Come Back Witch

David stared at the monster. Its last scream echoed through the cave before its gigantic body slowly collapsed to the ground. David still didn't stop sprinting; just before its body landed on the ground, he arrived at his target.

Lifting the wounded young man, he simply stepped a few steps to the side, letting the monster crash directly in front of him. Only then did he notice how effortless it had been to carry him.

"You're fine, kid?" He was concerned that the young boy might have been wounded too hard to survive already. But he was worried for no reason; instead, the man grabbed David's shoulder, slowly rising. "I will be fine, it's just some broken ribs and arms. I'm Finley, by the way.''

David stared at him in disbelief, but he had already learned not to question everything that happened around him, he himself was somehow completely fine as well, even though the last thing he remembered was being nearly torn to shreds by a mimic.

"I am David, more or less happy to meet you." He wanted to ask many things, but before he could, a different voice cut him off. "I don't want to interrupt you guys' rendezvous, but could somebody help me up?"

The familiar girl's voice called out behind him, but before he could even react, Finley already made his way over to her.

David instead remained where he stood inspecting the creature if it were truly dead, an arrow seemed to have pierced the back of its head, killing it.

"Everything okay, Ami? Are you hurt anywhere?" Finley's worried voice was way too loud and overprotective, instantly sensing the charged connection between them too. David could only feel like an old man having to deal with teenagers.

Clearing his throat, he decided to stare towards the exit of the cave, waiting for their savior to arrive. And as expected, it didn't take him long or rather, them long. As three shadows stood at the cave entrance.

A gigantic young man, roughly two meters tall, was on the left, and even then he was wearing an oversized grey mantle; in the middle was an elderly man in his early forties, wearing a half-destroyed lab coat and a simple black shirt, holding a bow.

At the right stood a woman in her 30s; she had long black hair and was wearing some sports clothing and her arm was bandaged. David raised his hand trying to get their attention.

"We could use some help over here." He shouted while pointing towards the two wounded people lying just a bit away. The three unknown people only slowly got closer, seemingly still uncertain about them.

"You stay where you are." The elderly man's voice was cold as ice. "What are your names?" All three of them were staring at every one of David's movements, looking for any inconsistency.

"I'm David, and those guys are Finley and?''

"It's us, Doctor Ami and me," Finley shouted, still searching Ami for any lethal wounds.

"Then you know the protocol, just stay there." The giant man slowly walked closer while the doctor and female stayed behind. He stopped just in front of David.

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"You aren't one of us. Who are you?" His hand roughly moved around David's body, searching for any weapons. Finding none, he signaled his teammate a hand symbol.

The doctor walked slowly, walking over while sending the giant with the woman towards the wounded. "What did you eat for lunch, and who's the most important person in your life?" The man asked, his voice commanding. He was only slightly taller than David, but his presence seemed to be much different from anyone else in the cave, as if David were an infant standing in front of a grown adult.

''Why?'' David answered cautiously.

"Just answer if you want to live." The man answered him.

David, confused by the situation, couldn't answer directly but knew he was being tested for something. "I didn't eat anything yet, to be honest. I'm not entirely sure what time of day it is and for the most important person, it's my best friend." David lied about the last part; he wasn't going to tell a stranger anything about his family, not until he was entirely sure they were on his side.

The doctor seemed satisfied by his answer. "You lied, that's good. I wouldn't tell anyone either where I am the most vulnerable.'' He offered David a handshake, who unwillingly took it, still suspicious of the doctor. "I'm Doctor Cloves; nice to meet you, David. You seem to be from the village, I would guess?''

David inspected Dr. Cloves something about him just felt different from everybody else. "Yeah, I'm from there. Who are you guys?''

"We were sent here by the Mathley Colles University as a part of an exchange event. You cleared the First Instance, right?'' David knew about the exchange event but had never heard about the First Instance.

"What do you mean by First Instance?''

"Yes, First Instance is a place where you face your memories and become a new person.'' The doctor seemed to be confused by his question.

"No, something like that didn't happen, but I had a weird dream, which I had to escape." David would've loved to explain it in detail but just didn't know where to start.

"I forced him into the First Instance, maybe that's why his trial was different," Ami shouted through the cave. Hearing her answer, the doctor seemed to be lost in thought. Meanwhile, David was slowly getting nervous.

"I have been feeling weird since I woke up, like I've become ten years younger and much stronger." He himself wasn't sure of his new capabilities and while staring at his body, he noticed all of his wounds were gone even old scars seemed to have faded. ''To be honest, I seem to be in a better condition than ever before.''

"This will be a longer explanation, I would recommend you to sit down." The doctor said while checking on his teammates, who once again signaled him something.

David sat down, knowing information was one of the most important pieces to survive.

'There are a few important things you must know to survive out here. First of all, this forest is haunted by creatures of our dreams, past or present.'' David instantly understood, that also explained why Vinces seemed to know some of the creatures from a book that was made to scare kids.

"Also, humans begin as prey; only after clearing your first instance of a dreamlike place, which normally consists of fighting and defeating either a monster or surviving a painful memory of the past, you become something new." The doctor coughed.

"Well, your case was rather special because you were forced into the first instance. Normally people that were about to die have roughly a fifty percent chance of entering one by themselves and then a thirty percent chance of surviving it.''

David listened closely, but even then it all seemed a bit strange. How did this man know so much about those things? ''What do I gain by entering and surviving it?

"You gain the grace of the world, in other words, any action from you will lead to a causality. Those can either be blessings or punishments. For example, by surviving the First Instance, the world blessed you by fully restoring your body.''

The way the doctor taught him reminded him of his own younger days at school, even though back then he wasn't listening as much as he did now.

"And what about punishments?" David asked, but the doctor raised his finger as if trying to shut a student down, only realizing after a second the person in front of him was even older than he himself.

"Sorry, old habit.'' Then the doctor slowly lowered his finger in embarrassment.

"Well, punishment differs from us and creatures, we humans are born without magic storage inside of us, so to use any magic, we must ask the world for its allowance. This can be done with either a cast or a specific movement." The doctor raised his finger once again, this time not to lecture him instead a small light appeared just on his finger.

"If the world answers us, we can do this." The light disappeared as a pained expression appeared instead on the doctor's face. David instantly understood what the punishment for the small light was.

"Monsters, in exchange, have a natural-born ability, but that's their limit on top, they've got a fixed magical storage so they can't use it forever." The doctor's pain seemed to lessen over time as he seemed to regain his strength.

"And as the last important thing to know, the village is the only truly safe place around here, even though the witches' barrier seemed to have lessened since we arrived 3 weeks ago." Cloves once again seemed to fall into thoughts, but there was one thing that ran a shiver down David's spine.

"You just said you guys arrived 3 weeks ago, but we got told just before I left the town you guys should arrive on Friday, and now its only Monday."

David took a cautious step back.

Cloves' expression froze.