I found myself staring at the ceiling again. I’m starting to feel an irrational attraction to the rocky surface. I’ve felt so many things under it. I looked for a long time. Eventually I dragged myself to my feet and took in everything around me. My head was killing me.

Koda and I made eye contact. He looked haggard as he cradled his arm. He nodded at it and croaked,

“Lucky.”

I remembered him desperately moving in and out of vines and making gouges of our first enemy. I wondered how much of his relative health was really luck.

Turning to the side I saw the mage, looking tired but firm. He didn’t say anything, but I could see he wanted to move as soon as possible. I took a deep breath

“Alright. I can move.”

----

We walked for a long while. This time we spoke much less and went a bit slower. The mage still gave us the ocassional pointers as they came to him, but Koda and I were worn out. Even with the healing, I felt a little weak.

Eventually, we heard noises coming down the hall. The mage made us jog there and as we approached it became obvious that a battle was going on.

As soon as we got sight, the mage immediately started chanting. A group of 15 or so humans fighting three vine monsters. I say fighting, it was awful.

I didn’t even raise my arms for the first ten seconds. I just stood there. Three is really too much. There was blood everywhere and a few seemed to be dead already. Koda didn't seem to be rushing in either, I heard him adjust his sword, but we didn't jump into the fray.

Eventually, one of the thinner vines slithered over to us. The situation started to become more real and I slowly lifted up my weapon. We both reached out to cut into it.