When Ethan woke up again he felt surprisingly good. Someone carried him into the barracks while he was unconscious and stuffed a blanket under his head. Nora raised her head when she noticed Ethan’s mind becoming more active, her unblinking eyes looked at him inquiringly.

  Are you feeling better? That last skill knocked out for a few hours, I could feel it, you were close to death Ethan, you better not do that again. While her voice was mostly monoton but he could hear the trace of fear in it. They were bonded for life after all, both part one being and if one of them dies the other couldn’t live alone. While this wasn’t true in the beginning, they both have grown immensely since the start of the tutorial.

  I promise to keep the near death experiences to a minimum of one per area so we should be good for this circle. While he was joking he hoped nothing so bad would happen again, Nora was ready to start a whole lecture when a guard stepped through into the barracks and to Ethan’s and Nora’s surprise, walked towards them and knelt before Ethan and spoke in hushed whispers. “My liege, the general is here to discuss troop movements with you.”

  Nora, what have you told them after I was out?! Now I’m their king or what?! His head whipped so fast to his companion that he feared his neck would break. But to his surprise he felt the confusion of the snake. It was obvious she hadn’t talked to them, how would she even do that? I said nothing, idiot, I can only talk to you and my father and stop staring at me, poor man is sweating bullets…

  “Explain to me why I’m your liege all of a sudden soldier.” Ethan asked, his voice sounded cold and sharp, like a knife that glides over your bare skin. The soldier pressed his forehead to the ground, an impressive feat with the elongated mouth.

  “After you arrived and promised your help we sent word to the general, he was skeptical at first but after we told him off your heroic victory against the undead he was convinced and swore to serve you. We all know, only with your help this war can end!” he looked up, a wondrous twinkle in his reptilian eyes.

  Ethan hated this tutorial, it felt so artificial that it was becoming ridiculous to him. Like who in their right mind gives command of an entire species to some lone wanderer that just said they would help. He would gladly go back to killing things and training magic but for that he needed to finish this circle first.

  “I…understand, alright bring me to the general and let's get this over with.” He followed the soldier while mumbling curses under his breath. Nora, thinking she was funny, sent him the whisper of a thought. Go on, my liege. “I hate this fucking tutorial…” he mumbled and stepped through the open door

  Outside a whole battalion of Crocodiarii knelt on the ground and didn’t move a muscle while Ethan walked between them towards the general. He was a literal mountain of muscles and scars, he radiated confidence, authority and discipline. His eyes had the look of a soldier that saw so much it blunted his entire personality. The most surprising part was that he was an albino. His white scales glinted in the sun.

  Ethan stopped in front of him and needed to look up to him, his head resting in his neck until the general knelt on his left knee, something Ethan read about actually, it showed respect and was an act of surrender. The general spoke, his voice sounding like boulders getting crushed together, deep and guttural, almost feral in nature.

  “My liege, the troops have gathered and we’re ready to go to war for you. I hope the soldiers here are sufficient, we will gather more on our way to the enemy.” Ethan felt overwhelmed and he was sure the knot in his stomach would kill him at some point if this continues. Because having this beast of a crocodile man declare him some kind of ruler was just ridiculous.

  “Rise my general for we have much to do. I don’t think it’s right that I lead the troops and not you but we will win this war one way or another. Send word to the Brammgestir that I request a diplomatic meeting in one week's time. Pick an appropriate location for it too. We will move out in ten minutes, while the troops get ready we will talk.”

  Ethan wanted to puke, the only thing that helped him out was playing all those roleplaying games and a few sessions of dungeons and dragons to act like he was a high and mighty individual. With the general in tow he picked a quiet corner while the troops got ready to march. They would leave this post behind because, well it was just a tutorial gimmick. They were facing the goddamn swamp after all, there were no Brammgestir there, also Ethan was pretty sure monsters can only cross borders to the next zone for a short amount of time before they get pulled back by instinct.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  When Ethan turned around the general wanted to kneel again. “No, stop kneeling. It takes too much time. First, what is your name? Second, I want you to tell me about our situation and why you think I’m such a good leader.”

  The general nodded. “My name is Kra’kulgar the White and the son of Kra’goltok the merciless. We currently have ten thousand Crocodiarii in our army, all of them stationed in camps along the border and in strategic locations all around the Titan Desert. In this camp we have around five hundred, the guard force and the forces I brought with me.

  To answer your second question my liege, there is just this voice in the back of my mind telling me that you’re our leader and will bring-” The eyes of the general got that distant look all of a sudden before he seemed to snap back to life.

  “I apologize, my liege, I felt something for a moment but now it’s gone, what was your question?”

  “We talked about…you know what, it’s not that important. I need a map if you can provide one, one last question: why is it called Titan Desert?”

  The general looked surprised but provided an answer. “Well you see my liege, thousands of years ago the Titans fought a large war here, the rocks you see out there? Those are the bones of the titans and the sand is red because it was soaked with their blood. For hundreds of years they fought only to just vanish suddenly, some say they’re hiding under the sun. Others think they left this world behind forever.”

  Ethan nodded along and raised his hand. “Thank you Kra’kulgar for the information. Let's get this show on the road. I want to follow the path the undead took to get here.”

  General Kra’kulgar nodded and guided him towards the gate, before they stepped through he said over his shoulder. “We prepared one of our behemoth lizards for you my liege.” Ethan, now curious, stepped through the gate and looked at the massive gila monster, the lizard’s head was as big as Ethan and its tongue as long as he was tall. A massive saddle rested on its back and to his surprise there were multiple of them.

  Ethan looked fascinated because the whole lizard was covered in a net made of leather, the center of each connection was made from an iron ring to give the net more room to move and provide a strong point.

  But what made it exciting was the belt the soldiers now wore. A thick leather band and in the front something like a rudimentary carbine attached to a length of leather cord. They used this to hook themselves into the net and he already saw soldiers moving around the lizard. They loaded bundles filled with weapons, water and food on top of the lizard. These bundles had hooks and got just clicked in place.

  “This is amazing! You use them as a moving fortress!” Ethan, like a little kid, ran to the lizard and inspected the leather net, the carbines they used and watched soldiers moving around the net. How fluid they were when climbing, removing and attaching the hook before climbing again.

  “Thank you my liege, we’re very proud of them. They’re very intelligent but only understand our species.” To demonstrate the general said some words in a language that sounded like growling and hissing. The behemoth lizard answered and bowed his head to Ethan.

  Ethan grinned and gently rested his palm on the warm snout of the lizard to show his appreciation for his service. With some help from the general they both climbed into the massive saddle that was more like a boat made from leather. Low walls of hardened leather surrounded the large seat so you couldn’t fall down that easily.

  With a nod to the general he said something in their language and the army moved out, following the scent of undead into the hot desert. After a while Ethan noticed banners flutter on long sticks on each lizard. It was black with white accents around the edges and in the background was a pale blue snowflake, on top of it a white staff and surrounding it all a snake.

  “General, what’s up with that banner? I see it for the first time now.” he raised an eyebrow and studied the banner for a while. Kra’kulgar seemed a bit embarrassed. “The soldiers thought it would be good to fly a new banner now so they came up with that. A snowflake with a staff on top surrounded by a snake. You’re after all the Winter Wizard.”

  Ethan rubbed over his face. “Now I have a title? The Winter Wizard, really?” He groaned and turned back around. “This just gets better every minute.” His normally pale face was colored in a deep red all of a sudden.

  “The Winter Wizard…”, he whispered to himself.