Author's note: Again, thanks to those that commented and reviewed throughout this story. Remember, your comments keep me writing.

Part 6

We had to jump over the puddle of acid that coated the floor in front of the door, but being the adventurers that we were, it didn’t take much effort. A snap of Shae’s fingers and all the torches lit along the wall leading into the room in front of us.

Once my eyesight returned to normal, we made our way carefully into the lab. Thankfully, there were no more traps.

Shelves lined the wall and tables with various potions and apparatus to make more filled the rest of the space.

“Jackpot,” I said somewhat greedily.

“Let me check for the bad stuff, Ar’ri. We don’t want to bring back anything that’s cursed or overtly evil.”

I nodded and hooked my thumbs behind my belt so that I wouldn’t let my wandering hands touch anything without my full knowledge.

“This might take a little bit,” Shae said. “I’ll point out things not to take and you shovel everything else in your bag.”

“Cool. Go right ahead.”

Withdrawing my Bag of Holding from my larger pack, I waited for my chance while Shae did her thing.

The Bag itself would hold about two hundred and fifty pounds worth of stuff, displacing the weight somewhere else other than the holder. As long as there were not really freaky things going inside, it would be relatively safe. I’d really like to get ahold of one of the bigger Bags that could hold about fifteen hundred pounds. Those come in real handy when adventuring.

Think about this: It was a real pain in the butt to haul away all of the treasure that my team came across when we killed that Black Dragon. One just doesn’t stuff thousands of pounds of gold, silver, and platinum pieces along with various weapons and magical items in our pockets. We couldn’t just leave it either. That took about two months of game time to resolve. While it was technically possible to purchase magical chests and Bags of Holding from random Wizards or shopkeepers, it’s not like they are on every street corner.

Thankfully, the DM simply did a time leap and said that we took two months to take care of the issue. That’s how things work in D&D. One of the things I found on that trip was a Manual of Quickness in Action. In D&D-speak that means, if I take the time to study it, then I magically gain ability points to my Dexterity. That’s how I jumped from a seventeen to a twenty-one, and that’s how I can pull off looking like an Olympic athlete in gymnastics. Well, compared to me, Olympic athletes look like second-raters. It’s one of the many joys of being an Epic-level character.

Shae woke me from my mild introspection. “This entire shelf is cool.”

Magic wands. “Oh yeah, come to momma.”

“Not this one. Don’t even touch that book,” she said as she pointed as a large black tome.

My face screwed up. Another Manual would be too cool. Rings were next, only a small handful, then a couple of necklaces, a staff that Shae wouldn’t even go near, and a cool dozen scrolls. Fifteen minutes had already gone by.

“We need to blow, Shae. Anything we can skip over?”

She looked around and spotted a chest. “I don’t suppose we could fit that in the Bag?”

I shook my head. “Too big. You think it’d be worth it to look?”

She shrugged. “It’s a regular lock.”

My inner thief cringed at leaving something like that behind without bothering to take a look. “Go check the hall. Make sure we’re still clear. I’ll pop it open.”

A nod later and I had my lockpicks out working at it from odd angles, just in case it was trapped, and guess what? Another poisoned needle.

“Psst!”

Shae came back. “All clear.”

“I got it open. Do your thing.”

She lifted the lid. “Oh, baby. Jackpot!” She ran her hand over the precious stones inside and then started tossing them into the Bag, along with a couple of smaller boxes. When she got to the gold underneath, I held a hand up.

“Leave it. We don’t have time.”

Shae looked at me. “But…” She paused and remembered that sometimes greed kills. “Damn! Do you know how much gold is going for on the open market? We’d be set for life.”

“I know. It sucks, but sooner or later, someone’s going to discover that guard.”

She glanced at the door. “Look, I’ll make it and myself invisible and float the chest along behind me. Just cover our front.”

With a groan, I nodded. “Okay, but if it comes down to it or us, then drop the damn thing and run. Promise me.”

“Cool, I promise.” She bounced and lunged in, kissing me on the lips before turning around.

I blinked and forgot what I was thinking about for a second there. With a shake, I cleared my head, and got back in the game. “Make it upstairs and then throw something to the foot of the stairs to let me know you’re clear. When I throw the Fireball, this place is going to light up and I don’t want to have to run you over getting out. Oh here, take this.” Pulling out the Ring of Invisibility, I handed it to her. “No sense in using more power than you have to.”

I waited, giving her enough time to levitate herself and the chest up the stairs while I stored the Bag of Holding and pulled out the scroll. Something clattered on the floor at the base of the stairs and I proceeded to read the words that would destroy everything else in the lab. When I reached the end, the scroll lit itself on fire and shot off down the hall into the room while I slammed the door behind me and ran as fast as I could for the stairs. Since I already knew what was at the top, I entered the shadows and appeared again at in the room where the dead guard lie.

