Nexus

"Impossible!" Lakota shouts, he looks petrified at the sight of Chrystal touching me and I can't help but smile. I pull my hand back as soon as he shouts, I don't want to prolong this after all I still don't quite believe it's not a fluke. He can't kill her now, in fact, the law requires him to house and feed her, normally it would be until she could be returned to her village but in her case, as a woeful one she will have to be made into a member of ours.

"Am I free to go now ?" Chrystal asks, her voice a mixture of doubt and slight irritation but still hopeful.

"You have passed the trial. You are free to do as you wish within the bounds of my land, you will be treated as anyone else. However, as an outsider, I cannot allow you to stay here, you can live with Nexus, he found you so you're his problem now." Lakota smirked proudly coming up with a solution that only benefited him. I stare at him flabbergasted, she can't possibly live with me. In normal circumstances, she would be allowed to live within the village and no one would dare to say anything about it. But clearly, this was never a normal situation and I added fuel to his fire.

"You don't understand, I will be going home. I don't want to stay here and could you please untie me already?" That seems to remind Rogue of the ropes still attached to her and he hurries to undo them freeing her.

"If you wish to leave you are free to do so but the wilderness surrounding us is filled with hungry beasts waiting for a scrawny girl to get near so they could devour you bone by bone." Lakota's words were cruel but the warning was true, his eyes shift to me.

"You can both leave now, there is nothing further to discuss, if you don't like my conclusion just leave her outside. I have done my part." With those words, he turns around to leave. I clench my fist to quell my bubbling rage. He doesn't want to deal with a woeful one so he just dumps it all on me. Coward. A sigh leaves my lips, racking my brain with how I am going to deal with this.

"Let's go, I will show you the way," I say to her giving in, I couldn't possibly leave her out here to fend for herself. As Lakota warned, there are plenty of things ready to eat scrawny little things like her.

We leave the same way we arrived, a road I knew very well. I wasn't allowed near people so I was shown a path that would take me straight to the back of Lakota's dwelling and this would ensure the safety of the village. The only one who has stayed near me for all these years is Rogue. I'm not sure why but I guess he's loyal to our friendship, which has kept me sane so far.

As we walk towards my hut Rogue follows us, I can see by his facial expression that he's bursting to say something.

"How is it possible that she can touch you?" he finally gives in and asks.

"Why wouldn't I be able to touch him? That chief of yours sure gave me an easy way out of there." Chrystal decides to jump in with an answer that couldn't have been further from the truth. I nod to Rogue to answer her first question due to her not understanding the severity of what could have happened to her.

"You're not from around here but Nexus has the magic of death, anything he touches dies and turns into a black sludge of sorts." Chrystal's face fills with disbelief and glances my way as if she's seen something she has never seen before.

"Magic? You can't be serious. Is someone pulling a prank on me? Are there cameras around here somewhere?" she says taking a glance over both her shoulders as if she had been chased by a predator. I and Rogue look at her puzzled. She has been saying words since earlier that make no sense.

"What are 'cameras'?" Rogue beats me to it by asking first. A moment of silence passes through all three of us.

"Do you really have no idea what a camera is? And you're saying magic is real. How is this possible?" she voices out her thoughts looking at both me and Rogue in disbelief.

This statement is strange, magic is obviously real, and it exists everywhere. It's the most important component that determines your whole life pretty much.

"You speak in riddles, woman. There would be no life without magic, it's as old as dragons." I say. Rogue stays silent still processing our conversation.

Her face becomes gloomier by the second. I don't know what she's thinking but it has certainly put her in a bad mood. She stays silent even though many emotions have crossed her face by now.

I hear a howl in the distance as we slowly near my hut. I live a considerable hike away since they wanted me as far away from the village as possible. This reminds me to ask the most important question.

"Where is your link, woman?" I ask, hoping it's nearby. Being far apart can be pretty distressing for both the link and the linked. She looks distressed as it is, having her link by her side should give her some comfort.

"My what, what is a link ?" Her reply leaves both me and Rogue at a loss for words, she's clearly human so she should have a link. How could she not know what that is?

"Your link, the creature that completes your soul and grants you some of its powers. I'm not sure if there's a different title you have for them in your home," I say incredulously. She looks completely baffled yet again.

"Hold on, I've just managed to wrap my head around the fact that you guys are convinced there's magic and now you add stuff about linked creatures that give you powers? What else are you going to throw at me, flying pigs?"

"Pigs don't fly, that's just ridiculous. Where do you come from missy? You're not making any sense." Rogue responds to her looking very confused. I cut their conversation short as I see my hut appearing through the thick leaves stowed away and hidden by two massive trees on either side of the hut.

"We are here," I say pointing to my little hut. As we walk up to it you can see a small garden where I grow some of my food and a human-sized dog kennel for Cerberus to sleep in when there is bad weather. I open up the door and let them in. There is a simple kitchen area with a fire pit below the chimney and a pot hanging over it. There's a bed with a woollen blanket and a chest beside it for my clothes. There's also a small bed with a blanket for Cerberus to coil up by the fire though he spends most of his nights outside. I whistle a long note letting Cerberus know I have returned leaving the door open so he could wander in when he is done with his hunt.

Chrystal stands by the door staring at everything.

"Where on earth am I?" she whispers quietly. I have never heard of earth, it's nowhere on any of the maps our village has.

"What is this earth you're talking about?" I ask trying to get at least some answers from this woman.

"What do you mean by 'what is earth', it's the planet we live on." Her voice sounds confused like my lack of knowledge defies common sense.

"I have never heard someone call our planet earth, this is Pangaea our holy world. I don't think you should ever mention this 'earth' to anyone else here, such a name for our planet may get you killed. Sit, you must be hungry, I will make you some stew. Rogue, will you be staying for dinner?" I say heading over to the kitchen.

"No, no thank you, I will be heading back to my cabin, but we better talk about all this tomorrow and figure out what to do with her. Best case scenario we get her home." Rogue answers and heads out giving my new housemate a nod in farewell.

I start up the fire and fill the pot with some water I had collected from the river nearby. While it boils I take out a knife and gather some vegetables I had grown. There is no meat for today but a vegetable stew will be filling enough. I cut up the vegetables into small cubes and wait for the water to boil.

"You can sleep in the bed tonight and we can look into figuring out a way to get you home tomorrow," I tell her. We sit in silence for a few minutes until the water boils. After getting a bowl for both of us, I hand one to her. She takes it from me our hands brushing against each other, I jump back almost causing the bowl to drop. I forget that she's someone not affected by my curse.

"You really have to stop doing that." She sighs as if what I did frightened her more than the touch.