Minutes pass by with Lee slowly coming to terms with his new Healer's Touch ability. Trying to get rid of all the “What if’s” in his head, he decides to try to think of the positives. He can heal, save others and himself from injuries and illness. Something he never would have been able to do in the past is now freely his to use at what seems to be no cost. His thoughts slowly go to the help he could give to the people with cancer or other illnesses in this world. Doomed to die at no fault of their own.

Slowly Lee begins to stand as he decides what to do with this new power given to him. He glances at his last ability.

“How convenient, maybe too convenient…” Beginning to question the legitimacy of these abilities Lee ponders about how they fit into his current situation.

So I am on what seems to be another world, with some sort of game like screen, magically healed, by what I assume to be my own ability Healer’s Touch, which I somehow happen to have, and I also have the ability to understand any and all languages and writing, along with a skill that helps me store items and things I find? Too convenient. I don’t believe this was just chance.

Done with his investigation of the bush and needing a distraction to get away from his thoughts on his abilities. Lee begins to get ready to follow the river some more but slowly he realizes the sounds of the birds and insects are gone and the stillness of his surroundings jerks him to attention.

Slowly glancing left and right, he discovers nothing out of the ordinary. Something is wrong. Lee doesn’t know what, but something is definitely wrong. Maybe this is his wisdom coming into play. Glancing around and still not finding anything out of the ordinary he glances up. Staring directly into the piercing green eyes of a person on a branch aiming a bow directly at him.

Instantly covered in cold sweat and beginning to panic, Lee slowly brings himself towards the ground, hands behind his head and falling onto his knees. The person whistles a high note and from behind him Lee hears another approaching. Beginning to fear for his safety he begins to speak.

“I am lost, I have nothing.” Lee mumbles out. But the figure in the tree says nothing in return and the figure approaching from behind has arrived. The person behind him slowly places their hands all around Lee’s person, in what appears to be some kind of frisking, searching for weapons or anything to harm them. Finding nothing the person whistles a note back to the figure in the tree, and they slowly release the tension on the bowstring and store the arrow, slinging the bow on their back, they begin their descent from the tree.

Slowly the figure comes closer, much different than what Lee originally thought he would see, he is looking at what seems to be an Elf in his mid 20's, knowing of elves, he may be way older. Different from what he usually imagines elves to look like though. With slightly dark grayish skin and platinum colored hair, piercing green eyes, wearing dark leather armor with adjustable straps, a shortsword, bow and quiver, all fit seamlessly onto his lithe frame standing around 6 and a half feet tall. He is oddly beautiful and handsome at the same time and has the familiar long ears associated with typical elves.

He looks over Lee with what seems to be a mix of confusion and apprehension. Looking toward his ally behind Lee he begins to speak. “A human?”

In response a slightly higher pitched, feminine voice replies. “I am sure, I Identified him. From what I know of them he fits their description, but he seems unwell. Unarmored, weaponless, and somehow level 1. He couldn’t arrive here or survive here by himself in this condition.”

Lee decides to try to get a word in. “I am lost, I don’t know where I am or how I got here.”

Instantly, he feels both of their gazes lock onto him and the male tenses slightly. “You speak our tongue?” The male elf asks.

Their tongue? I was speaking English. Coming to the realization that his Language Comprehension ability might have something to do with the scenario, Lee replies.“I have an ability that lets me speak and understand all languages.”

Slowly the male relaxes slightly then asks “Who are you and what do you last remember before arriving in our forest?”

Unsure whether or not he has the option to refuse any questions he answers. “My name is Lee Barnes, the last thing I remember was… dying.”

Silence, for a few moments the male elf glares into Lee but seems to grow even more confused as time passes. “He tells the truth.” The male elf replies, glancing up to look behind Lee.

Another silence descends and for a few moments, then suddenly the feminine voice questions. “To Elder Sono?”

“To Elder Sono.” the male elf sullenly responds.

Looking back towards Lee he asks. “Do you mean harm to us, or elves as a whole?”

“No” came Lee’s instant reply.

