The endless forest spread in every direction. The trees and the wildlife gave her comfort and a sense of peace. She had been wandering the forest as far back as she could remember. There had been something in the back of her mind that sparked memories occasionally, but they were disjointed and rare. The last flash of memory she had, she was kneeling behind a sign, tying her shoe. From time to time she would discover caverns in untouched mountains. For these occasions she found herself in climbing gear, rope on her back and a harness tightened around her body. She could safely say that she spent equal time exploring these deep caverns as she had above ground in the forest.

A sound played from her hip. She reached down and grabbed a cell phone. A notification appeared on her lock screen. She pressed it to read the details.

>

>

>

She was startled, she never received a notification before. In all her time wandering the forest and the caverns below it, she hadn’t even had an occasion to speak with anyone. It was all her making, the animals weren't much for talking. They were made to run at the slightest sound. There were predators that she made, but they just ignored her and went about their own business. She couldn’t even recall having a cell phone. She pressed down on the accept button. It flashed blue when touched and when released the phone had returned to the lock screen.

There hadn't been anything special in the companion’s arrival. She had expected some sound, or even a strange glowing light. There had been none of that. One second the ground next to her had been empty, and the next a small black furred humanoid appeared. It had a triangular face, with small pointed ears. Around its neck a red line of fur jumped from the rest of its black furry body. Its mouth had been set into a permanent grin, filled with small white pointed teeth. Long whiskers grew from the front of its face near the small triangular pink nose. It looked vaguely like a house cat, but it had clear human characteristics. The two hind legs and a front hand were seated on the ground as it licked the back of its clawed hand. The creature had piercing green eyes. The back tail curled around its feet, the tip twitching erratically.

“A gremlin?” she asked.

“Tall friend, it’s about time I’ve found you. Do you know what I had to do?” the small creature said between licks.

Its voice had been rather high pitched. She figured it had to do with its size She looked at its face. The expression was indecipherable.

“Who are you? What are you?” she asked.

The creature raked the ground with its paw a few times looking away from her.

“You don’t remember,” the creature mumbled to itself, “they warned me.”

It gestured at her, “Sit down now.”

She obliged. The creature walked half just on its hind legs, and occasionally using its front. The creature laid on her lap, stretching its arms and hind legs before curling into a ball.

“Yes, you’re my tall friend,” it said, the words slightly distorted by its purring.

“Pet my face, please,” it said with its eyes closed.

She reached out and gently rubbed the top of its head with her hand. The fur had been soft. He started to flex its hands, opening and closing them slowly.

“I was told this would help,” he said contentedly.

She looked at him and started to search her memory. There was a definite haze that covered everything. The soft creature reminded her of something. She remembered sitting on a chair stroking her cat. The red collar occasionally jangled as her hand passed over. He was soft.

“Max?” she asked.

“Yes, you called me that. Hungry Max.”

“Hungry max? Where’d you get that from?”

“Whenever you came Home, you would say are you Hungry Max?”

She paused a moment thinking.

“This is the weirdest conversation.” She added, “No I was asking if you were hungry. Then I fed you.”

“Yes, I am Hungry,” He still was curled with his eyes closed, slowly flexing his hands.

“No, it’s…” she paused considering the small creature in her lap, “Hungry Max.”

She decided to drop it. It was weird enough that she was talking to her old cat. It was weirder that he was actually talking back. She scritched behind his ears. He moved his head, pressing into her fingers.

“How did--,” she paused, “how did you become like this?”

“First tell me your own name, tall friend.”

She tried to remember as she idly stroked the fur on Max. There had been a fragment of memory that surfaced where she recalled someone saying a name.

“Was it Vera?” she asked.

“Good, that was easy.” He pulled himself off her lap.

He stood up and stretched his body carefully. At the end of the stretch he yawned, revealing even more sharp pointed teeth. Vera looked away. Cats yawning had always creeped her out when their mouths were open fully. It was like looking into a nightmare.

“I’m glad this was quick,” he said.

“What was quick?” Vera asked.

“Your memories will start to flood back.”

Vera asked, “Do you recognize this place?”

Max looked around. He did a strange gesture with his hand. It took a moment before he realized that Vera didn’t understand.

“No, but you wouldn’t recognize my playground either.”

“Can I see it?”

“Not yet,” he said, “we don’t have time.”

Before she could say anything he looked into the distance. A deer had wondered nearby and had started chewing on a small plant. Max focused on the deer and tensed his muscles. Max had grown in size instantly. He was still small compared to the deer, but from the way he was looking at it she could feel that the deer wouldn’t be a problem for max to attack.

“We don’t have time?” Vera asked once she got over the shock of seeing Max grow to the size of a large dog.

“Do you trust me?” Max whispered.

He watched the deer closely as it continued to chew on available leaves. Vera knew she trusted Max. He was a good cat. She had often arrived home burnt out or stressed from work. Max would always greet her at the door. Whenever she had been sick or upset, he was always close by. It wasn’t even a question, Vera felt.

“Of course I do,” she replied earnestly.

Max vanished. Her world vanished next. It had been replaced by darkness. Vera tried to reach out into the darkness, but she found there hadn’t been anything to reach out with. Any attempt to shout was met with silence. She could sense a presence that wrapped around her like a warm blanket. She could deal with darkness, but the loss of everything else had seriously scared her.

