We ran over to Raven and Tasha. If anything, they looked worse close up. Raven’s cheekbone was purple and swollen. It looked like it was fractured. The same could be said for both his forearm and upper bicep region. Both had places of swelling and there was a place on his forearm where the bone had been cracked and was pushing against his skin from the inside. It was difficult to see his leg with his pants on, but not hard to guess what it looked like. It looked like his whole side had been crushed.

We were pretty sure Tasha suffered a concussion as well as a break to her arm. Her eyes were glazed and she was having trouble focusing on what we were saying.

‘What happened,’ I asked.

‘Ran into trouble,’ Raven says. He could talk, but it was painful. ‘That’s a burial ground. Don’t touch anything’.

Bubba and I led him to a tree and sat him down to rest against it. The pain it caused him to sit down made me wince. He was in rough shape.

‘He’s not going to be walking anymore’, Bubba said.

Once they had found us, they kind of fell apart. Both wanted to sleep. Even when we fed them, they were having trouble keeping it together. They must not had eaten or slept since we last saw them.

Bubba pulled me aside, and Andy and Jason followed.

‘What are we going to do about this?’ he asks.

‘We have to get them home,’ I said. ‘Sooner rather than later.

‘How?’

‘I don’t know, but we have to get them out of here. They both need medical attention.

‘Moving Raven is going to be the problem,’ Bubba said. ‘I can’t imagine the pain he’s in’.

‘Yeah’.

‘We can build a stretcher out of the cart,’ Andy suggested.

We walked over to the cart. It wasn’t much more than a sheet of iron with a handle and two fairly good sized tires bolted to it’s sides. A canvas covered plastic tub to hold food and supplies was bolted onto the surface. The handle was one piece, made of thick metal tubing. It was welded on one side of the frame, rose up on an angle, curved, and ended up at the same place on the other side. The cart was just wide enough to lay Raven on, but nowhere near long enough.

‘I suppose we could weave some branches together to extend the length,’ Bubba says.

‘We should make it into a chair,’ Andy says, pointing at the angled handle. ‘We can sew on the canvas to make a back’.

‘That might work,’ Bubba agreed.

We unbolted the tub, removed the canvas and cut it to fit between the handles. We used fishing line and a hook to sew it. When it was done it looked pretty good, and we felt it would provide a reasonably comfortable ride.

‘What about Tasha,’ Jason asked.

‘She’s going to have to walk’, Andy says.

‘I don’t know for how long,’ Bubba said. ‘She looks exhausted’.

‘Well let’s get Raven set up and get going,’ I said.

We took the cart over to where we had left the two resting. Both were passed out. They probably hadn’t slept since we last saw them. Raven didn’t even wake up when we lifted him to the cart. We couldn’t wake Tasha. We weren’t sure if that was a good thing or not, but we ended up letting her sleep and carried her piggy back for the remaining few hours we hiked that day. She didn’t wake up once the whole time.

The trip back took almost as long as it took us to get there. Tasha was in pretty good shape physically and could walk. It was her head that was the problem. We couldn’t get her to wake up. We’d look her in the eyes and say her name, but it was like she was looking past us. Her eyes were blank. She was barely able to follow us, putting one foot in front of the other and always falling behind. We stopped frequently for her to rest, and in the end, took turns carrying her.

Raven remained passed out the whole way back. We figured it had something to do with the amount of damage his body had taken. It probably shut down as much as possible as a way to manage the pain and start the healing process. Occasionally he’d groan if we carted him over a particularly rough patch of ground.

We had to wait until we got back to Boat Basin before we’d be able to call for assistance. Cell phones were useless where we were. Only landlines worked, and the only one was at the provincial park by Boat Basin. As we were nearing the end of the mountainous forest region, we sent Jason ahead to call for help. He was gone for about half an hour when he returned with Bill and four of the bigger lads from the reserve.

Without a word, two of the guys walked over, picked up the cart and started carrying Raven out of the woods. Another one grabbed Tasha, slung her over his shoulder, and carried her out too.

‘What happened?’ Bill asked, looking us over closely.

‘We don’t know,’ I answered. ‘Jack came for them, they left, and this is what they looked like when they got back. Raven’s been passed out the whole way back, and Tasha’s not much better’.

