Greensteel; Rise of the Monster Hero Ch. 01 (Patreon)

His arms trembled now that it was over, his breath breaking heavily as he hit his knees. Kael breathed in and smelled iron and wet fur, which made him grimace but laugh. He was cold, hungry, and bleeding in places he didn’t notice until just now, but he was alive. And for the first time since he was flattened on a crosswalk, one thought cut through everything else:

‘I survived.’

Cole, no, Kaelrik, stood there for a long moment after the last wolf backed away, spear held low but ready, chest heaving in sharp, painful pulls of air. The name Kaelrik echoed again in his head, not spoken or heard, just… there. It felt heavy and real, like a coat settling onto his shoulders. When the adrenaline finally ebbed, the pain arrived all at once.

A sharp throb in his left side where teeth had grazed him and a burning line along his forearm. Smaller aches bloomed everywhere his body had twisted, braced, or absorbed impact. None of it felt immediately life-threatening, but every instinct he’d honed back on Earth, the ones that whispered about infection, dirty wounds, and how fast ‘not bad’ could become very bad, came roaring to the front of his mind.

“Shit…” he muttered, voice rough and unfamiliar. He glanced down at himself, hands shaking slightly now that survival mode had loosened its grip. He saw green skin, long fingers and nails thicker than he remembered. His breathing slowed as he forced himself to think.

‘Water. I need water.’

He listened, and at first there was only the whisper of leaves and the distant creak of the forest settling back into uneasy calm. Then, he could hear the faint but unmistakable sound of moving water. Kael turned and limped toward it, pushing through low brush until the trees opened into a narrow stream no more than a few strides across. The water ran clear and quick over smooth stones, cold enough that mist clung to the surface in thin, ghostly threads.

He knelt with a hiss as pain flared again and dipped his hands in, gasping at the chill. He washed carefully, methodically, letting the current carry away blood and dirt. It stung like a son of a bitch, but it also grounded him. Then he noticed the pool a few paces to his right, which was still and darker than the rest of the water. A natural basin where the stream slowed just enough to act like a mirror.

Kael froze as he slowly, almost reluctantly, leaned forward and looked. Green skin stared back at him, along with sharp features, long, pointed ears, and eyes that were too large and too bright. The face that stared back at him wasn’t hideous, nor the snarling caricature his mind had always associated with goblins, but still unmistakably not human.

“No. No, no, no…” he stuttered as his voice cracked, the sound raw and thin as panic surged. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Kael staggered back from the water, hands shaking, heart hammering so hard it felt like it might tear its way out of his chest. He looked up, spinning in place, eyes wild.

“Hey! You! The glowing asshole!” he shouted into the trees, into the sky, into everything. “This isn’t funny! You said another chance, but this isn’t what I meant!”

Nothing answered him back, as there was no voice, no presence, not even an amused chuckle. Just the forest and the sounds it made, which sounded much like what he knew back on Earth. The realization hit him slowly, settling like a stone in his gut, and that was that the entity was gone and not coming back. Kael dragged a hand down his face, breathing hard, then laughed, a short, bitter sound with no humor in it at all.

“…of course. I didn’t specify what kind of life I wanted… so that’s on me,” he muttered, grumbling to himself. The thought stung worse than his wounds, as he turned back to the pool and this time, he forced himself to look again.