When I finally awoke, I jolted up, every muscle in my body screamed from the sudden movement.

  “Ahh…” I winced as I leaned back into the cot.

  “Where am I?” I muttered, looking around.

  There were a couple other beds scattered around, but they were empty. Tall windows let warm light into the room, its walls and floor constructed of dark oak.

  I glanced over to the doorway just as someone was walking in.

  She held a wicker basket with a bundle of herbs and some linen towels, her lavender eyes looked into the basket, her silver hair tied back with blue ribbons.

  “Lyria...?” I muttered, a hint of disbelief lining my voice.

  She jumped.

  Her eyes snapped up to mine. She turned bright pink, yelped, and bolted from the room.

  “Huh...?” I said, utterly confused.

  A few minutes later Selene and Bront walked in. Selene smiled down at me, her expression as bright and confident as ever, approaching with her normal charismatic aura. Bront was silent as usual, but I could see a little glimmer of a smile within his features.

  “You’re finally awake! I thought we were going to have to find a new ranger after all…” Selene said as she walked to my bedside, extending her hand out to me.

  “What…” I started, reaching for her hand, unsure if I’d heard her right—or if I was still dreaming.

  She shook it firmly.

  “You've been out cold since yesterday. We brought you to the guild and they put you up in their own special little recovery room,” Selene explained, gesturing to the room around us.

  “Thank you… Wait—what happened? And what do you mean, ‘a new ranger’?” I said, my head spinning as I tried to keep up. The last thing I remembered was running towards Lyria as we battled that shaman deep in the Everdale woods.

  “Ahh what happened indeed…” Selene said with a sigh, taking a seat and looking down a bit in reflection.

  “We were too busy fighting for our lives to notice—Bront had his hands full facing off against the very last earth elemental, entirely by himself I might add. I was pushing in towards the shaman along with the members of the silver ranked party; The Swords of Augustine. I didn’t notice the shaman's target in time, there wasn’t a thing I could do. By the time I realized he was aiming that spell at Lyria, it was way too late, she was as good as dead…” Selene said, her voice dipping uncharacteristically as she recalled those desperate moments.

  Selene looked up at me. “Or at least she would have been… Neither of us saw it, but according to Lyria, you just appeared in front of her and somehow managed to block the shamans lightning bolt.”

  A dull throb began in the back of my head. I didn’t feel it now, but I could remember the sensation of the wolf's mark on my chest, burning, ferocious. I looked back up to Selene and Bront, wondering if I should tell them about my powers.

  “So, Lyria is okay then...?” I said, deciding once again to hold off. I barely understood these powers myself, I didn’t want to give them a reason to think I was unstable.

  “I think I saw her a moment ago actually, she walked in, saw me, and then ran off…”

  Selene chuckled. “Aye she’s alright. She actually insisted on tending to you along with the guild's healer, something about repaying the debt.”

  “Lyria—Get in here already!” Selene called towards the doorway.

  I shifted my gaze.

  After a few moments of hesitation, Lyria stepped into the room. Something about her had changed. The sharp edges I’d felt from her before—distrust, irritation—were dulled. Now she just looked… uncertain. Maybe even shy?

  Lyria now stood alongside Selene and Bront, shifting her weight and avoiding my eyes.

  “...Glad to see you’re awake ranger…” Lyria said, kind of flatly.

  I nodded to her, shifting my attention back to Selene as she stepped over to me once more.

  “About that other matter—” Selene said, pausing for dramatic effect. “After careful consideration, we have come to a unanimous agreement. We’d like to officially invite you to join our party,” she said, grinning cheekily, arms outstretched.

  I looked at her dumbly for a moment, and then had to stifle a chuckle, looking down and rubbing my tired face with my hands.

  I looked back up, locking eyes with all three of them, nodded and said, “it would be an honor.”

  After some laughter, inviting words, and a bit of post battle banter, Selene and the others said they would leave me to get up when I was ready.

  The other two were the first to leave, Bront lingered for a moment.

  He stepped a little closer, leaning down slightly so his words wouldn’t carry. He just offered me a simple, “thank you,” and with that he turned and took his leave as well.

  We had to check in with the guild that evening, both to register my addition to the party, and also to have a debriefing for the emergency quest.

  * * *

  After changing out of the guild’s loaner clothes and into my own, I met Selene, Bront, and Lyria at the guildhall just as the sun was setting.

  They stood chatting at one of the tables in the guild hall, along with the party members from the Swords of Augustine. The silver ranked party that helped take down the shaman.

  A well-armored young man with sandy blond hair stepped forward as I approached. “Well done out there ranger! My name is August, these are my party members,” he said, gesturing back to the table where two other men and a woman stood, nodding at me in greeting.

  I nodded back. “Likewise. Thanks for taking that bastard down,” I said as I met August’s outstretched hand.