Bill didn’t say anything, just waved for us to keep walking.

We reached the road within the hour. Bill had his half-ton and a van waiting for us and soon had us back to the same boat that brought us over.

‘Are we going to Tofino?’ Bubba asked.

‘No, we’re going home,’ Bill answered.

‘Wait a minute,’ Bubba says. ‘We have to get these two to a hospital, like right now’.

‘They’ll be alright,’ Bill answered, then he turned and went to take over the steering of the ship.

On the way back, we told Bill about how Jack showed up with the wolves. Bill took it all in and didn’t try to offer any suppositions to what may have happened. He just listened and remained silent with that poker face of his.

It was around three in the morning when we got back, but there was a crowd waiting for us. Leita, Doc, Kate and Paul were there from the commune. Everyone watched in silence, as they removed Raven and Tasha from the boat. Now strapped on gurneys, both were passed out. They took them into the First Nation’s Big House. The three Chiefs followed them in.

We were told we’d be contacted if anything changed and went home to await further word. On our walk back to the commune, Bubba and I gave a brief account of our experience. No one tried to make sense of it. They just wanted to get us home and into bed.

I couldn’t believe how tired I was now that some of the stress had been taken from my shoulders. We were back in the safety of the community. It was like my body knew this, and decided, ‘Okay, you can rest now’. When my face hit the pillow, I just sunk into it and relaxed. I lay like that I bet five full minutes, just enjoying the comfort, and then my mind starts to wander, and tired as I am, I start thinking about everything.

I wasn’t thinking over what happened, as much as why it happened? You know, in regards to my quest. Was there more going on here than met the eye? This was starting to feel like I was on a quest. Maybe Leita was on her own quest, but I was starting to suspect that wasn’t all we were doing here.

To tell you the truth, I was becoming a little frustrated with this quest. The backstory was almost non-existent since we arrived. What I decided to do was connect with Dually. I knew I ran the risk of sabotaging Leita’s quest, and returning us to our space and time, but I decided to risk it.

I suppose if you haven’t read ‘The Devil and Redemption’, you don’t know who Dually is. Dually is my Unique Personal Interface to AI. Now, the thing is, you’re not supposed to establish communication with your UPI during a quest. You’re on your quest to do something for yourself. To gain something of yourself. As soon as you access your UPI, you interrupt your self-determination, and the quest is usually ended.

It turns out, our quest was so poorly planned, AI defaulted into unspecified quest mode, which does offer limited AI communication without interrupting the quest. It also leaves a lot of the creative elements of the quest to AI’s imagination, drawing from past history and lore from the huge data base of the Internet. Left to its own devices, it can come up with some pretty freaky shit, such as placing Sasquatch, story lines and fables into the simulation.

That’s what happened here, and as a consequence, your world, the one AI created when Leita and I arrived, has Sasquatch and Dragons drawn from the imagination of civilization. You’re in a different world than the one you were in before Leita and I arrived. Sasquatch and Dragons are no longer part of your lore, but part of your experience, albeit remote. In this world, they’re as real as our imagination throughout history has made them. As dangerous too.

That’s just for starters. I also found out Raven and Tasha are trapped in the borderland, and someone has to go in there and bring them back. That’s not as big of a deal as it might sound, because someone, meaning me, has to go there anyway to retrieve ‘Wild Eye Bill’s’ hand axe which is the only thing that can kill the dragon, if and when the time for dragon killing arrives.

So what are my choices here? I can exit the quest. Your world will continue as AI has created it, and you will be left to fend for yourself. This would mean Leita’s quest will end prematurely, and she will not gain needed experience. I don’t see this as an option.

My other option is to stay and fight. Destroy the monster before it destroys the world, which it will most certainly do, now that it is the defining challenge of my quest. Everyday it will grow stronger, and one day, it will appear and will destroy all life if left unattended.

All I gain from staying and fighting is the time needed for Leita to complete her quest. I mostly stand to lose. For a quest to have any value, you must be prepared for anything, even giving up your life. Otherwise, what do you gain? I’m going to get my ass kicked a few times at the very minimum. I can see this already.

So here I am. You know, I remember when I first came, I thought my purpose was to connect with you, my collective. It’s a very important step in our transcendence, and reasonable I thought this way. In a very real way we are one just as I alone identify as one. It’s this awareness that propels us into the actualization we experience in the approaching future. Without our collective identity, we die as a species. I feel this is still the purpose of my quest, although I admit, I don’t understand how.

