Sparks was the first to tire, curling up inside my shirt pocket and getting comfortable. Cashius began lagging several paces behind, his steps heavy and uneven. Nefa and I led the way in silence, her mood a complete mystery.

  The green sun overhead hadn’t moved an inch, which meant time was static here. It could’ve been two hours or ten, and we wouldn’t have known because everything stayed the same.

  When I pulled up the map, it went haywire, spinning in all directions, static fuzz blanketing the screen. The whole thing had me wondering where the chieftains had sent us.

  Did the ceremony they performed even work? Or had Linuux gotten to them too, sending us to some mind-bent place where up was down and you had to walk forever?

  And don’t get me started on those triangle-shaped clouds hanging above us, just floating there like bad geometry. Trapezoids and acute angles, my ass. The entire sky looked like some abstract painting gone wrong. Like the artist was high out of his fucking mind and given a brush and told to paint.

  This whole trek was beyond anything I had ever been a part of. But aside from the strange backdrop and barren terrain, I wasn’t doing too bad in the stamina department, and by the looks of it, neither was Nefa.

  Thinking was easier out here with all the silence, I could say that.

  Thoughts and ideas for future weapon combinations and maneuvers came to me in abundance, and my pondering made the distance we traveled more bearable.

  I imagined the other areas of Orbralis and how I would conquer those places and their quests. The people we would meet. Whether Nefa would join us or choose to stay here kept my mind occupied. How would Sparks look after a few more level increases? Would Cashius ever be happy with his choices? Would I?

  But after a while, thinking about all that with no way to gauge how much time had passed started taking a toll on me, and boredom began to creep in.

  Like, how many times could I think about something that had no real answer?

  When I played with the thought further, it hit me that I didn’t know Nefa all that well to be asking if she wanted to go off on a journey that might end with all of us being killed. I liked her, sure, but come on, we had only known each other a few days at most, and I was on some impossible quest. And what if I completed my task and somehow managed to keep all of us alive? What would happen then?

  I doubted she would want to leave everything she had ever known to go back to Earth with me, no matter how much we liked one another.

  I took a quick glance in her direction and could see she was wondering about things too. What things, I had no clue, but when our eyes met, she turned away and kept walking beside me.

  Every time I tried to break the silence between us, my mind went back to her calling me and Cashius simple-minded. I told myself, forget it, and kept my mouth shut.

  No matter how mad I got, I’d never diss her the way she did Cashius and me. That was something she’d have to make up for. Did she have any idea what we’d been through? The people we’d saved, or slaughtered? The murders we’d solved? The hell we’d crawled through? I told myself I didn’t care. But deep down, I liked her a whole lot. All I wanted was to hold her, to protect her. And finding out what she thought of me felt like a slap in the face.

  Every time I looked at her, it made me feel sorry. For her and me.

  Anyway, Cashius was the first to give up completely, dropping onto the hard granite with a grunt. He lay there, face to the sky, fishing out his cigar.

  “Aye, let’s stop and get our bearings for a second,” he called out. “Aren’t you two tired of walking yet?”

  I turned around, pausing. “Come on, old man. Eventually we’ll see something, or at least I hope we will.”

  Ahead of me, Nefa turned, walked past, and sat a few inches from Cashius.

  “I’m afraid he’s right,” she said, pulling out a skin of water and taking a sip. “It feels like we’re walking nowhere.”

  “You too?” I asked, breaking our silence.

  “Yes, me too,” she replied, wiping her mouth. “We’ve been walking for far too long, and still the terrain remains the same. We need a plan, or else we may never reach Linuux.”

  Sparks nodded from inside my pocket, holding herself up by the fabric.

  Bending down, I sat beside Cashius.

  “If you guys think a break is what we need… we’ll take a break,” I said, stretching my legs. “But not for long. Just enough to figure out what to do next, then we’re back to it.”

  The sound from this warped-out place was close to driving me insane with its silence. I mean, you couldn’t hear anything at all. No air blowing. No trash tumbling across the ground. No insects crawling. Nothing.

  Just that emptiness. Enough to make you wonder if any of this was even real, or if the programmers just forgot to add that part in.

  Cashius lit his cigar, and the smoke just hung there in the air, frozen, as if time itself had stopped. The wisps were stiff as sticks.

  I stared at it in disbelief.

  “How are we breathing?” Nefa asked, staring too. “Did we die when we crossed over? Because if the smoke doesn’t move, air isn’t either. Right?”

