- The Whales enter a completely different Rift-World from what the other scouts have described.
- Siria, instead of being blamed by Ingrid reacts with joy, believing that the Whales must have been 'worthy' to have been brought there.
- An encounter with a horde of infected creatures known as worm-heads ends with the Whales victorious and the monsters routed.
- As they press onwards, Ingrid finds the world they're in a little too familiar...
S03E13
WELCOME TO THE THUNDERDOME!
"Are you seeing this...?" Ingrid said, a look of disbelief in her face as she held up the shoe. It was black, with red and white accents. There was a light smattering of maroon splotches on it, especially on the inside, hinting at the fate of its former wearer.
“Ermm…” Cuddly murmured, waddling over to a stray patch of marigolds, he plucked it from the ground and started chewing on it.
“Nineteen-ninety-one Air Jordans, and it looks pretty new despite its vintage.” Philia said, looking at the bloody shoe that Ingrid had picked up.
"It's the same model worn by His Airness." Cecil whistled. “Someone’s got cash to flash around…”
"Welp." Zefir remarked, observing the feed, "Since you guys are already there, get me a truckload of Marlboro Black and a crate full of Coke."
"Ten-four, Baseplate." Ingrid said, breathing in the air deeply. Glancing up, she surveyed the park ahead.
Thirty feet away, the grassy ground was bisected by a wooden, covered boardwalk that stretched across where Ingrid was facing. It was raised above the ground, mostly likely built for park-goers who preferred not to get their shoes muddied and avoid slipping post-rainfall. A two-step staircase for easy access was built along its sides for easy access. Between the steps were rows of small shrubs in planters, each bearing vibrant blossoms. Meanwhile, hanging below the roofs were pots for various orchids.
Ahead, the stretch of grass continued for another hundred feet, from where tall pine trees stood like sentinels, as if guarding the bed of flowers behind them. A low wall of stacked stones with cast-iron fences that would have prevented pedestrian access had been breached, no doubt from the more gargantuan worm-heads that were marauding this world, leaving behind swathes of trampled blossoms, upturned loam and scattered flat stones while the cast-iron fencing had been curled up and torn as the giants' feet kicked and pushed through them without a thought.
Beyond that, Ingrid could see the tell-tale sidewalk, the black asphalt road, and the fences that enclosed the backyards of a suburban neighborhood. Apart from the breaches in the park walls, the crushed cars, and the bloody sneaker she was holding, there were little signs of carnage. No doubt any corpses of unlucky residents or would-be scavengers would have been either taken back to the worm-head's nests for disposal, or were consumed if not carried away by the more conventional scavengers.
As for damage there was little. Ingrid could see some newly-gouged potholes in the asphalt ahead and a few knocked-down bollards, but the placement of the crushed cars by the sidewalk suggested they were abandoned by the time the worm-heads marauded into this suburb. The suburban fences looked pristine and the houses ahead did not look dilapidated in any way. The one exception was the house right ahead of them; with its fence knocked down inward. But that was it. It seemed that whatever big monster caused this damage merely bumped into the fence accidentally, leaving the backyard intact.
Dropping the shoe back in the grass, Ingrid pointed towards the boardwalk as she turned to face the team. “Let’s gather there, but no further till I give the all clear. Cuddly, quiet the Duck Man. Iohann, shield us from projectiles now. Viel, get the muffling spell on. Aviz and Montessa, take position behind that wooden walkway. Cecil, Peanut, Viel, Siria, and Chris, get up on that roof, nobody should be expecting anyone from up there."
“Roger!” Everyone chorused as they quietly jogged forward. Siria and Viel upon getting close to the boardwalk had no problem jumping onto the roof in a single bound, being an elf and ciltran respectively, their nimble forms landing soundlessly. Cecil's Dialog Window, Chris's portal, and Peanut flew in close after.
"At the first sign of anyone shooting at us," Ingrid said as she saw them take position by the roof, "level the houses. We won't take any chances."
"Copy." Siria said, the head of her staff glowing with magical sigils.
