When dusk arrived on the third night, we threw our packs on the ground and gathered up some firewood. We'd entered a dense stretch of forest the day before, so finding wood wasn’t difficult. Within the hour, we had a roaring fire going just off the side of the road.

  “Hungry?” Tristan’s sapphire eyes were almost seemed to glow in the dim light.

  “So hungry.” My stomach was burning. We decided to push ourselves earlier in the day, so we hadn’t eaten anything since noon.

  Tristan pulled out some packets from his pack and unwrapped them, revealing some sort of jerky.

  "Here."

  I snatched the meat out of his hand and tore into it like an animal. “Thanks,” I said through a mouthful of jerky.

  "You know, I didn't realize how hungry I was until we sat down. Those apples and dried fruit weren't enough earlier." Tristan hunked into the meat the same way I did.

  “We need to get some trail mix. That shit keeps you going on the trail.”

  “Trail mix?”

  Did they not have trail mix here? "Yeah, we have something called trail mix back on Earth. It's kind of the best. You can munch on it as you walk."

  "What's it made of?"

  "Nuts, berries, bananas. The good stuff even has little chocolate candies called M&Ms in it."

  "What's chocolate?"

  Oh, Goddess. Oh no. "You haven't heard of chocolate?"

  "No. What is it?"

  Please, Goddess. Don't tell me this world didn't have chocolate. "It's…” What was chocolate? “It’s like a brown hard paste made out of some sort of bean. You toast them or something, then you grind them up and mix them with fat and sugar. It's kind of sweet and bitter, and it's probably the best thing in the world." Chocolate was my love language.

  "That sounds gross."

  "You sound gross. Don't you insult my love like that, you pimpled prick.”

  “I am not pimpled!” He squeaked, sounding more like a girl than ever. He stood up and put his hands on his hips. “Take it back.”

  “Okay, okay. You don’t have pimples. Anymore.”

  “You ass.” He plopped back down on his log with a huff and tore into another piece of jerky. Looking into the fire for a while, his face got serious. "You really think we're going to pull this off? This adventuring thing, I mean?"

  I'd been wondering the same thing. "Honestly, I don't know. I hope so.”

  “So, you’re riding on hope?”

  “Is there anything else?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “I guess not. I just… I don’t know. I guess I’m having doubts.” His eyes lowered to the ground.

  I leaned over until he was looking at my eyes again. “Hey, don’t be so negative. I have no clue what's in store for us, but I'm not ready to quit before we even start. That would be lame, and are we lame?"

  "I mean, you did name us the Awesome Duo."

  "Yeah, because we're awesome. And we're gonna do awesome things. And there’s two of us. And, maybe one day, if we're lucky, people will write books about our awesomeness. The Adventures of the Awesome Duo. Book One: How Not to Get Your Ass Kicked. Book Two: Kicking Ass. Book Three: Kicking More Ass and Winning Over the Babes. And that's just the first three books. Can you imagine what the others will be like?"

  His frown cracked into a smile, then he started laughing. "Babes?"

  "Yup."

  "Really?"

  "Yes."

  "Okay. And what will these babes look like, Mr. Hero?"

  I scratched my beard and thought about it. “Like Na-Ya, but not in a relationship with elven Adonis."

  "Adonis?"

  "Hot dude from Greece. Banged some Goddesses or something."

  "Greece?"

  "Country in… never mind. Man, I'm gonna have to teach you everything, won't I?"

  "Apparently."

  The smile faded from his face. “So, is there anyone else, or is it just Na-Ya, the hot, unavailable Elven Priestess?” His blue eyes were definitely glowing now.

  I thought about it. What was I looking for? “Well, I guess I want to meet someone I get along with. Someone who’s my friend first. And they have to be adventurous. I want to see the world, so they’ll have to want to do that with me.”

  Tristan adjusted on his log. “Anything else?”

  There was. “I want to find someone that I can be myself around. You know me better than anyone. I’m dense, and I’m easily distracted. I don’t always think everything through. But my heart’s in the right place. At least, I think it is.”

  “It is.”

  “See! That’s part of the reason I’m so happy you came with me. You get me.”

  He giggled. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

  “So, what about you? What kind of person are you looking for?”

  He looked at me. “Someone passionate. Someone who makes me laugh. And they need to challenge me, encourage me to get out of my comfort zone.” He smiled. “You know how stubborn I can be. The person I end up with should be able to face that part of me with a smile. That’s a person I could see myself with.”

