Forlorn Dimension (Ellen's Friends Book 1) Read online

  Forlorn Dimension

  Ellen's Friends, Volume 1

  M. T. Satterlee

  Published by EF Universe Games LLC, 2018.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Series Overview

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Future Releases

  Series Overview

  Ellen's Friends is a multipart story that spans both books and video games.

  Part 1 – Forlorn Dimension (eBook, Amazon)

  Part 2 – Ellen's Castle (eBook, Amazon)

  Part 3 – Scouring Majula (eBook, Amazon)

  Part 4 – Former Fortress Brigade (eBook, Amazon)

  Part 5 – Challenging the Dream (eBook, Amazon)

  Part 6 – Majula Frontier (PC game, Steam)

  For more information, visit the home page:

  https://www.EFUniverseGames.com/

  If you'd like information about new and upcoming releases, consider signing up for the mailing list:

  Mailing List

  Book cover created by Dan Von Oss

  https://www.covermint.design/

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  FORLORN DIMENSION

  First edition. June 6, 2018.

  Copyright © 2018 EF Universe Games LLC.

  Written by M. T. Satterlee

  Chapter 1

  Ellen stared up at the afternoon sky. It was black again, just like it had been yesterday and the day before. It would probably be black again tomorrow, and for the rest of its life. Why exactly her guardian had picked such an alien place for his hunt was beyond her, but she was only sixteen and her guardian and his friends were all in their fifties, so her worries carried very little weight.

  Or maybe she was seventeen. It was hard to keep track of exactly how much many days had gone by when she was constantly on the move, running from one barren stretch of wilderness to the other, or fighting for her life against a monster so large it could break her in two with one swing of one of its dozens of fists.

  Even more odd than the sky's unending blackness was that it cast a faint light upon the whole dimension, which consisted of several large, rolling plains of grass separated by tall foothills. She didn't mind the strange light. The grassy plains outside her guardian's cave hideout were bright enough that no monster could creep up on her, and they loved to creep, especially through the dark parts of the world that people who weren't her guardian usually avoided. They also loved to split people's heads open with axes and swords and other crude, twisted weapons she didn't have the words to describe.

  After spending several dull hours monitoring the grassy plains for danger, Ellen yawned and returned to the cave hideout. One of her guardian's friends would be awake soon and he'd take over guard duty for her.

  She wished one of them was awake now, but after returning from their hunt earlier they'd gone straight to sleep. She couldn't blame them. They'd spent the entire day fighting, what exactly she didn't know because her guardian had insisted she stay back in the cave while they were out, but they'd shared stories with her after they returned. Horrible stories. There were teeth and claws and pincers all over, more eyeballs than they could count, at least three mouths, legs as thick as trees and a bludgeon so large and twisted that one word about its existence had caused them all to turn a shade more pale. Whatever they had fought sounded awful even for a monster.

  Ellen fed the campfire a small log then crawled inside her sleeping bag. Hers was the closest to the fire; her guardian and his eight friends had theirs a bit further away, laid out in a loose circle. They slept fully clothed and so did she. She wore a red, long-sleeved tunic, black trousers and simple red shoes. Monsters had a tendency to appear at the most inopportune times and she needed to be ready for a fight at all hours of the day. That was also the reason she slept with her knife under her pillow, and the reason her guardian often nagged her about cutting her hair, which was bright blonde and reached just passed her shoulders. It might get caught on something during battle or block her vision, he always told her, but she liked it exactly how it was. She also liked her bangs, which were long and blunt.

  She closed her eyes and was just about to fall asleep when the footsteps started.

  They were nothing more than soft thumps in the distance, but each one made her heart skip a beat. Nothing good walked around during the day. Even worse things came out at night. The most awful things imaginable appeared in decaying dimensions like the one she occupied now, or so her guardian had told her when they first came here.

  It was a monster, she had no doubt. Its feet had to be terrifyingly massive if she could hear them stomping around from so far away, and there had to be at least a dozen of them, if not more, given how quick each step came.

  The thumping moved closer, and Ellen's heart sped up. Her guardian had never taught her how to handle something like this. She wanted to extinguish the campfire, but the only water she had access to was their drinking water and it was all stored away in flasks inside backpacks. She wanted to her warn her guardian and his friends, but she feared the commotion might bring the monster down upon them even faster. For a moment she considered running away and hiding, but her guardian and his friends were the closest thing she had to a family and she couldn't stand the thought of leaving them.

  She watched the cave entrance intently, hoping that the grassy plains outside stayed as calm as they were right now. Maybe the monster would not find them. Maybe it was so massive it would walk right passed their cave without noticing them.

  Or maybe it would find them and butcher them while they were asleep.

  She had to warn her guardian. He'd likely scold her for waking him up after the busy day he'd had, but he might not wake up ever again if she did not do something before they were found.

