[Michael POV]

First expedition team, my team, headed south towards the source of our river. We left Athenaeum, the name of the town, in good spirits. Our precious little guildmaster came to see us off, which did wonders for the morale of the younger members of our team. Which is good since we are in an important mission to explore the south of us after all. Looking at the surroundings from a birds eye view, the town and guild hall were in a small clearing in a large forest that extends all around us. To the south is the supposed source of the river, to the north is supposedly a large body of water. To the west seems to be small hills and forest, while to the east is our river and beyond that is some larger hills that could be possibly mined. We decided to explore our river first because it is an important life line for our people, and it also has the highest chance of finding another town.

We walked alongside the river where there was some clearing from the forest, but after a short while the trees can no longer be avoided. Kira and I were the vanguard of this group, so we had to be vigilant around these rather large and treacherous trees. We are quite lucky there is a river to guide us and the fact Rachel is on our team. Nothing like a [Pathfinder] when exploring, even though she can not use her magical abilities yet. All of us are geared out in our best armor, with the best weapons we have. We also have magic bags full of potions for us to use, since we don’t have any healing right now. Our tents and rations were inside the magic bags of the pack mules we brought with us, to be honest I feel over prepared due to the amount of supplies we brought. I just hope we can bring something back worth the investment we put into this.

We walked along for a few hours now, the wondrous clearing we had before is long gone. All that stands before us is a treacherous forest floor, with gnarled roots ready to trip us hidden in the overgrowth. Kira was originally clearing brush and roots with her axe to clear the path, but she gave up after an hour of fruitlessly battling this forest.

“So how is everyone’s first real adventure? It is everything you have dreamed of yet?” I asked, slightly sarcastic.

“It was never this annoying or tiring in DnD, but strangely I am kind of excited” Kira said, perhaps tired from swinging her axe around.

“I always loved hiking and camping before, so this is almost like my ideal vacation.” Rachel said with a blooming smile her tail flickering around happily.

“ I Know!! We are truly living in a fantasy world! It is a bit scary, but there is magic and adventures and all sorts of cool things to do!” Peyton said in her bubbly voice.

“It has been a while since I took you girls somewhere, I have been too busy with the diner to enjoy the outdoors lately.” Jaxon said to his sisters, apologetic for being too engrossed with his business.

“Come on brother, we all know that you care about us. And the diner is still new so you had to focus on it for a while. Plus we had that vacation planned for South Padre Island next summer anyway.” Rachel said, trying to get her brother from brooding.

We all started chatting away, keeping our mind a bit off from the monotony of walking through a crowded forest floor. The rest of the party was talking as well, but they seemed almost afraid of talking with us. Hmm, can’t let our team have a division like that. I called out to a young looking cat-beastman [Ranger] called Liam, who was quietly walking beside us.

“Sup Liam, you doing ok?” I asked.

“Y-yeah, just a bit nervous about being in a dangerous forest” He said timidly.

“Hey, don’t be so worried. It is good to be vigilant in an unknown place, but we had no contact from anything since we got here 2 weeks ago. I am sure if anything was dangerous around here, they would have challenged our sudden teleportation here.” I said calmly.

“Yeah I guess so...hey Michael, what was your major before you got here?” he asked, trying to jumpstart a conversation.

“I was a business major believe it or not, probably pretty funny to see a massive half-orc in a business suit huh?” I said, trying to make fun of my current body to lighten the mood.

“Hehe...yeah that is a bit ridiculous. I was a Music Major, all I ever wanted was to play the flute or harmonica around a campfire. Like a party of adventures relaxing after a tough day of exploring. A bit ridiculous and nerdy I know, but the idea seemed so fun” He said a bit wistfully and a little shyly.

“Hey man, If you want to play some music when we rest for lunch or dinner go ahead! Don’t be afraid of being nerdy here, we are all nerds who play games too seriously after all. This is a once in a lifetime chance to live out every gamers fantasy! To be real adventurers!” I said to rouse him up.

People reacted to my words, living out the fantasy, and became excited. Even if we are walking in a miserable forest in a world where we know nothing, especially on how to go home. We are going to make the most out of this experience goddammit!

“Remember everybody, we get to have fun out here while Alex and the rest of the magic casters still have to train. Our poor guildmaster has Bryce working him to the bone with paperwork! So don’t be afraid to have fun!” I cheered out, finally getting everybodies mood into the adventure. Because adventures should be fun!

