The birds I’d seen earlier caw in alarm and take flight as I approach the lake. I’ve never seen birds like them before: green feathers and bright yellow beaks, with long tails like a peacock. I watch them for a moment before crouching down at the bank to splash some water on my face and take a few tentative sips. Hopefully I won’t get sick from this, but it’s better than getting dehydrated.

The birds continue to caw angrily at me—I guess they don’t like that I disrupted their little oasis—and then take off over the forest. Without their clamor it’s suddenly quiet, and I feel very alone.

My heart stings as Mom and Dad flash through my mind. If I really died back there, then they’re probably mourning me by now. I wish I could tell them I’m alright. I’m in a better place—literally. And now they can finally move on with their lives. They don’t have to cater every minute of every day around me anymore. They can be happy again.

I slap my hands against my cheeks, trying to snap myself out of it. Come on, I can’t get all sentimental now. Not when things are finally looking up. I stand back up and force a smile on my face. It’s time for adventure! I plant my hands on my hips, surveying the two streams that branch out from the lake.

“Now, if I were a city, which direction would I be in?”

As I’m considering this, a distant rumble of thunder rolls over the hills. I squint toward the sky, but the few scant fluffy clouds don’t look like rain clouds. And even more strange, the sound seems to be getting louder.

The lake ripples, and the ground beneath my feet starts to shake.

“Uh oh,” I say, looking around. “Um, Echo? Any insights? I don’t suppose this is, like, a small earthquake or something.”

[Negative,] Echo says to my complete lack of surprise. The noise crescendos into thundering hoofbeats, and at the same time, a herd of creatures pours over the lip of the valley and begins racing right toward me. [The sound appears to belong to a stampede of pebblebacks.]

“Fantastic,” I say, taking a step back toward the lake. I can’t make out what the creatures look like at this distance, but they’re big, there’s a lot of them, and they’re coming my way very fast. There’s not enough time to run to the forest or climb a tree. And there’s nothing out here to hide behind. I take another step back, and my boot splashes into the lake. When was the last time I took swimming lessons? When I was a little kid?

“You think they can swim?” I ask, ignoring the soul-sucking sensation of wet socks as I retreat into the lake.

[Affirmative,] Echo says.

Great.

“I bet they can’t swim better than me, though,” I say, hoping to will that truth into existence.

[The user’s Swimming skill is level 1,] Echo says.

“Well,” I say as the wall of creatures races toward me, threatening to put an end to my rather brief second shot at life. “Crap.”

***

The pebblebacks stampede down the hill, and the water ripples and splashes as their thundering footsteps reach me. I back further into the water, raising my fists defensively in front of me, before realizing how absolutely pathetic and useless that gesture is. Even so, I’d rather go out fighting.

A whistle cuts through the air, and excited cheers and whoops quickly follow. Bright colors flash among the creature’s rocky hides—there are people in the herd, running alongside the beasts.

I don’t have much time to take all this in before the stampede reaches me. The herd splits in half, each side going around the lake, however some in the middle of the pack aren’t able to turn in time and come barreling straight toward me. When the first one hits the water, it’s like a geyser erupting right in my face.

I throw myself back as the creatures splash through the waves, their legs crashing through the water all around me. The turbulence slams me against one of their hides. I’m sent tumbling head over heels into the water, and I lose all sense of up and down.

Beneath the surface, everything is quieter. I can still hear the muted grunts and stomps of the beasts, bubbles crackling all around from the swiftness of their stomps, but it’s a moment of reprieve. A few seconds of peace. I stop flailing and figure out which direction the sun is in. Spinning myself around, I plant my feet on the pebbly bottom and kick off. I’m not going to die here.

I pop up from the water like a cork, gasping in delicious lungfuls of air. The pebblebacks are stomping around, musty smelling like farm animals, eyes wide with alarm as they try to make for the bank. One of the creatures lunges for the shore, and when it drags itself from the water, a person is there in the gap of the pack. They’re sitting atop a bird-like steed, something between an ostrich and a dinosaur, covered in ruby-red feathers. It’s the rider I can’t pry my eyes from, though.

[Check,] Echo says as I instinctively wonder who and what they are. [Terimus, dracid warrior, level 18.]

Apart from being human-shaped, he’s covered in blue scales, with two ridges of horns curling back from either brow. His snout is long and pointed, almost like a dragon’s, and he has claws in place of hands. Slashing a spear at one of the pebblebacks, he hollers to a companion, who answers from somewhere in the press. As I stare, slack-jawed, he turns and looks straight at me. The lizard person pauses, eyes widening in surprise.

That momentary distraction is his downfall.

One of the pebblebacks whips around, its flat, broad tail smacking into Terimus’s steed. The bird cries out and jumps, dumping its rider onto the ground. The lizard person—the dracid—vanishes beneath the herd. His spear rolls toward the shore, where it rocks in the shallow waves of the lake.

I lunge forward, half swimming, half wading through the shallow water, stumbling around the pebblebacks that are still climbing back up the bank. I snatch up the spear, and I’m filled with relief and security. Well just a modicum of relief and security. I smack the nearest pebbleback with the blunt face of the weapon, and it blatantly ignores me.

[1 point of Bludgeoning damage dealt,] Echo says.

Alright. That’s how it’s going to be, huh?

I swing the spear again, this time stabbing and slashing at any pebbleback who gets too close.

[3 points of Slashing damage dealt.]

[4 points of Piercing damage dealt.]

“Not,” I pant, stabbing a pebbleback in its thick hide. “Today!” I advance another few paces, spinning to slash another one of the creatures as it lumbers in my direction.

I dart another few feet up the shore, away from the water, and suddenly the dracid is in front of me. One of his legs is twisted at an unsettling angle. My stomach flips, and I try not to think about what’s going on under that pant leg. Instead I let out a feral scream and spin haphazardly around, slashing at all the nearby creatures like some kind of inflatable car-dealer tube-man. The pebblebacks grunt and groan, then gradually wander away. I’m left standing there panting, spear clutched in a death grip, water dripping off my soaking wet clothes, as the dragon person watches me with surprise.

“Rena!” he suddenly calls, and I jump. “There’s a person here! Come quick!”

I spin to point the spear at Terimus, squinting suspiciously down at him. Did he sic this whole herd of monsters on me on purpose? What will his friends make of me? I don’t know anything about this world, yet. Was helping him a mistake?

He holds up a hand. “Whoa, there! I’m unarmed. I mean, you have my arms. And I can’t do much from down here, anyway.”

I hesitate, backing up a pace and out of spear-snatching range, then dart a glance around for his companions. They’re already riding up on bird-steeds of their own.

[Rena, dracid bruiser, level 19]

[Layf, dryad ranger, level 17]

The other dracid is covered in red scales, while the dryad, as the species name would suggest, is some kind of treeple with brown bark-textured skin and a short crop of yellow flowers for hair. They pull up to either side of me, sword and staff held in guarded stances.

“Stand down,” Terimus says. “Everyone, stand down! This human just saved me.”

“She did?” Rena skeptically looks me up and down.

Look, I don’t blame her, I’d doubt me, too. I cautiously lower the spear, since I’ve got Lizard-Guy vouching for me.

“What happened?” Layf asks.

“I fell,” Terimus says. “One of the pebblebacks stepped on my leg. I would have been a goner if she hadn’t taken up my spear and protected me.”