Continued Warnings

Breakfast was hardy, eggs, a bit of leftover meat, bread, and fruit. It was the usual breakfast that Emre and Ragan enjoyed. Emre and Audr ended up being the ones to sit at the table since there were only two chairs. Ragan and Anne were sitting on the couch.

The meal was finished rather quickly even with the chatty Audr. He asked Emre various questions like why he was living with Ragan and if he could use more magic. Emre tried his best to keep up with the energy of the kid, but his mother rescued Emre from the bombardment when she told him that he needed to eat his meal without much chatter.

He seemed like a good kid and Emre enjoyed a bit of energy and new company. But his mind kept wandering. He kept thinking about the dream he had had that night. He couldn't help but want to go out right away. Ragan seemed to notice his restlessness as they were cleaning up.

"Something troubling you?" He asked Emre.

Anne was helping Audr tie up his ripped sleeves as Ragan and him scrubbed the dishes.

'I want to go look for the dark creatures that attacked Anne and Audr.' He informed, making it so only Ragan could hear his voice.

"Are you sure?" Ragan sounded a bit surprised.

'Yes. And I want to get rid of the one that injured you.'

"Emre, I can understand why, but—"

'I think something is happening.' Emre cut him off.

Ragan stopped what he was doing to look down at Emre. "What do you mean?"

'I'll… I'll tell you later.' Emre shook his head. 'But I think we should escort Mrs Anne and Audr back to the village just in case.'

"Yeah… That sounds like a good idea." Ragan agreed with an uncertain look.

"What are you talkin' about?" Audr butt in.

Emre looked over toward them and chuckled. 'I was just telling Ragan that we should escort you back to the village.' He said before looking up to Anne. 'If that is alright with you?'

"Of course. If it's not too much of a burden."

"No burden at all! Besides we would have had to go soon anyway. I'm running low on bread because someone is a pig for it." Ragan put special emphasis on 'someone'.

Emre rolled his eyes. 'Yes, Ragan likes to eat tons of bread.' He agreed.

Anne chuckled at the banter and Audr ran up to Emre.

"Are you coming too?" He sounded excited.

'Yep, I'm coming.' Emre nodded. 'But I can't go into the village.'

"Awh…" Audr whined.

"Remember, Audr, Emre has to stay a secret. You can't even tell Harris."

"I know, I know!" He still sounded whiny but then turned back to Emre. "Did you know? Harris is my best friend! His father is teaching him how to use a sword. He told me he'll teach me too if I teach him how to use a bow!"

'Wow! That's pretty cool.' Emre could only muse him.

"I'm gonna go get some stuff and then we can head out." Ragan muttered to Anne who nodded in response.

"I'm super good at the bow! That's why mom said I can come with her when she goes hunting!" Audr continued, leaving Emre stuck nodding with enthusiasm.

'How much stuff have you caught?' Emre decided to ask.

Audr only seemed more excited at the question. "I've caught so many rabbits! And I even got a bird once!"

'Tell me, have you ever eaten a frog before?' Emre asked with raised brows.

Audr's face looked disgusted. "No way! Wait… Have you eaten a frog before?"

'Of course! They aren't as bad as you'd think.'

"Ew!"

'What! How could you know it's bad if you've never tried it?'

"It's gross to even think about it."

'I thought so too at first. But yeah, rabbits are so much better.' Emre nodded for emphasis.

"Rabbit was my dad's favorite! He said that rabbit in stew was the best."

'I'll have to agree with that! Ragan makes the best rabbit stew.' Emre silently noted that Audr was talking about his father in past tense.

"No way! My mom totally makes rabbit stew the best."

'What!? We should have a competition one day then.'

"A competition for what?" Ragan was walking into the main room from his bedroom.

He seemed to have a spare sword because a new sword was sheathed upon his waist. It looked shabbier than his other sword, but it was lost in the forest right now. He had also placed a dagger on his hip and was holding two others in his hands. On his back was also a large backpack that probably had food, herbs, and other supplies inside.

"Emre said that your stew is the best, but I say moms is!"

"Ohh… That does sound competition worthy." Ragan agreed with a nod.

"Hmmph, I'll be sure to out cook you." Anne said with a mock smug look on her face.

"We'll see about that." Ragan responded before handing her one of the daggers. "To protect yourself. May I give this one to Audr?" He then asked her.

"Yes…" Although a bit reluctant, she approved.

Ragan then crouched down to Audr. "Now, this is a very dangerous weapon. Do not unsheathe it unless you think you're in big danger, okay?"

"Okay." Audr nodded while gingerly taking the dagger from him.

"Promise?"

"I promise!"

"Okay then, are we ready to go?"

