I kneeled there, accepting my fate. It was over. I cursed to myself silently as the creature reared back.

  * Why all this trauma? Why couldn't I just pass into the afterlife easily like any other person? *

  My thoughts were cut short as the bat lunged at me.

  Suddenly, out of the darkness behind me, I heard a new female voice shout, "VrenElvaQuira Keltaris!"

  Just before the creature could sink its wicked teeth into me, a flurry of light blue ice shards hurled past my head.

  They razor sharp ice daggers effortlessly pierced the monster's thick fur. The force knocked the creature backwards out of the air, as if it had been yanked by a rope.

  It landed on the ground, hissing and gurgling as blood pooled on the ground beneath it. After a few moments of squirming it finally stopped, letting out one last hiss before it died.

  I felt sick, and though I hadn't had anything to eat or drink since getting here, my body quivered as I started heaving. I was a mess of tears and dirt, and I'm sure I looked wretched in my tattered clothes and knotted hair. I was trembling from the cold night air, and my body wouldn't respond to my commands. I knelt there, trying to catch my breath and calm down.

  I heard footsteps run up from behind me. When I tried to turn and look, my exhaustion caught up with me. I ended up falling face down on the ground. A strong pair of hands grabbed me by my shoulders and lifted me up from the floor. I felt myself be propped up against one of my rescuers as my arm was slung across a shoulder.

  "How absurd! That was quite foolish of you! Just what did you think you were going to do to that Gloom Screecher with a mere' stick?" The female voice in front of me chided with a near-British accent.

  Whoever I was leaning on added, "Hahaha, "Ballsy aren't you? I wouldn't even try that, especially without a sword! Pretty epic though!"

  The voice was a male and had a similar accent.

  As I regained my composure, I was finally able to focus on the girl standing in front of me.

  Wow. She was beautiful. The light of the two moons reflected off her long blonde hair. It curled down framing her face, and went down to her hips. Her skin was fair, and gleamed in the moonlight. Her outfit almost looked like a school uniform, but it was very regal looking. The skirt was short, and the boots she wore extended up almost to her thigh. Her top was adorned with little stars above her breast, and revealed just a hint of cleavage.

  Her light blue eyes were sharp, and as she looked at me I could feel her taking in every little detail. In her hand, she clutched a small white wand with a little blue gem embezzled at the end. Totally a cliché student council president if I ever saw one.

  I turned to look at who I was leaning on. Sheesh, he was gorgeous too! This bro looked like he could be a football superstar. He was squatting slightly so that my arm could reach over him, but if he would have stood up I'd be lifted off the ground! His short blonde hair matched the other girl in front of me, and he was grinning at me like he'd just watched a funny show.

  He had a similar looking uniform with long sleeves and pants. He too, had several little medals stars on his chest, though not as many as the girl. He had a small scar on his cheek, big shoulders, sturdy frame, and a killer smile. Slung across his back was a large intimidating sword. It looked very expensive and had a blue tinge, like something you'd buy at a comic convention. One could guess that these two were siblings.

  * Does ugly just not exist in this world? Maybe it was all redirected to the monsters I've been seeing. *

  I could feel my face start to burn as I flushed with embarrassment. I'm sure I looked ragged. My stomach was rumbling. Oh yeah, and I was a chick! Shelly would be teasing me so hard right now.

  "Who are you?" the girl demanded, "It's quite suspicious that someone would be all the way out here in the Talonveil woods alone...especially at night..."

  She walked over and picked up my book from the patch of grass it had landed in. As she opened it to look, she frowned as she looked back over to me.

  "...And why are you carrying around a blank codex?"

  "Woah, unarmed and all alone...sus-pi-ciousssss!" the guy chimed in.

  My mind raced as I tried to think of an explanation.

  "Oh uh...my name is Mas-Mae..." I said, trailing off.

  "Hmph, quite the unusual name..." she huffed, "So, Mae, what were you doing out here? Most people would know that Talonveil isn't a place to travel through alone, especially at night."

  "Hey, don't worry," The guy cut in with an ominous grin, "even if you were some sort of bandit who was up to no good, we wouldn't just leave you out here. We'd at least take you to the guard!"

  My face must have been beet red. Obviously I couldn't just say that a crazy lunatic deity pulled an isekai-gender-bender on me, so I had to think of something else. It also didn't help that I was leaning up against this hunk of a dude. It was making me feel weird.