A soothing voice echoed into her mind.

“You have to try to see. Imagine opening your eyes.”

The gentle warmth had guided her thoughts as she tried to imagine opening her eyes. She could feel just a general sense of pain as she strained herself. It had been different than working a muscle. The best way she could describe it to herself, it felt as though she were water, trying to break through a dam. The pressure grew with the assistance of Max’s guiding warmth. She felt a pop. There hadn’t been a sound, or at least she hadn’t heard one. There was just a sudden feeling that swept across her. There was light.

A pale red light strobed around her, almost to the beat of a heart. She wondered if her other senses could be awakened. She could still feel Max’s presence around her, but it hadn’t been guiding this time. She prodded at her boundaries, testing them. Max’s warmth was tempting. She started to prod in its direction. The warmth had started to heat further as she grew closer until a pleasant fire surrounded her. She needed more. She started to draw it in slowly the fire. With every bit she took in, the speed at which she did increased.

“Stop!” Max shouted with alarm.

She couldn’t stop. She needed the fire. The vast reservoir was in her grasp. It overloaded her. She bathed in the heat. The red strobing increased in tempo and brightness, bathing the small cavern with red light, reflecting off damp surfaces. Each pulse brought fire, and it felt good. Something slammed into her. The fire she sought started to drain from her faster than she could pull it in. She could feel herself growing cold as the fire was forcefully removed from her. Vera lost her sense of self. An endless black ocean surrounded her. She floated there for an eternity in the cold depths of nothing. She could feel what little she had left start to drain away. When she was at the last drop, the flow reversed yet again. The ocean surrounding her started to heat up. A small string of fire started to wrap around her, slowly soothing her.

“Vera, tall friend. Do not do that again.” A stern voice spoke to her.

She couldn’t reply, even though she had started to feel her own energy return.

“Imagine I’m the tall friend, and you’re the small kitten.” Max began, “You bit me too hard, so I scruffed you.”

There was a pause. The warmth still continued to trickle into Vera’s being.

“You don’t bite tall friends,” Max said, ”I would have been eaten.”

It took another eternity for Vera’s sight to return. The pulsing read light appeared to be as steady as it had been before Vera started to prod at Max. She felt a tug from the string of fire that connected them. It took time for her to finally regain what she had lost.

“I’m sorry Max,” she said, relieved she could finally say the words.

Max’s warmth drew near, and again surrounded her like a blanket.

“I need to teach you how to draw mana from the outside,” he said.

“Mana?” she asked.

“It’s the life essence of the world.”

Vera could feel herself be tugged at from multiple directions. It felt like the play bites max would give her when he was still a cat. Was he still a cat? He must be. Why did he look like a gremlin? Vera couldn’t answer her own questions.

“Try to pull from where I showed you,” Max said, impatiently.

Vera snapped out of it and started to prod in the directions that Max had showed her. It took quite some time until she could feel a breakthrough and something start flowing into her from one of the points. She hadn’t felt as good as she had when she started to drown in fire, but it was a nice warmth. She needed more.

“Good, good,” Max purred.

She continued to focus prodding at the remaining points that Max had shown her.

“Eventually you won’t need to pull from the surrounding area and the mana will flow from you.”

Vera hadn’t answered Max. She had busied herself on pulling in more mana. With each point she opened the pulsing red light grew steadily brighter. The light continued to pulse in the cavern, and eventually it had become bright enough at its darkest to fully illuminate the entire cavern.

The more she drew from outside, the more she found being pulled into Max until they appeared to equalize.

“Good, now we’ll need to try and move the mana around your core, like a swirl.”

This took more concentration. She could feel the draw of the mana pushing into her reservoir. It hadn’t been as big as Max’s when she started, but as she focused on moving the mana. She found that she could manipulate the points she was drawing from and angled them to start a swirling motion, almost like shooting jets of water into a pool.

“Yes! You’re doing it!” Max said excitedly, “Now try to stop the mana on the outside from moving completely.”

Vera found this hard to do at first. The swirl in her mana caused her to start to draw mana from the outside faster. As more mana flowed in, the swirling seemed to become chaotic. It increased in ferocity as Vera forcefully tried to stop the edges of her reservoir from being drawn in.

“Close the points you’re drawing, I showed you,” Max said, “but you’ll need to keep mine open.”

He had started to become worried. The violent whirlpool that formed within Vera’s started to draw on his own reservoir. She cut everything off. The whirlpool in her reservoir continued to spin. She started to grow worried. There was still a hefty draw from Max’s reservoir. Something different happened. It was almost an immediate increase of fire that she had pulled into herself. Max had forced the entirety of his own reservoir into her own. It hurt. The world was on fire. The bright red light again consumed the cavern. She lost all sense of time again. She felt as though flamed danced along her skin, both burning and regrowing it. It was over almost instantly.

It was a new feeling. The immense pressure from having Max force his reservoir into hers had forced her draw points open. The mana wasn’t being pulled in this time. It was flowing out.

“Max?” Vera asked. She was afraid she had eaten her best friend.

A tired voice replied, “Congratulations tall friend, you’re now a dungeon core.”