The taller man name Helriel glanced at the woman, then back at me. "So a traveler, huh? Strange place for someone to be wandering alone." His voice carried suspicion, but also curiosity.

  "I suppose, but I could say the same for you," I replied, my hands still raised. "A child's footprints in a forest like this? It doesn't exactly scream safe, does it?"

  Helriel's jaw tightened and the woman, who I assumed was his wife, put herself between me and him. "Maybe, but this is our home for now, we are well capable of protecting ourselves."

  The child who I also assumed was their daughter peeked out from behind Helriel, her young innocent eyes full of fear of a stranger yet also fascination. She could not have been older than eight at most. Her hair was tangled, no doubt from running through the forest. There were leaves and some dirt stuck to it. She gazed at me sharply, studying me with intelligence beyond her years.

  "You're different," she said softly, her voice cutting through the tension like a knife to my heart.

  I was never good at conversing, even back home. I usually fumbled my words or never knew the right ones to say, so maybe she was right.

  She tilted her head, studying me. "You feel... loud. Like the trees, but not the same, like an echo."

  I blinked, caught off guard.

  The adults exchanged uneasy glances. The shorter man who had been standing quietly shifted his weight, his hand drifting toward his sword hilt. He spoke with a gravely, commanding voice. "Stop speaking to her."

  "Look," I said, lowering my hands slowly, "I'm not here to cause any trouble, I have no idea where I even am. I'm just trying to understand this place. If you don't want me here, I'll leave, okay?."

  Finally, after a long pause, the women sighed and gestured for the others to lower their guard. "You don't seem like a threat," she said cautiously. "But if you're lying to us..."

  "I'm not," I assured her. "I've been alone for a long time. I'm just looking for... a purpose, I guess." Helriel grunted and tried to argue. "Myra, we don't know him, we don't know his intentions." The woman, Myra it seemed, nodded whilst saying "Yes we don't, but what kind of people are we to turn away a lost stranger, husband?" She gestured towards a nearby log. "Sit. If you mean no harm, then we'll talk."

  I hesitated but obliged, taking their kindness and lowering myself onto the rough bark. The child stepped closer, her curiosity outweighing her fear. Brave girl.

  "What's your name?" She asked, again her voice insistent and betraying her age.

  I smiled faintly. "I don't have one child. Not any more, I lost it to time, long ago."

  She frowned, as if this was unacceptable. "Everyone has a name."

  "Not me, young one." I said gently. "But maybe one day I'll find one again."

  Helriel crossed his arms, his expression still very wary. "What are you really doing here, traveler? This forest is no place people just wander into. Not without some reason, or lack of it."

  I hesitated, unsure how much to answer. What was I doing here? "I'm following... something. A trail, I guess you could say. I'm trying to figure out what's happening in this world."

  The shorter man scoffed. "What's happening is the same as always, people scraping by just trying to survive. Unless you've brought some sort of miracle with you, you won't find anything new here."

  Something new. How wrong he was, here everything was new in some fashion, at least to me.

  The woman shot him a warning look. "Don't mind him. It's been a hard season for us."

  The child tugged on her mother's sleeve. "He's not lying, mama." she said quietly.

  "How do you know, child?" I asked her kindly.

  Her mother shared my sentiment, looking down at her, surprised. "What makes you say that, Mari?"

  Mari shrugged, her gaze never leaving me. "He feels... real."

  Those words struck me, made me feel small. How many times had I dreamt that I had always been alone? That I imagined the Fall. To have this child see me, actually see me. Something broke in me, but a gap was also filled at the same.

  Helriel sighed, "Real or not, my love, we don't have time for strangers. There's work to be done, and mouths to feed. If he wants to stay, he pulls his weight. Otherwise, he moves on."

  I felt that was more directed at me than the child, but I understood him.

  I nodded slowly. "I don't want to impose. But... if you'll let me stay for a while, I'll help however I can."

  The woman studied me for a long moment, then nodded. "Alright, traveler. You can stay the night. But no funny business, understand?"

  "No funny business, got it" I said with a slight smile.

  Human contact, speaking to someone again, other than a monotonous AI, was freeing.

  As they led me toward their small camp on the edge of the clearing, I couldn't help but feel a flicker of hope. They were wary, yes, but they were also alive. I felt alive. Humans. After over five thousand years, I wasn't alone.

  And if I was going to save this world, I would need them more than they knew.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The camp was modest but sturdy;a few lean-to shelters made from tightly lashed branches and animal hides, clustered around a fire pit. The smell of smoked meat and damp earth filled the air. The group moved with practiced efficiency, each seeming to know their role and position without speaking. They had been here some time.

  Mari stayed closer to me than her parents seemed happy with, her small hand clutching a carved wooden charm she wore around her neck. "Are you really all alone?" she asked, her small voice just above a whisper.