  Cashius laughed. “You two and your constant questions,” he chuckled, tapping the frozen smoke with his hand, the cigar still clenched between his teeth. “Since I’m the only one here with a little experience, let me explain where we’re at and why things seem so weird.”

  I looked around Cashius to Nefa, who didn’t return the stare, which made the distance between us seem that much farther.

  Cashius cocked his brow and shook his head.

  I played it off by squinting my eyes and looking into the distance. “Out with it, you bum,” I said, feeling totally embarrassed.

  “Well… where we’ve traveled is to a world where beings like Linuux exist. A pocket reality, so to say, and air behaves differently here. How the smoke hung in the air is something I can’t explain. But in the past, when I came here, I just walked for a while and ran into his palace. This time, however, it appears we have much farther to travel. With all the rushing your tribe’s chiefs did, they probably uttered a phrase out of place, I’m sure of it.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Nefa leaned forward on her arms. “When were you here?” she asked. “This ceremony hasn’t been performed in five hundred years. Either you’re lying or keeping information from me. In any case, you’re being untrustworthy.”

  I hit Cashius in the ribs, signaling for him to make something up with my eyes.

  “Your precious Jessa and father aren’t the only ones who know of this place. I met a few men in my youth who brought me here using similar methods,” he explained.

  “What were you doing here, seeing the sights?” she fired back.

  Cashius dropped his cigar from his mouth and snatched it up again. “Oh no, young lady. I, uh…” He looked to the left. “Lost someone and came here to find them. Didn’t work as planned, that’s all.”

  Nefa eyed him suspiciously. “I still find that hard to believe, but for now… I’ll let it go.”

  “Just be careful,” Cashius warned. “Because in places like these, you’ll find creatures of all shapes and designs. And sometimes, a blunt impact or a concentrated blast works where a blade fails. Remember that, and we should get out of this still breathing.”

  This woman was observant, I’d say that.

  When I stole a glance at Cashius, he looked back at me with wide eyes, like he was saying, She’s quick-witted.

  I went into my inventory, pulled out a few pieces of dried meat, and passed them around. Sparks crawled out of my pocket, grabbed a piece, and tugged at it until it ripped. Then she sat on the ground, eating like the rest of us.

  With the environment being so strange, the sound of us chewing without anything else around was unsettling.

  Just breath and teeth grinding against meat. It sounded unnatural.

  When we finished, we stood and got back to walking the path, this time a little less paranoid about what was happening.

  By the time we saw something in the distance, I was ready to pull out the cabin and set it up for the night, or day, or whatever you want to call it. Nefa perked up, while Cashius just shrugged. Sparks crawled back into my shirt pocket, relaxing but still alert for danger.

  The closer we got, the clearer it became that it wasn’t Linuux’s palace, but a small house on the side of the path. Old and worn. The door barely hung on its frame, and what little grass surrounded it struggled to grow through the cracked ground.

  As we neared it, the world started changing.

  The silence broke.

  I could feel the faint push of wind again, hear something waking up in the distance.

  Walking in that dead quiet had been driving me nuts, and now things were getting back on track.

  “You hear that?” I asked Nefa. “Is that life rustling, or am I insane?”

  “Yes… no,” she paused. “I can hear it too. As if the world is waking up,” she said, pulling her scythe free and lowering her stance as we approached the seemingly empty house.

  I took a deep breath and caught a faint smell. Burnt. Like wood chips tossed on a grill. Then came the scent of beef, or something close to it. All of it drifting from the deserted house ahead.

  Just to be sure, I pulled out Havoc Maker while Sparks circled me, alert and ready, flying on business.

  When we reached the door, barely hanging there, I gave it a spin and watched it crash to the floor.

  Did I think that would happen?

  Of course not.

  But the three of us, including Sparks, waited for someone to come yelling.

  Nobody showed up.

  Only the same creeping unease poured from every corner of the house, making my flesh stand on end.

  I tried the map again, and this time it showed a diagram of the house’s outline. As for what the rooms looked like, we’d have to step inside and see for ourselves.

  Three dots, representing us, glowed faintly on the display.

  Then a warning scrolled across the top:

  Enemy location is turned off for the duration of your time here.

  I whispered it to Cashius, and he shrugged. “New to me,” was all he said.

  I kept the map minimized in the lower portion of my screen.

  “Guys, do you want to explore the house or keep walking toward Linuux’s place?”