Nodding he gestures for Lee to stand. Now standing Lee feels a little more calm. He glances behind him and now sees the female elf. Standing around 6’2, and one of the most beautiful people he’s ever laid his eyes upon. The female elf who appears to be in her early 30's, also has dark gray skin, platinum hair done in a long single braid down her back, and piercing green eyes that seem to faintly glow. The same dark leather and ears, but with two long curved sickle like swords with what seems to be emeralds embedded into the hilts and silvery metal with etchings of animals and plants on the blade, attached to her hips.

“My name is Ruven, we will take you to Elder Sono, who is the leader of our small settlement, you may gain additional information later once we are sure you are not a threat.” The male Ruven explains.

“My name is Neia.” The female elf says and she begins to trek forward into the forest.

Ruven gestures for Lee to walk ahead of him behind Neia. “You will be in the middle. No sudden moves.”

Understanding the intent, Lee begins to follow after Neia, trying his best to keep what modesty he has left in this hospital gown.

The pace Neia set was fast, way faster than Lee could comfortably travel. After about half an hour. Neia stops and turns back to look at where Lee is and sees his shambling form. “What is wrong?” she asks.

Lee, trying to take steady breaths, to even be able to speak. “You are moving too fast. I have never traveled in a forest.”

Confused, Neia glances at Ruven for a moment and says “Your dexterity should help you with movement.”

“My dexterity is 8.” Lee responds curtly.

Surprised, Neia glances at Ruven again. “8? What are humans born with as an average?”

“I don’t know. This whole status screen thing is new to me.” Lee says while finally catching up fully to Neia.

Ruven cuts in. “New to you? What do you mean new to you?”

Lee looks at Ruven “Exactly what I said, it’s new to me. I never had it until a few hours ago.”

Ruven and Neia look at each other with looks of utter disbelief. Slowly Ruven looks Lee up and down, like he is viewing a different thing all together.“You never had a status screen? How did you know what skills you had?”

Lee, feeling that as long as he answers this break in trekking will continue, says. “We didn’t have any skills, abilities, or spells. Our stats were not listed in numbers like they are here.”

Neia, now walking slowly forward to continue the journey, much to Lee’s dismay replies “What about the monsters and animals? How did you gain strength to fight them?”

Now alarmed Lee looks at Neia’s back and lets that small nugget of information sink in. Monsters? Like, vampires, goblins, and zombies? What the fuck kind of world is this? “What do you mean monsters? We didn’t have any monsters. The only kind of monsters we had were the human kind, murderers and what not.. What kind of monsters are you talking about?”

Neia, seemingly thinking about the question a bit, replies, “Around here, we have mostly goblins or owlbears, and the occasional troll or giant mostly. Those kinds of things. You never had any of those?”

“No, we did not have any of those. We had some stories about them though. Just so we understand each other correctly, goblins are like small green humanoids that are greedy for treasure and stuff?” Lee asks.

Neia scoffs and flips her hand in a back and forth manner, “If you put it nicely like that and leave out the pilaging, child stealing, murder, and rape. Then yes, those goblins.”

Taken aback by the casualness of Neia reply, Lee continues his questions. “How often do you encounter monsters? How strong are they?”

Ruven seems to notice the slight amount of fear setting into Lee’s voice and answers instead of Neia. Trying to reassure Lee of the dangers of the forest he says. “Depends on where you are and what monster, but in the wild you could run across monsters at any given time, usually one or two times a day. Depending on which monster and their levels it depends how strong they are, goblins for example are pretty weak in general. Often lacking magic and using crude weapons with their low intellect, they rely on numbers to swarm or stealth to sneak. A Giant though? Very strong. It would take a handful of hunters a long time to bring one down. You only run into those a few times every year and even then they usually aren’t a threat unless they are too close to the settlement.” Thinking himself successful he looks towards Lee and sees that he has failed.

The fuck does he mean once or twice a day? Trying to calm down and not outright panic he continues his questions while following Neia at the newer more comfortable but still fast pace. “How long will it take to arrive at your settlement?” I Hope the answer is “Only 5 minutes away”

“Only a few days away at this pace.” Ruven replies while searching his surroundings.

Fuck. I'm 100% going to have to see some monsters and up close and personal it seems. More nervous now and scanning his surroundings as well, he continues following Neia, while thinking through his current situation. At least these elves did not immediately kill me on sight. Wait… I'm talking to fucking elves!

