Ellie had a problem at hand. How was she going to save herself from her impending doom? She sighed as she racked her brains for a solution.

Her growling stomach interrupted her thoughts.

“Oh my, you’re hungry, aren’t you? Just wait a little longer,” Astrid chuckled as she stirred some stew in a pot.

Ellie blushed. However, she could not help but gulp down her saliva as the aroma of the stew wafted across the common room.

‘Right, I should fill up my stomach before thinking any further.’

Ellie wondered about what could be in the stew. When she was writing her novel, she never really thought about the food that the people in her story ate. It just did not occur to her to include food in her novel. Afterall, her novel is about action and adventure.

She let her eyes wander around the room as her thoughts drifted. Her eyes traced the lines along the rough wooden table in front of her. A wooden mug came into view. Beside the mug was a thick forearm which belonged to Osmond the bear. He was chatting with Astrid jovially. The atmosphere was homely and Ellie felt nostalgic for some reason.

Next to Osmond sat Ralf. Ellie’s eyes met the boy’s. He squinted and looked away, his cheeks puffed up as he pouted.

Ellie was confused. ‘What did I do?’ she thought.

She tried to get the boy’s attention but he refused to look at her. After thinking for a few moments, only then she realized the promise from her 3-in-1 game.

‘Right, I promised to let him ask me a question! Oops… I guess that’ll have to wait for later,’ Ellie grimaced and made a mental note.

‘Maybe I need to do something more to make up to him too, I guess…’

Astrid stood over the cauldron which was hung over flames in a fire pit. The dancing flames were mesmerizing and provided the warmth needed against the biting cold outdoors. Ellie sighed as she relaxed. When was the last time she felt like this? She remembered the similar dancing flames of a bonfire during a camping trip with her grandparents when she was a child. That felt like a lifetime ago to her.

“... and here you go,” Astrid’s gentle voice pulled Ellie back to reality.

The golden haired Astrid placed a bowl of steaming hot stew in front of Ellie. In it were some meat-like chunks and what looked like vegetables in a whitish looking broth. It looked plain but the aroma was irresistible. Ellie wondered if it was because she was very hungry.

“What’s this?” Ellie could not help but ask.

“It’s a stew with fish and dried vegetables.” Astrid said with a smile, “Go on, have a drink.”

Ellie took a spoonful and blew at the steaming stew before taking a sip. An explosion of flavors erupted on her tongue. Ellie, a 21st century middle class citizen, had never tasted such flavor despite having access to food all day. Well, of course the taste of foods unadulterated by unpronounceable chemicals would triumph. Or perhaps, it is just the effect of the magical world that she was in that made her experience as such.

Astrid, upon seeing Ellie’s expression, laughed with amusement.

“Isn’t it yummy? I’ve added a secret ingredient,” she teased.

“What is it?” Ellie asked with round eyes.

Astrid winked, “It’s a secret.”

The dinner went on in peace and warmth that night. Astrid and Osmond’s jovial chatter lighted up the atmosphere. Warmth blossomed in Ellie’s heart like the warmth given by the flames of the cauldron. She wondered the last time she felt this way as a family bonding over dinner. Was it during a camping trip with her late grandmother? Ellie could barely remember since it was too long ago. These days, even though she lives with her family, they usually mind their own business.

‘Damn it, I’m missing my home now. How am I going to return to my world? Is it even possible?’ Ellie thought as she swallowed a lump down her throat.

Astrid and Osmond had gone to their businesses and left Ellie alone with Ralf. The golden-haired woman had told her son to keep Ellie company before she left. However, the atmosphere between the two children was awkward. Ralf was ignoring Ellie.

‘Alright, how am I going to fix this awkward air?’ Ellie smiled sheepishly and scratched her cheek.

“Ahem,” she cleared her throat to get Ralf’s attention.

The boy turned his head farther away from Ellie. She could almost be sure that he was pouting.

Ellie sighed. “I’m sorry, okay? I forgot about our promise because I was lost in my thoughts. You can ask me your question now. I’ll answer whatever you ask.”

Ralf sat faced away, unmoving.

‘Ahh, why are kids all like this?’ Ellie grumbled internally. ‘I know they’re cute, but…’

“Alright, alright, you can ask me two questions!”

Ralf flinched. His head turned a fraction of an angle before he stopped himself again.

‘Omaigod, what else do you want?’

“Ahh, okay! Since I broke our promise, I’ll cut my finger!” Ellie declared.

“C-cut!? No! No no no, I don’t want that!”

Ralf turned over in a flash and reached over to Ellie. He grabbed her hands with his to stop her from doing something potentially stupid. His face was full of concern.