  "What are you? The good cop?" I said jokingly. With their confused stares I continued, "I...actually don't know. I can't remember," I lied. "All I remember is that I woke up in the middle of this forest, I've almost died twice now, and the only company I've had since waking up was Rose, who helped me get here."

  "Who's Rose? You were the only one out here," the girl said.

  "Sus-pi-cioussss..."

  Oh yeah! Rose! I'd nearly forgotten with all of the commotion. Where was she? I thought I'd set her down off to the side, but now she was gone.

  "Rose is the little fairy who protected me from that...gloom screecher. I guess she had cast some sort of spell on me to keep me safe. When that monster screeched, she fainted. I thought I set her down right over there!" I said pointing with my free hand near the path.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The girl looked around for a moment and after seeing nothing said, "Hmm...a fairy you say? I don't see her anywhere. It's not often humans encounter fairies...was she by chance wearing some sort of leaves for clothing?"

  As I nodded, I saw the two of them glance at each other briefly. They nodded to each other and seemed to ease up a little.

  "It sounds like you may have befriended a petal fairy. Though I'm not sure how, given that they tend to avoid just about everything. It's rare to encounter a fairy, and a petal fairy even more so. I can only wonder why it wasn't afraid of you. Anyway, let's get back to town for now. We can figure out what to do afterwards during the day," the girl said as she flipped her hair over her shoulder while turning to walk.

  I was worried about Rose, but the sound of a bed and walls was too enticing to think very hard about anything else right now. As the girl was turning away, I noticed a large crest with a bird on the back of her uniform.

  "Thanks for saving me," I said. "But now that you know who I am, who are you two?" I asked.

  She turned back around to face me, as if offended that I would even ask. She put her hand on her chest and stood tall saying, "Ariel Serelith, daughter of Grandor Serelith, and heir to the Glacium throne."

  * Great, a ROYAL student council president. I can already see where this is going... *

  My thoughts were interrupted as I was scooped off my feet into a princess carry.

  "And I'm Caelin Serelith, son of Grandor Serelith, and second in line for the throne," the guy said while winking and turning on maximum charm.

  My mind almost went blank. I could feel the redness returning to my face.

  * NOPE, NOPE, NOPE! NOT A CHANCE! *

  "Thanks, but no thanks! I can still walk!" I said, squirming to free myself.

  "Haha! No worries, my lady." Caelin said as I pushed myself free of his arms.

  * My lady...? Oh...right... *

  As I got on my feet I wobbled a little, still a quite shaky after all I'd been through. I clapped my face trying to clear the memory of what just happened. He scooped me up like I was nothing, how embarrassing! I straightened myself out and walked towards Ariel.

  "We need to be as quiet as possible until we return to town. The last thing we need is something worse than a gloom screecher finding us," Ariel said as she handed me the codex back.

  "Ariel is right, 3rd tier monsters are common in Talonveil, but anything worse than that and even WE might have a hard time," Caelin said from behind us.

  * Of course they have monster ranking here too. Does that crappy Muganno just get his inspiration from manga or something? If the gloom bat was only 3rd tier...I wonder what tier batman kitty was...or the owl... *

  I wanted to search for Rose, but Ariel was right. I didn't want any unnecessary attention. Two near death experiences in two days is enough for me.

  Ariel started walking back from the direction they had come, and I followed her. Caelin took the rear. We walked for a couple minutes, stopping here and there when Ariel signaled us to.

  After another twenty minutes of stop and go, we reached the tree line of the forest. There was a small meadow that spanned about two hundred feet before stopping at a ring of water around the base of a large wooden wall. I could see little boxes all around the top emanating a dim glow. The water glistened in the moonlight, now with both moons high in the sky once again.

  "We're nearly back to Talonholme," Ariel whispered.

  My stomach let out an audible grumble. I covered my face with one hand as if pretending that would shield me from any embarrassment.

  "Don't worry, we know some good spots for food!" Caelin chuckled under his breath behind me.

  I could feel my face become flushed again. This had to be the most humiliating couple days of my life!

  We quickly shuffled across the meadow. Stopping before the ring of water that surrounded the town. I looked in awe of the wall before us. It was made entirely of large wood logs, each far more wide than any tree I'd ever seen on earth. It was surrounded by a moat, and had guard towers every hundred feet or so.

