Gareth and Ivor left the long hallways, and found a man waiting for them at the bottom of the marble stairs leading outside. His tall figure was smartly dressed in a functional black robe edged in red. His arms folded, hands concealed in his sleeves.

  "Good Day, Ivor Hansen. I was told you have my charge?" His voice was slightly raspy so as to give that aged quality, but his enunciation was perfect, and his tenor smooth. He carried himself like a gentleman, yet had the undeniable swagger of an Hisean pirate.

  Ivor showed every measure of respect, and bowed deeply. His normally chilled expression turning downright nasty serious.

  "This one greets Elder Guanji."

  When Ivor came up from his bow, Gareth saw that while he was serious, he also had that starstruck look in his eye, "This is Gareth Elson, your prospective student."

  "Gareth, it is a pleasure to meet you." Guanji said and bowed slightly, his long black hair tied neatly in a ponytail braided with clasps of silver and ruby. His eyes made Gareth feel nervous, his confident presence made Gareth feel small, and yet he smiled with a kindness that belied his predatory gaze.

  "Likewise." Gareth swallowed a dry throat, stuck his hand out of their personal buddle, took a sip of the rain, and imitated Guanji as much as possible, though his weak back ached from the attempt.

  A half-smile curled the corner of his wizened lip. "I thank you for your service, First Ranger Ivor Hansen. I hereby take Gareth Elson as my disciple, and relieve you of your guardianship."

  Ivor flinched slightly, the small look of hurt in his eyes breaking Gareth's heart, though he would never admit it. Each time he'd shown his softness he'd been taken advantage of by parasitic friends and drug addicted parents. He could see that Guanji's casual dismissal was an unexpected blow to Ivor, but Gareth could say nothing. The starstruck look in his eye faded away completely, replaced by the seriousness of his set mouth and frowning brow.

  He once more bowed deeply. It seemed that Ivor's people deem respect and position above personal feelings.

  "I acknowledge the success of my mission, and leave my charge...in your charge." They were both speaking in a ritualistic tone that Gareth had no clue about, but he could tell that Ivor was letting this happen, so it couldn't be anything bad.

  When he rose, Ivor nodded once, his face set in stone, and turned to go. His steps were sure, and none of the hurt Gareth had briefly seen flash in his eyes remained in his posture, but Gareth had still seen it.

  Before Ivor Hansen had taken more than 10 steps Gareth couldn't take it anymore. This was the man who had saved his life, who had done so much for him, that he couldn't just leave it like this!

  "Hey! Ivor!" he called.

  -

  The great, sturdy, strong, and honourable Ivor Hansen turned with a huge lump in his throat.

  There, ten paces away, stood the slow, weak, irritating, illogical, uneducated, burden of a man, who had so quickly taken up a large space in his heart...bowing.

  "Thank you for escorting this one to Volun city, Senior Brother Ivor Hansen!" The boy called. Perfectly according to Ivor's culture. A sign that he had been paying attention. The lump in Ivor Hansen's throat eased, and his usual confidence returned tenfold.

  Ivor Hansen returned the solemn bow.

  Biting back tears with the fierceness of a lion, the great Ivor Hansen called out, "May your steps be sure as those of a dragon, and light as the Noon Day sun, Gareth Elson!" A greeting of his people, customarily said when long journeys would separate family members for extended periods of time.

  With that, the magnificent Ivor Hansen spun and resumed his journey. A quick stop to resupply, then he would be on his way up the cliff once more. Lazfeld awaited, and if the presence of Oni Broodmothers were anything to go by, they were in trouble.

  -

  Guanji held out his enrobed, muscular arm to indicate down a small cobbled path lit on either side by evenly spaced blue mage lamps. The grey stone path had a short knee height wooden-post fence running along its sides, just to leave a demarcation that was aesthetically pleasing in the heavily wooded area.

  Gareth watched Ivor quickly striding down the wide path that they had trod just a few minutes earlier. Looking at Ivor's swinging orange tail, Gareth came to the realisation that he knew startlingly little about the man, but trusted him... about as far as Gareth could truly trust someone.