“Wha-” Ellie was startled. Once again, she was charmed by the adorable boy.

‘Aww, he’s so kind and gullible,’ Ellie smiled gleefully. Her expression disappeared in a flash as she realized that it was not appropriate.

This was Ralf’s original character. As a child, he was gentle and warm hearted. He would care for others more than himself.

Ellie sighed as she thought about it. Ralf’s character would change drastically after the tragedy. He would become an aloof monster-slaying hero of her novel. Only by travelling with his companions would he gradually open up and regain some of his warmth.

The current version of this boy will cease to exist in two-weeks time.

Heroes with tragic backstories are clichéd, you say? Cold, aloof heroes are also clichéd, you add? Well, Ellie did not care. She wrote the type of story that she, an avid reader besides being an author, would want to read. Such heroes are cool in her mind. Tragedies are one of the easy ways to justify such character.

Still, Ellie was conflicted. The horrors that the boy will experience from being captive are too horrible to describe with mere words.

‘Ahem, I was kinda lazy to describe the horrors, so I wrote it that way. Readers will use their imagination, hehe.’

Ultimately, real life is different from imaginary life in novels. Without realizing, Ellie had treated this strange world as reality. The brief interactions that she has had with the inhabitants of this world showed that they are real humans that laugh, love, and hate.

Ellie bit her lip as she looked at Ralf. She could not bear to see this boy hurt. She also thought of Astrid and Osmond with their warmth and kindness. It was unfair for such nice people to die so tragically.

‘What should I do? There’s still so much that I don’t know about this place. What will happen to the future if I change the events here? Will the hero of my novel change? Will the world be destroyed? Will a black hole swallow the universe?’

“What’s wrong?”

Ralf’s question brought Ellie back to reality. She looked at him in his sincere eyes once more. Her heart swayed and she finally made up her mind.

Who cares about what will happen in the future? The important thing was the present. The boy right in front of her.

“Nothing. How about this, I’ll add something else to the two questions. I’ll be your best friend and we’ll always play together, okay?”

“Really?” The boy’s eyes widened.

“Yep! It’s a promise from me!” Ellie patted her chest.

“Then… pinky promise?”

Ellie laughed. She then linked her little finger with Ralf’s. The little boy beamed. He finally got a playmate all to himself.

“Alright. So, what questions do you have for me?” Ellie asked.

“Hmm,” Ralf pouted slightly as he thought to himself. He seemed to be weighing his options carefully.

“You can ask me anything.”

“What if I have other questions later?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“If I used up my two questions, can I still ask you other questions…?”

“Why not?”

“But you might not answer them…” Ralf sulked.

Ellie was slightly caught off-guard. This boy was gullible but he is picking up quickly!

“Well…” Ellie grimaced. The boy was right. She did not want to lie to him.

Ralf clapped his hands. “I know! I’ll keep the questions for now! I’ll ask you when I have a good one, hehe.”

Ellie smiled as she sighed inwardly.

‘He is the protagonist I created after all…’

True enough, intelligence is one of his traits. How can a handsome, cool, and aloof protagonist be without intelligence?

The night passed without any incident. After making up with Ralf, they played together for the remainder of the night. Ralf seemed to have a lot of fun but Ellie just could not understand the fun of wrapping a scarf over and over again around the wooden toy horse.

‘Kids, amirite?’

There was nothing else that Ellie could do except to fawn over her cute protagonist.

Not long after that, it was time for bed. Astrid seemed pleasantly happy that both Ellie and Ralf got along well. She tucked the children gently to bed and kissed them goodnight. Soon, it was all silent, save for the soft rhythmic breaths of the sleeping Ralf.

Ellie lay awake on the bed. Tomorrow would be the day to warn Astrid and Osmond about their fate. Her mind was active as she tried thinking of ways to inform the couple without garnering suspicion. She eventually fell asleep from exhaustion after a long while even when her plans had not been fully formulated.

***

Dawn came and the morning chill woke Ellie up. The morning was uneventful as well. Ellie thought that the nosy villagers would come to visit but it seemed that Astrid had told them off. Astrid must have questions for Ellie but the latter seemed to want to give Ellie some time to adjust before asking more questions.

“Achoo!” Ellie sneezed. She pulled her clothes closer to her body.

‘How do people live in this kind of climate? Dangit. I should have set their village in a warm place.’ Ellie grumbled silently as she watched Ralf meddle around at the back of the house.

Soon, he brought out a little white rabbit. It looked like a tiny fur ball.

“Ellie, look!” Ralf whispered excitedly. “This is Faein,” he said as he hugged the little rabbit.

