*Date: 33,476 First Quarter - Isles of Selqua*
*Aris Orvellis: Level 1*
Chaos erupted in the coastal city. Local seafolk retreated to their hos, but human players ran toward the teleport points. The crowd moved like a panicked herd, voices rising in desperate confusion.
"Hey kid, you're not my master anymore," the black fox said, its voice carrying an odd mix of relief and resignation. "But since you pulled out of that inventory, I'll help you."
Aris stood frozen, still trying to process what had happened. The fox nudged his leg with its snout. "Kid, snap out of it and start running."
"Where?" Aris's voice ca out as a whisper.
"Follow . The Council probably sent imperial soldiers to seize the portals. This place will be a bloodbath soon."
"I need to get to Demir. He can protect ."
"Don't even think about going to the Iron Confederacy. The road is filled with monsters. Factions will rip you apart in seconds. Also there is a sea between us an mainland."
They started running toward the outskirts of the coastal city. Various sea creatures walked along the beach, their forms alien and beautiful. Most people who had been farming or questing abandoned their tasks and ran toward the city. Aris was the only one running away from it.
"Are all those animals talking now too?" Aris panted as they ran. "Did you all gain sentience?"
"No, I don't know. I'm not an animal like them." The fox's ears flicked back. "Anyway, this is my one and only help to you."
They ran for nearly half an hour. Even though Aris had worked with his hands helping his mother in the fields, he was mostly a studious boy. The thirty-minute jog exhausted him, but fear kept him moving. When they reached a river, his legs finally gave out and he collapsed toward the water's edge.
Aris began drinking greedily. The fox joined him. "Hey, this isn't enough distance. Eh, whatever..." It started drinking as well.
Catching his breath, Aris asked, "How can I go back now? Looking at their reaction, it wasn't a ga event, right?"
"I don't think it was a ga event. There was a binding that wouldn't let talk, making act like a cute pet all these years."
"How old are you? What's your na?"
"I had many nas. Each one I hated more than the last. I don't know how old I am. In fact, I might have been created right now with fake mories."
"What do you want to call you?"
"Don't call anything. I'm Fox. Fox the Black. And I'm leaving you as soon as you find sothing better."
That mont, they heard a crackling noise, screams, and then nothing.
Aris perked up and started running along the river toward the sound. Fox chased after him. "Hey, what are you doing? There's clearly danger there."
"Demir would have run to help," Aris thought as he pushed forward.
After they passed a giant tree blocking their view, they saw the source of the noise. A massive stone bridge spanning the river had collapsed. People and seafolk were scattered around, crushed beneath the rubble. It was an awful scene. Body parts and blood were everywhere.
So of the wounded were leaking into the river. Shocked survivors began waking from the accident, begging for help, crying out in pain.
One survivor, an old man in patched garnts, stood up and looked around. His eyes finally settled on Aris.
"Help , kid. I'm a healer. Look for anyone alive and press their wounds while I cast mass heal."
"What happened here?" Aris located a seafolk woman with her gut torn open. He tore his shirt and started pressing the wound. Their planet was rough - earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis were common. Aris had ergency training.
"Fox, stand on this wound. I see soone else." Aris constantly searched for survivors.
"The bridge overloaded with people and collapsed," the old man said, raising his hands above his head to begin a ritual.
But to Aris, it didn't look like a natural collapse. How could a ga bridge collapse under the weight of people? This wasn't built by dieval locals. Realmforge had constructed it.
He left the woman to Fox and ran to another victim - soone with a leg nearly severed. He unbuckled his belt and wrapped it around the limb as a tourniquet.
The old man finished charging his magic. Golden light emanated from his palms, spreading to the people around them. Wounds began closing. Bleeding stopped.
Aris watched magic work for the first ti, torn between admiration and frustration. He could no longer gain levels or learn magic himself.
"I have a cabin near the cliff," the old man said. "Help carry those with severed limbs who are still alive."
So humans, once their wounds healed, imdiately started running. The Stat Freeze law and being trapped here had driven them to panic. "Why wouldn't it?" Aris thought. The realization hit him like a physical blow. He was stuck in a pocket universe with no way to leave. He started crying silently but still grabbed a hurt seafolk child and tried to carry them to the old man's cabin.
The journey to the cabin took nearly half an hour. Aris was exhausted by the ti he placed the child inside a patient room. The old man began operating while giving Aris vials of potion.
"Give these to the people still at the collapse zone," he instructed.
Without catching his breath, Aris ran back to the zone. He found several unconscious but not critically wounded people and administered the potions. So thanked him. Others ran toward the city without a word.
Aris hesitated about returning to the cabin, but he had nowhere else to go. When he arrived, he found the old man covered in blood, having patched up the woman and child. Aris was exhausted, breathing heavily. He struggled to stand anymore. The healer poured a glass of water, offering it to Aris.
"Good job, kid. Catch your breath. I have so eggs if you're hungry."
For the first ti since the coup announcent, Aris felt a mont of safety. But even as he accepted the water, questions burned in his mind. Who was this healer? Why had the bridge really collapsed? And how was he, a thirteen-year-old boy, going to survive in this world that had suddenly beco all too real?
The old man watched him with knowing eyes, as if he could read every thought.
"Na's Nebukadnezar," he said quietly. "But most folks call Nebu. And you, young one, have just taken your first step into a much larger world."
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