  I hadn’t thought of those things. “That sounds great. I hope you find it one day.”

  “I know I will. I have faith.” He reached down, picked something up, and stood up. In his arms was his sleeping bag. “Enough about the future. It’s time for us to get some sleep.”

  I couldn’t help but yawn. “Yeah, you’re right.”

  “I always am.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” We’d been going for days. Sleep would be good. I grabbed my sleeping bag and, within minutes, fell asleep.

  ***

  I woke up to the sound of a branch breaking. I shot up and threw the blanket off. “Tristan, is that you?” No response. I listened more closely. Something was moving through the brush. It was maybe a few hundred yards away and getting closer with every step.

  I could hear my heart in my ears. I would be lying if I said I wasn't panicking. The hundreds of monsters Arden had me learn about filtered through my mind. Chimaera? No, not in this region. Dragon? Rare and mostly live in the mountains. Goblin? Recently domesticated, but possible. Slime? Probably not. They usually live in the plains.

  "What was that?" Tristan groaned and sat up, the lingering embers of the campfire illuminating his face.

  "Get up."

  "Wha—?"

  "Come on." I strapped on my sword and picked up my shield. “Something’s out there.”

  “Shit, okay.” He stood up and started throwing on his chainmail over his robe. He’d taken it off hours before when we’d first made camp, though, as usual, he did it behind a tree.

  Another branch broke. Whatever it was was getting closer. "Grab your mace. Quick."

  "Okay, okay." He shimmied into his mail and grabbed his two-handed mace off the ground. He leveled it toward the trees.

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  "Back to back, like we practiced. Remember our training. Breathe. Focus."

  His slender back pressed against mine. We breathed in at the same time.

  Another branch.

  Breathe.

  Focus.

  The crunching drew nearer.

  "Alex," he whispered.

  "Yeah?" I whispered back.

  "This is awesome. I’m so happy I came with you."

  "Fuck yeah. We're gonna kick ass."

  “We can do it.”

  Another branch. A pair of red eyes glimmered in the darkness, reflecting the last embers of our fire. Whatever it was, the creature was small, or maybe it was low to the ground.

  "Goblin?"

  "I don’t know. Maybe a warg?"

  “Bunicorn?”

  “Gloomfang?” Shit, I really hoped it wasn’t a gloomfang.

  The red eyes got closer. Some leaves rustled. Then, a small white furry animal, about the size of a football, walked out into the dim light. It had a single horn on its head, a pair of tiny wings, and scales on its neck. It looked like a cross between a dragon and a dog.

  "What the fuck is that?"

  "No clue."

  "Do you think it's dangerous?"

  "Don't know."

  “Hey buddy…” I took a step toward it. It was cute, like a plushie. "What’s your name?"

  It perked up and started wagging its bushy little tail. It had a bunny tail!

  "Alex."

  "I see it."

  “Don’t get closer to it.”

  “I’m gonna.”

  “No!”

  "It's cute, dude. I'm not sure it's that dangerous. I’ve never even heard of a monster like this one."

  "It has glowing red eyes!"

  "That could be anything."

  "Look at its little fangs!”

  "Dogs have fangs.”

  “So do monsters.”

  “You’re not a monster, are you little guy?”

  It wagged its tail and walked a few steps closer.

  “See? It’s friendly.”

  "Alex, stop!”

  "Come here, little guy." I sheathed my sword, lowered the shield, and bent down. The creature hopped right over to me.

  “Well I’ll be damned.”

  “See? I told you he was friendly.” The creature took the last few steps to me, then rubbed its face on my leg. As it did, I gave its back a little scratch. It really liked that. I scratched all around its neck, then worked toward its ears, but it gave some sort of half-purr, half hiss when I did. My hand shot back involuntarily. It bared its fangs at me, and I backed up a step. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be all that mad. It hopped back up to me and continued rubbing on my leg.

  "What's happening?"

  "I made a friend."

  "Great."

  “It’s my animal companion. I'm gonna call it Fluffy."

  "No."

  "Too late. It's named."

  "No!"

  Fluffy looked up at me with his big, shimmering eyes. It was so freaking adorable.

  "See, it's just a baby."

  "You have no idea what it is."

  "You don’t know.”

  “Then what is it?”

  “A friend." I picked the creature up. It nuzzled my hand, then sniffed my thumb. And that’s when it bit me.

  "Ahhh!" I dropped Fluffy. The little evil furball bounced off the ground, spun around, and hissed. Its eyes glowed a brilliant red color, and its fur stood up. "Ow, shit."