BOOM!

The walls shook and I turned to see flames in the basement area below. “Ring, now! Let’s go, and stay right on my tail.”

Shae and the chest disappeared. We were out of the room and racing down the hall. Alarms were screaming throughout the building. By the time we made it to the back door, I could see the guard had already been discovered, and four others were entering the hall in front of us.

My daggers were in my hands as I hit a shadow caused by the sunlight streaming through the open door. When I popped out, I sunk one blade into the kidney of one of them and through the throat of another. The last two were surprised to say the least. Spinning around, I took out the third with both daggers into his chest. The last one raced backward, pulling his own weapons out.

“Shae, go!”

I heard her footsteps run past me as I faced the last guy.

He held up two medium sized blades and lunged for me. My hands danced in the air, blocking two swipes. Great, damn Evil Monk. Martial arts bullshit.

I couldn’t get a decent slash inside his guard and all we were doing was blocking each other’s attack. There wasn’t enough room to maneuver properly, and that was good for me as well. He had the longer blades and in that space we were evenly matched. Eventually I would lose if I didn’t cheat.

So I stepped into his guard and felt his right blade sink into my side. I screamed out in pain, but I didn’t lose my focus and blocked the other while I slammed my free blade into his chest.

“Die fucker!”

He collapsed and I nearly went with him. Instead, I braced myself and looked down. The Monk’s blade was buried in my stomach to the hilt and from the way it felt, it was probably sticking out my back.

“Oh crap,” I groaned.

With as much speed as I could muster, I stumbled to the dumpster and looked down the manhole. “Shae?”

“Down here,” she said as loud as she dared.

“Oh god, Ar’ri!” Shae said as she caught me after I stumbled down the last few rungs of the ladder. “Tell me you have your Ring on.”

I nodded. With a relieved look on her face, she made to grab the blade and pull it out, but I stopped her. “Not ‘till we’re out of here. It’ll make it worse. Come on.”

By the time we’d made it back to our transportation, I thought I was going to die. I was overdramatizing it, but still. You try running with a foot and a half worth of steel sticking in your gut and tell me how you fare.

She loaded the chest in the back and then saw to me. “You can’t sit like that. We have to take it out here.”

I nodded and braced myself on the SUV. “Do it.”

Shae put one hand on my shoulder and grasped the hilt with the other. “On three. One…” She jerked it clean and I screamed.

Very little blood came out due to the effects of the Ring of Regeneration, but it tore something inside of me. This time, I did collapse, and passed out at the same time.

~O~

When I woke, it was in my own bed. I braced myself for pain but didn’t feel a thing. My hand moved to the spot on my abdomen where I knew the short sword penetrated and felt nothing but smooth skin. Obviously I’d been out for most of the afternoon if I’d fully healed. It was fine with me.

“How do you feel?” Shae’s voice came from the corner of the room. I looked over and she had brought in one of the dining room chairs to sit on while she waited in the corner. Her face was full of worry so I did my best to alleviate her fear.

“I’m fine. Good as new.”

Sitting up, I realized that I was nude underneath the sheets which I held up above my breasts.

“Someone came by. They’re repairing and cleaning your leathers.”

She looked resigned to some sort of awful fate or something.

“What’s wrong?”

Looking down, she stared at the floor. “It’s my fault. We shouldn’t have stayed. I shouldn’t have…”

I smiled. “Shae, shut up. Because of you we have tons-o-magic items and I can probably by that Ferrari I’ve always wanted. I can take a little pain if we come out if it ahead.”

When she looked back up, I could see her eyes were red and tears were trailing down her face. “When you screamed… and then you fell…”

“Hey,” I said softly. “Come here.”

She stood and shuffled across the floor. I patted the bed beside me. “Sit.”

Shae sat then I took her in a hug. “I’m fine. I’m not saying it didn’t hurt. It did. But, to me, it was worth it. That’s why I have the Ring, so I can do stupid stuff like this and eventually walk away just fine. You’re totally uninjured, we came out ahead and the bad guys lost a lot of their loot in the process.”

Leaning back I used my thumbs to brush away her tears and we paused, staring into each other’s eyes.

“You’re one of my best friends, Shae. I know you didn’t want for me to get hurt.”

It was then that I realized that I hadn’t turned off the Circlet because I could hear her thoughts.

“She’s just saying this to make me feel better. I don’t deserve her. Oh god, if I could just kiss her one more time…”

I closed my eyes, so I wouldn’t eavesdrop on her mind. It just seemed wrong. Instead, I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers, pecking lightly. Then I wrapped her in a warm hug, throwing as much care as I could into the embrace.

