Waking up unnaturally energetic, walked downstairs from my bedroom to see my parents standing side by side with an arm over each other's shoulders. I must have forgotten my glasses because their faces were slightly blurred, but I could still see the large glowing smiles planted on their faces. "Took you a while didn't it!" my dad yelled in his rough but playful tone.

"Honestly, what were you thinking going all the way there," my mom teased, shaking her head.

"Yeah yeah, I know." I played with, "But you should probably put that down you know," I suggested Dad while pointing at the axe in his hand. "Oh yeah, I should, shouldn't I, ha, my mistake".

Going over and giving my parents a hug, I started to wonder. "Hej, weres Michal? To think I got up before him of all people," I asked, giving my dad a slap on the shoulder.

Their faces contorted, leaving a horrible feeling in my gut, this wasn't like them at all, this wasn't something I had ever seen on them, ever. I felt sick, so sick, my stomach was lurching and my head burning. What was it? Why?

.

"Burhererhere"

I twisted my body, so as to throw up in the bucket beside me. My body was sore, everything ached, especially my head. In my haze, I noticed where I was, a bed in one of the medbay rooms. I just lay for a while, not really thinking about anything as my mind readjusted. When I finally felt like a human person, I started to think about that dream I had. It was the first dream I could remember for ages, and it was also more vivid than any other I had had before.

Everything was so normal, but then suddenly my parents…

I shiverd as the image of their expression resurfaced.

"Oh, you're up!" a woman said, snapping me out of my gloom. It was Emma, the person that healed my stomach a while ago.

"How are you then?" she asked a fairly odd question.

"I'm good as I can for being pancaked a while ago," I responded, attempting to be funny, but not sure how well I did.

"Oh, good-good-good, honestly I was getting worried, you know since you hadn't gotten up even after like a day,"

"A day?!", I yelled, turning my head to look through the window and saw the sun still out.

"Yeah, I know, it was like 'I know he got hurt and all, but we have magic, like how is this taking so long', that other guy, erm Alexandre? The guy with the pretty nasty gash. He got out ages ago, well not out, like he's not in the infirmary, but he isn't going on those adventures."

I had to grow up with a younger brother that never stopped talking, and who would speak faster than most rappers rapped. But even with all that experience, this was impossible to follow what she was saying, but that didn't stop her.

"What are they like, you know your adventures. It sounds so exciting, but also like, terrifying, all those giant bugs. Like, I've always loved to read fantasy and stuff, but like, the idea of actually doing all that stuff…"

She trailed off, and it took me a second to understand that the pause was for me to answer her question.

"... exhilarating?" my response wasn't long but I had no idea how I'm supposed to describe what it was like. The feeling was completely different to anything else. Standing there, not sure if you would make it out alive, the thrill of it all. It also wasn't something I was all too proud of, It's not like saying 'Yeah, I really enjoy nearly dying' sounded like a good answer. "Yeah, I would guess it was. But I don't think that it's for me, I'm just glad I can be of some help. You know I had thought of becoming a doctor, but everyone was like 'No, you couldn't do that', but now look at me, haha. But like, what do you think about be-" She stopped herself, seemingly realising something. "I'm so sorry, so sorry, didn't mean to go off like that, I should leave you to rest." she hurriedly said, making her way to the door, adding an additional sorry before leaving the room. Her leaving left me completely stunned.

"What was that?", I had to voice my confusion aloud. Completely forgetting what I had been contemplating before, I instead examined my body, specifically the scars. Though healing, both from the healing class and my skill, was amazing, It didn't heal everything and seemed to only heal what you could already heal normally, so no regenerating limbs. Along with that, it left scars, so I had in the span of 7 sorry 8 days, I had received more scars than I had in my life. 2 enormous ones on the sides of my waist from the ant, a small one on my leg also from the ant, a long but barely visible one on my left arm, and a couple of tiny ones all over. That, in comparison to the one burn mark on my leg that I got as a kid. At the speed I was scarring, I'd be 90% scarred in a year. Well, at least there wasn't anything on my face I thought to myself. I knew that I should get some rest tho, so closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

I wasn't sure how long had passed, but it was probably about 2 hours. I hadn't managed to get a drop of sleep, but the bad feeling in my gut had left, so I got something out of it. Deciding I should stop laying down, I took off the covers and sat on the edge of the bed. A slight panic rose as I realised that I didn't have proper clothes until I noticed some hung over a chair. Thanking whichever saints place them there I slid them on. They were a little small, but nothing I wasn't used to. Looking around I saw a bag up next to the bed and checked inside, seeing the knife that Alexander lent me. Though I think it might be mine now.

