“The Wisest Rasts stood up. He followed. For many steps, they travelled. Day and night. Without pause. They stopped. In the distance was a village. A small one. Like his. He wept at the sight. His journey had led him here. He would not stop. They edged closer. In front of them was a tree.”

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“Hello, my name is David. What’s yours?” An imposing figure stood in front of John. Smiling kindly.

“My name is Jo-.” He stopped to clear his throat. “My name is Thomas. Thomas Smith.” He’d nearly given away his real name without thinking. He hadn’t really thought of his new name since he first arrived, and that was at least 3 weeks ago, maybe more.

The man, David, seemed dumbfounded for a minute. Then inquired: “Thomas, huh. You wouldn’t happen to have a brother named Edward, would you?”

Now it was John’s turn to be surprised. “You know my brother? Do you know where he is? I think he must be searching for me.”

“I do actually know your brother. We’ve been traveling companions for the past few weeks. We got separated, unfortunately.” He explained.

“Can I ask what you’re doing out here?” He inquired further.

“Yeah, that’s easy to explain. I was kept me as a slave, don’t know by who, first filling a pit with rocks until some evil wizard came along and did the rest. Then we were all shovelled down into a mine to search for a large green jewel called a Mountain Jewel. We’ll we mined for a few days, then we found it, and all the slaves fell into a coma, except for me.” Clarifying quickly: “I don’t know why I didn’t fall into a coma, but anyway, the day after the jewel was taken, boulders started falling from the sky. I think from the top of the mountain, but I’m not sure.” He gestured behind him to the minefield.

“I was the only one not in a coma, so I carried as many as I could out of the mine before it collapsed. And I’ve been here ever since. I think it was a week or two ago. I’m not sure. Every day is the same.”

While John explained what had happened every he noticed David getting paler and paler, when he finished the explanation David was as pale as a ghost. So, John questioned: “Are you okay? You’re really pale. Are you sick?”

Instead of responding calmly, David grabbed John and started shaking him: “Where are the other slaves you rescued! Are they okay!” He practically demanded an answer.

John giggled a bit, the shaking feeling felt quite funny. “Relax, the ones I managed to rescue are fine. Although they’re still in a coma. I’ve been feeding them berry juice from berries my companion gathered. He’s a stoat.”

“Here, let me take you to them.” He said, as David let him go.

He’d moved the slaves slightly further in, near the minefield, so they were hidden from the road leaving the clearing.

“I’m not big enough to carry all of them, so I’ve just taken care of them, waiting for someone to come.” He clarified while he walked.

David seemed impatient and rushed ahead when he saw the three of them, quickly crouching to get a closer look.

He hugged the youngest girl. “Sandra…” He said breathlessly.

John casually walked over to them and sat down.

“Yeah, she was the smallest one there, so I grabbed her first. She’s really lucky. Her arms gave out before she could, so instead of dying of exhaustion, she spent most of her time trying to pick up the pickaxe instead. She was so fervent that I’m pretty sure it permanently damaged her arms in some way. It was pretty funny to watch.”

His eyes locked with John’s, and he glared at him, before he suddenly seemed confused. John giggled at the sight.

“Are you okay?” He asked, looking worried.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” He picked up a berry he’d piled up beside the slaves.

Again, David became as pale as a ghost. He asked, his voice quivering: “You haven’t been eating those, have you?”

“These?” He held the red berry between his fingertips. “Sure, I have. It’s the only thing I’ve eaten since the mine collapsed.”

Now he was truly white as snow. John giggled at the man that kept making the funny expressions.

“I’ve only eaten them myself. I’ve fed them some yellow strawberry juice. My companion said it was medicine.”

“…Where did you get those berries?” He asked, as if afraid of the answer.

“I don’t know where they’re from, but my companion keeps gathering them for me. I don’t know where he finds them, though. Do you know what they are? They’re really delicious.”

“…They’re called Cloudberries. Who is your companion?” His eyes sharpened.

“I told you, he’s a stoat. He’s been keeping me fed, gathering berries for me and them every day. He’s really smart. I think he can understand human speech.” He said, popping another berry into his mouth.

Inwardly, John thought it was quite funny that they had the same name as a berry from Earth.

