Unwanted Adventure

January 10?

It’s hard keeping track of time here. If it weren’t for the fact that my watch made it through the trip with me I’d never even be able to guess what the date is. I put a question mark after the date because I have no idea how much time is passing back in our world compared to this one. Have we been gone the same amount of time? Or has more time passed here than there? Or vice versa? I can’t begin to guess.

I believe that the abilities we’ve gained are directly related to what we happened to be playing when we got transported here. Larisse and my brother in particular. I’ve noticed since we arrived that Jake has a limited repertoire of spells but he casts them almost at will, much like the sorcerer he was playing; whereas Larisse, playing a wizard, found herself in possession of a large tome filled cover to cover with writing only she and Jake can read, and each morning she is forced to memorize each spell she intends to cast that day. Nicole has always been very religious, and because of that I had encouraged her to play a cleric; she has confided in me that during her prayers each night she feels a connection to something glorious, the touch of a higher power that she never felt back home. This brings up several theological questions to mind: Is this world closer to God, more in tune with his being so that her mind is more open to his ministrations, or is it yet another case of power granted us by coming to this world? I don’t have an answer, and I likely never will.

Myself and Les were playing tanks, warrior types with the sole purpose of defending the spellcasters; he built his character off of a brute fighter template, all strength and heavy armor, where mine was a monk dedicated to speed, grace, and discipline. I have never taken any sort of martial art before, aside from the grappling I learned when I was in basic training. To have an intimate knowledge of several martial arts styles, all of them probably alien to any dojo back home, is a rush that I cannot describe. Part of me doesn’t want to use this knowledge at all, in case I become too infatuated with fighting. Still another part of me wants to use this knowledge every chance I get so I can increase my skill. That part also hopes the knowledge remains if we find our way home.

Aaron was playing a barbarian, Will an elven rogue. I still don’t understand why they were physically changed when the rest of us were not. I myself was playing a tiefling, known to players of D&D as a mortal with demonic ancestry, and was fitted complete with horns and all. Larisse was playing a halfling. Aaron can be logically rationalized, as he did not meet the same physical stature as his character’s abilities would suggest, but I don’t understand why Will would be changed if myself and Larisse were not. Was she left alone because halflings do not exist in this world? Or that there was no comparable race? Are unions between demon and mortal not possible in this world, and that was why I was passed over? Again, I don’t have any answers, and I doubt I will find any.

“You ready to go?”

HC packed up his journal and looked up into Nicole’s smiling face. “We’re ready to take off whenever you are, honey,” she said. She walked back to where the others were standing, Les and Aaron loading up a small wagon with their gear. After the incident with the bandits several days earlier, some searching had revealed quite a bit of gold and supplies raided from other travelers. Bolts of cloth, carpentry tools, and various other items of a craftsman’s profession were stowed away in the bandits’ hideout as well, along with the wagon they now traveled with. Currently Aaron was pulling the wagon, the load an easy weight for him to handle so long as the pace wasn’t too fast. They’d passed a few farms along the road and learned that a rather large town was up ahead; HC hoped they could get a few horses there.

HC found himself lazily getting ready, staring at the way Nicole’s robes fell around her form. Loose though they were, when she moved they seemed to accent the curves of her body and pulled tight when she stretched. Catching him looking, Nicole winked and flashed a sly smile; HC grinned in return and grabbed his quarterstaff, ready to make town before nightfall.

“Come on!” Jake complained as they walked. “I don’t know the spell, otherwise I’d do it myself!”

“It’s a waste of energy,” Larisse sighed, rolling her eyes. “The spell doesn’t last long enough to make it worth a frivolous casting, and with two attacks by bandits in just a week I’ve got more useful spells than that to keep handy. I’ll cast it if we need to run, but not before.”

“Aw! Come ON!” Jake whined.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Cowboy?” HC asked, moving up to walk abreast with the two mages.

“Your brother wants me to cast a spell of speed on us all so we can make it to the town faster,” Larisse said, “but it doesn’t last long and I’d have to cast it repeatedly for it to make any difference. If I did that I’d lose my other spells and I want to keep them in case something bad pops up.”

“Come on, bro! I want to be totally sure I’m sleeping indoors tonight!” Jake whined again.