The group overcame our little schism, and unified into a proper party that understands the value of fun. We carried on for a while longer before setting up a spot for lunch in a tiny clearing next the river we were following. We set up a little camp to settle down, and Jaxon brought out the premade sandwich he had packed just for today. They were as excellent as he had ever made, even though he lacked a ton of ingredients and spices he was used to using. The Pack Mules we brought with us also decided to lay down a bit and drink some water we brought out for them. I decided to look around, seeing a gloomy forest with tall trees that twist and wind as they grew. I would call them willows, but I am no arborist. Every once in a while, I can almost see a light shimmering, or particles glittering deep into the woods.

I ignored it, probably just the sunlight through the moving leaves of the tree. We got up from our little break and began to move on, we have a goal to reach after all. We got up to follow the river upstream once again, seeing this enormous body of deep blue liquid flowing northward. Though it looks like a gentle flow, a small test dip next to our city proved that water was more viscous than it appeared. Luckily I was wearing my armor at the time, that shit was terrifying. I quietly distracted myself as we walked alongside our flowing companion...though something started to feel off somewhere in my gut.

Rachel began to notice something as well, she started darting her vision in the forest all around us. Her cat-like ears began moving and twitching, like 2 radar dishes trying to find a signal of some sort. Liam reacts too, surprised that something managed to get a drop on us. Peyton falls toward the center of our formation, while us vanguards begin to form a circle around her and our 2 mules. I looked around desperately trying to see what was causing us to feel so wary, and how they managed to slip past our [Pathfinder] and ranger so easily.

We see a small shimmer of colors and glittering light, 4 dog-like creatures with massive maws appear before us. They had a ridged spine, shard claws and spined tail. They had no eyes, just an oversized maw and long white teeth. They didn’t move at all or made any sound other than the dripping of drool coming out their mouths. I had my War Mallet in my right and hand, with my spiked gauntlet in my left, both drawn and ready to show that I will not be taken down easily. But they simply stood still, as If waiting for something. I didn’t feel like waiting for these shitty dogs, and walked carefully towards them to hopefully drive them away.

That was the excuse they needed it seems, as 2 of them lunged for me. The other 2 blinked somewhere else, I didn’t have the time to deal with them as the first one tried to go for my head. I swung my Mallet ready to strike the beast in the air, but then it blinked behind my right leg as I tried to hit it’s last known position. It drove its teeth in my leg, using its full jaw strength in the attempt to pierce my plate armor. As it tries that the other bit into my arm holding the Mallet, in the attempt to remove my weapon. They are more intelligent than they seem, a dreadful thought rose in my as agony filled my right arm and leg from the crushing jaws. I grit my teeth in anguish feeling the orcish temper rise inside, I clenched my right hand to hold the damn dog still as I ready my left fist. What you damn mutts don’t understand, is that I was left handed to begin with.

My left fist came crashing down on the skull of the dog attached to my arm. It could feel the spikes on my heavy gauntlet breaking through its tough skull, piercing into the spongy grey matter. Blood exploded out of its empty eye sockets and seeped out of its triangular canine ears. It thrashed for a fraction of a moment before going limp, I ripped my gauntlet out its skill with ribbons of gore still clinging onto the barbed spikes of my gauntlet. I thrashed my right arm to the right to throw away the corpse attached to it, suppressing a yelp of pain as the dog biting my leg managed to find my flesh. I tried punching this dog with my left arm, but it managed to shift its body to make my blows only glance at its flesh. My spikes still leave stripes of bleeding wounds on its body, which drives to bite down even deeper into my flesh. I kicked my right leg high in the air which caused the dog to let go. In the second that is hung in the air, I arched my mallet high in the air for a powerful strike. My hammer struck down in the side of its rib cage just as it was about to hit the ground. I felt my weapon snap and break its ribs driving shatter bone deeper into its body.

It blinked once again before my mallet had a chance to dig deeper into its body. It was right in front of my snarling, but it was heavily injured. Blood was spilling out of its mouth, ribbons of bleeding wounds across its body, and a massive crater in the right side of its body with sharp broken bones poking out of its hide around the edge of it. He snarled and growled at me, but it was so heavily injured it sounded like asthmatic wheezing with hints of aggression. My right leg wasn't alright though, kicking it off me gave it a perfect opportunity to carve out a chunk of my calf. We looked at each other with glares of bloodthirst, it broke our stare off with one last blink. It blinked right in front of my body, trying to leap and tear out my throat. But my left fist was ready, I grabbed it by the throat just before it reached mine. My metal claws dug into its throat, the mutt began screaming horrific gargled dog yips, it thrashed its paws hoping that the claws attached would do something. I squeezed its throat with everything my left hand had, the formerly sturdy flesh became a mangled mess of blood viscera. It’s thrashing finally stopped, the life it once had was finally extinguished.

