I was back north among my people. The humans had turned their eyes to the orcs and were now fighting with them. While I wouldn’t call us allies, we at least were not currently enemies. Our battles with the Dark Ones had been going well. We had pushed them out of our valleys, and our caves were secure.

In my time in the south, my people had moved in some places to living in huts and not the caves which Order had given to us. Our villages were growing too big to be in just the caves, so they didn’t want to leave. A shaman had shown others how to plant, and so there were now farms.

Most of my embers were gone. They had given their lives in the war with the Dark One. The handful that were left were no longer just embers but had grown hot again and trained those who they could. I wasn’t needed to be the Battle Priest to my people anymore. I had brought our enemies to meet our enemies, and now they were enemies.

I sat on a horse, another strange thing for my land, and looked over the valley where my cave had been. There was a new tribe there living where mine had died. It was a young tribe, a good tribe.

I had met with the shamans, and several remembered me. I was in the stories now of how the Ash drove off the Humans. How I killed the orcs and laid waste to them. Then how I vanished when the humans fled. It was thought that I died or chased them back, killing them all the way.

I was useless to my people. A warrior for a time that had passed. Yet I was still the Ash of Chaos. I was still what was left when the Sisters’ anger was kindled. The Dark Ones were not gone, but my people had grown. No longer were we on the back foot. Now we could fight them and were on the lookout.

All that was left of who I was were the ashes of memories. My family and friends had all gone, my home and lived in by another.

“Guide me Sisters. My ties to this place are gone but you have bound me tightly to the humans. Show me what it is you would have me do.”

I felt the guidance again. It had been so long since I felt them move in me. It was telling me to ride south to my sister for she was in trouble and Order had need of me. I pointed my horse back south to the humans that had made me a slave and rode to find my sister.

I woke up in the morning refreshed. It seemed like I had more dreams when I was closer to the shrine than when I was away. I still wasn’t sure what to do with them. So many of them showed me things that helped, but I just didn’t know about ones like this. Sure the guy was gone from home for over 15 years. It’s the old saying that you can’t go home again. Everything had changed.

“Blink lets get going we can get down to the other room today and then figure out where to go from there.”

Blink shot into my mind, her rolling over and returning to sleep next to a fire.

“No fire this morning dear. We might have some orcs to fight but if they were like the ones from yesterday then it won’t be much of a fight.”

We were out and running in just a few minutes. The ground was still soft from the rain the day before, so I kept a better eye out for tracks. I wanted to ensure that if there were more orcs out on patrol, I would find them before they found me. So as I ran, I kept to the hard spots as much as possible.

I had left my new sword and shield behind as I didn’t need them yet. I would like to work on them and have something better, but it wasn’t worth dragging along. I would pick them up in the room on the way back.

I was tumbling around in my head about what it meant if the orcs were training in this area. It either meant that there was a significant orc settlement close by that could create new recruits or that there was a big enough force nearby that they were doing the training. Neither one seemed to sit well with me.

Our run for the first half of the day went without a hitch. We safely got to the room that was now under a massive pile of trees. The devastation where the storm had hit was just as bad as I remembered. I thought it would have grown back faster, and then I caught myself. I spent a few weeks of my life in the safe room. The god’s attack had been a week before.

I growled to myself. “I bet that’s why there are so many orcs in the area. They are still coming because of the call he gave.”

We rested in the room and had a lunch of lamb jerky and nuts. I wanted to drop my pack and try to find where I first entered the world. However, I knew better. If I had to run, then I didn’t want any reason to loop back to this spot again.

Then we were off toward the direction I kind of thought I had come from. I knew that it wasn’t near the water, and I couldn’t even hear the river where I showed up. So my plan was to walk for about an hour and try the prayer and see if it could get me to where I needed to be.

The forest in this area was just as peaceful as I remembered it the first time I came through. There weren’t any large animals just the squirrels. Then my survival skill kicked in, and I recalled the huge rodents around these parts. Which might explain why we weren’t seeing another thing.

A little while later and I was ready to get some help. I pulled out the bowl and filled it up with my waterskin and then dropped a stick with one end pointed in. I watched it float, and then I prayed for help and direction.

The stick spun and then moved in front of me and to the right. I started to walk, and the stick stayed in place. As I moved, I watched the stick more than the ground and found that I was stumbling through the undergrowth. The stick wasn’t guiding me to the right place but telling me the direction that I needed to go.

About two hours later, the stick took a hard turn to the left. I looked up and saw that I was now where I came into the world. I didn’t recognize the tree that I had been at or anything around me. Nope, it was the sickly-looking dog that was lying there looking at me as I stepped into the clearing.

I went and pulled up as much info on the dog as I could, and my suspicions were confirmed. It was a hell dog which meant that, for some reason, it was here guarding my stuff against me. I grinned. This wasn’t going to be the same interaction as before.

I stepped forward, and it growled. Not many of them could growl, so I was impressed. Then I started to walk onward. I pulled my short sword out and moved forward.

The dog rose all the way up and spread its feet apart. I could see under where its body had been my things. I wasn’t sure what was there but knowing that there was a map kind of made me a bit angry.

I charged. The hell dog charged at me as well. I wasn’t sure why it thought that it would win, but right when it was on the edge of where my dome would be, I slammed my standard in place. The dog looked like it was from an old cartoon as its head smashed into the stone air then its body crumpled up and over.

“Got to hurt!” I said with a laugh.

Blink hit the hell dog from the side as I dropped the dome and stepped forward. It was dead before I closed the five feet. It had scared me so badly when I was first here. Now it just died without much effort.

I crouched down by the pile. “Okay lets see what all I have here.”

I picked up a brown leather scroll that the interface called “Personal Map.” A bag with a shoulder strap that when I opened I found what my survival skills called traveling food. A bone-handled bronze hunting knife and a book. The interface told me the book was a world book. I piled everything into my pack.

“Lets get back home Blink!” I said with a smile.

“Follows.” She sent back to me.

She ambled along, and we were soon back to the room where we ate lunch at. It was as far as we would go today. I fed us from the lamb that Dave had prepared for us, and we settled in for the night.

About halfway through the night, I woke up with a deep feeling that we needed to run. That we had been found, and they were going to attack shortly. It was the same feeling that the dream me had when the Sisters talked with him.

“Blink! Get up we got to run. They tracked us here we need to go out the back exit and make our way now.”

Blink uncurled and was up and heading to the back door. I grabbed my pack and threw it on, and with just a quick look back, we ran.

* * *