Eric ripped the ring off his finger, holding it in blood-slick fingers.

He stared at the diamond set into the simple white-gold band. The blood covered the faceted surface, but Eric could still see a faint white light seeping out of the diamond, painted a faint red color as it permeated the blood across its smooth surface. 

Eric could feel the panic attack building before he noticed footsteps to his right. His lungs began to heave breaths like the air he inhaled was as thin as atop Everest. A woman entered the clearing, leather armor and a grey tunic extending down to mid-thigh. She held out a sword, a pack on her back. If Eric was more coherent, he would have noticed the meticulously managed black hair that bobbed to her chin and just below her ear, surrounding a beautifully fair and oval face. Her eyes, however, held a hardness that could cut diamonds. 

“What in Dracula’s name happened here?” The woman said, staring at the bodies, then at Eric. 

“I–” Eric said, trying to explain, but he realized that he had no idea what to say, how to come to terms with what had just happened. 

That’s when he screamed. 

It was a guttural scream, from the depths of his soul, splintered as it was. It reverberated through the trees and off the mountain's stone behind him. He fell to his knees, not caring how much it hurt to crash right into hard rocks and earth with his kneecaps. 

What am I? Eric thought. What happened to me? Oh, Rose…

The thought of Rose again sent another wave of grief through him. His body convulsed, making him double over in pain, a low groan coming from his throat. That’s when the emotion and trauma took him. The darkness was slow to arrive, but into unconsciousness, he delved, the sound of voices speaking around him the last thing he remembered before his mind went dark. 

The strong smell of ammonia attacked Eric’s nose, making him jump up from the thin bed he had been lying in. He coughed and rubbed his nose, adrenalin coursing through him. Eyes wide, he looked around the room. 

The same woman that had approached him before stood over him, a small cloth bag in her hands. 

“Sheesh.” The woman said. “Jumpy aren’t you?”

Eric took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself. He looked at his clothes, which he had none on, other than some simple cloth undergarments. He shifted the blanket off of him and swung his legs to hang out over the edge of the bed. He spotted his clothes, neatly folded and devoid of blood, sitting on a short wood bench on the far wall. The room was small, with two beds along one wall, one of which Eric occupied. A dark figure filled the far corner across from the beds near Eric’s clothing. 

“Why are you here?” Eric asked. 

The dark figure shifted, then turned. 

“Well,” the skeleton began. “I can’t really leave your side.” Its creepy eyes shifted and looked around the room. “I was cursed to accompany those that came through that tunnel.”

“You have weird friends,” the woman said, turning to Eric. “What’s your name?”

“Eric,” he said, looking at her. “Where am I?”

“Golstadt.” The woman said. “Local town here in the northern crags. I wasn’t sure what to do with you, and admittedly, bringing you here to the town and inn is self-serving. I was hoping you had some information for me.”

“Why me?” Eric said. “What could I possibly know?”

“I was on a hunt and tracked a particularly dangerous shifter this way,” the woman said. “To be honest, I thought you were the shifter, but…” she trailed off. “That much blood would have set you off beyond even a high-ranking hunter could have handled. So, I figured I had just stumbled into some crazy blood family feud.” She chuckled a bit after the last comment. 

Eric looked at her in shock. “I don’t know how to respond to that.”

“Anyway,” she began. “I thought maybe you had seen the thing. It’s wolf-kind I think, from what I’ve tracked so far. Nasty one, too. By the way, the name’s Sophia.” She held out a hand.

Eric took the hand, then nearly fell off the bed when another voice spoke, accompanied by a floating screen to his right.

“Welcome to Auron.” The feminine voice said, a slight robotic routine in its voice. “World of blood and bone, magic of the flesh and body.”

“What’s wrong?” The skeleton said. “Did she hurt you?”

“Oh stop that,” Sophia said. “I shook his hand, you bag of bones…” She trailed off noticing the eyeballs. “What the…”

“Can either of you hear that voice?” Eric said. 

“Um…” the skeleton said. “Not sure what you mean.”

“Did you get hit in the head, too?” Sophia said. “I tried not to jostle you too much on the way here.” 

“A woman just spoke to me…” Eric said, then realized that the voice sounded familiar. A cold chill ran through him. “Rose…” He had yet to acknowledge the floating blue screen with text either. 

“You said that name a lot on the way here,” Sophia said. “She important to you?”

The feminine voice continued. “I am your personal assistant as you navigate this new world. Please do not misplace that ring, as it is the only connection we have to each other. However, I also ask that you please refrain from putting the ring on, since you have not strengthened your abilities enough to control that form, as you have already learned.”