  She left her sleeping bag and crawled over to her guardian, a man in his fifties with a wrinkled, weathered face and a wispy gray mustache. His real name was Sebastian.

  "Wake up," Ellen whispered, but that wasn't enough, so she grabbed his shoulder and started shaking him.

  Sebastian opened his eyes and glanced up at her. "I know it's boring, but just keep an eye on things for a little while longer," he said. "One of the others will be awake soon."

  That wasn't why she'd woken him; not tonight, anyway. "There's something outside," Ellen said. "I can hear it walking around. It's getting closer."

  Sebastian's eyes shot open. He kicked his sleeping bag away and sat upright. "Wake up!" he said. "There's something-"

  A flicker of light outside the cave caught Ellen's attention. She couldn't see the source, but already she knew it wasn't friendly. Very few things in the world were.

  She ducked. A long, narrow appendage shot into the cave, passing so close to her body it chilled the skin on her neck, then crashed into the back of the cave several yards back. The impact rattled the whole cave and shook a cloud of dust free from the ceiling.

  The monstrous leg, which was covered with sleek blac
k scales and looked like something that might belong to an arachnid, pulled back, and Ellen scurried towards her sleeping bag. They were under attack and she needed her knife. It was less than a toothpick compared to the appendage thrust at her just a moment ago, but she had to do something and she had to do it fast. Her guardian's friends were already on their feet, their weapons in hand, assembling around her guardian.

  "This is one of the monsters I've been warning everyone about," her guardian said grimly. "It's a giant, and it has a pinned here."

  Ellen collapsed to her knees beside her sleeping bag. She reached beneath her pillow for her knife, but a sight outside made her freeze.

  A pale white face as tall as the cave entrance was peering in at her, watching her with two sunken black eyes. It had enough legs and other awful, twisted appendages protruding from its body that it blocked out the sky. Worse yet was the toothy, smug smile on its face. Not only did it seem to understand perfectly the fear its presence inspired, it looked to be enjoying itself as well.

  She forced her gaze down to her pillow. That monster wouldn't be smiling after she stuck her knife into it.

  More giant footsteps rattled the cave walls and ceiling, knocking dirt and dust and rocks free all over. Already her sleeping bag was half buried. She'd be next if she didn't hurry.

  Ellen pulled her knife out from under her pillow. It was as long as her forearm, but Sebastian, who'd given it to her, still called it a knife, and so did she. The blade was red, and the cross-guard dark gray with sharp ends that bent upwards.

  Her guardian's friends were already charging out to meet the monster. She tried to follow, but only made it two steps before her guardian grabbed her from behind. "What are you doing?" she cried. "I want to help!"

  She cried again when a giant leg crashed down through the cave ceiling. It smashed the campfire into splinters and tore open a hole in the ground.

  The leg looked much larger now. The slimmest section was wider than her body. The hole it had created was large enough to fit her whole body. Was it digging a grave for her? She shuddered.

  The first leg pulled back, then two more crashed down through the cave ceiling. Both were large enough to crush her and her guardian with ease, and there were dozens more right behind them. The cave wouldn't last a second if the monster turned its full attention on them.

  "We can't leave something this dangerous running free," Sebastian said. "It's our duty to protect the world, what's left of it, from creatures like these. But you're too small for a battle this severe. You need to get out of here."

  He outstretched his arm to one side and closed his eyes. Sparks and flickers of violet energy swelled around his palm as he concentrated, then a spherical rift with a red shimmering rim and a dark center appeared beside him.

  Rifts were how they travelled between the isolated regions of land, the different dimensions, that existed throughout the world. Ellen's whole body trembled as she stared into the rift her guardian had opened. Was he really planning to send her off by herself? "What am I supposed to do without you?"

  The two monstrous legs pulled back, and three more took their place. They ripped through the ceiling, crashed into the ground and launched a cloud of dirt into the air. Ellen held her breath to avoid breathing it in.

  How her guardian still looked so calm despite the danger bearing down on them she couldn't imagine.

  After the dirt settled, Sebastian said, "Don't worry about us. We're used to this sort of thing, but you're not. You're going somewhere safe."

  Ellen accepted the bag of supplies he forced into her hands, but then he tried to shove her into the rift and she resisted. "Where am I supposed to go?" she whimpered. Even with her guardian and his friends nearby she didn't like the wilderness. Being alone in the wilderness was something not even her worst nightmares could compare to.

  "We've taught you more than enough to survive on your own," Sebastian said. He smiled. "And besides, monsters don't care about runts like you. Just keep quiet and stay low and you'll never have to worry about them."

  Ellen held onto him tight. Her tears flowed down her face and dripped off her chin. Her guardian and his friends were the closest thing she had to a family. If she didn't have them then she didn't have anything.

  "Look for the Monad Fortress. It's in the Forlorn Dimension. It's the safest place in the whole world. We were heading there already, but you're going to get a head start."