A good minute later and I eased back. Her eyes were glassy when she opened the, with a half-smile.

“There,” I said. “Does that convince you that I’m serious and I don’t hold a grudge?”

Shae’s bottom lip curled in cutely. I watched as her teeth lowered, holding it in place. Then she nodded.

With a smile, I patted her thigh, now that I realized where my hand was. “Good, now go change. I need to get into some clothes so we can sort through the booty.”

Staying in bed and watching her almost skip to the bathroom, only to look back one more time with a smile, I grinned happily.

By the time I threw my legs over the side of the bed I heard her voice, just barely above a whisper. “Yes!”

~O~

“Ar’ri Bauquinea, you are well?” Barry’s voice echoed through my head as I was slipping into a pair of shorts.

“I’m fine, thanks for asking. Oh, and by the way, I blew your preordained one person mission. Shae went with me and now we have a lot more magic stuff because of that.”

I felt a mild amount of humor being broadcast over the airwaves. “The missions are not preordained. I only foresee certain aspects and strategize the rest. You’ll have to try again, Ar’ri.”

With a roll of my eyes, I buttoned the shorts and pulled the short zipper closed. “Whatever. I’ll talk to you about it in the morning. I have gold to count at the moment. Do you know where we can trade this stuff in for cash?”

A mental sigh followed. “I have contacts, however it would be prudent to introduce only a small amount at a time or you will saturate the market and cause prices to fall.”

“No prob. Bye now.”

I mentally pictured a phone hanging up and felt the connection break. Then I promptly turned off the Circlet. No more eavesdropping on my friends.

Grabbing my daggers and cleaning supplies on the way out, I spied Shae sitting on the floor by the couch with the chest beside her and my large pack on the table by the door. I opened it and retrieved the Bag of Holding then found a comfortable spot right next to her.

“Hi,” I said with as cute of a grin as I could manage before leaning in and pecking her lips.

“Hey.” She paused and grinned back. I hadn’t seen her really really happy since the transition and was glad that I could give that to her.

Shae reached for the latch to the chest but I caught her hand at the last second. “Hold on a second. Watch out for that needle. I need to grab my kit.”

Retrieving my thieves’ tools, I pulled out a pair of pliers and snapped off the poison needle. I wrapped it up in several tissues and tossed it into the trash can. Better safe than sorry. She waited until I returned before opening the lid again.

In the bright light of the suite, as opposed to the meh torchlight of the lab, the chest looked a lot bigger, probably being three feet long and two wide. From top to bottom it was about two feet. The gold pieces were a little smaller than a regular sized quarter, but slightly bigger than a nickel.

While Shae began stacking them in piles of twenty each, I cleaned and oiled my daggers then set them aside.

It wasn’t long before I saw her making separate sections, four to be exact. I don’t think she was aware that I had broken up, or whatever it was, with Sam and kicked both her and Fred out until they grew up. Eventually she would know, but I didn’t want to spoil her fun.

~O~

She’d barely made a dent in the chest and had to move everything to the floor, because there wasn’t nearly enough room on the coffee table. Gold isn’t light. Eventually, she got bored, stood up and said, “Screw this. Back up.”

I scrambled back and grinned as she started this complicated gesture with both of her hands. Low pitched clinking sounded as almost all of the gold rose out of the chest and split apart in four pretty even piles.

Shae looked at me. “Fair enough?”

I nodded. We’d find more gold. It’s almost a given, and I wasn’t that greedy. All four piles settled to the carpet and were soon followed by the stacks she’d spent so long in separating.

Shae relaxed her hands. “There. Now all we need are chests of our own.”

A bright smile popped up on my face. “Ready for the pretty stuff now?”

I’d taken out all the jewels from the Bag and sorted them by color and type. Shae’s eyes sparkled.

“You get first choice since I know you can use the stones for more than their cash value.”

A number of precious jewels were ideal for magical use. Diamonds, rubies, and emeralds were the best for spell storing and using in rituals. A lot of them were already cut and a few were still in their uncut state.

Once she separated the really useful ones, I picked up a few for myself.

“I think I should bring the magic items to Dá»rdor and let him take a look. That was never my specialty,” she admitted.

I set my hand on the Bag. “I’ll do it. You need a break from him.”

She seemed a little nervous, but looked at me with relief in her eyes. “I’ll be right back, and then we’ll go out and celebrate, okay?”

~O~

The next morning, I awoke alone in bed. It wasn’t too much of a surprise. Shae had settled well in her room the previous night after we returned from dinner.

Once I’d gotten dressed, I made my way out to the main room and saw that Shae was seated on the couch pouring over a small sheet of laminated paper. Looking up, she spotted me.

