Eliona's War 1: Hesitant Healer

Chapter 3

The portal left him in the middle of a road.

Actually, it was more like a trail scuffed into the grass by the hooves of an ornery bull. Uneven and narrow, it meandered along the edge of an ominous forest. Pine-like trees rose dozens of feet high, straight and uniform like soldiers. Their branches of blue-green needles wove so tightly together that very little light made it to the forest floor where it was as dark and creepy as a moonless night.

The other side of the road had much more pleasant scenery: an ocean of pale grass that lazily rolled like waves in the wind. The sun shone, birds sang, and it looked like the perfect place for a relaxing picnic.

There was only one problem: the giant pink slugs.

Everywhere he looked, they contaminated the scenery. The size of a large dog, they glistened with thick slime, and they leisurely wriggled their way out from the forest, across the road, and into the grass.

The sight of it made Severance shudder. Why? Why did the people making this game decide such a creature was a good idea? Up until now, he'd been enjoying the scenery, but these slugs totally ruined the vibe.

"Ha!" The gruff shout came from nearby, startling him.

He turned towards the meadow, and noticed a tall woman with flowing blonde hair. She stood knee-deep in the grass, with a shield covering her right arm and a sword in her left. She swung down on something in the grass. "Hya!"

Severance tilted his head, trying to figure out what exactly she was doing. She took a step back and gave another mighty shout.

"Heeya, Quick Strike!"

Her sword thrust downwards, quick as lightening.

Squee!

He couldn't see what made the sound, but when she lifted her sword, big globs of slime dripped from it like snot. The sight of it had him cringing. Now he understood exactly what was happening. There was only one thing around here that produced disgusting slime and it definitely wasn't the grass.

The woman shook her blade free of the goop, clearly unbothered, and went looking for her next target. She didn't appear to notice that she had an audience, or if she did, she didn't care.

Severance watched her find and kill another slug like she'd been running a pest control business all her life. It made him wish he was like that, to be able to have that kind of confidence.

Instead, here he was in the middle of a road in a strange place and he didn't have the first clue of what he was supposed to do. Should he try and kill some slugs, too? The idea made him uncomfortable. Even if the things were gross, he'd never fought or hurt anything before.

You chicken. You can't do anything on your own.

His shoulders tensed, teeth grinding together. He started to walk, yet the quiet little voice persisted. It sounded exactly like his sister, Carly.

Why even bother? No one's going to like you, anyway.

"I'm not here to be liked," he mumbled. He was just here because his uncle wanted him to try out the game. That was all. As long as he did that, nothing else mattered.

He kept walking, and eventually the shouts of the warrior woman faded behind him. More than a few times, he had to skirt around a pink slug that decided to cross his path. None of them paid any attention to him, which was just fine—he didn't want anything to do with them, either.

It didn't take long before a large town appeared in the distance. Buildings spread out over the grassland, all single story structures with slanted roofs. Smoke rose in thin columns from chimneys, drifting sideways in a gray haze over town.