Clete never thought he would be this grateful to see goblins.

They came out of the treeline slicing the cords tethering the horses to the cart. They only hit half of their targets, enough to achieve their desired result. One horse was released, sprinting off into the darkness of the overcast night. In contrast, the other horse stopped in its tracks with the sudden extra force pulling it back and the presence of these small aggressive humanoids. The cart struck the hesitating horse causing it to flip onto its side, cracking the wooden frame of the cage Clete was currently trapped inside.

While the mercenaries fought their short but angry attackers, Clete seized the opportunity. He kicked the roof off the overturned cart, dashing blindly into the surrounding forest.

Arrested for thievery, Cleten had spent most of his life evading the law and skipping from town to town. He never even realized a bounty was on his head until it was too late. The mercenaries had tied him up and stuck him in a cage to be sold to the highest bidder.

Luck came in waves, his mother always told him. So your lowest points would always be followed by the highest. And it would be best if you enjoyed the highest while you can because a steady drop can come anytime. Before the mercenaries had picked him up, he'd stolen a plump coin purse from some ignorant diplomat from Dulcrois, drinking his spoils when an even plumper lady of the night requested his company. It couldn't get higher than this, he told himself.

It turns out that lady was part of a mercenary group hunting for some loser pickpocket making mayhem in every major city east of the Prathein Sea. Some loser pickpocket named Cleten Walsh.

Clete stopped, suddenly aware of the sound of trotting hooves. He looked around for a moment and spotted movement through the tree line, a riderless horse. Things were looking up.

He chased after the horse catching up, only to have the beast suddenly create distance between the two. They kept this pattern for fifteen minutes before the horse seemingly disappeared in front of him.

"Huh?" Clete managed to let out in between strained breaths.

He could see lights dance on the road ahead. Fearing his capture, he threw himself into a bush. It looked like a town, but they had traveled several days from Dulcrois and were still days away from any of the coastal cities. There shouldn't be any cities out this direction, but here one was. A multitude of buildings were illuminated by the stars and moon, while torches burned throughout the city streets.

He clenched his stomach as hunger pangs rolled over him. He could smell delicious food being prepared past the town's gates and, after half a second of deliberation, decided to head inside.

As he approached, Clete turned back to the road he came from to ensure mercenaries or goblins didn't follow him. As he turned back, there was suddenly a woman standing at the entrance to the town. She wore a floor-length robe with a cowl over her head, revealing only her hands and smiling face.

"Hello." She said calmly.

"Hello," Clete replied cautiously, searching the area for any signs of people lying in wait.

"Are you hungry?"

"Y-yes."

"Good," She turned from him and started moving away. "Follow me. We'll get you something to eat.

Clete followed after her, remembering his mother's advice on fortune. He'd had several rough days in a row. He told himself he deserved a victory.

The town was eerily quiet, the two being the only ones walking the city's streets. Passing by, he looked inside the window of someone's home. It was a beautiful sight of a roaring fire, a fully furnished home, with an entire home-cooked meal on the table. The only hiccup being the home was completely vacant but had all the signs of people actively living there.

"What town is this?" He asked his guide as he struggled to catch up with her.

"Hmm?" She replied.

"This town, what's the name of this town?"

"Oh, I guess it doesn't have a name. Do all towns need names?" She questioned.

"I suppose not," He replied, not trying to insult his host and miss out on any chance of food.

She was moving much faster than Clete but barely showed any energy being exerted, only the shifting of her robe as she moved effortlessly across the cobblestone floor.

"I'll have to think of one. A name that is."

"Right."

After minutes of fast-paced walking, they reached her home in what seemed to be the dead center of town. She entered first, then peaked her head out and beckoned him in. All the sirens inside Clete's mind were telling him not to enter, but those warnings became drowned out by the wafting smell of an assortment of food. He entered cautiously. It was a simple home, a bookshelf, fireplace, and lounge took up the majority of space. The only other furniture was a dining room table filled to the brim with food.

The table had everything he could've dreamed of and more, an array of vegetables sauteed in butter, presliced cuts of beef and pork. The stranger even had an entire turkey prepared dripping with fat.

"I can have this?" Clete asked.

"Help yourself." She said through the same smile she never dropped.

He went for the turkey first, ripping a leg straight from the bird's frame and pulling it to his teeth. The smell of charred bird flesh and perfectly arranged spaces filled his sinuses. Unable to restrain himself any longer, Clete bit into the leg, sinking his teeth in and pulling back. It tasted like nothing.

The spot where he bit pulled back in his mouth and snapped back into place when he released his jaw. He dropped the leg off the side of the table, and Clete could see a long strand connecting it to its original turkey body. The strand went taught, pulling the turkey leg back, making it look like Clete had never touched it.

"What the?" Clete stumbled back, unsure what he had just tried to eat.

"Did you not like it?" The stranger asked.

"What is this?!" He demanded.

"Wait here. I'll get you something else, sweetheart."

She reached out her hand as her face deflated and shrank. Then, slowly her body shifted into the floor until she was just a torso, arms stretched out toward Clete.

"Wait right here."

Clete dashed out of the room, regretting not listening to the warnings inside his head. The stranger followed suit as a deformed head, torso, and arms glided across the ground as fast as before.

"Wait right here. I'll get you something to eat." She repeated.

"Stay back!" Clete yelled, grabbing a torch off the wall to swing at the partially limbless stranger.

He felt resistance, like when he tried to eat the turkey leg and saw a stretched mass tether the wall to his weapon. As it got closer, he realized the torch was generating no heat, only light despite a roaring flame emanating from the tip. The wall snatched the torch back and slowly absorbed it into its mass. He turned to the stranger only to see the very end of their black cowl fade into the cobblestone street.

One after one, buildings bent and retracted into the ground. The cobblestone joined suit and was replaced with a black ichor just as dark as the night sky above him. Everything sunk into the void until it was just Clete alone with the moon and stars above on a flat plane of nothingness.

"What are you!" Clete shouted out into the pitch.

In response, stars disappeared one after another until the only thing Clete could see outside the nothingness was the moon above. He stared into the cool light emanating until it rolled back, revealing a cornea looking directly back at Clete's terrified form.

Cleten's fortune had utterly dried up.