“Morning,” she said brightly.

“Hey.”

Looking over to Fred and Sam’s room, I saw that the doors were wide open and it didn’t look like they’d come back. Regret gnawed at my insides at the way we’d left everything. I wasn’t sorry about the action I took. It was more of an annoyance that I’d let things go so far before taking more of a leadership role.

It wasn’t really something that I was used to. As a thief in D&D I spent most of my time in a secondary position, even with being a higher level character than the others. It was normally safer that way. Being one of the fighter classes tended to put you on the front lines. Thieves snuck around, staying out of the limelight.

Now that I was Champion to Barristix, I was expected to lead my team and not just be part of the background anymore.

“Barry called…” she paused and looked kind of odd. “Sort of. Does he talk to you in your head?”

I nodded. “Freaky, huh?”

“Yeah, anyway, I’m supposed come with you to your morning meeting.”

My eyebrows rose in mild surprise. “Okay. I was just about to head up there.”

When she stood, she picked up a small sealed manila envelope and handed it to me. “This was on the table when I came out. I got one too.”

I looked at my name printed on the front and then tore off the top to see another laminated sheet inside, much like Shae’s.

“It’s our character sheets.”

True enough, when I perused the contents I saw a miniaturized version of my new stats. From what I could see, it was very detailed and up to date as of the night previous. I noticed that my Experience Point total was up to date. Since I’d become my character, I’d earned a little under five thousand points. I thought that was a little excessive considering the lack of challenge in all but my last encounter.

There’s a lot that a DM must take into account when measuring awards for a PC: level of PC, level of opponent, difficultly level of fighting, and a whole lot of other things. I mean it would take me next to no effort to smack down the average human out there with no fighting skills, heck even a group of humans wouldn’t prove to be too hard. That wouldn’t earn me much. In fact I could probably earn more points by talking my way out of a fight.

However, if I faced a talented and high level well-armed opponent, well that would be a different matter.

The thing was, it was up to the DM to do the math and make judgment calls. So the question was poised. Who was my DM?”

“Weird, huh?”

I nodded. It was kind of strange to see my life summed up on a sheet of paper.

She tilted hers and pointed at her Known Spells list. Every Magic User had what amounted to a spell book wherein they would have a list of each spell they knew, the components needed to perform the act, and instruction on how to actually do it. Sorcerers were a little different but essentially the same. What I’m getting at here is they are limited to a certain number of spells a day and additionally limited by what they have learned thus far in their education.

“I have a lot more spells than I did when I was playing.”

I thought about that for a minute. “It might be because of Dá»rdor’s influence. I get the impression he’s a lot more powerful than he looks.”

There was no sense in speculating. “We’re can ask Barry about it when we see him. Did he say anything else?”

Shae, distracted, shook her head. “Nuh-uh.”

I shrugged. “Okay, you ready or…”

She nodded. “Oh, hold on a second.”

After running into her bedroom, she came back out holding the Ring of Invisibility. “We can give this to Barry and he can return it to Dá»rdor. I really don’t feel like seeing him today.”

I knew the feeling. A second later Shae was beside me and her fingers threaded with mine. The walk upstairs was fairly silent and peaceful. I nodded at a few familiar faces along the way and pointed out some offices that Shae hadn’t seen thus far.

When we reached Barry’s office, the door was open, like the previous time, except there were actually people inside, namely Sam, Fred and the Bard, Steve. To say I was surprised was an understatement. I was hopeful that my friends had decided to take our team more seriously.

Shae’s hand clinched a little tighter when she saw Sam, but otherwise her body language hadn’t changed.

“Ar’ri, Shaeria, come in, join us,” Barry said, a little more jovial than he normally was.

He flicked his hand at the door and I heard it shut behind me as Shae and I took the only two empty chairs left. When Barry saw our hands linked, I could have sworn I witnessed a slight smirk on his lips. With a sigh, I crossed my legs and gave him a dull look.

He stood and took his Dew with him. After finishing it off, the can wound up the trash and his attention on all of us. “Thanks to Ar’ri, the Stone of Ingress has been captured and with the aid of Shaeria, the opposition on Earth has been crippled magically and financially.”

Fred raised his hand like he was still in high school. “What’s the Stone of Ingress?”

Barry nodded with a flourish. “It is the means in which the magic users of Lyzax have bent the veil between our worlds. They will face much difficulty in replacing that minor artifact. Fire Diamonds on Qrynn are not that plentiful and certain not in the size needed. Eventually they will make do with something smaller that will reduce the level of forces and equipment that can be transferred. That is why we must take advantage of the lull.”

Looking at me, expectantly, Barry said, “Ar’ri, have you had a chance to look over the next mission.”