  "How do I find it?" Ellen asked, her voice nothing more than a frightened whimper.

  "Every time you open a rift," Sebastian said, "picture this in your head: a big fortress surrounded by a massive stone wall, rolling fields of grass, tall towers shooting out of the ground, and people. Lots and lots of people. And once you find those people, stay with them. If you're lucky, this rift will send you right to them."

  Ellen opened her mouth to argue, but before she could speak a word, her guardian shoved her into the rift.

  "Don't worry about us. We'll try to catch up to you once we're done here."

  Ellen hated that word try, and she especially hated luck, but the rift held her so tight she couldn't move or speak or shed any of the tears she was holding inside her.

  Darkness set in around her. Her guardian vanished along with the rest of the cave.

  Chapter 2

  The rift spat Ellen out into a rolling field of grass. In the brief moment before she hit the ground, she spotted something off in the distance: a big fortress surrounded by a massive stone wall and several tall towers shooting out of the ground.

  That was the Monad Fortress. It had to be. It fit perfectly with the description her guardian had given her.

  Even after she crashed face first into the hard dirt ground, she still felt relieved. After two weeks of wandering alone through unfamiliar dimensions, her search was finally over.

  And just in time. The bag of supplies her guardian had given her before they were separated had ran out a day ago, and the wilderness hadn't been kind to her. It never was.

  The sky was bright and blue. After passing through so many decaying dimensions with perpetually blackened skies, a simple glimpse of a clear blue sky was enough to calm her rattled nerves.

  The sound of footsteps and quiet chatter approached her from behind and surrounded her. A pair of boots stopped in front of her head. She could see up to their laces, but her neck ached too much to look any higher.

  She hoped their owners were friendly. There was little she could do if they weren't.

  "Do you think she's alive?" a young male voice asked.

  "She has to be," another said. "Who would throw a body into a rift?"

  "What do we do if she's not?"

  Ellen wanted to speak to them. She wanted to tell them that she was in fact alive and that she was willing to join their party despite knowing nothing about them. They were the first voices she'd heard in weeks. She'd follow them off the edge of the dimension so long as she didn't have to be alone anymore.

  The only sound she could make was a quiet groan, but it was enough to alert the group. Two boys grabbed her and helped her onto her feet.

  Her legs were still weak. She immediately fell backwards onto a third boy, who wrapped his arms around her torso and held her upright.

  His arms trembled while he held her. Was it her presence that startled him? She had appeared suddenly and half dead. Or maybe there were monsters nearby. That was usually the case.

  Once her strength returned, Ellen nudged the boy's arms away and stood on her own. "Thanks," she told him.

  He was young, no more than twelve or thirteen years old, and so were the other three boys surrounding her. She saw now why her guardian always called her a runt: despite being a few years older than the boys, they were taller than her by several inches.

  Ellen brushed the dirt from her tunic and trousers, then checked to make sure her knife was still in its sheath. There weren't many things in the world she believed in or trusted. Her guardian was the first, and her knife the second.r />
  She felt the handle then relaxed. Her knife rested against her back, its sheath attached to a belt wrapped around her waist.

  The four boys all had weapons, either large knives or short swords. She wasn't surprised. Even the so called safest dimension in the world likely had monsters to deal with. But unlike their weapons, her knife was still perfectly clean and spotless despite how many monsters she'd stuck it into throughout her life.

  "Um," Ellen said cautiously. While she was thankful for the company, she was still a stranger in their dimension, and the only girl in the group. And she couldn't remember the last time she'd seen, much less spoken to, someone close to her own age.

  "We're not even halfway finished," one of the boys said.

  "Let's keep going," said another.

  All four darted off into the grassy plains.

  Ellen reached out to them with one hand and called out "Wait!" She had dozens of questions yet the group was leaving without so much as an introduction.

  One of the boys glanced back at her as he ran. "We're Fortress Brigade members," he called out. "It's not our job to help newcomers."

  Ellen lowered her hand back to her side. She'd hoped for a friendlier welcoming, but if the group had some place they needed to be then it wouldn't be fair for her to stop them. The other groups she was bound to meet would be much more welcoming, or so she hoped.

  She looked around the grassy plains, which stretched out for miles in every direction. There wasn't a trace of danger anywhere. How such a peaceful place could exist while every other dimension was being ravaged by monsters was beyond her.

  Ellen headed towards the fortress, the crinkle of grass flattening beneath her feet the only sound in the air. Even from a few miles away she could see over a dozen human shapes moving around on top of the fortress's tall gray walls and its square towers. The sight of so many people living out in the open without fear made her ecstatic. She never would've imagined such a place could exist if she wasn't staring at it right now. While she hated having to leave her guardian and her friends behind, there was never a point in their journeys where they weren't living in fear of something crawling out of the dark and putting an axe or a spear or some other monstrous appendage through their heads. It was a lifestyle she didn't mind leaving behind.