The air was filled with the rancid scent of burned bat. We moved upwind of it and took some time to recover from the fight before looting the massive beast. The wind did its work, removing the worst of the smell while cooling the corpse.

  Harper slapped me on the shoulder with an evil grin. “Alright Finn, one of the joys of bigger monsters is the bizarre amount of stuff they have in their bellies. I leave the joy of getting it out to you!”

  “Wait, what?” I asked, unsure if she was serious. I really hoped she wasn’t.

  She gestured at the massive bat. “Go on, get to cutting!”

  I sighed and approached the slightly steaming bat, pulling out my skinning knife. When I sliced it open, it had a surprising amount of gold in its stomach. I gave my share to Jerseil, reducing my debt to him by 54 gold. There were also some items, including knives, arrows, some health potions and a few potions I had never seen before.

  There was also an enchanted sword that needed to be identified. We split the potions, and I examined the new potion. It was a muffle potion, which Jerseil said reduces or nullifies sound-based attacks, depending on the attack’s level.

  “Well, I don’t want the sword,” Jerseil said, eyeing the blade with disgust. “Finn can have it if you don’t want it.” He nudged it with his foot, but then wiped the gunk from the inside of the bat off in the loose soil.

  “It looks like a nice sword, but at first glance it likely is not as good as my rapier. Yeah, Finn, you take the sword,” Harper agreed, holding her nose.

  I picked it up carefully with a cloth that Jerseil had handed me to clean off my hands. The viscous blood and bile from the beast’s stomach still covered the sword. Just like everything else I had pulled out of the beast.

  “Is it too much to ask that looting be less gross?” I asked.

  Both Harper and Jerseil chuckled at my discomfort.

  “It’s been this way since I got here. I’ve always thought that it was part of earning the gold and items. You get used to it. Juan used to say something about a broken system,” Harper said. She went quiet for a moment. “I guess he really is gone. I’m talking about him in the past tense.” She sniffled and turned away.

  Jerseil reached out to comfort her. “Harper.”

  “I’m fine; it’s just—I hadn’t really accepted it. You know?”

  She stepped away from us and panned over the devastation wrought by our battle with the bat monster. The sword in my hands was very gaudy, with jewels in the hand guard and at the bottom of the hilt. The blade part was a little wider than Harper’s rapier, and a little longer. With my arms, I would have some reach. I’m a Mage, though. I can do more damage with my magic than with a blade. And magic feels so good…

  At least it might be worth something, especially after I got it identified and appraised. I pulled out a scrap of cloth and wiped the offal off the blade. Into the pack it went. Along with the potions after I wiped them off, too. Everything else was junk and not worth our time. I threw the used cloth onto the pile.

  We made it down the mountain with no more encounters, likely because the bat thing had killed or chased off everything that had the gumption to attack us. We stopped for lunch by a stream so that we could wash up.

  The rinsed-off blood and other bodily fluids colored the water as it flowed downstream. I watched it go, imagining it was the guilt and anger I had been harboring the past few days. I knew it wasn’t, but it was a calming thought. The fight with the bat had given me more than enough experience energy to level up, and I distributed my points. I put 1 point into stamina, another into endurance, and the third point into intelligence. This brought my stamina up to 21, endurance to 23, and intelligence to 36. My health went from 358 to 364, and my mana went up to 276. Just a little closer to powerful.

  “Hey Finn, we’re burning daylight. Got yourself pretty? Cause I’d like to sleep in a bed tonight,” Harper called.

  “Yeah, let’s go. I know how old folks need their sleep,” I replied, upping the snark.

  “Hey,” Jerseil said indignantly. “It has nothing to do with age. Whippersnapper.”

  Harper sighed and walked off briskly. Jerseil and I followed her. The day had gotten warmer as we had come down out of the mountains, and when the trail was not among the trees, it was sweltering.

  “Is she okay?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. She hasn’t told me what’s going on and I’m not prying. It’s likely she’ll tell us when it’s time,” he replied.

  “Yeah. Losing Juan really hit her hard. And Harper got quiet after the whole speaking about him in the past tense,” I mused.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  I found myself anxious at the moment and tried to focus on the birds chirping and the random squirrels in the trees. It helped, but I almost missed Jerseil’s question.

  “… Okay? I’ve never seen you rush in like that. Do you need to talk about it?” Jerseil asked.

  The concern was plain in his voice.

  But I really didn’t want to talk about it. There comes a point where you know you should be cautious, but you really want to hurt someone or something. Just to chip away at your own pain. You become reckless and do stupid shit. Like charging a monster the size of a two-story house in anything short of a tank. And you don’t care if you get hurt or die; you just care if you can get a chance to hurt them. And I really couldn’t say any of that out loud.

