His gaze, sweeping the small, fire-lit cave, landed on the unexpected variable. Curled on a bed of furs much like his own lay a young woman, asleep, her face turned towards him. Data point: humanoid, female. Status: dormant. Proximity: approximately 2 meters. Even in the flickering dimness, his analytically trained eyes registered details. Long, wavy auburn hair, tousled and streaked with dirt and leaves, framed a face with high cheekbones that hinted at a refinement in opposition with the setting. Freckles dusted a straight nose. Aesthetic assessment: Positive deviation from expected norms. But the data also showed hardship. Dark circles beneath closed eyes, a drawn quality to her fair skin suggesting exhaustion, perhaps malnutrition. Small cuts and bruises, dotted her visible arms, some covered by clean, fibrous bandages, a stark contrast to his own crude shirt-strip wrappings. Conclusion: Subject exhibits signs of significant physical stress consistent with prolonged exposure to hostile environment. Yet… underlying structure indicates resilience. Despite the weariness etched onto her sleeping features, an undeniable softness emanated from her, a strange pull that his logic couldn't immediately quantify.
He shifted slightly on the rustling bed of leaves, trying to process this new input without waking her. Too late. The soft crackle beneath him was enough. Her eyelids fluttered, then opened. For a moment, her green eyes, strikingly large and luminous, were unfocused, clouded with sleep. Then they found him. Clarity snapped into place, sharp and immediate, followed instantly by concern, replacing the peaceful repose.
She sat up quickly, gracefully, tucking a stray auburn strand behind her ear. Her voice, when she spoke, was soft, melodic, yet held an underlying clarity. The sounds themselves were meaningless to him, like listening to a beautifully complex audio file with the wrong codec. Warmth radiated from her tone, however, a gentle query that seemed to transcend the language barrier.
William, still trying to shake the lingering phantom dread of the nightmare, the Shadow, the undead, pushed himself up slightly, shaking his head to clear the corrupted data stream. "I… I don't understand," he managed, his voice hoarse, scratchy from disuse and dehydration. He pointed emphatically to his ears, then shook his head again, hoping the universal gesture for 'comprehension failure' applied in this reality.
The young woman frowned, a delicate furrow appearing on her brow. She tilted her head, observing him for a moment. Then, with movements as fluid and precise as a master programmer's keystrokes, she raised her hands. Fingers danced in the firelight, weaving intricate, symmetrical patterns in the air, patterns that resonated with the strange, underlying mathematical beauty he sometimes sensed in the world. She spoke a few melodic, unintelligible words. A faint, warm, golden glow emanated from her fingertips, shimmering in the air between them like heat haze off summer pavement, coalescing briefly into glowing symbols that looked unsettlingly like runic code.
"Executing unfamiliar routine," William's mind flagged instantly. "Somatic components: complex, precise. Vocal components: structured, tonal. Associated energy signature: localized, golden spectrum, low thermal output. Conclusion… this can't be magic, can it?" His internal logic and probability models, already battered, threatened to crash entirely.
She spoke again. Same soft, clear tone. And this time, the impossible happened. As the sound waves hit his ears, something clicked in his brain. The foreign sounds resolved instantly, seamlessly, into coherent English sentences, perfectly understood.
"Can you understand me now?" she asked, that same note of gentle concern in her voice, now perfectly comprehensible.
William stared, genuinely dumbfounded. His jaw, he realized dimly, was slack. Input stream suddenly parsed! Translation algorithm engaged in real-time. Source: localized energy field originating from female subject. He felt a jolt, a cognitive dissonance so profound it almost made him dizzy. Conclusion: Magic confirmed as viable operational parameter in this reality. Logic and probability models require fundamental rewrite. "Yes…" he stammered, blinking rapidly. "Yes, I can. What… How did you…?"
"A simple translation spell," she replied, with a slight, almost casual shrug, as if discussing the weather. A warm, inviting smile touched her lips, briefly erasing the lines of weariness.
"Simple?" William thought, reeling. "Real-time, flawless neurological linguistic bridging initiated by vocal and somatic triggers? That's 'simple'?" He swallowed, trying to regain analytical composure. "Magic," he breathed, the word feeling heavy, ludicrous on his tongue. "Real magic. I… I've been rescued by a mage."
"It's just a temporary measure," she clarified, that small smile lingering. "So we can communicate. It should last a day or two. My name is Julia."
