing where we had been before. And luckily there were no Goblin spears in me or Clarissa.

Clarissa!

I wheeled over to her. She was bent over in pain, holding her wrist. It was already swelling.

"Hey, are you OK? I heard the crack. You are amazing, you know? You saved us." I said soothingly.

She jerked her head towards me. There were tears in her eyes, and she was biting her lip.

"I didn't do ... this." She looked outward from the place we were standing. Her jaw dropped.

*Aegis. Proceed forward along the marked path until you reach the bridge. *

I looked around us. The air was cold, and somewhat clammy, like being in a cave. Though this was no cave. The floor beneath us was weathered stone, with a slight moist gloss to it. The floor was perfectly flat, and stretched off in every direction as far as we could see. There was some kind of marking on the floor, like a pattern, leading off in one direction. Every thirty feet or so, an immense pillar rose from the ground - easily ten feet in diameter, made of some kind of smooth stone that glowed with a warm ambient light. Each pillar was glowing a slightly different color and I had the impression of a stone forest of glow sticks for a giant rave concert.

As we watched, the colors slowly changed ... red to blue to green to yellow ... each one seemingly on its own cycle and sequence. They stretched high to a vaulted ceiling. I got a bit dizzy staring upwards, but something strange caught my eye.

"Look. Up there!" I said to Clarissa. Tiny lights were moving quickly in all directions up near the ceiling, like fireflies - only the lights didn't go out.

Bud sat peacefully, as if waiting for us to move.

I felt very small. Insignificant, like I used to feel in church when we would go to the huge catholic churches - when my dad felt like we had not had enough "religion" in our lives. Our voices felt strangely muffled. I turned to Clarissa. She was still hunched over, grasping her wrist.

What - I thought to myself - was I doing here? I'm just this kid. This nobody who's most likely dying out in the "real" world. And here I am going on this grand adventure without so much as a thought to what I was doing. Just careening from thing to thing like I was playing a video game.

Was this a game?

What if it was real?

It seemed so real.

I looked down at my arm. Lights played along the surface in small ways. I could see a wire here and there. Felt a servo pull as I moved my elbow. I thought about that man that died. About Clarissa standing there hurt because of me.

I clenched my fist.

Regardless of whether or not this world was "real", it was "real" to those people. Fantasy world, simulation, or drug induced hallucination, it didn't matter any more. I was going to help these people, and be true to myself. If I died in some vat of salt water somewhere, it would at least be with me knowing I did my best in the place I had been sent. Who knows? Maybe if I helped in this world, it might make a difference for me in my own world. But then I realized that was selfish. I was going to do my best here, regardless of my own life. In a way, I was already dead. What did it matter anymore? I was basically a ghost inside a toy robot here.

But I could be more than that.

Gritting my teeth, I rolled up closer to Clarissa.

"Wait a minute. Can you hand me your backpack?" I asked

"What? Ow!" she awkwardly rolled her shoulder and the backpack strap hit her wrist on the way down. It clunked to the ground. She gave me a pained look.

"Sorry. Just a second." I replied.

I opened her backpack with a bit of a struggle with one hand. Inside I saw rations, more knives (wow, she really likes knives I guess) and the thing I was looking for - a simple first aid kit. It was basically a bag with some wraps, a bottle of something that looked like iodine, and some small scissors.

I pulled them out and gestured to her wrist. She stared at me like I was some kind of ghost.

"What? Let's get your wrist wrapped. " I asked and soundlessly she extended her hand.

Well, wrapping a wrist one handed would have been incredibly awkward. But Clarissa understood what I was doing and we handed the cloth back and forth as we wrapped her wrist together. Tears were in her eyes, but she bit her lip and endured the pain. It was strange to be so close to another person after all this time. In the hospital, nurses were friendly but always kept a distance. Other patients were living their own personal troubles, and no one was interested in talking with a shy teenager. She kept looking up at me - into my eyes and I wondered if I was breaking some kind of social norms here in this world.

"There" I said.

Our work was clumsy and looked like a zombie had tried to put his hand in a clothes washing machine, but it immobilized her wrist.

Clarissa wiggled her fingers. Wincing a little.

"It ... feels better, a little. " She looked up at me.

"My mom would do things like this for me. I was always climbing trees, and falling out of them as a kid. I had more bruises, cuts, and sprains than any 5 year old should have. She was always kind to me... " She looked down at her wrist. "Like this."

If I had my camouflage back I probably would have blushed.

"I know this probably seems super weird and sudden. You find this crazy golem kid and now we're teleported to some stone forest in God knows where, and I managed to get you hurt trying to help me. I'm -- I'm sorry for pulling you into this. I don't want you to think I'm taking this for granted. I should have asked you if you wanted to do this at all." I looked down at the floor.

Bud looked at me and waged his tail.

She crouched down and looked me in the eyes. She quirked a smile, despite her pain. "Are you kidding me? This is the coolest thing that's ever happened to me. I'm not a big fan of dying or anything, but I've never experienced anything like this! "

She turned serious.

"But... I want you to promise me something. Whatever is ... out there" She gestured in the way we were going to proceed, "That you'll not suddenly forget I'm here. You're some kind of super special magical creature. As soon as you find someone else like you ..." She looked down at the floor.

"Not a chance. I owe you too much. You saved me, remember? I'd be ... dead by now if you hadn't found me"

Her eyes widened.

"Dead? But you're a ..."

"My Interface said that my energy was so low, that if I had not gotten some water to recharge when I did, I would have been dead within hours."

She smiled and gave me a sly look.

"Well then, Mr. Aegis. " She stood up.

"This means you are now part of my guild. Under me. "

"Uh. Um. Okay. What's a guild?" I asked, rubbing the back of my head in confusion.

She looked over her shoulder playfully as she began walking down the stone pathway. "You'll see."

While one hand was wrapped now, the other still held her dagger. I looked at the way she walked. It was almost catlike. I blinked and shook my head. Could golems have feelings? I suddenly felt in over my head in so many ways. I looked at my legs.

"Come on, legs, we have a Bright future ahead of us!"

Awkwardly, they jerked to motion and followed us as we traveled across the Rave Tree forest.