  “Couldn't have done it without you lot’!” he responded, gesturing to me, Selene, and the others.

  “Though there is the matter of that party that ran off… the cowards,” he said, a bit of bite to his words.

  Before I could respond the guild receptionist stepped up to the table, Her glasses perched as usual upon the bridge of her nose, her hair loosely tied back save for a couple loose strands.

  “Adventurers—” She said, addressing all of us.”Well done out there. We’d like to verify some information regarding the completion of this emergency quest. Please follow me.” Before she turned to lead us to a room behind the reception desk, I noticed her eyes shoot over at me for a brief moment.

  The guild receptionist led us to a private room. There were two long couches in the middle, a small table between. Green and gold carpets spread across the wooden floor. Dark oak walls and bookcases full of various tomes and other literature lined the sides of the dimly lit room. At the back there was a rather grand desk and at it sat a well built, slightly older man. Hair peppered, and sporting a large scar spanning from the top of his forehead and over his eye, down to the middle of his left cheek.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  We were invited to sit on the couches, Selene’s party on one side and August’s on the other.

  The guild receptionist spoke first.

  “This is just standard procedure, please acknowledge these values before we get started,” she said, glancing down at her clipboard. “Selene, you took a party totalling three members into the Everdale woods, and August, you took a party of four?”

  Both Selene and August confirmed.

  Her eyes landed on me next, a bit of irritation barely visible. “Yukon, you entered the Everdale woods some time after, entirely alone?”

  I nodded in confirmation.

  She scribbled something onto her clipboard.

  I winced.

  “Together, along with another party we have registered as the Blackfoot Band, you all fought the shaman and his elementals managing to eventually subdue him?”

  We confirmed it again.

  “Can you verify that the shaman was indeed a Fellborn? Additionally, is it true that the Blackfoot Band suddenly disappeared near the climax of the battle?”

  “Aye that's all true,” said Augustine, his voice a bit restrained.

  “Okay…” She scribbled down some more notes onto her clipboard.

  My eyes wandered to the man sitting at the desk at the far end of the room. His hands were clasped together, supporting his chin as he watched us.

  “That is all for me, thank you,” She said curtly, stepping aside and standing straight, beside the couch my party and I were sitting on.

  The man at the desk cleared his throat.

  “You’ve done well, adventurers. For any of you who do not know me, I am Gerald the Unbroken. Master of this guild.” As he spoke, his voice resonated through the room, deep and a bit worn, but undoubtedly strong.

  “Since your two parties brought down the fell shaman, we are prepared to offer your reward, Mary will handle that later.” He said, gesturing to the guild receptionist. “In addition… I would like to offer a warning to you, especially you, boy.” He said, glaring at me a bit.

  “The Blackfoot Band did not in fact, abandon the battlefield. We have reason to believe they were taken… Spirited away if you will.” As the guild master spoke, some gasps and hushed whispers began amongst Selene, Bront and Lyria, as well as August’s party.

  “Sir… What do you mean they were taken? Taken by whom? And where?” Selene said, speaking clearly, her brows furrowed.

  “We will issue a general warning to the rest of the guild, and all of Lanton in time, but for now, since you all defeated this shaman, we will tell you what we know.” The guildmaster said, his eyes closing as he prepared his next words.

  “The shaman you fought… was only a decoy. Powerful, yes—but meant to distract. We believe other Fellborn slipped into both Everdale and Lanton that day… The Blackfoot Bands disappearance is not an isolated incident. We have received reports of some 15 odd adventurers all having vanished.” He said uncharacteristically quietly.

  “We believe these other Fellborn used transportation magic to bring them… to the Fell dimension. What will be done to them is entirely unknown at this time.” The guild master's words hit hard, all faces in the room went pale.

  The Fell dimension is not a place to be taken lightly, it is a place where all manner of otherworldly horrors thrive, an unholy place some don’t even believe to actually exist.

  He focused on me again. “Individual adventurers are at the highest risk… And should also be watched the most closely. Should these Fell sorcerers employ some kind of dark or necrotic magic to mold these adventurers into their own champions, There is no telling what forms they will take when they are sent back, and what chaos they will bring.”

  Addressing both parties again he offered his final warning. “Keep an eye out for Fellborn, keep your party members close, and keep a vigilant eye… If an adventurer begins displaying an unusual power, be cautious.”

  My heart dropped to my stomach, and for a brief moment I thought I saw Lyria’s eyes flicker over to me.

  Was she… suspicious of me?

  With that we were dismissed.

  Mary, the guild receptionist, said she would calculate our rewards and have it ready by the morning after next. Selene and I registered my addition to the party. August and his party went off on their way, and Selene, Bront, Lyria and I, stood around together in the guild hall. Each of us sporting either a worried or contemplative expression.

