With my newfound Boon of … something that will apparently make a bunch of fire-wizards jealous, I wish he would’ve actually told me what he did instead of just leaving to do his Lord of the Dragon Plains stuff, and my knowledge that I am definitely not in Kansas anymore (which is honestly a relief because i’ve never actually been to Kansas). I figure my best bet is to head towards the pillar of smoke and hope that it’s a village cooking something and not burning down.

  Before I set out for my destination, I decide to take stock of what I have on me, like i’ve learned from Bear Grylls and all those other survival shows. I’m not sure how applicable some of their advice is in a world with dragons, and magic, multiple Gods and who knows what else, But I figure some of it couldn’t hurt. I don’t have much, just my phone (which is thankfully surprisingly well-charged at 96 percent battery) my wallet, 26 dollars (which is probably useless, because I somehow doubt these people will know who George Washington is, or even what America is.) and a machete. I find myself wishing I had grabbed one of the rucksacks that had all of our extra gear in it, if I had done that I would at least have some stuff that could help me right now. At this point i’m glad I went a little overboard and put a 18-inch machete on my belt using a sheath, Webster made fun of me when he saw me put my belt through the loops on the sheath. Look who’s laughing now, cause now i’m the one with a machete and Webster’s the one who…. right, Webster’s missing, along with literally the entire rest of the group. I guess i’m missing too if you think about it. I hope I can find at least one of them soon, it sucks being all alone in a strange world.

  With a renewed sense of purpose, I set out walking towards the ‘village’ hoping that my friends are there waiting for me, or at least close by. There’s not much to see on my way to the village, it’s actually pretty far away, after a few minutes I finally hear sounds coming from that direction, unfortunately the sounds I hear are screams and what almost sounds like a hyena’s cackle. As I take my machete out of the sheath, thinking that i’m not sure how much help i’ll be considering i’ve never even been in a fist-fight before, I can almost hear my mom reminding me “Don’t run with scissors”. With that reminder I put the machete back in the sheath because running with a machete would probably be a little worse than running with scissors.

  As I get closer to the village, I slow down and draw the machete for real this time. I can see that the village is arrayed in sort of a horseshoe pattern, probably to provide some measure of defense for the middle. I look towards the center of the village and I can see about twenty to thirty villagers sitting on the ground, looking defeated. Standing around the villagers growling at them with weapons in their hands are probably the ugliest guys I think i’ve ever seen, i’m not sure they’re even human. Considering they also have spots I figure they’re probably not human, I mean when’s the last time you saw somebody with spots outside of your weekly trip to Walmart. Seeing as their weapons (if you can even call them that) are just a bunch of stone tools I figure I have the technological advantage. They probably have the skill advantage, the numerical advantage, and hopefully not the magical advantage, but I have…… courage? Luckily the lone archer is on the side of the group facing away from me, so if I take him out I don’t have to worry about any of the other ones turning me into an Alex-shaped pincushion.

  I squat a little lower to the ground, trying to keep a low profile, hoping that the other creatures are too distracted by their captives in the middle to notice me. I get right up behind the archer, but before I take a swing at him with my machete one of the ones to my right lets out an honest to god bark, getting its attention. Before he can turn around I drive the machete through where i’m hoping his heart is, he lets out a quiet whimper and sinks to the ground. I try to pull my machete out as he falls but it gets stuck and goes to the ground with the creature. As a last resort I reach down to try to grab his bow, even though i’ve never shot one in my life. Just as I get my hands on it I feel a breeze pass by my head, I panic and fall straight to the ground. I grab ahold of the strange creature and spin it over on top of me, hoping that whatever the other one hits it with, it doesn’t go through and hit me as well. I feel something hit the one on top of me and then I hear one of the villagers holler out.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “THIS IS OUR VILLAGE WE’RE DONE BEING PUSHED AROUND BY A BUNCH OF UGLY HYENAS! GET THEM!’

  I can’t see what’s happening, since i’m a little pre-occupied, but I hear lots of yelling and what sounds like one heck of a fight. I gather all the strength I have and try to throw the archer at the one attacking me. It doesn’t go very far, but it at least goes far enough to knock it off its feet. I jump up and grab its weapon, a crudely made stone axe, and swing it at the creature’s head while putting my knee on its back. After taking out the creature, I look around to see that all the other dog-people are either lying on the ground, or running away with their tails between their legs (literally, how did I not notice that they had tails).

  When the realization of how close I came to dying hits me, I fall to my knees. I’d like to say that when I stood back up my eyes were as dry as they were when I went down, but unfortunately they weren’t, luckily my pants still were. I look around to see several of the villagers standing in groups, holding onto each other. One of the villagers is walking around, seemingly checking on them. I assume that he’s their chieftain, or mayor, or whatever. When he gets closer to me I try to think up something cool to say like “thanks for having my back” or “we make a great team” but ultimately i’m self observant enough to recognize that I contributed very little to the fight.

  “Thanks for your help kid, I saw you take down that gnoll archer, brave thing you did. Gave us the courage to do the same, so thanks. My name is Chief Ground.” The man says.

  I stop for a second, is he really thanking me? I spent most of the fight on my back, and by the time I got up they’d already taken out all the other.. Gnolls? I mean granted that big red dragon guy, Zhafarga or whatever his name was, said I had ‘Heroes’ blood or whatever. But right now I sure don’t feel like a Hero, also what is it with people calling me ‘Kid’?

  “You’re welcome, Chief, I’m Alex by the way. You wouldn’t happen to know where we are do you?”I ask.

  “Haha, you don’t have to call me Chief, and of course I know where we are, i’m one of the ones that founded this place. This here is the village of Ember, right smack in the middle of the Dragon Plains.” He laughs.

  “Dragon Plains huh, that’s exactly what the dragon said.”

  “Dragon? You met Zadarhin, Lord of the Dragon Plains, alone! When I crossed paths with him, it was with the rest of my party at my back. You’re lucky to be alive, kid!” Chief Ground exclaims.

  “Yeah I sure feel lucky, he tells em that i’m not even on the right planet anymore. Then he breathed a bunch of smoke in my face and left!” I say, shaking my head.

  “…”

  “…”

  “Kid you must be the unluckiest lucky person i’ve ever met. First you meet Zadarhin, and he DOESN’T eat you, and then he decides to bless you with the gift of dragonfire!”

  “Dragonfire? That sounds useful, and maybe a little overpowered.”

  “Listen kid, i’ve gotta get all these villagers sorted but catch up with me later and we can discuss your story a little more ok?”

  “Yeah that makes sense, i’ll catch up with you later then.”

  Chief Ground walks away muttering under his breath, something about ‘dragonfire’ and ‘kid’. I look around again to see that the villagers are starting to clean up the village, restoring it to how it looked before the gnolls attacked. I decide that if i’m gonna get answers from the chief, helping his people seems like a good way to get in his good graces.

  As I wandered around the village trying to find some way to be useful, I found my mind wandering to thoughts of what my friends were doing right now. I hope they’re ok.