There comes a time in everyone’s life where they have to look at the events that led them there and say: “What the fuck was I thinking?”

That question often has a multitude of answers, from “I made a mistake" to “I was stupid” to “I thought it was a good idea to unearth an ancient undead’s tomb.” In Eliza's case it was all three of these.

She didn’t blame herself, honestly. It could have been anyone. After all, anyone down on their luck and desperate to gain any sort of reputation would have taken that job. It paid barely anything, twenty coppers for a job that would likely take days to complete. Might barely cover the food supplies.

Although, she probably should have thought better of it when reading the words “necrotic energies detected”.

She stood in the entrance to the crypt, pale skin dirty and dark hair matted from the days traveling there. Her light leather armour squeaked as it brushed the rugged stone walls, the high noise disturbing the dead silence of the rocky entrance. The tomb appeared to simply be a massive boulder at first glance, but a touch of her mana activated the hidden rune that shifted the front aside, revealing a short corridor and a small dark room beyond it. She'd walked through the rocky passage and stood for a moment, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dark. When they did, the carved stone cell and scattered, broken chains were the least of her concern.

Slowly, she backpedalled through the doorway as the thing followed her.

In fairness, she was absolutely broke when she took the job. The coin purse she had stolen as she fled the manor had run dry quickly, coins draining from it as if there was a hole in the bottom. Her upbringing had been rather luxurious, she’d admit, the noble life had given her certain expectations about the standard for living. In hindsight, she really should have budgeted more at first, running out of money had simply never been an issue for her before.

Greed was undeniably a factor too, though. The thought of uncovering some ancient treasure vault and discovering ancient artifacts of unknowable power was a fantasy surely every adventurous spirit had. She couldn’t be blamed for hoping the tomb was empty, that those necrotic energies the job posting had mentioned were simply the emanations of a relic once held by a powerful necromancer.

Though the necromancer part might not be too far off, she ventured. She stared, wide eyed. Its empty eyes stared back.

Eliza considered herself to be brave. But those black eyes scared her. They were unnatural, purely wrong in a way which triggered a previously unfelt primordial fear deep inside her.

One foot after the other, she retreated as it advanced. Her movements were slow, gentle so as not to provoke it. Its movements were slow, languorous yet precise.

Her breath caught in her throat as the thing further followed her out of the tomb and the moonlight revealed its form. Its limbs were just so… long. It was practically crawling, yet filled the darkened hall with it’s pale flesh.

As she continued to backpedal across the grassy clearing, it paused for a moment in the doorway, empty eyes turning skyward to stare at the moon for several long moments. The look on its horrible gaunt face was strange. Reflective. Intelligent.

Her back bumped against a towering oak tree, reaching the edge of the clearing surrounding the boulder prison as the monster finally emerged from it.

It stood.

Eliza trembled like a leaf as it rose nearly to the height of the surrounding trees.

Pale, emaciated, skin stretched over its bones like a tanning rack.

Its nearly human face moved to stare at her with the intensity of an expecting audience. Dark eyes unmoving in their orbits, mouth hanging open revealing a maw of daggers.

She was going to die. The realisation hit her like a charging boar. As with most noble children, she had been taught magic. Frost was her element. But no amount of chill could possibly slow it down enough to let her escape. Its legs were taller than her, if she broke into a sprint it would catch up in a few mere strides.

The woods were silent. So was she. So was it.

The towering trees gathered round like sadistic voyeurs. Tall grass swayed around the clearing, waving her goodbye as she surely departed that mortal coil.

She held her breath, seeing visions of the reaper as the monster took three lethargic strides forwards, crossing the distance swiftly.

Once it finally stood in front of her, it slowly crouched. Branch-like limbs compacted like a coiling spring.

Somehow it was still taller than her, its splayed legs surrounded her on both sides like the bars of a cage, its face still fixed on hers.

She stayed still. So did it.

After several moments passed without movement on either side, her tension and fear turned to indignant rage. It was a moment of madness, but before she could catch herself she found her mouth moving of its own accord.

"Well? You dull-headed lubberwort! Are you going to devour me or not?" For a moment, her fear was forgotten, the umbrage of a noblewoman shining through her contemptuous sneer instead.

It tilted its head, mouth closing.

She sniffed. "Well if you are simply going to waste my valuable time then I shall be on my way!" She declared, ducking under one of its legs and simply walking away.

Of course she realised the absurdity of this a mere moment later, but continued walking pridefully into the treeline.

She trecked onward, weaving between dark trees and dense foliage.

Moments passed. She kept walking.

Holy shit.

Did that actually work?

Eliza's face split open in a grin, a giggle escaping her in astonishment. How the hell did she just survive that? The Goddess had finally smiled upon her, it seemed. She gave a silent prayer and continued walking, glancing happily around and seeing nothing but trees, rocks, flora and the legs behind her.

