Ętaure ran through the forest, pausing when he heard footsteps following him. He felt something hit his wing. He turned to see who had shot him and saw a shabbily dressed man with a bow in hand. His vision blurred with red as the searing pain that pulsed through his wing took hold of his body. He unsheathed his sword ready for a fight.

     From his side, the robber unsheathed a simple dagger. Ętaure lunged for him swinging his sword in a sharp right blow, the man blocked and managed to succeed at blocking the next few blows. Taking step back Ętaure studied his opponent who was surprisingly skilled with his dagger.

     The robber, seeing that he could attack, jumped forward dagger raised and ready to strike.

     Ętaure blocked it, pushing the man back with his sword. The robber swung for a blow to the left side too quick for the Ętaure to react. The sharp blade cut through the thin leather armor he was wearing and scratched across his tan skin. A little blood welled up on the surface of the wound, nothing serious but it still stung. However, there was no time for him to worry about the cut or how sharp the mans blade was, as the robber was already swinging for his throat. Ętaure leaned back avoiding his esophagus from getting cut . The robber had put so much power into the desperate slash that when the dagger's blade cut empty air there was nothing to halt the momentum that had built up. The man spun in a half circle, thrown off balance by the power in the frantic blow, cutting across air instead of flesh. Seeing an opportunity Ętaure stepped forward and viciously grabbed the man by the hair pulling his head back. With one smooth stroke he cut the robbers neck. Blood sprayed everywhere pooling around his booted feet .

     He regained control immediately, stumbling back, eyes widened at the realization of what he had done, as he stared at his blood covered hands with horor. He moved farther into the forest, mind spinning with a million thoughts.

***

     Tharuil regained consciousness and sat up hunger gnawing at his stomach. There was no way of telling how long he had been asleep, or when in the day it was as the thick canopy of leaves above him hid the sky from sight.

     Remembering his bag that he had brought with him into the realm he stood up in a hurry Tharuil went to checked for it. To his relief it was still strapped to his back. Slipping it off his shoulders he opened it to check to make sure everything was still in place.

     Once convinced that nothing had been touched or taken he pulled out a scroll that he had taken from the temple and sat down. He unrolled the scroll to look at it; the top was covered with an elaborate map of the Triobet realm where he had jumped to. Tracing the map with his finger he found his estimated location. He read the familiar name to himself ... Plasma forest. He knew that he should be somewhere in the large forest; but the real question was were in the Plasma Forest was he. Of course there was always the possibility that he had mispronounced a word in the spell the jumped him to this realm and now he was not only not in the Plasma Forest, but not in the Triobet realm at all. Tharuil rolled up the scroll pushing the doubt from his mind. If he walked straight he was destined to run into some civilization, unless he had jumped to a different realm than planned and it happened to be uninhabited. The scroll was placed in his pack which was returned back to his back. Tharuil wasn't sure how long he would be here, wherever here was.