"Roger." Cecil said. His graft chambered the first round of his M240 machine gun while his main body turned and gave a thumbs-up to Chris, who squeaked an affirmative and quickly loaded his RPG launcher. Meanwhile, Ralph peered down the scope of his sniper rifle, his face pressed against the gun stock’s cheek rest.
Peanut twirled around, whirling her wand in circles to create a curved [Wall of Force] in front of the group, a precaution in case anything was sent flying their way.
Likewise, Viel also raised her staff, casting a wide [Muffling Spell] to prevent anyone from hearing the party speak amongst themselves, or hear the sounds of gunfire should a fight break out.
“Mrrrhhh…” the Fae Marsh Hare as he loped ahead, grabbing a handful of marigolds and holding it in his mouth while the duck-folk hunter quietly ran ahead of the party, stepping into the boardwalk as a decoy. With another wave of his wand, he summoned more Fae Harriers to form a perimeter around the party just in case any threats emerged elsewhere.
As soon as Ingrid issued her command, the Tixi Mice fireteams Montessa and Aviz quickly scuttled onwards, the adorable tubby rodents taking cover behind the wooden deck, peering over like World War One soldiers in a trench, rifles at the ready. As they did so, Selphie’s upraised arm glowed with magic.
“[Hunter’s Grass]” Selphie’s voice wafted through the air with an ethereal distortion as she cast her Floramancy; the grass on the opposite edge of the boardwalk grew tall, obscuring the mice from view, but from their perspective as well as the rest of the team’s, they were see-through.
"[Slow Arrow]" Iohann called as she ran alongside everyone, enveloping a wide area around the party with a field that caused any projectile that entered its domain to lose much of its inertia. As she cast her spell, she waved her blessed thurible, creating a smoke screen that did not interfere with anyone’s senses.
Sammy and Johnny brought up the rear, the grassy field they were in allowing the latter to stretch his defensive network of roots for much longer. While he could run faster, he kept his position at the rearmost.
The whole team kept in pace with each other, and in a mere few seconds had taken position behind the boardwalk.
"I will attempt to establish a connection." Neith announced as she launched the Aquila drone high up in the air.
"Be discreet about it, Neith." Philia said as she stood by Ingrid. She reached into her Traveler’s Valise that was clipped onto her belt to fetch out a pair of binoculars. “Don’t want Taffy to find us now, do we?”
“Agreed.”
Siria’s elf-ears wiggled at the implications of what the earthlings were trying to say. She saw the houses ahead, there were no signs of life, some of them flew the same banner that Neith was waving earlier in the Titan’s cage while Ingrid made a passionate speech against “landed titles”.
Their architecture was alien, rather simple, but at the same time had that very familiar aesthetic she had seen before…
Kvaris narrowed her eyes in thought. The way that Ingrid, Cecil, and Philia seemed to recognize their surroundings and Zefir’s cryptic remark was telling her something about the world they were in. That cryptic exchange regarding an alien-looking shoe tickled the back of her thoughts. It had to come from someone who lived here, as opposed to an adventurer back in the Titan Cage…
"You recognized what kind of shoe that was." she told Ingrid, standing off to the side to watch out for any right-side flankers. The right-side Santiago team broke off to join her watch, the five of them mindfully staying within the confines of the divine smokescreen that Iohann afforded the party.
"It's a sneaker, specifically tailor-made for playing basketball." Ingrid replied, stepping onto the boardwalk alongside the Duck Hunter and Philia.
"It can work well for any athletic activity so long as you have hard floors.” Zefir added in explanation. “Though in reality most people here would wear it just for vanity. That said, these kinds of shoes bear a kind of prestige such that nobody would wear these where you expect them to get that dirty.”
“So whoever wore these was chased down here before the worm-heads got to him." Selphie postulated. Like the mice, she had her pellet gun trained along the exposed street ahead, keeping an eye on anything that might peek out and shoot at the party.
“We’re…we’re in your world, aren’t we?” Siria said hesitantly. More of a statement than a question.
“This is…Earth?” Peanut squeaked in surprise. Being the latest addition to the team, it was not surprising she was the slowest to pick up on the cues.
“Yup.” Ingrid confirmed. “This is Earth.”