Anyway, the Chiefs called Bubba and I to the Big House around ten o’clock later that morning. When we got there, Tara was sitting with them, which was no surprise to me.

‘Thought you didn’t know me Tara,’ I said.

‘Yeah, well I’m here on different business. I didn’t think we’d be running into each other,’ she replied. ‘So what kind of trouble have you gotten us into this time Ethan’.

‘You ought to know. You’re the one who went with Tasha and Raven,’ I replied.

‘I was with them to see Jack get killed and Tasha and Raven nearly killed, but what I saw is what l I know’.

‘Yeah, well,’ I started to explain. ‘You know how when you go on a quest you create a whole new world out of whatever space and time you drop into?

No-one seemed to know that, so I continued. ‘Well anyway, in order to provide me, and Leita the experience we have come for, AI has added a few things to the time and space we touched down on. Prior to us landing here, there were no monsters like Sasquatch, or dragons, at least that I know of. In this world those things exist. AI wrote them into the simulation which you are now a part of. As far as you’re concerned, you have always lived in a world where such things exist. This is your experience.

‘I might add here, even though you are simulations, AI considers you to be an autonomous life, and will take this new world as far as you want to go with it. It need never end’.

Boy, this was not going well. Everyone was just staring at me, not saying a word. I couldn’t tell what they were thinking.

‘Did I mention, this is the same kind of thing you guys are probably doing in the future too?’ This didn’t get a response either, so I continued. ‘Raven and Tasha are trapped in the Borderland. ‘Wild Eyed Bill’s axe is in there too’.

Like I say, the Borderland was part of this world’s experience. As far as you’re concerned, it didn’t just appear when I did. It’s been with you always. AI wrote it into the very beginning of time.

‘The Borderland is a dangerous place,’ Chief Jim said. ‘Legend tells us never to enter it’.

‘So that’s what happened,’ Tara replied. ‘To heal them at all, I had to leave them in the Borderland. They’re divided into the real world and the one you created’.

‘Do you know how to get them out, Ethan,’ Tara asked.

‘Yes,’ I replied reluctantly.

‘How’s that?’ she asked.

‘I have to go in and get them’.

‘Do you know how to get into the Borderland’?

‘Probably just think I’m in the Borderland and I’ll be there,’ I said. I took a second to think I was in the Borderland. ‘Yep,’ I confirmed.

Chief Dan says, ‘What’s going on here, Tara’?

‘Ethan created another world in which your spirit dwells. In this world, you must kill the Mark-Stepper and defeat the Dragon’.

The Chiefs took this piece of information in stride. It was the world they already knew and were comfortable in. There were no metaphysical questions about the other worlds they may inhabit. Inhabiting different worlds is part of their culture’.

That the Chiefs were not put out by the fact I brought rogue Sasquatch and a dragon to their world, compelled me to ask, ‘Aren’t you guys pissed off with me?’

Dan looked at me. ‘For every thing, there is a reason. We will defeat these creatures and bring honor to our people and justice to the world. Is that not a good enough reason to exist’?

I looked at Tara. ‘What happened after you guys left us in the forest?

‘Jack took us to the Sasquatch,’ she replied. ‘A Grendel had come of age, and was particularly aggressive. He wanted Raven to accompany him to kill it.

‘It was definitely the time to confront the Grendel. The other Sasquatch in the community had been chased off and moved up the mountain. They had abandoned the caves completely. Only the Grendel and the mother remained, and even she was sitting close to the mouth of the cave, so she could escape if he became violent. Fear and concern were in her eyes. There were bald spots on her fur where she had compulsively picked at it. She was hugging herself when we arrived. Every time the Grendel shrieked from inside the cave, she’d look towards it, and then hold herself more tightly.

‘Raven went into the cave first. He flew in unnoticed, landed on the ground and started picking like he was foraging. Slowly, he made his way deeper into the cave to get a closer look at the Grendel.

The rest of us were hiding close by, waiting for Raven to return, or give us a signal to assist him.

It was the girl who first noticed Raven had been discovered and needed help. Who is this girl Ethan’?

