Checking on Tiny and seeing that he was comfortable and staying there I started my descent from this danger zone. The adrenaline from almost falling was wearing off making my legs shake. When My feet touched the ground I folded like a crepe, my legs completely gave out.

“Legs what the hell,” I yelled at them, “Come on we got places to go.” I was massaging and hitting them slightly to get them back to normal.

A few minutes passed before I could stand with steady legs. I started to find my bearings from the ground and where I saw that clearing. It took a minute of positioning my body correctly before I could find the right direction.

With my bearings found I started my journey towards, hopefully, civilization...and maybe finding Hansey but if I didn’t see him for a bit that was his own fault. He should know better than to run off like a fool and I got Tiny here so who needs him...but I’ll pray he finds me soon.

Walking through the woods did cause me some fright, not because I was scared of the woods or anything, but because who knew what things could happen in this strange place. I was only being cautious as I walked through the tall trees that blocked a lot of my vision. Totally wasn’t constantly looking back or around myself just straight forward progress.

My steps didn’t falter once as I moved towards my goal. Examining my surroundings for safety purposes I saw it…that terrible thing, a paw print the size of my head. Something with that big of a paw could eat me so being the brave boy I am I yelled in fear and started running for my life.

With the speed, my legs were taking me you would’ve thought I was being chased but nope just very scared of my imagination.

Now with me running, and looking around, even more, this time scared of every movement, from bugs to the wind I didn’t discriminate against anything, all of it scared me. The more scared I got the faster I started running.

“Road,” I yelled as I saw the dirt road cutting through the trees. Quickly I started following it towards the direction of the clearing.

Running for tens of minutes as my lungs burned and heart pounded I saw the break in the trees. In the clearing was a tall wooden wall big enough to keep out animals and people. With this renewed energy I had, I kept running.

As I approached the gate I saw a man wearing a black leather tunic, with matching pants and wrist guards. Noticing me running he stepped out spear to his side,

“Stop,” He shouted in a young but deep voice!

I put down the breaks but momentum is a thing so my legs stopped but my body kept moving. Sadly this involved some ungracious sliding through dirt and grass before arriving before who I assumed was a guard.

Pushing myself up, catching my breath, and dusting off the dirt I asked, “How are you?”

“Name and business,” He glared and growled out.

With a smile, I responded, “Duke Boones is the name, don’t wear it out. As for business, I would have to say, uh, lost and afraid.”

His stern face loosened as he asked, “Come again?”

“Which part?”

“The lost and scared one.”

“Oh that,” I started explaining with a smile, “Well I have no idea where I am, how I got here, all I know is I’ve been in the woods for a while. I got hungry and dirty so I needed to find people. I climbed a tree, found this clearly, came walking...well walking after seeing a way too big paw print, and now we’re here.

His eyebrows jumped up before asking, “Wait a giant paw print! How big? Where?” He was almost yelling at the end.

His tone change was surprising but I answered, “Size I would say about the size of my head, and where...give me a minute...about a kilometer that way.” I pointed the way I came.

“Oh no,” He whispered in fear and all that bravado vanishing by the second, “Get in now Big Bertha is prowling!” He started to rush me inside practically dragging me in. Passing the gate he started ringing a bell that came hung from the walls.

“What’s going on…” I asked the, now that I can see him properly, young guard?

“You saw the prints of Big Bertha, the biggest, deadliest thing in these woods,” He looked worried as he walked toward the center of town. I rushed after him scared and confused.

“Oh that makes sense, but can I also ask your name?”

He quickly stopped swiveling, and staring at me with a held-out hand, “Names Faron Burns welcome to Forestgrove.”

Shaking his hand I said, “Cool name.”

“Thank you now no more question we run.”

“Fair enough,” I was saying as we both picked up our pace towards what I could now see was the biggest building I’ve seen in town, made of wood and a stone foundation.

As we were running past many people came flooding out of their houses. Some of them looked normal, others wore dirty tanned leather tunics, and only a handful wore the same black leather as Faron.

In front of, what I assumed was some kind of town hall, stood a group of gray-haired men. All of them were easily twice or thrice my age but they all had burley builds not fitting the gray hair or wrinkled faces.

We arrived in front of the old men with many glaring at Faron with hate, but the one standing in the center smiled towards him. One common thing about the faces was they all had a serious look, even the friendly older man looked serious like he was facing his greatest enemy.

