I couldn’t bring myself to do it, to give out new names that would trigger a vicious process of spawning new monsters.

 

I was certain it may happen anyway. Fuelled by the conflict the numbers would once again spiral out of control as it happened several times in the past. I hoped I would at very least forestall the circle of destruction until the very last moment when the dire circumstances would demand it.

 

I wanted to at very least forestall the conflict if not difficult choices, though I wasn’t sure it was a good idea in itself.

 

Nothing felt like a good idea when I put a little thought into it. I wasn't ready for what might happen, and I doubted no ordinary person would ever be prepared to be stranded in what could as well be another world.

 

The sunset reminded me I had been there for almost a full day without any lead on how to return, which made my mood even more depressed. My thoughts had become even more scattered, making me question whether I would have any real chance to return home and whether I would be able to do in any timescale that mattered.

 

How long would it take before I would be considered a missing person? How long would it take until I would be presumed dead? Would I have a life to return to afterwards?

 

Submerged in thought, I didn’t pay attention to anything happening around me even as monsters made a ruckus to amuse themselves, seemingly unconcerned by anything.

 

I kept spacing out even as the surrounding forest quickly drowned in dim light, illuminated only by the flickering light of the campfire, and the soft, almost non-existent reflection of the moonlight from the silvery moon hanging above in the sky.

 

The forest was filled with a cacophony of sound. The chittering of insects mixed with the rustling of leaves of small animals creeping through the underbrush in the shade of skeletal trees.

 

Worries about life elsewhere were replaced by worries about life now. Every sound put me on edge.

 

In a way, I welcomed the presence of monsters. Though alert, they weren’t afraid, and they didn’t seem significantly impaired by the dim illumination either. If anything, they were slightly more lively, though Miwah and Tama remained very close to me while their restless, smaller kin looked for trouble.

 

Little foxy pyromaniacs especially loved the fire, and poked the small pyre, visibly relaxing at the sight of dancing flames.

 

I could see their eyes gleaming in the dark, reflecting the campfire’s flames and their anticipation as they traced the movement of the wildlife foolish enough to wander close.

 

Many times I jostled at the strange noises coming from the night, croaking birds, even a howling of what I assumed to be a wolf.

 

More unnatural distractions, a few blasts of fire flashing among the trees, giggling of ‘Purifier’ girlish voices, whispering of the animals, and then, silence aside of the twittering of insects.

 

Many times I twitched at the noise I may have imagined, expecting an attack that didn’t come in the end, jumpy and nervous.

 

I finally fell asleep in my seating position near the fire, on the pile of bedrolls they prepared for me as the special, honorary post.

 

Then the nightmares came.

 

The flashbacks of all that violence came back in my dreams, splattered blood, twisting images licked by flames, pictures of suffering with accusing voices and anguished faces…

 

I woke up in the middle of the night, with a frightened shriek. My heart raced almost as if it was going to erupt from my chest.

 

My return to the waking world was welcomed by the embrace of the soft fur, equally pleasant and warm as it was unexpected, soothing me back into my dreams with a certain sense of weird safety, lulling me back to rest.

 

When I woke up the next day to the commotion of the camp’s daily activity, I found myself laid still in Miwah’s firm embrace which brought me some sense of embarrassment and made me struggle to get free of it.

 

They were creepily affectionate before, I couldn’t claim it surprised me, though I still felt a certain amount of uneasiness when I realized I spent the night snuggling into the large werewolf. Even if Miwah had feminine curves, and her pelt was pleasantly soft to the touch, she was still a big, monstrous anthropomorphic animal which could tear a man apart barehanded. I still felt comfortable being close to her, or my other monsters, even if I should not, by logic, and experience. So far I experienced more severe threats from the local humans than I did from the monstrous menaces the bizarre system kept spawning. This strange, internal contradiction confused me to no end.

 

At least Tama decided not to hold me down this time, the fiery vixen instead merely sat very close to us, her clawed hand laid on me in an assuring gesture.

 

She wasn’t the only one within arm's reach either.

 

Looking quickly around, there were several lazing around in the very close vicinity, on or at the edge of that pile of bedrolls that was made by improvised seating, like a fluffy ball of bodies, tails, fuzzy ears, and claws. I would have to crawl over them, though they probably wouldn’t mind.

 

Of course, with the numbers they had, most of them were up, already fully engaged in their daily frantic struggle to make this camp liveable, or at least shape it to their image. Or perhaps convince the woods themselves that they were the dominant predators around now, as I took a glimpse they once again brought some catch for the morning snacks in form of unfortunate birds or rabbits.

 

I also took a glimpse of Narita, dressed in the salvaged breastplate and cloth, bossing around the other, common versions of monsters of all three kinds. She wielded the polearm we took from the stash as it was some staff of office, and pointed with it the pieces of greenery they wanted to remove.

 

At this time, only a few monsters opted for the nap, and those who did decide to do it near me, almost like it was some privileged position. Perhaps a dozen or so. Close to me, or close to the fire, which was still burning, dutifully kept through the night.

 

“Good morning, Master.” She, and Miwah, welcomed me to the new day.

 

“Good morning,” I answered hesitantly, sounding uncertain even to my own ears.

 

It stirred the other resting monsters which added their screechy greetings summarized to the only word: “Master!”

 

I immediately freed myself from their entanglement, partly due to the persisting confusion on how I should even approach the interaction with the furry menagerie and party due to the fact that the pressure in my bowels forced me to search for some secluded spot to find-a-friendly-bush as toilets were unlikely a thing in such a place and such era. I hated it.