  “Nah, dude. I’m good for now.”

  “Okay Finn. If you need to talk…” he said, trailing off expectantly.

  “Thanks, bud.” I replied.

  The path smoothed out, and we came to a clearing. It made me think of the first clearing I woke up in. How long ago was that? Was I even the same person? There was a rabbit sitting on a rock relaxed and unbothered by our approach. Which was totally contrary to usual rabbit behavior. I didn’t see any hawks, but it was very visible.

  I stopped. “Uh, Jerseil?”

  “Yeah, Finn?”

  “Do rabbits here usually act so conspicuously and without fear?” I asked, gesturing to the rabbit on the rock. “Or does it have a quest for us?”

  He looked at the sunlit rabbit, now totally focused on us watching it. “That is odd. I’ve never seen this type of behavior. I wonder what it is doing.”

  “What’s taking you two so long?” Harper asked, walking back to us.

  “That rabbit is acting weird,” I said, pointing at the rabbit. The brown rabbit cocked its head as if it were listening to us and waiting for us to continue. Suddenly, it stamped its foot rapidly against the rock and jumped away into some bushes.

  “Don’t know what you are talking about,” said Harper. “Just looked and acted like a rabbit. Stop messing around and let’s go.” She turned and walked away, and we looked at each other in confusion.

  “It was weird, right?” I asked.

  “Yes, yes, it was. I have to wonder if we’re being watched by something,” Jerseil replied. “Like that demon or a god. Come to think of it, this seems less strange taking that into consideration. I’ve just never seen anything like it.”

  We started walking, and the path brought us back into the sun-dappled shade of the forest. More leafy than the forest on the mountain, the trees were a mix of pines and oaks, elms, and maybe cottonwood. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure, as they weren’t exactly like the ones from Earth. The similarities were striking, though.

  “Ah, shade!” I exclaimed, throwing my arms out with a grin. I frowned then, not happy about being spied on. “Now that you mention it, there was also the mountain lion, and I don’t know what else. Maybe we should pay more attention to the behavior of the animals around us.”

  “That, my friend, is a good plan. Then we can compare notes. Hmmm. I think we need more than notes,” he exclaimed, pulling out his gitten or whatever it was called. “We need music!”

  He started strumming a few chords and adjusting the pegs while we followed the annoyed purple cambion. And though she said nothing and didn’t turn around, she relaxed the more he played.

  Then, he started singing wordlessly, as if he were tuning his voice. It wasn’t the first time he’d done this, but Jerseil drew it out until he was satisfied. The tune was jaunty, with a rock and roll flavor that made me think of a ballad. He winked at me and took a deep breath.

  “There once was a girl who lived down the lane, A beauty whose smile drove the young men insane.

  She wore a blue dress trimmed with frills and with lace, With golden hair framing her radiant face.

  And when men declared their love from the start, She smiled sweetly and pushed them apart.”

  “But she only had eyes for me—for me! Jane! You dance like the wind, you laugh like the stream.

  Jane! Your eyes are the stars when I hold your hand, And your kisses—they’re a dream.”

  “On feast days she wore a white apron with pride, A symbol of purity none could deride.

  But on those same nights it flew through the air, As I barred the door with a lover’s care.

  And the men would mutter and curse through their teeth, As she twirled on my arm, all fire beneath.

  Their clenched fists and frowns were a terrible sight — to love her, I’d surely be paying that night.”

  “But she only had eyes for me—for me! Jane! I dance out of town

  on the wind’s soft scream, Your laughter behind me, your tears in my dream.

  And those men will not find me, nor take their revenge… Jane!

  You dance like the wind, you laugh like the stream.

  And I’ll see you again when I dream.”

  “But she only had eyes for me—for me! Jane! You dance like the wind, you laugh like the stream.

  Jane! Your eyes are the stars when I hold your hand, And your kisses—they’re a dream.”

  Jerseil ended the song with a slower chorus, belting out the words with such serious sadness. He strummed for a while before singing a lewd song about a woman who left the house without clothes, because her drunk husband was wearing them down at the inn.

  Harper laughed at that one and let us catch up to her. The bard continued to entertain us for several miles. I’m pretty sure that he continued just to distract her from her grief and anger.

  We spotted the ‘mining camp’ near dinnertime, according to my stomach. “How long does it take for a mining camp to be considered a town?” I asked. There were no tents in sight, just one-story to three-story buildings and houses.

  “Does it really matter? All I know is that if there are buildings, then there are beds. Maybe even bathing facilities. Bath, food, then bed,” Harper said with finality. “God help them if they don’t have baths and clean sheets.”