Hills of treasure under the midday sun seem to stretch endlessly. Gold, coins, weapons, and jewelry sprawl across the land, a forgotten dragon’s hoard. At the peak of it all sits the woman from my dreams—the one from the bar. Who is she waiting for? She sighs, her gaze distant, as if waiting for something—or someone. My heart clenched as if . I cannot place why but I know how she feels. Who was she waiting for? Was it me all along?

I opened my mouth to call out, like greeting an old friend—but no sound came. She looks down for a moment as if my attempt or failure to talk to her triggered something. Once again I open my mouth but the result is the same. What is this?

She gets up and dusts herself off before walking away. My vision starts to get blurry before it all the colors warp all together then fades to black.

I smell the familiar smell of a campfire with meat cooking on it as if I were back in my world. For just a moment, I thought I was in my home world. As my eyes adjust, the reality sets back in. The campfire flickered against the damp stone walls which shadows cased on it by metal pipes of this world.

I am reminded of what happened before as my body ached all over. My hand had no wounds or burns from the burning book.

Why wasn’t I injured? Why did she—

"Thought I’d have to start carrying you around. You were out for a while." the voice cut through my thoughts.

I sit up. A furry humanoid sits by the fire, grinning at me with sharp teeth. She looked completely at ease, lazily gnawing on something that smelled like jerky.

I hesitated. I look around as I am not sure who she really is. Seeing the pile of junk that looked like it belonged to goblins. She must have saved me as my bag is next to me and I am fine as I can be. Now that I take a better look, she’s dressed in cargo pants, a military-style top exposing her midriff, and fingerless gloves. Looking to the side it looks like we are overlooking the area I fell earlier, and this room has only one other way in. Other than the pipes everywhere this room looks safe.

"Thank you for saving me."

"It's no problem, boss" she replied before taking another bite out of some sort of jerky meat.

"Boss? Wait, hold on—what do you mean by that?" I was puzzled by her answer.

"Wow, you really don’t know anything about your blessing. Sorry, boss, but I’m not your tutorial. And no matter how cute you are, that’s not gonna change. Me and the woman? We’re just part of your power—like it or not."

"The woman didn't tell you anything did she?"

"Nothing really, other than I am now tied to you and your name. Though I wouldn't be so bad to see her again." She said with a mighty fine grin on her face.

How does that book woman know my name? Can she see all I can see or is it something else? Not really the time to worry about this, is it? What should I do next? Well, the person in front of me is the only current source of information. "You have been in the world for a long time. How does the book women know my name?"

"Beats me. Maybe she’s one of those spirit types or ego weapons. She probably watches us at this very moment and hears every part of this conversation."

"That is very unnerving. Someone that is watching my every move."

"If you put it that way, totally. Like all things in this world, you probably get us to it or not."

I don't think I will get much more from her on this topic so topic change would be good. "So, what is your name?"

"Name is Mayhem, clearly your friendly Gnoll. But better question Vestige, what is the plan?"

She has an odd fur color for a Gnoll—whitish with light purple spots. I’ve never seen one like that before. "I am not really sure" I reached over to my bag looking through it for the book.

"I know of a city near here if it still stands. So, we can pack up and head there, boss."

I didn't find the book and when I looked up, she looked at me next to me.

"Did you see the book that I had with me?"

"Oh, that thing, that burned up after I finished taking care of the goblins."

My memory of what happened came back in a blur as I was holding the book in flames. I double-checked my hand, and it looked fine with no burn marks. That answers what happens to the book. I can have her lead me but then what? I know nothing really about this world. What happened before can happen again also. It is probably just odd at this point staring at her without saying something. The steady drip of the pipes gnaws at my nerves.

She lets out a sharp, hyena-like laugh. "You know, you remind me of someone I used to know. Someone I was close to."

She moves over to the pile of junk and starts picking through it, stuffing things into a bag.

I smirked, "Is it a bit too early to be making comparisons to people."

She paused for a moment. "That is fine too. Just pack up the things you think we will need. We are heading to that city I spoke of."

What do I keep getting myself into? I get up and see a huge pile of junk. As I start to sifting through the junk pile, I muttered "Most of this stuff look like junk." Broken blades, guns missing pieces, armor and clothing cleaved in half covered in dried blood, and other stuff that not useful.

Mayhem looks over to me and says "Not my fault that it probably was junk in the first place, you should complain to the goblins instead."

I pick up another piece of half cleaved armor showing it to Mayhem. "You know, if you wanted to keep some of this, maybe don’t hack it to pieces first."

She hops over to me and leans on me shoulder to shoulder to place something in my hand. "Good luck with that, I haven't tried to hold back in the past and not going to do it now."

I looked at my palm, it was metal box with carvings all over it. "You know what this is?"

"Like the hell I do, all I know it looks like it not junk as it has runes and stuff on it."

The more I look it the more it feels like the runes on the metal box has glow to it. What is this? Does it open?

Staring at the last sparks of the fire as it finally dies out. The thoughts leaks through again. What now? Can I trust all of this? Am I going to be split up again? Who is the woman in my dreams.

"You coming or what?"

I see that Mayhem is all packed and wielding a battle axe in hand. Turning away from her I just smiled a bit. She walking past me as I get glimpse of her tail.

I exhaled and bring up my bag to follow her. I see her at the entrance with axe resting lazily on her shoulder. Her fur caught the dim light, pale and speckled with purple. Not like any gnoll I’d ever seen.

"No time to waste, Boss. Either we find that city, or we carve a path through whatever’s left. Either way, it’s gonna be fun." She leans over with a grin on her face. "Either way, it should be a hell of a time."