They all agreed before heading out the door. The alarm popped into his head and he hoped that they wouldn't be burgled while they were out traveling. He wondered how long it would take them to get to the village on foot. While flying, it still had taken him a few hours to the river from the village.

If anything they would have to camp out because they had a kid with them. If it was just adults they would probably get there right before sunset.

Ragan quickly made sure all the animals were properly fed before they were ready to head into the forest. They would be going just off of where Ragan had been attacked.

"Do you mind if we try to get to the campsite we had set up? A lot of our supplies were left there… but it was where the monsters attacked." Anne asked with an apologetic smile.

"We can go. Your stuff is important." Ragan said with a nod, giving Emre a small glance.

If they were going back to where they were attacked there would be signs of which way they went afterward. Anne had said she couldn't manage to kill any of them, but they ran off after hearing something. She wasn't sure what, but something had lured them away.

Emre was hoping that it wasn't the bigger one that had called them. If that was so, it might be able to attract more to it. It gave Emre the chills as he remembered his dream.

The weather was nice as they traveled through, picking through the foliage and chatting along. Anne and Ragan were talking and Emre was trying to pay attention but Audr kept making him look at the cool bugs he kept finding. What Emre did catch though, was that Anne and Audr had been living with just the two of them in the village.

Her husband had passed away when Audr was still very young. He had apparently passed due to illness while on duty in the Evagor Mountains. The weather there was so harsh that sometimes new duty soldiers would end up getting so sick that they died. Unfortunately, he had been one of those people.

They had been living off Anne hunting regularly and selling her catches to the village butcher or any traders that came through that would buy the skins. Usually, Audr would have stayed with her friend and Harris, who was Audr's best friend. Anne had taken him on the last few trips, however, but they ended up getting attacked that night.

Emre thought their lives must have been hard, but at least they were still cheerful. If Emre hadn't been able to save Audr, she would have been all alone. He wanted to shudder at the fact of being left alone under those circumstances.

Surprisingly, it took only about 20 minutes for them to get to the campsite, but then Emre thought it made sense. There was no way Audr would have lived if they had been attacked a few hours away. The fact that he even survived 20 minutes made Emre look at Audr in a new light. Imagine having that much resilience…

Shaking his head, he looked at the small makeshift campsite. There was one ripped-up tent, the remains of a fire pit and cooking stand, as well as their supplies. Anne seemed happy that most of their stuff was intact and still there and hurriedly got her stuff together.

'Audr, why don't you help your mother? I'm going to look around a bit, okay?' Emre told Audr who had been clinging to him this whole time.

"Okay…" He reluctantly complied and went to help her.

Free from the child's clutches Emre quickly took flight and began to circle the area. His eyes were searching the ground for the tracks. The main part of the camp was scuffled and covered in prints and splatters of blood. It only took a moment to find the almost hand-like prints of where they had taken off. He flew a few feet along the path.

The prints kept going farther into the forest but he turned around to join back up with the others instead of continuing on the path.

"Did you find the trail?" Ragan asked which only led to a worried glance from Anne.

'Yes, we can check it out on our way back home.' Emre nodded.

Audr quickly ran up to him. "Emre, those monsters are dangerous! More dangerous than wolves! You're small like me so you can't fight them."

'Audr, did you forget I'm big and scary at heart?' Emre asked gently with a chuckle.

Ragan stepped forward and gave Audr's shoulder a pat. "Even I can vouch for that. Emre can beat up those things better than I can."

"Really?" Audr wondered, although still with a disheartened tone.

"Yep. He saved me by fighting them and healed me just like you." Ragan informed, lifting up his shirt to reveal the scarring on his side.

Audr's eyes opened up wide and he looked at Ragan's scar. "We match!"

"Yes, we do. So you don't have to worry about Emre, okay?"

"What about you then?"

"Well, you don't have to worry about me either because big and mighty Emre will protect me too."

'You got that right.' Emre agreed with a nod.

"Okay." Audr nodded, finally seeming assured.

With that, they set off again. Anne was able to recover most of the supplies that weren't totally ruined, plus they had the stuff Ragan brought so they were set for the rest of the trip.

They traveled for a few hours, and Emre was impressed yet again by Audr's stamina. In the modern world, any normal kid would be complaining and whining that their feet hurt by now. Audr had only grown a bit quieter as he walked alongside Emre.

"Hey, Emre?" Audr spoke up.

'Yes?'

"Since you're a dragon, you have dragon parents right? Are they big and scary?"

Emre thought for a second. He didn't really have parents, he was just popped into the world. And he didn't really have the greatest relationship with his parents in his past life. If anything, he might consider Tirian to be his mother… Since she did create him.