 

The monsters seeing me rise immediately got up, to follow me as some entourage to the important person.

 

“I would need some privacy, please…” I said immediately when I realized they would most likely follow me everywhere.

 

Luckily, they did understand and let me hide in the bushes to relieve myself, dealing with yet another problem I was unused to dealing with, silently bemoaning the absence of modern conveniences and swearing that I must find a way to get out of this forsaken place. The absence of the comfort that people in most developed counties took for granted was hard to get used to. I had to think of something better than leaves replacing the toilet paper, perhaps the fabric I couldn’t sew into anything.

 

Or get home. Get home as soon as possible, preferably.

 

Emerging from the brushes I ran into, quite literally, a couple of my monsters, both the wolf and fox variants, immediately grabbing me and pulling me aside, and onto the forest floor without much explanation.

 

“Master!” They screeched, their usual, high-pitched girlish voices alarmed, and upset by something I couldn’t quite discern.

 

“Master!” One of them, the vulpine version set apart from others with a looted lamellar armour, and the helmet, pointed towards something.

 

I was about to object, yell even, as I was scrambling back on my feet - words however quickly froze on my tongue as I realized I almost fell into the spiked pit trap. Tama wasn’t joking when she said they made one of these. Even if this one wasn’t covered, it would be possible for me to stumble and fall in, getting myself impaled on the sharpened sticks in there.

 

“Thank you,” I said, appreciating the warning, though struggling to control outbursts about being put in possibly deadly danger.

 

Something within me boiled, though I felt more at odds with the circumstances which lead to this, rather than this particular flavour danger itself. If I wasn’t whisked away to this land with hostile natives, there wouldn’t be a need for any of this.

 

“Master!” They answered, proudly.

 

With the smaller monsters in tow, I returned back to the camp without stumbling into any more spiky surprises prepared for assassins that may sneak up on us. Or something I could wander into, in my own ignorance.

 

“Narita?” I approached first of the more talkative of my followers in sight. I still struggled to think of them as such, I didn’t feel competent to give orders.

 

“We might need toilets,” I said straight away, “I almost fell into one of those spike traps when I … I…”

 

I stopped, realizing it was quite awkward conversation to have.

 

“Yes-yes, Master. I understand.” She nodded, enthusiastically and seemingly in understanding, though with a strange speech pattern: “Very unpleasant place for Master. There is a latrine still, very unpleasant, behind the buildings, but away from traps. Maybe we can find a chamberpot!”

 

She pointed out one of the most decrepit of the buildings I didn’t really step into before.

 

“Oh,” I said, wishing I knew sooner, though I imagined it couldn’t be better than the woods themselves, considering the ancient era this world seems to resemble, at least to my eyes.

 

I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic, or even agreeable, about this, but I didn’t have any choice, though I wasn’t given time to dwell on this as both Tama and Miwah came around.

 

“Master?” They said, sounding worried, “You should be more careful around the forest. It’s too dangerous to go alone, and unguided. You may get hurt!”

 

Tama pulled me into a hug, much to the amusement of the lesser kin who wanted to do the same.

 

I wanted to object that it was unsafe because they made it so with the random pitfalls dug out in the forest, but I mostly kept my temper in check, as I begrudgingly accepted I was in need of their help. I was in desperate need of friends.

 

“I apologise for putting you in danger. I am sorry, Master! I am sorry!” The fiery vixen sounded uncharacteristically apologetic.

 

“If you make traps make sure we don’t wander into them ourselves.” I offered. It was common sense, though to fight the assassins with the army of anthropomorphic creatures wasn’t exactly an ordinary situation by any means.

 

“I don’t want you to die in the trap you made either!” I added.

 

“Yes, Master.” She said. “We will keep you safe!”

 

“Did you manage to scout the area?” I asked, “Do we know where we are?”

 

“Yes, Master.” Miwah took her turn to answer, “We are mostly isolated in the woodland.”

 

I didn’t feel that word ‘isolated’ described it, but for the first time, I was actually trying to form a plan I didn’t have yet.

 

“Where the ninja was last time you encountered him,” I asked, then realized that I probably didn’t use the appropriate term for those superhumanly skilled swordmen.

 

“Four hours in this direction, Master.” The werewolf pointed out, though I was almost certain it wasn’t the way the road went, “Much more armed humans there.”

 

Strangely enough, the term didn’t confuse anyone, making me briefly wonder why they knew things they did, but the sense of more pressing matters made me put this particular mystery aside for the time being.

 

“Fields past the forest in this way, Master.” I nodded, “It was the way the road actually headed to, wasn’t it?”

 

“Road splits further downhill thus more human dwelling must be around.” She described it, gesturing in a different direction which made me guess we are on the hill, covered by the forest, and perhaps in between the villages where humans live.

 

Which was a stretch, I didn’t know that, though I clearly recalled the sight of the valley of sorts when we came down from that place in the mountains where I woke up in this accursed world.

 

“We can scout more…” Miwah suggested interrupting my silence.

 

“Did you look uphill where I appeared, for something can send us home?” I did recall asking for someone to be sent there while strongly uncomfortable with giving orders.

 

“Dead bodies are still there.” She said, “Other than that, we don’t know what we are looking for...”

 

I wasn’t particularly keen to see what happens to the cadaver after a day laying in the forest, but up there, among the stone ruins, must be the solution of how to end this nightmare, perhaps one that doesn’t require interacting with the uncommunicative locals.

 

Putting distance between us, and possibly punitive force, was also an option, especially if I wanted to avoid the fight.

 

“Let’s try to go back and check. It isn’t far away.”