We walked aimlessly through the tunnels, Scarlet stood next to me, able to walk on her own without my assistance anymore. Her arm glowed with blue intensity, my only way to see, but Scarlet didn't seem to have any problems navigating in this darkness. I fiddled with the wooden robot in my hands, winding it until I couldn't, let it unwind, then wind it again. The two of us marched on in silence until Scarlet finally piped up.

  “Thank you.” The words were unsure, as if she was hesitating.

  “What for?” There wasn't really anything that Scarlet could be thanking me for.

  “For saving my life. You didn't have to go back to that cave, you could've left me.” Scarlet emphasized the words, as if I actually did anything other people wouldn't have done.

  “You saved me, so now we're even.” I gave Scarlet a slight smile. She seemingly contemplated my smile before asking a strange question.

  “So uh Michael, were you a girl on Silt?” I nearly stopped in my tracks and stopped winding the robot, but luckily I was able to maintain my composure and keep the gem from flickering out.

  “What? No, of course not, I'm a man!” The question startled me. Who even asked that kind of thing?

  “Then does everyone from other worlds turn into a girl?” There was a hint of a smile on her face, as if the question was funny.

  “Obviously not, as far as I can tell I'm the only one who ended up as a different sex.” I explained to her manner of factly.

  “I doubt you're the only one who got a change of sex when they arrived here, if you exist there's bound to be more.” The more I thought about it the more I realized that Scarlet was probably right, if it happened to me then it could've happened to others.

  “To be honest I never talked to the other wayfarers much. They all had better things to do than talk to the twenty year old man in this weird body.” Scarlet's eyes widened as if I'd said something insane.

  “So we're called wayfarers huh?” She said the question unassuredly, as if she was trying to distract herself.

  “Yeah, all the non-wayfarers just call us that. I've got no idea what it means though.”

  “I think it's becau-” All of a sudden Scarlet stopped everything and just stared into the darkness ahead of us.

  Just as I was about to ask her what she was doing she rudely put a finger to my lips and pointed to the tunnel ahead. For a moment I thought it was nothing but then I began hearing footsteps, not those noises from that monster, actual footsteps. We stayed silent as the footsteps grew louder and louder, Scarlet squinted to get a better look and so did I.

  The figures were tall, masculine, one was armored and the other wasn't. I'm not sure why but I began sprinting to them, for the first time in forever I was actually running towards something instead of away. The threads connecting the gems to Scarlet snapped, leaving the only source of light being in the direction I was running towards. Instincts took over and I did something I didn't think I'd ever do to somebody. I hugged them.

  I gripped Kael as tightly as I possibly could as if he would disappear the moment I let go of him. Kael didn't seem to know what to do with his empty hand, the other was occupied by a ball of fire, a warm flame in this horrible coldness. After a while he hesitantly placed his empty hand on my head and gently ruffled my hair back.

  “Kael…” My voice was desperate and weak, like a whiny child wanting to be safe.

  “Hey kid, sorry we took so long.” His tone was warm and comforting, as if he was a fireplace during winter.

  Finally my arms began to tire and I had to let go of Kael and I realized what I'd just done. For some ungodly reason I instinctively hugged Kael of all people, as if I could even fathom of missing him. So I pushed him back and went to Scarlet's side who had this confused look on her face along with Damian. She also eyed the ball of fire in Kael's hands, it wasn't something I'd seen anybody do before, but with magic who knew what people could do.

  “Are you Michael's dad or something?” We all turned towards Scarlet who might have just said the worst combination of words in her life. “I guess not.”

  There was a brief period of awkward silence that felt impossible to talk through but eventually Damian piped up.

  “Now that we've found Michael and his… companion, we should continue the mission right Kael?” Damian hesitated before saying companion, glaring at Scarlet.

  “No, we should leave. Michael nearly died yesterday when that bear nearly killed him and we have another person to worry about now. I can come back with a more competent party.” Kael’s words were obviously pointed towards me, and even if I wanted to refute them I knew he was right.

  “We're going to abandon the mission and leave with this Cambionite?” He gestured to Scarlet as if she was just some thing and not a person.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  I briefly heard Scarlet say the word Damian used for her under her breath before Kael spoke up again.

