The night was long tonight, a slow mist rolling in as I stood in the ‘Village of the Bear’ making it a very gloomy night. Village was really used loosely here as there was only one person living here, large stone buildings with entrances that looks like caves loomed over me with very finely carved bear heads with teeth above and below the entrance. Sporadic patches of grass was between the teeth, making it look like loose spinach, and trees wrapped around the ‘neck’ area of the bears. My glittery gem eyes shifted nervously between the various bear heads that seemed to stare at me from a sea of green.

“Grab a fish, join us for dinner!” Bear laughed heartily as he walked into one of the bear mouths as I stood there, my head turning slowly to each of the mouths still waiting for the ‘we’ and ‘us’ he was talking about. I took a glance over to one of my brothers, and he motioned twirling his finger over his ear area. I shook my head at his gesture, this was the first human that he had made contact with that didn’t immediately attack him and he didn’t want to offend him.

Waiting for Bear, I started to get impatient, a few hours ticked by and I finally got up from my sitting position. My two brothers already ran out of energy, laying down in a pile of bones their hollow eyes looking off into the distance. Brushing myself off, starting to explore the entrances, yelling out into one of them a large roar came back nearly knocking me off my feet. Walking into the mouth of the cave, a glint of fire started up in my eyes letting me see in the dark as I moved forward a window came up telling me I gained a new skill, and I used it as a flashlight.

These boxes were convenient as I pulled out a knife, my worst fear was running into a bear at the moment. The glint of my knife put off a light blue color, reflecting off the menu as I continued on, the area around me starting to cover in moss. The walls seemed to expand each time, and man sized holes were to each side of me, looking into them I found a stone bed with moldy straw as a cushion. Moving between them nothing changed throughout the journey leaving me dissatisfied, though very curious as to where the ‘us’ were, and I was started to suspect my brother was right in this aspect.

Making my way out, more nervous than before, my knife still firmly at my side as I sat down next to my brothers. Staring at the stars, I knew that it was probably different, I have never thought that the stars would some time change for me. Sitting there sadly, I practiced my breathing techniques to distract myself. I sighed, knowing that most of what I was doing was a distraction from my past, hoping that maybe my past would disappear. My attachments to my previous life wasn’t very strong, but now that it is gone to me I felt at a loss. In my self reflecting thoughts made me lose track of time as the sun slowly crept over the mountains.

Bear came out of his cave, eating what looked like a giant watermelon sized peach holding it in both hands. It looked tiny in comparison to him, the big man must have been seven feet tall at least and he stared at me with juices running down his chest as his eyes were wide in shock, “How are you awake? It’s an hour before you should be awake at least.” He glances at my brothers as if to confirm his internal clock.

“I learned how to take more energy from my surroundings, and the tiredness went away,” Staring at the peach he awkwardly ripped off a piece offering it to me which I shook my head, not wondering where food went when I bit into it.

His chest hair seemed to stick together under the slimey, sticky mess of the peach, which he conjured an orb of water above him to wash himself off as he spoke. I was discomforted watching another man shower so I turned my head away. “So, Mr. Skeleton, I am sorry to keep you waiting, I was assuming that you would sleep during the night to sort of recharge like most creatures with a core.”

“Why at night? Are they solar powered?”

“Never asked really, most monsters just try to kill me so I speak to them with my fists.” He laughed heartedly, “Bear likes his meat so it's fine with me, but monsters like you don’t have anything on your to eat.” He walked to me, smelling faintly of peaches, which I wasn’t sure if it was from before or after his shower.

I nodded at this, the glint of my knife in the corner of eye as I gripped it worried that he might attack on whim, considering that he had killed so many monsters before. Though my evolutions from a regular skeleton should turn advantageous should the need arise, and my necromancy could provide me with a Dryad ally.

“You’re weak little Skeleton, would you like to join the Village of the Bear? We are druids, passing the tradition of being at peace with nature, and accepting that magic is nature itself!” He patted my back with enough force to send my head crashing into a tree in front of me, my screaming lead to my teeth lodged into the wood. My body moved around swinging around both hands, my knife making wild curves through the air. Bear jumped back, his eyes wide again as I tried to spit out the tree. “See? You’re weak! You can’t even stand up against a pat on the back.”

My yelling was muffled by the tree as my body dropped the knife, crossing its arms as it tapped its foot onto the ground, Bear walking over to my head to rip it off the side of it. As he turned my head towards him, I spit a large chunk of wood into his face. “And how will you train a Skeleton, it's not like I can do a series of pushups building up my arm muscles?”

He looked at me confused for a second, “The only way a monster can get stronger is through the strengthening of his core. You need the energy from dying cores to strengthen your own.” He stuck my head back onto my body, and I could feel the tendrils slowly tying themselves together with my skull. “I need a hunting partner, and I don’t have a core so all of the energy will go to you. I am a druid, our people believe that nothing can be wasted, everything must be used. A monster is the best partner to have while hunting.”

I can feel my gamer side smile, ‘We’re going to power level a lower leveled character with a high leveled one?’ I gripped the knife in my hand only to realize the knife was nowhere in sight. This idiot put my head on backwards! “You asshole!”

Ding!!Negotiation Leveled Up!