I put it in my pocket before making my way outside the building. The sun was bright, but thankfully not blinding. At some point, I found Alexander sitting on a bench while sketching something on some paper. We had a short talk and I found out that Eric and Dave were out on an expedition, since they hadn't gotten any major injuries. I left after, he seemed to be going through something, and I didn't think that my company would help.

Diner had just started by the time Eric and Dave returned. We had a fairly large dinner again, with tons of snacks as well, it was essentially a feast. John must really put emphasis on "a full person is a happy person".

"So you're good then?" Dave asked me.

"Oh, yeah, I'm good, an' you?"

"Yeah,"

Alexander sat down next to Dave with a half-full plate and an uncharacteristically empty smile. "So what was it like going out there without me huh? Surprised you haven't fallen apart already." he said to Dave, before adding to Eric, "Sorry that you had to deal with him,".

"And what is that supposed to mean then huh?" Dave shot back, lightly hitting his friend in the shoulder. I wasn't sure what to think about their little back and forth, it felt nearly put on. After thinking about it, I realised that I might be the odd one here, we were close to dying back there but It doesn't really seem to be affecting me, though it was terrifying while happening. It's obviously messing with them, well It's hard to get a read on Eric.

"Now that Dan's awake, we should talk about this," Dave said while taking off a neckless he was wearing. I didn't know he wore jewellery.

Dave looked at me then before turning to Alex, "You didn't tell him?".

Alexander looked up from his plate and in a surprised tone answered, " I didn't think it was that important,".

Dan furrowed his brow in confusion, before explaining what they were talking about. "It's an item that I got from the centipede, it gives 2 agility, 2 stamina and one strength,".

"I don't need it," Alex said immediately. Wonder why he was so fast.

Dan gave him a glance before turning to me and Eric, "Well, I don't think that I should have it, I already have the sword, so guess it's between you two,"

"I'm a mage," Erik said, also quickly, though that was normal for him.

"oh, ok, I'll have it then," I said awkwardly while taking the neckless. It was a bronze colour, with a little gem thing in the centre. No idea what it was, and jewellery wasn't my thing, but It might be helpful one day. 

We continued to talk for a while after that, just sitting in a circle, though it was really only Dave and Alexander talking. But it was nice to just sit there.

We weren't the only ones out like this, there were plenty of people outside, most actually. Since it was so hot inside, it made sense to sit out.

A few hours had passed, and we were still sitting outside, the sun had set, and it was dark, but there had been fires set up everywhere, so you could still mostly see everything in the grounds. Surprisingly, most people were still outside, and the kids seemed to be having a sugar rush since they were running around like crazy. Nice to see they weren't as gloomy, at least not completely.

Looking over towards our group of four, the first thing that drew my eyes was Eric's giant pile of sweet wrappers. Dave had a bag of crisps that he had somehow been eating for like an hour. Alexander though had nothing, apparently, he wasn't a big junk food consumer. He was missing out.

Cracking my back, I made stood up, "Ima just go for a short walk guys, be back in a bit". We had set ourselves by the fencing around the apartment, so I was just going to take a jog out since the only places that were dangerous were in the city.

Jogging for a while, I nearly walked into a tree. It was so dark I could barely see anything other than the base. I hadn't gone that far, just enough to muffle the talk. It was beautiful to see, all those lights flickering about. It was in stark contrast to the city,  an unsightly mess, even if I couldn't see it at that moment. Actually, I could, it was faint, but there was a light by the outer edge of it. Assuming it might be a person or similar, I focused on it. I couldn't make out what was making the light, but I could see behind it. Siluets, running out of the city. Lots of them

"What is-", realisation dawned on me and a sense of dread with it. Those are not human salutes. And they were directed out of the city.

In our direction.