Sorry to Intrude

"Damien was an adventurer!" Nia declared on his behalf, looking proud, as if she were talking about herself.

"Those days are long gone," Damien clarified with a shake of his head. "I was one of the fools that decided flower picking wasn't good enough, and I paid the price."

Nothing seemed obviously wrong with him, but I could only assume the price he paid had something to do with his physical - or, perhaps, mental - health.

"Objective fulfilled: Make a friend."

"...Who was the friend in this equation? And why now?"

"CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY: CONVINCE DAMIEN TO RETURN TO ADVENTURING."

"You two really need to learn how to read the mood."

"CHALLENGE FAILED."

"Anyway, it's about time to turn in," Damien's words brought me back out from my internal struggle. The werewolf-man yawned widely - I almost forgot we had interrupted his rest at the start of all this. "You're welcome to stay the night, Rhys. It'll make it easier to show you the way to the Guild in the morning."

Nia let out an excited "yay!" while Leo's face soured.

"...Thank you. I'm afraid I'll have to take you up on your generosity," I replied sheepishly, since I really didn't have any other option, beyond sleeping in the street.

"Rhys can stay in my tent!" Nia offered, pointing to one of the makeshift structures to my right.

"And you can stay in mine, with me," Damien countered, gesturing to the tent he had emerged from.

"Eh? Why? We can both fit in mine!"

"Rhys is our guest. We need to show him our hospitality, wild one."

Leo, meanwhile, had already disappeared into yet another tent, between Nia's and Damien's. It seemed like each of them had their own, but they were more or less connected. There was still space in the overall structure for one or two other residents, but I wasn't sure if they were out, or just able to sleep through all of the commotion.

We said our goodnights, doused the fire, and Damien assisted the protesting Nia into his own tent gingerly. It seemed the man had a knack for handling the unruly youth.

Nia's tent was about what I expected - just enough to serve as shelter. I could see that she had a few knickknacks stored in the corner of the space, and I decided to sleep on the other side, to avoid disturbing them.

As I settled down, I realized with some astonishment that the white hat was still atop my head, despite the hustle and bustle of the day's events. If it had been knocked off at some point during the journey through the city with Nia, I wouldn't have been the least surprised. I honestly forgot it was even there.

But it served as a mediocre pillow, and that was all that mattered.

My mind wandered to things that I should have thought about hours ago. Why was I here? Wasn't I dead? I'm pretty sure I was dead at some point. Was this the afterlife? If so, why? Was I reincarnated? If so, why didn't I start as a baby, and why did I still have all my memories?

Despite these impossible-to-answer questions, sleep came quicker than I expected - I hadn't realized just how exhausted I was until the chance to actually get some sleep appeared. Considering how much had happened in less than 24 hours, this, I felt, was understandable.

At some point in the night - I had no way of knowing how much time had passed, only that it was still dark - I awoke and found that I was no longer alone. Nia, having escaped from Damien's tent at some point, had returned to her own and was already fast asleep. Despite her belongings on the other side of the tent, however, she was cozied up to me in an overly-familiar fashion.

Figuring there was no use making a fuss about it now, I rolled back over to face the wall, but something about the situation struck me as...familiar. Images of another girl, a little younger than Nia, drifted through my mind, but only in fragments. Her name completely escaped me. The only thing I could remember was that we were related.

"Objective fulfilled: Recover lost memories."

I guess, as it turns out, I didn't have ALL of my memories...

Morning came quickly - Nia was the first to wake, and made sure everyone in our little gang was up with her. I was slow to rise, having let my body relax for the first time in a while, but Nia was not taking "no" for an answer.

Damien reignited the fire the old fashion way, after throwing some logs from a pile nearby on top. It was time for breakfast.

"It's not what we normally do, I know," Damien began, addressing both myself and the children, "but just for today, allow me to treat us."

Nia let out another excited "yay!" while Leo gave us a confused "really?!" as if such a thing had never happened before. Perhaps, it hadn't.

"It's not what you normally do?" I repeated.

"The only one keeping you alive, is you," Damien explained as he dug through his belongings. "Food is hard to come by - money even more so. We may stick together, but if you want food in your belly, it's up to you to figure it out."

"Even if you have to trick someone to get it," Leo added, ominously. I think he was trying to make me cast doubts on Nia's intentions, but given that Nia was still dancing around in blissful ignorance of the entire conversation, he would have to try harder than that.

In time, Damien pulled out a few strips of preserved meat, as well as a handful of strange, unidentified (to me) fruit for each of us.

"And there you have it," he concluded proudly.

I took my share of the preserved meat and fruit, my mind racing. I had only seconds to go before both of the children would dive into their meals. It had to be now.

"Wait!" I cried, right before Nia was about to tear into her allotment of meat. Everyone turned to look at me. "Please, just give me a moment."

"Oh! Oh!" Nia said after a second of confusion. "You're gonna do the thing?! Are you sure?!"

"Thing, what thing?" Leo questioned, growing concerned, but also clearly picking up on Nia's excitement. Damien, meanwhile, waited quietly, as was asked of him.

I held my share of meat aloft. I wasn't sure what it would create, or if it would create anything at all, given that the meat was already cured.

"Create basic meal!"

The meat disappeared in a puff of smoke. Nia cheered. Leo looked on in horror. Damien remained quiet, but raised a brow.

As the smoke dissipated, a slab of cooked meat replaced the cured strip.

"I guess it counted the meat itself as the raw ingredient...and created a dish based on that...?" I thought, grasping at straws. I was more than a little surprised, myself. The rules of this process were still completely out the window for me, but I suppose, now, we could rule out the "quantity" factor, at least in terms of how much of a given raw material was left.

"Wow! Look at that one!" Nia exclaimed, jumping up and down.

I quickly set the slab of meat down on the makeshift plate I had been given, as the heat it was giving off reached unbearable levels.

"How did you...what? Was that, was that magic?!" Leo struggled to comprehend what he saw, and leaned toward me with each question.

"Huh," was all Damien said, scratching his head. "Don't think I've seen that one before. Don't suppose you'd be willing to do that to mine, too? Haha!"

Nia and Leo immediately scrabbled forward, shoving their respective shares under my nose.

"Objective fulfilled: Cook for others. Objective fulfilled: Cook for a friend. Experience threshold reached. Level advanced to 6. Objective ful-"