Once Upon a Time

PROLOGUE

Drinking.

My favourite thing to do to past the time when I’m not out killing or whatever my client wants me to do. However, getting myself drunk was hard when you have nanites lingering in your bloodstream. Those microbotic robots clean my circulatory system on any unwanted toxins that litters around my body, making me immune to diseases, making me ageless... immortal. It was one of the perks I had when the humans created me before they went extinct. They were killed off by a powerful alien race called the ”Shreas”. Some of the lucky humans were converted into one of their own but the remaining ones were killed off...

I felt my grip on my mug tightened as I thought of this. They were peaceful at first when their ship landed in Antarctica. The leaders around the world welcomed them, others didn’t. As soon as they welcomed them, they quickly turned against them. It turns out the one that landed were just scouts, waiting for reinforcements to arrive once they saw the state of our planet. .

They deemed the humans savages, inconsiderate of nature, unworthy of the gifts and resources our ‘Mother Earth’ provides and calling themselves the ‘Perfect race’. I was lucky I managed to survive the ordeal by being rescued by an ‘angel’. It pains me to recall those painful memories, especially some memories about the so called ‘angel’. The memories I'm glad I have forgotten.

I had just finished my fifth glass of beer... and I’m still sober. Fuck my life. I had finally managed to snatch a few thousand credits from my client by killing his long-time business rival. It may seem like I only kill for money, but I don't. I found out that the guy was kidnapping children and turning them into slaves. Well, who knew.

Suddenly, the door opened, and a tall four-legged creature entered. It was wearing a long black cloak covering it from top to bottom, and it appears to be floating in thin air. Nobody in the bar seemed to notice the creature because they were busy watching an ogre and a troll having a drinking contest, or they chose to ignore it.

Either way I didn't give a damn.

I was about to ask the bartender for another glass of the bittersweet drink when the mysterious figure approached my table and sat down just in front of me. I tried to catch a glimpse of its face but it was blocked by the shadow of its hood. “Can I help you?” I asked, slightly annoyed because I wasn’t in a mood for a conversation.

“It’s good to see again, Mikee.” The creature spoke in a calm, soothing voice. It kind of sound familiar, then it hit me. It called me by my pet name only my close friends would know.

“Astra, Is that you?” I asked, quite surprised. ”What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in Equis?"

She giggled. “Oh, come on Mikee. We haven’t seen each other for decades and that’s the first thing you’re gonna say to me?” She pouted, which was considerably hard to see because of her hood.

I rolled my eyes. "You’re the Spirit of harmony or whatever the hell you called yourself. You have to be in Equis and maintain harmony and whatnot. Not hangout with a psycho mercenary like me. By the way, you haven't answered my question."

She sighed. “Okay, you got me I wanna hang out.” she grunted. “We haven’t seen each other for quite a long time," she moved closer to me. "And I want to talk to you about something important” she whispered the last part.

I looked around to find some of patrons leaning to our side and eavesdropping on our conversation. I stood up, Astra following suit. “Come on, let’s talk somewhere else private” I told her, she nodded.

When we got to the door, I opened it, letting her go first while I followed suit. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the same group behind us stand up. Okay, I know where this is going.

After we got out of the tavern and out to the streets, Astra pulled the hood of her cloak, revealing her face. She had a translucent turquoise coat and a darker mane billowing in a non-existent breeze. Her form resembles an equine and she was hovering, her feet...er hooves not meeting the ground..

“So,” Astra started, looking at me “Where are we going?” she asked. I paid no attention her question and started walking to my house. She followed suit, a bit annoyed I was ignoring her.

I had a feeling that group wanted something from us. My assumption was proven right when I heard the door of the bar creaked open and they step out.

While we were walking, or hovering on her account. I noticed she was panting and had a difficulty keeping up with my steps. I became bothered at this and looked her over, then I saw a wound. She had quite a deep gash on her running on lower neck down to her cloak. Astra must have notice I was eyeing her wound so she immediately pulled her cloak up, concealing it then looking away from me.

I was about to question it but then I saw an alley right ahead of us. Straining my ears, I heard several faint footsteps emanating behind us, presumably from the group following us. Right before we pass the alley, I quickly jerk Astra’s cloak to her left to signal her that we were going that way. She immediately complied, finally realizing that we're being followed.

As we entered the narrow walkway I looked around trying to find a way to lose our stalkers. Just ahead, the path on the alley splits into two, on the right heads to the center of town while the other heads to the marketplace. Of course, I'm really just guessing at this point.

I looked back to Astra to see she was in a great deal pain she slowly hovered behind me. It was obvious she can’t keep up with this game much longer. I scrapped my plan for us to run and lose them in the busy market and began on another, looking around for a place for Astra to hide while I take care of our stalkers.