Ellie eyed the boy and his pet. They had ‘snuck’ out of the house to check on the rabbit. Ralf had secretly hid some food in his jacket during breakfast and was feeding the rabbit now. Ellie squinted.

‘It’s impossible that Astrid had no idea about this,’ Ellie shook her head. ‘It’s so obvious!’

‘Wait, am I sure that Astrid knows? I’ve never written anything about it. I mean, I wrote that based on Ralf’s POV. He thought that no one else knew about his pet rabbit. But does it mean that others really have no idea? I never wrote it explicitly. Does this world fill in the gaps in my writing? About things I’ve never thought about before?’

Ellie clutched her head.

‘Ah… I’m getting dizzy again. There’s too much to think about all at once.’

She felt a tug at her sleeves.

“Maybe we should go back in,” Ralf suggested when he saw Ellie clutching her head.

He was at it with his puppy-like face again. It was impossible for Ellie to resist. She relented and followed the boy back inside.

Ellie’s question about Astrid being aware of Ralf’s rabbit was soon answered not long after. She discreetly passed some vegetables to Ellie and winked.

‘Hah, I knew it! Ralf was too obvious! A gullible child indeed.’ Ellie grinned.

It also seems that I’m not all-knowing in this world…’ she pursed her lips as her suspicions were confirmed.

“So, what should we do?” Ralf asked Ellie as they entered the bedroom again.

“Hmm… don’t we need to help with chores?”

“Oh, Mama said to accompany you today, hehe. This means we get to play the whole day! Let’s do something fun!”

“Something fun, you say…” Ellie rubbed her chin and grinned.

It was a good opportunity to carry out her half-baked plan.

“Do you have some paper and something to draw with? Let’s draw stuff!”

“Ohh, that’s a good idea!” Ralf beamed.

“Let’s also make it a competition. We’ll let your Mama pick the prettier drawing and the--.”

“The winner gets extra fish tonight!” Ralf quickly added before Ellie could finish her sentence.

“... why fish?”

“I like fish.”

“Ew.”

“Ahhh, don’t ‘ew’ it! It’s my favorite!”

“It’s because you’ve never eaten better tasting food,” Ellie teased.

“What kind of food are they?”

“Hehe, it’s my secret. Maybe I’ll show it to you one day?”

“Okay, it’s another promise!”

“You have my word,” Ellie laughed.

The two children laughed and began drawing. They agreed to draw three items. The winner would be the best out of the three categories. First, they would draw each other. Second would be their favorite item. The last picture would be something interesting that they had encountered before.

Ellie had planned on drawing three different types of pictures to reduce suspicion. She thought that it would be strange to suddenly show Astrid or Osmond a drawing of the insignia Six-starred Wolf without any context. This way, it would seem like it was a coincidence for them to stumble upon the symbol.

Ellie clutched the piece of charcoal in her hand. She had confidence in her drawing skills. It was not up to professional standards but it was good enough that people would praise her art.

‘I can win this!’ Ellie had a glint in her eye. Even if she was the adult (mentally) between the two, she did not want to lose to a kid. Besides, she did not add artistic skills as a part of Ralf’s character skill set.

“Ready? Let’s start!”

The children started sketching. They were so focused that it was silent save for the sound of charcoal scratching against some rags. After a while, Ellie paused to observe her handiwork. It looked worse than usual. What did she expect, since she had to draw on cloth. She had never done it before! Well, she just had to make do with whatever she had since they did not have any paper lying around.

‘The joys of the 21st century, taken for granted,’ Ellie sighed.

“Done! This is you!” Ralf cheered and flipped his drawing over and showed it to Ellie.

“So fast!?” her curiosity overcame her shock and she grabbed the drawing. She squinted.

“This is me?”

“Yep!”

“What’s this… big black hole over my left eyebrow?”

“It’s not a hole!” Ralf pouted before he continued, “It’s a mole!”

Ellie reflexively touched the spot above her eyebrow. She had the mole at that same spot back in her world.

‘Does this mean that my appearance is the same as when I was on Earth?’

“How about yours?” Ralf asked excitedly.

“W-wait, I’m not done yet!” Ellie was still sketching the outline. She had not filled in the details. Compared to Ellie’s sketch, Ralf’s drawing was typical for a five year old boy.

“Just a little more,” Ellie said as she sped through the rest of the process.

After a few more moments, she held her sketch up and scrutinized it. She disliked it. It was much worse than she expected. The proportions of the face were off, the eyes were skewed to one side, and details were muddles because of her poor control of the thick charcoal.

“Wow, I don’t look like this at all,” Ralf laughed when he saw Ellie’s drawing.

“Tch, you don’t know what’s art,” Ellie grumbled.

