The LONG night...

After the kids began to leave more quickly, Chris started to sweat a little. This woman was certainly a mama-bear and he would have to come up with something to cover his ass.

"Alice, go play with the kids, we will be a little while." Said Sarah as she sent the last one away.

"Alright, I thought you were a simple runaway slave, but something is not right. Why are you so well spoken? Your masters taught a dwarven slave how to speak on par with a 200-year old elf, unlikely. Then I looked at the slave device, it should have been impossible for you to survive that. Are you some type of undead or changeling inhabiting the body?"

Chris looked at her with a face full of confusion.

"What? No, I am just a normal dude…dwarf. I woke up in the forest and I have no memories of this world, I am telling you the truth. I am not a threat to you or the kids, I promise."

Chris was about to leave the room and head off but she stopped him.

"Hmm, you tell the truth, but it is impossible…how would you have no memories?" She began to think to herself, [Could it be a mind mage? Or a dream walker pawn?]

Then she asked, "Have you had any strange dreams as of late?"

Chris chuckled and said, "Lady, this whole thing is like a fever dream, if I would have known I would be inhabiting a fantasy world, I would have definitely asked for a blessing that involved toilet paper…"

She watched him; he was telling the truth. He actually wanted this toilet….wait…

Sarah remembered something and walked over to look in an old book. It was The Diary of the Light Hero, by Aaron Brown. She opened it and went through the first few chapters that recounted the early days. He mentioned a struggle of wiping with leaves instead of a "paper".

[Maybe he has knowledge of the stories? But he was telling the truth, if it was mind magic then I would be getting a mixed signal…but it doesn't have that same feeling as when we hunted the spy, what the hell is going on here?]

"Alright, kid, you say you do not remember anything, and I believe you, but you clearly are aware of the stories of the Heroes. How do you know about them?"

Chris looked at her, she had been flipping through a book.

[Oh shit, did I say something wrong…]

Chris replied, "Uh, I heard it from some old guy, not too long ago actually."

Her eyes went wide, she disappeared and reappeared in front of him with her back-dagger out.

"Did this man send you to us?" Said Sarah as she held her dagger against Chris' chest.

Chris put his hands up and said, "WOAH, WOAH, CHILL LADY! HE SENT ME "HERE" BUT NOT FOR ANY SPECIAL REASON!"

She sensed that it was a grey area then she poked him with the dagger.

"Be more specific, is someone looking for us?"

Her scowl was intimidating…

"No, I don't think so, the old man I met was totally irrelevant to this situation. I mean, he had a weird fish named Martha and it was just…strange."

She felt that he was telling the truth and she took her dagger off of him but he kept going.

"Then we got a visit from on of his daughters, SHE was a fucking psycho that tried to kill me…matter of fact, are all the women here homicidal maniacs? Jesus, CHRIST! What is with all of the violence? I thought magical worlds were supposed to be happy and nice! Some fuckin' heroes you had…can't even do a good job, bullshit."

Sarah was staring at him, he was talking nonsense, but he believed the words he was saying.

Sarah cut him off from mumbling himself to death, "SO. You met some old guy that was pretty powerful, and he set you free, or?"

"What? No, I was already free, sort of…well, the freest you can be."

Sarah left the room to go speak to Alice, she had heard enough nonsense. It was time to prepare for danger.

She walked outside and waved her over, she was about to win from her last move.

"Alice, get all the kids inside the well for the night."

Alice looked confused, "What? Why mommy…it is wet in there, everyone hates it..it stinks too…"

Sarah replied, "I know but we might be in danger, I need you to watch over the group."

Alice nodded her head slowly and walked off to find the whole group. It would probably take over 20-minutes to get everyone in a group without beating their heads…

Sarah walked over to the well and changed the lowering mechanism to a metal one for lowering the kids safely. They would be stuck down there but they would be safe from the vast majority of physical tracking skills.

In the well was an off shoot, the little hole had a one-way entrance to an underwater bunker, then there were tiny holes that went around the well and come up under the house. So, while staying there, they can get "good air" and their scent will be in the most abundant place. Sarah had used this design before; it had proven effective if anyone was sneaking up on them.

After lowering each kid, she swapped out the shaft with the normal one, and then went back to Chris.

