Chương 2

Ellen sat up abruptly, blinking away confusion. Had she been asleep? She didn't feel tired. She immediately recognized the inside of her tiny, single-pole linen tent. It had been inexpensive and lightweight, which was great for her smallish frame, but it wouldn't stand up to a heavy rain. It was also thin enough that the afternoon sun would make the inside dim, but not dark. The second thing she noticed was that she was very cold, and quite naked.

Her hand fumbled below, yanking up the blanket she'd awakened beneath. It brushed against the thin, cheap bedroll, warm skin, and then the edge of the cloth that she yanked up to cover herself against the biting chill. Wait… Warm skin? The other girl in the tent sat up just as quickly as Ellen had, bolting upright in the cramped confines of the tiny space… and promptly cracked her forehead against Ellen's just as the redhead turned to look.

"OW!" Two voices exclaimed at once, as stars swam in Ellen's vision and she dropped right back onto the bedroll. Forehead throbbing, Ellen started upward again—then stopped, so she wouldn't accidentally bump heads once more. She could see the other girl moving, the shape sitting up and rubbing her head. Vision resolved as the dizzying impact's spots faded, revealing… Herself? Two redheads blinked at one another, tucked close in around the central pole, blue eyes meeting blue eyes.

Even with her head throbbing, Ellen's pain was thrust out of her mind by the confusion of what she was seeing. The other Ellen tugged the blanket up over her chest—almost yanking it from Ellen's own grasp—and spoke first.

"Who… who are you and why are you in my tent?!" That question was already on Ellen's lips when the copy said it. She stifled her original question with a frown. This girl looked so much like her! Not exact, though. She was sure her mouth wasn't quite that wide. But the welt of red on the other girl's forehead was probably forming on her own, as well.

"This is my tent!" Ellen huffed and looked around, but didn't see any sign of her clothing. She didn't sleep in the nude, especially not when camping out in the wilderness. Where were they? The second girl shook her head, then winced and brought her free hand to her forehead.

"No, I bought the tent, you can't just climb in and make it yours." Ellen wondered why the other girl didn't consider she might be a changeling of some kind, but then she realized that she hadn't even considered the possibility until now. Too much confusion and surprise had delayed her thinking about the possibilities. Also, the other girl wasn't trying to hurt her, and seemed just as confused as she was. What really worried her was that her last memory was of approaching the cave mouth she'd found.

Had she hit her head or something? Aside from the swelling knot on the forehead she'd just picked up. It was warmer than when she'd started the hike upward, so she guessed it was early afternoon, which was around the time she'd found the cave entrance. She doubted she'd had enough time to hike back, unless it was a full day later and she'd lost a lot of time. She pulled up her status to see if she'd gotten any experience or made any weird decisions she now couldn't remember.

ATTRIBUTES Strength: 8 Agility: 8 Endurance: 8 Willpower: 8 Affinity: 8 Perception: 8 SKILL ENHANCERS STAMINA: 79/80 (+8/minute) MANA: 80/80 CLASS: CLASSLESS 0 EXPERIENCE: 0/100 (4000 Banked) PERKS ABILITIES Ellen stared quietly for a few seconds, then sputtered a loud, "What?!" The other girl gave her a weird look, and Ellen waved her status away.

"Just something weird on my Status. Who are you?" The redhead pointed to herself.

"I'm Ellen, who are you?" She paused and frowned heavily before Ellen could answer.

"My Status is weird, too. It's like I decided to change Class but…" Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"But it's set you to Level 0 instead of 5? Me too!" Ellen huffed and tried to scoot closer to the tent flap without losing the blanket.

"And I'm Ellen… what's the last thing you remember?" The other redhead shrugged lightly.

"Approaching the cave where I'd followed the goblin's footprints. It was about noon, so I'd guess… maybe an hour or two ago?" She squinted at Ellen.

"What's your mother's name?"

"Beatrice," the reply came automatically.

"And your father's name?"

"Rance." The other girl's answer came just as easily. Her frown deepened now.

"So which one of us is the real Ellen?" Ellen took a deep breath.

"I don't know, but I think I am. And either you're a very good liar or you think you are, too. The real question is… where's my stuff? Our stuff? Still in the cave?"

"Maybe," the other Ellen replied.

"I don't think I want to hike all the way up there naked to find out. Do you think our spare clothes are still in the pack?"

"That's what I'm about to find out." Ellen nodded to her other self and finally dared to drop the blanket. Despite the cool air jolting her when she opened the flap, she managed to yank the large travel pack inward enough to open the top flap and dig around inside. She had two spare shirts in the pack, and they were still there. A spare set of pants and one shirt were yanked out for herself, and she tossed the other Ellen the other shirt and the skirt she kept for lounging around in.

Some underpants were dug out for both, as well. This still left a serious problem, though.

"Boots," the other Ellen grumbled.

"If our clothes are up at the cave, so are the boots. That's going to make moving around really hard." Ellen nodded.