'I don't know my father…' Emre began, trying to pick the right words. 'But my mother is big and scary, kinda.' Tirian was a Goddess, after all.

Because he was speaking so everyone could hear him, this seemed to spark Ragan and Anne's attention. Dragons were extremely rare creatures in the first place. To actually know about one wasn't a common occurrence since dragons were usually known to stay away from humans and remain in their lairs.

While Emre was a dragon as well, his appearance wasn't as impactful as a giant dragon that towered over people.

"Really? How big?" Audr asked excitedly.

'Like, superrr big.'

"Wow, where is she now?"

Emre shrugged. 'I don't know.'

"Oh… that must suck. I would miss my mom too much."

'It's okay for me. If she needs me, she'll let me know.'

Just like how he was shown those visions. If she really needed to tell him something, she would, but he figured it wouldn't be very straightforward.

It was weird to think of Tirian as a mother, but if he really thought about it, his title specified that he was Tirian's child. He wasn't sure if this really meant being her child or being simply a creature in this world, but it was a bit assuring to think that a God might be considered his actual mother whether that was the actual fact or not.

It was probably presumptuous of him, but until she told him otherwise, he decided that was how he would think of it.

The sun was slowly getting lower in the sky, but they still weren't quite close enough to the village to continue going. Once they found a decent area to stop, they began to set up a camp. Emre wasn't able to help with the makeshift tents that Ragan had brought so he opted to help Audr gather materials for a fire.

He felt like a dog as he brought sticks back with his mouth and set them up properly to create a nice fire. Soon enough an okay campsite was set up as the sun started going down.

Emre gently blew a puff of flame onto the fire and it quickly grew into the decent flame. The only difference from a normal flame is that it was more golden than red-orange. Audr was mesmerized by the color and stared at it for a while as Ragan pulled out dried meat and some vegetables for them to have a quick meal before sleep.

Emre and Ragan shared a tent while Anne and Audr had the other. Audr almost made a fuss about not being able to sleep near Emre but he was too tired to do more than whine about it as they settled down for the night. It minded him of himself when he was a kid and his parents got a new dog. Emre had wanted to do everything with him.

With a small sigh, Emre lowered onto the hide that was set out as a bed. Ragan went right to snoring almost the moment his head hit the hide pillow. Emre laid with his head facing the entrance to the tent, his eyes catching little more than the embering remains of the fire.

Perhaps it was in high hopes of him to believe this was going to be a peaceful night. Closing his eyes, he only opened them again to the same scene as before. He was floating in the sky above the same clearing. This time though, Emre could only see one corruption in the open.

It was huge, just like the tiger corruption with horns that he had seen in that barren-looking land. It looked to be a tad bigger though, probably about 7 feet. Its body shape reminded him of a hyena with high shoulders and lower hindquarters but its face was scrunched up like a pug with two large protruding tusks coming from its lower jaw.

It was lumbering forward on knuckles like a gorilla and seemed to be heading straight for something Emre had seen before. Looking up from the clearing he could see in the distance this time, the same massive fire. The corruption was heading toward it.

As he focused on the sight of the fire, the scene seemed like it had zoomed forward and he shot toward the fire. He gasped when he was jerked to a halt and realized that it wasn't a forest fire like he had thought before.

He could hear distant yelling and screaming as he could see people running or fighting the hundreds of smokey black figures of corruptions. Around them surrounded a torrent of buildings lit aflame. Emre looked in horror at the scene of destruction and carnage.

It was a different village from the one he had seen before. It was smaller and being torn to bits by the dark creatures. People were dying left and right.

'...up!' A soft voice went off in his head.

'What?' He couldn't hear what they were saying.

'Wake up!'

With a jolt, Emre was thrown into the waking world. His heart thudded in his chest as he took in a few gasps of air. Glancing around, he poked his head out of the tent and looked to the sky. It had been a few hours as the moon was high in the sky, yet it only felt like a minute.

The voice had woken him up, but Anne wasn't there. It had been a feminine voice so he had thought Anne was waking him up. Had it been Tirian? If it was Tirian waking him, something was wrong. Emre focused on his perception and scanned the surroundings of the camp. The feeling of dread still hadn't left him.

Turning around he quickly began to shake Ragan with his small hands.

'Ragan! Wake up!' He yelled.

Having a voice directly invading your head probably wasn't the best wake-up call, but Ragan jerked up and looked around sleepily.

"What? What's the matter?" His voice rasped as he looked at Emre.

'Something is wrong.' Emre explained before running back to the tent entrance to stick his head out.

