Courage To See This Through

Ember led the steadily growing group back towards the north gate. On the way, Lian offered basic introductions to the others, though Maggie remained silent throughout, following close behind Ember and Thordon as they went. Meanwhile, Ember contemplated whether or not to simply take everyone back to Moze right away, but he still felt Maggie should get an explanation as soon as possible. Besides, he wasn’t particularly comfortable taking her into those potentially dangerous woods without giving her an explanation first. He led the group off to the side once more, settling this time behind a farmhouse that had little in the way of player traffic.

“Okay, yea, sorry if that was a bit abrupt Lian, I just thought it best we get this stuff handled as soon as we can.” Ember explained.

“Oh, nah, I agree. To be honest I’ve been curious about how exactly all of this is going to go down too. Still, how you holding up Maggie?” Lian asked.

Maggie was silent before looking down to the ground. Koumei seemed to take notice however as he trotted on over to her and shoved his head beneath her hand.

“Probably not well. She got stuck here around the same time you did I think. I met her yesterday while me, Thordon, and Clair were heading out of town to fight some mobs. It… wasn’t a good sight, but, at least we were able to find her again today.” Ember said before turning his attention back to Maggie.

For once, she actually seemed to be a little cheerful as she reached down and pet Koumei who’s purring suggested that he was enjoying every moment of it.

“Damn, seriously, even a kid wasn’t safe from this Chosen thing, huh?” Lian asked.

“Nope, doesn’t look like it. Man, whatever’s responsible for this better have a crotch to kick when we find it” Ember growled.

As Maggie continued to play with Koumei, she suddenly stopped as her hand went to her stomach.

“Maggie, have you eaten anything today?” Ember asked, looking a bit annoyed.

She stared at him for a moment before shaking her head.

“She was probably afraid to approach any of the vendors. When I found her at the mask stall, she was just staring at them.” Thordon mentioned.

“Then where did this one come from? I don’t recall seeing it yesterday.” Clair noted.

“Th-that’s because Mr. Thordon got it for me.” Maggie suddenly said.

“Pff, didn’t have any problems taking your mask, did she?” Ember grumbled.

“Hey, to be fair, I don’t think I’d wanna eat something your hands have been on either.” Thordon said with a smirk.

“Stuff it Thordon.” Ember replied with a chuckle. “Seriously though Maggie, how are you doing? You holding up alright?”

Maggie was silent again for a moment before she nodded. “Y-yea, I’m okay now.”

“Good I know it’s probably been a lot to take in, you getting stuck here and all.” Ember said.

“Y-yea, I-it has… I-I just wanna go home. I miss my mom and dad…” She said with a sniffle, her head once more hanging low.

“That’s what we’re gonna try finding out about soon hun, but first, I think Ember has something important he wants to tell you, okay?” Lian asked, kneeling down to her.

Maggie sniffled before nodding her head and turning her attention to Ember “U-umm, Mister Ember. A-actually, I was kind of wondering. How did you know what happened to me? I tried telling lots of people about it, but nobody told me anything.”

“Oh, yea. Well, it turns out you weren’t alone. I… I didn’t know what was going on when we saw you yesterday, but it turned out I ended up getting stuck here too.” Ember replied.

Maggie nodded in acknowledgement before looking around to the others. “Are all of us stuck here?”

“Nope, just me, you Lian, and my friend Moze who we’re going to meet soon. In fact, most of what we’re saying is probably complete gibberish to Thordon and Clair.” Ember explained, with the two non Chosen of the group nodding in unison moments later. “And you know what, I’ll bet that’s what happened yesterday, wasn’t it Maggie. You were trying to tell me what happened, that you were stuck here in this world, but because I was only a player at the time, I couldn’t understand any of it.”

Maggie seemed to light up a bit at that, made clear despite the mask on her face by her now more confident posture.

