I ran to my room and told Killer we had to leave asap. We all grabbed our things and met the girls by the front door but before we could leave there was a mob of elves outside where we were staying.

“What we do now?” Killer asked.

“Follow me.” I said.

I jumped out of the back window and dropped about two stories. Voyd followed but used her wind magic to slow down the fall and she did the same for Ro and Killer. 

We started running but I tweaked my ankle during the fall. Killer noticed, and he picked me up and carried me on his back. The elves fired arrows and tried using wind magic to knock down trees and slow us down, but we kept moving. They chased us until we reached the outskirts of the forest. As soon as the treeline disappeared, so did the attacks. 

“This is great! You really couldn’t keep it in your pants huh?” Ro said to me.

“Look, I know it’s my fault, but you have no idea how long I’ve waited for an opportunity like that!” I told her.

“Well thanks to you we don’t have the flowers we need. We’re screwed.” She said.

“Well I don’t have my gun either! So we’re gonna have to figure out a way to go get ‘em both.” I said.

“Aw hell no! If we go back we’re dead. This is your mess to fix, not ours.” Ro said. 

She’s right. The three of them set up camp while I brainstormed ways to get our stuff. Sneaking through the forest will be difficult, but with Voyd’s detect life spell we could at least make our way to the village without a problem. I waited for the others to go to sleep then I woke up Voyd and told her that without her help I’d probably be captured or killed. She agreed to come with me. We left behind a note for the others in Voyd’s handwriting that said, “gone fishin’, be back soon, don’t come look for me.” 

As we were walking to the forest I asked Voyd, “Hey just in case we end up having to fight, I should probably learn how to control wind magic with this sword.”

“It’s probably not working because you're not controlling your mana output.” She said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The amount of mana you put into your weapon determines the scale of the attack. I don’t know why, but your gun seemed to work fine with just a basic understanding of wind magic. You never learned how to control your output.” She said to me.

“Alright, can you help me out before we go in?” I asked.

“I can try.” She said. 

She explained it to me and I tried it out on a nearby bush. I swung my sword and I could hear the gust of wind it made, however, no damage was done to the bush. Voyd gave me some tips and I tried again, this time I was able to cut a single leaf in half. Well, we can’t stay here all night. I can use the tips she gave me and hopefully it’ll be more effective next time I use it. “Let’s get going, we don’t have all night.” I told her.

First we made our way to the flower field we went to earlier to pick what we needed so we wouldn’t have to run around the village looking for their supply. We got what we needed without issue and then made our way to the village. It was the middle of the night and most of the elves were asleep but there were a few guards still roaming around. The guards around the perimeter were easy to slip past, we just used the life detect spell to look for a gap and went in. The hard part is avoiding the guards' patrol routes inside the village. Luckily, there’s a lot of vegetation and many dark areas for us to hide. 

We aren’t exactly sure where my gun is but I have a pretty good guess. Our first stop is the chief's house. He took the gun from me and he’s supposed to be the one to give it back so he must have it somewhere. We tried the front door but it was locked. Because the houses are all up in the trees, in order to get to the window we’d have to climb. So we waited for the guards to pass and then I climbed onto the roof, went around to the side of the building, and dangled myself down, then I swung myself through the window. After all of that, Voyd used her wind magic to float around the side and through the window. I gotta stop forgetting she can do that. 

 We crept around the house looking for my gun but had no luck. The last spot it could be is the chief’s bedroom. We opened the door slowly and peeped inside. We saw him fast asleep cuddled up with a taxidermied small creature and he was snoring louder than a tornado siren. I opened the door a bit wider and we made our way inside. I looked around in drawers and in the chest by the foot of his bed but my gun wasn’t there.

“Pssst.” Voyd said.

I looked over to her pointing at a lockbox in the closet. I found a set of keys in the drawers earlier so I took them and started trying them one by one on the lockbox. 

The first key didn’t work, and neither did the next one, or the next one, or the one after that. There were probably about 50 keys on this key ring, what does he need it all for? I tried hurrying up but that resulted in me dropping the keys making an extremely clanging noise. It felt louder than it was supposed to be, like a microwave at 2am. But despite that, the chief was still fast asleep. Relieved, I grabbed the keys and continued.