  I nodded. "For a long time now."

  "Why?" Her question was simple, but it hit me down to my core.

  I hesitated. "Sometimes, that's just how things are, little one."

  She frowned, clearly unsatisfied with my answer, but she didn't press further, surprising for a child. Instead, she reached up and held out the charm. It was crudely shaped but unmistakably a tree. "This keeps us safe," she said. "Do you have one?"

  I shook my head. "I don't, it is very pretty, though."

  Mari frowned deeper, her small face scrunched in thought, then she tucked the charm back under her tunic. "Maybe that's why you're loud," she muttered, more to herself than to me.

  I smiled, children, I had never had any before the Fall, but I always understood them more than others. They didn't care if you knew the right words. They just wanted to talk. To learn. Myra called Mari toward the fire. "Give him space," she said, though her tone was gentle. "He's still a stranger."

  Mari pouted but did as she was asked, skipping off toward the fire. Myra gestured for me to sit on one of the big rough tree trunk-benches near the pit. The taller man, her husband, Helriel, stood nearby, his arms crossed as he kept a focused eye on me. The shorter man, his name was Bram, I had learned through listening to quiet conversation between the adults, was busy stoking the flames, his movements quick and precise, practised.

  Myra sat down across from me as I stared at the fire burning, her expression guarded but curious. "You said you're following something. What is it?"

  I stared into the fire for a moment, gathering my thoughts. "It's hard to explain," I began. "But... I think something's broken in this world, something that should not be here. And I feel it's old, very, very old, I felt it, and it led me here."

  Bram snorted, "Sounds like the ramblings of a madman in Korshelim square."

  Helriel grunted in agreement, but Myra held up a hand to silence them both. "Broken how?" she asked.

  I hesitated again, unsure how much they would understand-or believe from me. "It's like... the land is crying out for help. There's a wound somewhere in Telora, an infection of something that was never meant to be here, and it's spreading."

  Her eyes narrowed. "You're talking about the blight."

  Blight. The word hung heavy in the air, I had heard of the same blight from the god, and I could feel the weight it carried for them. I did not know what it was.

  "What do you know about it?" I asked very carefully.

  "Enough to know it's not your business," Bram said sharply. "We've had enough outsiders claiming they have answers or solutions, only to bring more trouble."

  Myra gave him a pointed look. "Let him speak first before you assume the meaning of what he says." She turned back to me. "The blight started about ten years ago, further east in the Novak region. Crops withering overnight, rivers turning black, animals disappearing or ending up dead in their pens, not a scratch on them. It has spread slowly, but it's relentless. Whole villages have been abandoned." Her voice was steady, but I could hear the undercurrent of fear and sadness.

  "It's not just nature," I said softly. "It's deeper than that. Like something at the heart of the world is... unravelling, or tightening. I don't know yet."

  Myra's expression darkened at my words, and even Bram paused in his work to look at me. Helriel, however, looked unimpressed. "And what are you going to do about it? You're just one man."

  "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing" I quoted, a quote from ages past that still rung true, it was ancient even when I was born.

  "Now I don't claim to be good, though I try, but I do claim to want to help"

  Even Helriel seemed to consider my words.

  I didn't have a true answer. I barely understood what I was supposed to do myself. But the memory from the ruined temple and the voice of the fading god were burnt into my mind. Restore balance. Somehow. Save them.

  "I don't know yet what I will or can do." I admitted. "But I am trying to figure it out, maybe I can't help, and there is a strong chance I can't, but maybe I can. I make no promises other than to try."

  Myra leaned back, studying me with a mix of scepticism and something else, hope perhaps. "You speak like someone who's seen things they should not have, up close."

  "I have" I said simply, it was true after all.

  Her gaze softened. "Where?"

  "My home." I said sadly, "that's where."

  "What happened?" she asked, not intrusively, but more like she wanted me to open up.

  "It burnt, a very long time ago, my people got too power hungry and it destroyed us. So now I wander, traveling to anywhere that calls me."

  "What called you here?" She asked again, she seemed happy that I was being open, but seemed saddened by my story, if not somewhat disturbed.

  "Ruins called me, those not far from here."

  Bram froze, his hand halfway to the fire. "The ruins?" he echoed. "You've been there?"

  I nodded. "Yes, there was... something there. A presence, a feeling. It told me to come here." A partial truth but a truth nonetheless.

  The group fell silent. Even Mari, who had been playing with a stick near the fire, looked up. Myra's face was pale. "You heard a voice?"

  "Yes"

  "What did it say?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

  "To find the people of this land and unite them, help them."

  I found no reason to lie, it would not help. Honestly was what these people wanted, without it, they would leave me to wander without any idea where I was, with no knowledge of the land.