“Earth, well that’s what I thought as well, the way you looked at this place.” Kinu said, walking off to the sides as Sammy nodded to her. She, Johnny and fireteam Lakota would watch the team’s rear. Like her sister, the left-side Santiago team squeaked and padded over to her side, ready to shoot any suspicious silhouette that did not respond to any calls for identification.
"The houses ahead seem abandoned.” Siria observed, taking out her own binoculars for a closer look. “Some of them are bearing the same banners that Neith was waving around in the Titan’s Cage.” she added.
Philia, Cecil, and Zefir snickered at the mention of the American flag, with the memory of the mice loudly squeaking “The Star Spangled Banner” while Ingrid was going into a passionate Hank Hill speech.
“Definitely, Siria.” Philia said, composing herself, “We’re in the United States of America, or just the USA for short. Though exactly where is as vague as saying ‘I’m from Elion-Nosco.’ You’re talking about the fourth biggest country on Earth after all, it’s actually bigger than my kingdom.”
“That vague, huh?” Ingrid said, looking up from her binoculars to glance at Philia.
“Definitely not Alaska since that’s covered by ice and snow.” Cecil guessed as he gestured at the HTX drone and pointed ahead. In response, the portal-mounted cameras focused on the house, zooming in the view for a better look.
“...and considering it’s foggy here we can’t possibly be anywhere near the south, I’d say somewhere closer to our northern neighbor Canada.” the slime concluded, watching the monitor’s feeds. There seemed to be no movement, but some windows were open and had curtains fluttering in the wind. “It should have no significant bearing on our objective though.”
"Hopefully not..." Ingrid said, checking her smartphone for any results from Neith but all she saw was an ominous “No Signal”.
“You said your world was under attack by the Dark Empire…” Iohann said, remembering the stories Ingrid told about herself.
“Right.” Philia said “It’s going to be really awkward for anyone here to see both Star Lily and the Dark Queen Melrondia working side-by-side, we’re going to have to assume everyone is hostile because the last everyone saw me, I was trying to invade this world.”
“We should get into that house then.” Kvaris said, glancing at the knocked-down fence “We can’t afford to be seen here.”
“We will.” Ingrid replied, resuming her scanning of the houses’ windows.”But we need to make sure there’s nobody around trying to shoot us. We can’t afford to be caught in a cross-fire after all. Also, Neith is still trying to establish contact…”
“Discreetly.” Philia added.
“Neith’s discreetly trying to establish contact as well as gain our bearings.” Ingrid explained. “We don’t want a run-in with our country’s military, but if push comes to shove.” she turned around and flashed everyone a confident, toothy grin. “I’m gonna show them what a corrupted Starchaser is like. Terragalia is my home now, and you guys are my family.”
“Gotta deal with the worm-heads, the Dark Empire, and possibly even the military, bummer, three factions to watch out for…” Zefir sighed.
“It is what it is.” Cecil remarked.
“Heh.” Kvaris grinned back. “Let’s hope we don’t run into the other Starchasers then.”
Philia shrugged, “Ingrid gave me the most trouble.”
“Any word yet, Neith?” Ingrid asked, wondering what was taking so long.
“No signal still.” the AI answered “Just some crazies on the AM radio giving the Waco nutcases a run for their money. I'll patch you through."
Ingrid, Cecil, Philia, and Zefir now were snickering as Neith played the broadcast.
"The end times are nigh! The prophecy foretells the sign of the Beast! Your sins have brought forth these abominations, crawling ravenous and hungry deep from the bowels of the Earth! All you idolaters, fornicators, and sinners shall burn! Repent, and pray to the Lord!"
Even Iohann, the Whales’ cleric was snickering “Ascetics, I swear…every single one of them.”
The broadcast was interrupted with a sharp distortion followed by a hollow voice playing back numbers. Neith cut the transmission and resumed listening in alone.
“I can’t figure out those numbers.” Neith added. “They don’t respond to any codes I’m familiar with.”
“The Five-six-oh-two header sounds like a containment protocol.” Philia said mildly. “Probably because they have to deal with worm-heads on top of aliens from outer space.”
