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  “Here’s the thing. They all got magic items. Not too big a deal, since just about everybody has one or two these days. The difference is that they all have the same magic items.”

  I didn't get why this was important. “And…?”

  “Right, ya just woke up. Look, even with so much mass production before the change, finding two of the same magic item was considered next to impossible up until the Inquisitors showed up. The fact that they all have similar kit…? How?” She left the question hanging as my mind spun through possibilities. In the end, it came down to two options that I could see. They either had found a place that had a stockpile, or they had found a way to make them. But learning how to make them in under six days? Was that possible?

  “I'm in one of the groups looking for how they got all the toys. Me and a few others are hitting the wilds, while other teams are doing city.”

  “Are things with the Inquisitors bad?”

  “Oh yeah. There aren't many of them as far as we can tell, but right now, we need a united front to face this new world. All the changes that have happened are bad enough, but mythical creatures are starting to show up, too--real ones, not Changed. Ya already met one of them.” She reminded me about the wisp. “The Inquisitors just make things worse. Did anyone tell ya that they’re all First Dayers? It breeds conflict between First Dayers and everyone else.”

  “They’re all human?”

  “We're all human.” She put the emphasis on ‘we're.’ “Don't forget that. Some of us just ain’t as changed.”

  Seemed that was a loaded topic by the heat in her voice. She watched me till I nodded.

  “Right.” She stood up and stretched. “Let’s get ya back to the city. I'm sure your disappearance must have raised a stink.”

  And with that, she began to stow the campsite.

  It was easy enough to repack my bag--not much to put in it--but I strapped the top tightly closed just in case.

  Charlie took the lead once again and began heading off in what felt like a random direction.

  We walked in silence, a large change from our first jaunt through the swamp. Charlie appeared to be thinking about something, and me, I was content to give her the time if she needed it.

  As we walked, I began to get a strange feeling. I couldn't pin it down but something felt...off.

  As we moved, the feeling began to get stronger. It was something to our right. The air there almost felt...thicker? I didn't know how else to explain it. I kept finding myself looking over that way, and my pace began to slow. I knew that I should be following Charlie but...

  Before even knew it, I was stalking towards the source of the feeling.

  “Hey!” Charlie called out from behind me. I heard her splashing as she tried to catch up. She started swearing as I continued to move, that feeling dragging me along. After only ten minutes, I stopped. The thick air was coming from...that.

  “…the hell are ya thinking, running...?” Her voice trailed off as we stared at the swamp in front of us.

  Rising out of the muck was a large, square sandstone platform. In the center, a circular hole had been cut into the stone.

  Now that I was here, I could finally put a finger on what I was feeling. It was the same sensation that I had been getting from the rings. The area around here felt different. It was like walking into a mist made of energy, and it tingled.

  Without a thought, I stepped onto the platform, happy to be out of the swamp, but still drawn to what I now could see was a circular staircase leading down. Light trickled up around the steps acting as almost an invitation to descend.

  “What in the...?” Charlie had climbed up beside me. She gestured to pattern etched around the top of the stairwell that I hadn't noticed. “Those look just like the script on magic items! I haven't heard reports of anything like this!”

  Charlie kept talking, but I was getting lost in my own little world.

  The driving need to figure out what was causing the sensation had subsided, but a new drive had taken its place. The closest thing I could think to match it with was the tingle I used to get when I located a new source for my antiquing hobby. It was a mix of excitement for the hunt to come and satisfaction at having found a new place to search. It was an emotion that I could never seem to explain to other people.

  I needed to see what was down there.

  With a quick movement I was over the ruins. I could vaguely hear Charlie yelp behind me as I stepped onto the stairs.

  “What are you thinking! Those could have killed you!” I was already descending as she spoke. “Shit! Stop, ya stupid idiot!” She was yelling at me as I passed out of sight.

  There was a thundering of shoes on the stairs behind me. “Bad dragon!” Something solid thudded into the back of my head. The blow tipped me forward making me windmill my arms as I tried to save myself before I went toppling down the stairs.

  “Oh shit!” A hand grabbed the back of my jacket and yanked me back to my feet.

  “Are you trying to kill me?” I was clutching the wall. That had been far too close. On the bright side, the near-death experience had snapped me out of whatever trance I had been in.

  She almost forgot she was angry. “Sorry!” Then she remembered. “Wait...no! Ya idiot! Get back up these stairs right now!”

  “Why?”

  “Why?” She looked me in the eye, and then something clicked. “Oh for…! This is a Changed thing isn't it.” She took a deep breath and counted to ten. Guess I pissed her off. “Well, for one thing, I would have wasted two days if I let you die now! And for another, this is a new find! We need to do this right not just waltz in! This isn't a game!”

  Now that she had explained it, and I was thinking clearly, I could see that she was probably right. Going down there by myself could have been a really stupid idea. These new instincts were kind of scary. They had taken over my brain without my even noticing it. “Sorry.”

  “Look, it happens. Just keep an eye on it.” She shook her head. “I’ve messaged a friend, and he should be on his way soon with his Exploration team. When they get here, we can take a look.”