"William," he managed, his mind still grappling with the sheer, system-breaking fact of magic. He felt like he'd spent his life meticulously learning the rules of chess, only to find himself playing quantum poker. "Magic… is that what you just did? The… glowy hand thing?" The question sounded absurd even to him.
Julia nodded, amusement dancing in her eyes. "A minor enchantment. As I said, temporary." Her gaze softened with empathy. "I found you in the forest, near the edge of Tallenwood. You were unconscious by a hollow tree. Injured." Her eyes flicked down to his leg. "We brought you here, to this cave, to tend to your wound."
We? The word registered, another unexpected data point. "We?" he echoed.
"Myself and my companion, Edward," Julia explained. "He's out scouting the immediate area now, checking for threats, perhaps finding some supplies. He should return soon." She paused, her expression turning more serious as she looked pointedly at his bandaged leg. "Your wound… it looked badly infected. A goblin bite, I presume?"
William nodded, wincing involuntarily as the memory of those sharp teeth surfaced. "Yup," he said, managing a grimace that might have passed for a smile. "One hundred percent goblin-inflicted trauma. High velocity impact followed by piercing damage and likely bacterial contamination."
Julia gave him an odd look, a flicker of confusion crossing her face, likely at his overly clinical description. Translation spell nuance? Or user personality anomaly? She seemed to file it away and continued, her voice regaining its quiet authority. "You were lucky. Extremely lucky, actually. You used citrusroot leaves?"
He nodded again, confirming he had used some leaves to dress his wounds. So, they were called "citrusroot leaves".
"They have potent healing properties," she confirmed, gesturing towards a small pile of unfamiliar dried herbs and leaves near the fire. "Excellent against infection, though difficult to find if you don't know where to look. It's already working wonders, the inflammation is much reduced. We've been changing the dressing using some poultices Edward prepared while you slept. You'll need rest, but you should recover well in a few days."
William looked down at the clean white bandages again, then back at Julia. The nightmare, the pain, the terror of the last… day? Was it only a day? It felt like a lifetime. And these strangers… they had found him, treated him, brought him to safety. A surge of something warm and unfamiliar, gratitude, spread through his chest, momentarily overriding his fear and analytical detachment. Hypothesis validated! Citrusroot experiment successful! Note to self: Attempt replication under controlled conditions… oh, right. Different reality. No labs. The sheer absurdity, the blind luck guided by desperate observation… "Thank you," he said, the words thick, hoarse with genuine emotion that cracked through his usual reserve. "You… you saved my life. Both of you."
Julia's smile returned, a fleeting warmth that lit up her weary features like the firelight catching her auburn hair. "We do what we can," she said simply. "These are dark times. Helping each other is the only way any of us will survive."
Her words, pragmatic yet kind, also served as a subtle warning. Dark times. He needed information, context, but revealing his true situation, algorithm mishap, interdimensional travel, felt like an unacceptable risk. Probability of being believed: Low. Probability of being perceived as insane or dangerous: Moderate to High. He needed to be careful, to observe, to build a baseline understanding before revealing anomalous data. Decision: Initiate Strategic Information Concealment Protocol.
"I appreciate it more than I can say," he began, choosing his words with care. "I'm… not from around these parts. I was traveling, far from my homeland." Technically true. "Got separated from my caravan during… some trouble." Vague but plausible. "Ended up lost in this forest. I was foraging," he improvised, hoping it sounded convincing, "looking for edible plants, when the goblin attacked. I barely got away. Must have passed out from the pain… the blood loss. I just… remembered seeing those leaves earlier, the citrus smell… hoped they might help."
Julia nodded, her expression sympathetic, accepting his fragmented story without overt suspicion. "Goblins are a menace," she sighed, a shadow crossing her face. "They've become bolder in recent months, pushing further out from their usual territories. Raiding villages, attacking travellers on the roads. They're a symptom," she added, her voice hardening slightly, "of a larger sickness spreading across the land."
Recent months? Larger sickness? This correlated disturbingly with the scale of conflict in his dream. William leaned forward slightly, drawn by the need for more data. "Recent months?" he asked, latching onto the key phrase. "Why bolder now? What's causing it? And… are we safe here, in this cave?"
As he asked, the chilling imagery from his nightmare resurfaced, the Shadow, the undead legion, the overwhelming sense of dread. What if that wasn't just a dream? What if the 'sickness' Julia mentioned was the vast, malevolent entity he'd glimpsed? The price of survival here might be far higher than just learning to fight goblins.
He didn't realize his simple questions were about to pull him from the relative safety of this fire-lit cave onto a far more desperate and dangerous path.