‘I don’t know. Just someone who works at the commune’.

‘Hmm. That’s interesting,’ Tara reflected. ‘Well, she’s a fighter. Not trained, but a fighter just the same. She noticed something and without a word, she was up running towards the cave, her two knives drawn in her hands. In passing, she struck the mother leaving one of her knives embedded in her calf. Without pausing, she ran deeper into the cave and attacked the Grendel. I followed her, and Jack and the other wolves went after the mother.

Inside, Raven was in trouble. He had transformed back into a human and was dodging the advances of the Grendel. He didn’t have a weapon. The girl ran in, leapt up and tried to hamstring the beast with her remaining knife. She did a good job too. The beast howled in pain, and reflectively struck out at the area, hitting the girl and sending her into the air. She landed against a wall of the cave, her head smashing into it with a terrible crack. Raven jumped on the Grendel’s back and tried to choke it, but those things are so big, it just reached back, grabbed Raven, and very intentionally, flung him against the wall too. Raven hit the wall with such force, I don’t know how he lived through the impact.

‘I lunged at the Grendel. I wanted to tear off its balls, but it was turning to meet me and I bit into its upper thigh instead. I sunk my teeth in deep before it swatted me to the wall just as he did with the girl and Raven. I bit into the same leg Tasha tried to hamstring, and the Grendel was noticeably disabled now. I leapt again. This time for the throat, but it was ready, and grabbed me, smashing me to the ground without letting go. It picked me up and drove me into the rock floor of the cave again, then bent over with his huge fangs and was about to bite into my throat. I was able to swivel and catch the side of its neck in my jaws. I bit deep before it threw me off again’.

‘I was done. My only hope was the beast was done too. Not ready to engage yet, I nevertheless stood up in an attack posture, raised my back hairs and growled. The Grendel stared back at me. His eyes were full of rage, but like me, it wasn’t ready to attack. Its leg was badly injured, and he kept wiping at the blood around his throat. He wasn’t backing down, and I feared we were approaching our final lunge. One of us would die this time.

‘Fortunately, three wolves bloodied from the battle with the mother, limped over and stood beside me. They turned their attention to the Grendel and growled, baring their fangs. That changed things. The Grendel lashed out but wasn’t up to take on all of us. We backed him down the cave, and came to a depth where it was becoming very warm, and a faint glow was coming from further down. We stopped there and I left the three wolves to guard him while I went to check on Raven and Tasha.

‘They were both very close to death. The force the beast could generate with a swing of the arm was incredible. I tried to breathe life into them, but something was blocking me. Something not human. Something unholy. I could feel it coming from down in the cave. I was able to revive them, but I couldn’t heal them, and I knew their disease would return. I hurried them on their way to find protection, and turned my attention to Jack and the mother Sasquatch.

‘Jack, the mother, and the remaining wolves, lay dead by the mouth of the cave. Jack’s head was detached from his body. His axe was planted deeply in the mother’s chest. My guess is she caught him during the death blow, and tore his head off before she died’.

The Chiefs took in Tara’s account quietly.

Something very evil is coming out of that cave’ Tara continued. ‘Something at least as strong as my healing, although healing is not really my thing. As Ethan says, I believe Raven and Tasha are trapped in the Borderland. Probably because they entered the Borderland when they engaged with the Grendel. Jack should have been the one who fought it. They should have fought the mother. I think we must act quickly, before they get lost in there forever. They will never come back to our world, unless Ethan goes in and gets them.

‘What is this evil?’ I asked.

‘The dragon,’ Chief Dan said. ‘It must be awake. If not Raven and Tasha, or you should have been able to kill the Sasquatch’.

‘I agree,’ Tara said. ‘I feel something very evil is going to come to our world if we don’t take care of this now. It will bring a new kind of conflict. A war the world has never seen before’.

I cannot tell you how much I hate it when I find myself in a life or death situation because of some dumbass simulation AI has cooked up. Its flair for drama is lost on me. I’m not a brave man, you know, but here we were. Two of my friends were trapped in the Borderland, and simulations or not, they had become real to me. That’s when the quest gets you. I had to go in and get them. I wasn’t up for the adventure. I was still tired from the first one, but I walked over to where my two comrades lay in comas. I lay down beside them, closed my eyes, and entered the Borderland.