I woke up propped against a rock next to a campfire. My rescuers were kind enough to both give me some furs both as bedding and to keep warm. I carefully moved some of the blankets off my left arm, it was bandaged tightly. Thankfully still there and, if magic healing was a thing, hopefully without lasting damage. It was a relief to move and feel my fingers. They also seem to have changed me out of the bloody robes into a shirt that was far more scratchy than I would’ve liked. Looking up, I could see the stars through the canopy of trees. It seemed no one had bothered with tents or tarps on such a clear night.

  It looked like there were four members in total. An adventuring party of sorts, mayhaps? Three slept while the fourth kept watch. The ones who slept I imagine were the ones who rescued me. The second woman I never saw, yea she was an elf. The long pointed ears that poked out from her green tinted hair kinda gave it away. I could vaguely recall the knight dude calling her Ivili or something like that.

  “How’re ya doing, lass?” The final member must’ve noticed my stirring. He wore chainmail and was quite broad for his height, standing maybe at a bit above five feet. Part of me thought he was a dwarf, even if he lacked the stereotypical dwarven beard, but he could’ve just been a short human. He came over and knelt to be eye level next to me.

  “I suppose I could be better,” I said, and my voice sounded weak. “Was it you all who saved me? Thank you.”

  “Stay resting. Looks like something chewed ya up and spat ya out. Ya should save your thanks for them lot.” He spread his arm out to gesture to his sleeping companions. “They were out playing hero while I sat back relaxing. Heh, holding down the fort if ya want to be real generous about it.” He chuckled a bit before looking back at me with a more serious look. “The hells were ya doing out there?”

  “I’d tell you if I could. Somehow, I just woke up out here a few days ago.” Maybe I shouldn’t have said that, but I was still weak, tired, hungry, and not in my right mind.

  “Eh? A few days you say. Have ya been eating?”

  “Do acorns count?” I said, with a weak grin.

  “Heh, not to me.” He got up and gathered some porridge and meat that was keeping warm near the fire. “Here eat up,” he said, passing me a bowl, “but pace yourself with it. Might not go down easy when ya ain’t been eating.” Were I not starving I probably would’ve been underwhelmed by it. Though in the moment, it was the best thing I’d ever eaten.

  “Name’s Archie, what's yours?” I stopped for a moment, putting a hand to my mouth and moving my jaw like I was pretending to chew. It was a simple question, but I wanted a moment to think. It felt lame to use my ‘earth name’ especially in a world of magic and monsters. However, I am still a human, so maybe some crazy fantasy name would be considered weird. Between Archie and Sofia I doubt ‘Morgan’ would stick out much. Eh fuck it.

  “Maeori,” I said. I played a lot of tabletop roleplay games (ttrpg) so it wasn’t too hard pulling from my running list in my mind of cool npc names that I didn’t develop yet.

  “Good to meetcha. Eat up and get some rest.” Archie gave me a small quizzical look, but didn’t push the issue. Getting up, he gave me a pat on the shoulder that was a bit hardier than I would’ve liked, before giving me some space.

  Settling back into the furs, it was nice to have a night where I could be at ease sleeping again.

  Unsurprisingly, I was the last one up the following morning. I finally got a good look at everyone, now that the sun was up. Archie didn’t seem much different from last night. He was armored in chainmail, bearing a shield, a throwing ax on his hip, and some kind of hammer polearm sitting near him.

  There was Sofia, the nun human, she wore no armor nor weapons. She looked rather young, maybe late teens at best. Wait, is that even an accurate measurement in this world? The days felt roughly equal to earth days, but who knows about the year?

  Tangent aside, she was the one responsible for casting spells like bursts of light; it seems like weapons weren’t needed. She did seem to keep glancing towards me with the same strange look as yesterday. It was like she wanted to ask me something, but wasn’t sure how or was too timid to broach the conversation.

  The knight was also human as far as I could tell. He too was young, likely around Sofia’s age. He and Archie were working on the straps of his platemail armor. It looked like quite the chore to don and doff every day. I didn’t know a ton about how armor should look, but despite us being in the middle of the woods and them likely having traveled at least a day the armor shone like some display piece you might see.