Looking up I saw an open window on the second level of the apartment it was too high for me to reach, but I know Astra could just simply fly over there. I hesitantly go forward of my plan thinking someone might be inside, but since the lights are off they're probably out.

I turned to her and said. “Astra, I need you fly over there and hide.” I pointed at the window

“But, what about you? Where are you going to hide?” she asked me in a concerned tone.

“I’ll be fine, no need to worry about me.”

She narrowed her eyes, not trusting my plan. “No!” she screamed. “I won’t leave you here to fight alone, we can take those guys.”

I shook my head. “No, we can’t you’re too injured and those guys are mercenaries, they are trained to kill.”

“But—.“she was about to protest but I immediately cut her off as I heard the sound of their footsteps.

“Go! I can handle this, I probably won’t even fight them if my plan works. Just stay here, and I’ll be right back here to get you.” That seemed to calm her down a bit, but she still visibly distressed over me leaving to fend them off myself. To be honest my plan was just to run around and hope to lose them.

She hesitantly nodded and flew towards the window shaking like a leaf. I could tell from the look of her face that she was straining, and having difficulty flying. Whatever her injuries were, it might be worse than I thought. Better make this quick.

After Astra disappeared through the window I immediately jog over to the marketplace. I glanced over my back and saw the bastards that were stalking us. There were three of them, two dumb looking ogres, and a goblin with a chesire smile. The ogres were carrying some sort of a war hammer while the goblin had a bowie knife. Their eyes were locked on me and only me.

I pushed through the crowd hoping to lose them in the sea of restless shoppers. I heard the goblin yell behind me, probably at the ogres ordering them to catch me. My guess that he is probably the leader of the group. Ogres weren’t the smartest of the bunch, but they'll certainly follow orders without hesitation when money is involved, and most of the goblins around this area are rich.

Moving left and right, cautiously avoiding bumping into someone, yet fast enough to shake them off, I glanced to my back to see that the ogres were having trouble chasing me to due their large frame, while the goblin swiftly eased on the crowd like a fish, due to his small stature.

The goblin chasing me was wearing an incredibly disturbing manic grin in his face, like he was chasing his own dinner and gutting it alive. I grimaced and started running faster.

After a few moments of running, I came to a quick conclusion that losing him is practically impossible, he was too quick and clever to shake him off without having to fight him.

I sighed and look for another option. In the corner of my vision, I found another alley at the corner of the marketplace. I took a deep breath and ran towards it. I clutched my dagger hidden under my robe and leaned in at the side of the alley, right near the entrance hoping to catch the goblin by surprise, grab his neck and stab him to death before slitting his throat to make sure. Easy right?

Well, that’s not the case here. After I grab hold his neck, I immediately got slit at the forearm. I cried in pain and threw him off further in the alley. Looking at my wound I saw two deep cuts and was bleeding profusely. Damn. Bastard is crazy fast.

I glared at the goblin. “What do you want?” I growled.

He was still sporting the manic look at his face. “I just want something you have.” he chuckled before continuing. “Where is you friend, Michorean?” he asked me, awkwadly tilting his head. His voice was groggy but mixed with a cheerful tone. He knew me even though we haven’t met, either my reputation here precedes me or this bastard had been stalking me.

I took a stance. “Somewhere you don’t know.” I answered sarcastically.

The goblin's eye twitched. “Come on laddie, I just wants to meet friend, maybe befriends hers. We goblins are friendly creatures you knows, especially if it benefits ours business.” He said grinning

“And I also know, they are greedy assholes who are obsessed in getting money.”

His smile faltered and his manic grin turned into an angry snarl. He stepped forward, making me grip my dagger harder. He didn’t seemed to noticed it as he was glaring daggers at me. “I know friend is a spirit Mic—“ I didn’t let him finish. I knew some goblins captures spirits, believing that once you manage capture one and store them, they’ll have good fortune on their business, making them wealthy.

I quickly threw my dagger at him while he was speaking, aimed at his heart. His eyes widened in surprise, but managed dodge it in time, only nailing his left shoulder. The burning sensation from the cuts on my arm didn’t help my aim.

He howled in pain and clasped his shoulder, pulling the dagger out and throwing it aside. “You dead nows, assassin!” the goblin yelled at me in rage. His face returning to insanity.

With a loud roar, he charged to me with blinding speed, his knife high up in the air. I quickly sidestep and brought a knee on his side. I heard a few bones cracked on his rib, and the force made the goblin flew towards the dumpster.

