‘Wake up.’

“Five more minutes…”

‘Please WAKE UP!’

Begrudgingly, Ves opened her eyes.

“What the fuck…”

Ves found herself under a rocky overhang, along the shore of a dangerously fast-flowing river. Beyond that, forest, endless dark forest. She tried to remember where she was, but her memories were hazy at best. Like trying to remember what happened the morning after a night with a keg of cheap ale. Or after one of the many times her master had beaten her unconscious. She certainly felt sore enough. Best she could guess, she was still somewhere in the Fangswood forest that surrounded the Scalebacks. She did somewhat remember that she had been out on a hunting trip with her master, that an attack had occurred. But the details were lost to her. Only brief images, and something, something big chasing her.

Painfully, slowly, she braced herself against the stone. Pulling herself to her feet, shaky but standing. Only to notice her servant’s uniform was rather ragged, with tears and holes all over. Most alarmingly, it was soaked in blood. The smell of the blood alone was strong enough to make most people’s stomachs turn. Enough that she wondered how she was still alive.

Her legs were crudely bandaged, but she saw no sign of whoever had done so. What alarmed her the most was how thin she had become. Her arms looked naught but skin and bones. Looking down her shirt, she could make out her ribs. Even as she ran her hand across her face, she could feel her cheekbones sharply defined.

How long had she been out here?

‘I assure you that you are fine! We don’t have time for this. We need to go!’

Startled, Ves glanced around, trying to find the source of the voice. Only to see no one…

“Hello?” 

‘Yes, hello, less talking, please. We need to move.’

Something about the voice sounded off. Then it hit her. She wasn’t hearing the voice at all. At least not with her ears. 

“Oh great, now I’m delusional,” Ves muttered to herself. Wondering if she had hit her head, she reached up to feel for a wound, only to pull her hand back when she felt something wet. There was no blood on her fingers, but rather a sickly-looking gray slime. Memories flashed back, fragments of being chased. She remembered an egg, and this looked just like its yolk.

‘Please! We need to hurry! I’m not a voice in your… well, I guess I am a voice in your head. But a real one!’ 

Ves slumped back down onto the cold, rocky ground in shock. She was now sure she was going crazy. She had a voice in her head arguing with her. Her life already sucked, but she didn’t think it would literally drive her insane…

‘Listen to me! I am real! But fine, if you don’t believe me, how about this!?’

She could feel it. Something squirmed around in her skull and down her spine. Something was inside her, and it was talking to her. In a panic, frantically looking around, she saw it. The egg from before, an egg now empty.

Why couldn’t she have just been hallucinating?

“What in the void are you…?”

‘I’m afraid it is really not the time for questions.’

“Again, what the FUCK are you!?” Ves shouted as she clawed at her own skull.

‘After! I’ll explain all I can after, I promise. We need to run.’ 

“I’m not going anywhere until you—” 

A loud crash cut Ves off as two entangled bodies twisted down the rocky shore. One was the very namesake of the forest, a dire wolf. It was mangy, with brown fur and the size of a man, even on all fours.

The second was like an insect, body black as pitch and nearly as large as the direwolf. Something in the back of Ves’s mind told her she had seen one before, but she couldn’t remember where.

Both locked in carnage as they tore at each other with abandon. Blood from both painted the stones. It was then Ves noticed the surrounding chaos. This was not an isolated fight. All around, she could hear or catch glimpses of similar battles to the death, and now, before her, the original fight was over. The wolf lay dead as the creature rose and turned towards Ves. Badly injured, it limped towards her.

Ves scrambled to her feet and fumbled as she tried to run away. Loose stones tripped her up on every step. Behind her, she could hear the thing closing in. Like a fool, she turned to check how close the monster had gotten. Only to see out of the corner of her eye a battered and bloody wolf lunge at her. Ves only had a single breath to react. Lifting her arms to protect herself as the beast’s maw latched onto her arm, fangs tearing into flesh.

Ves had barely begun to cry out when the wolf thrashed. Flinging her side to side as she could feel the flesh in her arm give way. With one last swing, she went flying. She could see parts of her arm were still in the beast’s bloody maw as she plunged into the water. Gasping for breath, she tried to keep her head above water as the current dragged her away.

The wolf dashed along the shore and lunged in pursuit, diving into the water before it realized its mistake. The current was strong, inescapably strong. Now, they were both in a bad spot as the water battered them while pulling the pair helplessly along. It was all Ves could do to keep her head above water, struggling for each breath she took, all the while her body was being pummeled by the rocks below.

The wolf wasn’t doing any better. Panic in its eyes, as both were rushing towards a jagged boulder piercing through the water. Ves made peace with the idea that this was it—this was the end. 

Lucky for her, the wolf hit the rock first as its body folded at a sickening-looking angle along the edge. It stayed stuck just long enough to cushion Ves’s own impact. So, she clung onto the dead beast with all her might as it shielded her from the worst of the rapids. With only one good arm, she wrapped her legs around the body and prayed. Prayed to the goddess that she would make it through the hellish water ride. Eventually, the river calmed. Allowing a dead, battered wolf and an only half-dead, battered Ves to wash up on shore.  