“Keep whining and I’ll make you sleep in the stables of any inn we find, regardless if there’s an open room or not,” HC replied. “I’m going to have to side with Larisse with this. I’d rather she have more offensive and defensive spells at hand in case something goes bad.”

“You guys suck,” Jake replied, dropping back to talk with Les.

“Hey, HC!” Aaron called out. “Can I bug you for a second?”

HC sighed and looked back to Nicole, shrugging his shoulders and rolling his eyes in mock exasperation. His wife just shook her head an smiled wide, flashing perfect teeth. HC jogged over to the wagon; he had made sure that they kept reasonably spread out while they were on the road in case the next batch of bandits had a mage with them. After witnessing the explosive power of some of Jake’s spells, HC found himself falling back on basic training again and explained the logic of his, using the blast radius of a grenade as an example. No one had argued.

“What’s going on, big guy?” HC asked.

“Tell Will to get his lazy ass out of the wagon,” Aaron replied. “He may look skinnier than back home, but it has to be an illusion.”

“Hey!” came a shout from the wagon. Will’s head poked out from beneath the tarp covering the goods loaded there, an overdramatic look of indignation on his face. “I’m not fat, I just haven’t grown into my weight yet,” he said, his hurt a poorly disguised act. “Besides, you’ve got muscles now and I think I should make the most of the situation.”

“Get out of the wagon, Will,” HC chuckled.

“There’s a spare axle in here,” Will argued. “Can I hitch that to the back of the wagon with some rope and ride that?”

“No!” HC and Aaron said together.

“Fine,” Will sighed. “I guess I’ll just have to work my poor, sensitive feet into blisters and raw skin. It’s okay, I can deal. Builds character, I’m told.”

“Is there someone in this group without something to bitch about?” HC laughed, looking around at his friends.

“Yo!” Les shouted from the rear.

“Well then, let me kick you in the nuts so we can all fit in!” HC called back.

“Try it and I chop off your foot!” Les shouted out with a grin, brandishing his battleaxe.

HC fell back to walk beside Nicole again, putting one arm around her waist and pulling her close while they walked. She slipped her arm around his waist and leaned her head against his shoulder. “Not that I’m against you playing these games,” she said, “but when, if we get back, I’m never, EVER doing anything D&D-ish again.”

“Duly noted,” HC replied. “Does this mean I don’t have to keep up with those ballroom dance lessons?”

“Hell no,” Nicole said with a devilish smile. “I paid for the both of us, and besides, you promised.”

“I did, didn’t I,” HC said, feigning displeasure.

“Hey now,” Nicole said, slapping his chest with her free hand. “As I recall, we both made promises to the point of compensation for the other if we didn’t like the other’s hobbies. And I expect you to make good on that promise.”

“If we can get a room to ourselves in this next town, I’ll more than make good on that promise,” HC whispered in Nicole’s ear, causing her to grin at him like a Cheshire cat.

“If you don’t, I’m darn sure going to make you!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They reached the town around mid-afternoon. It seemed enormous compared to the few small hamlets they’d passed in their travels over the past month, and the massive gates in the thirty foot stone wall were an imposing structure. Currently they were open, and light traffic was flowing in and out of the town. A guard stopped them on the way in, asking them what they were carting; HC hadn’t been prepared for something like that, as the truth would have been stranger than fiction, but Jake thought quickly and rushed to the front.

“Just various materials and tools we hope to unload on local craftsmen, sir,” Jake said. “I’m just trying to recoup what losses I can, you see; the bandits have been quite thick and I’ve lost two wagons and half a dozen people already, not to mention all the oxen pulling my wagons. Why, if not for this mountain of a man I originally hired as a guard, I would have lost everything in this past run, being forced to abandon the wagon with nothing to pull it and bandits drawing near.”

The guard glanced over the group and thought for a moment, then waved them in. Once they were out of sight of the guard, HC gave his brother a high five. “Okay, I take back what I said earlier,” HC said. “I’ll make sure you get a hayloft to sleep in instead of the stable.”