I shook my head. “I was kind of out of it yesterday when we got back.”

“Indeed,” he said, looking concerned. “Well, no matter. I suppose it’s better to tell all of you at once then. As of tomorrow morning, all of you, not to forget Kog who couldn’t attend today due to lack of attention span, will form a cohesive unit that will infiltrate the enemy stronghold to retrieve an object of great importance.”

Surprise made me lean back and take in the group. “You’ll need all of us? That’s a little overkill, don’t you think. I’ve barely met any resistance so far.”

Barry’s mouth looked like it was going to stretch into a smile, but he held it back and then licked his lips. “I think you have misunderstood me, Ar’ri. I meant the main enemy stronghold… on Qrynn.”

~O~

I had to pull Barry out of the office, so many questions were flying. “Are you nuts? We haven’t even gone on one mission together and you’re going to throw us into the fire right away?”

“Your team will perform well, Ar’ri. There will be no major injuries or fatalities on this mission.”

My eye roll told him what I thought of his pre-cognitive visions. Then it clicked. “What about Sam? She’s just a civilian.” That’s when I figured out just what he was doing. “You’re hoping she bails on her idea about waiting and building up her other character.”

He didn’t try to deny it. I’d just about lost it right there. “What? Do you have the collar in your back pocket right this moment?”

“It’s on my desk actually. She will become a Tiefling, Ar’ri. It is simply a matter of when.”

I pointed my finger at him. “It’s not for you to play God and decide if or when that happens.”

Barry nodded. “Correct. It is my job to point out the options and let others decide on the course of action. Didn’t you go against the mission parameters and bring Shaeria with you yesterday? Have I scolded you or disciplined you in any way?”

With a scowl, I dropped my hand. “Don’t push her, and you can be darn sure I’m going to point out the bad points.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

We reentered the office. Fred was pacing the floor and Sam was staring at Barry’s desk. She’d spotted the collar. Shae looked relieved I was back, even when she saw the look on my face that clearly said I wasn’t pleased about something. I gave her a comforting look and then faced Sam.

“You’re thinking about it aren’t you?”

She looked at me and then back at the collar. “I can’t go with you guys if I’m like this.”

“You’ll be a Half-Demon, Sam,” I said as blatantly as I could. “What’s your character’s background? Was she raised in a hell dimension? Are you ready for those kinds of memories to be slammed into your head?”

Sam pressed her lips together. “She was raised by her mother in the human world. She’s Neutral Good, Ar’ri.”

Moving in, I crouched in front of her and pleaded. “You’ll be like that forever, Sam. You won’t be able to change back. The best you can hope for is a decent Glamour charm to make you appear like a human. Are you ready for that?”

She closed her eyes and rubbed at her face. “You said it yourself, last night. I need to take all of this more seriously. You need me. You need all the good characters you can get, and Samantia is a hell of an Assassin.”

The Bard, Steve was sitting closest to her, eyeing me and chose that moment to speak up. “Lady Ar’ri, it is not your choice as to what someone is willing to sacrifice for the good of others. Each of us has to make that decision. That is why Kog and I came here. It wasn’t to escape the brutality of Qrynn. It was to make a difference in lives of those that travelled here. Plus, we owed it to Mary.”

Sam was already nibbling on her thumbnail and really staring at the collar.

“Fine.” I stood up and spun around as I made my announcement. “Just in case anyone is wondering, Barry inherited his mother’s gift for seeing the future.” I watched as his eyebrows jumped a little at my announcement. It looked like he was willing to see just how far I was going to take it.

“Yesterday, he let me know a few things. Some of them aren’t pretty.” I made my way to the window and then turned around to see everyone’s attention directed at me. “I don’t believe that everything he sees is going to come true, but I can’t discount the possibility that there’s a chance that the future he sees is one possible future for us.”

Fred’s eyes were wide and I could see he was insanely curious about what I knew. So I stared him down. “Do you want to know how and when you die?”

Switching to Sam I pressed on. “Do you want to know what will happen if you choose to put on that collar?”

She didn’t let that question lay. “Will I become a guy?”

My shoulders dropped. Was that all she was concerned about. “Not according to Barry. You’ll be a female Half-Demon. But that’s not all of it.”

Looking at Shae, I relaxed my face. “Do you want to know what your future holds? Here’s your chance.”

“That’s messed up, dudette,” Fred said.

I agreed. “Yeah, it is. So now you know why I was so on edge the other night.”

“I vote no,” declared the Bard, Steve. “Knowing your future makes no difference one way or the other.”

My brows bunched up. “What?”

