Hollow Henry

They set off without much fanfare, and started their walk deep into the forest. The natural light that made the camp so visible quickly dulled as they moved forward. The guard put together a torch using a fallen branch and the sap of a nearby tree. Henry took note of the tree with the flammable sap, he didn't want to accidentally start a forest fire. It was impossible to see the sky through the towering trees. If the whole place went up, he'd be dodging bus sized branches on their way down.

They walked for about 4 hours before she insisted on taking a break. It was obvious that the heavy armour was slowing her down, but he wasn’t brave enough to point that out. If he had heavy armour at that moment, he'd probably want to keep it on too. He checked the area and gathered some wood into his Temple while she sat. He hadn't tired in the slightest from their walk, and he chalked it up to his stats. He also stood over her by at least a foot, making it obvious that she was an average human. His race clearly came with some advantages to endurance, it said as much in the description.

When she was ready to go again, they managed another 5 hours of walking before stopping to set up camp. The entire day was uneventful, and they'd hardly spoken a word to each other in fear of attracting something’s attention. He might not have been tired at the end of the day, but he was relieved to finally stop walking.

They set up camp inside the trunk of a strange looking tree. Calling it a tree seemed like a stretch once he was standing up close to it. It was so wide around the base that he couldn't see its edges past smaller trees, and so tall that it just disappeared into the darkness above. The size was practically mundane next to all the other towers of the forest, the strange part was its bark. There were regular crevices in the surface that penetrated several metres deep. The surface was smoothed over and soft to the touch, feeling more like a sponge than bark. The texture made for an easy climb, and they picked a crevice around 10 metres high. He was nervous to climb so high, but she insisted it was safer than camping on the ground. As the night grew darker, the sounds of the forest started to reinforce her position. He took a trip to his Temple and back to retrieve the dried wood he collected earlier.

He did casually suggest that they camp in his Temple instead, but she just accused him of being a cannibal-pervert again. He decided against staying in his Temple himself as well, since he wanted to be around if she needed help with something. He couldn't help but feel a little responsible for her, since he was the one that got her into this mess. Sure, she would have been eaten, but it might have been a better death than whatever is in the dark of the forest. He wanted to try his best to keep her alive and get her home, even if it was for his ego. The walk back wasn't that dangerous for him in the grand scheme of things. If he died, he would just respawn. Dying sucked pretty hard, but it wasn’t the end of things anymore, at least not for players. That brought a question to his mind, so he interrupted her fire stoking. He didn't know much about her, but he was starting to think she really liked poking fire.

“Do you respawn?” He asked as innocently as he could.

She gave him a familiar perplexed look.

“Do I what?”

“When you die, do you come back to life after a countdown?”

She stared at him for a moment, then sniffed. She turned back to the fire, shaking her head.

“What the fuck?” She whispered to herself.

“I'll take that as a no,” he responded, turning back to look into the dark forest.

“So you can use your Temple, but it looks unbuilt, and you can heal faster than any Demai I've ever met. And now you're telling me you can't die?” She broke the silence from behind him.

He turned to look at her again.

“I didn't say I can't die. I just said that I come back when I do.”

“That's kinda like not dying,” she suggested.

“You’re getting hung up on semantics. You could have just said no,” he huffed.

“I'm sorry. Next time somebody casually tells me they're immortal, I'll be more polite.”

He tried to think of an argument, but came up empty.

“As long as you're sorry.” He immediately winced at his own sarcasm, not sure how it would come across. Like always though, she gave nothing away in her posture. The woman would make for a hell of a poker player.

He decided to ignore her comment about healing faster than other Demai. It was a pretty good bet that his healing factor had something to do with his race, but he wanted to keep at least a few cards close to his chest. He didn't want his naivety to be his undoing. The guard already knew a lot about what he could do, and until he was sure it was safe for him to show off his powers, he didn't want to risk giving away any more.

The atmosphere grew awkward and silent once again, until the quiet was interrupted by his stomach singing its desires. He hadn't really thought about food until then, but it had been a few days since he last ate. His last meal was a 6 stack of Vegemite toast back on earth. He squinted into the forest to see if he could make out any wild Vegemite toast, but somehow had no luck. Nothing growing from their tree-cave seemed very edible either, unless he was in the mood for twigs and leaves. He squashed that thought quickly when he saw the fine hairs covering them. Whatever little experience he had with nature was enough to tell him not to even touch the things. He sighed, and kicked himself for not thinking about food earlier. He wasn't super confident in his ability to hunt something, but he was more than willing to give it a shot.