Two hours of searching and gathering information found them an inn to stay at, a stable where they could buy horses, and two tailors and a tanner who were interested in the supplies they had recovered from the bandit stash. Satisfied with their successes, they decided it was time to relax for the evening. They could ask about the mystery sage in the morning, and tonight they would just stop and enjoy an evening in civilization.

They all sat together, having pushed two tables in the inn’s common room together. While the others ordered food and drinks, Will went to the innkeeper to haggle for the rooms. Jake had offered to do it, but it was agreed that Will had the better sense of numbers. Will could also haggle like a pro; where Jake was just a smooth talker, Will could argue that the sky was green and win, and since they weren’t familiar with the economy of this world they wanted to spend as little of their gains as possible.

The barmaid was just bringing their food when Will returned, a somber look on his face. “What’s the verdict?” Nicole asked, slightly worried about Will’s look.

“Well,” Will said, “there’s only three rooms available tonight. I managed to haggle him down to ten silver pieces for all three for the night. A gold per room gets them for the entire week. Rooms 3, 4, and 7. But…”

“But what, Will?” Larisse asked, raising an eyebrow.

“See, me and the guys were thinking it over, and HC and Nicole get one room to themselves, while you and Aaron get one and me, Les, and Jake share the third.”

“Hey! I never agreed to tha-- OWW!” Jake cried out, interrupted by Aaron’s meaty hand slapping the back of his head.

“First dibs on the bed!” Les said quickly, with Will following closely with a “Large beds! Second dibs!”

“Oh, this is SO not fair,” Jake sighed, glaring at Will.

“You know, I’m not really that hungry right now,” HC said, standing up from the table and stretching. “I really could use a nap though.”

“I think I could stand to wait before eating, myself,” Nicole said, also standing. Together they walked as fast as they could without running, making their way up the stairs to their room.

“Yeah, not that hungry, all right,” Jake said as he watched them leave, receiving another slap from Aaron in response. “HEY!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that night HC lay awake in bed, staring at the ceiling and enjoying the warm touch of Nicole’s skin against his. She was laying atop him under the blankets, using his chest as a pillow and her arms draped around his neck. While she dozed, HC idly ran one hand up and down Nicole’s back, occasionally drifting down to caress the round curve of her ass and along what he could reach of her thigh, then back again. Both of them were near exhaustion after releasing their pent up tension, but HC found himself responding to the touch of her against him. As his body reacted, Nicole roused from her light slumber, feeling his desire and sliding her body up, kissing her husband passionately to show him she was up for another round if he was.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What is this stuff, do you think?” Jake asked, taking another swig of the thick amber liquid in his mug. They had bought horses for themselves and the wagon, which were now resting in the stables, and decided it was time for a drink.

“I’d guess it’s mead, considering the sweet taste and the obvious alcohol content,” Will said. “It’s too light to be ale and too thick to be beer.”

“Whatever the hell it is, it’s damn good,” Les said, drinking deeply of his own mug. “Hey wench! Another pitcher over here!”

“Don’t call her a wench!” Larisse demanded.

“What?” Les replied. “It’s her job description. ‘Serving wench’. Now, if I were back home and called a waitress a wench, that’d be different.”

“No matter where you are, it’s still demeaning,” Larisse contended, looking to her brother for support.

“Don’t look at me, sister dear,” Aaron said, leaning back in his chair. “I’m not getting involved in this one.”

“It’s not demeaning if that’s the proper term, given the culture,” Will argued. “Whether it’s appropriate is a moot point; the fact that it obviously offends you is a completely different issue.” He smiled and flipped a silver piece to the barmaid as she set another pitcher on the table and took the empty one away.

“Well of course it offends her,” Les said with a grin. “Pissing off the femnazi is one of my favorite pastimes.”

“Pissing off the femnazi when she’s smaller than you and can’t do serious damage is one thing,” Will posed, “but pissing off the femnazi when she’s got fireballs hidden up her sleeve is not the wisest thing in the world to do.”

“Ah, but if I infuriate her to that point, I’ll still have won as far as I’m concerned,” Les replied grinning smugly just to get a rise out of Larisse. He lifted his mug to drink, and shouted through a mouthful of mead as his chair upended itself and tossed him into the floor. Sputtering and wiping spilled mead off his face, Les climbed back into his chair only to have it toss him to the floor again. When he finally managed to get back in his chair and stay there, Larisse was staring off towards the bar with a look of complete innocence on her face.

