Millhaven Town

Back home, Yuki would be getting ready for school right now, probably wondering why I wasn't making breakfast. 

She'd check my room, find it empty, maybe think I'd gone out early.

Eventually, we stumbled out into daylight, and I had to shield my eyes against the sudden brightness. 

Fresh air hit my lungs, carrying the smell of grass and trees instead of damp stone and whatever the hell those cultists had been burning.

I was out. Finally fucking out of that cave.

Then I sighed, feeling some of the tension leave my shoulders. My echo was standing beside me, its translucent form looking somewhat less panicked now that we weren't trapped underground.

The forest around us was... different. 

Not wrong exactly, but not quite like any woods I'd ever seen. 

The trees were massive, easily twice the size of anything back home, with bark that had an almost silvery sheen in the dappled sunlight. Strange flowers dotted the underbrush, their petals shifting colors as shadows moved across them. 

Above us, the canopy filtered sunlight. In the distance, I could make out what looked like a dirt road winding between the trees.

We both stood there for a moment, uncertain.

"So..." I started, then trailed off. 

'What exactly do you say in this situation?'

"We should probably follow the road," the echo suggested, pointing toward the path. "Roads usually lead somewhere, right?"

Made sense. 

We started walking, our footsteps – well, my footsteps – crunching on fallen leaves. The echo moved silently beside me.

"So... you're me," I said after a few minutes of awkward silence.

"I think so?" It sounded as confused as I felt. "I remember everything you remember, but it's... different now. Like watching someone else's memories through fog."

I stepped over a fallen branch, noting how the echo just passed through it without thinking.

 "Do you feel pain?"

It shook its head. 

"Not physical pain. But I keep feeling those teeth..." It shuddered, form flickering slightly. "The fear doesn't go away."

"That sucks." I glanced at it as we continued down the dirt path. "Can you touch things? The status window said you have stats."

The echo then moved toward one of the massive tree trunks. Its fingers passed through the bark for a moment, then seemed to solidify just enough to brush the surface with a faint scraping sound.

"Sometimes. When I focus really hard," it said, pulling its hand back and staring at it. "It's like... like trying to remember how to use muscles I don't have anymore."

"Weird." I paused, stepping around a cluster of those color-changing flowers. They shifted from blue to purple as my shadow passed over them.

"Do you... do you want a name? I can't just keep thinking 'hey, ghost me.'"

The echo was quiet for a moment, maybe thinking about it as we walked deeper into the forest. The road was getting more defined now.

"We'll think about the name later," I said, waving off the topic. There were more pressing things to worry about than what to call my ghostly doppelganger.

We kept walking, the conversation drifting to random observations about this weird new world.

After about couple of hours of walking, the forest began to thin out, and we caught sight of wooden buildings rising in the distance. Which seemed to be a town.

As we grew more closer to have a clear view, I noticed, it was straight out of a fantasy novel. 

Timber-framed houses with thatched roofs lined cobblestone streets, their walls painted in faded yellows and browns. 

A stone wall surrounded the settlement, not particularly high but sturdy-looking, with guards in leather armor standing at what looked like the main gate. Smoke rose from chimneys, and I could hear the distant sounds of people talking, horses neighing, and the general buzz of civilization.

'Finally.'

But as we got closer, my echo suddenly darted behind a massive oak tree, pressing its translucent back against the bark.

"Wait," it hissed, running ghostly fingers through its hair. "How are we supposed to enter with me like this? What if the guards see me? What if they think you're some kind of necromancer or something and lock us up?"

"I..." I started, then realized I had no idea how to answer that.

Before I could figure it out, a middle-aged man came walking down the road toward us. He was wearing well-made clothes, a pack slung over his shoulder, and the kind of confident stride that came from knowing where you were going.

He slowed as he approached, giving me a concerned look. "You alright there, boy? You were talking to... well, to the air."

'Shit.' 

I glanced toward where my echo was hiding behind the tree, then back at the merchant. "Oh, uh... I'm fine. Just... thinking out loud, you know?"

The man nodded slowly, though he still looked puzzled. "Ah. Well, you seem a bit lost. New to these parts?"

"Yeah, actually. I don't know much about... well, anything around here."

"Mm. Well, that's Millhaven just ahead. Good place to get your bearings if you're traveling." He adjusted his pack. "Safe travels, lad."

The man then continued down the road, leaving me standing there staring after him.

My echo emerged from behind the tree, looking as stunned as I felt. "He... he didn't see me."

"No," I said slowly, the realization dawning. "He didn't. At all."

We looked at each other for a moment, processing this new information.

"So I'm invisible to other people," the echo said, its voice carrying a mix of relief and something that might have been sadness. "Only you can see me."

"Looks like it." I started walking toward the town gate again. "Well, that solves the 'how do we get in' problem."

The guards barely glanced at me as I passed through the gate – just another traveler, nothing special. 

My echo walked beside me, still glancing around nervously but no longer trying to hide.

Inside the walls, Millhaven was bustling with activity. 

The main street was lined with shops, a blacksmith's forge belching smoke out of the chimney, hammering blows ringing mingling with the air.

A bakery with the warm smell of bread drifting through its open door, stalls selling everything from vegetables to leather goods. People moved with purpose, going about their daily business in clothes that looked from medieval era.

"So what's the plan?" my echo asked, staying close as we navigated through the crowd. "We don't have money, we don't know anyone, and we're definitely not from around here."

I watched a group of people walk past us, armed and armored, discussing something about goblins and bounties. 

A group of people walked past, and my brain immediately catalogued what I was seeing, leather armor, various weapons, that confident swagger of people who fought monsters for a living. 

It was like every RPG party I'd ever seen, except real. 

'Adventurers?' 

Right. It's a fantasy world. There's got to be an adventurers' guild or something.

"First things first," I muttered, trying not to look like I was talking to myself. "We need information. And probably food. And definitely somewhere to sleep that isn't a cave."

My echo nodded, though it kept darting glances at the various people around us.

 "Think any of them would be willing to help a random stranger who just wandered out of the forest?"

Good question. And one I'd probably find out the answer to sooner rather than later.