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I never really thought I'd get out of the war, but then I did, by dying with my throat slit and tongue cut out as a trophy. So the fact I'm standing before something that's a giant glowing crystal is weird. I'm dead. This is just weird. The crystal glows faintly, with an array of smaller ones floating around it. Sighing, I check my tactical gear and find my phone. Pulling it out, I check something's, no signal, but everything is virtually the same. Although there's only one contact in my phone now labeled Hydaelyn. Looking at the crystal, I call the contact, which is only a bunch of zeros.

{Thank you other worldly child for calling this number on the strange device you hold. I cannot commune with you like I do the children of my world, so I found a different method. I'm sure you have questions, so please speak them to me and I shall answer the best I can.}

Listening to the rather ethereal woman's voice, I glance down at my phone. Switching to texting while putting the call in the background, I typed out a text message and sent it.

'Where am I? Because I'm certainly fuckin dead, last I checked. Plus, good luck getting me to speak. I've been double muted.'

{Oh… I'm sorry I did not know you had lost your voice. I wish I could fix the damages to your voice, but I am not currently able to. As for where you stand, you are in my space between dimensions of my world. How you have found your way here is a mystery, yet I see you are a soldier. One with more advanced firearms than the children of my world have made.}

'So there are guns here as well, possibly primitive but extremely dangerous given I guess magical bullshit. So what now? I have nothing special to offer you. I'm dead and mute forever.'

{You may have died once before, but I shall grant you a second chance. You shall be my second Warrior of Light, your weapons shall not need a constant supply of ammunition, for I shall not let them become useless to you. They shall grow alongside you as a new type of ancient weapon, your life span shall not be defined given your role in this new world.}

'Improved weapons, ammo isn't a real worry, and I'm not really going to age likely or die unless killed…. That's a lot of things you CAN do, but not fix my voice?'

{I'm afraid so, as I do not have the strength to restore injuries which are already so old. Is there anything you would like to ask or request of me though my other worldly child?}

'Can I at least tame stuff to use a mount or something? Or just fucking use magic freely, like summoning?'

{You're a Warrior of Light you can do any of those, although a companion would be an excellent idea… Yes, that child will work, as she is alone and far too young to survive alone. I shall send you on your way now, your companion awaits you, and she shall help protect you as you do so to her.}

I didn't get much time to question it before a wave of an ethereal fire washed over me. My feet touched something that felt like sand, causing me to glance around. I'm on a beach with waves gently crashing into my feet as birds fly around crying out in the air. Shaking my head, I studied my reflection in the water. I'm still in my old combat uniform with my weapons of a Trench Knife, a Stoner 63, a Colt 1911, an M16, a Hive Launcher, and a .50 cal sniper on my person given I kept walking everywhere with them on me. However, I've lost my UMP45, I guess because I dropped it while I was dying.

Pulling my lower face mask down that is just below my AR goggles, my pale tanned skin shows the scar. Running a finger over the jagged scar taking a portion of my neck up, I sigh. It's a cold day in hell when this is all permanently my new life, given my tongue is also gone. Not really bothering to check anything else, I pulled my face mask back up and got out of the water. My boots leave indents in the soaked and clumping together sand.

As I got onto drier ground I noticed a rather muscular and beastly looking uhm… dog hog gorilla thing. Just studying me until it laid down and seemed to just study me. Its rather pinkish light purple skin rippled as its muscles moved, dark mane and other furred sections blowing slightly in the wind. A lot of dangerous looking teeth sticking out of its mouth as the big creature's dark brown eyes looked at me curiously. Is this the child the crystal wanted me to essentially travel with?

Walking carefully and cautiously over to the big creature, I tentatively stretched a hand out. Placing it on their muzzle got the thing to seemingly freeze up as its eyes narrowed onto my hand. Cautiously, I stroked its muzzle for a bit before trailing my hand along its face and giving some scratches like I'd do for a dog. This seems to make the big creature growlingly purr with its eyes closing a bit from the attention. After a while, I'm just stroking and checking the big… girl… over.

Fuck, this thing is one jacked female…. Just, uh, what is it? Because it's not something I fucking know, given this isn't Earth anymore. My question seemed to get answered as my phone buzzed where I'd usually put it. But I didn't put it away… I still held it before…. You know what, magic, that's the fucking answer. My goggles, being the advanced machinery they are, connected to my phone as I didn't want to pull it out. A text message from Hydaelyn appeared in the corner of my vision.

'The child I sent you to feels content. Thank you for not feeling anything negative towards the young Behemoth. She is alone and inexperienced in how to survive as such, given she is only eighteen winters old. While she should be able to be solely self-sufficient by this point. She was raised mostly for show by a corrupt military group seeking control of Eorzea.'

Sighing, I looked over every inch of the big girl carefully, which she seemed to allow me to do. I found multiple scars and gunshot wounds, yet she's otherwise perfectly fine. Just the genitalia surprised me, given it's like that of a female Hyena. Which is one thing I had learned, as that weird ass eco lady I had to guard wouldn't stop talking. I didn't want to know how animals fuck or anything, yet she shoved it all down my throat. When she tried sleeping with me, I noped the fuck out of that and somehow ended up sleeping admits a pack of African Wild Dogs, Lions, and Hyenas.

Very weird thing to wake up to a giant cat on my chest curled up, but comfy with how they all made me feel like I was under and surrounded by blankets. My squad was also confused about how I ended up in that situation, but the weird lady wasn't. Apparently, she tried killing me with a lion pack she was raising because I noped the fuck out. It didn't pan out that way, since I was dragged carefully in my sleep out of my room and into a cuddle pile. It… it was just a weird mission, but I got to feel how it is to be claimed by a mixed pack of animals.

Shaking my head, I stopped such random thoughts and looked around. Seeing nothing but beach and foliage for a good while, which isn't much help. Looking at the big girl, I grabbed a stick from the ground, walked in front of her and wrote a name in the sand. Zendaya, pointing at her, I pointed at the name then back at her a few times. She seemed to have noticed I was naming her after the thirteenth time around. Which frankly made the Behemoth actually smile at the notion.

However, she also seemed to notice I haven't spoken a word since she met me. As she made clear by growling a few times at me. Sort of getting what she was asking, I started writing, using her name as the starting point.

'Zendaya, sorry, I can't really talk. I have no tongue and my vocal cords are destroyed. So I'm not going to be much of a conversationalist unless you can actually read this pretty well. If you can, for some reason, then nice to meet you. I'm Xander Lockhart.'

She slowly seemed to actually read it all over, stopping to I guess figure something out. The fact she can read is interesting but also a welcomed thing. After she finished reading, she picked me up with her teeth gently and set me on her back. Free ride, that works for me honestly given I don't know where the fuck I am at. Zendaya sniffed the air a bit before turning in a direction and starting to lumber that way. While she moved though, I carefully got onto her head, finding some horns which I hadn't seen before.

Quietly humming, I wrapped my legs around them to hold on for now, taking some heavy-duty industrial Paracord from a side bag. Looking at her horns, I started making a sort of holding harness while leaning back slightly. Throwing some around her neck carefully, I'd use it to tie into my pack, its metal back frame acted as a temporary backrest. Creating a sort of head rest, so I can hopefully make sure she doesn't get killed by civilians freaking out.

She didn't seem to mind my impromptu harness, even though it should be uncomfortable. After a few hours, though, I had her stop and made a more safe jury-rigged harness from what I could find and had on me. Which led to a more comfortable ride on her head. I think the fact I'm riding her head and sometimes giving directional gestures she can see helped us as well. Given we're both probably very lost, and I'm the one not from here.