“I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.”

“Pardon?”

The young adventurer turned back towards the guard who had called out to him. The guard responded, repeating word for word, the exact same phrase had had just spoken.

“I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.”

However, upon closer inspection, the guard clearly appeared to have an arrow shaft sticking out the side of his head. He spoke once more to the young man.

“I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.”

His voice was slow paced and monotonous, as if there wasn’t any feeling behind his words. His face didn’t change expressions even as he repeated the phrase a fourth time without a single deviation in the words spoken.

The young man slowly backed away, visibly confused and finding the guard’s attitude to be quite creepy. As he cautiously moved away without removing eye contact from the guard, he bumped his shoulder on someone else standing behind him. Startled, he spun around only to be met with a benign looking older man with a grin on his face.

“It’s okay, lad. The big guy here is harmless.”

The man introduced himself as a local of the town and gestured to the guard.

“Yeah, this guy’s head don’t work so well anymore ever since he got an arrow lodged in his noggin. The doctor managed to patch him up, but said he wouldn’t have been able to remove the arrow. Ever since then this guy’s only been able to say that one phrase over and over. But still, you should have seen the look on your face! It is pretty funny seeing newcomers scared out of their wits by this guy here.”

The man’s smiling face and obvious laughter told the adventurer all he needed to know how this local thought of first time visitors to the town. But he didn’t seem all that bad considering he had come over to help out a total stranger.

The adventurer’s thoughts were interrupted by the guard who repeated himself once more in the background. The adventurer had already lost count how many times in this short time period the guard had spoken that singular phrase.

He looked over at the guard, specifically his head which had the arrow shaft sticking prominently out the side of it.

“But how come he keeps on saying he was shot in the knee, when clearly he’s got an arrow sticking out of the head?”

“Well, no one else really gets it either, but he guards the town well enough which is the least we could ask of him. Personally though, I wouldn’t worry too much. He’s been this way a few weeks already but hasn’t shown signs of any other problems.”

The man paused a moment to collect his thoughts.

“Besides, the doctor said that he’s probably fine, even without removing the arrow. Well, he did say a bunch of stuff that I didn’t really get, but that’s just how it usually is.”

The townsman pulled the adventurer up by the arm.

“So where’re you headed for? You staying in town for the night? I’ll show you where you can get a warm meal and a room to sleep if that’s what you’re after.”

The adventurer appreciated the gesture and quietly followed the man’s lead. He was feeling rather tired after that startling situation and wanted to get food and drink in his belly to put all that behind him.

As the two of them walked down the streets of the town, the older man pointed out the various places in town all while talking about their local specialties. The man seemed as though he knew everybody in the town, cheerfully greeting everyone they passed by. It gladdened the adventurer’s heart to see such a close knit and lively community, reminding him of his own hometown he had recently left.

After a bit of walking, they soon reached the local inn. The man explained that the bottom floor doubled as a pub and recommended he should try their special roasted boar for his dinner that night. The adventurer decided to take up the man’s recommendation, saying his thanks and parting ways with him at the inn’s doorstep.

 

The adventurer woke up feeling refreshed the following morning. It had been some time since the last he had slept a peaceful night’s sleep in a warm bed. Still somewhat half asleep, he staggered out of his room and groggily went down the stairs to the dining area, greeting the proprietress as he walked past her.

“Morning hun, you up for some breakfast?”

 As if in response to her greeting, the adventurer’s stomach grumbled quite audibly.

“I’ll take that as a yes then. Hold on just a sec, I’ll be right back with some warm vittles to warm your belly with.”

The proprietress briskly walked towards the kitchen in the back to prepare a plate of food for her hungry guest.

The adventurer took a seat at the counter as he waited for his food to arrive. Already feeling more awake, he hummed a tune softly to himself as he thought of a plan for the next few days in his head. He was thinking of staying in town a few more days to rest and resupply before getting back on the road to head towards another settlement.

The young man was interrupted from his thoughts by the scent of the piping hot meal wafting from the plate the proprietress brought over to him.

“Here you go, hope you like it. It’s yesterday’s roasted boar along with some soup and fresh bread. Come tell me if you need anything else.”

The adventurer gave his thanks to the kindly woman before quickly digging into the meal with gusto, not even giving it a chance to cool. Towards the end, he finished off the meal with a hearty gulp of ale the woman had given along with the food. Travelling on the road had gotten him used to salted, dried meat and hard bread, so a fresh, warm meal like this was a welcome occasion in his book.

Satisfied from his breakfast, he stood up from his seat, thanking the owner as he  headed out the door. Today he was planning to restock his provisions and other travelling equipment somewhere in town.

As the adventurer walked down the street looking for a place to do so, a man called out to him.