  That's just how bros work, you don't need to know their life story to appreciate the type of person they are - Gareth thought, and mentally closed that chapter of his life. If he wanted to make a success of himself in this new world, then he would need to lock in from the start.

  Taking his eyes off Ivor, Gareth studied Guanji. He had a sharply defined, angular face with high cheekbones and a narrow, pointed jawline. His face carried an aristocratic elegance – lean and symmetrical, yet severe in its masculinity. He looked bourgeoisie, he looked corpo.

  "Come. Let us get you settled in." Gareth still felt conflicted, so he would reserve judgement until Guanji gave him proof of his trustworthiness, which would have been a lot easier if he didn't have that 'kind old man' energy without any of the looks. According to something Ivor had said, Gareth knew people in Yggdrasil lived for a long time. It was entirely possible this man was ancient, he just didn't look like it.

  They walked in silence down the coble path, so Gareth took the time to look at Guanji out of the corner of his eye. He had nearly flawless pale eastern skin, like a K-pop star, though with none of the softness. He was cleanly shaven but had a five-O'clock-shadow thing going on, which highlighted his sharp-as-fuck jawline. Then he saw a feature that had he had seen countless times back on Terra, though didn't think he would see on a human here, Elf ears!

  It just has to be cosmetic, because his face is just too... bukly to mistake him for the elves I saw on my way in!

  His most startling features were his eyes: a captivating ruby red which seemed to glow with an internal light, much like Ivor’s green glow but much more pronounced. His slitted pupils, along with the crimson colouring and his feline features, gave him a predatory air that set Gareth's hackles on edge.

  His eyebrows were thin, dark, and straight, sitting above deep-set eyes that seemed to look down at everything as if he owned it, though still had the kindness of a grandfatherly guardian. His brow was furrowed just enough to give him a perpetually stern / contemplative look.

  "Like what you see?" Guanji asked all of a sudden, and with a start Gareth realised he had been straight-up staring.

  He coughed slightly to hide his embarrassment, "Sorry. I’ve just never seen eyes like yours."

  "If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that you are trying to court me with a complement like that."

  He said with a light chuckle, revealing perfectly straight white teeth with startlingly pronounced canines.

  Seeing Gareth sputter, Guanji guffawed but took mercy on him, "It is a consequence of my bloodlines."

  "So your entire family has red eyes?"

  He confusedly looked at Gareth, "No? It is the bloodline I awakened through Body cultivation.” After a beat he nodded his head to himself, “That is... as good a place as any to start. What do you know of cultivation?"

  "I don't know how much lord Margrave told you, but I'm not...exactly… from around here." Gareth drew out his words as they passed a gardener dressed in green overalls, who bowed to Guanji as they were walking down the path. Guanji acknowledged him with a head nod.

  "He said you were not of this world, yet I assumed you were from beyond Fawdaa, the chaos space. And even there, The System functions similarly. If you are from beyond even that, then I am interested to hear of this world. If you could, perhaps, describe your world in three words, what would they be?"

  "Harsh, cruel, and unforgiving." Gareth said without hesitation.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Ian and the Doctor had taught him this place’s language, so as to get the best test results from him, and they had hammered on those messed-up adjectives.

  They would ask, “Can you describe what it feels like to break a bone, when the hyperfoliated serum is applied?”

  He also learned to count, though not very high, “If you had to rate your pain from one to ten, what would it be?”

  Before he could further fall down that mental rabbit hole, Guanji continued, "Our worlds sound similar "

  "Hmph, yeah, maybe… Here, at least from what I have noticed, people have the chance to progress, to become more than what you were born as. In my world: if you were born in the slums, you would stay there until the day you died. Food scarcity was a massive problem and people you've known your entire life would stab you in the back for bread. The biggest danger here might be monsters, but our biggest dangers were other humans. There were kind moments, when people came together in unity, but those moments were quickly squashed by rich corpo lawbringers. We don't have magic to make us stronger, we just had what we were born with. We just had to make the best with that."

  There was a long moment of silence as Guanji thought over Gareth's words. They occasionally passed gardeners, guards, or other people busy working on maintaining the large estate, and each time, count-it, each time they would stop and bow to master Guanji.

