Shannon O'Reilly was bullied and everything his older sister wasn't. When his sister Sarah gives him a chance to change things through a single wish things don't go as planned.     I Wish: Book 5 Chapter 8 Prime Directive By Amethyst

I was extremely grateful for the long-range vision of Succubae once my eyes had adjusted to the light and I could get a better look at our quarry. Two of the people around the fire were wearing some sort of dull grey-colored robes with short hems and large hoods that appeared to be more for utility than for comfort or fashion with all their pockets and pouches. The other four, including the one keeping watch, were wearing some sort of chest armor of overlapping metal plates, though they too sported large hoods. The ones in the armor also had some sort of long and curved metal implements that I thought might be bladed weapons within reach.

None of the six were moving much, it appeared that the moving shadows I had seen had come from some sort of beasts of burden, like a cross between a camel, rhinoceros, and mountain goat. The large beasts were harnessed to roughly-made wooden carts loaded up with various crates, barrels, and sacks. These people were probably some sort of trader caravan with early dark ages technology, even the lanterns that I had noticed were only some sort of rough oil lamps, though their light did let me see the people around the fire in more detail now that I wasn’t half-blinded.

They looked to have been descended from some type of snakes from the long serpentine lower bodies that I saw in place of legs beneath the hems of their robes and armor. Their upper torsos were vaguely humanoid with long muscular arms and hands with opposable thumbs and three somewhat long and spindly fingers. Set above their wide chests and shoulders were slightly large reptilian heads with slits for nostrils and powerful-looking jaws. I would have expected slit pupil eyes like a snake’s but theirs were more like an amphibian’s, large and bulbous atop their heads.

After a few moments of carefully watching them, I gently tapped Rebecca on the shoulder and motioned that we should back away to a safer distance. Once I figured that we were far enough that we wouldn’t be heard, I said, “Let’s go find a quiet place to set up the portal cloth so we can get some rest before it gets too hot.”

‘What?! We’re not going to go at least try to talk to them?! They might be able to help us! What kind of extra-planar explorer are you?!” she hissed back at me.

“The cautious kind,” I replied with a sigh. “They might think we’re a threat and attack us and I seriously doubt that they can help us. I didn’t see anything that indicated they can use magick and their technology is, at best, equal to the middle ages on Earth. Even with the Rosetta stone that I’m wearing to help, it would take several days of listening to conversations for me to learn even the basics of whatever language they use so one of us could talk to them. And who knows how meeting us with our guns, and talking to them about magick and stuff, could affect their culture. We need to follow the prime directive, Rebecca.”

“Star Trek?! Really?! You are such a geek! Just because they don’t use magick doesn’t mean they don’t know about it! They could have legends that could lead us to whatever you came here looking for, or someone who does know about magick!” Rebecca snapped.

“Okay, I’ll admit that you have a point, but we know nothing about this world, its people, or their values. We can’t just walk right up to them like we belong here, they could think that we’re Demons or food,” I countered as calmly as I could. “Maybe we can find a village or town where we can try to get more information but we’ll need time to work on our shapeshifting and for one or both of us to hear enough of the language while wearing my Rosetta stone to be able to blend in and to talk to them.”

“How do you know that they even have towns?” my argumentative companion asked with a frown. “You just said that we know nothing about them.”

“Well, those carts looked like they were carrying goods and, given the way they were dressed, those guys looked like caravan traders and guards, so they might not even be heading in the same direction as us anyway. But trade caravans usually mean places to trade at, and given their tech level and the fact that they’re traveling in a group, I’m willing to bet that they are fairly social, at least with one another,” I explained. “We also learned that this whole planet probably isn’t completely covered in desert.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes and groaned before asking in a tone heavily laden with sarcasm, “And how do we know that, Professor?”

I ignored the sarcasm and name-calling once again as I looked toward the horizon. Snark, sarcasm, and attitude were a defense mechanism for Rebecca and probably the only means that she had had of fighting back against her tormentors. It was how she faced the world when scared, uncomfortable, or backed into a corner. Right now she was way out of her element, scared, stressed, grieving, and probably feeling alone since she only had me at the moment and we weren’t exactly best friends.

Sure, she had admitted to herself and me why she distrusted and disliked me but I couldn’t expect her to just get over those feelings instantly, it would take time for both of us. I knew that she was trying; she had been grateful for what I had done for her, she didn’t blame me for her mother’s death even when she probably had every right to, and she had even tried to be supportive in her own way. I just needed to be patient and help guide her when I could.