“What can we eat out there?” He asked casually, pointing into the forest.

“All kinds of things. But you have to eat them before they eat you,” she laughed.

“What about plants and berries and stuff?” His stomach's song was getting louder the more he thought about it.

“I was talking about the plants and berries too,” she said with an eye roll. “If you're hungry, you should have packed food.”

His temper flared a little, even though he knew it was uncalled for. “I might have if I had a second to think about it!” He barked. “I haven't even looked at food since I got here.”

“What kind of Demai goes for a walk without calories? And don't yell at me, I'm the only thing keeping your giant arse alive out here.” She stood to face him while she talked him down.

He was stumped for a moment. This whole time he'd been foolishly thinking of himself as the protection on their little journey. It seemed she had a similar mindset about herself. She had even been the one leading the way. He felt like an idiot all of a sudden. He had only been in that world for what to him felt like a day. There was know way in hell he'd be able to protect them any better than a child would. She might have been small in comparison, but the woman was a guard, and she'd managed a 9 hour walk through thick undergrowth in heavy armour. He looked at her in a new light all of a sudden. She was strong, and clearly had an endurance that probably surpassed his own.

He put his hands up again to back out of the argument. “You’re right, I'm sorry. I'm just really hungry.”

“That makes two of us,” she sighed. “We can hunt something in the morning. It's too dangerous out there at night. If you can hold off another 18 hours that is.”

“18 hours?” He scoffed. “That's a whole day!”

“It's not even half a day, you baby,” she groaned. “You haven't been in The Hollows for very long, have you?”

He gave her a nervous look.

“Is it that obvious?”

“You might as well be wearing a sign that says ‘I'm an idiot, feel free to rob and eat me’,” she declared.

“That's a bit harsh,” he complained in defeat. “I see your point though.”

“Maybe keep that little bit of information to yourself,” she offered. “Even a saint would be tempted to take what you have if they know you can't do anything about it.”

“Did you just imply you're more pure than a saint,” he teased.

“And don't you forget it,” she said through a smirk. “I'm sure you can find a way to occupy yourself for a few hours. If you try and eat me though, I will cut your head off and return the favour.” She spun again, and claimed her perch next to the fire.

“I'm not going to eat you,” he groaned. “Why do you keep saying that?”

He received silence in response.

“Can you at least tell me your name?” He was growing tired of referring to her as ‘the guard’ in his inner monologue.

“You can call me Lee,” she eventually said. “I'm not in the habit of sharing my name with cannibals.”

He knew she was just trying to get a reaction out of him at this point, so he chose to ignore her comment. “Lee it is,” he said simply, sitting to watch the darkness again.

He couldn't shake the feeling that the darkness watched him back, and he could feel a subtle paranoia growing based on that fact.

He did have a way to occupy his time though. All day his attention kept drifting towards the stick in his boot. He wanted to know what the wand did, but Lee had forbidden him from playing with it on their walk. Now that they were nestled into camp though, he figured it was time.

The wand felt alive with energy in his hand. The sensation on his skin wasn't quite a tingle, but it was the closest word he could think to describe it with. His DiHexan had regenerated to full throughout the day, and he'd only spent 19 DiH to retrieve the wood, so he had enough magic to test it once or twice.

He picked an empty looking part of the darkness and took aim. With an effort of will, he flexed the wand's enchantment. It was easy to find the right spot to flex, since the enchantment felt obvious to him as soon as he held it.

He felt his DiHexan drain suddenly, and a pulse of power shot from his core to run along his arm and meet the wand. In the next second, his heart pounded in excitement while his stomach dropped. The spell was spectacular. It glowed with a soft purple light, and was completed by its own unique letters and glyphs. If it was just the ball of force that came out, he'd be on top of the world at that moment. He wasn't so lucky though. As the ball of magic zipped forward into the darkness, it dragged behind it the most horrific and shrill screech he had ever heard. It was loud enough for him to feel its vibration, and his ears stung immediately at the assault they endured.

There was a loud popping sound when the ball hit a tree, dissipating all of the energy at once. The tree across from them shook, setting free an avalanche of falling timber. The screeching stopped at the same time, leaving the forest around them in a dead silence.

He heard the quick shifting of heavy armour behind him, and hung his head in shame. He didn't need to hear her speak first, he was all too aware of how badly he might have just messed up.

“What the fuck did you just do?” She growled at him through gritted teeth. “Now we're both screwed.”