I smirked as I saw him cough up blood, and brought out my spear. It was jet black with razor-sharp obsidian tip, full of magical engraving, and was currently two feet long. I can extend it up to seven feet long, but fighting this goblin in a narrow alley would make it difficult so I stay it as it was.

As soon as I brought my spear out, he began to charge at me with added frenzy, as if killing me was the only thing on his mind.

“I kill you, and take spirit,“  he growled at me while swinging his knife mindlessly. “I be blessed money and be rich.” he finished laughing maniacally.

Our weapons clashed. Slicing and dicing, he was using his knife like a sword. I blocked most of the blow using my spear, but some of his swing managed to slip through and pierced my robe, although it didn’t hit me, I was pissed. God dammit, this was my favourite robe.

I extended my spear to four feet and violently swung it. The body of the spear managed to land a blow the goblin dead in the head. He stumbled around. However, the blow didn’t faze him. In fact, he was still laughing like a maniac, muttering about how he was going to kill me.

In a flash, he picked up a rock, and threw it to me. I effortlessly deflected with my spear, but it seemed that it was only a distraction as I got thrown away when the goblin tackled me. I landed hard on my back, knocking the wind off me and losing the grip of my spear.

The deranged goblin pinned me on the ground and raised his knife with a triumphant smirk etched across his face. I need to think fast. I tried to get a hold of my spear but it out of reach.

I held my hand up in a pathetic means of defending myself. The goblin brought his knife down. I managed to block it as it pierced the palm of my hand. I gritted my teeth for the intense pain, but I discovered that the knife got stuck on my hand.

He tried tugging it back it was no use, but every time he tug brought me intense pain. I grab hold both of his hand, even the one holding the knife and kneed him on the chest. I flip him around so I was on top. At this time, I saw now that he was panicking. I wasted no time repeatedly punching his face, blow by blow his face turned purple, and his struggles weaken.

I stopped when he lost the grip of his knife, and saw that he passed out from the ass whooping I gave him. I stood up and found that the knife on my hand was still stuck like glue.

I tried jerking it free only to be rewarded by an excruciating pain. The knife appeared to be stuck between the bones of my palm. I painfully twisted it from its prison and tried to pull it once again, and to my relief it got out.

I used the knife to slit the goblins throat, and watched his life escape him. I cut strips his ragged clothes to bandage by bleeding hand, and some of the cuts I got. A while later I picked up my and spear, reducing its size so I could holster it, and then grab the corpse. “Better not let his buddies see he’s dead.” I said to no one as I threw it in the dumpster.

“Fuck.” I muttered looking at my bloodied assassin’s robe, its gray color had been replaced by crimson splotched around the clothing, mostly around the sleeves.

I removed the robe and threw it aside, seeing that walking around with bloodied clothes will attract attention. I still had a black t-shirt so I wasn’t worried walking around town bare chested.

I started walking out of the alley and looked around the crowded market to see the ogres were still trying to find me. I easily slip past them and returned to the same alley I left Astra.

I found the window I left him and yelled, “Astra come down, the coast is clear!”

No response.

“Astra!” I yelled harder, hoping this time she would hear me.

Again, I was greeted with silence.

My heart started beating faster, I was worried about what might have happened to her. I raced to the apartment and ran upstairs. I found the room of the window. I approached the door and turned to knob to find it's locked. The owner probably hadn't return yet.

I knocked at the door. “Astra, you in there?” I called for her, still there was no reply.

I tried to use my dagger as a makeshift lock pick... which failed miserably. The knob only got bent and scraped on my picking. I kicked the door in frustration, and to my bewilderment the fucking door opened. I stood there for a moment dumbfounded before entering the abode.

I began to look around the living room and not a single soul was there, only small furnitures about half as large as they usually are. I glanced at the pictures to see that this apartment belongs to dwarf.

I peeked to the kitchen to see in a state of shitstorm. The fridge is left open being overrun by rats and flies, mountains of dishes in the sink and the floor was filled with cans of energy drinks. I didn’t enter further because I was certain the Astra wouldn’t want to be near that horrid place. Don't get me started with the smell.

Down the hallway, there was a door at the end of the hall left opened. I approached it and looked inside. It was a bedroom. Beside the window, I saw an unmoving form covered in a black cloak with a billowing mane. My heart skipped a beat. I immediately knew who this creature was.

“Astra!” I rushed over to her side.

I checked to see if she was alive. Letting our a sigh of relief when I found out she was breathing, only passed out. I looked her over and my eyes widened in shock when I saw the amount of gashes littered across her body.

Spirits like Astra doesn’t bleed blood, but from what I could see she was bleeding her life force. She was slowly becoming more transparent the more it drains her.