Eric sat, listening to the voice, the other two just staring at him in confusion. He finally noticed the screen and turned to look at it. It read out word for word what the voice had just said, with one addition to it. It had a box with a blinking cursor in it, the instructions above, Please Name your Companion.

“Can either of you see this?” Eric said, gesturing to the floating screen.

“You must have taken quite the hit,” Sophia said. The skeleton just looked at Eric with concern. 

Eric turned back to the screen and said, “Rose.” 

“Name accepted,” the voice said. “Rose will now be my name from henceforth.” 

Eric only nodded, control over his panic slipping. “Are you my Rose? Did that burst of light…” he couldn’t finish his thought, but the voice understood. 

“I…” the voice faltered but then continued. “...am a representation of a portion of your soul. Any resemblance to another is pure happenstance.”

“Should we leave him be?” Sophia said, turning to the skeleton. It only shrugged.

Eric sat up, a determination building in him. 

“Rose, is there a possibility that my Rose is still alive?” Eric asked. 

“The chances are present,” Rose said. “However, it cannot be determined with the current data set.”

“Then she might be alive,” Eric said. 

“Well,” the bag of bones said. “That kind of energy would have been fatal to most.” He cut off with a glare from Eric. He held his hands up in front of him. “But what do I know? I’m just a near millennium-old skeleton that doesn’t remember his own name.” He sheepishly let his hands fall to his side.

“A what?” Sophia said. 

Eric walked to where his clothes lay and threw them on. Sophia eyed him, a quick appraisal of his form as he walked passed her. 

“You’re not all that weak-looking,” she said. “You a hunter?”

“No,” Eric said. “I’m just a writer. But I’m not a fantasy writer. I am out of my depth here.” 

“A writer?” Sophia said, skepticism laid on thick. “Who are you?”

“My name is Eric Schaeffer,” he said. “And I need to find a way home.”

“Where’s home?” Sophia asked. “Hope it’s not in the west. They’re overrun right now.”

“Eric is from another universe, much like this one,” the skeleton said. “He was pulled in when the roots of the Vineyard scraped by each other.”

“Clanker,” Eric said. “Please don’t spread that around.” The skeleton wilted a bit but then perked up. 

“What’s clanker?” The skeleton asked. 

“I’m calling you Clanker,” Eric said. “You don’t remember your name, so I’ll just give you one.”

“Clanker has joined your party,” Rose said. Another screen popped up with a health bar and his name. 

“You’re from where?” Sophia looked at the two of them in confusion, a sudden darkness coming over her.

“He’s from–” Clanker started, but was cut off by Eric’s glare again.

“You’re an otherworlder?” Sophia asked, tension building in her voice.

Eric noticed her demeanor change. “Are there others like me here?”

Sophia closed the distance to Eric in a second, shocking him into silence. She wrapped her hand around his neck and slammed him into the wall of the room with incredible strength. She stared into his eyes, a darkness billowing in them, overshadowing the dark hazel of her irises. Eric, in that moment, suddenly realized how beautiful Sophia was. 

“My sister was taken by an otherworlder,” Sophia said. “I’ve been tracking him for three years. I’m gonna gut him when I find him. Are you from the same place?” She still held Eric against the wall, hand firmly around his neck. Eric did his best to shake his head, unable to speak. Sophia delved into him through his eyes, piercing his soul. She huffed, then suddenly dropped him. He gasped for breath, hand going to his neck. 

“You have the eyes of a good man,” Sophia said. “Sorry about that.” 

Eric looked up at her and suddenly felt pity. She has lost someone, he thought. Just like me. 

“Will you come with me?” Eric asked. “To find a way home? If this otherworlder took your sister, I bet we’d find more information while chasing my own goals.” Sophia folded her arms, eyebrows raised. Eric continued. “I only have Clanker for help, and I can’t help thinking that being stuck in a cave for eight hundred years leaves updated knowledge of the world to be desired.”

Sophia looked at Eric, a small grin tugging at the edges of her mouth. 

“Can’t say I have ever been so lucky,” Sophia said. “I stumbled headlong right into something crazy, didn’t I?”

Eric smiled. “Is that a yes?”

Sophia put out her hand again. “You got a deal, Eric.” 

Eric took her hand, a pleasantly welcomed sense of purpose settling into his chest.

“Sophia Bloodsbane has joined your party,” Rose said, an additional health bar entering Eric’s vision. 

I may not be a fantasy writer, Eric said. But this whole situation just got a whole lot more exciting.