Fraught with Mistakes

I stood up and attempted to brush all of those little rocks off of my new outfit. I just learned this recently myself, but did you know that those little rocks were actually called sand? Some people out there might think they’re called snow, a completely acceptable mistake that no one should be judged for, but they’re sand. There wasn’t anything like that in the forest, so I had no idea such things existed. I mean, it's bizarre, right? The entire landscape was made up of those little rocks, the sand. Occasionally you’d see some kind of spiky plant, but that’s it. How was something like that possible? Who smashed up all the rocks to make the sand, and what happened to all the water?

And why were those plants so aggressive looking? The whole environment was really uninviting. Who ever thought a place like this was a good idea?

The more I thought about it, the more questions I had. So I did the natural thing and decided to stop thinking about it. I mean, no matter how much I thought about an army of mice wearing those spiky plants as armor it’s not like I could do anything with that information. At least, not yet. Philosophy doesn’t pay the bills after all. My limited brain power was better used for lining my pockets rather than filling my head.

Besides, I could only imagine that this whole ‘sand’ thing was nothing more than a trend. It would never catch on. Sure, it was interesting at first, but after realizing how quickly it got into everything, I had enough. It’s safe to say I’m an incredibly tolerant person, so it’s really saying something that even such a magnanimous person as I was finding the sand in my clothes incredibly aggravating. With that in mind, I could confidently declare that no one could live a reasonable life around this monstrosity known as sand. Although I will admit, those spiky plants did catch my interest. There might be a future for them.

“Listen, Miss, I can’t believe I’m the one coming to its defense, but you can’t just blame the sand. You’re just not dressed for the desert.”

I was slightly off put with how casually the young man sitting across from me responded to my inner monologue. He looked like he was still in his late teens, but he was tall, at least fifteen centimeters taller than myself. And it’s not that I’m just particularly not tall or of average height! If you rounded up my height and rounded up that new number again I’d be pretty tall, well, assuming that five and fifty both round up.

As unnatural as his height was, the more interesting thing was his complexion. It was dark. And this time I’m not just comparing him to myself. While my height was incredibly average, I could admit that my complexion was rather pale. Compared to me, pretty much every living person had a dark complexion, but this boy was even darker than that. His skin was a perfect black, beyond even the grey skin associated with dark elves, not that I’d ever seen one. None of the humans at the village, or even the ones I’d seen in Ah’Ruh looked like him.

“In plenty of circles I’m known as a generous person, but insult my new outfit again and you might just find the limits of my generosity.”

“Don’t get your feathers in a ruffle, it’s not an insult. Hmm, how do I explain this to someone like you? Look at animals. A fish has sturdy scales to protect itself, a bear has thick fur to keep itself warm, while birds have beautiful plumage to keep them in the sky. People are the same. While your outfit might be the perfect choice for city life, it’s not ideal for living in the desert.”

I was starting to see where he was coming from. I was such a perfect city girl that I wasn’t suited for the sand. Now, someone might think that being so easily convinced was proof that despite living such a long life my head was just as empty as my pockets, but in reality, it was just proof of how open hearted I was. Actually, wasn’t he delivering some incredibly good news? Didn’t this mean I had an excuse to blow more, I mean, invest more money in buying multiple outfits?

A desert outfit, huh? I suppose all those villagers were dressed in a similar way. Maybe my first impression that they just didn’t have any fashion sense was a little unfair.

“A tempting proposition, but there’s one thing that doesn’t add up. Even if I were to believe you, you’re dressed in the same style as I am.”

If my outfit was wrong, then his was completely out of place. Tight fitting pants and a perfectly fitted shirt and vest adorned with a feather motif. He even wore a tie to keep his collar straight and cufflinks to keep his sleeves tight. He held his jacket draped over his shoulder with two fingers. Clothes like that were even more expensive than the ones I bought.

“I’m hardly a reasonable example. I’m not even corporeal.”

His body momentarily became transparent before returning to normal.

“Fair enough.”

“And besides, now that I’m part of you I’ve taken a look at your sensibilities. I could be dressed in whatever I want, but I assumed you’d prefer an outfit like this.”

“True. In a perfect world you’d take the form of a cute dark elf, but if nothing else, I’m glad that the new person living in my head has a sense of style.”

I took a moment to think about what I just said.

“You know, now that I’ve said it out loud, our current situation seems rather odd, even for my standards. How exactly did things end up like this?”

“That’s what I’d like to know!” He looked somewhat annoyed that I was just coming around to realizing how strangely things ended up. “What are you even doing here? I should’ve died.”

“You see, it’s a rather interesting story, fraught with mistakes that anyone would make. Honestly, I’m not even sure where things went wrong. I’ll fill you in and see if you’ve got any ideas. But, basically, I was trying to find a mountain and kill a spider. Somehow that turned into a mission to kill a god. Don’t get it wrong though. Despite what you might think, or what I might say about responsibility, this is absolutely a story about gold.”