I turned over the claypot but only a few errant flakes and a bit of flour dust fell out. I sighed. This was the fifth storage room I had found empty. I’d have reported to the master, but the golden wyrm had started closing his chambers to go to sleep. Puck was with him in there. It was probably too much to hope that the annoying Oni would end up as a mid-century snack. A pity.
My stomach grumbled. I don’t cope well with food shortage. Xi Li’ Uliie said it was due to our fast metabolism and the Void that was also always hungry.

There was nothing for it, someone had emptied the reserve storage – thoroughly and as it seemed some time ago.
I went to my quarters, avoiding the others. To pass the time we trained – everyday. Running, fighting, hiding, hunting.

I had two options: I could try and get into the inner sanctum of the Kaern, where the glowing core of the earth spread warmth and light and where there was magic to make you sleep away the millennia until it returned (an option that majority of his servants had chosen), or I could break the outer seal and get out in the world again. According to Xi, the Magic should have gone mostly away by now and with it all the protections our master had laid upon this place. Not that I feared that. I couldn’t. Another gift from our master. Instead we had been trained to use prudence from our earliest age. Think before you act.
But I had had a very long time to think and I decided that I wanted to experience life. The draining of magic from this world was no big deal for me. On the contrary, now there were no cheap tricks to hide behind. Strength of will, cunning and might was now all that counted.

So I made my way down one of the seldom used paths, opened one of the secret doors and crawled with the sack of my meager belongings through the narrow tunnel. Diving through an icy cold well was not what I wanted to do on an empty stomach, but there was no other, more convenient way available. Shivering I made my way through a natural cave. Bones of various animals told me that I was close to the real world once again.

A single shaft of golden light guided my way through the darkness. Just a small fissure between the roots of a mighty oak, but with determination, sweat and quite a lot of swearing I managed to widen it enough to pull myself through.

Unsurprisingly, I stood within a dense forest. Fresh air and sunshine caressed me for the first time in hundreds of years.
I took off my wet clothes, wrung them out and hung them up to dry, enjoying the feeling on my bare skin.
Birds sung above me and I was content… as soon as I had strung my bow and shot down some of the birds, plugged them and roasted them over a small fire.

Once I was dry and sated, I donned my armor, sword and knifes, unstrung my bow and made my way towards where the old maps indicated a large settlement should have been.

Experiencing rain again felt nice for the first five minutes and became bloody annoying instantly after that.
I decided to head south on general principles. Hopefully the rain would get warmer in time…