  That last sentence grated on me. This place is mine! I found it. Why do I have to…?

  Whoa. Even having just thought about it, those new drives had slipped in. I was going to have to watch them.

  I fought back the feelings by reminding myself that she had just saved my life. The thought damped down the new feelings a bit, at least to a more manageable level.

  I forced a smile onto my face. “Alright, that sounds like a plan.” I could see her breathe a sigh of relief as we turned and headed back up the stairs.

  It took another day for her friend to show up. I never did get her to tell me how she had called him, but she was kind of on edge the whole time. She stood watch as I fumbled my way through setting up camp. At least there was enough room to set it up on the stone slab next to the stairwell rather than in the mud. That would have been fun.

  She had us sleep in shifts. By the time morning had come, I was having to fight myself to keep from just running into the place.

  I was starting to recognize what was going on with my brain though. This need felt more like hunger. It was separate from rational thought. It acted like a hook that kept dragging my brain back to the thing it wanted, over and over again until it was satisfied. If I let it keep on, without doing something to distract myself, I knew I was going to give in. Hell, that was how I gained my weight before the change. I sucked at self-control.

  Before I reached that critical point, though, we began to hear people making their way through the swamp towards us.

  A male voice rang out. “This had better be good, Charlie. We were in the middle of an issue.”

  “It wouldn't have been an issue if you just sat still for one hour! Just one!” an angry female voice cut in.

  I was sure I knew that voice.

  Charlie lowered her crossbow as her shoulders relaxed. Guess this was who she was waiting for.

  �
�Axle!” She waved into the woods.

  That name was--that’s where I had heard that girl before. The devil twins from two days ago. I had a bad feeling that the issue they were talking about was me. I wanted to run and hide right now. I mean, I felt like what had happened hadn't been totally my fault, so I didn't actually have anything to feel bad about. But…

  They were in sight now, a tall lanky man in the lead, flanked by the twins and trailing…did that guy have two heads?

  The girl on the right stiffened and jabbed a finger in my direction. Her sister looked at her, then following her sister’s pointing, she turned and looked right at me.

  “You!”

  Both of them tried to rush through the muck to get to me while the two men and Charlie tried to figure out what was going on. They looked about ready to kill me.

  Well, shit.

  My hindbrain suggested a convenient place to escape to.

  Without a second thought, I grabbed up my bag and booked it into the stairwell.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Chapter 8

  “Why the hell am I running?”

  I had been going for about ten minutes before the ridiculousness of the situation occurred to me.

  By then, the staircase had widened up and the ceiling and floor had gone from sandstone to a black marble-like appearance. As I slowed down to a walk, I noticed a flickering light. Looking up, I could see troughs of flame running along the edge of the ceiling, dancing and reflecting light off the marble above.

  Since I was looking up, I almost stumbled as the stairs ended abruptly, opening up into a hallway. At the far end, I could see a simple wooden door set into the stone wall. It was just barely cracked open, almost like an invitation.

  Well...wouldn't hurt to take a peek.

  I walked over to the door and peered through the crack. I couldn't see anything moving around, so I slid the door open as quietly as I could and stepped inside.

  Not my brightest move.

  As I stepped in, something lashed out from the darkness slamming into my side. The force of the blow lifted me off my feet and sent me tumbling across the floor. As I got up, I heard a growl echo across the room before something came dashing at me.

  Scrambling to my feet, there was a brief moment when I could see a furry shape lunging at me, jaws wide and full of teeth.

  My tail was already at a full crescendo as I threw up an arm to try and stop my attacker.

  Its teeth grated across my arm as it tried to use its momentum to knock me down. Its teeth punched through my leather jacket and grated along my skin. I instinctively braced my legs and swung my free arm, claws out. I had to knock the thing away! My hand struck the thing hard, ripping it from the jacket.

  The creature was thrown across the room. I figured that might be the fight, but it recovered gracefully, catching itself on all fours. It skidded to a stop facing me and gave me my first good look.

  It was a black wolf but ridiculously huge. The damn thing came up to my chest. Oh, and spider eyes. Really creepy.

  With a snarl, it braced itself to charge again.

  I... should probably draw my dagger.

  I reached down, fumbling for the hilt as the beast charged. I finally got a grip on the hilt as it leapt.

  Fur, teeth and fury came flying at me like rocket.

  I had no chance to dodge. Instead, ramming my free arm forward, my hand went into its mouth. My thumb reached the joint of its jaws, and it clamped down. Wincing, I wrapped the rest of my fingers around its tongue digging in my claws. I heard a strangled yelp as I yanked from the wrist. It tried to pull back.

  I forced my dagger free of its sheath, it's heat becoming apparent. The wolf thing flinched away.

  It threw its body to the side, yanking itself free and sending me stumbling. It began to stalk around me, blood dripping from its open mouth.

  Boy, was it surprised.

  Turns out I had decent range on my fire breath that I had totally saved for this moment and not just forgotten. The ball of fire slapped into its side and sent fire splashing all over.

  It howled in pain as its body sizzled. It threw itself to the ground to try and put out the fire.

  I rushed forward and dived down on top of the creature, knife flashing as I slammed it into the thing’s head. It jerked and then was still.