“So clumsy!” she said, turning back to him with a mischievous grin. “Maybe you’ve had enough to drink tonight, yes?”

“Touché,” Les replied, refilling his mug and offering it up in salute.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HC and Nicole collapsed against each other, completely spent. He pulled her close against him, lightly kissing down from her forehead to her lips. Moonlight streamed into the room through the small window opposite the door, causing her eyes to sparkle in the darkness of the room. HC couldn’t help but smile as he stared deeply into the eyes of the woman he loved, and she returned his smile faintly.

“Do you think we’ll get home?” she asked him, her voice steady but her eyes betraying her fear.

“I promise you that we will,” HC replied, reaching up with one hand to caress her cheek. “And you know I always keep my promises.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Dude.”

“What?” Will asked.

“That girl over there,” Jake said, motioning with his eyes. Will chanced a look and spotted a young woman, barely out of her teens if she was in her twenties at all, sitting a few tables over from them. She was gorgeous by most standards of human beauty, a perfectly proportioned body, skin the color of coffee blended with milk, and eyes of emerald green staring out of a face framed by lightly curled hair of the darkest raven-black. “She’s been looking this way every couple of minutes now, staring at me for a little while and then going back to pretending she’s not paying me any mind.”

“Shit, dude, way out of your league,” Will chuckled. “She’s probably staring at someone else.”

“No, I’m telling you!” Jake said excitedly. “I keep catching her out of the corner of my eye, and every time I turn my head that way she snaps her head back and pretends she wasn’t looking. Seriously, she’s giving me the ‘fuck me’ eyes.”

“What are you going to do about it, then?”

Jake gulped down the rest of his mead and stood up. “First off, I’m going to go talk to her.”

“Go for it, man.” Will watched with a smile as Jake left, slowly draining his own mug. He watched Jake sit down next to the girl, and the two started talking; from Will’s view it looked like they were hitting it off. Then he saw something that nearly made him choke on his drink. Returning his mug to the table, Will interrupted Aaron and Les from their arm-wrestling match by forcing Aaron’s arm down.

“We’ve got trouble.”

“Sasha? That’s a beautiful name,” Jake said, just before he felt the point of a blade poke through his coat just between his shoulder blades. A gruff voice told him to stand, and a look of abject terror washed over Sasha’s face. Jake rose slowly and turned to face a man the same size as Aaron and with a face even an ogre couldn’t love. In one meaty hand was a wicked looking sword with a jagged, serrated edge, the point now level with Jake’s sternum.

“Oh, bloody hell.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A great crash from downstairs woke Nicole in a start. Throwing on her robes she darted out the door to see what was going on and quickly returned to wake HC. “Get dressed,” she said. “There’s trouble downstairs.”

“Trouble?” HC asked groggily. “What kind of trouble?”

“The kind only your brother can get into!”

That woke HC up in an instant, and he practically jumped into a pair of pants. Grabbing his quarterstaff he darted past Nicole towards the stairs, sliding down the banister without thinking about what he was doing and crashing into a man about to crack Aaron in the back of the head with a club. HC didn’t have time to marvel at the luck, as another man came at him with a sword. HC ducked low and thrust his quarterstaff under the man’s ribcage; his opponent’s momentum carried him into the blow, crushing his diaphragm. HC didn’t bother making sure the man was out of the fight; that was a killing blow.

In the middle of the fray he saw Les fighting off near a dozen other men, and Will was leaping from table to table, using bottles and mugs as makeshift clubs against any enemy he could find. The melee seemed to be against some men in a strange uniform and whatever regulars happened to be in the inn at the time. Something moving to his right caught HC’s eye, and he turned just in time to see a flying bottle of wine freeze in midair, inches from his face, then hurtle at a right angle to its previous path and into the head of a uniformed man at Larisse’s direction. Low chanting carried itself to his ears above the noise of the fight, and HC found his blows guided by some unknown force to strike true; without looking he knew Nicole was doing her part to help from the stairs.

