I start to walk across the arid grassland. I look at the sun and look at its general position. I knew that in the northern hemisphere the sun tended to be located in the north and in the southern hemisphere in the south. So in theory heading in the direction of the sun would eventually take me somewhere that is cooler and wetter and therefore might be inhabited.
I walked and walked and walked. I seemingly had no choice but to transform. into my human self. The body of a monada was much better adapted to the cold dark caves than to have to walk for long distances in extreme heat. So in the end I was a 7-year-old child walking around through the grasslands alone. Without food or drink or anything. I had eaten just before I had left the cavern and I could get all of the water I needed from my food. But I wasn't sure that would be the case when walking in such heat and dryness.
But I continued. The nights were very relaxing and much-needed rests with pleasant temperatures and no sun. But I continued. 2 days went by and I was starting to get thirsty. Luckily as a monada I didn't get thirsty as fast as humans but I was sure that I couldn't last more than a week without eating something wet. Like a good raw carcass. Another day passed and at last, I spotted something in the distance. It looked like a small village.
I approached it as fast as I could. But I wasn't sure how I would get in. If it was a human village the best thing to do would be to be in my human form. But how would they react to a naked child? Perhaps I could lie down in the grass and see if somebody finds me?
It seemed like a valid idea. Byt I'd need a story. For example that I had run away from a slaver. Although it did rely on slavery being a thing in the world.
"Does slavery exist in this world?"
"POSITIVE"
So it seemed like a valid reason. So I was an escaped slave who had collapsed from heatstroke or something.
Ok, so I did that. I entered my human form and lay down about 10 from the village outskirts and waited.
A good couple of hours passed until somebody spotted me. I wasn't entirely sure if that was because people were ignoring me or didn't see me but I was glad that they noticed eventually. I didn't want to be there all night or anything like that.
"Are you ok?"
Called a woman's voice. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder the person shoot me a little, then turned me around. I acted as if I was unconscious. I left all of my body lumps. It was particularly easy leaving my arms limp as I had spent the last few months without having any arms.
Then the person picked me up and carried me somewhere.
"Don't worry I'll help you"
I was carried for a short while and then placed on something wooden. Then a blanket was draped over me. I wasn't completely sure what was going on as I had yet to open my eyes. I also wasn't going to sleep as I wasn't sure if I'd be able to maintain my transformation while asleep, and I couldn't ask the guide or they would hear me. So all I could do is wait for a good time to pretend to wake up.
A big problem with this is I didn't really know how people wake up from being unconscious. So I decided to just slowly sit up and hold my head as if my head hurt.
"Where am I?"
I croaked. I hadn't actually heard my voice in my human form before. It sounded pretty typical for a young girl really and I seemed to have some kind of strange accent that I couldn't pinpoint. Although it was a very similar one to the accent of the woman who had taken me to what I assumed was her house.
"Oh, you're awake? Are you ok?"
"Water" I croaked. It was a bit of a false croak but I was actually very thirsty, just not quite as thirsty as I made myself sound.
I then saw her put some kind of wooden beer mug into a barrel of water that was in the corner of the room and pass it to me.
I struggled to hold the cup as I had almost forgotten how to use arms and hands but I only spilt some of the water and managed to drink most of it in the end.
"Are you from Sinmar?" She asked. I recognised the name and I was sure she was basing her judgment on something so I decided that the best idea would be to say yes. After all the chasm that the baby gell down was called Sinmar chasm so I assumed the baby's parents would have lived somewhat close by.
"Yes I'm from a small village near the chasm"
"Oh, I see. And why are you here?"
"I escaped from slavers"
"They enslaved somebody so young! How could they do such a thing? If I had enough money for a slave I'd treat them well. At least well enough for them not to escape"
"Well they weren't as kind as you"
"You talk like an adult It's quite odd, you know. And I've never met anyone with hair like yours. You look quite Sinmarian with your tanned skin and green eyes. But your hair. It's very special"
"Um thank you"
I wasn't entirely sure how the situation would go, I wasn't used to speaking to people for so long and I had never been a very good liar. So making up these stories was very testing for me. Although it seemed that she was believing me. Perhaps because I looked like a child.
"I'm going to get you some clothes to wear. I'll be right back"
She came back with similar clothes to what she was wearing. A middle ages peasant dress thing. It was basically an itchy-looking wool dress thing, along with a hood that covered the head and shoulders of the wearer. It was clearly far too big for me but I put it on regardless.
It was absolutely huge.
"Well, I mean at least you're covered up now."
"Where are we?"
"We're in Coros, a small village in Western Genial not far from the Sinmar border."