  I stood up panting as my tail went silent.

  I lifted up my arm to inspect where the wolf thing had been chewing on it. While it did hurt, it wasn't nearly to the level that I was expecting, especially with how mangled the jacket’s sleeve looked. I carefully took the jacket off, trying not to bump the arm in case I just wasn't feeling the pain yet.

  I was shocked by what I saw. My arm was scraped up, sure. But from what I could see, the thing hadn't broken the skin, even once. The only place there was blood was my hand, and that was from the beast’s tongue bleeding on it.

  Reaching down, I yanked my dagger out and checked it for damage. Not even a scratch, thankfully, or any blood.

  Looking down, it seemed the dagger had instantly cauterized the dead wolf’s wound. That might come in handy later.

  As for the wolf itself... Well, I wasn't sure what to do with it. I knelt down, balancing with one hand on an unburnt part of its body as I gave it a quick examination. As a gamer, my thought was to take the whole thing with me. You never knew what could be useful, especially when I noticed that both its teeth and claws were made of metal. I was guessing they were steel, but who knew? If the bones were like that as well, this thing could be worth some money, however money worked now… I should probably ask about that.

  “I just wish I had a way to store this,” I sighed.

  As I finished speaking, a glow emanated from my hand where it contacted the creature. Quickly looking down, I saw that the source was one of my rings. Then the wolf vanished. I fell over as I suddenly lost the support I had been balancing on.

  I scrambled to my feet in shock looking around for the wolf. The only sign that it had been here was a scorch mark on the stone and some blood scattered about.

  But I could still feel the wolf-thing. It was entirely in my index finger of my left hand. I even knew its name now--it being a warg--no other information though.

  I held up my hand. That was the finger I had put the full finger ring on. The emeralds adorning it had a light glow coming off them, but it was fading fast. Did…did the ring just eat the warg? The light faded completely out of the gems.

  Can I get it back out? Well, it reacted to what I said before, so let's try that again. I held out my hand in a fist, ring pointed down at the ground. “Release?”

  Nothing.

  Maybe I need to be more specific? “Release the warg?”

  With a flash, the ring lit up again, and the warg's body appeared...in my closed hand! My fingers were forced open at a rather painful speed, and the body fell to the floor as I hopped about in pain. It was the most painful experience I’d had since the change, so I guess I should consider myself lucky. And I should definitely leave my hand open when using the ring from now on.

  Well...guess I should see if I can put it back again.

  I lowered my hand and touched it to the warg. “Store this.”

  Once again, the flash, and it was gone.

  This was frickin’ awesome! I was almost dancing with how excited I was.

  “How the hell did ya do that?!”

  I looked up. The whole group stood just inside the doorway all staring at me in shock. Charlie was at the back and was pointing at where the warg had been.

  Guess I took too long.

  “It’s the ring, isn't it?” The lanky man from before was striding forward, a bow held in one hand and an excited look in his eyes. I could now see that he had pointy ears and a very thin build. Maybe an elf? Oops, still talking. “It's a storage item! I knew they had to exist!” He swung off the heavy backpack he was wearing and thrust it into my arms. “Here! Try to put this in there!”

  He was watching me with ey
es as excited as a puppy's as he hovered, waiting for me to do it.

  It was kinda creepy.

  “Umm...sure. Store this.”

  With a flash, the bag was gone. I could now feel it in the bag as well as the name 'Axle's backpack'. It was kinda funny. I could feel the bag, but I couldn't feel anything inside of it. Was it stored as one whole item?

  The man almost squealed. “That. Is. So. Cool!”

  “Axle!” One of the twins had stormed up to us and jabbed a finger into my face. “This is the guy we were looking for all yesterday!” Ah, the serious one. Brittany, I think it was?

  “Really? Not only have we found our newest member, but now I don't have to convince this guy to join our team? That's wonderful!” He was way too happy.

  “Jib. How did you find this place? Charlie says you just took off running.” The fourth member of the group walked up, and yup, two heads, and dog ears, plus tail. Oh, and muscles, lots of muscles. He matched me in height too. I think in mythology the two-headed dog was called Orthus. The interesting thing was, both this guy’s heads talked in sync. It gave his voice a weird echo.

  “I don't know how to explain it, I just had to come here...and my name is Jake.”

  The ears on his right head twitched back. “Right. Jake. Sorry. I'm Drake by the way.”

  “Could be an instinct.” Axle cut in. He seemed lost in thought. “That’s similar to the way many people describe them when they first feel them. But what could be triggering it?” He paused in thought for a moment and then pounded a fist into his free hand. “Only one way to find out! Onward!” He gestured at the door in the far wall.

  The twins were watching all of this. Brittany appeared to be developing a headache, while her sister was just laughing.

  As for me, well, I was kinda happy. It seemed I was getting to explore this place after all, although Charlie was still unhappy about the whole thing.

  I crossed the room and opened the next door.

  The next few sets of rooms were much like the first. Simple square stone rooms with a door on each end…and one to three giant wolves hungry and waiting.

  The first two times, we were a bit of a mess, but by the third time, we had a nice pattern going.