“It’s too much of a distraction, prescience. Should you take another path if you know the one that you are on might lead to trouble? If so, then another path might lead to something worse. You can’t know for sure. Or if by knowing what is to come, you try to manipulate the outcome in your favor, you might very well be the cause of the problem in the first place.”

I shook my head after trying to wrap my mind around that one. Fred pointed at him. “You’re talking about a self-fulfilling prophesy thing. If you left things alone in the beginning then it wouldn’t have come true.”

The Bard, Steve, shrugged.

Fred shook his head. “I don’t want to know anything. I’m not much of a planner. I’d screw it all up either way.”

“Same here,” declared Shae.

Sam stood from her chair and briskly walked across to the desk and picked up the collar. I started to say something, even going so far as taking the first step toward her, but I stopped. It was her decision. She paused for the briefest of seconds and then snapped the collar close around her neck.

Magical static surrounded me and the taste of dark chocolate coated my tongue. Sam’s skin darkened to a tan-red and her hair deepened to the color of fresh blood. Her face looked pained then I heard the sound of fabric tearing and her tail dropped to the floor with a muted thump before lifting itself and curling around in the air. Her muscles thickened and became even more defined than she was before. Then it all stopped.

“Whoa,” whispered Fred.

Sam blinked and looked around the room then her eyes settled on mine. “There, that wasn’t so bad.”

Her voice had changed from the soft tone it had before to the harsh raised whisper that was common to demons and Tieflings. It was really easy to see how the average person would automatically assume they were evil. They sounded like B-movie demons that liked to hiss a lot.

“How do I look?”

I wondered if she’d noticed the change in her voice.

“Smokin’ hot,” announced Fred.

Barry took the moment to bring things around to business. “Now, if we’re all agreed, let’s go over mission parameters for your journey to Qrynn.”

~O~

We spent a good portion of the afternoon getting geared up. Remember Shae’s sexy Sorceress unitard thing? It served as more than a really cute way to show off her curves. Once I got to see it up close, I noticed the runes that were a part of the stitching. It was supposed to keep the person who wore the outfit reasonably well protected from breath weapons: fire, acid, frost, among others. Breath weapons are what dragons use when they want a quick way to eliminate a bunch of people in a fast and efficient manner.

I lost one of my teammates in the Black Dragon fight to acid breath. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and remember, I have that memory in my head now. It wasn’t just gameplay like before.

So everyone got that outfit to wear under their regular leather and armor. It was reminiscent of those tight ski suits I used to see on those Olympic downhill skiers like Lindsey Vonn. Sexy stuff, just less pink.

Sam wouldn’t take one. She was immune to fire and acid breath through her Tiefling blood and she was willing to take the chance with the others. Kog wouldn’t take one either. Apparently he likes the scars. Me? I’m not into pain as much as the others. I’d take any advantage I could get.

I did have to switch out my main pack for something a little larger since I’d be carrying a bedroll and camping supplies as well. It was almost like old times, in Ar’ri’s memories, except things were a lot more compact. MRE’s instead of trail rations, flashlights instead of torches, you get the idea.

The best of the bunch was the fold out compound bow I picked up. Hey, I was a Half-Elf. I was supposed to be good at shooting a bow. It wound up hooked on my pack, but I had it in case I needed it.

Sam decided on her original costume armor that she wore when I got my mojo on down in Barristix’s cave. Now that she had the wherewithal to use it, her magical items worked just fine.

I had to talk Fred into toning down a little. Originally he wanted one of everything, but that just wasn’t prudent. He was a Ranger and with his regular pack, loading up with a giant axe, a bastard sword, seven daggers, and a whole plethora of other goodies was a bit ridiculous. He ended up with a long sword, a fold out bow like my own, and a few daggers.

And lastly Shae. She stuck with the basics, and looked pretty much like she did the previous night, just a little more rugged. Only one thing was added to her equipment besides the standard pack set up. A staff.

There was one thing that I insisted that everyone bring, because I wasn’t sharing with anyone: toilet paper. God knows what they were using in that medieval world to wipe with. We were only supposed to be there for two days, at the most, but I brought two rolls, just in case.

Most of our things were sitting in the suite as we remembered last minute items to add or other nonsense. While it was nice to be ready for any eventuality, I knew I could survive with my blades and my small bag, bare minimum.

The four of us sat in the couch area. Sam was checking her weapons and other deadly items used to dispatch people. Fred was checking all of his arrowheads and shafts. I was sharpening my daggers and Shae was communing, or whatever, with her staff.

At one point, as I was testing the edge on my blade, I said, “You guys…”

Everyone looked up at me, expectantly.