  "What happened?"

  "The fucker bit me."

  "Oh really? That's what you get for picking up random animals."

  "Shut up and get it!"

  We charged forward, weapons whistling in the wind, but no matter how well I swung, it jumped out of the way. The little asshole was fast.

  Tristan swung his mace, and it dodged out of the way again. “I can’t hit it!”

  "Stop swinging so hard. You're going to kill it."

  "What are we supposed to do, let it go?"

  "Catch it! It’s just scared."

  “I’m gonna kill it.”

  We chased it around the camp for a few minutes, but every time we came close, it dodged. Damn thing was as fast as lightning. I swore as I missed it twenty times.

  "It's going for your pack."

  "Shit, hold on." I snatched my blanket off the ground and threw it over the little shit. It wriggled under the thick cloth, squeaking and carrying on like it was being murdered. I jumped on top of it, trying to wrap the thing up, but it kicked like a mule. However, little did it know that I would be the victor that day. It thrashed and kicked in the blanket, but I managed to bundle it up into a bag. “Got it.”

  “You idiot.”

  It kicked and thrashed as I started tying the blanket into a knot. Then it screeched.

  "Shit, shit, shit. Oh fuck, it's screaming. Shit, shit, shit." I was panicking. That couldn’t be good.

  "I think it's calling for help."

  "What? Why? Can't it just let us catch it?"

  "We tried to kill it, Alex. Remember that? Remember us swinging weapons at it?"

  "Well, that was after it bit me."

  A deep, guttural roar shook the trees all around us. A chill ran down my spine.

  “Tristan?” My voice quivered.

  “Yeah.” His voice was quivering, too.

  "Run."

  "Yeah."

  I dropped my blanket, causing the little monster to squeak like it was offended. In a rush, we grabbed our stuff and ran.

  ***

  We ran for at least two hours. The entire time, I thanked Renard for all the endless runs he subjected us to. He probably saved our lives. The thing had been so fast!

  The roaring followed us for a while, but the further we ran, the more distant it got. At least ten minutes before, the sound of whatever the hell was roaring at us finally faded.

  "I need a break." Tristan groaned.

  "Yeah, okay. Me too." Before I even finished my sentence, we both collapsed onto the ground. It was late, and now we didn't have a fire. Luckily, the moon was bright, so after resting for a while, we were able to gather some wood and start another fire. I knew it wasn’t the smartest thing in the world, but it was cold.

  "Tristan..." I said as I plopped down next to the little fire we'd made.

  "Yeah...?" He sounded unsure.

  "That was awesome."

  He gave a small laugh, then a larger one, then he cracked up. “That was fucking crazy! Did you see it dodge those attacks? Like whoosh, and then I'm swinging at nothing. It was so fast!"

  “I didn’t know anything could be that fast.”

  “Oh, just wait. Some people are so fast you can barely see them move.”

  “Freaky.”

  “Yeah, it’s incredible.”

  I wanted that. "How do we get that fast?" I asked.

  "I mean, we need to do quests, level up, and all that."

  Something clicked in me. We could do this. "You know what? We're gonna do it."

  "Do what?" He cocked his head at me.

  "Become heroes. Or, at the least, kick ass and have a good time doing it."

  He sighed. 'I don’t know. We literally just lost our first fight."

  I wasn't about to tolerate that lack of belief. "Seriously? You gonna wimp out because we lost to one monster?"

  "No. I just..." He stared at the fire. "I want to be a hero too, but it's just gonna be hard."

  “Easy things aren’t worth doing.”

  He sighed again. "You know, my dad was an adventurer. A strong one, too."

  He’d never really talked about his family before. "No, you never told me. Was he well-known?"

  He shook his head. "Not really, but he was known throughout the region. He was a hero, a real one, to a lot of people. He ended up getting a Heroic Class and everything. It was amazing.”

  “You looked up to him?”

  “Yeah. I did. He may not have been super powerful or anything, but he was my hero, you know?"

  "Was?”

  “He passed.”

  “Damn, I had no idea. How old was he when he died?"

  “I’m not sure exactly. He died when I was young."

  “I’m so sorry.”

  "It's okay. Everyone dies eventually. He’s with the Goddess now.” His voice wavered. “Still, I wish I could see him again.”

  "What happened?"

  "He got sick."

  "Oh."

  "It's alright. When he passed, the temple took me in. Everyone there took care of me. They're great people."

  I wondered what his class was. “Is he why you want to be a priest?”