I quickly used my dagger cutting her cloak and using it around her body, sealing the wounds temporarily. Bits of her life force still manage to since she had no blood to stop the bleeding.

After bandaging her, I reached under her and gently picked her up like a baby, being careful not to touch her wound or hurt my busted hand further as we got out of the apartment.

I beelined back to my house using the less known route away from busy streets, making sure to hide her translucent form away from prying eyes. I couldn’t risk another one of those assholes to see her, especially not in this condition.

A while later, after turning left and right on the narrow pathways and getting close calls. The sun was setting when finally reached my house. Managing to open the door while carrying Astra, I step inside my abode and rushed upstairs. I walk to my bedroom and gently laid her on my bed. I can see she was still passed out.

I kept wondering how where she got her wounds and what was the important thing she was going to tell me, but decided to press on the matter later when she wakes up.

Seeing as Astra wasn’t going to wake up soon, I got some new clothes and head to the bathroom to clean the grimy blood off of me. Opening the door seeing the pristine walls of my bathroom, I took off my clothes and went to the shower.

I took a shower and wiped myself clean from sweat and blood. I looked at the mirror and saw my long black spiky hair, my golden eyes with slit-shaped pupils, canines that are a bit longer than the humans, and a seemingly pale skin since I didn’t have much blood because of the nanites.

I removed the bandage on my hand, applying a new one and started to get dressed. This time my robe is pure black with strips of gold. After looking myself over the mirror again, I proceeded to my bedroom to check to see if she was now awake.

I saw her stirring. I sighed in relief and rushed over to her side. Sometime later her eyes slowly opened. She stared at me for a few seconds before her eyes widened, realized what is happening.

“Mikee!” she cried and wrapped her hooves around me, giving me bone crushing hug.

Let me tell you, for a spirit she was pretty damn strong. I could barely breathe in her vice grip but I let it pass and returned the hug, wrapping my arms around her as she continued crying her eyes out.

A few minutes passed she stopped, and released her hooves me. She looked at me defected. “I guess you have a few questions for me, huh?” she asked me crestfallen.

I nodded and heard our stomachs grumble.

Astra giggled and shakily jump out of the bed. “I’ll fill you in after dinner.”

We got downstairs and ate. I reheated leftovers and the dinner went in silence, only hearing the food getting chewed and swallowed. Astra’s eye glowed white and her fork levitated , using it to eat her food.

If you’re wondering how she could eat without hands.

During the meal, I noticed Astra glancing at me as if she working up courage to tell me something. I ignored it and concentrated on finishing my meal. Whatever it is, she'll tell me soon enough.

A few moments later, we finished she let out a long sigh. “Mikee, I need your help,” Damn right she need help, she looked like she had gone twelve rounds with Mike Tyson wearing spiked gloves. “I’m dying.”

I froze. “WHAT?!”

“Equis is in total disharmony, the pony tribes are splitting, the dragons are pillaging the lands, the minotaurs and the griffons are in the verge of war, and the demons of Tartarus are slowly breaking free." she took a deep breath. "Since I'm the spirit of harmony, I am getting weaker by the second of seeing my world thrown in complete disharmony.” She looked at me with pleading eyes. “Please Mikee, I need your help. You are the only one I could trust, the other gods won’t help me and I don't trust them helping me, knowing that I'm weak and I c-cant fight them off if they become rogue and take my world for themselves, and most of the natives here want to capture me. I'm on my own here.”

I placed a hand on my chin, absorbing the information being thrown at me. “What do you want me to do?”

“I need you to stop the windigos, they look like me but they have no hindlegs. I created them to protect the ponies against threat because they are too weak to defend themselves, but when the ponies started fighting they began bombarding them with snowstorms as means to protect the ponies from themselves, and now they are threatening to freeze all lands.”

I looked at her quizzically. "Wait, you have a shit load of problems and that's the only one you're gonna ask to me?"

She nodded. "That's okay." she continued. "After we get to my world...well, you know what to do."

I shrugged, not understanding what she said before lowering my head. I thought this for a moment before I let out a sigh. “Let’s get some rest, I have an answer by morning, I just need to think this over.” She nodded and weakly flew upstairs.

I Walked towards the living room feeling like shit, I met an old friend in the tavern while I was trying to get myself drunk, got chased by a group I don’t know, killed an insane goblin, and now I’m being asked to leave this planet. I chuckled. Typical day for me.

A few moments later I found myself pacing back and forth. So I’m going to leave this planet I called home for the last two hundred years, leaving Earth was hard enough… Well not that hard because Its being colonized by genocidal xenophobic aliens. But still!

Being a good friend I should have accepted it in a heartbeat, but what good would it do to me? I rubbed my temple to ease the headache I was having from my mental debate.

