“They don’t exist, remember,” said Sun as the dust of battle settled.

I glanced up at her from the view of my clenched fists and found her standing over me. “That doesn’t help.”

She held the trussed man under one arm and used the other to point at the girls. “Then look at them. You saved them. They will go on to have long, fulfilling lives because you cared enough to risk yours. Stop with the melancholy or I’ll cut it out of you. You’re worse than the pining daughters of the marshal and his inner circle.”

Leaving aside her strength to manhandle the fully grown man like a tantrum-throwing toddler, I choked out a half laugh after inhaling some of my own spit in shock. I spluttered for a while until I could finally croak, “Thanks for trying to kill me. I’ll take your words under advisement.”

“It wouldn’t be a great death to die like that. I’d have opened your throat hole to help.”

“I appreciate that… I think,” I replied. “What are we going to do with him?”

“He can walk. I’ve tried putting him in my pack. It didn’t work. Until then, he stays tied like a feral hog.”

“And the girls?” I added.

“They walk too.”

“Can’t we rotate them on the horses? Like two ride, then they can swap with the third and one of us? That way we all get to conserve our strength.”

Sun let the man fall to the ground. “Always thinking of those less fortunate. Are all you Englanders so soft?”

I pondered the gradual erosion of the societal fabric back in my world. The pursuit of the self in place of the betterment of everyone. I wasn’t talking in terms of politics or the old socialism versus capitalism vein, more the feel of the everyday. People seemed more insular, less eager to be kind to their fellow man. There was a time when I was a boy that an old lady collapsed on the high street of my local town. Everyone had rushed to her aid and waited by her side until the ambulance arrived. I witnessed the same spectacle outside my arcade, with one notable exception. The ones rushing to help were dwarfed by the number of people either recording the event or walking past, pretending it wasn’t happening at all. I still vividly remembered the revulsion I’d felt towards the onlookers who laughed and joked with each other. Given what I knew of Earth’s crumbling kinship, I replied simply, “No.”

“Why did I have to be lumbered with you then?” she grunted, punching me in the shoulder.

I felt like I’d been hit by a truck and that was only a playful jab. “We can rest in here until daybreak,” I offered, massaging the dull ache. “I’m going to loot all the bodies and see what they’ve dropped.”

“Loot?”

“Watch.” I moved to Oswin and selected his corpse. The armour set vanished, leaving him in his britches. Other unseen items joined his gear in my inventory to be looked over later.

“That’s a clever trick. Why didn’t you do that while you were fighting him?” asked Sun.

“I…” My mouth fell open. I hadn’t even thought of the possibility. There was no way the aliens would allow such a blatant bug in their worlds… was there? “I’ll try next time. Can you start a new fire while I go and collect everything? I’ll do the cooking.”

Sun nodded and made for the pile of burned bodies. The stack of logs and kindling had missed the incinerating flames that the unfortunate men hadn’t.

I moved around the cavern collecting the goods. Once they were all empty, I backtracked out of the cave into the dark night and stripped them of their belongings too. I returned to the boss room to find a meal already well on the way to edibility. The three girls were still traumatised, but the mundane task of preparing food was taking their minds off what had very nearly befallen them.

“They wanted to do it,” Sun whispered as I neared.

I noticed the tied up soldier was in a far worse state than when I’d left him. His nose was broken and bleeding. His body was a mess of deepening bruises and painful welts.

“They wanted to do that too,” Sun added.

“Fair enough,” I replied, leaving the man to groan in pain. “Can I hide away for a few minutes while I check the loot?”

“There’s not much left to do but eat and sleep. Take all the time you need.”

Sun had done a good job of putting the corpses out of sight. I returned to the throne and opened my pack. The damaged armour would only be useful to sell for coin to add to the sixty-three silver and eighty-two copper I’d found on the bodies. My bank was growing slowly but surely and I hoped to have an opportunity to spend some of it upon our return. I pored through the basic items first which consisted of several more health potions and a new one that sent a thrill of anticipation through me.

Item – Potion of Water Breathing (uncommon)

Type – Consumable

Description – Water mixed with the tears of Talisian mermaids, these vials of liquid allow the imbiber to breathe under water. Originally created to allow the aquatic beauties to lure unwary sailors into their lairs. There they would be kept until the tonic ran out and the poor souls drowned, providing food for the ocean dwelling carnivores.

Requirements – None

Effect – Water Breathing (1 hour)

Misc - None

I couldn’t envisage a use for the item right then, but I could see the value of it for future endeavours. As long as I steered clear of any of the sea-splashing huntresses, that was. The thought of being trapped deep under the water as the evil sirens mocked me while I drowned was bloody awful. Repressing an involuntary shudder, I checked over the boss drops. With my class having been picked, the aliens seemed to be tailoring them towards my needs. Either that or I was just ridiculously lucky.

Item – Bastard Sword of the Fifth Legion (uncommon)

Type – Weapon (1 hand)

Description – The basic field sword of legionnaires serving under the fabled Zadian Dynasty. Their kingdom endured for centuries until bitter political infighting left the land leaderless following the assassination of Queen Nanisha Zadian. Karg the Belcher and his ten thousand strong ogre army picked the weakened land apart, ending their bloodline forever.