“Outer space?” Peanut squeaked in query.
“Right… I really should play that instructional video soon.” Philia muttered.
“I don’t recall the Dark Empire ever sending zombie-like SEEDs.” Zefir said.
“Ingrid and I have never dealt with any.” Cecil said.
“Never did.” Philia answered back. “It was mentioned to me once when I was Dark Queen but was dismissed as… Cone Hat in a manner of speaking.”
At the mention of “Cone Hat” the team’s mages were giggling.
“Zombies?” Viel asked, not familiar with the term.
“It ummm… really gross by Terragalia standards.” Philia sighed “There’s two types of zombies in Earth’s culture; there’s the people infected with a disease that turns them to wild animals like those worm-heads, and there’s… the dead forcibly brought back to life to do the same. Most stories involve people trying to survive countless ravenous undead who seek to consume the living.”
“Ugh, corrupted Night Men.” Kinu screwed up her face in disgust.
“Disgraceful.” Iohan uttered, mumbling a short prayer.
Siria mewled at the thought “Poor valiant ones,”
“Well no, first of all, it’s just a fairytale here on Earth but a popular one. Second, it’s not the valiant slain since most zombies usually refer to just ordinary folk being brought back.” Philia sighed.
Ingrid raised an eyebrow and Philia continued “For your information, Ingrid, you’ve probably noticed it by now but our undead in Terragalia; the Night Men, is a serious and honored calling. So the idea of wild undead like the zombies we know is an utterly disrespectful idea.”
Gwen chuckled darkly “It’s why when King Fish told me stories of her world, it always made me think of Earth as a heartless, barbaric realm.”
“You’re not wrong at times.” Cecil laughed deprecatingly. He then glanced at Ralph and Chris, and the two mice relaxed their vigil. So far, nothing had been peering out of the windows or fences.
“Horrible or not, it appears we are in such a ‘zombie’ situation.” Sammy said, watching the team’s rear along with Johnny and fireteam Lakota. “But shouldn’t such a situation be resolved quickly? I’m sure an army like our mice would have eliminated their numbers already.”
“Not so…” Ingrid said, glancing back at her smartphone, but still could find no signal as per Neith’s scans. “We’re already dealing with an invasion… that would seriously drain the resources one needs to deal with the worm-heads. We must assume the colony’s still at full force and not decimated, considering what we’ve encountered so far.”
“And don’t forget the stupid drama unnecessarily boiling up due to non-issues while real problems happen.” Cecil grinned “Billions of lives would’ve been saved if leaders took the Elion-Nosco route and just did what needed to be done.”
"Elion-Nosco would still suffer tons of casualties, really.” Philia told Cecil, “On paper, Elion-Nosco's power is centralized, with the king having final authority in all matters. In reality, there's places like southern Elion-Nosco where the de facto final word is from the lords who directly govern those lands.”
“Huh.” Cecil said, frowning as he mistook another fluttering curtain for someone peeking out.
“The lords of southern Elion-Nosco are direct descendants of the old Noscoan bloodline who form half of the kingdom’s name.” Gwen explained “As a matter of fact, King Fish’s blond hair is an indicator that she had inherited much of that bloodline’s honored features, though her illegitimate status and her being a human has denied her the prestige that it would have brought.”
Philia put down her binoculars and waved dismissively, “Pshaw, Outlaw, I prefer being a bastard. It helped me milk more ‘me time’ and perfect my research since I’m seen as a scary ‘monster child’ of the royal family. Besides, nothing would have changed if I was a legitimate child of the king Raldia, I still would have faked my death and run away once I’ve completed my stash.”
Gwen sighed “As you say, milady, but the prestige afforded to you as a legitimate child would have afforded you more gold and manpower to help you with your projects.”
"True..." Cecil murmured, motioning for HTX to pan the cameras to check the other houses to the sides. "...but wouldn’t all those extra resources also mean she would just get roped into even more of those non-issue meetings? From what I've been told, she was only given responsibility because her dad did it out of spite."
Philia wagged her finger in Cecil's direction before putting on her binoculars again, "My thoughts exactly, all those additional resources pale in comparison to what I actually had, the most valuable of it all: Time."