  "Welcome back Lady Serelith!" a voice called down.

  "Open the gate!" another voice called from behind the wall.

  A loud *CLANK* sounded from behind the drawbridge before it started to lower down. With a heavy *THUD* it stopped on the ground. We walked across the bridge and were greeted by a handful of guards. They were not heavily armored, only wearing some light leather padding with small metal studs. They were equipped with crude swords and basic bows. Compared to Caelin's sword, they were practically equipped with sticks.

  * Thank goodness, we finally made it to the starter town. Why couldn't I just have started here and saved myself the trauma? Oh yeah...cause' Muganno. *

  "I'm glad you all made it back safely," One of the guards said with a deep voice.

  He was taller than the rest of them by a couple inches, and instead of only leather he wore a couple pieces of metal armor. His gruff face matched his bulky size. He was indeed a formidable looking man.

  "Naturally," Ariel replied as she tossed her hair back.

  "Simple run, really. It was just a gloom screecher. Though our friend here tried to beat it with a stick!" Caelin chuckled.

  The guard's eyes widened as he looked down at me, "Why in the otherworld would you do that? You out of your mind? What's your name?"

  "Maso-Mae! I'm Mae," I stuttered.

  * Ugh, this is going to take some getting used to... *

  "Well, what were you doing in Talonveil? Ever since the boom we heard the other day, the monsters have been acting erratic. Do you know anything about that?" The guard asked.

  "I'm sorry...I don't-"

  Ariel interrupted me, "She seems to have some kind of amnesia, Dain. I've already interrogated her. All we know is that she was alone in Talonveil with an empty codex, and supposedly traveling with a petal fairy."

  "Intriguing. You're an interesting one, aren't you?"

  "Sus-pi-cioussssssss...," Caelin said.

  Ariel quickly turned and smacked him on the arm.

  "Ow! Haha, what? It's true! We don't even know where she's heading."

  "That can wait until morning. For now, why don't we all get some rest..."

  My stomach rumbled again.

  * At this point just kill me...again...*

  "...and some food."

  "Of course, milady," Dain said as he stomped and made a salute.

  Ariel smiled and nodded, motioning for us to follow. We walked down the street a ways before stopping in front of an inn of sorts. We walked through the front door which jingled a little bell that was dangling there. We walked over to the wooden counter where an aged bartender greeted us.

  "Hello there, dearies'. The names' Mala, how can I help you tonight?"

  Ariel smiled and said, "I'd like to rent a couple rooms for us tonight." She reached into a purse she had and pulled out a coin. It was unusual, the center was a normal gold coin, but the edge had a cold blue rim around it. "Three separate rooms, if you would. We could all use baths and some food."

  Mala's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "A celestium coin!? Only royalty would- otherworld forgive me! I should have known!" She quickly stooped into a low curtsy. "Milady, you could stay here for months with just one of those!"

  "I do apologize, I don't have anything smaller on me at the moment."

  Caelin nudged my shoulder and whispered, "That's what happens when you're father's favorite princess, he'd buy her the world if he could."

  Ariel glanced back, her eyes shooting daggers through us both.

  "Just kidding..." Caelin said laughing.

  "Anyways, please see to it right away. I'm sure our friend here is exhausted."

  Mala quickly bowed and stuffed the coin into her blouse, then hurried off hollering at some of the other maids to quickly give her a hand.

  A few minutes later, she came back and showed us to our rooms.

  Before we entered our rooms I said, "Thank you again for all that you've done for me. I'll be sure to repay you somehow, though I'm not sure what you could possibly need if you're a princess and all..."

  Ariel and Caelin just nodded.

  "Don't worry about that for now. Just get some sleep and we'll talk more in the morning," Ariel said as she turned to enter her room.

  "Yeah, and be sure not to leave the window open. You don't want any gromites getting in!" Caelin said as he was closing his door.

  "What are gromites?" I tried to ask, but it was too late. I turned and entered my own room.

  * What a jerk, is he teasing me? *

  As I entered, the smell of food caught my immediate attention. The table next to the fireplace had a bowl of something with a loaf of bread next to it. I rushed over and ravenously dug into it, finishing in just a couple minutes. I ate so fast my stomach hurt, but at least it was quiet now. I saw there was a tub of water there for me, but I was so tired I decided to wait until morning. I collapsed on the bed, and sleep came for me fast. I was out in just a couple minutes.