Glancing on my right I saw a portrait of the ‘angel’ I was talking about. I moved towards it and placed my hand on the frame. “Tyrande…” I whispered. She had a long golden hair that touches her lower back, silver eyes that soothes me every time I looked at them, and her alabaster wings shimmering in the light.

In the photo, she was holding the ‘Benevolence’, and wearing medallion on her neck. The two of which I have now. I held on these two as a token to remember her by. I let out a sad sigh. Past is past. Let it go...

She had been on Earth disguised as one of the humans when met her, we later became good friends. She was the only one I could trust in there, she was always there when I needed help. Where was I when she needed mi-- No! let it go...let it go...

Astra was the only friend I have left, and she was dying. I needed to do this, for her…And for Tyrande.

I closed my eyes, letting out another sigh before looking at the clock, it was only three o’clock in the morning. I lazily plopped down the couch and closed my eyes to get some sleep. I'm gonna have one hell of a journey tomorrow.

The morning went on. Astra flew down the stairs and saw me at the sitting on the couch. I had just woken up from my dreamless sleep.

She looked at me with hopeful eyes, waiting for me to speak. “Okay, I’ll help you.”

She exploded in glee and tackled me onto the ground, barraging my cheeks with kisses. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.” She said while hugging me tight like a snake. “You don’t know how much this means to me.”

“You know, I only decided to help you because you’re dying.” I said with a smug look on my face.

She giggled “Oh you.” playfully punching me on the shoulder before getting a worried look on her face “Come on, we don’t have much time.”

I nodded, rubbing my shoulder. Her hooves are hard as shit! “But first, we need to hide your form. Can’t let anybody see that you’re a spirit, or else we might get mobbed again.”

I grabbed a cloak, long enough to completely conceal every part of her body and toss it to her. She picked it up with her magic and put it on. Astra head outside, I followed not knowing where to head.

“What portal did you used to get here?” I asked.

She looked up, deep in thought. “Well, when I teleported here I got to some shrine or some sorts, it was near the castle.”

I stopped on my tracks. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” she looked at me confused.

“That shrine is guarded by the castle guardian. While it’s good to know he can’t guard for shit, we might not get lucky if we go there this time. Your teleportation must have triggered some wards placed there. It must be crawling with guards right about now.” I sighed “We just have to find another, hell I ain’t gonna fight a guardian and a battalion of guards”

“Well, where do you suggest we go then.” She asked, raising her voice.

I ponder around for a moment before a thought popped in my head. I looked at Astra with a grin. “Let’s head to the academy, I know someone who could help us”. I turned around heading towards the academy.

Walking towards our destination. Astra was floating beside me, she kept saying that we should turn around and fight our way to the shrine. I just facepalmed and toned her out.

Half an hour of Astra ranting about how we should have gone back and fight the guards. You know for being the spirit of harmony, she isn't very harmonic. We finally got to the academy. As we got to the campus, I immediately thought of Harry Potter when I saw hundreds of mages and wizards practicing spells, rituals and flying using their broom.

Entering the grand lobby of the academy, we walked towards the receptionist’s desk. The receptionist chick was kinda busy writing something, and didn’t seem to take notice of us. I cleared my throat, and saw the receptionist look up with a scrunched face. She gave me a look of ‘fuck off, I’m busy’ before smiling and said. “Oh, hello welcome to the Galean Academy of Cryptozoology and Magical Arts, how may I help you?” she said with a cheerful tone.

“I’m looking for Professor Scratch, do you know where he might be?”

She looked at the schedule. “He is at the Astronomy room, room B-16.”

I nodded, head to the said room. I heard the receptionist cursed at me for interrupting her writing. I swear that bitch is bipolar. What the fuck did I do to ruin her day?

“This place is huge,” I heard Astra mutter. I looked to my side to see her looking around with her mouth agape. Eyeing the huge pillars and the beautifully decorated walls and ceiling.

I snickered at her expression. “If you think this place is huge, then you haven’t seen the castle yet. It makes this place look like an apartment." I said before looking ahead. "Come on, I thought you said you were dying.”

Her cheeks flushed. “Oh..Yeah right.” She said as she look down suddenly finding the floor interesting too.

Anyway, we got lost a couple of times on the way there. We ended up asking the students for direction and they happily pointed it out. I saw some students trying to look at Astra’s face under the hood of her cloak, but they immediately back off when they saw me glaring at them.

Finally we got to the room the receptionist told us. I opened the door and see that the place was a gigantic observatory, with a blackboard and a few chairs at the side.

As soon as we go inside, I heard Astra gasp and Immediately flew around the room marvelling designs and the gadgets. I shook my head and went to find the professor.

