Dance with the Devil

"oh no poor Stanley don't die on me!" Wendigo rolled the dice again. "I promise only for last resort..."

She rolls an eleven. "Stanley survives the trap, but is now without an arm and the wound on his leg he got from the wolf is starting to get infected. Damage done is halved. Continue going inside the cave?"

"Umm... dismissed, I guess? There's a gameroom, if you're interested and if you need anything, just talk to any of Legion's mirror images."

"Yeah there should be a nice cozy fur to sleep in right?" Willow looked at Azzar. Recin decided to go back to the game room.

"Another trap. Maybe you should have taken the hint with the first one. Roll fifteen or higher to survive."

"What? Why are you looking at me like that? Never seen a squid person before?"

Wendigo looked mad now. "This cave is flawed!! It's not supposed to have traps!!" She rolled again. "No I've seen you before...many times.."

The dice rolled a one. The game showed her a small cutscene of her character being dismembered by a trap. Then, the screen went black and printed the words 'You have died' in an ominous red colour.

"You. Have. Died. Many things live in caves; some even put traps to keep other things from going inside. Unfortunately, you found just that – the home or hideout of someone who didn't want to be found."

Azzar carefully picked his words. "In just Lillith's memories or beyond?"

"All the caves I've been only have other Wendigos. They always let me stay when they aren't Hungry. " Willow smiled. "Beyond.... Though...it was so long ago...."

"Wanna try again or do you want to do something else?"

"I've been like this for nearly half a century and before that, I was a monk at a monastery. I planted trees, lived by a strict no-harm rule and ate and drank only what mother nature gave me willingly. A mountain river, an apple on the ground..."

"I'm going to try again!! " Willow only smiled more. "I already knew that..."

Legion smiled; he liked her determination. He named her second character, also a chaotic evil warrior sentinel, Stanley II.

"Stanley the second; fitting, wouldn't you say?"

Azzar sighed. "I really don't like being kept in the dark. Were you always around when I lived in the forest?"

"Should heh..it's a good name though I would of called him Stanley parable." "Yes we were around..."

Legion sneakily renamed him to Stanley Parable and then proceeded to narrate a completely made up backstory.

"Stanley was not special. He lived most of his days at his family's potato farm, always dreaming of adventure.

Over the years he gathered courage, bit by bit, until he finally bid his home goodbye.

At the ripe age of forty."

If Azzar still had fingers, he would have scratched his neck. "Really? We never saw any of you; me and a few others thought it was because what we were doing wasn't enough to warrant your attention..."

Rip age of forty XD))

Wendigo laughed. "I shall see what path Stanley will choose this time." "When life gets boring you tend to watch things that are a little entertaining. "

The starting area was a little different now. "You are in a large meadow. To the north is a mountain, to your left a tundra, to your right a small group of travelling traders. Behind you is also a meadow. Which way will you go?"

Azzar crossed his sleeves. "Entertaining? Us? Me and the other monks?"

"I want to go to the traders" "Well it was more entertaining than me just laying in the forest doing nothing."

"The traders, camped out on the meadow, notice you, but say nothing. What do?"

"Nothing?" Azzar asked. "I thought you were supposed to watch over nature, be a trickster and woe gullible men by transforming into a woman. Or is that the eastern kitsune?"

"I say hi to them. That's how you great People right?" "I might have not said that right. It was noting new. I mean it was fun the first couple of times to trick mobians but after a while it gets boring. I only did those things because that's what kitsune do. But you monks...I don't know...your little lives and problems where nice to watch. Always praising your god and trying to make the lives of others better...'i wish I were a monk' I used to think. "

"Yeah, but in this game, charisma governs how you talk and how well you talk is determined by a roll. Roll a good number, preferably anything a six and you're good to go. Roll a one and you insult them."

"We did right by nature, hoping nature would do right by us," Azzar continued. "It was rather pointless, now that I look back at it; we were just tiny specks, our numbers too few to have any real effect..."

Wendigo rolled. "Well at least you tried and entertained me because I would have already kicked you out of the area if you didn't...you monks deciding to settle in my land.... though maybe I should of kicked all the people off that land... maybe he wouldn't have found me..." Willow looked down on that last part.

She rolled a three and her character talked to the traders, saying 'yo, where the loot, where the loot, where the loot at?' Not as a bad as rolling a one, but still really off the weird end. One roll lower and they'd mistake Stanley for a bandit.

A single trader spoke. "Perhaps you're interested in some things we're willing to give away free of charge? You sound look like you could use them."

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"Found you? Who?"

"Yeah I'd like to have free stuff." Wendigo said smiling. "The dark magician...i was a fool...I had let him live in my place for the night...he was a better trickster then me...and before I knew it I was in a cage that had a spell that disables my magic. I cast my illusions to escape but he was able to see through them all... He wanted me to help with his magic show. If i didn't help he wouldn't feed me..."

The traders gave her a small asortment of very low tier gear, including iron armour that barely held together and a sword with a sickly green blade, mishappen and with odd engravings on the ebony handle. One of the traders then quickly hid said sword. "No, that's not right. We can't give that away."

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"Was he the one that... did this to you?" He went closer to her.

"Why not give it away? Is there something wrong with it?" "Yes...his daughter..she followed a wisp
..and got injured very badly...she wasn't going to make it...and he already lost his wife..he didn't want to loss another family..so he got desperate and did the only thing he knew that could keep her here....I actually liked her..she would always visit my cage..." Willow looked the other way. " 'daddy said that when I get older I'll be the one who has to keep you here but as soon as that happens ima free you and we can finally play tag in the backyard.' she'd say"

"That's Mebet-Xa, the sword of pestilence," a trader explained. "We wanted to get rid of it, but passing it off to a random traveller seemed irresponsible."

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"There's nothing I can say except... I'm sorry. I'm sorry for making you recall that."

"Why would it be irresponsible?" Willow didn't say anything for a minute. She looked sad. "It's...fine...I can't change the past...no one can..."