“Y-Yea, exactly! I tried telling so many people, but I didn’t think any of them wanted to listen to me, so I got sad. Then you guys came by and talked to me. I was scared though cause I thought you were ignoring me too when I was telling you what happened and… I didn’t know what to do… I'm… I’m glad now though to know that it was just an accident.” Maggie explained.

“Oh yea, no way! I really wanted to help you yesterday too, but I didn’t know what was going on! I’m umm, sorry if I made things worse.” Ember replied.

“Umm… W-well, it’s okay now, cause I know you didn’t mean it.” Maggie assured him.

Ember felt good, a bit of a smirk cracking on his currently serious expression.

“Haha, yea me too. Still, there is something I need to ask you about…” Ember said before his face suddenly went sullen.

Could he really do this? Should he? Should he really request a child fight alongside him to fight some monster in a long abandoned military fort? Even if she were capable of defeating an entire army with the abilities her class and stats gave her, she was still a child in that body. He had clearly become troubled and Lian rather quickly picked up on it. Knowing what she had to do, she kneeled down beside Maggie.

“Maggie, I think what Ember is trying to ask is… Are you brave?” Lian asked.

Maggie was silent for a moment, clearly taken off guard by the question. She seemed to hesitate before her hands suddenly balled up into fists and she nodded.

“I-I am. I-I have to be. Dad always told me and my brother that fear was just an evil monster who sometimes, you had to stop and fight. He said that some things are too important to let fear turn you away from them. Because of that, I-I always try to be brave.” Maggie replied.

Lian looked down for a moment as Koumei stood beside her.

“I see. You have a brother?” Lian asked.

“Yea, I have my brother, my mom, my dad, and my dog. We all live in the same house, but my aunts and my uncles and grandmas and grandpas all live in different houses.” Maggie replied.

“Haha, good good. Now, you said you could be brave, but do you think you could be as brave as Koumei, the mighty sun lion?” Lian asked.

Koumei seemed to smirk as he crouched down in a combat position and growled. Though it was about as menacing as Ember’s war cry, it did earn a chuckle out of Maggie.

“Haha, Yea, I can be as brave as Koumei!” Maggie replied jovially.

“Good. Because Maggie. If you want to get out of here so you can go back to your brother, and you mom, and your dad, and your dog. You’re going to need to be very brave. Brave enough to help all of us fight the monsters so that we can all go home.” Lian explained.

Maggie stared at her, her stiffened body struggling to catch up to her courageous declaration.

“Y-you mean like those monsters we fought outside of town?” Maggie asked.

“Yes, monsters like those and more. You see, Ember’s friend Moze, he has a plan. A plan to fight back a big monster and maybe get some answers that will help us get home.” Lian explained.

Maggie was silent again, before clenching her fists and nodding.

“Okay, I-I can, I will be brave. I want to get back home too…” She said, doing her best to encourage herself.

“Good, that’s all we can ask of you… Alright then, Whaddya think Ember?” Lian asked.

“Y-yea, that was about the gist of what I was gonna say. She’s right though Maggie, if we wanna get through this, we need to be brave and take these monsters head on. It’s gonna be dangerous, and it’s gonna hurt, but as long as I’m here, I’m not gonna let anything happen to you, alright? We’ll all get through this together!” Ember promised.

It actually seemed to work to some extent, to everyone’s surprise as Maggie finally reached up and removed the mask she was wearing, attempting to show off her most confident smile.

“Y-yea, I-I’ve got your back Mister Ember.” Maggie declared.

“Haha, good! Glad to hear it! Oh, and uhh, before we go.” Ember said before removing his pack and retrieving the two skewers from within it before presenting them to Maggie. “I know that you’re not supposed to take food from strangers and whatnot, but seriously, you still need to eat in this world, and I promise, I just got these this morning. They’re perfectly safe. Now, one of these is chicken, and the other is shrimp. Do you want one or no?” Ember asked.

Maggie looked between the two skewers before deciding. “I’ll have the chicken one.”