I make it halfway to the door before his voice, hoarse but steady, stops me.
“I, uh… I got attacked.”
I turn back, raising a brow. “That’s… not shocking. This world is basically a wildlife documentary where everything wants to eat you, electrocute you, or melt your face off.”
He lets out a laugh—dry, short, but it’s something. “Yeah, well. This thing nearly had me.” His gaze flickers, like he’s reliving it. “Freaky-looking bastard. Skin all grey and blotchy, arms too long, big creepy mouth but no lips.”
I stare at him. “Oh, mate. You ran into a Dlanwik?”
“A what?”
“Dlanwik. Fast, sneaky, and venomous as all hell. If one of those things bit you, you wouldn’t be having this conversation. You’d be….” I mime keeling over dead.
His face loses a bit of colour. “Oh.”
“So how the fuck did you kill it?” I ask, because now I’m really curious.
Dawson shifts awkwardly and clears his throat. “Uh. Pure luck.”
I cross my arms. “Do tell.”
He lets out a slow breath. “I was kinda backing up. Trying to keep distance, ’cause the thing was fast and all wiry, like a pissed-off spider with arms. And then I tripped on a tree root.”
I wince. “Shit.”
“Yeah. Fell flat on my arse. And the thing pounced at me. So, in pure panic, I grabbed the first thing I could find and just swung as hard as I could.” He pauses. “Turns out, I grabbed arock. A very large, very jagged rock. And I swung it straight up as it lunged, caught the bastard right in its creepy mouth.”
My eyes widen. “You bashed its face in?”
“Pretty much. Brain trauma, I guess? Thing made this awful gargling sound, flopped around a bit, then stopped moving.” He makes a vague motion with his hand. “I just sat there, hyperventilating, trying to figure out what the fuck I’d just done.”
I blink, then burst out laughing. “You one-hit KO’d a Dlanwik with a rock?”
He mutters, “Not my proudest moment.”
“Mate, that’s amazing. That’s like some ‘caveman defeats alien invader’ type shit. You should be proud.”
Dawson just shakes his head, mumbling something about how this world makes no sense.
“And how’d you end up unconscious?”
“Must have knocked my head when I fell. I know I walked away from where I killed that thing. Not sure how far I made it before everything went black.”
I wince. “Well, you’re here now. Sit tight. I’ll get that water and food. And hey—no more wrestling monsters, yeah?”
He lets out another dry chuckle, but when I turn to leave, his body goes tense again.
“You’re leaving?”
I pause, glancing back. His hands are gripping the blanket, knuckles slightly white.
“I’ll be right back,” I say. “No one’s coming in, I promise.”
His jaw works, like he’s trying to tamp down his reaction, but I can see it. The sheer fucking exhaustion, the fear lingering under his skin.
“There aren’t… other things here, right?” he asks.
I sigh, leaning against the doorframe. “Okay, here’s the thing. Yeah, there are other beings here. But we don’t call them ‘things’or ‘monsters.’ Most of them are what we call Riftborn, while the dominant species here are Glowranth. Each species here is intelligent, living their own lives, just like us. Yeah, some have fangs or claws or magic, but that doesn’t mean they’re out to get you.”