Quickly realizing his massive oversight he begins trying to have small talk with Neia and Ruven.”Elves don’t exist where I am from either, there are some stories with them kinda like the monsters, but they depicted you slightly differently.”

Slightly curious but still watching out for threats, Ruven asks. “What kind of stories and what have you heard about us?”

Lee begins to tell them about the standard fantasy elves he heard about. “Well, they love nature and live for a very long time, hundreds of years, they are very good at archery and they are known for their grace and beauty.” Now slightly embarrassed that he just called them graceful and beautiful, he tries to quickly add more. “But the elves I've heard about are usually blonde, with fair skin and I also don’t remember them being so tall.”

Neia nodding while finding the most comfortable path through the forest replies. “You are talking about Wood elves. We are Dark elves. There is not just one type of elf.”

Ruven adds in with “Grace and beauty?” Smiling at Lee.

Embarrassed now, he just decides to go all in. “Yes, graceful, elegant, and beautiful. At least compared to us humans. You both are very attractive compared to most humans. Have you never met any humans?”

Ruven, slightly disappointed that his teasing didn't last, replies, “No, we have not. Some of us in the settlement have, but that was probably long ago. We have of course heard of the races in the world. Humans, dwarves, beastkin and their like, but we don't tend to leave the forest or underground.”

“Underground?” asks Lee.

“Yes underground, we dark elves don’t tend to like sunlight. Garbola trees block out most of the sun with their canopies, so it is fairly comfortable here in the forest.”

Garbola trees? Quickly trying to identify one of the giant trees.

I should really use this skill more. Lee then asks. “So, what are the odds I'm going to have to fight a monster?”

Both Neia and Ruven reply immediately with “One-hundred percent.”

Neia looks back once more to check that her pace is fine for Lee and finally sees his fear. Feeling pity for the human she tries to comfort him. “It won’t be today, but you will. Everybody does, it’s the way of the world. You most likely will just watch me and Ruven deal with the threats or we will try to avoid them entirely during our trip.”

Lee then realized that a lot of the hostility between them had disappeared. “So, am I like a prisoner or something?”

Ruven looks at Neia and she glances back at him. She shrugs. Ruven thinks for a second then replies with “No, you are not. You are not a threat, you seem to be unfortunate.”

Lee was slightly surprised by the sudden change from being held at bow-point. Wow, that sounds weird. To the semi-friendly conversations. “How do you know?”

Ruven bluntly replies with “Ability” seemingly not wanting to get into details.

Lee decides that he should probably get some basic information about this place and his status while he has the opportunity. “Can you tell me about some of the specifics about the status screen? Like, how do you gain XP and the difference between skill, spells, and abilities?”

Neia responds in what seems to be a lecturing tone, probably one used for the elven children. “You may be granted XP or Experience Points, from slaying beasts, doing your profession, or completing class quests. The difference between skills, spells, and abilities are as follows. Skills are learned through doing or granted by your profession or class. Take for example the skill Identify, one of the most common skills. Obtained by wanting more information or simply inspecting an object thoroughly.” Looking back to make sure Lee was paying attention before she continued. “Spells are gained through specific classes, studying a spell book or scroll, creating your own unique spell, or granted by a god or goddess by receiving their blessings. All spells use mana, but not all skills use mana.”

Ducking under a branch and finding a decent sized clearing, it's filled with fallen leaves of purple, orange, and red which crunch softy underneath the feet. It's about 30x30 ft, which causes the canopy to slightly open up giving view towards the dimming sky as night approaches. Neia decides to stop. “Abilities are simply what someone was born with, it is not polite to ask about any skill, spell, or ability someone has casually. We will camp here for the night.”

Thanking the apparent god and goddesses of this world, Lee sits down on a fallen log on the far side of the small clearing. Thinking about the information he has gained, he decides what he should do with it. Born with it? I was most definitely not born with any of my abilities. Something is definitely not right.

As Neia begins to gather wood for a fire, Ruven walks up to Lee and tosses a small sack towards him while beginning to talk. “I hope you understand why we are cautious of you.”

Nodding Lee replies, “Of course. Did I hope I was warmly welcomed with open arms? Definitely. But in your view I'm a race you’ve never seen before, and someone who shouldn’t be here. Considering the way I am dressed and everything, I think this has gone pretty well.” ending while chuckling lightly.