Finding nothing here but textbooks and research papers, I heard Astra shriek upstairs where the telescope was. “Cat!” I heard her yell.

I scratched my head in confusion to why there's a cat here before letting out a laugh as I picked on who that was, I rushed upstairs to see Astra nuzzling a very irritated cat. “Madam put me down this instant!" the cat struggled to break free of Astra's grasp. "I am a well-respected professor and I want to be treated as such.” The cat scold her.

She placed the cat down and slowly back off. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you were the professor.” She said with a sheepish smile.

Fixing his tie, he shook his head at Astra. “As an old saying said ‘Don’t judge the book by its cover, Now, If you excuse me I ha—“ he froze as turned to see me, then his eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here, Mr. Vesper.” The professor said, his voice dripping with venom.

I rolled my eyes. He became an ass to me when he found out I was an assassin and the only reason I was hanging out with him because I want to find out where is this and that. Well, suck it!

I raised my hands up. “Hey, I just want to know if there’s any shrine that acts as a portal to worlds besides the one near the castle.”

He scowled. “Why should I tell you?" He held his head high, eyes closed. "I found out that you’re an assassin and you’re just using the knowledge I give you to kill. Besides you can’t use it, only creatures with immense magical powers can use it. Like your friend Tyrande for example.”

I shrugged. “Well, if she can use it.” I pointed at Astra. “Then I guess I won’t have to.”

His eyes popped open and he cranked his head to her. “B-but that’s impossible, only gods and guardians can use it. If she can use it, then s-she” His eyes widened further as he stammered.

Astra let out a laugh and she pulled her hood down. “Pleasure to meet you, Professor Scratch.” She said as she held a hoof. “My names Astra, the Equis’ Spirit of Harmony.”

He didn’t held his paw, he simply bowed at her. I rolled my eyes at this act and approached him. “Okay, enough of the ass kissing Scratch. We are on a tight schedule here.”

He stood up glaring at me. I assumed it was because of using his name and not his title professor that he didn’t work hard on. He turned to Astra. “The nearest shrine here is in the Deadwood Tangle, go north to Hollowville, and it is east of there.”

She nodded “Thank you, Professor.”

The professor smiled and began to walk towards the bookshelf on the corner. He jump up and grabbed a scroll with his teeth and handed it to her. “This might help you on your journey, it’s the map of Deadwood Tangle, while it’s a little bit outdated it might help you find the shrine.”

Astra nodded to the professor and handed me the scroll and I looked at it. The scroll had tears on the edges, small stains of ink littered around it, it had a musty smell on it, and it's covered with dust when I opened it. Seriously, he put this on his mouth?

I turned to Scratch. “When you said a 'little' outdated, what do you mean by little?” I asked

His eyes narrowed at me. I could tell he just wants me to shut up so he could continue talking to Astra. “About fifty to sixty years.” I just shrugged and pocketed the useless map.

I glanced at Astra to see her conversing with the professor. When I said conversing, I mean she was just constantly nodding with smile on her face, while Scratch is telling her the theories and his discoveries that will revolutionize magic. Bullshit...

I could tell by the look of her face that she doesn’t give a fuck. She looked at me with pleading eyes wanting me to end the verbal torture.

Being a good friend, and pissing off Scratch just amuses me. I went over and interrupted them. “Well, that’s enough ass kissing for today, don’t you Professor.” I said grabbed hold of Astra’s forelegs and began to go downstairs.

“Wait!” The professor stopped us.

I let out an annoyed growl before looking back at the professor, smiling. “What?”

“Do you know how dangerous it is, when someone finds out that she’s a spirit. She’ll get kidnap and sold to the goblins.”

“Yes.”

“Then how are you going to manage to sneak her out of here.”

“I don’t know, with this?” I pointed to the cloak.

He then looked at me like I was stupid. “That’s it?”

I shrugged. “Well, we have managed to get here. I don’t see what the problem is.”

He began to grit his teeth, I could tell by the look of his face the he wanted Astra to stay here a little longer.

“Well, gotta go.” We ushered out of the observatory, and out of the campus.

When we finally got out of the academy, Astra let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that professor sure is umm... Interesting."

I chuckled. "Heh, no."

We set track north towards Hollowville. Across the street, I saw a caravan of merchant dwarves. I approached them. “Where’s this headed.” I asked a burly dwarf, presumably the leader.

“Hollowville, bout fifty miles of ‘er” he replied.

I nodded.

We took the caravan, riding it costed me a hundred credits, but I didn’t complain. I wouldn’t even need it to where I was going. During the ride Astra kept on talking about how beautiful the academy was. I toned her out, not wanting to hear the place I had been thousands of times.

