Miranda was the first to her feet, although Ethan was pretty quick to follow.
"Get the hell out of here!" Miranda shouted.
"Now Miranda, that is no way to speak to an old friend," the man grumbled.
"You are no friend. You are a traitor and a murderer," she said, her voice softening.
"Who are you?" Ethan said as he brushed the dirt and leaves off of his suit jacket. One might have thought he would have been more fearful in these moments, but instead he felt a bit more apathetic. If the guy wanted me dead then I would be dead, he thought.
"My name is Rider," the man said with an annoyingly boastful tone. Ethan smirked.
"Wait, your name is Rider and you ride a horse?" He said, realizing he probably should have kept that as an inner thought.
"My name is irrelevant---" Rider started.
"I'd say it is awfully relevant," Miranda offered. Ethan looked over at her to realize she was now smirking as well. The joy of the deepest sarcasm is that it can curb a lot of other in-the-moment feelings.
"You are untrained, and entirely out of your depth. Your end will be met on this plane," Rider said sternly, clearly unphased by the witty remarks of those younger than him.
"Sir, not to cause any problems here, but I have either been overqualified or underutilized at nearly every turn of my adult life. To be honest, somehow surviving this long seems to be a miracle. I am not saying I even know what the task is here, I am just putting it out there that sometimes mediocrity gets the job done," Ethan said plainly. It was indeed true that he had never felt any rush of genuine fulfillment at any job he had held. He had debated quitting many of them to become a full time "content creator" but only realized that clicks don't always equal cash. It was also true that, up to this very moment, he had always managed to survive.
"Leave, scum," Miranda said, her fists now clenched tightly by her sides. The man finally began to move back toward the opposite end of the path, no longer staring down at them.
"War is coming, and I look forward to ending this," he said, "Oh, and Miranda, please give my regards to your neighbors," he added. In a flash, he disappeared back into the treeline.
"Asshole," Miranda muttered.
"Who was that?" Ethan asked.
"He used to be a farmer, like a lot of others. Now, he works for the Illgain. He betrayed all of us for a spot in the bad guys army," she answered, now furiously bumbling down the path.
"What was he talking about, a war is coming?" He asked, already feeling that he knew the answer.
"Because it is, and everyone is getting ready for it. Now that you're here we know it is soon," Miranda said.
"What do I have to do with this?" He pleaded.
"You have the ring. You are the Traverser. You are our general," she answered.
"Shit," Ethan said in a breath as he looked down at the ring infused to his finger.
"Yes… shit," Miranda responded.