"How can I get to the city?"
"I think you'd be better off staying here. You could live with us. I could be your new mother. I'll look after you and feed you. The closest city to here is Belia in Sinmar. It would take days to walk there and Sinmar is too dangerous for you, after all that's where you were captured and made into a slave"
She seemed intelligent. Which was worrying. It would be a lot harder hiding my identity from somebody who is intelligent. The only thing I could really think of doing was escaping.
I couldn't find a good way out of the situation. So I decided to take more water and eat something before I ran off again.
And that's exactly what I did. I ran off having tied the oversized clothes up to allow me to run and this time I had clothes to protect me from the sun.
The next day on the open plains I saw a herd of what looked like wildebeest. So obviously I killed them all and ate some of one of them until I was full. They hardly gave me any XP at all only a little more than a monada would have. So even though I managed to kill 36 of them I only leveled up once. Which was pretty miserable. The grass had started to become slightly greener recently and I could see another village in the distance. I had been walking for 4 days since I had left Coros and it was the first life I had seen.
The village was surrounded by farmland and the village was only just visible despite the farmland being very close by.
I rested and then walked up to that village also. I had been killing every single living thing I could find on my way and had managed to level up once more but living creatures hardly gave any XP most of them gave less than a Monada but at least they actually tasted good.
So as a whole in that full week of traveling from the chasm, I had only picked up 3 levels despite obliterating the life of any living creature I could see except for humans. It made me feel like I would have been better off staying in the chasm. Leveling up was easy down there. With the constant supply of monsters and the ability to just head deeper and find stronger monsters.
I entered the village and wandered down the empty streets. The village was weirdly desolate but it didn't look uninhabited. It almost looked as if the whole place had been emptied right then just so I would find it empty.
That was when I heard clocking noises approaching. It was the sound of horses trotting on the hard dirt paths of the village. Then it turned down a corner and then I could see it. The horse was cloaked in heavy steel armour and mounted on it was a knight. Then behind the knight was yet another knight and then a third.
They had huge banners with some kind of flag on it.
Then one of the knights spotted meand approached me.
"I hope you're not trying to stop us, little girl. We won't hesitate to kill anybody who gets in our way. This territory is rightfully Sinmarian."
"I'm not getting in your way"
"Oh, so you're from our great nation. I'm sorry for doubting you, child. No, go. We don't want one of our own getting into this."
"If anybody is here to oppose us step out now!"
At that moment a boy, who was probably 14 or 15 years old ran out of his house.
"You won't get away with this. We have been citizens of Feissimo for hundreds of years. You can't just steal our land!"
"Oh is that right? In that case, I'm sure you'd like to oppose me then."
"As a matter of fact, I will. Ḡ̷͖̫̋ḧ̸͕̤̔͆ų̶̤͙̌͘Ḋ̸͔͆́ṙ̶̭̽ṳ̵͔̤͛͝ḕ̸͖͊ṙ̸͔͕̈́Ṡ̵̠̈́ ̵͕̼̌Ḡ̷̫̈́͆ͅṳ̴̺͂̊Ṯ̶̟͑̽ṙ̷͈͛ḕ̵̙̣̎͝Ṡ̴͇̀Ḳ̸̩̀ ̴̝̌ṁ̵̆͘͜ṳ̴̹̎Ṇ̴̳̊Ḡ̷͙̿͝Ḷ̶͇̒͂ḭ̶͓̰̽̉Ṡ̵̬͈͑!̶͙̆"
After saying those words a ball of flame started to form in his hand. Then it was shot at the knight. But the knight simply raised his shield and blocked the attack. The shield was scorched but no harm was done to the knight"
"Oh, dear the boy thinks he's a master magician. Well sorry, but we don't allow traitors to the crown to leave with life. And that's exactly what you are."
He then stabbed the boy in the chest with his spear and the boy fell to the ground. A middle-aged woman then ran out of the same house the boy had left from crying. She grabbed the boy and took him away.
"Well little girl what are you doing here?"
"I was captured by Feissimo thugs. They were going to use me as a bargaining chip to get you guys to back away. But I escaped from them."
"Where are you from?"
"A small village near Sinmar chasm"
"You mean Pelia?"
"Yes"
"We're on our way back down to the capital soon. We can drop you off on the way back if you want."
"Well, I was actually hoping I could go to the capital. Afterall my parents were killed"
"Typical Feissimo people. They always go overboard with their kidnapping. Those people are brutes. I'm surprised there's and resistance in reclaiming the land that's rightfully Sinmarian. Anyway, get on my horse lets go. We've put enough flags and scared enough people to put this region in Sinmar"