  “Yes. We're leaving and that's final.” Kael's voice was firm and steady with Damian seemingly backed down.

  As we began walking through the tunnels back the way that Damian and Kael came Scarlet repeatedly tried making small talk with Damian. She kept asking what a Cambionite was, if Damian was a wayfarer, if he was a knight or even an adventurer. In response to her questions Damian stayed completely silent and tried to ignore her but Scarlet passingly asked if cars existed here. Despite his best efforts Damian finally gave way and couldn't help but ask Scarlet more. The two rambled on and on about automobiles while I tried to focus on walking.

  I kept close to Kael, but not too close obviously, just close enough that he could quick draw his revolver if any giant spiders happened to show up. To his part Kael kept looking forward, only sometimes passing an uncomfortable glance at me before quickly returning his gaze back. The hug must've shaken him up just as much as me.

  “Hey kid.” Kael called to me just silently enough that the other two wouldn't hear us.

  “I told you not to call me that.” By now my response was reflexive.

  “Well you certainly acted like one earlier. What was that about?”

  “Does it even matter?” Kael glared at me at the obvious sign that he wasn't going to just let it go. “Fine, it's just that I saw you and ran to you but I tripped and held onto you.”

  The excuse was the flimsiest lie I'd ever told and the laughter Kael held back told me how little it actually worked.

  “Sure kid, sure.” He gave an infuriating chuckle after talking. “What did you even do down here while waiting for us?”

  “It was mostly me trying not to die. There are these giant spiders down here, one of them is twice as tall as you.”

  “Giant spiders huh?” Kael seemed genuinely intrigued in my story.

  “Yeah, and they were all in this cave that had thousands of blue gems. Look!” I opened my bag to show him the pile of blue gems crammed inside it.

  “Good job kid.” Kael just barely glanced into the pack before walking ahead of me, the word annoyed me but I did my best to ignore him.

  I caught up to him as the tunnel finally ended and we ended up in a cavern that was beginning to ever so slowly slope upwards. For the next however many hours we just kept walking and walking through winding tunnels and caves. Kael seemed to know the way, even Damian didn't seem to fully understand where we were going. Scarlet didn't seem to mind all the walking, maybe the fact that she was finally leaving and had people to talk to was good enough for her.

  Eventually we found ourselves in a giant cavern with a single other tunnel, one with light that wasn't just another shade of blue or red. Scarlet began running towards the light as if her life depended on it, and I couldn't really blame her. But just as she made it halfway across the cavern Kael yelled out to her.

  “Wait!” Kael yelled at Scarlet to wait but it was already too late.

  From above Scarlet came down a giant eight legged behemoth. Just as it was about to crush her Kael suddenly appeared by her side and threw her across the room. She skidded across the hard stone but she seemed relatively fine, though it must've hurt like hell. I watched the scene happen right next to Damian who seemed too shocked to do anything. The spider had nearly killed Scarlet and there wasn't anything I could've done to help her.

  “You two try and go around that thing, I'll distract it.” Kael said from right beside, when he got there I had no clue.

  “But Si-” Damian tried to interject but was immediately interrupted.

  “Listen to me now unless you want to die.” Kael's words shut Damian up as he listened to Kael and began running to the sides of the cave.

  “That goes for you too kid.” Kael looked at me for a second before I realized he also wanted me to run.

  “Um right.” I wasn't sure exactly what to say so I nervously confirmed his command and began running with Damian.

  The spider was running towards me and Damian and for a brief moment I thought that Kael had abandoned us both just so he could escape. Then in a single blink Kael appeared next to the monster and slashed at one of its legs with one of his daggers. It screeched and tried to bite Kael but it was too slow as he dodged it easily.

  “Keep moving!” Kael shouted at me, I hadn't realized that I'd stopped moving while watching Kael fight.

  This time I kept running and running behind menI could hear gunshots and screeches as Kael singlehandedly fought the spider. I only turned back when I made it to the exit, and what I saw terrified me. All noises from the battle stopped as the spider stood over Kael’s limp form, blood pooling around him. His torso was slashed and his leg pierced by one of the spider's own. He would die if we did nothing, he would die because of me.