Sometime later, we reached Hollowville. it was inside the dense forest. In case if you didn’t notice the name, everything in there screams ‘Holloween’. The freaky lanterns, graveyards for houses, some haunted mansions. There were also ghosts, zombies that didn’t want to eat your brain, witches, and many other creatures I didn’t bother to mention.

I told Astra that she can drop her hood, since goblins has been banned from this place, and went on east. A tall figure wearing a suit, and its head replaced with a pumpkin approached us.

He chuckled as he approached me. “Michorean Vesper, first time seeing you here on a regular day. You only come here during the Hollowweek. What seems to be the cause hmm?” He asked with a booming voice. His mouth never moved as he spoke only his crooked smile.

“We’re just on our way to Deadwood Tangle, to do some business.” I answered.

“Huh, well don’t let me stop you then.” He laughed then left.

Astra looked at me confused, I just shrugged. I didn’t understand the guy much. He just seemed to laugh everytime I talked to him. Weird.

A few minutes later we reached the entrance of Deadwood Tangle, some of the locals warned us about the place, but we just carried on. It was this place or battling a guardian and a battalion of guards. This place.

We entered the forest and instantly I felt like I was being watched. I brought out the map Professor Scratch gave us and also the Benevolence, just in case some stupid creature attack us. My left hand, the one that got stabbed by the goblins, seems to be numbing for some reason. But I could still feel it hurting occasionally.

I just shrugged and looked on ahead. The forest was pitch dark, the only light we had was Astra’s orb of light spell, and let me tell you this, the map was trash! I can’t seem to make out anything on the scroll, the landmarks , the pathways anything. We were just going around the forest for the past hour and nothing close to what the map said appeared.

I was contemplating on burning the map and continuing on hoping to find the shrine blindly when I heard a voice beside me. I jumped back and pointed the Benevolence at the direction of the voice. Astra followed suit with her eye glowing white bright.

“Easy child, I mean you no harm.” The voice said.

I took a step forward and relaxed when I saw that it was only a treant. I then brought out our map for him to look. “Then, do you know where the shrine is?” I asked, giving it the map.

He took the map with its branches and examined and the worn-out scroll. A few moments the tree burst into laughter. “Child,” he started. “There can’t be a map in here. This forest is constantly changing. You can only enter the shrine granted that we let you.” He handed me back the scrolled which I promptly crumpled and threw away. Fucking shit!

I was really getting annoyed at the talking tree for calling me child and laughing at me but cooled down as he was the only one who can lead us to the shrine. “Well, will you?” I asked leaning forward.

“No.” The treant deadpanned.

My left eye twitched, and I was about to raise the Benevolence and fuck the tree up when Astra flew towards the treant. She whispered something to which the treant nodded.

I can’t make out what they were talking about so I drew closer to them. “—ow the leaf I will give you and it will guide you towards the shrine.” Was the only thing I heard when the treant gave her a leaf. She then levitated the leaf. The leaf shook like...well a leaf for a few moments before pointing on 3 o’clock.

“Thank you Grielief. May the nymphs watch over you.” She said, as she flew over the direction the leaf was pointing.

I saw the treant pointed a branch with two pointed ends at his eye, then back to me, mouthing ‘I’m watching you’. I simply gave him the finger before turning around following Astra.

Jumping on potholes, ducking on low branches, and nearly faceplanting myself when I didn’t notice a rock ahead of me I had a feeling that we were getting near to the shrine.

A few moments later, I heard Astra panting. I looked at her to see that she was profusely sweating, and trembling. She was struggling to stay afloat. She was in a similar condition when we exited the tavern, but I this time I could see that she was visibly worse.

I was about to ask a stupid question; asking if she was okay when I saw someone appear just ahead of us. It was bipedal, and it looked somewhat like a hairy human. Behind him was the shrine.

He turned to us, face flushed. “Hey man,” he said wobbling back and forth like he was drunk, or was he…”Got meat?”

I pointed the Benevolence at him, as he let out a vicious howl. Looking up in the sky, beneath the thick leaves and branches of the tree, I saw it was night time and a glimpse of a full moon.

“Damn, a warewolf.” I turned my head to Astra “Astra, you fi—“instead of seeing my translucent companion, I saw only plants and trees. Looking ahead I saw her shakily floating towards the shrine, not even taking a glance on the warewolf. She was just staring blankly at the shrine, wobbling, and panting.

The warewolf seemed to ignore her, probably because she was just a spirit and she ‘ain’t got no meat’. He took a step forward and let out a deafening roar before turning into a full blown warewolf right in front of my eyes.