  Nefa spoke up first. “Why not explore? We might find supplies, or better yet, monsters to slay.”

  Figures.

  Under all that caring for others, the woman was a warrior first. Point her in any direction, and she was looking for a fight, no matter the size or composition. Slice, stab, and on to the next. It was one of the reasons I liked her so much. In a crunch, she could swing with the vilest creatures and still come out victorious. The exact type of person I needed while traveling around Orbralis.

  Cashius continued to look uneasy, probably thinking about how useless he’d be in a fight, not knowing that his being here before was an incredible asset.

  My small battle fairy cracked her knuckles and smirked. Her attitude about things was almost the same as Nefa’s.

  “Okay, people,” I said. “We’ll go inside and see what’s in there. But under no circumstances should anyone wander off or do their own thing. Strength is in numbers. And since I can’t see how many enemies are inside, we move carefully. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” they echoed back.

  I stepped over the threshold first, with Cashius close behind and Nefa taking up the rear.

  It was dark inside, the only light slipping through the doorway, a few narrow windows along the walls, and Sparks’ tiny body.

  That eerie green glow from outside gave the house a sinister look, like something could leap out at any second.

  From what I could see, the place was furnished like a typical Glasborough home, half modern, half old-fashioned.

  The sitting area we entered had a couch so worn that pieces of the cushion poked through the fabric. An old rug lay underfoot, its once-bright pattern faded to dull smudges. The wooden floor creaked with every step, and the windows were painted black, their curtains thin and tattered.

  I passed a table so old it looked like it might crumble if I touched it.

  On top lay a pamphlet featuring a massive white dragon.

  “The People’s Colony presents Linuux the Mind-Reading Dragon,” it read.

  The image showed the dragon’s body covered in glistening white scales, with a clump of eyes scattered across its forehead. Nearby, a line of people waited for what I guessed was a fortune to be told.

  Real big smiles, holding paper in their hands, dressed in odd clothes.

  In the sky, the same triangles and green sun of this world.

  I picked it up.

  Instantly, an image flashed through my mind.

  The dragon’s sick sneer.

  Its massive claws slashing through the air.

  Plus eyes.

  And a ghastly power emanating from the stomach area of its body.

  A stream of vomit shot from my mouth, earning stares from my companions.

  I dropped the pamphlet and looked back at the others, wiping my mouth with the crook of my arm.

  Cashius slipped his hand into his sleeve and brushed the pamphlet to the floor, where Nefa struck it with the tip of her scythe.

  “I saw something when I held it,” I said.

  Nefa’s eyes flicked to me. “So did I when I poked it. The creature’s reach is strong here,” she said. “But let’s move on. We may learn more about the dragon, or at the very least, find some treasure.”

  So off we went in search of information, neither of us too confident about exploring this old, creepy house.

  As we moved deeper inside, something glinted in the darkness, reflecting light that shouldn’t have been there.

  Then, a laugh echoed. Low and fleeting.

  Followed by a cold breeze brushing against my legs.

  I jumped back, holding my breath, sword raised above my head, ready to cut down whatever came next.

  It darted past again, laughing like some demonic child. High-pitched and sharp enough to rattle my nerves.

  Cashius’s voice rang out somewhere to my left, followed by another burst of giggles and a shriek from Nefa as she was attacked too.

  I turned in a full circle, trying to catch sight of the thing, but the only thing I saw in the dim light was Cashius’s leg bleeding profusely.

  Zooming in, I saw his massive HP bar draining fast.

  I tossed him a potion, and the wound sealed shut in seconds, earning a long, shaky sigh of relief from him.

  Nefa’s injury wasn’t as bad, just a scratch that would heal on its own.

  “Where are you?” I shouted into the dark, hoping for an answer.

  The only reply was more laughter.

  And now it wasn’t just one.

  The sound had multiplied.

  Sparks glowed brighter, flooding the room with pale light as she readied a missile in her tiny hands.

  “Why are you playing with us?” I yelled. “If you come out, I promise I won’t attack you.”

  Silence.

  Then—

  Footsteps.

  Another swipe, this time aimed at me.

  I swung Havoc Maker down, the blade slamming into the floor and sending out a shockwave that cracked through the room.

  Nothing.

  The air trembled for half a second.

  Then the ground gave out beneath us.

  All three of us, me, Nefa, and Cashius, fell straight through the floor toward a murky bottom with no end in sight.