But I didn’t have time to dwell on it, as the other 2 dogs were attacking my team. I turned around to see Kira finishing the dog that attacked with a clean slice of his head. Her massive axe sliced the dogs head down the middle, leaving a grotesque cross section with grey matter seeping out. She received plenty of flesh wounds as compensation, bloody claw marks left patterns around her body. But we had one more to deal with before we could worry about ourselves, as we turned towards the sound of one more battle.

Liam and Rachel were locked in a 2 on 1 battle with the last dog, the battle was so quickly paced that the other members were unable to join in. Both of these cat beastmen used their instincts and natural agility to dodge the claws and teeth of the ugly mutt. Rachel has her trusty Kukri knife she keeps when the battle becomes too close, while Liam has a simple hunting knife. Though they injured the dog, none of them were fatal. It also was dextrous enough to avoid critical damage. They danced and scrambled around each other, in a battle of quick and feral movements. But we couldn’t just stand around, because we heard Jaxon scream “THERE IS MORE OF THEM!” at us.

I turned around again and saw 7 more of these assholes blinking in from whatever horrible place they came from. I heard a loud thundercrack coming from behind me, and one of the heads of the dogs exploded into blood and viscera. Its body fell down with its muscles twitching and convulsing, the death so quick that the rest of its body hasn’t quite realized it yet. Peyton has fired her pistol, taking advantage of the first clear shot she had at them. The halfling alchemist threw away the spent pistol and drew a new one while holding a glass jar in the other hand. The dogs immediately began blinking, probably to force Peyton to not fire again. One began running straight at me, I prepared a feint with my Hammer since I knew it had no intentions of being struck down easily. As soon as my feint strike was about to hit it, it unexpectedly blinked far away from me. At least 10 meters directly in front perhaps to assess my combat skills with its own feint, but unfortunately for the mutt Peyton saw through it.

She threw her glass jar full of liquid at the location the dog was going to blink to. It didn’t even have time to react as the glass broke against its body spreading the noxious liquid inside of it. The beast screams howls of agony, as chemical hissing sounds erupted from its body. The concoction she threw is burning through the durable flesh of the hound, its tries blinking several times in the row to remove it to no avail. The dog's horrifying pained wails were slowly growing quieter as the liquid ate more and more of its flesh, leaving behind a carcass that was half skeletonized. She then pointed her pistol towards another dog that almost snuck up on her, the 2 staring at each other waiting for the other to strike first.

I didn’t have time to look out for her, as 2 dogs were cornering a newbie human [Rogue]. One dog was tearing through his leather armor on his arm, the other was fangs deep into his thigh. Rivulets of his blood were dripping down his arms and legs, he was wildly stabbing his daggers in the hopes of getting them to let go. But he was too panicked to properly use his weapons, leaving and wounds afflicted to be too shallow. I ran over ignoring my hobbled right leg with pure orcish rage. At 7 meters away, I threw my mallet at the legs of the dog on his left thigh. The legs snapped like twigs with the sudden blow of my flying mallet, causing the dog to release its jaw in surprise. It was sent tumbling and rolling before landing 3 meters away, its limbs resembling noodles than proper legs.

With the dog grabbing his thigh gone, the Rogue was finally able to leverage his body to land a strike in back of the dog's skull. His dagger was buried deep into its skull, the dog released its jaw as the foreign object drilled into its brain. It blinked, but only 1 meter away from the rogue. It was trying to shamble away, trying its best to run from its death but was no longer able to move properly due its brain being gauged. It was stumbling and yipping with agony, the fear visible in its broken gait. The rogue screamed and jumped on top of the beast, viciously stabbing at the dying beast until it's whelps of pain can be heard no longer.

We heard a loud Thundercrack that was immediately followed by another. Peyton won her duel by slowly drawing out another pistol she preloaded behind her back. She fired the first shot to make the dog blink towards her, and then drew the other gun to execute the damned thing. Blood of the hound now streaks across the once cute halfling face, she drew another pistol and glass bottle and tried to assist Jaxon, who has the last 3 of the things around him.