He suddenly grew two feet, hundreds of pounds of muscle, its nails turned into a claw, and his nose formed into a snout in the span of five seconds. He cracked his neck and stretched his arms before lunging himself to me.

Charging at me in full spead was a bad idea, as soon as he got near me I lengthen the Benevolence to seven feet and thrust the spear to him.

His eyes widened before the spear pierced him on the chest and he let out a pained roar. I swung and threw him on a tree, denting its trunk in the process.

The motherfucker thrashed on the ground for a moment before standing up with a vicious snarl. His chest had a gaping hole and was copiously bleeding. It seemed the Benevolence just went right through him. I can still see that the warewolf was still pretty much alive and kicking, but I can see he was losing so much blood that the ground beneath him turned crimson.

Although, that didn’t seem to bother him.

He snarled at me before charging again, this time however he wasn’t as careless as before. I tried to thrust at him again, he simply sidestepped and backhanded me. I flew backwards, only dazed.

I don’t particularly call myself good at close quarter combat with speed demons like these, but I was adept at blocking blows to make up for it.

Blow by blow, I noticed the warewolf’s blows were getting weaker at each strike. His blood loss must be getting its toll on him. My plan now is to dodge and block his shots, waiting for him to get weak enough to land a fatal blow.

However before I came to that conclusion, I saw a glimpse of light from the shrine. My eyes widened and I immediately jumped out of the way when I saw a huge pillar zooming towards us.

Holy shit!

The warewolf seemed too weak to move out of the way. Before he could wobble out of the pillar's path, It hit him dead on. I even heard the crunched of his bones breaking as the massive pillar collided on him. The impact made him fly towards the trees with the pillar and ended up destroying several of them in the process.

“Damn,” I said, looking at the wreck.

I turned towards the shrine and saw Astra with her eyes glowing. She was visibly shaking. She wasn’t hovering like she was before. This time she was standing on all fours. Not good.

She smiled weakly to me before collapsing. Shit! “Astra!” I shouted running towards her.

As soon as I got to her, I held her head up. I noticed her mouth opening and closing like there was something she wanted to tell me but didn’t had enough strength to do so.

I moved in closer and soon enough I began hear her. “You’ll bring harmony in Equis back, won’t you?” she said, smiling weakly.

Bring harmony back, what the? I got confused for a moment and shrugged. “I’ll defeat the windigos just as you asked.” I said to her.

She chuckled and nodded before her eyes started glowing and raised a foreleg touching my forehead “Goodbye, Mikee…” She spoke, still smiling. No, Not again!

I froze and my heart skipped a FEW beats as soon she said that. The way she had said goodbye wasn’t like she was just leaving. It was a farewell. I began to glow when her forelegs touched me forehead. I glanced down to see a mark beneath me. It was also glowing the same as me. She must set the runes up when I was out fighting the warewolf.

Tracing the mark, it was connected to the archway that was also littered with runes and glowing. I know what will happen next. My heart started beating a hundred times faster.

Then the portal opened.

As soon as the portal opened, I felt something pulling me towards the portal. I gripped on Astra tightly, but my body suddenly became numb. My heart shattered as soon as I lost my grasp on Astra. Nooo! Fuck!

I wanted to scream but I couldn’t. My mouth didn't dare open to my command. My body was completely paralyzed, making me just a lowly spectator on the scene happening right in front of me. Tears started to form from my eyes. The only thing I could do was to watch myself get hopelessly pulled towards the portal, while Astra was just lying there, dying. The only friend I had left.

“Concordiam reducere de mundo, mox hic tuam.” She said to me with as smile as she started to vanish. I didn’t understand what she just said, but it sounded like she was happy for me.

"..."

My vision blurred as soon as I touched to portal. Looking up to Astra, I saw that as she was vanishing. This time, there were eight orbs floating around her in a circle, each started glowing brighter as Astra slowly disappear to nothingness.

Then, at an instant my body got swallowed by the portal.

Throughout the time, all I could see was white. I couldn’t move either. I felt like I was falling in a bottomless pit. At the corner of my vision, I saw the orbs from earlier beside me. There were eight of them, each with different color, red, orange, green, cyan, pink, purple, gold, and azure.

After what it feels like hours of helplessly falling around, I heard a loud thump. My body just crashed on the ground. I looked around and saw the orbs were scattering on the mountians, moving in different directions. Glancing down, I noticed my body was still glowing. The glow was probably a protective shell since I didn’t feel anything the moment when I landed. That or my body was too numb to feel anything.

I didn’t ponder on it though, the only thing on my mind was Astra. She's dead...

I just laid there on the sobbing, staring at the sky, realizing that I had lost the last friend I have.

Astra.