The rest of the drawing contest proceeded without much incident. Ellie gave up trying to sketch artistically as it was too difficult with the medium at hand. For her favorite item, Ellie randomly drew a picture of a pen. Why, you ask? Well, the pen is mightier than the sword and words cut more than swords. Ralf, on the other hand, drew his trusty wooden toy horse. Ellie rolled her eyes at the sight of the toy horse. She wondered why he was obsessed over it.

‘Ahem, I made him this way after all. Obsessive and persistent to achieve his goals.’

They finished the final drawing. In front of Ellie was the insignia of the Six-starred Wolf. It was a simple symbol that consisted of a wolf head with six eyes. Six six-pointed stars surrounded the wolf.

‘Gosh, I’m so crude. 6-6-6,’ Ellie laughed at herself.

And what did Ralf draw? He drew his pet rabbit. Ellie felt that it was cute. His pet rabbit was his interesting encounter.

“What’s that?” Ralf asked.

“Hmm… I don’t really know. I just felt that it’s interesting because the wolf has six eyes. You don’t see wolves with six eyes every day, don’t you?” Ellie said.

She tried to play it as cool as possible.

‘I’m an innocent and ignorant child, innocent and ignorant…’ she repeated the phrase in her head.

“Really? It looks scary…” Ralf reflexively clutched Ellie’s hand, as if to pull her away from the drawing.

“Alright, let’s show your Mama our drawings!

The children rushed to find Astrid. They found her preparing the materials to preserve the deer that they had hunted previously.

“Mama, mama! Look at our drawings! Pick the prettier ones!” Ralf gushed when Astrid was in his sights.

Astrid stopped when she heard Ralf and beamed at the children. However, her smile froze as she saw the cloths in the children’s hands.

“Isn’t that…”

‘Uh-oh. That expression isn’t good,’ Ellie gulped.

Ralf, oblivious to their impending doom, continued to babble.

“Mama, pick mine, okay? The winner will get extra fish tonight!”

Astrid took the cloths from Ralf with a darkened expression. She began speaking softly and slowly.

“Ralf Askell… care to explain why you scribbled on these cloths?”

“Um… Ellie wanted to have a drawing contest, so I picked these white cloths because they looked nice to draw on!”

Ellie inched away from Ralf and Astrid. She did not want to suffer collateral damage.

She took a peek at Astrid. She could almost see the imaginary dark clouds over Ralf’s Mama’s head. Astrid's jaw worked and she took a deep breath.

She then said in a sweet voice, “Ralf, these cloths are not meant to be drawn on, okay? They’re now all dirty. I’ll have to wash all of them again. As a punishment, no fish for you two tonight.”

“Oh…” Ralf looked down in guilt.

Ellie felt bad seeing Ralf that way. She had a soft spot for her cute protagonist.

“I’m sorry, it’s my idea. I’ll wash them for you,” Ellie told Astrid.

“My, what a sweet child!” Astrid beamed and brushed Ellie’s cheek.

Ellie breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like she managed to avoid the event of a mom exploding in rage.

Astrid’s eyes twinkled as she saw Ellie’s expression. “Now, what should I do again?”

Ralf explained their contest. Astrid nodded and proceeded to be the judge for their drawings. She was impressed by Ellie’s drawing of Ralf, and therefore, the winner of the first round was Ellie.

Astrid picked Ralf’s drawing of the toy horse for the second round as the winner. It seemed that she was trying to be fair to her son.

Ellie pouted. ‘What’s so nice about that wooden horse? It’s overused by now!’

When it was time for the third drawing, Ellie’s heart pounded. It was the time of truth. Time seemed to move slower. Sure enough, as Ellie expected, Astrid recognized the symbol.

The older woman’s face froze when she saw it.

“This… who-- Ellie, did you draw this?” she asked in disbelief.

‘Activate acting skill in 3… 2… 1,’ Ellie thought as she took a deep breath.

“Yep, it’s interesting, isn’t it?” she mustered the most innocent expression to her ability.

Astrid’s face was pale. “Y-yes, interesting indeed.” She tried to hide her expression but had failed.

“Where did you see this?” Astrid asked in almost a whisper.

“Uhm… I think it was at an inn, in the nearby town.”

Astrid’s face paled further.

“I-I have to go get Osmond. Children, wait here. Oh and Ellie dear, I’m sorry but we have to have a good talk when Osmond gets here, okay?” she explained nervously and rushed off with the drawings.

“Mama?” Ralf tilted his head in confusion. “What’s wrong with her?” He turned to Ellie.

“I don’t know,” Ellie shrugged.

She turned to where Astrid had left and gulped. Of course Ellie knew the reason. It was time to face the music.