  “Kael!” I yelled my heart out even though I knew it would do nothing.

  Despite winning against Kael it didn't go unharmed, it was bleeding all over and limping on its two working legs. With shaking hands I began making a star on my gun's prongs and fired at that damned thing's face. The bullet just barely grazed one of its eyes and blinded the thing. It screeched as it left Kael's body in pursuit of me.

  I immediately regretted my decision as it sped towards me and lunged one of its broken legs to me. I closed my eyes expecting to be skewered but the moment never came and I tentatively opened my eyes to see Damian in front of me along with a severed spider legs.

  “Don't freeze! If you want to save Kael then don't freeze!” Damian shouted the instructions at me, and I knew he was right.

  Steadying myself I shot three more bullets towards the monster, one missed and the other two bounced off its thick fur. Damian meanwhile was aiming for its already damaged legs, seemingly trying to destabilize it. It couldn't seem to get a single hit off on him as he weaved through the spider's underbelly. Suddenly the monster gave out another deafening screech as one of its good limbs was burned right off. I'd forgotten Scarlet was around and seemingly so did the spider. From its blindside she'd snuck up on it and burnt through the spider's legs, but I couldn't see if she had a gem on her.

  “I'm not going to let you kill my rescuers!” She yelled out in anger.

  The spider began to destabilize as it'd lost two of its eight limbs with only one being uninjured. I aimed for its eyes again hoping that the shock would make it fall over but I just barely missed and hit the roof instead. Only one bullet left before I needed to reach into my bag to reload. I needed to make it count. Right now it's too focused on Damian and Scarlet to care about me, I just needed one good shot.

  I thought back to the sewers, to that giant rat, to the one I punched, the punch that set it on fire. Kael held up a fireball earlier, how'd he done it? How'd he use the gems to make it? I had an inkling of an idea as to how. Thoughts of heat entered my mind just like they did when I punched the rat, when I forged my gun, things that made me feel warm inside. I channeled those emotions once again and thought of the hottest thing I could, the very sun itself.

  With a twitch of my finger I pulled the trigger and shot as close as I could to the middle of the spider's body. For a moment it looked like the cave was lit up by a miniature sun, a sun that moved across the room and into the body of a monster. Upon the moment of impact the arachnids' outer fur burnt to a crisp. As it made its way out of the beast it blew out an entire chunk that was still burning. In less than a second it had gone from fighting for its life to burning alive. And God did it smell good.

  While those other two rushed to help the fallen human I rushed to get a taste of a meal well earned. I bit into the juicy spider meat, it was cooked to perfection. Whatever blood flowed into my mouth I drank, a blissful nectar that'd been denied to me. Within my mouth I chewed the flesh, grinding it into nothing before I swallowed it down. A mere rabbit couldn't compare to this.

  Then I took a step back, then another. I tried to take a third but my body failed me as I fell onto my butt. What the hell had I just done? Why did I- I didn't mean to, I didn't want to. My body refused to puke out the disgusting meat inside of me, it felt too normal. For a while I just sat there in fear that I might try to eat more before Scarlet called at me.

  “Michael! We need you!” Scarlet's shouts sounded desperate.

  I rushed over to her and Damian hovering over Kael and realized how bad the situation was. Immediately I pulled out a dozen gems and began wrapping them around Kael's entire body. For some reason my eyes were beginning to blur as I healed Kael, they were moist and wet.

  “Kael?” I questioned Kael, hoping he would respond.

  “Kael p-please wake up.” Through random hiccups I begged for him to wake up.

  I could feel a heartbeat on him, I could feel his warmth, he wasn't dead, he couldn't be. And then there was an exhale, Kael's breath. He was alive!

  “I'm awake kid. I'm awake.” He gave me a terrible grin as if he hadn't almost died because of me.

  It took a while for Kael to feel strong enough to be carried by Damian but he was alive. Together all four of us left the cave and bathed in the bright sunlight outside, right next to a dead bear's corpse.