  And maybe I also just felt compelled to be honest with the first humans I had met in millennia.

  For a long moment, no one spoke. The crackling of the fire was the only sound, the flickering light casting long shadows over their faces. Finally, Bram broke the silence by his place at the fire with a harsh laugh. "A story as old as the hills. A chosen one to save the world. A kid's story. Do you expect us to believe that?"

  "No" I said evenly. "But you've seen the effects of the blight, or whatever it truly is. You know it's real. And if it keeps spreading as it sounds like it is, then-"

  "We won't survive," Myra finished quietly.

  Her words hung heavy in the air, and Bram and Helriel didn't argue. Bram looked down at the fire, his jaw tight. Mari crawled into her mother's lap, clutching her charm tightly.

  Finally, Myra sighed. "If what you're saying is actually true, which I somewhat doubt... then you'll need more than just yourself to stop it. And if it's not..." She paused, her expression hardening. "We'll make sure you don't bring any trouble here."

  "I truly don't want trouble," I said firmly. "I want to help, if I can."

  Myra nodded slowly. "Then you can stay. For now. But if you put us in danger-"

  "I won't." I promised. "Thank you."

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The first night in the camp passed quietly enough, though I didn't sleep much, hard when you are used to a metal coffin. The thin mat Myra had offered was better than the cold ground that reminded me of the cold metal of my ship. My mind churned with questions and a strong unease. I could feel something wrong in the area, most likely due to my curse and being on Telora, a faint, pulsing wrongness that I had not noticed before my talk with a god, it gnawed at the edges of my awareness. It seemed worse here than at the ruins-more immediate, more aggressive.

  Maybe the god was wrong, and I didn't have as much time as it thought, it was fallible, that much was clear, its race was dead. Maybe whatever machines it had talked about were here, playing a long game. I had no way of knowing.

  The group treated me with a polite wariness which was truthfully more than I expected, Helriel kept his distance, always watching with a hand near his blade. Probably due to his child being nearby, Bram was quieter, focused on his tasks, but he wasn't exactly as unkind as before. Myra remained the heart of their small group, I had gathered her as the leader quite quickly. I had noticed her calm and steady presence was a comfort to Mari mostly, who stuck close to her or me, despite her mother's warnings. I'm not quite sure why Mari trusted me so much, even now years later I don't know, and if she knows, she won't tell me. Maybe a youthful eye sees the truth clearer than most. I meant no harm, after all.

  By dawn, the camp was already stirring. Bram was sharpening his knife, I heard it scraping against a strip of leather, while Helriel inspected traps he'd set during the night. Myra handed me a basket and a quiet task; gathering kindling.

  I did not protest and set out to do as asked.

  As I worked, Mari followed me, her curiosity taking over. "What's it like?" she asked, skipping beside me. "The ruins, I mean."

  I paused, crouching to pick up a branch, back still stiff from a night of bad sleep. "Lonely," I said honestly. "Quiet, but... heavy. Like something bad happened there a long time ago."

  Mari tilted her head, considering this. "Do you think the voice you heard was... a god?"

  "Depends." I replied, "What does a god mean to you?"

  "Something that makes things better." was her innocent reply.

  Her question had caught me off guard, truth be told. Had they really been gods? Or just super advanced beings of incredible power, did it matter?

  "My papa used to say the gods left because we stopped listening," she said matter-of-factly. "But Mama says they're still here, just hiding."

  I smiled faintly in a sad way. "Maybe your mother's right." I said, knowing full well she was not. They were not hiding, they were dead.

  She grinned and darted ahead, pointing out fallen branches I hadn't noticed. By the time we returned to the camp, my basket was overflowing. Myra glanced at it, somewhat surprised by how much I gathered, nodding her approval. "You're good at finding things," she remarked.

  "Years of practice." I said.

  Helriel muttered something under his breath, but Myra ignored him, he did not seem to like me at all. Myra spoke to us all, "We'll be heading to the city tomorrow, it's a two-day journey, so we'll need to travel light."

  "Why the city?" I asked, curious.

  "Supplies," she said simply. "Trade's been harder lately, with the blight cutting off some of the routes, but we have to manage."

  Mari tugged at her mother's sleeve. "Can he come with us?" she said as she pointed at me.

  Myra hesitated, glancing at Helriel and Bram. "That depends," she said. "Can you pull your weight on the road?"

  "I can," I assured her. Years of having next to nothing bar the useless things in my ship had left me accustomed to having very little.

  "Good. We leave at first light of next morning, keep up.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  That night I tried to ponder what could be causing the blight, was it the other half of the First Flame? The other half was Death after all, a blight would make sense. But would that not be too easy? Surely it would be harder to find than just following the blight, something else must be causing it. Maybe something tied to the First Flame.

  I had a lot of thinking to do.