Right on cue, his companion appeared from the forest, madly dashing towards the two of them.

David’s eyes locked onto it, he instantly tensed.

“Hey Stoat. I finally found another human. Maybe they know why these people are in coma!”

He’d called him Stoat, as he didn’t know his name and simply called him what he looked like, a stoat.

Stoat slowed down as he approached them, circling to John’s side.

David glared at his companion. Saying through gritted teeth: “You didn’t…”

He looked truly furious, basically growling out the words: “Tell me you don’t know what these berries are. TELL ME!” He said, loudly shouting the last part.

He giggled again; David was truly good at making faces.

John looked over at his companion. It looked guilty. “Look, he’s great at making expressions. It’s almost humanlike!”

David looked lost. “He doesn’t know what you are, does he?” He trailed off. Looking to be in deep thought.

“He’s a stoat, so I’ve called him Stoat. I think he’s someone’s pet and I don’t want to call him a different name. He’s really smart, so I think someone has trained him.”

“He hasn’t. His species is just really smart. Or it’s supposed to be really smart, I’m not so sure anymore.” Not taking his eyes off his companion.

John broke the silence: “Do you know how we can carry them or wake them up? I think they need medical attention from a professional.”

His eyes slowly left his companion, locking eyes with John instead. All John could see was pity. Not anger.

“I know a safe place we can go, only I can’t carry all three of them. I can lift them easily enough, but they’re too big to carry without possibly falling off. I can tie one person to myself easily enough. 2 should be doable if I strap one on my back and the other on my chest.”

His anger flared as he added: “Your companion should be able to carry the third person. If you can walk by yourself, we can leave right away.”

John laughed. “You’re funny. How in the world can a tiny stoat carry a person?”

His laughter died down in astonishment as he stared at the spectacle in front of him.

His companion was rapidly growing in size. He watched in awe as the tiny stoat was growing bigger at a clearly visible rate.

He grew and grew until he was larger than a wolf!

“Awesome, that is so cool! Why didn’t you tell me you could do that, Stoat?” He was practically jumping up and down in excitement.

His companion was so big he could ride on it! He was only 10 years old, so he wasn’t too big.

David still hadn’t let his anger go: “You’re a Ba-Rasts, and you fed him cloudberries?! A CHILD?! YOU. FED. A. CHILD. CLOUDBERRIES?!?” Once again shouting at his companion.

“A BaRasts? What’s a BaRasts? Is that what he is?” John questioned curiously, still giddy at the thought of riding a giant stoat. Entirely ignoring David’s outburst.

“Please ask me again later. I’m really not in the mood to explain.” He said, clearly furious at his companion.

“Aww. Okay. But then should we leave straight away, I think we might need to hurry and get the slaves to wake up, it can’t be good for them to simply lie here.” He said, his logical side winning over his curiosity.

“Yeah. Let’s.” David answered. Obviously trying to calm himself down, taking deep breaths. “I need to make some rope to tie them to myself and your companion.”

“Ooh, can I watch? I don’t know how to make rope. Can you teach me? We can go to the forest. I bet there’ll be something to make a rope out of there.” Excited at the prospect of getting away from the clearing. He’d been here for far too long.

He got a strained smile in return. “Yeah, sure.”

They both stood up, David glancing longingly at the youngest girl, Sandra, before following John, who had excitedly run ahead.

The large stoat sat quietly, not following them. It knew that its very presence infuriated the shaman. It didn’t care what the shaman thought of it. It did what it had to.

David, on the other hand, was as scatter-brained as could be. He’d gotten separated from Edward and had determinedly retraced their steps. He’d circled in a wide area around the clearing where the warlord had been and started following the northern road to see where it led. When he finally arrived at where it ended, almost entirely abandoned except for a child eating cloudberries and 3 unconscious slaves. One of them being his sister. The child told the disastrous tale of the warlord digging out a Mountain Jewel. The worst news he’d heard the entire year. He supposed he forgot to thank Edward’s brother, Thomas, for saving his sister amongst probably dozens of other slaves, but he was too focused on getting all of them out of there. And warning the militia that the warlord now had a Mountain Jewel, if it wasn’t already too late.