Requirements – Str 5 Dex 5

Effect – Slashing damage

Misc - None

Item – Bulwark of Laeroth (rare)

Type – Armour (shield)

Description – Personal shield of the elven princeling, Laeroth Avallar, heir of Daganil Avallar. During the forever war for ascendency over the Tree of Tatrasiel, the dark-elf warlock Zulreth Kadradi summoned an Elder God. The furious deity burned the tree to ashes and proceeded to rampage, wiping all life from the world. It is now a barren, charred husk floating in a cold, uncaring galaxy. The essence of the great oak found its way into the dead princeling’s fallen shield.

Requirements – Str 8 Dex 8

Effect – Provides resistance to physical and magical attacks

Misc – Provides passive healing when not engaged in combat

That would come in handy when my health potions ran dry. I still had dozens of the things sitting in my inventory, so it would be a good while yet. I took the time to feed my growing companions. Ratty was now the size of small cat and sat on my lap instead of my hand. Spidey was of a similar size and I wondered how long it would be before the eight legged monster would try and cocoon me to eat. I checked on Wargy and his description had changed.

Companion Gained – Warg (Infant)

Description – A distant ancestor to the more common wolf, wargs are far larger than their lupine forebears. Capable of hunting alone or as part of a pack, they are fierce predators. Once trained, wargs forge a lifelong bond with their master. Requires milk to survive.

Due to the vastly differing sizes between the rodent and the wolf, Wargy was already the size of my dog, Honey, when she was about six months old. I needed to check with Bart whether they were my companions in ownership and loyalty, or whether they would indeed eat me as soon as the opportunity arose. None of the three seemed to harbour any aggression towards me, but it would pay to be cautious.

“Mark?”

I looked up from my puppy and found Sun standing over me. “What’s up?”

“May I hold him again?” she asked with the same innocent marvel shown when I’d first pulled him out of my pack. “He’s getting so big.”

“Of course,” I replied, passing his suckling form into her arms. I jumped out of the way. “Here, sit down.”

The fearsome warrior’s entire demeanour changed. She cradled the infant wolf as if it were a child. Something clicked in my slow, low wisdom brain.

“Wolfkin,” I said. “Your surname.”

She smiled at me with tears in her eyes. “Daulf killed all of ours when he took over.”

I sat down on the rock floor beside her. “You used to have them in your fjord?”

“Oh yes, many of them. My family were renowned for the wargs and wolves we raised. You have to understand our home was hard and often dangerous. They were our shield.”

“Would you like to tell me about it?”

“If you’d like,” she replied, settling into the backrest which was a vertical slab of rough limestone. “Our fjord was located to the east, a week’s sail from the ogre kingdoms and the hardy barbarian outposts that held them back. We never shirked our duty, though. We would send just as many men and women to guard the oceans and passes as everyone else. We had been masters of the sea for centuries before the dumb brutes even dipped a toe in the cold, salty water. It was on the land that they had the advantage.”

Her face darkened for a moment.

“Anyway, our home was a thriving hub that served as one of the final ports before the lands of the humans. All manner of interesting people and goods travelled through my home. The docks would smell of fish one day, then sweet fragrances from the trade barges out of Ozeal. Most of our people were miners or hunters, and one complemented the other.” She tapped her obsidian looking war-axe. “We were on the fringes of the frozen tundra. Whitebear and Sasquall attacks were common as their populations waxed and waned. Our wargs would serve as an early warning and a way of bringing the huge beasts down so that we could slay them. Some tribes put the runts down for meat and fur, but even the lowliest wolf can smell a predator from a mile away. The warriors from other clans would laugh at us until I silenced them with a beating.”

“Did you say Sasquall? Do you mean Sasquatch? Bigfoot? Massive furry things?”

“The translation may vary,” she replied. “Taller than me by a head. Covered in thick, white fur and walking upright like a man. The bears can do it when they feel threatened, but the Sasquall are born bipeds. Legend has it that they were barbarians once. Many hundreds of generations before I was born they were banished to die in the snow. They adapted to their new, frozen home and harbour an intense hatred for my people. All I know is how to kill them and how to skin them. Their fur is second to none for its ability to keep people warm.”

“This land must seem hot by comparison?” I asked.

“It took a lot of getting used to. Except for the depths of winter, the fires here are for cooking and decoration. In my homeland they were life. The longhouse’s firepit would burn all day and night for heat and light. As I said, it was a tough life, but a rewarding one.”

“Until Daulf,” I offered.

“Until Daulf,” she replied, darkly. The rescued girls called that the stew was ready to eat and Sun made to hand Wargy back to me. “Thank you.”

“Why don’t you keep him? With your knowledge, he’ll be far better off in your care than mine. I’ll transfer his food over to you.”

“No. I couldn’t.”

“You can. And you will.” My thoughts sent all the milk into her inventory. “There you go. It’s not your home, but it’s a small taste of it.”

Sun was lost for words. I had the impression it had been a long time since anyone had shown her any kindness. She nodded gratefully, her eyes wet as she looked away. I left her and the pup to get better acquainted and headed for the food. My stomach growled, insistent on taking nourishment in spite of my remaining nausea about the deeds I’d perpetrated.