  Before Guanji could think of anything to say, Gareth idly wondered, "How did you know about me and get ahead of us? We literally just left the office behind." He decided to keep his eyes fixed on the path ahead.

  "Hah, Lord Margrave works quickly. Given that you are to be a fellow Protector, I do not mind indulging your curiosity: there is an extensive surveillance and messaging system within Volun that Protectors use to communicate. Our ultimate goal is to keep our charges safe, and if an external threat arises that none of us know about, we have room to work together. But the moment said threat passes, we are once again beholden to whatever grudge our charges have with one another."

  "You sound very much like an organisation in my world, that works with secrets and information."

  Feds, pigs, corpos and rats: couldn't trust'em with my spit.

  "Ohhh! No-no, we are not an organisation. We are individuals who have taken up the cause of protecting one person from all threats. We just so happen to work together every now and again as a professional courtesy. We are civilised after all. But if your charge's rival starts making moves against your own, you make sure to sabotage their plans. The only reason I am telling you this, and giving you so much information, is because my charge is Lord Margrave. It is extremely unlikely that our paths will not coincide, I have therefore been instructed to be your master."

  "So should I be suspicious of everyone around me?" He said, not having the mental bandwidth to realise that that very statement, gave Guanji a very close look at Gareth's propensity to trust.

  "Of course not. But it is your role to find and sometimes deal with threats before they become a problem. This includes people."

  "Great. Where do we start?"

  Gareth was bone tired, but this wasn't that dissimilar to what he had done back on Terra. Find information about rival gangs, and report back to his boss. He had hoped to be done with that side of the world but if he wanted to find, and kill, Ian and the Doctor, then he would need the skills these people could equip him with.

  "Woa woah woahw, hold your gryphon. First you need to eat something." He poked at Gareth's skeletal arms with a perfectly manicured nail. "Then you're going to take the longest bath of your life, because you stink." He said and poked at a smear of mud on Gareth’s face he hadn’t even noticed. "Finally, you will get some rest. I have seen Darklings lighter than the circles under your eyes." He joked and nodded his head down a different cobbled path to their left.

  "Isn't that kinda racist?"

  "No. ‘Darkling’ is the general term for creatures that thrive in Darkness, just like we thrive in Light. They come in all shapes and sizes, but the vast majority of them think that they can take Volun, once Night falls. They are not on our side. They are, however, often cloaked in Dark mana; hence the comparison."

  Gareth felt 'our side' was subjective.

  Yet, if what he said was true, and Darklings did attack each Night, then maybe they really were assholes? – He would withhold judgment for now.

  If Gareth was following his directions right, the path they'd been following lead back in the direction of the mansion... He thought. The pine trees made it difficult to judge direction, because their tallness hid the Volun city tree as a reference point. They would occasionally pass little roofed pagodas with a bench for someone to sit at and enjoy the stillness of the forest, some even had cute little sheltered ponds!

  They arrived at a small mess-hall, where numerous servants were having their lunch breaks at one long table. He counted thirty seats at the thick, varnished wood table that seemed to be made from one giant single slab of wood. To their right, and against the wall, was a large buffet table with numerous dishes that smelled divine and made Gareth's mouth water.

  "This is the worker's mess hall, you may avail yourself of it whenever you please, as they keep the buffet stocked." Guanji smirked as he saw Gareth's mouth literally drooling.

  Only about five of the seats were currently filled, yet a quiet susurration went through the hall as Guanji escorted Gareth to the buffet table, and made them both a plate.

  The meal was a quiet affair, with only a few mumbles of, "This is good." and "I like this fuckin' stew man!"

  Gareth felt like he was in heaven! It had been YEARS since he had eaten a warm meal, nevermind a good meal. Even before he had been captured.

  He wasn't exaggerating when he told Guanji that food scarcity on Terra was at an all time high. He therefore dug in and savoured every...single...bite!

  He was not familiar with many of the flavours, but meat was still meat and vegetables were still vegetables. He had two types of dishes: One: a savoury stew type thing with a rich beefy broth and what looked like mustard seeds, something like a sweet potato, and all manner of chopped up veggies he couldn't identify.