…

…

…

Meanwhile, he was sitting in a chair, he had walked around and looked at the books. Some were normal but some of them had to do with the past Heroes…they seemed strange.

The Water-Hero was a woman that could cut through everything…but she was from Kansas?

[What the hell? Kansas? I mean, that is definitely the US of A. She kept mentioning a train system, which I honestly love, but she seemed out of date? How long has it been since this world had a Hero?]

Chris was reading and he could just feel the awkward way he had to convert her verbage into a usable form.

The cracked open and he could see Sarah coming in, she had been sweating a little as she had to lower the kids with her raw strength, or the rope would start slipping.

Chris said, "Hey, you are 200, right? When were the last Heroes around?"

Sarah was taken aback, [This fool…]

"Kid, don't ask an elven woman her age…if you want to live, but the last Hero was around 100-years ago, what are you reading?"

She walked over and could recognize the cover as being the Water Hero.

"What do you think? Pretty amazing, right?" Chris looked up and he saw the admiration in her eyes.

"Well, her grammar is all over the place and she sounds like a southern-bell, but she has some interesting experiences in here, some I share with her!" Chris said as he started to laugh a little. He continued, "I wonder if she left any recipes for cornbread?"

Sarah was trying to detect his lying, but it wasn't coming back as anything…

"So, it has been 100-years since the last Hero? Do they come regularly?" Asked Chris.

She was standing there looking at him and then she said in a monotone voice, "Yeah, every 200 years a monster king will rise and the magic will get weaker…we need Heroes to stop the destruction of the world…"

Chris was still being nonchalant, "So I am in the middle of the cycle, and that does explain the difference in language here, as a matter of fact? HOW AM I TALKING TO YOU? DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH????"

Chris stood up and realized that he had been speaking English the whole time.

[Oh shit…what the fuck, man?]

The sudden realization was getting to him a little bit, he felt the stare of Sarah, the crazy lady.

Sarah's scowl was in full effect, she was contemplating taking out her dagger again.

"You speak common, you should know that based off of how well you speak. Kid, I am going to be honest, I am not very fond of your mysteries anymore." Sarah was thinking about kicking him out when he began to pick up his walking stick and started to walk away from her.

He put up his hand and said, "I am very sorry, thank you for the meal and potion, I will be heading off, I'll figure out a way to some sort of civilization."

Sarah stared at him, he was serious and telling HIS truth.

"Wait, you should stay here tonight, we are in the Dark Forest, there are monsters at night."

Sarah needed him to stay as bait, if he were to refuse and run away then she would know something was up.

"Monsters? Oh yeah, monster king…right. So, monsters exist, COOL!" Chris said with a smile on his face.

Sarah was horrified, she had never met anyone that celebrated monsters…who the hell was this person?

She set out a bed in front of the door to keep him between her and the outside world. She would be in the best place if she could have nobody behind her in the case of an attack in the middle of the night. But as Chris drifted off…nothing happened.

She laid there for hours with her senses on full alert. The snoring was obnoxious, but she had lived with Rufus for 75-years.

She kept her heart rate low, but her muscles were ready to fight foolish men to their death once more. If some slavers wanted kids and an elf, then they would go through her.

She waited and waited. Her rapier was laying on top of her when suddenly Chris got out of bed. She watched him stumble over to the door and stick his hand near the right side of it before he realized that he needed to move the wooden plank.

She could hear him, he was fumbling about, it was like his first time working a door.

She listened to him; he was walking behind the house. Then, suddenly, she heard a loud THUMP.

She sprang out of bed with her sword and dagger, she walked to the door and listened for anyone coming. Then out of the quite of night she heard, "HOLY SHIT LOOK HOW BIG MY DICK IS!!!" and she nearly fell over but realized that it might be a battle tactic to disarm her.

She listened as the pee splashed the now muddy ground. Chris walked back to the house with a new confidence, but she was ready to ambush anyone behind him.

The door creaked open and he stepped inside, he kicked his muddy shoes off at the door and swaggered on over to his bed.

Sarah was standing there in a posture where she was ready for death when no more than 5 minutes pass and the snoring resumed.

[It's gonna' be a long night…] she thought.