DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay?

The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 39 Assassin, named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, I'm usually not doing anything terribly important online and I'd love to see some peers or fans in-game!

Today's new character is my good friend Monica's own Hamina of Ellinia. Send her some love from the fanbase.

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Birds, in the night. Cold snow fell around me, into my hair and eyes. I pulled myself into the sleeping bag someone had put over me, my back aching in the strain.

Voices. Far away... No. Only a bit. Other side of this clearing, perhaps. I sat up and noticed the fire I had been next to.

My first impression was to flee, but my body was too slow. I stared at it until I realized that it wasn't a threat, merely a campfire. Nothing big, even. I'm a coward in the morning.

"-you've known - he might be?"

Allie.

Thank the gods, if they exist. She's alive. I strained my ears, unwilling to stand.

"No clue. -anywhere - we wouldn't know."

A male voice. Defeated and exhausted.

"But..."

Allie again. She was quieter now, losing her nerve. My back ached.

"No. We've - most we could. -impulsive, is all."

A different female voice. I recognized it but couldn't put my finger on it. Didn't matter anyway... I layed back down and exhaustion flooded me. Nothing really mattered right now but the pain and the sleep. I dozed off once again.

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"Dan."

Not yet. I'm comfortable.

"Dan..."

No.

"Danny?"

Die, you! Dammit.

"Daaaaanny?"

My eyes snapped open and I immediately regretted it. Now sleep wouldn't come back, dammit.

"Dan."

Allie sat next to my upper body, one hand on my torso. The other was playing with my hair. When she noticed that I noticed, she immediately withdrew her hands and blushed.

"What?" I asked, not politely. My back was starting to hurt again.

"I just..." she said, quietly, and stopped. Again the pang of regret hit me. I tried to sit up, and she stood.

"Wait," I said stupidly, and realized I had nothing to say after that.

"I just wanted to be sure you were still alive," she said finally, and began to walk away. A mix of emotions hit me, that of which few of you know. It includes fear for your life, fear for the life of one you care about, regret that you hurt that person's feelings, and curiousity so hard you want to punch someone.

"Allie!" I cried, and choked. My throat was pretty damn sore. She was gone. I swore more than once and lay down, staring into the fire.

How long have I been here?

I spent the next five minutes trying to find my surroundings. It was barren and snowy, trees everywhere. Those three voices from earlier. Well, two, talking in soft hushes. They must have seen the results of that explosion and helped Allie take me here. Wherever here was. The other, the third person was breathing heavy. It could be sobbing.

Dammit. Allie...

I swore again and stared at the starlit sky.

The only thing more mysterious than the landscape was my body. One of my contacts seemed to have melted into my cornea. It hurt like hell, and eventually I stopped opening the eye altogether. My back and the back of my neck still hurt, and the skin was scratchy. Like a giant scab. A lot of the hair on the back of my head was gone, and someone had trimmed the rest so it looked okay. I'd have to thank them for the care.

My shirt was gone, but my knucklevest was folded up near me, with my other things. I noticed with a jolt that my pants were there as well.

Suddenly awake, I pulled the covers up and saw, with a sigh a relief, that my boxers were fully intact. Luckily, I had chosen to wear the ones with the button on this fine day. First bit of luck I'd had since... Well, for a good while.

It was Wednesday when I got... When Allie got those Ilbis. That was pretty damned lucky, if I do say-

Wednesday? The position of the stars and the moon disagreed.

I sat bolt upright. Learning the stars' locations and direction of travel were basic to any intellectual traveller, and I doubted I would screw them up.

"It's Saturday?" I exclaimed, hoping somebody would hear me. It became apparant that our two visitors had indeed.

"Sorry about all that," a man said, and I recognized him from Allie's description. Renon of Ellinia: Dressed in Black with his Arc Staff in hand, Esther Sheild on-arm, and White Guiltain leaning over his long, blue hair. And next to him...

"Hamina?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. She was the Cleric I'd mentioned back in Chapter One, a girl who I've known since my days in Victoria Monster-Control University. She was, as I stated, a Cleric, and a very successful one at that. Always on-track in school, she had been studying Clericy Theory while I spent my days in the Archery room, tossing rusty Subis at rubber dummies.

"You've got me to thank for your life," she said dully, but with a smile. "How's life been?"

"Interesting," I replied honestly, sitting up. "I got the job easy. The Dark Lord's a creepy guy, every time I talk to him I get that feeling that he's hiding something from me, you know? Anyway, I'm getting up in there. Level-" I paused to check. "Thirty-nine. Yourself?"

"Fifties," she said with a wave of her hand (the number hardly suprised me. She'd be a Preiestess in no time). "That's not what I meant, though. I put you on some drugs on top of my healing, but they have some side-effects."

"Namely?"

"Usually drowsiness," she shrugged. "Stomachaches, sometimes headaches, sometimes neck cramps. Also, I gave you a pain reliever that might have had some estrogen in it, so if it applies to you your menstrual system-"

"It doesn't," I said hurriedly, and she giggled. "I'm fine. Is the skin going to heal soon?"

"In about a week. Actually, I suggest you go shirtless for a while, and don't lay on your back-" I shifted to my side. "I'll just have Allie keep an eye out for you. We need to get going."

"Going? Where?"

"To find Hideval," she winked. I stood then, with great amounts of pain, and she clubbed me over the head with her staff.

For the second time in however long it had been, I conked out cold.

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"Bloody woman," I muttered, and Allie jumped. It took me two seconds to remember everything, and that was too late to stop Allie from stalking off.

Again feeling like an ass, I swore at myself and looked around. My throat was both sore and dry by now, but Hamina had had the decency to heal the head wound she gave me. I took a shallow bowl and scooped up some snow from nearby, crawling there and back. I put the bowl near the fire, recognizing it from Survival Class.

"Allie," I said, hardly able to speak, let alone yell. But I did my best. "It wasn't you, it was just the memory of Hamina hitting me, come back... Allie...!"

I only then noted that my covers were wet. At first I assumed there was snow leaking in, but it was a special sleeping bag sold especially for weather like this. And then I assumed that the water had leaked in the waterproof material.

Then the stench hit me, that of day-old sweat.

"You kept thrashing around," Allie said quietly, behind me. I nearly jumped out of my shorts. "We were all really worried, and I told them about those visions you kept having. Hamina said she'd check you out for schizophrenia before everything's over."

I nodded and drank the half-slush water. Allie took the empty dish from me and refilled it, then put it next to the fire for me. I thanked her and she nodded with a small smile.

"You've been out since... Wednesday?" she said, and I nodded. "Wednesday at like five. So it's been four days, almost. It's Sunday morning."

I fell sideways unto the sleeping bag. Snow was landing on my bare arms, and I was cold. I pulled the covers up while Allie explained everything.

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((A/N: Short chapter, sorry. The next will be longer, and in Allie's POV. So look forward to it! ))