I'd been sitting in front of this bonfire for hours now, staring into its embers and thinking about my dream. It was too vivid to be a product of my imagination, too real to be just any other dream. It felt somehow familiar, but I couldn't recall anything like it in the short time that I can remember. The first thing that came to my mind when I thought of my past was waking up in that dank and putrid cell, but nothing about being any sort of soldier.

The thing that peaked my interest most of all about the vision was the fact that everyone I interacted with called me by name. Furion, I think they said. I couldn't recall the name, either, but I assumed that, if the dream was more than just a dream, Furion was my name.

I rather liked it. Furion. It rolled off of the tongue nicely.

There was another matter to attend to, however. I had caused the death of a man I hadn't even known. Of course, he sealed his own fate, but I instigated the matter. My justification at the time was that he was, undeniably, being an ass. But that was no reason let him die. I should have pulled him up. Hell, I shouldn't have even challenged him in the first place.

But what truly horrified me was the fact that I didn't feel bad about it. Now that it had happened, I didn't care.

And I had enjoyed it.

I blocked the feeling from my mind and stood. I could see a graveyard not too far from here, but it didn't seem like the kind of place that I should check out first. I decided to walk in the opposite direction, up the cliff face, and see where the road would take me.

One wall of fog and ten Hollows later, I wound up at another bonfire. There was something strange about these places that didn't agree with me. I was glad for their warmth, but something thickly sinister hung in the air. I sat down and rested my aching joints, observing the room.

There was piles of baskets and bags of unidentified objects, likely rotten and rancid food. There was a staircase, but as my eyes looked around the steps that traced around the room, a large portion of the stairway was destroyed and lay on the ground behind me. There was no way I was getting up that way, unless I enjoyed hurting myself. Near the visible top of the stairs hung a rusty iron ladder. It didn't hang low enough for me to grab, surely, but if I were able to get up there later, I could give myself a sort of a shortcut back to the shrine where the large bird dropped me. I stored the information in my head for later, acknowledging it.

I stood up and walked out of the room, only to be greeted by a quite surprising sight. The Hollows that I had previously killed were now walking about, fully armed. I knew there was something strange about those bonfires. When I sat at them, I noticed something about the Estus Flask that Oscar gave me in the asylum. The yellow Estus liquid inside expanded from the bonfire's heat and refilled the flask back to the brim. No wonder it was favored by the Undead, it was, essentially, a bottomless healing elixir. However, the forces of nature never create something without balancing the other side. I assumed that this same force made the Hollows alive and walking again.

I charged out of the room with sword and shield drawn. The first Hollow who spotted me was dead before he could alert anyone, but the sight of me killing him roused the attention of several others. I looked to my right. Hollows were charging up the stairs, there was no chance that I could run through them. I decided that the left path was the best route, and ran towards a narrow stone bridge, away from the charging enemies.

It wasn't the best choice. Fire and explosions rocked the left side of the bridge, causing me to duck and cover. There were Hollows with firebombs, no doubt about it. I looked up towards where the firebombs were being thrown, and I nearly had a heart attack.

Was that a Drake?!

An enormous Red Drake flew high in the sky, dipping down towards me. I panicked and ran to the other side. The Drake landed in the exact spot that I had once been, roaring a mighty and blood-boiling roar, churning my stomach and hurting my ears. Extreme heat emanated from my right as the Drake spit fire hot enough to roast bone black, killing every Hollow that followed me. It didn't seem like there was any discrimination between the living and the not-so-living in this place. My heart raced as the Drake took flight, blowing corpses and the smell of burnt flesh in all directions. As it flew back towards where it came, I stayed frozen, not wanting to continue.

I steeled my will and slowly advanced far away from where the dragon had been. My leg hurt immensely. I looked down at my right leg to see a burn mark the size of my arm. I pulled my Estus flask from my ragged belt and drank a swig of it. The burned skin turned red, and the black parts shed off, revealing light pink. It itched, but I dare not touch it.