  Lastly, there was an elf huntress, Ivili. She had her bow strung over her shoulder, a quiver strapped to her back, and a long knife at her hip. Neither of which screamed ‘this is some fancy elven shit’. They were more practical hunter’s gear that was well used, but well kept. She wore a mixed armor of furs and leather. She was tending to the wolf meat and pelts.

  I couldn’t help but smile. In all, the make-up of their party looked fairly stereotypical of fantasy stories, but hey, that can be fun! I couldn’t help but let myself imagine how I might fit into things, should I have the chance to join them. A wizard or other non-holy magic based spell caster would likely meld well. Not that I think that would happen. The power difference alone would surely disincentivize them.

  “G-good morning. How are you feeling?” The nun asked, her voice wavering a bit at the start and sounding unsure throughout. She started coming towards me. Her question made me realize how little my arm hurt.

  “Surprisingly well?” I said, flexing my arm to test it. “There’s some pain still, but considering I thought it might’ve been gone or broken, this is a remarkable improvement. Your doing, I assume?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Sofia said, kneeling down next to me. She put her palms together, then reached towards me, her hands emanating a warm glow of light. “I’ll see what I can do for the pain. [Lesser Healing].” Yet again I somehow knew what she said without knowing the language. It was a prayer, a request, for the gods to grant her access to their healing light. There wasn’t much pain, but what little there was subsided slowly. “I-I’m sorry, but I can’t do more.” Her eyes were downcast. “That was all the mana I recovered overnight. I’m not a good enough healer to do that good of a job. I’m sure there’ll be some scarring, if not worse.” She wore a vacant face alongside her self deprecating apology.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  “It’s still remarkable considering the state I was in. Thank you.” My left arm had only scars as a reminder of what transpired. It was a bit of mind fuckery. I knew what happened, that it had been ripped and shredded. Yet, to my brain that felt like a bad dream, more seized by the terror of almost dying and with next to nothing to ‘prove’ it really happened.

  We sat for a bit in silence. Sofia looked like she wanted to say something, but never did, and I debated about asking her what language her spells were in. It might be pointless in the end, but being cautious and keeping what cards I have close to my chest seemed the safest play. Just in the slim chance other-worlders are considered threats or abominations. The last thing I wanted was for my saviors to stab me in the back.

  “You’re welcome,” she finally said. “W-what were you doing out there?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” I shrugged, my shoulders moving painlessly. I didn’t want her to dwell too much on my origin. “I just, sort of, found myself out there a few days ago, and I was struggling to survive and find civilization.” I told this same description to Archie, so altering my story would only make me seem suspicious. It’s better to shift the conversation. “Are you all an adventuring party by chance?”

  “Oh, uh-” She broke her gaze to look at the rest of the group. “They are,” she said, “but I’m not. I’m here as a member of the clergy on a mission to deliver alms to Sulbury." She sighed deeply. “It’s fun to play pretend and think we are.”

  “Pretend? Why not make it real?”

  “I… well, it’s not something I’m capable of…”

  “That’s certainly one way to say your father’s a ripe old prick and won’t let you,” the knight said, joining in. He wore his full armor which was pretentiously shiny for my taste.

  “I-it’s more than that he-” Her words fumbled. “I…” Sofia said, before taking a moment to collect herself. “I’m not far enough in my training. My father doesn’t think I’ve proven myself.” Her reply sounded more rehearsed than natural.

  “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. I won’t get into this again. We have company after all. Name’s Glenn Soufornd.” He said, reaching out a hand. “And you are?”

  “Maeori,” I said, shaking his hand.

  “No surname?”

  “None,” I lied. For the most part they seemed like a good group but it would be bad if they decided to ransom me to a noble family that doesn’t exist or waste their time trying to find said family.

  “Odd. I had assumed you were also a noble. Aside from your attire, you certainly look the part.” He said with a dumb smile. If he was a noble, he wasn’t particularly refined. I doubt a normal noble would become an adventurer over joining some knight’s order or socially adjacent organization.

