I was pleasantly surprised to wake up. That’s not to say that I was happy about it since it involved a rather great deal of pain. Before I even opened my eyes my body was hurting in more places than I knew existed. The worst of the pain was concentrated around my shoulder and lower back, but my legs were coming in as a close third, and uncountable smaller stings and aches were starting to make themselves known. Vaguely I remembered waking up and falling asleep, but it all seemed like a dream, and I shook my head to try and clear the drowsiness. That would prove to be a mistake, as the world swam beneath me and bile began to rise in my stomach, and I quickly returned to lying still on the bed until I felt better.

It took me several minutes before the fact that I was laying on a bed registered. Slowly, carefully, I reached out with my hands, gently patting the area around me. My eyes were still closed, I didn’t feel like I could deal with looking at anything right now, but my hands felt cloth beneath me. It wasn’t a particularly nice fabric as far as I could tell, it was at once both rough and threadbare, but it was a bed. Sleep did sound nice right about now however, and I began to drift off into sleep once again when a stray thought wandered into my head.

What about the goblins?

My entire body stiffened, and the events of the last few hours before I passed out flashed through my mind. The goblins had been right behind me, I had bought a little bit of time with the river but that had only slowed them down, not stopped them. Who knew where they were now? Were they just outside the cave I had run into, waiting for me to come out? Another question came to mind, what was this cave? It clearly wasn’t normal, somebody had made it, furnished it. I was sitting on a bed for crying out loud, obviously I hadn’t put myself there. What felt like freezing cold water rushed down my neck and back, and my mouth felt like a desert. Trembling, I slowly forced my eyes open, half expecting to find a monster right in front of my face.

It was almost a relief when I could see nothing but a pitch-black field in front of me. The room was completely dark, without any kind of ambient light. The fear began to creep in as my eyes failed to adjust to the darkness, and I slowly sat up. My body protested, my head swam, and tears pricked the corners of my eyes, but I had to see, I had to know where I was.

Two small emerald green points of life flashed into existence, and I nearly jumped out of my skin in surprise. They resembled nothing more than tiny flames, dancing in tiny white cups.

“I must admit,” a voice echoed in the room. “This was not how I expected to be woken, by not much more than a child bleeding out on my floor.”

“I’m sorry.” I managed to rasp out, my throat feeling like sandpaper. “Where am I? Who are you?”

A dry sigh echoed through the room. “You are in my home, and while I have had many names, the one you will mostly likely recognize is Ahn’Khareen.”

The voice stopped, obviously awaiting a response. The silence stretched out longer than was strictly comfortable, and I coughed awkwardly. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. Would it be possible to get some light in here, however? It’s rather dark besides those two candles.”

A soft sigh echoed through the room. “How quickly the world forgets. But candles? Ah, I see the misunderstanding now. Very well, I shall provide you with light, although I urge you to remain calm.”

“Why would I- “

I was cut off as light flickered to life in the room and my eyes suddenly had to deal with what seemed to be an overwhelming amount of light. Blinking rapidly, I managed to gradually focus the world around me into focus and saw where my savior had placed me.

It wasn’t pretty. It was a room like I had seen before in my flight through the cave, even though the memory was fragmented and hazy with pain. The walls were made with large cut stones, and the ceiling was held up with reinforced wooden beams at regular intervals. The problem with that however was that many of the beams seemed to be starting to rot, with concerning green sections spreading across the dark wood. The bed I was sitting on wasn’t much better, the mattress was made from some brown fabric that had seen better days and creaked ominously as I shifted around. The lone end table which held the candles that lit the room was in similar condition to the wood beams. Cobwebs were everywhere, and my skin crawled at the thought of how many spiders must be crawling around everywhere. Then my eyes landed on my caretaker and everything else became trivial.

I screamed then and tried to back up, only for my head to hit the stone wall behind me, and the world went dark again.

--##--

The skeleton was still there when I woke up.

“Shall we try this again?” It asked, with something in its tone between annoyance and boredom.

The skeleton was sitting in a chair, legs crossed, and hands folded in its lap. The… thing was clad in the remnants of a black dress, once fine fabric lying awkwardly on its fleshless body and was torn and frayed at the edges. The lights I had mistaken for candles were instead tiny emerald green flames, flickering it the skeleton’s empty eye slots.

