Ashlyn woke up, facing the sky. Where was I? She thought, as she attempted to get up. There was a sharp pain that spread throughout her body, originating from her chest.
I must have overdone the spell, she thought, as memories of what had occurred the night before came to her. She remembered the monsters, the mist, the chaos, and the strange man that picked her up before she was completely unconscious.
She attempted to get up once more, this time achieving success. She was a couple of feet away from a campfire that was extinguished. She looked around, attempting to find the puzzle pieces that weren't there.
What had happened after she became unconscious? Where did that man go?
Finally, her second question was answered when she spotted a man coming towards her, singing lyrics she had never heard before
*******
"I'm at the preacher's door, my knees gettin' weak and my gun might blow but we gon be alright!" Jamal singed, using a deep voice to imitate the orginal artist. "Oh your awake?"
Jamal saw the knight-girl that he had saved the night prior. After he had regained consciousness, it was a constant battle, not with the monsters of course, he wouldn't have been here if that was the case, no, hunger. He attempted to create a campfire which worked, and snatched a couple of fishes from a nearby stream. The end product was a couple semi-burnt fishes that tasted decent.
If I only found myself chicken though, but how would I fry it? Jamal thought, as he walked over to the girl.
"You want a piece?" Jamal asked, handing out an untouched fish to the girl.
Now she definitely should be feeling me, Jamal thought, as he maintained eye contact. Damn she's so fine, it's hard for me to even look at her.
Instead of the heartwarming moment he expected, the girl slapped the fish out of his hands.
"Where is my sword?"
"Shorty chill! Just say you don't want it," Jamal said, running towards the fallen piece of meat. "It's near that tree over there, I needed it to cut tree branchs for that campfire."
Shit! She messed it up real bad, Jamal thought, looking at the piece of meat that was painted brown due to the mud. Whatever, she just needs time, then I'm gon to make my moves.
"I apologize for overreacting," Jamal heard her say, as a grin appeared on his face.
"Nah its fine, who would act normal in a situation like this ya feels me?" Jamal replied, letting go of the meat and turning around to face her
The golden morning sunlight was perfectly laid out on her, making her look majestic in the light. All his opinions of her completely changed in the moment, as he truly, for the first time since he met her, liked her.
She wore silver armor only at her upper body, covering her chest, arms, and her stomach. She work almost nothing in her lower body except for a purple skirt and brown boots. It wasn't just her body, her face was just something else, as Jamal would describe her, perfection.
"You look, amazing," Jamal said, complimenting her. "What's your name? I'm Jamal."
"Thank you," she said, as she wrapped her hair into a ponytail. "My names Ashlyn, and I belong to the Clearers guild, I don't believe we introduced ourselves."
I should probably not compliment her anymore, she seemed used to it, Jamal thought.
//Your XP has increased to five brodie, 10 mana points has been taken from "Ashlyn."\\
So it's working? Jamal thought. But what do I do with mana points?
"I got hit really bad in the head, that's why you found me in the middle of a forest, I don't remember much before other then my name," Jamal lied. But he lied for a reason, if he truly got reincarnated into another world, who would believe he well, wasn't from this world. That would arise suspicions, but so would a blatant lie like that, but he couldn't have thought of anything better at the moment.
"I don't sense any mana from you, it might be too small for me to even sense, are you perhaps an anomaly?" Ashlyn asked in a confused tone.
Shii, I thought she was talking about something else for a moment, Jamal thought to himself. Embarrassingly, he tried to look away but he forced himself to maintain eye contact, he needed to steal as much mana from her as he could, she doesn't seem to be noticing it either.
"I don't really know, the truth is," Jamal stopped, when he saw her face again, she was looking at him intently, blushing. Jamal smiled on the inside, but he needed to act oblivious, or else it might ruin the moment. "I might be whatever you just said or nah, I really don't know anything."
Jamal knew what he was doing, he had experience accumulated from hundreds of interactions from girls. One thing that draws girls in is mystery, and considering the fact she knew almost nothing about him, he intended to keep that up.
"W-well," Ashlyn said, stuttering. "Your hair, it's so different, same thing with your clothes, you aren't from here right? That might help you."
"Yeah, I can tell too," Jamal said, laughing. Going just as plan, let her do most of the talking, Jamal thought.
"So, where are the others J-Jamal?" She said, stuttering again. Her face became even redder when she said his name accidently.
"I think we ran in separate directions, anyways, the plan is to go to Everest right?" Jamal said, trying to change the course of the conversation. He attempted to deviate her mind from thinking about anyone else.
"Yeah, we're supposed to go to Everest after we finished our scouting mission into this forest," Ashlyn replied looking down. "We failed...No I failed, I'm the party leader, I shouldn't have done that spell, I'm such an idiot!"
Jamal noticed that she clenched her hands, and soon after, tears started to drop to the ground. She looked down. He walked closer to her and touched her chin using his index finger, raising her face so that she would directly at his face.
"The past is the past girl, it gon be alright," Jamal said, her eyes widening. Seconds before it happened, Jamal expected for himself to go for the kill, but no, she did it all for him.
She hugged him tightly, her bodily facial liquids all over his neck.
"Will it really be ok?"
"Yes shorty, don't sweat it."
//XP has increased to 50 brodie, 150 mana points have been stolen from "Ashlyn."\\
*******
Castle raised his fists to the sky, anger overwhelmingly him as the others backed away.
"Ashlyn! We lost our most important asset and that man, who knows what he could be doing to her!" Castle shouted.
"Don't act like we wouldn't have died without him, we all stood there like statues waiting for our deaths, he indirectly helped us move," Forest said, still focused on sharpening a piece of wood. He finally looked at Castle, he's hazel eyes shimmering in the light.
The group was even more tense now then with the strange man from before. Forest was the only one that could put up a fight against Castle, yet he hadn't even attempted to object anything Castle had done up until now. Ignoring all the various insults thrown at him.
"A-and you! How dare you object me!" Castle said, walking towards Forest who stood up, the sharpened piece of wood on his right hand.
The two men were only a feet away from each other, Castle glaring at his shorter opponent, but Forest showed no signs of giving up his ground. It was a David and Goliath battle, the tides could shift to any one of them.
Daren, the male knight simply stood guard, his sword by his side, ready to protect Castle.
"Stop!" Freya shouted, everybody standing still.
Castle's anger rose even more, this was the first time both Freya, the love of his life, and Forest protested against him. He cursed and walked to a nearby tree, sitting down.
Forest for one, knew it would be best to leave and go on his own, seeing that a fight might occur if he stayed any longer. He turned around for the last time, to see if anybody wanted to join him, and walked out.
It hadn't even been a minute before he heard footsteps coming behind him. Someone had realized he's signal. Before he could even look at who it was, he already knew, it was Freya.
"Aren't you his wife or something?" Forest questioned, as he kept on walking.
"N-no, he's a creep, he keeps on stalking me and trying to get me and him together," Freya replied.
The two walked together, without exchanging any form of communication, much like before. It seemed that the same repetitiveness would occur much like before, up until Forest forced Freya to duck with his hand as he did the same thing.
"What the fu-" Freya cut out from protesting at the sudden unexpected push when she heard the sound of a tree falling to the ground.
There was an axe laying on the ground a couple of feet away from them. A loud ear-piercing shout could be heard behind them, as loud footsteps emerged.