I must’ve blacked out before I reached the light, and when I came to, I found myself surrounded by something I can barely bring myself to write down without sounding like a raving lunatic. There were three large, feline-like creatures standing over me, and they spoke in a tongue I understood. A common tongue, but from beasts. Makes me wonder if I hadn’t lost my mind out in this cursed land.
“You’re a long way from home,” one of them said, voice oddly calm. “How the heck did you get here?”
There was something like concern in his voice, though another one muttered something about cutting me up on a table. My blood ran cold at that. I wasn’t sure what these creatures were, but I wasn’t keen on becoming dinner. Not that there’s much meat on my bones these days.
When I tried to explain how I got here, my words tumbled out half-mad, but they seemed to listen. One of them handed me a piece of parchment with a symbol on it. I’ve seen this before—I know I have. Maybe back in the maze, or on that sword lodged in the stone slab. My mind was too foggy to place it exactly.
Then, one of the creatures pointed off in the distance. “Follow that symbol,” he said, “and you might find your way home.” He handed me a canteen of water and some dry food that looked like brown pellets. Barely fit for eating, but I forced them down. I needed whatever strength I could get.
By the time I pulled myself together, the light was gone, and the creatures had vanished like a bad dream. I reached into my pocket, out of habit more than anything—and that’s when I realized my Captain’s Challenge Coin was gone. Whether I lost it or those beasts took it, I don’t know. But it’s gone, and so is any comfort I had left in this blasted place.
Now, all I’ve got is this scrap of parchment with a symbol that feels like a key to something. I’ll follow it. What else can I do?
