4 Newfound Friends! Right?

It was a miracle.

A goddamn miracle.

The sun peeked over the horizon from his window, while the creatures of the night burned. Turns out that the amount of time he was in that cave was enough for the night to pass. And somehow, the world threw him a bone by letting him wake up near a building. Well, at least that's all he remembered. But the building there made him realize something.

There are other people here.

He doesn't remember when he was dragged into a bed, but he sure has hell wasn't complaining. He still had to run away for a while after he woke up from that last fight with the three eyed teeth monster, since there were some stragglers that took shade from the sun and started to attack him when he woke up. He had to run, but not without taking multiple arrows around his arms and legs by those meatless assholes. He never stopped running though, he was not prepared to die again. Unfortunately, he was bleeding all over when he got to the building, and the lack of blood made him faint.

Fortunately, for once, he woke up in a nice soft bed. Well, he didn't really have much of a reference since he was outside for the past 2 days. Damn, has it really only been two days?

He shuffled to get a good view outside the window. It looked like he was on the second floor. Did someone carry him here? He doesn't really remember. He was sure he didn't die again though, since he woke up covered in bandages instead of being completely healed. He wasn't complaining, he really wasn't eager to add to his death count.

He would've continued pondering on this until the door opened. He turned around, curious to see who he has to owe his life to.

She had in her hands some towels and a couple rolls of bandages, but the thing that caught him off guard was her size.

She was small. Really small. It didn't take a genius to realize what her age was. She could not be older than eight years old. He didn't have time to think about it any further when she made eye contact and instantly froze like a deer in headlights.

"Uh…" he began, "Hey kid-"

"MOM!" She screamed as she bolted out the door dropping everything she had in her hands, leaving the bedridden teen confused.

Great, his first conversation consists of someone running off calling for their mom, although ironically enough, it's not the first time that has happened.

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"Mom!" the baby screamed, running off to his parents, who both panicked seeing their boy in such a distressed state.

"What happened?" the mother cried, seeing the awful bruise on the boy's face, "Oh my god! Who did this to you?"

The boy said nothing but with tears still streaming down his face, pointed at another lone child who was standing in the field, a basketball in his hands, seemingly unbothered by the blubbering child that was currently telling on him.

"We were going to play a game of dodgeball, and we thought it was going to be with normal balls, but then he launched the basketball at me!" the boy explained in between sniffs. His cheeks were beginning to swell and his dad put an ice pack on the boy's face.

"Where's that boy's parents? He can't just go around hitting kids! Oh god, he has more kids in on his game, how did he convince them," the father mused worryingly. The boy was on one side of the field with a small group of children, while another group of kids were on the other side. Although they were aware of their crying kid, none of them seemed keen on backing out. On both sides the kids were mindlessly throwing the balls around, but while they were throwing the balls, some were falling to the ground, sporting similar bruises as the ones that their child had. In the mess of children playing, there was one who was sporting a manic grin.

He knew they were watching. But he didn't really bother to hide his onslaught. That was until the father decided to put a stop to their game. Of course when he came to confront him and all the other kids. They all scattered. And he slipped away.

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It was honestly surprising how easy it was to get away with stuff like that. Eh, who cares at this point. Not him. He should feel bad, but considering how bad the last few days have been going, he was going to take the few chuckles he can.

His reminiscing of the good old days was interrupted by the swinging of the door, caused by the woman he assumed was the little girl's mother. Well at least he can talk with someone now.

"Hey, I-"

Before he could even get another word out, the woman sharply cuts him off, "Where did you come from?"

"Excuse me?" he asked, irritated beyond words.

"It's a simple question," She huffed, "Where did you come from?"

She was lucky she was a mother and that he was bandaged up. Why the hell is she so aggressive?

"What are you going to do with me?" he asked cautiously.

"Depends on your answer," she responded.

Now he was in a bad spot. He was lucky enough to be near any form of civilization, but right now for all he cared, he was back in the wilderness with those wild creatures. A wrong move is going to possibly get him killed. Should he go with an honest answer? But this lady seems to know more about this place than he does. She might know about the deaths and revivals, that is, if there were others like him, which doesn't sound too far fetched in the grand scheme of things. Why keep someone who can't die safe anyways? Less resources and trouble. Hell, he might've done the same.

But now he was on the receiving end of judgement. It was like running around a forest full of multiple bear traps blindfolded, while also being chased down by a bear that doesn't get affected by said traps. He has to tread carefully but quickly. .

"I don't know," he said. It was simple, yet effective when trying to figure out a situation. Amnesia would be a good way to get info out of people. Even if it was info he already knew it would stall for time to get his mind together, "I just remember waking up," that was technically the truth, "And I had to run away," those two events weren't connected but it was still technically the truth, "Then I found this village," also technically the truth.

There was no good answer right now, so it was best to stick with non answers instead.

"Is that really all?" She asked skeptically.

"It's all I can say," he responded sort of honestly.

"I see..." she says as she walks around the room and picks up a portrait that's out of his sights, "So you have no idea of who you were before you woke up."

He really wanted to say that he had no idea who he was in this world, but saying that might still give away too much.

"I have no idea how I got there," he said.

"What about before?" She questioned.

"I honestly don't know how I ended up here," he repeated.

The woman finally put down the portrait and started walking towards the boy, "Tell me, are you lying to me about anything?" she probed as she got to the side of his bed.

"No," He simply said, he was getting unnerved with the questions, but at least that was the truth.

"Ok," she said as she went down to his eye level, "Well then boy let me rephrase that, are you being completely honest with me?"

Wow, the million dollar question (Do they even have currency here?). Beating around the bush isn't working, he's only backing himself to a corner. For all he knew, she might have already figured him out and is only trying to either get him to confess or catch him in a full on lie. He knew that his time was numbered, he was injured and he has no idea how this world works, and he couldn't get a read on the woman. Might as well be a bit more intense.