  "Yes, but probably not in the way you’re thinking. When Dad died, I thought..." He hesitated.

  "Thought what?"

  "I thought that, maybe if I became a priest, I could bring him back. If not, I could help people, maybe stop others from dying like he did.”

  “Could you bring someone back?” That sounded wild.

  “Not really. It’s complicated. However, I can definitely get strong enough to save people. I guess that’s why I’m out here. If I could save people, maybe it would all be worth it. And, the stronger I get, the more people I can help. It's just hard, and sometimes, when things get difficult, I feel like quitting."

  His eyes were shimmering in the firelight. "Well, you know what?" I stood up.

  "Huh?"

  "You're not gonna quit. Not ever. You're gonna keep going, and you’re going to become the greatest priest this world has ever seen. We're going to keep going, and we're going to make a name for ourselves. You and me. We're gonna be legends, Tristan. Legends."

  He laughed. "I'd be happy with just being a real priest."

  "Aim higher." I pointed to the sky.

  "What are you doing?"

  "I'm showing you how high we're gonna rise!" I thrust my finger into the air. "Come on. Stand up and do it with me."

  "You’re an idiot." He wiped his face and stood up. A moment later, his finger was pointing to the sky.

  "That's my man." Another idea came to me. I drew my sword and pointed it at him.

  "What now?" He shook his head.

  "Let's make an oath."

  He shook his head at me.

  “Do it.”

  He sighed, pulled out his mace, and set it on top of my sword.

  "To the Goddess and the world. To our friends and family. To us. We're going to become heroes. Tristan and I are going to do the thing. We're going to kick ass, become heroes, and be the best goddamn adventurers we can be. And if the world won't accept us, we'll go somewhere else. I'm already in my second world. What's another?" I smiled at him. He looked at me like I was crazy. "We're going to make a difference."

  "We're going to get killed." A wave of emotion washed over his face.

  "Probably. But first, we're going to make a name for ourselves."

  He laughed, and a single tear rolled down his cheek. "Alright." He wiped his cheek. “Are we done?”

  "No. You're not getting out of it this so easily."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Make your oath. That one was mine."

  "Alex, come on. Let's go to bed."

  "Right now, you big baby. How are you gonna be a priest if you can't even make a vow?"

  "Oh Goddess, alright, fine.” His eyes got hazy for a moment, then he said, "Goddess, Alex and I want to be heroes, and we're going to do it. He and I will see this through to the end."

  "Hell yeah, now repeat after me."

  He groaned.

  "Just do it. I, Tristan."

  "I, Tristan."

  "Swear to the Goddess and the World. I will become a hero. I will kick ass, and I will take names."

  "I swear to the Goddess and the world that I will become a hero. I will kick ass, and I will take names."

  "Good. And I, Alex, will do all the same shit, but even better than Tristan." I smacked his shoulder and grinned at him. He gave me the largest eye roll I'd ever seen. However, as my words faded into the trees, my system interface opened.

  You have accepted the quest [Oath of Aspiring Heroes]

  "Tristan, did you just see a message pop up?"

  "Yeah..." he murmured. "That's never happened before."

  "It says we've started a quest. Do you know what that means?"

  "We just made a vow so strong that the Goddess noticed. That’s rare."

  "You know what this means?

  "What?"

  "It means the Goddess wants us to kick ass and take names."

  He smiled, his white teeth flashing in the dim light. "Yeah, I guess."

  "This is the start, man. This is the start of our story. The Legend of the Awesome Duo."

  "We're not the Awesome Duo."

  "So drop out of the party. I dare you. But if you do, I’m not inviting you back."

  He scoffed. “You wouldn’t make it one day without me.”

  “Nor do I want to.”

  “Good.” He chuckled. “Come on. Let’s get some sleep.”

  I shook my head. “You first. I’ll take watch.”

  “Smart. Spoken like a real adventurer.” He yawned. “Well, I’m off.” He walked over to his bedroll, shimmied out of his chainmail, and lay on the ground.

  I pulled a nearby log over to the fire. Soon, the crackling of the fire and the whistling of the wind were all I could hear.

  "Hey, Alex."

  "Yeah?"

  "You're a great friend."

  "You too, man."

  “Thanks for inviting me out here.”

  “I wouldn’t want to be with anyone else.”

  “Me neither.” He settled into his bedroll and, within minutes, was fast asleep.

  I looked into the flames of our small fire and thought of all the things we’d accomplish together. One day.