Anjou groaned in pain as she awoke. Her head felt as if someone had got to town on it with a baseball bat. She pulled herself up and leaned up against the well and looked up. It was night time, but the stars were covered in thick dark clouds with only a sliver of moonlight peeking out. However there was also an orange light at the edge of her vision.
It was a crackling fire and sitting in front of it was the silhouette of a large figure. Anjou froze and tried to formulate a plan of escape. Whoever or whatever this was, it couldn’t have been good. She tried to pull herself to her feet, but her muscles refused her. That combined with the instant bout of dizziness and nausea made her sit back down.
“Try not to move,” the figure said. It was a woman’s voice. It was brassy, but gruff, like one of those retired singers who used to perform at fancy clubs with the big band groups.
“Who are you?” Anjou asked. She tried to demand the question, but her throat was desert dry so her voice came out raspy.
The woman took a drink from a container she had in her hand. “Cuttin’ right to it are we?”
“I’ve been stabbed and thrown down a well. I’m not playing games.”
“I can respect that. Use your Examine ability. It’ll tell you who I am.”
Anjou adjusted her position. “How do you know that…?”
“The first point you get from leveling always goes into Intellect and the skill you get from that is Examine. And once you activate it, it stays on. So just do it.”
Anjou went to her window and mentally hit Examine. That was a lot easier to do than Slime Excretion. Words in a red font appeared over the figure. “What kind of name is Venomgrin?”
The woman laughed. “Tell me Anjou, which world do you come from?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“Because it’s always good to have friends.”
Anjou considered this. In the present situation it was probably best to go along with what this person said. “I’m from Earth.”
“Earth huh? I’ve known a few Eaters from there. Not the most interesting place from what they’ve told me.” Venomgrin bent down and picked something up before tossing it behind her towards Anjou. “Drink that. It’ll make you feel better.”
Anjou picked up the object. It was a black flask with a gold colored screw-on cap. She opened it and sniffed. It had no distinct smell.”
“Relax little rabbit, it’s just water.”
“Don’t call me that,” Anjou seethed.
Venomgrin raised her arms up in a placating gesture. “Alright, I’m sorry.” There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “Just drink it.”
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Anjou took a tentative sip. As soon as the water touched her lips, her entire body jolted with energy. As she gulped down the water, all of the tiredness melted away and her headache disappeared like magic.
“Feel better?” Venomgrin asked. “Come join me by the fire.”
From the silhouette, Anjou expected the woman to be some kind hulking brute, but this was something else. In fact she could hardly keep from staring as she sat down on a stone on the other side of the fire.
Venomgrin was muscular with green scaly skin and no hair to speak of. Black bone-like ridges went down the sides of her arms, similar to what certain dinosaurs had on their backs. Her eyes and nose were flat against her face like a snake’s and she wore only trousers with leather straps that connected to the front and back like a pair of suspenders.
“Hell of a sight isn’t it?” Venomgrin took another drink from her jug. “In this world, my race is known as an Ankylo. They’re mean bastards who live in the Tree Dune, but I promise I’ll be nice.” She laughed again. “So, which one tried to do you in? Was it Danji? Heard she was working in the area?”
“It was a man named Takrin.” Anjou’s hand twitched at the name.
Venmongrin scratched her chin. “Takrin, yeah that makes sense. He’s pretty sloppy. Now if it was Danji, we wouldn’t be talkin’ right now.”
“How did you even find me?”
“Easy.” Venomgrin let out a long belch. “I was looking for you.” Anjou tensed and made a fist. “Relax, I got a report about a one of the Velbun passed out in the fields. You should consider yourself lucky that I saw you coming out of that well when I did.”
Anjou relaxed. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “Thanks to that climb, I lost a full day. Can you tell me how far it is from Esteris?”
“‘Bout two days travel. Half a day if you can fly fast enough.”
A sense of dread filled Anjou, though she wasn’t entirely sure why. The reason tickled the back of her mind, but it refused to reveal itself. “I’m never going to make it.”
“Make what?” Venomgrin finished the drink in her jug then threw it into the fire causing it to flare up for a moment and release a burst of heat.
“The inauguration of Princess Cereza.”
“Oh that. I wouldn’t worry about that. The inauguration happened three days ago.”
“That can’t be right. I haven't even been on this world for two days.”
Venomgrin picked another jug from behind the log she sat on and opened it without taking a drink. “Sorry to tell ya, but I found you two days ago. You’ve been passed out the whole time.”
Anjou was about to retort but paused. This hadn’t been the first time in her life that something like this had happened. There was that one time during training when she had taken a bad shot to the head. She had been out cold for 18 hours straight. When she had finally come to, the doctor was surprised to see that she had only taken very minor brain damage.
“So why the inauguration?” Venomgrin’s question took Anjou out of her thoughts. “Does it have to do with your purpose?”
“My what?”
“Your purpose. It’s like a voice in the back of your mind telling you why you sent here. Like a duty you have to perform. You’re almost compelled to do it.”
Anjou stared into the fire. “Yeah actually. For some reason I was supposed to become Princess Cereza’s bodyguard. But, that opportunity has passed.”
“Here, catch.” Venomgrin tossed a jug over the fire at Anjou who just managed to grab it before it hit the ground. “Drink it. It’ll make you feel better.” She took a swig from her jug. “It always does me good.”
“What is it?” Anjou took the top off and sniffed it. Unlike the water, this had a pungent fruity smell, like sour oranges, which caused her to wrinkle her nose.
“It’s called Corecohol. It’s a tavern drink made from monster cores. It’s one of the few things we can safely drink besides water.”
Anjou took a tentative sip, fully expecting to spit it right out. To her surprise, it was delicious. It tasted like refrigerated fruit punch. She then took several gulps and let out a satisfied sigh. Placing the jug next to her feet she stared back into the fire.
“So I guess I’ll have to find a new purpose then, won’t I?”
“I wouldn’t worry about that. The princess is a picky one, and the Eaters that did turn up were all turned away. So I think there’s still some hope for you.”