“No internet signal, most radio stations are jammed, numbers stations are being cryptic…” Neith interrupted, still continuing with her scans for signals “the damage here must be extensive to bring down that much infrastructure. I’m also getting some old-school television signals but they’re mostly Emergency Broadcast distress signals like we’re in some analog-horror movie. And get this… a lot of the houses are sporting old-school TV antennas like they’re expecting to watch reruns of Golden Girls.”
“That’s alright, Neith.” Ingrid replied “Keep Aquila up for observation.”
“Affirmative.” Neith replied. “Be advised, visibility is compromised thanks to all this fog.”
“Noted.”
“I wish I lived in a place like southern Elion-Nosco...though if I could really Wish, then I’d probably not want to be there at all, somewhere in Veles or Freid would be much better for me and my tribe…” Selphie sighed, then made cute noises as Ingrid gave her loving headpats.
“At the very least you’re with us now.” Philia smiled as she talked to the dryad reassuringly, rubbing her cheeks with her palms.
“Mmmmhh… yes…” the dryad murmured, leaning into Philia’s hands as she closed her eyes and smiled.
“You’ll take vengeance on them one day.” Philia assured her, smiling as Selphie made cute noises. “I’ll make sure you will.”
___
Meanwhile, Kvaris, taking Ingrid’s example, peered through her own binoculars and looked down the stretch of park ground. Despite Ingrid’s world supposedly being far more advanced than Terragalia, she found it rather drab according to her tastes. Recreational parks existed in Terragalia and they usually were found in big cities. Even Teth-Odin had one though the party had yet to visit it given their busy schedule.
That said, Kvaris was more used to flamboyant parks, the type that ostentatiously showed off to visitors the most beautiful blossoms and most majestic of trees so they would know the best of the land’s natural beauty. She figured that perhaps the forest the Whales had walked through would have whet one’s appetite in seeing it first-hand.
"Since you're talking about Elion-Nosco," Kvaris spoke up, "Kinu and I have been to the eastern part. It's cut off from the rest of the kingdom by the massive Sun Wall..."
"It's like the Great Wall of China." Philia interjected quickly, hugging her prized bio-weapons platform that was Selphie.
"...it insulates the rest of Elion-Nosco from the more autonomous seaside port cities over there.” Kvaris continued, “Rulership of those lands are held by elected lords. Due to the wealth they bring to the kingdom; they're allowed to reign over their cities freely... within reason of course."
On hearing that, Kinu giggled.
"The people at the capital love to slander the east for being a filthy, lawless jumble of cities,” Kinu said “...but the reality is, when we visited those cities with father years ago, we found them no dirtier than any other very busy hub of commerce."
Kvaris giggled in sync with her sister, "They sure loved to dismiss any lack of incident due to father's reputation but the reality was Kinu and I had spent many days walking those streets without his company and never once had anyone attempted to rob us or snatch our purses."
“So did they like, put up that wall just in case those seaside city-states decide to band together and secede or something?” Cecil asked, figuring that was probably the reason the wall was built in the first place.
“Precisely.” Came Philia’s answer. “But as our Enthana girls said, that place is really nice to be in. I’d even recommend we spend a few days there…”
“...if we didn’t have to pass through the rest of the kingdom.” Gwen finished for her, divining her thoughts.
“Yeah.” The ex-Princess sighed “They’ve gotten even better stuff than Teth-Odin, that’s for sure.”
Sammy, watching the team's rear along with Johnny and fireteam Lakota, laughed heartily in agreement. "The only places my tribe have sojourned in that kingdom were in the north a few times. It's held by a confederation of various barbarian tribes. On paper, the various chiefs there boast of their autonomy but in reality they're only too happy to do as the crown says in hopes of the capital intervening on their behalf since they're always squabbling over each other."
Ingrid let out an amused snort.
“Sounds just like home.” she said, turning to face her team. “There’s things here that are illegal in one state but perfectly fine next door.”
“Will this affect our quest here?” Viel inquired, her ears had been twitching around. Siria looked at her and she shook her head, indicating that despite having the sharpest ears in the team, she could hear nothing coming from the town ahead of them.