“Thanks for being here. I never said it before. I’m just saying…”

~O~

Breakfast the next morning was a muted affair. Nervous energy ran through us. In our memories, this was yet another in a long line of adventures, but there was something to be said about entering an entirely different world than we’d ever experienced before. One by one I met everyone’s eyes with a different unsaid message. To Sam and Fred, forgiveness ran both ways. To Shae, a look that told her that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else at that moment. To the Bard, Steve, a shared smile, and to Kog… well, Kog was too busy inhaling a small goat to care about anything else. I hope they packed the ultra-big MREs for him, otherwise the local wildlife better watch out.

When we’d had our fill, we made our way down to the massive cavern where all of this started for me.

Dá»rdor was there, along with the big honking fire diamond on a pedestal. We watched as he focused and pointed his own staff, shooting out some sort of magical laser beam. It filtered through the stone and the air tore open for a short while showing a grassy glade beyond before closing.

Barry was watching everything when he leaned in and whispered. “Lyzax knows when and where the portal opens. Dá»rdor has been opening them all over Qrynn this morning at random intervals to throw them off the trail. He’ll keep doing so for an hour after you leave so they can’t track you.”

It was a good plan. They wouldn’t be able to check out every single instance.

“Ready?” Dá»rdor asked.

I didn’t bother asking the team. They were ready. I just nodded, and Kog belched which lightened the mood a little.

Taking one last breath of cave air, I walked up to where I saw the tear appear before and drew my sword, just in case.

Dá»rdor nodded solemnly at me and I returned it. Then the air in front of me tore open, this time showing a forest. I quickly walked through the magical portal, feeling a wall of static for a moment before the smell of the land hit me.

With a quick spin, I surveyed the scene. Not even a deer was close by. I waved the rest onward and they followed without pause. The last I saw of Barry was a wave and a smile before the tear in the air closed back up.

My sword went back in its sheath, as I found the morning sun sifting through the trees.

“Alright, let’s go. We need to put some distance between us and here, just in case Lyzax gets lucky with her patrols.”

For most of us, it was easy going at a light jog; Kog was having a hard time of it because of his size. I tried to make sure to pick the thinnest thicket of trees, but sometimes he just had to muscle through. After about thirty minutes, we slowed to a hiking pace. The Bard, Steve was winded and already looking tired.

I hadn’t noticed his age before, but if he had traveled with Mary Bybax from Qrynn to Earth then he had to be no younger than his mid-thirties and that would have put him as a newborn when he first arrived. For a human he aged quite well.

“Do not give me that look, Lady Ar’ri. I will hold up well enough to complete the quest,” he said.

With a cautious eye, I nodded. “You’ll tell me before you pass out from exhaustion, Steve. An unconscious guide is worthless to me.”

“I’m just catching my second wind. Long has it been since I traveled Hangbern Forest.”

I held back a wince. He was old enough to have traveled. That added fifteen to twenty years to him. Not a speck of gray sprinkled his black hair, and only a few wrinkles were etched beside his eyes and brow.

Stepping on a felled tree, I kept an eye out for dangerous wildlife. While in my past, Harry had very little experience with hiking an unknown terrain, Ar’ri had many years under her belt. It was comforting in a way. The Elf in me celebrated being in the wilderness. The smells and sights of trees awoken something inside me that I didn’t know I’d longed for.

“You grew up around here?” I asked.

Steve shrugged. “About thirty leagues to the west.”

Throwing the conversion around in my head I wound up with a little over a hundred miles. A league, in this sense of the word, was how far a single person or horse could walk in an hour, roughly three and a half miles.

“I’m sorry we won’t have time to visit. Maybe…”

I stopped when he shook his head. “My village was one of the first razed by Lyzax’s kin. Nothing is there but bad memories, Lady.”

“I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “You were not yet born. There was nothing that you could have done.”

Reaching over, I set my hand on his shoulder. “I’m alive now, and I’ll do everything I can to make sure the dragons pay.”

“Of that I have no doubt, my captain.” Looking back, he pressed his lips together. “I’d better see to Kog. His personality does not favor the forest nor hiding.”

Two hours later, trudging through the wilderness, and we stopped for a rest break.

Fred found a reasonably soft pile of pine needles to sit on while he watched Sam’s tail flit back and forth as she arranged a place for herself. I could tell it took great effort to pull his eyes away and make some excuse to talk to me, probably as some sort of distraction.

“How much further?”

I grinned. “Did you just ask me, are we there yet?”

Shae smiled through a bite of her granola bar.

~O~

Within the standard MRE pack is: one entrée, one side dish, dessert, crackers and spread, a pack of eating essentials like salt, hot sauce, plastic spoon, wet napkin, matches, etc. and then they throw in a flameless heating unit so you can have a hot meal. It’s a chemical that heats up when mixed with a small amount of water.

