I awoke to the crackle of fire. In front of me sat a short, stout man with a thick, messy beard. He was likely a dwarf. He sat next to the fire, a large pot hanging over it, cooking some sort of stew. We were both in a small opening in the dense thicket surrounding us, only perhaps a dozen meters across.

  “You’ve quite the nerve, dwarf.”

  He looks up at me. “Ah! You’re awake! The name’s Malnik. Malnik Greataxe. Come, sit and have some food”. He shuffled forward, further into the light, allowing a better look. He had pale blue eyes, eerily pale, freckled skin as all dwarves do, and a thick, deep scar that seemed to cut his face diagonally into halves. He sat cross-legged and wore padded leather. Unusually light for the dwarves, who usually prefer full plate. A huge two-sided axe, nearly as tall as the dwarf, and certainly meant for two-handed use, laid flat on the ground next to him.

  “You should know I don’t need mortal sustenance, dwarf.”

  “Ay, but you can still enjoy it, can you not?”

  I sat on the opposite side of the fire. I was further from the flames than the dwarf, my fur protecting me from the cold enough that the fire was hardly necessary. The dwarf promptly handed me a bowl full of stew. The portion was much too large, as expected from a dwarf. Bits of various vegetables, presumably foraged from the surrounding area floated in a thick, grey-green broth. From a little digging, there was some trace of meat in there as well.

  “You know I have to kill you after this.” He bellowed a hearty laugh.

  “You can try, and you will, I’m sure. How about a deal?” He paused, as if waiting for my response. “One fight. If I win, you shan’t lay a hand of harm on me until my say… and you’ll travel with me.”

  “...and when I win?”

  “Well, then you’re free to do with me as you wish of course!”

  “This hardly seems like a fair agreement. Offer something more.”

  “More than my life? You’re quite the greedy youkai.” He joked, “I’ll give you the recipe for this stew. How’s that?” I noticed I hadn’t tried it yet, and promptly fixed that mistake. It was… tolerable. Much too salty for my tastes, and I hardly cared for the herbs of choice. Still, it was something. I looked back over at the dwarf and noticed he was on his sixth bowl. I suppose that explained the cauldron of soup and lack of other guests.

  “Very well, we have a deal.” The stew wasn’t worthwhile, far from it, but the very fact this deal was being made suggested this dwarf wanted something from me aside from my life. I figured I was safe enough for now, and was admittedly curious.

  “We have a deal.” He repeated, and thus the pact was formed.

  I slowly finished my portion, ending by slurping the broth straight from the bowl. Without saying a further word, I stand up and walk to the far side of the clearing. The wind blew against my fur, and I briefly mused that this is why mortals choose to wear clothes.

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  I unsheathed my claws. The dwarf stayed seated.

  “At least take me seriously, dwarf.” He gave another chuckle in response.

  “Fine, fine, I suppose I should give you that.” He lazily stood up and grabbed his axe off the ground. It clearly had considerable heft, yet he lifted it as if it were a feather.

  With no further delay, I channeled mana into my legs and leapt towards the dwarf. Casting an illusion spell to delay his sight the split second I needed to finish this fight in one move. The illusion spell seemed to fail though, as the dwarf’s axe swung immediately towards me.

  I focused my protection wards in my arms to block the swing, the impact came, and hardly even scratched my skin. The force behind the blow sent quakes through my body though.

  Only an instant after the axe’s strike, the dwarf’s foot collided with my chest, sending me barrelling away. My claws scraped against rock, causing sparks a mere moment before I collided with a tree and heard a loud crack. If I had bones to break, it would certainly have been them. Fortunately however, I did not.

  I roll to recover, kicking a leg out to trip the dwarf no doubt sprinting towards me, and impacted his ankle. He must have predicted the attack though, as his foot didn’t move an inch. His axe was swung towards me once more, this time stopping just short of my throat. So swiftly I hadn’t even had time to readjust my wards.

  “Concede, kid.”

  “I’m no kid. I will admit defeat though.”

  The pact agreement went into effect, I was in for a long journey it seemed. Better than being dead though.

  “So what’s your name, youkai? I can’t just keep calling you that.”

  “Selene, you’re still dwarf to me though.” He sighed.

  “If I must be, you can have your fun.” He sat down and filled his bowl for a 9th? serving. It raised many questions, mainly how he was so fast, but I had plenty of time to ask those questions later.

  The tree I had impacted earlier finally collapsed, landing only a meter away from me.

  “We should get to know each other!” The dwarf said. “Tell me a little about yourself, what do you do for fun?”

  “You already won, don’t make this more painful than it needs to be.”

  “Fine, fine, I’ll leave you to your sulking.” He ate several more bowl in silence. Eventually, he unfurled a sleeping bag and climbed in.

  “I don’t have a spare, wasn’t exactly expecting to pick up a companion, hope you’re fine.”

  “I’ll live.”

  “Certainly, but there’s more to life than living.” With that, he rolled over, showing his back to me as if in mocking, and presumably went to sleep.

  I shifted into my quadrupedal form, and found a hole in the tree to lie in. Youkai couldn’t sleep. Unlike eating mortal meals, it was both something unnecessary for us and that our bodies didn’t permit unless we were recovering from grave injuries. Still, I could rest.

  I went over my memories from the day, deciding to take the time to arrange and store them within my mind, but strangely couldn’t remember anything prior to my awakening with the dwarf. Strange.

  I dug deeper into my mind, where the preceding memories should be, but found only a jumbled mess. Flashes of thought and feeling, but nothing concrete. It was impossible to decipher what had led to this point. My mind was largely in order, I remembered information like my name, spells, skills, strategies, and locations, but any experiences were inaccessible. Not like if they were blocked off by a spell, I knew how that was supposed to feel, but as if they had been diced and mixed together. All the pieces were there, but none were in the right place.

  I sighed, this was going to be a long journey.