Wait a minute.

She cursed, spinning around and almost falling as she craned her neck to look up at the massive undead.

It simply tilted its head again and stopped walking as she did.

"Ah, shit. I knew that shouldn't have worked. Of course I wouldn't catch a fucking break." She cursed, kicking the soft topsoil in frustration.

After a few moments of rage, waiting for death to take her, she frowned and looked up at the beast.

It simply looked back.

"Are you actually going to eat me or what?" She quizzed, raising an eyebrow at the undead. It didn't respond, but didn't attack her either. She decided to embrace the madness of the situation and continue, "Well if you're not, then do mind your step. Treading on a lady's heels is rude, you know."

Spinning around, she continued walking. It continued following.

This went on for some time.

As they walked, she nervously looked up at the thing which followed her. Its wicked black claws extending from its fingers slashed through the air as it swung its arms, the deadliness of the simple motion contrasting wildly with its seemingly docile nature. She wasn't an expert on undead, and only knew of them from stories the house butler had told to her. The old man had regaled her with tales of their bloodthirsty and cruel nature, which terrified yet excited her in equal nature.

If she recalled correctly, undead were either raised and controlled by necromancers or created when an area's ambient energies became too rich in death mana. She didn't see a necromancer around, so presumably this one was wild. But then why wasn't it attacking? Naturally formed undead were invariably hostile to all life.

She ran a hand through her dirty hair and tiredly shook her head. How did she end up here? She knew the adventurer life was tough, especially when you weren't part of a proper company, but come on! She'd literally become so broke she had to accept a job which paid barely anything and risked massive danger.

You'd think as a mage finding work wouldn't be difficult but apparently magic was becoming more and more common nowadays. House Veneficus had always hoarded magical knowledge and taught only nobility but in recent years that was changing. After Antonidas Veneficus passed away, control of the house fell to his kids. Neither were married, so they became the twin Lord and Lady of the house. While Antoine had been upholding his fathers legacy, his sister Isabella had started teaching the secrets of magic to the common folk.

When she showed up at the adventurer's guildhall and demanded a job for being a frost mage, she got laughed out of the building, the snickering clerk telling her they had four others waiting in the lobby.

So here she was. Marching through the forest with an embodiment of every child's nightmares following her. She picked up the pace as night turned to day, trying to reach the village of Rocksdale at the wood's edge.

Of course, she wasn't in such a hurry because she was desperate to claim her meager reward of a handful of coppers. Rather, she simply didn't want to sleep nearby the undead monstrosity.

Perhaps it was irrational, but she had a creeping, suspicious notion that it was simply waiting until she slept to devour her.

Then again, she had gone well over a day and a half without sleep. Irrational thoughts were becoming more and more common in her foggy, sleep deprived mind.

She felt the clutches of fatigue gripping her as she stumbled, one heavy foot after another, through the woodland. Twigs snapped underfoot, the sharp noise jolting her eyes slightly open each time as they drooped.

It was getting harder to move. Harder to think.

Sleep was inevitable.

Slowly, she came to a stop. Staggering, she fell against a wide silver birch tree before slowly sinking to its roots which twisted through the damp earth like hardened veins. She felt its rough bark scrape against her back as she finally settled into lying against it.

Blearily, she struggled to keep her eyes open as she watched the undead stand over her, tilting its head while watching her. It was an almost innocent gesture, curiosity reminiscent of a child or perhaps a dog. She huffed a small laugh. What a contrast to what it actually was.

As she finally surrendered to fatigue's grasp, she tiredly chuckled as she repeated what she would say as a child to her teddy bear.

"Keep the monsters away from me, won't you buddy?"

-

He watched as she finally settled down to rest. Finally, if it could speak it would have advised her to do so much earlier. Then again, she appeared to be a teenager. Teens did tend to stay up and then sleep in.

It couldn't remember the language well, but from the way she spoke it could tell that the last word was directed at it. Was that its name? Buddy? It had the vague feeling that it wasn't, but it would do for now until it remembered.

It thought it heard her say 'monsters' as well. Maybe she was asking it to keep watch as she slept.

Monsters, something it vaguely remembered. It knew them to be dangerous, creatures of violence which lived in the deepest darkest parts of the woods. Was it a monster? The description matched.

There were very few things it knew. He knew? That was one of those things, he supposed, the vague notion that he was male. Last time he checked though, there was nothing between his legs. Just stretched flesh like the rest of him.

He hadn't thought about anything in quite a long time. What felt like an eternity trapped in silent darkness did that to you. Eventually you run out of things to think about, and simply fall dormant.