Distractedly, he went into the forest, barely responding to Thomas’ continuous chatter. Luckily, the Ba-Rasts had carved its territory in blood, so there wasn’t any danger.

He found the plant he was looking for quite easily as they grew in every environment. It was a long spindly thing that had extremely tough leaves called Redlarg, excellent for making ropes. Though he would probably have to make new ones every few days as they expired pretty quickly.

He took way longer than usual, as he had to start over several times when he tore the leaves by accident, his mind wandering too much.

He sighed in frustration at his tenth failure. He’d only made half the rope he needed. In double the normal time. The frustration coming from the fact that there wasn’t any immediate danger to focus on, and the chatterbox child sitting right beside him. His only consolation was there were a lot of Redlarg plants, so he had the extra luxury of being able to waste a few.

“Woah. That’s so cool!” John said as he looked at the weaved rope. David having finally made enough for them to use.

David hummed in agreement. “Let’s go. We need to start walking before it gets dark. I wanna get away from this place as quickly as possible.”

It was true, if the warlord, for whatever reason, returned here, they were dead.

“Hurray! Let’s go!” John said, celebrating that he could finally explore the world. He’d been stuck in what amounted to a zoo the entire time he’d been in Thomas’ body.

He watched expectantly as David tied the teenager to his companion and tied the 2 children to himself. Practically giddy with excitement when they finally started walking.

He watched in wonder as they stepped into the forest. Watching wide eyed at everything around him. Except for the brief trip with David to make rope, he’d never been in a veritable forest before. Only in those tame versions back on earth. This was the real thing.

It wasn’t as fun as they made it out to be in the movies. They had to go around practically every obstacle the long way.

He grumbled whenever they did. He wanted to see some action!

An enormous beast emerged from the forest at one point. He stared at it like a child seeing an elephant for the first time. It looked like a buffalo. A super-sized buffalo. With Tattoos like Stoat had!

He watched as it approached their group, not changing direction or pace as it passed them. Merely a curious glance.

After it had passed them, David commented: “And that. Is a Rasts.”

“So that’s a Rasts? That was amazing! Are all Rasts big like that? Do they get smaller when they evolve into Ba-Rasts? And can they evolve further? Like pok-.”

“Woah, woah, one question at a time. I’ll answer them, just be quiet.” John shut up as quickly as he could.

“First,” He started. “Rasts are already evolved from normal animals, so Ba-Rasts are the third step on the chain. Second, they don’t all get smaller when they evolve, some get larger, way larger. Defying logic large. Some would argue they’re the most dangerous kinds of Rasts simply due to their sheer size.” David said, happy that he’d finally gotten John to shut up. Even though it wasn’t his fault.

“Third, they can evolve further. They’re called Ka-Rasts. There have been very few documented cases of it happening naturally. Although extremely large amounts of them are at the edge of the continent. And given their large numbers, some theorise that there they can evolve further, although there has been no proof of this.” He added one final comment, eyeing John with pity: “I must say, you must’ve lived a very sheltered lifestyle before you were kidnapped by the warlord, to not know what a Rasts is.”

“Where are we even going?” John asked.

David sighed. “We’re going some place very few people even know exist.”

That immediately had his interest. “What’s it called? Where is it? Why do few people know it exists?” He fired back questions as quickly as he could think of them.

“I’ll tell you after we’ve made camp.” David said, eyeing a cave he saw on a mountainside in the distance.

John, David, and Stoat all walked as quickly as John allowed them to. He was still far from having any muscles at all, so they had to frequently stop to allow him to rest.

The Rasts inside the cave almost ambushed John, as he’d practically rushed inside before David could stop him.

Luckily, David was quick to react and killed it with a single stab of his knife before it could hurt John.

“I guess there’s our dinner. Stoat, would you be so kind to fetch some cloudberries for Thomas?” Having already resigned to what needed to be done until they reached their destination, which was at least more than a week away, probably 2 with Thomas’ physique. “Dinner will be ready when you return. Come, Thomas, help me start a fire.” He added. Watching him dash out with haste. He’d get an explanation why “Stoat”, as Thomas had named him, did what he did, but not until the children were all safe.