“Kadus thinks that though you are beautiful, your powers are truly terrifying.”

  “Thanks Kadus, just keep us on course we are almost out of the equatorial marshes,” Beatrice says with a smile.

  “That was awesome, do you think I can learn how to use magic like that too?” Sally asks.

  “You don’t speak like most Ruksha, why is that Sally?” Rick asks.

  “I want to be different, I don’t want to be stuck in the marshes forever, I want to see the world, adventure like you, but maybe not do so many dangerous things, maybe I’ll study flowers like the one you gave me,” she says with a cute reptilian smile.

  Rick rustles the short feathers on the top of her head and smiles.

  Moonfall leads to sunrise as they break through the marsh into the northern lands. Leaves turn from green to blue. Red vines wrap about the trunks of the trees adorned with strange fruits. Sally stares around in awe. Having never left the marsh she is now entering an alien world.

  Rick climbs onto the front of the wagon placing Sally on his lap as she continues to stare around with eyes full of wonder.

  “Kadus thinks his daughter takes a liking to you, perhaps when she is older you fancy her?”

  “No thanks, besides, she’s got a brighter future than that, I appreciate the sentiment though,” Rick replies.

  Beatrice joins them at the front of the wagon munching on something that resembles chips.

  “How far are we from Heroldin?” She asks.

  “Kadus thinks a few days with good weather.”

  Sally points over at the bloom of a large black petalled flower nearly falling out of Rick’s lap.

  “Look at that one, it’s so big and dark,” she yells.

  “Venus Noir, it’s a carnivorous flower native to the northern most parts of the Equatorial Marshes, they are known for trapping and consuming larger Bloodflies and even smaller humanoid creatures,” Rick says pulling her back into his lap.

  “That’s so cool, do the trees eat people too?” Sally asks.

  “Not around here,” Rick chuckles with a smile.

  “Kadus wonders why you won’t take Sally off his hands, maybe she is better traveling with adventurers than father Kadus.”

  “What we do is too dangerous for her, she needs an environment where she can blossom into the brilliant flower she should be, as is the destiny of every princess,” Rick says booping Sally on the snout.

  She rubs her reptilian nose embarrassed and Rick smiles.

  Rick and Beatrice are realm travelers. They came into this world much the same as Mateo and Natalia did. The big difference, they are twins, so they didn’t need a Pixie because they had each other. Having come into this world far sooner than Mateo Rick has learned something that Mateo has yet to uncover. Realm travelers cannot produce offspring with the dwellers of this realm. However, their seed can be planted in other realm travelers. Those offspring are free to produce offspring with the dwellers of this realm.

  “You’re so cute when you’re shy, I hope the boy you fall in love with appreciates your beauty,” Rick says.

  “I’m much too young to be thinking of boys,” Sally lies, her expression flustered.

  “I know, but you are nonetheless,” Rick laughs.

  Sun fall turns to moonrise as the group sits around a small fire warming their hands. Small bugs buzz around them until Beatrice casts a ward shielding them from the flying menaces. The sky is a bit overcast and the air has the bite of a light frost. Not freezing, but still cold.

  Sally rests in Rick’s lap as he runs his fingers over her soft feathers gently. Kadus smiles as his daughter lets off a soft reptilian purr.

  “She has taken a liking to you, Kadus is happy about this, but Kadus only travels from marshes to Heroldin, Sally is destined for something greater, perhaps in time you take Sally to distant lands to become more than swamp dweller like Kadus.”

  “Heroldin has an academy for the gifted, we could spare a few coins to send her there, if you’re ok with that,” Beatrice replies.

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  “Kadus doesn’t want Sally’s brilliance to flounder, he accepts any help that is given.”

  “I had a daughter in my past life, I can’t remember her name, but I remember her smile, and her drive, Sally reminds me of her,” Rick says tearing up as he runs his hands over the small Ruksha’s feathers.

  “Kadus wonders, you are realmwalkers then, where is your pixie?”

  “We don’t have one, we are as one,” Beatrice replies.

  They exchange pleasantries and idle chatter late into the night before retreating into the wagon to rest. When the moon falls giving rise to the sun the hoaram return from their hunt and Kadus saddles them up to make for Heroldin.

  A pleasant sunrise turns to a dark day in an instant.

  Sally screams as an arrow pierces her father’s throat pinning him to the side of the wagon. Rick and Beatrice scramble to arm themselves as religious extremists garbed in dark robes encroach upon their position.

  Sally scurries to her father wrapping herself around him as he chokes on his blood forcing himself from the wagon. A long-jagged arrow running through his throat he leans down and grips his daughter’s hand one last time before falling into the dirt, dead.

  “Daddy, daddy, papa Kadus,” she screams, tears running over her scaled cheeks like rivers of sorrow.

  “Hellbent, from the Cult of the Abyss, what are they doing out here?” Rick yells readying his club.