Jake was doing his best to avoid being run through. He had no clue as to why this man was trying to kill him, and he couldn’t think of any spells that wouldn’t cause serious collateral damage in this fray. As he darted backwards from a swing of that wicked blade, he tripped over a chair and tumbled into a corner. Before he could get to his feet the man was above him, ready to strike down; Jake closed his eyes and prepared for the hit, but the blow never came. He opened his eyes to find Sasha standing between him and the swordsman; no matter how the swordsman tried to move around Sasha, she would move to block him. Jake noted the hesitation in the swordsman’s movements as he tried to move past Sasha. He could only assume the man was an assigned bodyguard meant to watch over her.

“Shit,” he cursed. “What have I gotten myself into?”

The swordsman finally overcame his hesitation and pushed Sasha aside. As the swordsman raised his blade over his head, Jake heard a wet crack and the swordsman’s eyes rolled back into his head before he crashed to the floor. Behind the unconscious swordsman was HC; it had been a well aimed blow to the back of the man’s neck that put him out of the fight.

“Get up,” HC ordered. “We’re leaving.”

As Jake stood, Sasha grabbed his arm. “Please!” she pleaded, “Take me with you!”

“No,” HC said flatly, grabbing Jake and pulling him away.

“Wait!” Jake shouted. “She needs our help!”

“Not as much as we need to get the hell out of here!” HC replied. “Now let’s go!”

Nicole was down the stairs, while Aaron helped clear the way for her and Larisse to get to where Les and Will were helping the tavern patrons turn the tide against the men in uniform. “Larisse!” HC bellowed. “We could use a diversion if you’ve got one prepared!”

The wizardress nodded and raised her hands, flashing the sign HC had taught them was for maintaining night vision. They each closed their eyes as a blinding flash of light exploded from Larisse’s palms, blinding the unaware participants in the tavern brawl. In the confusion they slipped outside, hitching their wagon and climbing onto their horses. As they rode off towards the town gates they could see the guards opening it for a late-arriving merchant. With reckless abandon they charged through the open gate before the merchant could come through, startling the guards on duty and spooking the merchant’s draft horses. They were gone before the commotion at the gate calmed down, and the guards never got the chance to get a good look at them.

They rode until their horses were about to fall over from exertion, then dismounted and began walking. Aaron unhitched the horse from the wagon and tethered it to the back, picking up the front and walking it as he had done before entering town. He hadn’t taken ten steps before he stopped. “Dammit Will!” he snapped. “Get the fuck off the wagon! This is no time to be playing around!”

“I’m right here,” Will retorted, walking his horse up next to Aaron. “What are you going on about?”

Aaron dropped the front of the wagon, causing the heavy contents to shift violently forward. A short shriek erupted from under the tarp, and with a sharp motion Aaron’s hands darted underneath and pulled the source of the shriek out into the moonlight. “Oh, for the love of…” He dropped the stowaway on the ground and stepped away, gesturing with a hand towards their unwanted guest. “We try to avoid trouble and trouble just decides to tag along anyway!”

Brushing herself off as she stood, Sasha’s face flushed and she smiled weakly at her unwitting rescuers. Of all of them, only Jake looked at all happy to see her, and she quickly began to think that he choice of new company might not be better than her old company.

“Why?” HC asked simply. The others stood silent, waiting for her answer.

“I… I wanted adventure,” Sasha said quickly. “I ran away from home and the men you saw me with picked me up. To the public they made it look like I was one of them, but I was a slave when no one of authority was around.”

“Horseshit,” HC said, without hesitation. “Try again.”

“Because may father was trying to use me as an attempt to gain control of the country,” Sasha said softly, here eyes going to the ground. “He’s the Grand General of Tarania, and he thought that by marrying me to the Crown Prince and having me give birth to an heir before the king and Crown Prince had fatal ‘accidents’, he could set himself on the throne by serving as a regent until my child was of age to rule. That is, if my child ever lived that long.”

HC looked to Nicole, who had cast a charm to make Sasha speak the truth. Nicole nodded, and HC sighed, his head rolling back and one hand reaching up to rub his forehead. “Christ, Jake,” he said after a few moments. “All the girls in this world and you had to pick a freaking Helen of Troy.”