Now though, he did wish he'd kept his mind more active. Most of his memories had long since escaped him, and what knowledge he did have was based more on feelings and notions than reasoning.

One of those feelings was a strange sense of duty. The girl who had freed him, who had unlocked the door to his prison, he would have been grateful to anyway. But it was the way she acted, that imperious attitude.

That attitude he somehow remembered. A noble's attitude.

It took him several minutes to figure out what that meant to him. Why should he care that she was of noble blood?

But as she walked off into those dark woods, as the towering canopy cast her into shadow, he had felt it most definitely mattered.

He wasn't sure why, yet, but that would come in time. He'd spent countless decades in that godforsaken cell, he could wait a few days for his mind to catch up to the present.

It was like after so long in that dark abyss, a spark had ignited. His mind whirred, thoughts and feelings previously forgotten surged through his tired brain, dusting off the cobwebs and igniting the old hearths once more.

He remembered something. A vague picture: a lady's smile.

Remembering his name would be nice too, he supposed. But one thing at a time.

Now that the girl had finally come to a stop, he could get a closer look at her. His eyes weren't what they used to be. Figure of speech, of course; he couldn't remember how his eyes used to perform. Or maybe it was just because everything near ground level appeared so distant from his viewpoint.

He kneeled to close the distance.

Her eyes were closed, shadowed by her short hair hanging down enough to shade her face from the radiant sunlight as she rested her head against one shoulder. He noted with some interest that she wore a shoddy attire of mismatched leather armour and basic clothes. Hardly an outfit fit for a noble.

That gave him thought. What was a noble such as her doing out here, in the middle of-

They tossed him in, sealing the enchanted stone door. He screamed and clawed at the uncaring stone, but damaged only himself. He knew no one would find him there. They had sealed him away in the middle of-

Nowhere.

He shook his head. Maybe his mind wasn't what it used to be, either. He kept getting painful dream-like thoughts.

Slowly, he stood, long limbs unwinding like coiled snakes. He swivelled his head. The area of woodland was much like the rest, though they had stopped in a small clearing, brilliant sunlight illuminating the short, smooth grass. He assumed there were too many herbivores around for small plants and flowers to grow sustainably.

Surrounding the clearing were tall trees, dense thorny bushes and the occasional hole in the earth signalling a goblin warren. They were harmless little creatures, only counting as monsters because of their incredibly basic level of intelligence. They were smart enough to gather together and build warrens, but too stupid to develop tools and actual structures.

He almost felt bad for them, in a way. That dull intelligence they possessed was like his own. He knew he was smarter, but his mind was hazy, a dull layer of tiredness shrouding his thoughts. It was akin to the sensation of slowly waking up from a restful sleep but far too early. Not a bad comparison, he thought, considering he had been left in darkness for so long, practically unconscious after the first however many years.

He shook his head. Distraction, again. But at least he'd remembered another tidbit of information. One more item in his pitiably small library of knowledge.

At least the forest appeared free of actually dangerous monsters so far, that was nice. It was almost like they were hiding from him. Not that he was complaining, the less creatures he had to defend the noble girl from, the better.

He still wasn't sure why he was doing it, but it was nice to have an objective. Just doing anything felt great, after so long of simply existing. He'd tried to stop. He'd failed. Whatever his bones were made of was impervious to his claws and his flesh and eyes simply grew back after a while. He'd checked many, many times. They always did.

After a few minutes of idling about, drinking in the pleasant warmth of the sunlight while trying not to think about the darkness he came from, he decided to patrol the area and assure there was nothing hiding nearby.

Surprisingly, his next several hours were productive. An owl tried to hide from him in a round hole high up in a tree. High up to a person of normal height, that is. He simply reached in, grabbed it, and chucked it into the distance. It exploded away from him in a flurry of frantic feathers and frightened hoots.

As he thought about his height, he paused for a moment to ponder it. Why was he so tall? It was almost as if he was made of animal sinew used to string a bow, as if someone had taken hold of both ends of him and he was-

The man in the white robe laughed and reclined in their throne, sipping wine as he screamed. The enchanted chains constricted around his wrists and ankles, dragging him ever further apart as they tightened around his breaking bones. His eyes bulged out their sockets, mouth wide open, howling in agony as every bone in his body cracked, the healing magic continuously repairing his skin over the increasingly large gaps as he was-

Stretched.

Best not to think about it. He didn't like these strange thoughts.

Slowly, he made his way back to the girl, long legs navigating the dense foliage with ease. As he re-entered the clearing, his eyes fell apon the goblin warrens once again. He glanced between his incredibly long arms and the holes scattered about in the damp earth as an idea struck like a match in his mind.

As he strode towards them and prepared to catch his prey, he tried fervently to remember how you start a fire.

Chef Buddy would be making goblin bacon for breakfast.