  “I imagine my upbringing was a bit non-standard from your perspective,” I said. I wasn’t going to let him think I was a mere peasant. Claiming nobility was a step too far, but certainly I’m above the common rabble.If he thinks I’m important in some way, then I can work to leverage my usefulness. “I spent most of it studying, eventually going to university.”

  “Oh? By chance did you study magecraft?” There was a bit of a glow in his eyes as he asked. I believe I see some opportunity.

  “I would’ve liked to, but circumstances never allowed me to pursue magecraft.” Mostly because it didn’t exist in my world. Had it existed, I’m sure I would’ve pursued it to some extent.

  “I-I’m sorry I forgot to introduce myself. My name’s Sofia d’Acron. Do you two want to introduce yourselves as well,” the nun said.

  “Ivili.” The elf huntress said, waving her hand between treating the direwolf pelts.

  “Aye, we’ve already met.” Archie said.

  “Oh… When?!” Sofia asked.

  “Last night the lass woke up.”

  “It would’ve been nice if you woke me up,” Sofia said with a dejected sigh.

  “Ya never asked me to. Figured it be best to let the lass and your ladyship rest.”

  “I see…” She seemed to have mixed feelings.

  “Heh, trust me, if she were in pain or anything, I’d have let ya know.”

  As the conversation derailed toward other topics, I took the opportunity to collect my thoughts for the moment. I still didn’t know where I was. I still didn’t know nearly enough about this world. It was clear that magic existed in this world, even if I didn’t know it worked or the extent of its power. Playing the part of a misplaced denizen of this world seemed like safe play to me.

  “Where are you all from?” I asked.

  “We set out from Firstlanding. There can’t be more than two days’ travel until we return.” Glenn said. I shifted a bit trying to hide my unease. The name was familiar, though surely it was just a homonym, I assured myself.

  “Strange, I’m fairly well versed in geography, yet that name is unfamiliar to me. What sort of place is it?”

  He gave me a confused look before explaining. “It’s a large port city and capital of the duchy. Where are you from?”

  “A place called Richmond, which itself is a regional capital. So I imagine I’m nowhere near home. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to let me join you back to Firstlanding? I don’t have any money to offer for the healing or travel, but I’ll do what I can to make it up to you.”

  “Well of course!” Glenn gaffawed. “It’s senseless to save you from wolves only to throw you back to them.” He said with an oh so clever grin. I forced a smile, as the attempted levity went unappreciated.

  “Glenn, I know how ya like to give out charity, but our coffers don’t like it. Make a debtor out of her instead of giving her a free trip. If the lass is as smart as she claims to be, making some coin ain’t a worry,” Archie piped up.

  Glenn gestured to the dire wolves. “There’s enough meat on them that food won’t be a worry, and their pelts will sell well.” He turned to look at me. “We’re not under any agreement. Don’t worry about paying us back.”

  “From what ya told me, you lot did the hard part. Ain’t like the lass was the reason ya got them. By all rights, they’re ours.”

  “Alright, how about this.” Glenn turned from Archie to face me. “Find a good job with a trade company or estate and pay us what works for you.”

  “That works for me.”

  “Set a price damnit ya oaf. Eh, whatever, ya family’s funding us mostly anyways.”

  Glenn and Archie continued to bicker, Ivili was working on the wolf pelts, and Sofia excused herself for morning prayer. I gave a sigh of relief. I could easily imagine myself in far worse company after being attacked by wolves and falling unconscious in the woods. It was clear my time in the spotlight faded. Aside from a few strange glances my way from Sofia. I left on my own.

  I once again found myself with an all too familiar disquiet feeling of distance. It’s a bitter but familiar feeling. They know each other, they have history with one another. I’m an outsider. It’s not something I planned to dwell on, but seeing them reminded me just how alone I was here. I can’t say I was often the center of attention or that I had a large social circle, but those I did have, I appreciated. Here, there’s nothing, no one. Here, I’ve only lasted three days before nearly dying, saved only by good fortune. I needed to find a way to change that.