It seemed that the Drake scared off quite a few of the remaining Hollows, and killed the rest. Advancing was a breeze, as I didn't have to worry about too much now.

But the greatest challenge so far was yet to come.

After a few minutes of walking, I eventually stumbled across an old tower. I had seen it in the distance, but I had no idea what lie within. I decided to open the door and see for myself. When I walked in, the smell of powdered stone and ash filled my nostrils. I coughed and sneezed, but after a moment, I was used to the environment. There was a staircase leading up the tower, and a door, just on the other side of the room. I didn't like the look of how the staircase loomed so far above my head, so I decided to open the door and trek below the tower, not knowing that I made the wrong decision.

The staircase that led below was long and badly lit. I had to tread carefully in order to avoid tripping and falling. As my feet hit the bottom step, I noticed a statue of a man clad in heavy armor placed directly in front of my path. At first, I thought of what a stupid decision it was, just putting a statue in front of a doorway, but I soon realized that I wasn't dealing with a harmless statue.

The "statue" grabbed an enormous bludgeoning weapon from his back and got into a combat stance. I stepped back in surprise.

"I'll kill you if you come any closer." He said in a deep baritone.

"I've done nothing wrong." I replied.

"You aren't wanted here." He said. "I don't like strangers coming where they aren't wanted."

I tried to reason with him. "Just let me pass. I don't want any-"

"This will be your final warning! If you disobey, I will end you!" He said forcefully.

"Will you, now?" I said cockily. "Bring it on."

I underestimated his power. I assumed that, because he was wearing such heavy equipment, it would slow him down. I was wrong.

With one swift blow that connected to my torso, he sent me flying across the room. I hit the wall with the force of a battering ram, shaking dust off the surface of the wall. I hit the ground with a heavy thud, making my muscles ache. Another hit like that, and I would surely be done for. I raised my shield, only to find that I was holding the top half. The bottom half lay on the other side of the floor.

"Feel the wrath of Havel the Rock!" He boomed, raising his enormous shield.

I understood why they called him that.

I turned on my heel and ran up the stairs, trying to buy time for an idea to spark in my head. There was no possibility that I could defeat him in one on one combat, not without some sort of special advantage of my own. The only thing that came to mind was my Estus Flask and the fact that it healed my wounds. After thinking about that for a moment, I dismissed it. There was the chance that Havel could kill me in a single blow, and his speed was equal to mine. Unless I found a weapon that was built to demolish stone, then I didn't see how I could walk away from this alive.

Unless...

I ran up the stairs even faster than before, the gears in my head clicking and turning like clockwork.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I ran the route back to the narrow bridge that I had cowered across earlier. Havel followed me every step of the way, his bloodthirsty nature overcoming any reason.

"Run, little one!" He roared. "Run!"

I scurried to the bonfire and raised my hand to it. The light burned brighter and the bones of the scorched dead began to shake and shudder. Havel looked around him as the bones formed living beings.

He chuckled. The chuckle turned to laughter, which, in turn, changed into mad cackling.

"Is this the best you can do? You might as well just give up!" He snarled.

I smirked. "Sorry. That isn't my style." I said.

A loud, beating whoosh echoed in the air. Havel looked over towards the noise, and was surprised to see that the noise was product of the wings of the Red Drake that I had encountered earlier. I figured that the presence of the dead returning to life was what called the Drake forth in the first place, and it didn't take me long to realize that it might work again.

"Surprise." I said. I ran at him full speed and rolled around his ensuing strike, stunning and staggering him. As I ran to safety, he turned to face the Drake. It landed with an enormous crash in front of him. It bared its teeth and roared in his face.

"I've killed Dragons and Drakes with my naked hands! You'll be no different!" Havel shouted.

He raised his enormous bludgeoning weapon, a weapon that I realized now to be the tooth of a Dragon, and struck the beast's foot. The Drake blew fire in return, and I ran far away from the battle, glad that my plan worked as well as I believed that it would.

I hoped that he would kill the Drake. Otherwise, I could have created an even bigger problem for myself