Jaxon was surrounded by three dogs encircling him, each taking turns blinking at him. His mismatch of place and leather armor was covered with scratches, but nothing more. He may be a large human, but he is surprisingly agile. He was able to turn most of their strikes into glancing blows against his armor, and he had a massive cruel-looking weapon that made the dogs wary. His weapon was an elongated butcher’s knife that was almost machete shaped, except it was the size of a longsword. He wields his swords almost like a katana, since both the katana and his weapon have only 1 sharp edge. He had quick fast strikes, and he can switch to one-handed and two-handed style as the situation calls. One of the dogs has one of its ears clean sliced threw, showing how brutally sharp his weapon was.

Liam and Rachel finally finished their dog, and tried to assist Jaxon even though they looked exhausted from their battle. But the situation makes it difficult to jump in, so they are slowly surrounding the group of them life the rest of us. One dog leaps toward Jaxon, feinting a strike to his left before blinking to his right. Jaxon simply just steps back with his left foot to dodge the blinking dog, and swung his cleaver-sword to the right diagonally to slice the head off of a second leaping dog that tried to use the first one as bait. The clean slice right through the neck of best killed it instantly, though he didn’t stop to check as he carried his swing around to strike at his left side where the third dog tried to attack him. We only heard a yelp of pain and the thud of a leg hitting the ground. The third dog was rolling on the ground, in agony after losing its leg so suddenly. The first dog was the only one left uninjured, it slowly started to back only to realize we already had surrounded it.

Jaxon went to finish off the dog he left cripplied, while the rest of us turned towards the last remaining one. It realized its life is over, the desperation is now palpable. It is the most dangerous of creatures, the one back into a corner with no way out. Ferocity of a beast that desires to live is nothing to scoff at. But there was another being who fights with the same ferocity, the upgrade to the [Barbarian] job. Kira the [Amazon] unleashed a deep primal howl, her large half-orc frame trembling not with fear, but with pure orcish fury. Her glows seem to glow with fury, the eyes of a beast lost to its primal instinct. She has just used Rage, a skill that was lost to us before now. She raises her massive War Axe into the air and then runs towards the dog, entering in a true duel to the death.

A thundercrack resounded in the air, a massive hole blossomed right through the rib cage of the beast. The attack sent it tumbling sides for a couple of meters, leaving a broken corpse with no life in it all. Peyton had decided to shoot it with her pistols, ending the duel before it even started. Kira immediately exited out of her rage and was shocked to see her opponent stolen from her, but Peyton didn’t seem to care as she walked up to one more dog with her last pistol. It was the dog I had cripple with my thrown maul, it still lived but was unable to move due to the sorry state of its legs. It yipped and snarled at Peyton as she casually walked up, it tried its best to move but the legs were shattered beyond any hope. Trying its best to wriggle and bite, but peyton kepped a 5 meter distance as she slowly drew the final pistol. A final thundercrack sounded in the woods, ending our first battle in this world.

“Hey Peyton you got any more bandages, my arm was more cut up than I thought” I said to the halfling [Alchemist] as she drew supplies from the medical magic bag. We had finished our battle, but we received quite a few injuries in return. We set up camp a little ways from the battle sight, and started getting our wounds treated. The uninjured people start looting the bodies of the dogs, store their blood in vials, their teeth, and their claws since those are important alchemy items. We finally learned their names, they were called blink dogs and originate from Fae Wilds. Not that I care too much, I was more worried about my calf that got gored by one of their teeth.

“Yep I got you, hey Liam do you mind patching Michael up? I am trying to find some potions for his calf and his blood loss.” Peyton replied, directing Liam to help her.

The cat-beastman grabbed the roll of bandages and healing salve from her, and got to work. Luckily cats tend to have dexterous hands, so there was no sloppy work on his part. I opened an emergency potion for my calf, and poured on the wound. It was hissing violently and painfully as it hit my exposed wound, but my flesh was beginning to mend a bit. At least the blood has stopped pouring out. I still audibly winced at the pain which prompted a response from Peyton.

“Aww, did it sting a little? Well, better get ready for the next one!” Peyton replied cheekily.

“Spare me, damn did that stupid dog do more damage to me than I though though. Bastard was tough” I said in response.

“They were smart enough to find the weakness in your armour, but not enough to realize how badly they misjudged us. I wonder what prompted them to attack?” Peyton asked, to no in particular.

“No idea, but they definitely were not planning on letting us go no matter what. I think them waiting at first was just a ploy to buy time while the other dogs caught up with them.” I said, thinking about how they behaved.