So you can probably see why, when Kog wanted to have a snack in-between small cows, we had to talk him into not eating the entire plastic wrapped package. It wasn’t that Steve thought that the chemicals in the flameless heating unit would harm his friend. He explained it was more about the intestinal gas that would be produced afterward that gave him pause.

We buried our waste materials and headed out again. By the end of the day, we reached the edge of the forest. Steve found his bearings and pointed north toward a decent sized mountain.

“There, that’s our destination,” he said with a grim look on his face.

Shrugging my pack off, I motioned back the way we came. “We have to wait until nightfall. Good time to eat and rest. We’ve got a long night ahead.”

This time, I didn’t spend my break on the ground. About twenty feet up in a tree, I found a decent perch that provided a fairly good view of the valley ahead. I wanted to be prepared for anything that would slow us down, so I had to map out the best direction to go before the sun fell.

Fifteen minutes later, I heard Shae make her way up behind me.

“Have you had anything to eat?” she asked.

I shook my head. “Not hungry.”

“You will be later.”

To tell the truth, my stomach couldn’t handle anything at the moment, so I tried changing the subject.

“Do you… have any memories of this place?” It’s an odd question, but considering what got shoved in our heads it was pertinent.

“Not so much here. The Elves live about four hundred miles in the other direction.” Pulling her cloak around her, she shivered slightly, but not from the temperature of the air. “It’s the weirdest feeling of déjá  vu. Ever since we stepped thorough that portal, I feel like I should be happy to be here, but…”

“I know.” There was a sense of wrongness in the world. Maybe it was our imagination. Perhaps it was simply knowing what was going on, the injustice, the tyrannical ruler, the lack of seeing anyone on the trails we encountered along the way. It just didn’t feel right.

We sat in silence for a short while before it was broken again by Shae. “Are you scared?”

I glanced at her in the fading light of the fallen sun. Her warily curious green eyes searched mine.

“No. Maybe that will change when we get closer, but for right now I’m where I need to be. I don’t fear that.”

Shae slipped her hand through my arm and it settled on my own before she lay her head on my shoulder.

~O~

We raced across the valley in the dark of night. Only a sliver of the distant white moon, hanging a quarter of the way into the sky, lit our way. Light couldn’t be risked, not that most of us needed any. The only people on our team that couldn’t see well in the dark were Fred and Steve, both of which had their respective guides to keep them away from errant rocks or places where footing would be less than ideal.

The way up the other side proved a little more difficult. It was the beginning of the mountain range. Outlying rocks and small boulders slowed us considerably. Steve slipped more than a few times and Kog eventually hefted him over his shoulder. Fred was a little more light-footed.

Once we were past the wide open valley, outcroppings of trees on the hillside provided enough cover to make our way without fear of being spotted from whatever could spy on us from above.

It was Shae that grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop while pointing a finger at her ear.

Cocking my head to the side, I finally heard what had given her alarm. Horses, or something close to it, were riding hard nearby.

“Everyone down,” I said as loud as I dared. “Find cover.”

My bow was in my hand and extended to its full length in a matter of seconds. I pulled an arrow from my quiver and notched it as quickly as I could. Fred followed suit and found a good vantage point before we got an eyeful of what was coming.

Ten feet in front of us was a well-worn wagon path and it was currently in use, but it wasn’t horses that were traveling on it. The beasts looked like a cross between bear and a rhino. There were ten in all and each had an armed rider atop, scanning the tree line as they slowed. Most of them were human, but there were led and trailed by lizard scaled humanoids.

They came to a slow trot about fifty feet down the trail in front of us and I heard voices, but couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“Dragonkin,” grumbled Half-Orc from behind me. “Kog kill.”

I waved Steve to my side. Before I even asked, he gave me the information I needed. “The Dragonkin are a distant relation to the Dragons. They have high resistance to fire and their hides are difficult to cut though. Their throats are their weak point. The men are no doubt mercenaries. If they are here then we have been found out.”

“Great,” I muttered. “Alright, weapons everyone. Fred, lizard-guys first, in the throat. Shae, stop any of them from getting away. Try not to be too flashy. Everyone else spread out and attack after you see our arrows.”

Almost a full minute had gone by as the others moved into position. Kog stayed close by. There just wasn’t an easy way for him to move very stealth-like. His double-headed battle-axe weighed heavy in his hand, but there was a glint in his eyes that let me know staying hidden was asking just a little too much.

I looked at Fred and gave him a nod as the enemy was reaching optimum range. Pulling back on my bowstring, I aimed at the center of the lead Dragonkin’s throat and whispered. “Now.”

The muted twang of both our bows sang together and our arrows found their targets. Then Kog yelled before leaping into battle.

TBC...