“I never want to do that again…”

‘Agreed; next time I’m trying to warn you, please listen…’

“Noted.”

Ves felt her whole body stiffen and a chill run down her spine as she remembered who she was talking to. The unwelcome thing in her head. With a deep breath, she calmed herself. Panic later, assess the situation first. 

Sitting up, she tried to brush her sopping-wet silver hair from her face, only to stop and stare in horror. Her right wrist and part of her arm were mangled. Bone was visible, and her hand was just limply hanging on. It was far from the first time she had seen a mutilated body. But said body being her own was a new, horrifying experience. She stared at the remains of her right arm a moment longer before noticing she felt no pain. Actually, she couldn’t feel anything. That couldn’t be a good sign.

‘Yes, it’s pretty bad; I’m flooding our body with an anesthetic to push away the pain, otherwise it would be too unbearable even to move. As for the arm, I may be able to save it, but first we need rest and food.’

“Umm, thank you? Also, explanation!”

‘I am inside you, desperately trying to repair what I can and keep us from dying. But I can’t make something from nothing; we need food and rest. I am just as exhausted as you.’

“What in the void are you?” Ves asked, fearing the answer more than just a little.

‘I don’t know.’

Ves blinked a few times. “Huh?”

‘All I remember is panic. I felt like I was dying, drifting in and out of consciousness. Until I woke up inside of you and found you also dying… To be honest, I am just as confused as you.’

“Wait, you’re saying you don’t know what’s going on or why you’re in my body?”

‘correct.’

“That’s incredibly unhelpful. Let’s start simple, then. What are you?”

‘Again, I don’t know.’

“How can you not know?”

‘I seem to just know a lot of things, like how to bind with your body and keep it alive despite the injuries. Honestly, know may be a strong word, it’s more my body is running on instinct, desperately trying to keep us both alive.’

“I’m not sure if that makes me more or less disturbed out. What about before that? Remember anything from before you woke up inside me?”

‘Fragments of emotion, distress, but nothing specific.’

“Memory loss, that’s your excuse?” Ves asked dryly. Not that she was one to talk, with her own memories still hazy.

‘Maybe? But I don’t think so.’

“Wait, the egg… were you the thing inside?” If that was the case, it was only a day or two old at best.

‘Egg? Something about that does sound familiar. I vaguely remember being somewhere warm and wet before I found myself inside of you.’

“How do I even respond to that… but still, how can you not know who or what you are? Basic knowledge should be part of your blessing.” Ves asked before she trailed off, “Wait, if you’re that young, you may be too young to even have a blessing… But if that’s the case, how can you know the common language without a blessing teaching you…”

‘Blessing?’

“The Divine Blessings. Blessings that bestow basic knowledge like spoken language.”

‘That may explain something… I seem to know you’re a human despite not knowing what I am. I wonder if I am getting the benefit of your blessing?’

“Strange, but your guess is as good as mine. I wonder how that could even happen.” Weren’t blessings linked to souls? Ves couldn’t quite remember, but if the creature’s guess was true, it could have disturbing implications. 

‘Let’s just put that aside for now. We’re both exhausted, and your body is barely holding together. So, rest, I need time to fix things. After that, food. Anything else can come after.’

“Can’t exactly rest here. What if the wolves come back?” 

‘You don’t seem to realize how bad a state your body is in.’

“No choice.” Ves tried to get up. Only to stagger as her vision spun, causing her to fall back to her knees.

‘Please don’t push yourself. You may not feel the pain, but that doesn’t mean you’re not injured.’

“Even still, we can’t stay here”, Ves weakly spoke as she forced her trembling body back to its feet.

‘Please stop, you’re just making your injuries worse!’

Ves ignored the voice. This was the Fangswood, likely one of the most dangerous places on the continent. She was likely still far away from its depths, but even the edges were a place of no return for a lone human. So, mustering all her willpower, she forced herself to take a step, only to immediately lose her footing as her body crashed into the ground. Looking back to see what she had tripped on, she saw nothing. Nothing until she saw the state of her foot. Ankle was broken, snapped really, and she just tried to walk on it. She couldn’t even move it, but didn’t even notice because of the loss of pain.

“Fuck me…” Not feeling the pain somehow made it even worse, seeing her foot dangle at a twisted angle.

‘As I said, it’s a miracle we are not dead. I’m just suppressing the pain. All we can do is hope the beasts lost our trail. For now, rest, and I’ll see what I can do.’

Left with no choice, Ves dragged herself up the shore to lie in the tall grass. It was softer than the rocky shore, at least. Hopefully, less visible. After she settled down, she asked.

“How do you know how to heal me, anyway? Or is this another? You just know.”

‘I just know.’

Ves sighed. She really hoped the thing knew what it was doing. For now, though, she agreed. She was still disturbed that something was living inside her body, but since when did she ever have a say over her own body? Branded didn’t get that choice. Even outside of the creature in her head, she was still in a desperate situation. The wolf’s corpse would attract attention. It was only a matter of time before another predator came on the scene, and she was helpless to defend herself or even flee. Try as she might, she could not fight off sleep forever. Drifting away, she fell into a dreamless slumber until a crunching sound jolted her awake.