"No I haven't," he said quietly looking down at his sheets, "But I don't want to die!" he suddenly cried, "I'm so scared! I just came here and I was bombarded by all these monsters! Skeletons! Zombies! Weird bug creatures! Weird ghosts! Giant dinosaurs! What the hell is this place!" He screamed, "Please! Don't send me back out there! I want to go home!"

Initially caught off guard by the boy's outburst the woman composed herself and once again turned her head towards the portrait. The bedridden boy still couldn't see what she was looking at, but decided to listen to her response.

"I see…" was all she said.

Great, she clearly isn't the empathetic type, either that or she was not trusting his word. There was no way to understand what she was thinking. For all he knew she could be the kind of person that would reluctantly throw him out just for acting like a baby.

The women once again looked back at him and confessed, "Look boy, I understand your fear, that is, if you're telling the truth. But you have to understand that we've been through a lot as well, and well...you're very suspicious. You might have gone through a lot, or you could be lying through your teeth, I don't know, but what I do know is that if you are in any way the way I'm afraid you are, then the best course of action for the village would be to either kill you or leave you to the monsters outside the walls."

"Hey! But I-" before the boy could retort the lady held up her hand.

"Either way," She said, "If there is the smallest chance that you actually are scared and confused right now, I can't leave you with a good conscience. But I need you to answer me this honestly first before I make any decision."

"Ok…" the boy responded unsurely.

"How many times have you died?" she asked.

"What kind of question is that?" he tensed.

"Answer the question," She probed, "You're not making this any easier."

She obviously knows. It was stupid to try and pull a fast one on someone who's clearly knows how this world works better than he did.

"Six times...:" he groaned, breaking eye contact and looking down at the sheets, " I've died six times in this world."

"Hmm...And how long have you been here?" she implored.

"What?" he asked, looking up at her.

"I'm asking how long have you been here as in days, weeks or months." she clarified, she had not broken eye contact with him, and was staring intently at him.

"It hasn't even been 2 days!" he said exasperated more than fearful at this point, "Look if you're going to get rid of me, can I at least have one last meal? I haven't had any good food in my time outside the village. I mean come on! I'm not really asking for much am I? Or are you guys in some sort of famine? It doesn't really matter, I'd rather you guys not kill me, and just let me go, I feel like I'll get the hang of this world soo-"

"Who says we were throwing you out?" she snapped, "Ugh! Out of all the seekers we've dealt with you're one of the more cynical ones, you know that? Why did you even try to hide the fact you can revive? Like, do you really think we were going to use you as bait or something? Seriously…" she fumed as she started to stand up and pace around the room, "Look, it seems like you're the aggressive type, but you're really inexperienced, can you fight?"

"What?" he said perplexed with the sudden shift in tone.

She continued to ponder, "You seem to have a decent muscle mass, your attitude makes you pretty resilient mentally, considering that you have died quite a few times yet you seem to act quite casually, don't worry, that attitude is more common than you think. But You're pretty crafty which isn't quite as common, don't try anything funny though, without much strength it'll be hard for you to get anything done, but maybe a cunning mind won't hurt in the long run..."

"Wait, what the hell are you on about?!" he hollered, clearly confused with where this was going.

"Well if you just listen, then I'll tell you, I just need to think about where to put you," she retorted, not stopping her pacing, "You got the strength even at your base body but you lack experience...Oh! You'll need some soul fragments and maybe we'll see what you can really do," she stopped and looked at the boy again whose face has not changed from that bewildered look he had when she started her explanation, "Something wrong?" she asked.

Now given the chance to talk, the boy asked, "What are you on about? What's going to happen to me. I know I'm not going to get killed off, but still…"

She walks up to him and pokes at his forehead much to the bedridden boy's displeasure and says, "Listen, you're not getting thrown out or killed." clearly annoyed at the boy's insistence on death she let out a sigh.

"I'm not?" he asked.

"No! Of course not! Seriously do you take us for monsters or something?" she exclaimed.

"Well….you did say-" he tensed, "Wait, then what's going to happen?" he wondered.

The lady smiled for the first time since this entire conversation, "You're getting a job," she explained, "I was trying to gauge what you would be good for, since most of you seekers tend to come here with no experience. I try to recommend where it would be a good place to place you."

"Oh, thank god. I'll gladly accept any job." the boy sighed in relief finally at a place that he can exploi- help out, but of course he still asked, "Unless...it's something ridiculous?"

"Not ridiculous," the lady said, her smile becoming more smug, "more like...brutal."

Oh boy, he hoped he didn't bite off more than he could chew. He might want to take his chances with the monsters now…

The lady seemed to notice him tense and her smile became more gentle. She looked much more motherly at that moment, and strangely enough it somehow put the boy at ease. But he couldn't let his guard down yet.

"Don't worry, we don't put anyone in dangerous situations if it's not necessary," she explained, "We actually have someone to show you the ropes," she then began to walk up towards the portrait, finally revealing the picture to the boy. He then gasped at the sight.

In the picture was a man in his late twenties fully covered in a blood red armor seemingly cheerful, standing atop of a pile of bodies. Zombies, and skeletons were probably the two only monsters the boy recognized among the pile of corpses that were beneath the man, but at the very top, right underneath the armor warrior, was a dragon.

The women let another smug grin form as she saw the boy's reaction and said, "His name is William but they nicknamed him The Dragonseeker, and I'm sure you can see why, no?"

The boy snapped out of his shocked expression and spouted, "Why call him a seeker?"

"Because he's like you," she replied, "A seeker." The boy was still confused until she clarified, "He can revive just like you."