  Selene finally broke the silence with a half-smile. “Dinner?”

  We gathered at the Falcon’s Flight—a tavern tucked beneath the inn the others had been using. Cozy, dimly lit, and humming with quiet life, it felt like a place meant for winding down after hard days. But the tension between us didn’t ease. Not really.

  Maybe it was just in my head, but ever since the debriefing at the guild, something in the air between us had shifted. Like a string pulled taut. No one said anything as we ordered—Bront and I took ale, the girls opted for honey mead. We sat at a round table near the hearth, where a slow-burning fire cracked now and then beneath a mounted drake skull.

  An enchanted flute in the corner played a soft, wistful melody, rising and fading in twenty-minute cycles before needing a tap to reset. The scent of roasted meat and stale beer hung in the air—familiar, comforting. But I couldn’t shake the weight pressing down on my chest.

  I took a drink and decided to break the silence that Selene usually owned. “So… what are you guys thinking?”

  Bront shrugged and took a long pull from his mug.

  Selene didn’t answer right away, instead staring into her mead, jaw set. Lyria’s gaze wandered the tavern, but her shoulders were stiff.

  Finally, Selene spoke. “Fifteen adventurers, gone. Dragged off to that place... the Fell dimension,” she shook her head. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, let alone the Blackfoot Band.”

  I nodded slowly. “Yeah. It’s… Troubling.”

  Selene continued, her voice lower now. “But what the guildmaster said… about them being changed, warped by Fell sorcery and sent back here? That’s worse. Gods, it makes my skin crawl.”

  Her knuckles whitened around her mug.

  Bront muttered, “We’re lucky they didn’t get one of us.” He set his cup down a little harder than necessary.

  A pause followed. Uneasy, stretching.

  Then—Lyria.

  Her voice cut through the quiet like a blade. Calm, but sharp.

  “How exactly did you get to me in time, ranger?”

  I looked up. Her lavender eyes were fixed on me, expression unreadable—but hard.

  “What do you mean?” I asked carefully.

  “You were a good twenty paces off, last I saw. I was busy with those cursed vines, but there’s no way you should’ve made it to me that fast.” Her tone didn’t rise, but her stare narrowed. “And then there’s the lightning. That shaman’s bolt should’ve killed you, and yet... you’re sitting here.”

  Selene turned to me too, though her expression was more curious than accusatory. Bront just kept sipping his ale, eyes flicking between us.

  My heart beat harder, loud in my ears.

  “I moved fast,” I said simply. “Adrenaline, maybe. I saw you in trouble, and I just… moved.”

  Lyria didn’t blink. “Fast doesn’t cover that kind of ground, especially with terrain as tumultuous as that.”

  I clenched my jaw. “I—I don't know. I just knew I had to get to you. You were tangled up. Things happen in battle.”

  It wasn’t a lie. But it wasn’t the truth either.

  “And the wolf?” she pressed. “The white one. It came with you. Fought like it knew you.”

  There it was.

  I exhaled slowly. “It’s a… Familiar.” I lied. “My father helped me make a contract with it, I can summon it from time to time…”

  Selene’s brows furrowed. “A guardian spirit?”

  I shrugged my shoulders a little helplessly, this time I wasn’t lying. I truly didn’t know if it was actually a ‘guardian spirit’—or something else entirely.

  The fire popped in the hearth behind us. The enchanted flute whistled its final note before drifting into silence.

  Lyria took a sip of her mead, eyes still on me. “And the lightning?”

  I hesitated. “I braced for it. I thought I was dead. I don’t know why I wasn’t.”

  More truth buried in mystery. Enough to satisfy—barely.

  “I blacked out. You saw that much.”

  Selene gave a quiet nod, still watching me. “Sorry Yukon… We really don’t mean to berate you like this. It’s just, especially considering the guild master's warning, we need to be careful. Also, like it or not, we don’t really know you that well yet.”

  I couldn’t argue. I’d practically just met them. I was still just learning how to even be an adventurer anyway.

  “If something’s happening to you,” Lyria said, softer now but no less serious, “something dark—we need to know. Before it’s too late.”

  “I’m not one of them,” I said firmly. “Not a Fellborn puppet. Not a warped husk. I’m me.”

  She held my gaze a beat longer, then finally looked away.

  Bront set his mug down once again with a heavy clink. “Does it matter right now? He fought beside us. Took the hit. Helped win the day.”

  No one replied.

  The tension didn’t break. But it cooled slightly.

  Later, as I stepped outside into the cool night air, I hesitated for a moment. The tavern door creaked shut behind me.

  I looked toward the alley beside the inn—and froze.

  At the far end, half-shrouded in shadow, stood the black wolf.

  It stared at me with those crimson eyes—calm, ancient, unreadable. Then it turned and vanished into the dark.

  I didn’t follow.