  The ground quakes as a massive beast approaches. It resembles a large woolly mammoth that’s been mutated into a hideous creature of war and covered in armor, a Siege Lord.

  “Rick, we need to merge,” Beatrice yells.

  “No objections here,” Rick replies stepping up next to her.

  They join hands and their essences become one.

  Ability activated: Chaos twins- The essences of twins become one imbued with the powers of chaos. A single avatar can become a multitude of avatars splitting damage. All attacks landed by an avatar of chaos cause chaos damage which cannot be negated or reflected.

  Rick and Beatrice become of one mind, and of one being as their essences merge. The result is an unrecognizable creature adorned in samurai armor. The face is covered in a sharp toothed menpo, it’s right arm a rotating six chambered ballista firing short bolts, and it’s left arm a paralyzing club with a large crystal held to the end by what resemble vines.

  The creature splits into multiples of itself creating an overwhelming force as the Hellbent move in. Chaos beasts bolt about the forrest as Hellbent archers fire poisoned bolts through the air. Tainted steel penetrates the trees as they wither and die.

  “Beatrice, send one of the avatars to watch the girl,” Rick yells.

  “I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” Beatrice replies.

  One of the avatars turns back toward Sally’s arrow riddled corpse as it seizes on the ground before it becomes unsettlingly still.

  The world freezes, a cold baron landscape devoid of warmth as Rick’s eyes fix to the young ruksha’s corpse. A rage builds within him burning a fire through his soul as memories of his past life invade his mind. Beatrice is unsettled as she senses the imbalance of emotions within him.

  “Richard?”

  “No mercy,” Rick yells his voice a thunderous rage.

  Of the eight avatars Rick controls four and Beatrice controls four. They can exchange control of however many they please, but they often split evenly. Rick rushes toward the Hellbent archers pushing through their speared infantry with ease.

  His first avatar smashes one of the archer’s heads into a bloody pulp with one swing. The other archers cast wards, but he raises his ranged hand pounding against them with a barrage of bolts. The spear wielding infantry turn their backs to combat him, and Beatrice launches a barrage of bolts on them.

  Slender steel shafted bolts penetrate the rear of their bodies as eyeballs explode and Hellbent fall to their demise. Rick pounds through the wards of the archers beating their tender fleshy corpses into the dirt like tenderizing a steak.

  In the wake of the onslaught the small group of Hellbent directing the Siege Lord aim it at Rick and Beatrice.

  “Big guy incoming,” Beatrice yells regrouping her avatars.

  “Hit them with the crab,” Rick replies.

  “What does that mean?”

  “Side to side.”

  Beatrice attacks the Hellbent from one side moving her avatars to the next as she passes through the enemy. Rick does the same but sends two of his avatars to the rear to assault the Siege Lord.

  The armored beast is not without defenses of its own, but it still needs direction in order to attack effectively. Direction means line of sight, which it doesn’t have without eyes. Several bolts pierce the eyes of the Siege Lord effectively blinding it. The Hellbent underlings falter in the chaos and Beatrice cuts them down. Rick concentrates his efforts on the Siege Lord bringing the massive beast to the ground. It gives out a loud pitiful cry as Rick ends its life with a barrage of bolts to the throat.

  Dust settles over the battlefield and the danger is gone for now. Rick and Beatrice split their essences, and Rick runs to Sally cradling her arrow riddled corpse in his arms as warm blue blood soaks his clothes. Beatrice steps around the wagon checking the hoaram. One has a lame leg, which she heals with a potion. The other is frightened, but unscathed.

  With every arrow Rick pulls from Sally’s corpse his heart breaks a little more. A life with so much potential snuffed out, and for what? Why were these Hellbent here? What did they hope to accomplish? Rick runs his palms over Sally’s eyes closing them as her story comes to an abrupt end.

  Beatrice leans down placing her hand on her brother’s shoulder.

  “We should go.”

  “What a waste, she had so much potential, we should bury them, there’s a graveyard outside of Heroldin, they deserve that much,” Rick replies his eyes filled with tears.

  “I’ll get some wrappings, you take a minute, I know you need it,” Beatrice says looking around at the carnage.

  Rick breathes heavily as he wraps the small, scaled Sally in thick cloth. His hands shake clenching into fists as he lets a river of tears pour over his ebony cheeks. The last few wraps are meant to cover the young girl’s head. He presses his forehead to hers before kissing it and running his fingers over her short, brilliant feathers one last time. He plucks one of her brilliant feathers and tucks it behind his ear.

  “I’m sorry Sally, adventurers aren’t heroes, we’re just victims of the atrocities of life, just like everyone else, I know you thought I could protect you, I know you were meant for greater things, instead you have death, I hope she is a merciful maiden that brings you peace, as I hope she one day brings me that peace.”

  Rick makes the last few wrapping covering Sally in cloth. He lays her by her father Kadus in the wagon, and they set off toward Heroldin.