"And our cloak." It was still unsettling for her to say 'our' instead of 'my' when she talked, but right now she was more worried about what to do than the weird situation with this copy of her. She also just had a weird feeling that they were both confused, but she couldn't put a finger on where the feeling came from. It just felt strangely natural to think in terms of 'two of her' for some reason. The cloak was ultimately an expensive but not critical loss.

It would be unpleasant walking about without it this time of year—autumn was closing in, and the region was cooler than her home to the south. Yet she could survive and improvise, she was certain of that. It was the boots that were critical. Without footwear, hiking would be miserable at best, and possibly crippling at worst. This area was heavily forested, even near the village that made their living logging some of the sturdy trees and floating them down the river.

Only a small part of the region was clear, and even the footpaths often had treacherous roots or debris that would be dangerous for a bare foot to stumble upon. As the two girls got dressed and laced up their tops, Ellen contemplated the other huge problem. She'd been reduced to Level 0 again, which she'd never seen before. Usually, a Class change before Level 11 would drop the person to Level 5, and give banked Experience equivalent to the minimum needed to make it to one below the previous Level.

That way it wouldn't take nearly as long to get up to a point close to where the old Class was. Instead, she was now Level 0, with enough banked Experience to take her all the way back up to Level 6 and choose a Class. Nothing about that made any sense. Even with the banked experience it would take longer than she'd like to get all the way up to her previous Level. Had she gained a Level, tried a Class change, and then lost her memory? But how did that explain her lack of equipment? Or going to 0 instead of 5?

And more importantly… Where did the other girl come from? The other Ellen looked up as she finished adjusting her skirt. Her legs would be cold, but again… survivable. She sighed… a familiar-sounding sigh, just like Ellen would sigh.

"I guess we need to figure out what we do now. Are we going to try to get our stuff back? And then um… who keeps it?" Ellen shrugged and rubbed her sides, warming herself up again.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Climbing up there with no weapons and no boots… and no cloak either! I didn't bring enough food to feed two of us for long, either. At least we have our money here instead of up at the cave." The other girl nodded soberly.

"Return to the village then? It's not that late in the afternoon… I think we could make it back before dark."

"Maybe." Ellen frowned.

"Except we're going barefoot. That'd be hard. We could probably still make it there before it gets too late at night, but trying to rush it could twist an ankle or something."

"Mmhmm," the second Ellen agreed.

"That's a good point. We still have a little cord in the pack, right? Why don't you break camp and pack things up. I can carry the tent and bedroll and you carry the pack. While you're doing that, I'll use the cord and try making us some sandals." That was exactly what Ellen was thinking about. Making sandals. It was a good idea, even if it wasn't going to be pleasant without proper boots. At least their feet wouldn't get torn up by a random rock or something.

"Yeah… you get to working on that, I'll figure out the camp stuff." Ellen made a face as she crawled out of the tent, feeling the bristly and fibrous grass under her bare toes. This was forest undergrowth, not the carefully-tended lawns of her hometown. It was decidedly uncomfortable. She got to loosening the tent's lines as soon as the other Ellen crawled out and brushed off her skirt. She'd gotten used to breaking down the tent and packing everything up, and had a routine of it.

Loosen the ties, pull out the blanket, fold the blanket, roll up the bedroll, retrieve the tent pole… FIRST TIME AWARD: Break down camp. For performing this activity for the first time, you have gained 5 Experience. An additional bonus of 10 Experience has been applied from banked Experience. Ellen paused as she read the notification. She'd done this at least a dozen times by now, and had long forgotten that it gave a small award the first time.

The System was acting like she'd never done this, despite her quick and practiced movements in packing everything up. She had memories of doing this, and her body moved with familiarity. Banked experience also normally paid out one for one… this one had given her twice as much bonus experience. She looked up to see the other Ellen trying to flatten some thick bark out, holding the spare knife in one hand.

She almost asked if there had been a similar notification, but the other Ellen wouldn't have gotten anything yet. Even if she did get something, it would be for making sandals… which Ellen hadn't actually tried to do before, so that really was a first time. If the System was telling her she was doing it the first time… did that mean she was actually the copy? Was the other Ellen the real Ellen? Was… she supposed to kill the real Ellen? She didn't want to kill her other self! She liked herself!

A few seconds more of thinking about all this made Ellen's head hurt, so she rolled up the bedroll and blanket inside the tent and tied it off. She could figure it out later, once the two of them were underway. They couldn't tarry too long here, it would already be a stretch for them to get back to the village before dusk, and they'd probably not arrive until an hour or two after nightfall as it was.

"Oh, that's strange," the other Ellen said aloud. She'd managed to loop a crude hoop through the bark, and placed one of the rags used for cleaning up on one side as a sole. She looked up with a puzzled nibble of her bottom lip.

"It gave me a lot more banked experience than usual."

"Yeah, same thing happened to me." Ellen pat the two bags—one travel pack, the other a crude sack made from the tent—and went over to scrape some dirt over the fire pit. It was long dead, but covering the ashes was just good manners. If the other Ellen was also getting extra experience… Were neither of them the real Ellen?