He kept scanning the treeline surrounding them for red eyes but he couldn't see anything. This was different from his last dream. He had only felt bad for a second after waking up but right now his heart couldn't find itself calming down.

"What? Is something out there?" Ragan shook off his sleepiness at Emre's stressed tone.

'I don't know…' Emre stepped and bit further out and cast Light.

Three small orbs of radiant light began to light up the area and float around like torchlight. That was when he heard the rustle of bushes. Emre's attention whipped toward the direction and he jumped out to intercept.

They had been being watched. When Emre made his attention known the dark creature that had been watching sprung out for the campsite. Racing out of the tent, Emre met the dark creature in the middle.

It was the same as the wolf-type corruption as before so it was a tad smaller than him. Its teeth reached out for Emre as Emre cast Radiant Claw on his claws. His light claws began to glow as he battered the corruption across the face.

"Emre!" Ragan had shouted as he tried to crawl out of the tent as fast as possible.

'It's fine.' Emre grumbled.

A single radiant arrow formed at his side and as the corruption recovered from getting smacked away, it lunged for Emre once more. Emre moved to retreat this time as the glowing shard of light whistled forward and slammed into its chest. It screeched in pain and quickly burst into flames as all the other corruptions had done.

[ Corruption slain, gained 1000 experience ]

Anne at this point was also struggling out of the tent as the corruption burned to a crisp. Ragan was out with his sword unsheathed, glancing around the area with the help of the orbs of light. Emre used his perception and scanned the trees and bushes with dagger-like eyes.

Was that the only one? Emre created two more orbs and sent them out to the surrounding trees. They began to patrol the area until Emre spotted one other rustle of a bush. The light stopped right above it and Emre formed another arrow before taking flight to rush toward.

The dark creature was shying away from the light but turned to hiss up at Emre as he shot the arrow toward it. The creature managed to dodge this time, the arrow landing in the dirt with a loud thud.

Emre cursed inwardly and took chase as it turned to flee into the forest. Using wind magic, he boosted his flight speed as he shot after it. It was fast but Emre was faster. He was barely able to focus on forming his next radiant arrow, and this time it almost missed again as it sank into the corruptions hindquarters.

It wailed as the flame crawled up to the rest of its body and soon it followed its companion as just a pile of black ash.

[ Corruption slain, gained 1000 experience ]

[ You leveled up ]

[ Gained 3 stat points ]

[ Light Arrow has leveled up ]

Emre landed with a huff before turning around and bolting back on foot. He didn't know if there were more than this back at the campsite. He had been too intent on getting that one that he wasn't thinking straight.

He burst through the bushes to see Ragan shoot a wind arrow into another corruptions chest. Its leg had already been blown off but it was still heading toward Ragan relentlessly as the arrow landed. At the hard impact, it fell over finally with black blood leaking from its lifeless jaws.

'Is that all of them?' Emre asked as he ran into the clearing.

Even the dreaded feeling in his chest had begun to fade. That was probably it. Three wasn't a lot, but it was still concerning.

"I think so." Ragan huffed as he sheathed his sword. "Anne, are these the same ones that attacked you?" He then turned to Anne.

She had been ready to defend the tent where Audr was in but relaxed once Ragan spoke to her. She glanced around a moment before stepping toward the only corpse that hadn't been burnt to a crisp.

"No… These are a different shape." She said gently with furrowed brows.

At this point, Audr stuck his head out of the tent. "Is it safe?"

'Possibly. Stay in the tent just in case though, okay?' Emre answered Audr who looked dejected but listened.

He had never been able to get a look as close as this. The smoke that was surrounding the body still remained after it died, giving Emre a feeling of disgust as he stared at it. His radiant fire always burned them to a crisp. He thought it was better than seeing them like this.

"The ones that attacked us had human-like hands, but walked on all fours with… dog-like faces." She said as she grimaced. "This is smaller and looks more like a wolf."

So the ones that had attacked Ragan were different than the ones that attacked Anne. Just how many of these things were roaming in this area.

'Can I burn it?' Emre asked, trying to keep the anger from his voice.

"Yes." Ragan answered, backing away alongside Anne.

The visions flashed into his memory again. Was this worse than what Ragan had to deal with before? He leaned over the body and blew his radiant fire over it.

[ Radiant Flame Breath has leveled up ]

He had grown used to ignoring his level-up messages from the voice as the area lit up brighter. Emre backed away from the burning corpse and looked at Ragan who looked terribly troubled.

'What are you thinking?' Emre asked with furrowed brows.

"That this forest isn't safe anymore… I didn't think it was this bad. But this… This is far worse than it has ever been before." He shook his head. "Getting attacked by these things every other night is not how things should be. I don't think living out here is safe anymore."