The friendly man stepped out looking at Faron asking, “Faron, why’d you ring the bell?”

With slight breathlessness, Faron responded, “This wanderer said he saw Big Bertha’s paw prints a kilometer from the village.

Another of the old men piped from the group, “How can we trust this dirty wanderer!” This man was looking at Faron with hate but turned that look to me. It looked like he was staring at trash in disgust.

“Hey,” I grumbled, “I was in the forest for a few days. I deserve some leeway.” But that just earned me another glare from the geezer.

“Even if we can’t trust him we should still take it seriously,” Faron spoke out, “He still saw something too big for these woods.” His eyes turned to the original old man, who I thought of as the leader, with a pleading look.

The leader spoke in a reassuring tone, “Ok Faron, we’ll hear him out. Now wanderer what did you see?” The last part was said facing me.

“I was making my way here when I saw a paw print the size of my head. Reasonably I was scared so I started running here faster than I thought was possible,” I responded with too much animation, with the flailing hand motions to match.

The leader nodded and with a pensive look started thinking before saying, “Ok, I don’t believe you’re lying so I’ll talk this over with the others. Faron, take him to get cleaned up and be back within the hour.” He turned and started speaking to the other old men.

“Follow me,” Faron said before walking away.

“Following him I started a round of questions, “Who’s Big Bertha? Why is she dangerous? Who’s the old guy?”

Faron just sighed before responding, “Big Bertha is a level 30 bear monster that attacks the village every few years. She’s so dangerous because our strongest is a level 25 who hasn’t advanced yet. The old guys are the elders and the leader is Elder Aaron, who is the strongest at level 25. All the other men are weaker by a few levels.

We walked in silence before I spoke up, “Yeah a lot of that I don’t even know what it means.”

Faron stopped and with the slowest and most dramatic turn said, “What do you mean?”

“I’m not very educated,” I replied in a monotone voice.

“Do you know what levels are? Classes? Advancements? Skills?”

“No to all of the above, could you help me oh wise one,” I chuckled, bowing my head a bit.

Faron smacked my head a little too hard before he started explaining, “It’s like

explaining to a child but I’ll give you a quick break down. First, we’ll start with levels they go up when learning skills, leveling up skills or defeating monsters. Classes are just specializations that can make you stronger, except for production classes that just help you when making things.

“Advancements come at levels 25, 50, 75, 100; these are typically an upgrade of class. Skills are extensive, and there’s an infinite number of them. Some are hard to learn, others easy. We classify these skills into four main categories, growth which give you a stat every level up, production and combat skills that give a stat point at level 1, 5, 10, and finally, there's miscellaneous which are a mixed bag. There, happy?”

I nodded excitedly. This is really like a game, I can’t wait to see what classes I can get and what I can start doing.

“Good, now let’s get back to my place so we can talk more.”

So we walked in silence. Soon coming in front of a smaller house compared to the surrounding ones but still decently sized.

Walking in Faron yelled, “Mr. Tann I’m back!”

“Stop yelling would you,” A frail older man walked out from the back berating Faron but carried a smile. He looked at me asking, “Who’s your friend?”

“He’s just a stranger in need of a place to stay.”

Looking me up and down Mr. Tann asked, “Can he work?”

“Depends on the work,” I responded.

“Well I’m getting a little old so carrying materials is harder and could you do some basic tailoring work?”

“I can definitely do the carrying but I’m clueless on the tailoring part but I can learn,” I spoke eagerly.

Mr. Tann gave a little laugh before saying, “I like that fire in your eyes kid, you can stay for a bit. Faron go get him cleaned up while I go find some clothes.”

“Yes sir,” Faron said respectfully before leading me away, “The bathhouse is this way.”

Leading the way Faron showed me two small buildings, one smaller and clearly and outhouse, the other wider.

Showing me inside the bigger of the rooms Faron started pointing things out, “Here’s the bathhouse, right there is the pump, underneath is the basin, pull that curtain for privacy and I’ll be back to place some clothes and a towel on this table.

“Thank you,” I was about to let him walk away before I called him, remembering my scaly friend, “Hey Faron, could you take Tiny inside with you?”

“Who,” Faron now confused asked?

Holding out my hand as Tiny slithered from my wrist to rest on my palm, “My familiar Tiny.”

Faron jumped back shocked as if I told him he wasn’t wearing pants before shouting, “YOUR WHAT!?”