I took a deep breath and then answered her question. “Those camnocergoats looked like herbivores; I think that the locals were using their dried droppings as fuel for the fire, and those carts were made from wood. That means that there are trees and other forms of vegetation growing somewhere. Now let’s get going, the sun is starting to rise and I’d rather not be standing out here in the open when it’s light out.”

We had found a decent spot among a group of large stones to place our portal for the day and after a good solid sleep, we had a meal and spent the rest of the daylight hours practicing with our pseudo-Succubus skills, or rather those that we could consciously control and didn’t need a target for. Then, after another quick meal at dusk, we once again took to the skies and headed northeast toward Ziralin.

The two moons were high overhead and we were going to stop for a break and a small meal when I noticed the black sands below starting to give way to grasslands. I could see what looked like woodlands in the distance and my heart skipped a beat in my excitement. I turned to see Rebecca looking at me and actually smiling, she had noticed it too. So, instead of landing for our meal, we pressed onward, catching a nice tailwind until the forest and a small river were beneath us.

After circling to decrease our altitude, and to ensure that there were no locals to see us, we landed near the riverbank. I secured the portal cloth against the trunk of a large deciduous tree with pink birch-like bark that was out of the direct view of any traffic that might make its way along the river. The night sounds of the forest were a little alien, but also comforting, there was life here and I had so many scents assailing my nose and sounds teasing my ears from the various animals that I had to switch back to my familiar and comfortable human form to keep from being overloaded by the input.

“Do you think that’s safe? And I thought you’d want to just eat something and keep pressing on until dawn,” Rebecca asked with an uncertain look in my direction.

“I’d like to feel like myself for a bit and I’d really like a bath while we have water available,” then I sighed as I thought of the possibility of some unknown predators attacking us in the water. If something attacked we might need some of our Succubus abilities, like regeneration. “You’re probably right, we don’t know what’s out there. I’ll change back after I undress but I’m having a damn bath. We haven’t had a chance at more than a sponge bath since getting here and I feel super gross. I figure that now that we’re out of the desert we can probably travel by day and see what we can find that’s edible. My supplies were meant for one person, not two, and we don’t know how long we’ll be stuck here.”

“A bath does sound good,” Rebecca admitted wistfully.

“Maybe we should do it one at a time while the other stands watch,” I said thoughtfully. “I’ll grab my bath stuff and a towel and you can go first if you want.”

Rebecca seemed a bit self-conscious as she considered it. “I… umm… thanks. That would be great.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to watch you or anything,” I promised her. “I’ll use the camp stove to make us some soup while I keep watch. It seems a bit colder here than it was in the desert at night and we don’t want to catch a cold or something.”

I got my basket with shampoo, conditioner, body wash, a loofah, body lotion, and added one of the only two clean towels that we had, and handed them off to her so she could get started. After retrieving the camp stove, some of our water, a pot, a kettle, and some ingredients I temporarily returned to my Succubus form to be alert for danger while I prepared a quick meal. I listened to the unfamiliar night noises of the alien forest and Rebecca splashing about as she got herself clean as made our meal.

I chopped up a couple of carrots and potatoes and added them to the pot of water with a packet of chicken noodle soup mix, a can of flaked chicken, and some spices. It wasn’t anything special, but I had to work with mostly non-perishables and it would warm us up and fill our bellies when paired with some soda crackers. Once I had that on the heat to boil I poured a can of condensed milk and some water in the kettle with a pair of mint leaves to heat up as well, but at a lower heat since there wasn’t as much liquid and no solids to cook.

By the time that I had the soup and the kettle going Rebecca was finished her bath and it was my turn. “That water is f-f-freezing,” she complained as she quickly dried off and practically leaped back into her clothes.

“It’ll be nice to get clean though,” I replied as I snatched up a roll of biodegradable bathroom tissue and dashed to the nearest bushes to relieve myself before getting clean. With that task completed I grabbed my towel and the basket she had put aside and assured her, “I won’t be long; the soup probably won’t even be done before me.”

Rebecca was right, that water was freezing. Still, it was really nice to feel clean once I was done and back in my clothes. I had bathed in my Succubus form just in case of predators in the water but I didn’t have any problems. Well, not from predators. Washing my tail and wings was a really weird feeling and I had almost forgotten about my horns until I washed and conditioned my hair. Still, soon I was out of the water and drying off as fast as Rebecca had before switching back to my more comfortable and normal human form and getting dressed again in my warm clothes.

One thing that I hadn’t thought of was how we were going to dry our hair without magic or a blow-dryer. I just did as Rebecca had and did the best that I could with a towel and then wrapped it turban-style until we could deal with it in the bunker after eating. It was so cold that I didn’t even bother with my skin lotion, instead vowing to do it before bed when I dealt with my hair.