“Achoo!” Voyd went.

The chief woke up instantly.

“Goddamn it!” I said.

“Wha- who’s there?” The chief said.

I frantically tried the keys as fast as I could to get the box open.

“Guards!” The chief yelled. 

I kept going through keys and eventually I was able to open the box. I grabbed my gun and told Voyd, “Let’s get outta here.”

As we went to leave, a guard came running into the chief's house. “Freeze!” He shouted while drawing a bow straight at me.

If we surrendered now, we’d definitely be killed or at least captured without release. I know the goddess won’t like this, but I raised my gun and shot at the elf. The bullet struck his head and he died instantly. 

When I went to leave, I turned around and saw Voyd staring at the body, frozen in fear. I picked her up and jumped out the window. She didn’t use her wind magic to slow my fall and I hurt my ankle even more. I tried to ignore the pain and ran out of the village. 

The elves chased us again, but without Killer to carry me, they were much closer behind us. I tried my best to create distance but the harder I run, the more my ankle hurts. I was able to make it about halfway out but I was soon struck in the back by an arrow. My kevlar vest stopped it, but I can’t go on much longer. They’ll either catch us or kill us if I don’t do something.

So, I put Voyd down and pulled out my gun. I have no idea if this is going to work, but I tried to pour as much mana as I possibly could into my glock. When I pulled the trigger, a massive beam of light with the radius the size of a building shot out from my gun, evaporating everything in its path leaving behind a massive fissure in the forest. The arrows stopped, I think we’re finally safe, which is good because I think this is my first time experiencing mana fatigue.

“Alright, it’s finally over. Let’s go.” I said.

“Liar.” Voyd whispered under breath.

“What?” I asked.

“You lied to me!” Voyd shouted. “You told me you were a good person! But you killed those people! They didn’t do anything wrong and you killed them!” She kept yelling at me.

“It was us or them!” I tried telling her.

“You’re a murderer!” She screamed.

“Listen, I’m not like that.” I said.

“Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!” She turned around and started walking back towards the village.

“Hey where are you going?” I asked her but got no response. “C’mon if you go back they might kill you.” I said.

“I’d rather die than stay with a lying murderer.” She said. 

Y’know I never wanted to travel with an elf loli either. But I can’t let her go back to the village, I’ve done enough damage as it is. Also, without her I might be dead right now.

I ran up to her and put my hand on her shoulder then said, “Alright listen, you’re right! I’m not a good person.”

She stopped walking.

“The truth is, I’m not even from this world… In my past life I committed a really bad crime, and I got the death penalty. When I died, I met a goddess that told me there was no heaven or hell. Good people are reincarnated to good worlds and bad people are sent to bad ones. But she told me that if I came here and helped people then I could redeem myself. To be honest, I have no idea what I’m doing… and that’s why I suck at being good.” I told her. 

She turned around and started walking back towards our campsite without saying a word.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“I already knew you were from another world.” Voyd said.

“What? How?” I asked.

“For starters, you always call this place ‘This World’ instead of ‘The World’, you have a weapon no one’s ever seen before, and you know nothing about this place. You didn’t even know which way the sun sets.” She said.

“Damn, you’re pretty smart for a kid. Y’know that?” I said.

“Mhm.” She mumbled.

“So we’re good now?” I asked.

“Yeah, but please don’t lie to me again.” She said.

“Deal.” I replied. We kept walking, and the sun began to rise. 

When we made it back to camp, Ro and Killer were awake and packing things up. Ro came up to me looking pissed.

“Don’t you ever leave me alone with that freak again you hear me!?” She screamed.

I’m pretty sure Killer heard that.

“Alright, yeah, I won’t.” I said.

“I’ll cut your f**king d**k off in your sleep next time.” Ro told me.

Ok, now I really need to make sure I don’t do that again, or I should at least get some play first.

Ro kneeled down next to Voyd and whispered, “If he ever tries running off with you again, I give you permission to take his gun and shoot ‘em.” She said.

We all helped finish packing up the campsite and then we started making our way back to the capital ruins.