“Hey, laddie!”

It was a voice he recognized from just the day before.

“Long time no see!”

Sporting the same wide grin on his face and giving a light chuckle as he spoke, it was indeed the townsman who had showed the adventurer around the day before.

“It’s nice to see you too. Thanks again for your suggestion. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep and a hot meal in a while.”

The adventurer paused a moment, thinking he might be able to ask this man for directions instead of just wandering around blindly.

“That aside, do you know where I can resupply for provisions? I don’t think I saw a place for that when you showed me around yesterday.”

The man was all too happy to help.

“You’ll want to head towards the western end of town. There’s a small guild post there too if you want to make some quick money doing a job around these parts.”

But soon the man’s friendly grin lessened, replaced with a more serious appearance. He looked as if he had something on his mind before he spoke further.

“Yeah, this is still just a bit of hearsay, but apparently people have been getting attacked at night lately. Seems to be some kind of wild beast that slipped into town, judging from the wounds they had. The guards said they’d do something about it, but so far no luck.”

The man shook his head regretfully and let out a soft sigh.

“You best be careful out there, you hear?”

The adventurer grinned in response.

“Don’t worry, I know how to handle a beast or two. Rather, you should watch out for yourself.”

The man’s smile returned.

“Aye, thanks laddie. You best be on your way now.”

The adventurer waved back at the man as he headed off in the direction of the guild post.

 

By the time he got back to the inn, it was already sunset. Earlier that day he had decided to take a request at the guild to look for some medicinal herbs in the nearby forest which had taken up the whole afternoon. In exchange, he managed to earn a few coppers which he used to purchase food and other supplies for travelling from a nearby shop.

Since it was quickly getting dark, he decided to go to bed early that evening. The adventurer ate a quiet dinner and headed up to his room before quickly falling asleep.

As the adventurer walked down the stairs the next morning, he didn’t see the proprietress anywhere, but he saw a large pot on the table with a note next to it saying to help himself to the food. He assumed that she must’ve been busy elsewhere and sat down at his spot by the counter, spooning out a bowl of stew from the still simmering contents of the pot.

After a while though, he realized he had spent far too long being enveloped by the taste and smell of the stew. The adventurer quickly gulped down the last of the stew before heading out the door of the inn. He intended to go back to the guild post to pick another easy quest and earn a bit of extra money to spend at the next town along the road.

As he walked down the main street, he once again happened to run into the same older man he had already met before. It occurred to him that maybe this town was smaller than he had previously thought. Regardless, the adventurer had hoped to quickly exchange greetings and then be on his way, but stopped when he saw that the man’s forearm was wrapped up in bandages.

“Are you okay? What happened to your arm?”

“Oh this?”

The man raised his arm, gesturing towards it with his uninjured one.

“This isn’t anything really. Though apparently those sightings of a wild beast roaming around at night were true enough. Just last night I came across a tall creature of sorts hunched over in a side alley. It was hard to make out in the dark, but it sure seemed beastly enough, what with the weird groans it seemed to make. The creature did manage to bite me in the arm though before I was able to shoo away.”

“Is that so? It doesn’t seem too dangerous then at least.”

“Ay, that may be so. The bite looked weird, though. It didn’t look like no wild beast’s bite, least not one I’ve seen.”

“What’d the doctor say about it?”

“Well, maybe I’m just worried for nothing because he didn’t say much really. The doctor just patched up me arm and he said it should heal in no time at all. I guess that’s good for me at least since I’ve got to get back to work in the fields as soon as I can, else the crops might just go bad.”

“Well, good luck on your recovery”

“Aye, you best watch out too lad. You never know what’s lurking out there.”

As they parted ways, the adventurer could see that the older man seemed to be walking fine but he was still a bit concerned that whatever had attacked the man was still on the loose. As he continued down the street deep in thought, seemingly from out of nowhere he heard another voice call out to him.

“I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.”

“Whoa, you surprised me there!”

The adventurer had been momentarily startled when the guard suddenly spoke to him, but relaxed when he realized he knew who it was. It was the same guard he had seen when he had first come into town.

“Huh?”

The adventurer noticed a faint bluish-black marking right under the guard’s eye.

“Is that some sort of bruise you’ve got there on your face?”

But in response the guard simply repeated the same phrase as before.

“Right, well I guess I shouldn’t have expected to get an answer from you.”

A bit amused from the encounter, the adventurer left the guard behind as he continued down the road the way he was going before. The guard continued to stand there with a vacant gaze in his eyes, still muttering the same phrase over and over even without anyone in front of him to talk to.