I tried scrambling back into the wall again, but with an audible sigh the skeleton raised a hand, and I stopped moving.

“Honestly, please try and maintain some level of decorum to control yourself, I will not hurt you.”

For a few more seconds I kept straining and trying to escape, my eyes unable to break free from the fiery emerald green orbs of the skeleton. My fingers kept slipping on the sheets, and my feet struggled futilely again, pushing my blanket towards the end of the bed. Slowly I stopped struggling, staring at my arms and legs. I could move my head, hands, and feet, but not my arms and legs. Blinking, I tried shifting other parts of my body, experimenting with one limb at a time. I could move just about everything, but my wrists and ankles seemed to be held in midair. That… wasn’t possible. The only thing I could think of was I was being held in place with magic, but magic didn’t exist despite how much I had wanted it as a child.

“Ah, revelation.” The skeleton said, and I remembered that talking skeletons weren’t supposed to be possible either.

“Wh- what are you?” I asked, trying to catch my breath.

“I am Ahn’Khareen. Do you really not know me?”

“I don’t know anything!” I said, my voice breaking. “I don’t know where I am, I don’t know what I’m doing here, I don’t know what the hell just attacked me or what’s going on!”

The skeleton, Ahn’Khareen, hummed to itself. “Things must have changed greatly in my slumber, from whence do you come?”

“Massachusetts, Salem.” I blurted out.

“I do not recognize the names. Is it to the south? You do not have the complexion of the southerners, but it sounds similar to some of their cities, and I do suppose it has been a while since I walked the towns of man.”

“What the hell are you?”

Ahn’Khareen sighed again. “This is going to be a dreadfully dull conversation if you keep asking rude questions befitting a simpleton, and I have slept for far too long to deal with a simpleton when I wake. Pray do come up with more interesting avenues of dialogue.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it. Then repeated the motions as thousands of questions flew through my mind, but I couldn’t decide on what to ask. Then I just closed my eyes and focused on myself for a minute, running through a breathing ritual to try and get my heartrate down. Eventually, I decided I had to say something, and opened my eyes to put on my best face that I had used in my college application interviews.

“I’m sorry for my rudeness. You introduced yourself but I was too startled by, uh, your appearance that I didn’t do the same. My name is Will, William Amsel,” I started, and the skeleton inclined it’s head. “And I also apologize for waking you. It was not my intention, but I suddenly found myself in this place, a forest, and surrounded by little green… monsters. They started to attack me, and I ran, and ended up here.”

I shuddered at the memory, and my body’s aches and pains began to catch up with my earlier surprise and panic, making themselves known again.

“Interesting.” Ahn’Khareen mused, tilting its head, and tapping fleshless fingers against its cheek bone. “Those creatures you described were indeed goblins, and judging by your reaction I am assuming you do not have them from whence you came?”

“No, we certainly do not. Well, we do I guess, but they’re just stories, fantasies!”

“Hmm, well they are quite definitely real here. It must be strange to you, but I find myself comforted by their presence. It seems that no matter how the times may change, goblins will continue to be a nuisance to all who must suffer their existence. Regardless, I have disposed of your pursuers and healed your wounds, for which you are in my debt.

I gulped. “Debt?”

“Indeed. While I must admit I do appreciate on some small level the fact that I was woken from my slumber, depending on the timing it might make matters quite difficult for me. In any case I am awake now, and you are responsible for that. Add into the fact that I had to use my magic to eliminate those bothersome goblins and cure the injuries they had inflicted upon you, well it is only right and fitting that you repay my efforts is it not?”

Before I could answer, the skeleton stood up, thoughtlessly twitching its dress back into place. “As well, I find myself in need of a laborer, if my defenses have degraded to the point where any scared commoner can run into them like a frightened hare into a snare, then they are in dire need of repair. I am curious about many things in addition to your labor, and you shall provide them for me. Sleep well William Amsel, for I have many questions to ask on the morrow.”

Ahn’Khareen disappeared through a doorway and the lights went out, leaving me in darkness once again. After another second the restraints, whatever they were, on my wrists and ankles disappeared and I collapsed onto the bed. I lay there for several seconds, until I slowly pulled the threadbare blanket over myself, and began to cry.