“I suppose that is one possibility, but before we discuss more I have the potions you need!” Peyton said with a smile, though I know that this will not be a pleasant experience.

“So this is a blood fortifier, and this will heal my wound completely right?” I looked at the bottles questioningly.

“Yep Yep! And the nice part is that they don't hurt!” she said while walking away.

I poured on my calf, and saw my flesh restoring and skin returning. The area is a bit raw, but I just put some more salve and bandages on it to protect it. I looked at the blood fortifier, and downed it one gulp. The taste was fucking awful, like a bag of cut grass and some 3 month old rotten cheese mixed together. It took everything I had to keep it down, I had to dry heave for a couple of minutes afterwards with just the aftertaste. Luckily Liam was there to keep my company. I wanted to complain, but she already found another victim to “heal.” The rogue I saved from the 2 Blink Dogs.

“You alright michael? That looked rough…” Liam said with concern.

“I am fine, just paying the price for recklessly causing trouble.” I said with a wolfish grin.

“Well that is good to hear, your wound looks quite brutal. I was surprised to see you running so well with it” Jaxon said to me as he sat down next to me on the log rock I was sitting on.

“Orcish bodies are outstandingly durable, little flesh wounds like that wouldn’t even get close to stopping me.” I said back trying to look tough. Though the grimace of pain on my face probably revealed my farce.

“Looks like we manage to get through that with mostly minor injuries then. That is good, though we have only traced about 7 hours away from the clearing. Seems this might be a surprisingly hostile forest if we got attacked already” Jaxon said, thinking about the encounter.

“That might not be true. At least in the game these creatures were called Blink Dogs and they come from the Fae Wilds. The Fae wilds can just open and close portals to the realm randomly in untamed forests, so we might have just gotten really unlucky.” Said Liam.

“Yeah that is true, I certainly hope it is at least. Don’t think we can manage if we are consistently attacked by those damn things.” I said slightly bitterly, that battle was closer than it should have been.

We talked a little bit more about our strange enemies, and how Kira is still not over the fact that Peyton stole her duel away from her. I think she should just be happy that she discovered how to use a skill though. We sat around for a bit to recover our wounds and for Rachel to draw out the map she was working on. We drew some water from the river and washed the blood off of our armor and equipment. I ate a bit of food, and some water to wash my mouth eventually since that damn potion still lingered in it. After resting up for a short while, probably around 2 hours, we got back up and began heading out again. We atleast hope to find a clearing to camp in for the night.

Exploring the willow, and now eerie forest again. Luckily withe river to their left, there was no chance of getting lost in these woods. They didn’t see anything out of the ordinary since the attack with the Blink Dogs, though they did have some ominous feelings and light whispering coming from the forest. It was enough to put them on edge, and the warm feelings of adventure they had before the attack was over. Now people were vigilant against the woods, the fantasy feel of this world went away the moment you felt teeth or claws ripping your flesh apart.

After a few more hours of marching, we found a nice clearing close to the river. Since dusk was soon to arrive, we decided to make this our camping sight. We had the strength to continue walking, but our minds became weary after the constant vigilance we had during our travel through the forest. Once again our biggest failing is the mind, not the body. We set up our tents, which everyone will have at least 1 roommate, and began hunting for some firewood. We found some firewood, got the pit and pot ready for the fire, and laid down some heavy blankets to sit on around the camp. The mules are tied to a post and given feed and water, they were exhausted from walking around the forest brush. Liam brought his fishing pole to try to catch some fresh meat for tonight's dinner, which everyone will appreciate. I got done on the blanket after grabbing the fire wood, my calf is still sore even after treatment.

I pulled out a little book with ink and a quill. This was my personal log, I decided to keep up after we got here. So much has happened since we came here, I wanted to keep track of all of the new things. One of the things I have kept track of is that amount of memories that come to me that weren’t originally mine. I had a simple backstory for my character, so I thought I was immune to what was happening to Alex and the others. But slowly I had started to recollect a set of parents that weren’t mine, a village of hardened warriors that I somehow grew up in, and a gentle but stern Blacksmithing master who taught me how to handle the hammer. These memories were troubling to say the least, but at least I can still organize them as mine and Saridur’s (The name of Michael’s character). I don’t know how bad some of the others have had it, but I can tell they too are worried. It has slowly become a taboo subject to speak of at dinner, despite the fact we probably should discuss it more. I wish Alex and the brainiacs would start getting some solutions, people are getting more and more worried.