 

***

 

After receiving his payment from the guild, the adventurer casually strolled back down the main street towards the inn. He had been lucky and managed to finish the request faster than usual this time around. Seeing as there was still a bit of time left until nightfall the adventurer decided to enjoy his newfound free time by observing the town as he casually strolled down its streets.

It was going to be his last night staying in this town. He figured it might be a while until he reached the next town over and figured he should enjoy the feeling of civilization around him before heading back out into the wilderness.

As he neared the central plaza, the adventurer happened to pass someone he thought was becoming more and more familiar to him.

“I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the head.”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it already, no need to keep on repeating yourself.” The adventurer laughed to himself. “ I sure do keep seeing you a lot.”

He ignored the guard and started to walk away but paused momentarily. Something seemed off. He quickly spun his head over his shoulder to take a second look at the guard and the reason for his suspicions dawned on him.

“Wait, you’re not the same guard as before!”

This guard was wearing a slightly different set of armor, but more importantly, was missing the obvious arrow sticking out of the head.

The adventurer tensed up, slowly backing away and getting ready to go into action at any moment.

But the guard showed no signs of any movement and simply stood in place, staring out into space with vacant, glassy looking eyes. He just repeated the phrase once more, lacking any sign of even noticing the adventurer’s presence.

After a few moments passed the adventurer decided that he should probably just leave the guard alone, rationalizing to himself that the other guards were copying the first one like some weird inside joke.

 

As he walked around to the other side of the plaza though, he spotted the same older man who had shown him around before. The adventurer decided to stop and ask how his arm was doing, as well as inquire about the guard’s behavior who he had just seen.

But as he approached, the adventurer noticed the same vacant gaze in the townsman’s eyes as he stared off into the distance.

The man spoke out towards the adventurer in a monotonous tone of voice.

“Welcome to town, traveler. Do you need a guide to show you around?”

The adventurer was visibly confused and began to panic a bit after hearing what the man had said.

He shook the man’s shoulders as he spoke, trying to deny everything the man had just told him as a lie.

“Huh? What are you talking about! We’ve already met! You’ve already shown me around!”

But as if ignoring everything the adventurer had said, the townsman simply repeated himself once more, welcoming him to town and asking if he needed a guide.

At that moment, a sudden thought came to the adventurer’s mind.

That what if this current situation was the doing of the wild creature that had been attacking people at night lately.

Or that maybe even the doctor was involved in all this. After all, he had reportedly told the man that there was nothing wrong with him, and just hours later he winds up in a state exactly like that of those guards.

The adventurer had no clue as to why anyone would act this way, but he knew the situation was clearly abnormal.

He shouted back towards the man in a hurry.

“Hey! Guide me to the doctor’s clinic!”

The man nodded his head ever so slightly in response.

“Follow me, traveler.”

Unfortunately, the guide walked at an abysmally slow pace. No matter how much the adventurer tried to hurry him along, the guide would only repeat himself and continue walking at the same slow pace.

But as the adventurer continued to follow him, his patience beginning to wear thin, he realized something was wrong. The man was only walking around the plaza in a circle, showing no signs of heading anywhere else.

“Follow me, traveler.”

Frustrated and having realized that relying on the man’s “guidance” was proving futile, the adventurer desperately tried to search his memory for anything the man may have said when he led him around town the first day he was here.

He cursed at himself for thinking only about his stomach at the time, but eventually managed to pick out from his hazy memories of the day’s events just where the doctor’s clinic might’ve been located. If he was correct, the building should be just off the main street in the southern part of town. It was surprising close to where he currently was.

Taking a regretful  glance back at the guide who was still circling the plaza, the adventurer hurried over to his destination.

 

Upon arriving at the clinic, the adventurer slammed open the door, forcefully barging his way inside.

He called out for the doctor to show himself, only to realize that the very man in question was sitting close by at a nearby desk with his back turned to the door.

“Welcome, traveler. Do you require treatment or medicine?”

The doctor turned around from the desk to face the door.

The adventurer was taken aback to see the vacant, glazed over look in the doctor’s eyes.

The doctor repeated himself once more.

“Welcome, traveler. Do you require treatment or medicine?”

Realizing that it would be pointless to try to interrogate the man about anything in his state, the adventurer turned his back on the doctor and left the way he came. As he left, he heard the doctor repeat himself again to an empty room as he dejectedly closed the door to the clinic.

Even if it might have been a bit of a long shot, his only lead had just now vanished, leaving him confused and unsure of what to do now.

The adventurer raised his head to try and clear his thoughts only to find the streets empty and deserted. He could no longer hear the sounds of people talking to each other and going about their day. All that was left in its place was an eerie stillness accompanied by silence.

Thinking back, he realized that it may have been just as empty as when he rushed over here from the plaza initially.

