Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 1 - Fight or Flight

Elena opened her eyes, thoughouly confused as to what had happened. While it well-known that travelling by bonfire was possible, she hadn't said the appropriate prayer to travel. As she took in her surroundings, her confusion only deepened. Not only was there no connecting bonfire where she had landed, but everything about this realm was strange. Piles of twisted metal lay strewn around, interspersed with strange machines and gruesome meat-hooks.

She reached down to unsheathe her trusty rapier to find it missing,. In a panic, she quickle patted down her sleeve to find her supply of throwing knifes was also gone. Even her boot-dagger was missing. Elena had never felt so naked in her life, not even the day she'd died in her first, ill-fated attempt to link the fire.

Stealth, then, she decided. She was quick and nimble and her small fram helped her to stay concealed. She was sitll wearing her form-fitting, black leather armor, as well. Keeping to the shadows, she began to explore this iron wasteland. The sound of a metal scraping against metal caught her attention. She crept closer to the sound to find the source: A man in dark pants with a blood-stained shirt groping around into some kind of machine, feverishly working to get it going. He seemed harmless enough, but Elena knew better than to underestimate a potential enemy.

As she inched closer to the man, she heard the sound of a heartbeat that was not her own. It grew closer, and the man working ont he machine, turned to run, slamming into her. With wide eyes, he grabbed her by the wrist and whispered urgently, "We need to hide. He's coming."

Elena decided that this man was not an enemy, judging by the fact that he looked scared, very scared, and he was clearly unarmed. His clothing was ill-suited to combat, and his slight frame looked more suited to simple work than fighting. Even as he pulled her along behind him, she could tell that his grasp would be easy to break. Nothing about this man was even remotely threatening, save for the blood soaked into his shirt. He didn't appear to be wounded, so she could say it was a safe bet that the blood wasn't his.

He opened a metal locker door, and ducked inside, pulling her in behind him. It was a tight squeeze, and Elena silently praised the Sun that they both had small builds. She opened her mouth to speak, but he put his hand over her mouth as the mysterious heartbeat thundered louder. After some time, the heartbeat faded, and the man uncovered Elena's mouth.

Still not fully trusting the situation, Elena whispered, "Explain, now."

He gave her a wry smile that didn't reach his eyes, "You're new. I've never seen you here before. It will take some time to explain things fully, but the short version is, we're trapped here. This place, it's cursed. There are monsters hunting us, and we have to fix the generators to escape. Even if you die, though, you'll just end up back at the bonfire."

Elena sighed, "I don't understand what you mean by generators, but my entire life has been being hunted by monsters and returning to the bonfire every time I die. Most of the time, I go back and I kill the monster. Nothing ever stays dead, though, except for certain creatures with immense souls. My guess is that such large bodies don't reanimate when deprived of a soul large enough."

The look on his face was pure confusion, "Wait... You believe me about the monsters and the bonfire and death not being permenant, but it's the generators don't make sense. Where are you even from?"

"That's my own business. Help me find a weapon, and I'll make short work of whatever it is that's hunting you."

"You can't kill them," he said, "It doesn't work that way. They're a lot bigger than us. Stronger, too. Come on, I'll show you how to fix the generator. We have to get five of them owrking to power the exit gate."