The soup was starting to simmer, but it would be a little while still before the carrots and potatoes in it were properly cooked so I went to the food stores in the bunker and snatched up a pair of stainless steel travel mugs, a wooden spoon, and a couple of large Ziploc bags. “W-w-what? Are you making c-c-coffee?” Rebecca inquired, still shivering from the cold air after the freezing water.

“N-nope, m-much better than that.,” I told her with a grin as I tried not to give in to the cold as well. I put the mugs and the sealed bag of mini marshmallows on a large stone that I had used for dicing the veggies earlier and took the other baggie and the spoon to dole out some of the powder mixture into the bubbling and steaming milk. It was my own hot chocolate mix; baking cocoa mixed with a blend of white and brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

I resealed the bag and carefully stirred the hot beverage, and then lowered the flame beneath the kettle to let it simmer on its own for a couple of minutes. I had time to quickly put everything but the marshmallows, mugs, and the actual cooking stuff away in the bunker before returning to pour us both a mug and add some of the marshmallows. Rebecca took a cautious sip before her eyes went wide. “Omigod! That’s amazing!”

“It would be better with real milk instead of the condensed stuff, but yeah. Between this and being clean, I almost feel human again. Well, actually being human for a change probably helps too,” I admitted with a tired giggle “I was experimenting and made some last week and my sister loved it, so she had me make a big batch of the mix and store some of it, the mint leaves, and other stuff for our bunkers.”

“Yeah, it’s really good. Mom used to make hot cocoa like this when I had a bad day but she never had this earthy, minty, sweet taste to it. It kinda tastes like home though. It’s almost like we’re just camping instead of trapped on some other world.” Rebecca said with a sigh before casting an uncertain look my way. “You’re… uhh… I’m… sorry. I know that I’ve been freaking out a lot since we got here and I’m probably not easy to deal with but thanks for… being you. I was wrong about you and I don’t know how I’d get through this without you… Shannon.”

For a moment I wasn’t sure if I heard her right. No Jockette, no Geek-girl, she actually used my name and didn’t choke on it. Maybe I was making progress with her. I found myself smiling as we sat there drinking our sweet, minty, chocolatey bit of heaven in silence until the soup was ready and we ate.

Rebecca was full of surprises. After we finished our soup she offered to help me clean the dishes in the river and put everything away in the bunker. We were going to do our laundry as well while we had the water available but we decided to wait on that until the afternoon when we planned to wake up and eat around midday. The plan was that we could hang the clothes to dry in the sun and do some foraging and maybe hunting in the hopes of finding stuff that woudn’t be toxic to us to augment the food supplies.

It was almost dawn by the time we managed to mostly dry our hair and get ready for bed. Rebecca still wasn’t used to her hair being quite that long but she tried not to complain and I offered to brush it out and braid it for her so it wouldn’t get tangled while she slept. Once I was done with her hair, I was about to get to work on mine when she offered to return the favor. She had done it for her mom a few times when they had girl nights and she wouldn’t admit it, but I heard her start sniffling behind me about halfway through and I was pretty sure that she had started crying.

I tried to let her think I didn’t notice. Her grief over her mother was still raw and I kind of felt bad that doing that for me and the hot chocolate had brought up such strong memories of her. She had managed to collect herself by the time she was done and we settled onto the foam mattress and under the comforters for a bit of sleep. I was just starting to drift off when I heard her sniffling into her pillow though.

“Rough few days, huh?” I said tentatively to the back of her head. “I’m sorry if I did anything to make things worse.”

“Y…you didn’t. I just miss Mom so fucking much, and… you were right. What will I do when… if we get home? The only friend I have is Michelle and I probably got her pissed at me. I have nobody else there who gives a fuck about me even if they did recognize me, no place to go, no identity, no family… I…”

I wrapped my arm around her in an awkward hug, afraid that she would pull away, surprised when she didn’t. “Michelle cares about you, she wouldn’t give up on you because you said something to hurt her. No offense but it was kind of your thing. You can be prickly and untrusting and she knew that going in. My family and I won’t let you down either. No matter what happens, in whatever world, we’ll all get through it together. I only had my sister for a long time, but family isn’t just about whose blood you have in your veins. It’s about who’s willing to shed blood, sweat, and tears for you, it’s about who’s there to help you pick up the pieces when your world shatters. You can choose family and they can choose you. You’ve got me, Becca, and I’ve got your back.”