“Hey Michael, what's that book ya got there?” asked the human Rogue who I saved earlier.

“Oh this, I guess you could call it my diary. Just hard to remember everything since so much has changed and all. What was your name again if you don’t mind me asking?” I answered and asked back.

“Ah my name is Harley, I don't think I have ever mentioned it to you so no worries.” He answered back.

“Nice to meet you Harley, feel free to call me Mike. That is what all my friends do anyway.” I said back, holding my fist out for a fist bump.

He fist bumps me back and then says, “ Sorry to drop this on you, but how did you fight so well? I did all the training, but when the moment came I forgot all of my dagger techniques.”

“Ah, well I did play a lot of football back home, and I did wrestling and boxing too. I just had a natural affinity for it I guess. Though if I had to guess, your technique will come to you with experience.” I said back, trying not to reveal that more memories from Saridur is probably why I can fight so easily.

“I hope so, I had a feeling I would have died if you weren’t there. Never thought that living in a video game would be as scary as it is, even though it hindsight it is pretty obvious huh.” He said back, sounding a little fatalistic.

I look at him, directly in his eyes. I see the eyes of a person who hates himself, the person who is filled with doubts and frustration. It seems that this battle dispelled any illusions of grandeur, and he has realized he is not the dashing rogue that he probably dreamt of being. I patted him on the back, before saying:

“Yo, self reflection is fine but don’t let it grow into self hatred. This isn’t about being a hero, we are here to find a way home. Don’t forget, you killed one of the dogs as well. That is more than most in this party of ours.” I said with a grin.

“Sure thing Mike, I will keep it in mind. Just don’t expect me to drink one of Peyton’s potions again, that shit was the stuff of nightmares.” Said Harley, trying to blow off my pep talk with a little humor. I will let him off the hook for that just this once, he did almost die after all.

“If you ever need someone to talk to, I am open to it dude. Also agreed on the potions, that was traumatizing.” I said back to him, holding out my fist again.

He bumped his against mine, and walked off towards his tent. It seems he went to rest for a bit before dinner, not a bad idea if I say so myself. Though I had to sit out and be the morale booster for this party, no one likes seeing a weak leader in a crisis situation. I looked over to Jaxon, who was busy talking with his sisters. Peyton was reloading her spent pistols, and since they are muskets they take awhile. It seems she has trapped 2 other newbies to assist her, poor bastards are gonna be worked to the bone. I just continued to write in my log, it seems that each day has more and more stuff that I had to write down.

The night slowly crept by, the campfire was set alight by our wonderful halfling Alchemist. Liam walked back from the river bank, he actually managed to catch 4 large trout-like fish. His face gleaming happily, and both of the cat-beastmen on our team had their tails wagging in delight. Jaxon had his chili that he was prepping, the wondrous smell of proper Texas chili was filling the darkening sky. Liam and Rachel suggested putting the fish in there, but Jaxon already prepped a dutch oven and lemony herbs for the fish. River fish do have a reputation for having a rather fishy taste to them, which is why there will be no trout for me. The food was ready after a while, which brought everyone over the campfire for their rations of food. We ate sparingly, but the meal was so filling that no one complained about the rationed portions. The trout also helped with the supplies, though the 2 cats ate a whole fish each. Can’t really complain though, since they are the precious navigators and they caught the damn things themselves.

I laid down on the blanket, looking up at an alien night sky filled with bright stars and 3 moons. When we first got here, the moons freaked us out. But now I am used to seeing them, funny how we humans can get so used to strange things. I started hearing the lovely tunes of a flute being played, I quickly looked around and saw Liam happily blowing into one. He plays a happy tune, something you would imagine hearing while exploring a garden, or seeing a bunch of wild animals playing around. It was an innocent tune, something that felt so out of place from the naked brutality of the combat we experienced before. I almost felt tears coming out of my eyes for some reason, though I am not too sure why…

Liam’s innocent songs played through until deep into the night, the campfire providing a warm atmosphere, and Jaxon’s cooking filling us to the brim with delicious food. A glorious night sky, and the steady sounds of a flowing river nearby. You could almost make the mistake of calling this a gamer’s dream again. Warm thoughts filled my head as I took the first rest, I said goodnight to Harley since he had the first watch of the night. Sleep took me quickly, though I had one last thought before I clocked out. I wonder if Blake is doing just as well as we are?