  Second: a delicious salad with some leaves, a diced blue tomato, a sliced cucumber, and a delightfully tangy salad dressing.

  The meal ended all too soon and Gareth woozily stood up to follow Guanji once again.

  "Did you enjoy the meal?"

  "Oh! It was amazing, life changing, even!" Gareth looked into the distance, his mind preoccupied with thoughts of warm and heavy bellies, rich aromatic foods and sweet scrumptious desserts.

  It was not lost on him that he had been nearly completely unguarded since entering the city, naive even, but he was desperately tired. So goddamn tired. For once in his life, he could just relax and let someone else take the wheel.

  They soon left the mess-hall, and hiked off into the woods down a different, slightly narrower cobbled path. Guanji, like Ivor had done before him, extended a transparent, slightly ruby tinted force shield around them both to protect from the rain.

  They walked for about five minutes, yet felt like five hours to Gareth, when they came upon a very comfortable two-storey stone and wood beam house. It design was similar to those he'd seen of other houses in the city, yet the wood pillars of this one was carved to in reliefs of giant panthers lazing about on terraces; snarling in combat; or leaping with grace upon vined trees.

  At this point Gareth was struggling to put one foot in front of the other: His stomach was full, his body warm, and the exhaustion from years of torment were quickly catching up with him.

  He stumbled through the door of the house and was led to what looked like a hot-spring / jacuzzi. He didn't see any machines, nor did he hear the hum of a pump, but the steaming water bubbled merrily in a natural rock pool.

  "Come, I shall be in the kitchen when you are finished. Do not fall asleep in the bath. You are also not getting out until you are clean, the quicker you clean - the quicker you can get into bed."

  He felt like a child being lectured by their parent, but Gareth did a thorough, deep clean of all his crevices. He savoured it, even if the water was scaldingly hot. This was the first bath he'd taken.........ever. His cramped apartments had always been furnished with a shower, the cleaner in his torture room had only ever used a bucket to splash him somewhat clean, and Ivor and he had bathed in ice-cold streams on their journey here. This was his first proper bath.

  Resting on the grey stones of the tub rim, he spotted a small wicker-basket. It held two palm-sized tins, a thick and fluffy brush of some sort, a tooth brush, and an old-fashioned single-blade razor.

  Gareth felt a childlike glee in him bubble like the tub -- I'm gonna learn to shave like those ancient pre-industrial guys!

  This was a good time to note that Gareth did not study history, nor are modern Terran movies historically accurate in the least. Therefore, his exhaustion abated for the moment, Gareth spent the next hour in the bath. He managed to not slit his throat. That was his only achievement. There were slight cuts on his jawline and chin, a thin line at his unevenly cut sideburns, and he hadn't had the bravery to attempt shaving his mustache.

  Once done, he toweled down in literally the most luxuriously fluffy white towel he had ever experienced, put on the blue cotton pyjamas he saw resting on a low wooden bench along the bamboo plank wall, and just had a sit down for a while. He knew Guanji was waiting for him, and he would leave in a second, but he also just wanted to take a moment and realise that he was safe.

  He was being hunted, sure. He'd seen and experienced some shit in this world that had scarred him more than anything Terra had ever done to him, sure. But his stomach was full. His face, while slightly stinging, was clean. His teeth were brushed, his hair was combed, and his nails...trimmed. He felt good. Truly.

  With a groan, he slowly pushed himself to his aching bare feet, and hobbled his way to the outside world.

  He easily found Guanji in the kitchen. Gareth didn't have the mental ram to process the kitchen, he just looked at the somewhat scary, somewhat nice guy casually eating a sandwich, and asked, "Do you mind if I go have a kip? Its-uh...Its been a long day."

  Guanji laughed lightly around a mouthful of food. His hand covering his mouth, he said, "I shall lead you to your quarters, disciple."

  He threw a glance at Gareth's badly shaven face and stifled a laugh, not that Gareth noticed, and was then led to a comfortably sized bedroom.

  It had enough space for a desk, a floor-bed -- he couldn't recall what they are named -- and a cupboard for clothes-and-such.

  Once he saw the bed, though, his vision tunnelled and the rest of the world fell away. The moment his head hit the pillow...he was out like a candle.