But he found it very strange, and quite frankly, a bit creepy as well. He had walked through these bustling streets just a few hours ago, but now it seemed as if the entire town was deserted.

 

The adventurer changed his mind. While he had thought earlier that he should try to help by finding out why everyone was acting so strange, now he just didn’t care about any of that.

He had to get out of town now, before he could be affected by whatever was plaguing the townspeople.

What else could be the cause for their strange mass disappearance other than this strange affliction that seemed to be spreading amongst them.

The adventurer hurried back to the inn. He planned to quickly pack up the few belongings he had left back in the room before leaving town as fast as he possibly could.

As he rushed through the door of the inn, he was momentarily stopped right in his tracks. Right behind the door was the proprietress who he had nearly run over in his panicked hurry. Her back was turned away from him and she appeared to be sweeping the floor with a broom in her hands. He almost stopped to ask her what was going on in town but noticed something was off with her behavior.

She hadn’t reacted whatsoever to the adventurer barging through the doorway. In fact, she hadn’t moved a single step since he had seen her. She just continued sweeping the same exact spot on the floor.

She turned around to face the adventurer.

“Welcome, traveler. A night’s stay is ten copper. What would you like to do?”

The adventurer became scared, hearing her monotonous tone of voice and seeing her vacant eyes.

It was unsettling seeing her so full of vigor one day and like a lifeless doll the next.

He tried his best to ignore her and hurried up to his room.

 

After packing his things in a hurry, the adventurer ran out of the inn as fast as he could. He passed by the proprietress once more on his way out and saw that she was still sweeping over the same spot. While he felt sorry for her, he knew that there was nothing he could currently do about it and continued running down the street towards the town gates.

It was nearly nightfall now, and while the adventurer knew it could be dangerous travelling in the dark, he thought that it would be even more dangerous to stay in town overnight.

All the streets he passed through were either empty or had a few people milling about, all with the same vacant eyes, muttering the same phrase over and over.

As he neared the southern gates, he happened to notice the guard with the arrow in his head standing near the town’s exit.

It didn’t look like he was trying to prevent him from leaving or anything. He was just standing still like all the rest of the townspeople.

But as he drew closer to the guard, the adventurer noticed he had blood all over his uniform. The adventurer looked up at the guards face, and though it was harder to see in the dusk lighting, he could clearly see the blood smeared across the guard’s mouth. As if he had bitten into something, or someone, and had gotten their blood splashed onto him.

The adventurer didn’t care what the reality might be, he just knew he had to get through. But surprisingly, the guard still didn’t move from his spot by the side of the gate.

He could hear the guard’s voice coming from behind him as he ran past him.

“I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.”

 

That was the last thing the adventurer could remember clearly.

All he could remember were mere fragments of fearfulness. His memories past that point were a desperate struggle to continue running all night long trying his hardest to get as far away as possible from that accursed town.

He soon became too tired to think but kept on running. He let his feet carry him as he followed the road hoping to reach a nearby town to seek shelter in.

Finding his luggage a burden, he dumped it behind him as he ran though the night.

 

He was delirious, struggling to catch a breath, but regained one last surge of energy upon seeing the lights emanating off of tops of a walled town in front of him.

He sprinted with all his might reaching out for that ray of hope.

Right before his eyes were the front gates of the town. He just needed to move his tired body just a  few meters more. He waved his hands like mad, hoping to catch the attention of the guards up on the walls.

The next thing he knew, he felt a sudden, piercing blow to the side of his head, and his body was collapsed to the ground.

Through his dim, hazy consciousness, he could very faintly hear the gates opening up and people’s voices as they approached him. He struggled to keep awake but soon fell unconscious.

 

***

 

“Oh, you’re awake! You’re pretty lucky, you know. Most people would’ve died from a wound like that.”

The adventurer woke up finding himself in bed.

He glanced around the room he was in full of confusion. He couldn’t remember anything that had happened or how he had wound up here.

He glanced over at the man standing over him. He appeared to be a doctor of some sort judging by his clothing.

“Well, I can see that you might still be a bit confused, so I’ll leave you alone for now. Just try not to move around too much. You’ve still got a bit of a injury on the side of your head. It sure is weird though, the guards who carried you in said it seemed like the arrow came flying out of nowhere.”

The doctor left the room after advising the adventurer and leaving a parting remark.

Confused as to what the doctor was talking about, the adventurer sat up from the bed and looked over at a mirror hanging up on the wall. He could see that his head was wrapped up in bandages, but the more worrisome part was the apparent arrow shaft sticking out the side of his head.

His head throbbed painfully and as he reached up to clutch his head, he heard a voice that didn’t belong to him coming out of his mouth.

“I used to be an adventurer like you, but then...”