The Soul Keeper

"He's smart."

"He is." The wind carried a beautiful voice to my ears.

"He'd have died if he didn't stay here. The cursed one is walking around in these woods again." The dry voice cracked towards the end. He paused to clear his throat.

"Do you think he'll be useful?"

"No." He coughed. "But my thoughts don't matter. 'He' thinks this… thing will be useful." I heard a sigh. "I don't think he'll live long enough."

"Oh, we'll just have to make sure he never lets his guard down." The soft voice giggled. "And that's your job." I felt a cool touch on my face. Sweet sleep pulled me back into its embrace before I could make any sense of that dream.

I woke up to a cold breeze freezing my upper body and soft sunlight warming my legs. My head throbbed with a mild headache. I opened my eyes and the view took my breath away.

The sun was rising behind the mountain range. The sky was dyed in every colour of the rainbow. The forest below me was covered in red and golden leaves. It was beautiful. I sat there, just taking in the view, admiring this world.

After the sky turned blue and the tree leaves green, I slowly stood up. Even now, the view was breath taking. Nature, stretching as far as the eye can see. It only then occurred to me – I should have completed the mission by now. I summoned the quest panel to see a checkmark next to the quest. I couldn't help but feel a little relieved – at least all my troubles weren't in vain.

More importantly though, I had somehow survived the night. I couldn't believe I slept through the whole night, uninterrupted. After a moment of pondering over how I survived, I just decided to accept the situation for what it is. I glanced at the green forest before me. It was time to head back.

Descending the cliff was much easier than climbing it. It took me less than half the time it did yesterday. Once my feet touched the dead leaves and moist earth, I used Fallen Grace to empower me and sprinted towards the camp. My body moved easily through the trees and greenery. Despite that, it still took me nearly an hour to reach the stream near the camp.

I looked myself over and decided to wash the few scratches and wounds before seeing the others. I didn't want to worry them over insignificant things. Kneeling by the stream, I washed my face and cleaned the wounds. I chuckled at my previous thought – nothing about Vixia and Delthur was insignificant. The others needed to know about it. Once I was done, I got up and headed to camp.

As I walked among the slightly familiar trees, I couldn't help but feel nervous. It felt as if a dark shadow was looming over me. I hesitantly exited the treeline as the camp entered my view.

A lump formed in my chest as I saw the empty campsite. The tents, the campfire, everything seemed normal, except for the lack of people.

"Erik?" I shouted as fear gripped my throat. "Samantha, Vincent!" I walked around the small campsite. "Joshua, Alina?" There was no answer. I looked around hoping to find some footsteps, but there was nothing.

I peeked into the tents, hoping, but not expecting to find them still asleep. Of course, no one was there. None of their belongings were left. Not even a trace of their existence remained. With the lump in my chest growing heavier, I stumbled back outside. "Guys, come on out. Its not funny!" I weakly called out. This must be a joke, a cruel, evil joke that Erik came up with. They were going to jump out from behind some tree any second now, right?

I stood there, waiting for them to jump out of the woods. A few moments later, after a whole lot of nothing happened, I collapsed on the ground. "Damn it, Erik." I whispered. A thought flashed in my mind. Could it be that they had succeeded in logging out? Perhaps Erik's father had finally resolved the issue!

With a glimmer of hope in the horizon, opened my interface and searched for the log out button. It wasn't there. My shoulders dropped as I sank onto the ground. How was I even supposed to find them? Were they ok? Were they still alive?

The soft light of the crystal reflected off the dewdrops on the grass blades. I looked up to the floating thing. Slowly getting back on my feet, I stumbled towards it. "If they left, you'd have a way to find them, right?" I quietly spoke as I touched it.

An interface popped up.

'Received Rewards for completed Quests:

- 425 Exp

- Camping Supplies Chest

- 3 Stat points'

I didn't care about the rewards. Quickly dismissing the notification, I searched the interface for some sort of locator, or any clue that may lead to Erik and the others.

'2 Quests available'

I didn't even read what they were as I dismissed that panel immediately. I didn't care about quests right now. Wasn't there something, anything, that could lead me to the others? I looked all over the interface, in all the tabs, yet there was nothing.

"Damnit!" I shouted as I punched the crystal. My hand started bleeding as the sharp edges cut through my skin easily. Shaking, I stepped back and looked at the cut. On top of everything else, I had also wounded my dominant hand now. Just great.

I watched the few drops of blood fall to the ground. All of this felt like a joke. A bad, evil joke. I turned my back to the crystal and sat down by the remains of the campfire. I ripped a strip of my old cloak and used it as a bandage around the cut. With no way to heal myself and no way to know if diseases were a thing in this world, I couldn't risk the cut getting infected.

I sat there, watching the trees for a while. I felt lost, I didn't even know where to start looking for Erik and the others. For all I knew, they had logged out somehow. What was I supposed to do now?

I sighed and headed to the stream. I needed to wash my face, refresh my mind. As I passed through the thick greenery, I couldn't help but constantly look around in hopes of spotting Samantha or the others. All I saw was a few small rodents that ran away after seeing me. Kneeling down, I sprinkled some water on my face and tried to clear my thoughts.

When I felt like I could think a little clearer, I made my way back to camp. Assuming they had found a way to log out was useless – if they had, there was nothing I could do about it. The same applied to assuming them to be dead. The only logical assumption to have was that they had, for one reason or another, left the camp for somewhere else.

With these thoughts in my mind, I arrived at camp again. If they had left, there would have to be tracks. None of them would have bothered to erase them. I was soon rewarded for my efforts with a few broken branches over at the eastern side of camp. The grass there was trampled on and the bushes had several broken branches. I could even see a few footprints on the moist earth.

"Why east?" I mumbled to myself. It made no sense, all there was on that side was that monster lair we had cleared yesterday. Confused, I motioned to open my map when I spotted something beneath the crystal. With my heart racing, I approached the floating crystal.

A large, black feather was stuck in the grass. As I looked at it, a gentle wind freed it. All I could do was stare at the shiny feather as it almost mockingly blew by me.

"No!" I shouted.