“Not really,” Ingrid replied. “Sure, some states don’t appreciate people carrying weapons openly but none of us look like we belong here in the first place. Also, considering we’re facing a worm-head infestation in this world, it shouldn’t matter anymore.”
“Well…” Ingrid continued, turning to face the team ahead. “All clear, let’s head to that house with the knocked-down fence."
The Whales quickly but quietly jogged across the park.
“So, does this place look familiar?” Iohann asked as they crossed the last stretch of lawn.
“The exact place? No, but as what kind of place we are, it’s a suburb.” Cecil replied, still scanning the windows and rooftops for any possible shooters. “That means there’s only houses here and the occasional church or school. For buying food and supplies you’ll need to drive out a few miles out to get them.”
“I doubt we’ll find them.” Iohann remarked “If the townsfolk evacuated it stands to reason the merchants would have fled alongside them.”
“We’ll need to find vehicles...” Zefir suggested, “If you guys are planning to ransack a Walmart, would be worth it for our villagers at the very least…”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“K-Mart” Neith corrected him “also Costco would be ubiquitous here.”
“Right…” Zefir continued “Those places are going to take hours to reach on foot, it’s best you guys either commandeer some working vehicles you can find there, or alternatively, double back here and get the ATV. What’s the verdict, Starchaser Actual?”
“We take what we can from this house.” Ingrid replied “Then we locate the turnpike that leads us out of this suburb. If we find vehicles along the way we will commandeer those, if not, we turn back and fetch the ATV. Raiding a couple of gun stores wouldn’t hurt either… but I suspect those are amongst the most likely picked clean by looters already…”
The mist seemed to thin as the party approached the house. It was a two-storey structure like all the rest. It had slate-gray roofs, red brick walls for the first floor and cream-colored wooden boards everywhere else. The first floor had bay windows with most of them having the curtains drawn. The pair of windows that flanked the backdoor however, were not.
[“Obscure Scrying”] Viel said, pointing her staff at the house. The windows briefly shimmered.
“That will prevent anyone from seeing clearly through the windows.” Viel explained as she jogged along. “It heavily distorts the light passing through the glass, making it quite an eyesore to look at.”
“Good thinking, Viel!” Ingrid snickered, her smile however turned to a thoughtful look as she noted the cars she passed by, “Neith, get me the model of those cars.”
“Standby, this will take a bit considering they’re completely totalled.” Neith said as she launched her Falcis drone to scan the destroyed vehicles.
At the same time, Ingrid pointed to two trees that stood on either side of the backyard.
"Montessa, Aviz." Ingrid said, "Get me eyes up on those trees."
The mice squeaked in assent and skittered up their branches. Their predatory instincts allowing them to climb quickly and silently, with not a single branch rustling despite the fact that six armored and heavily armed dog-sized mice ran up the trunks of these trees.
“Lakota, get me eyes on the second floor windows.” Cecil added quietly. The secondary big portal hovered up, guns trained on the windows. Sharpshooter mice Orlando and Owen activated their sights’ infrared but saw nothing, prompting the driver Rykard to let out a series of small squeaks to signal an “All clear.”
“Those wagons…” Iohann noted as the team passed by the stomped-on cars, “The ATV had me expecting the common form of transport to be much bigger, but these look like they can carry only a handful of passengers.”
“Three to five, I reckon.” Kinu said, noting the size of the cars.
“They are.” Philia replied, recognizing one as a flattened Toyota Corolla. “Our ATV is an exception, it’s huge because it needs to be able to travel across rugged terrain and carry many people and supplies. These cars are for use within paved roads, few if any of them are fit for travelling on wild soil.”
“I’d like to travel on these some day…” Sammy laughed, wondering how they looked in their pristine condition.
“You’ll probably like some models.” Cecil said as he flew along, keeping an eye on the ground-floor bay windows. “Some can run across roads really fast, we have sports where people race specially built cars.”
“The Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut,” Neith said as she wheeled along. “Reaching five-hundred and thirty-one kilometers per hour.”
“Could you put it in something understandable?” Siria said, “I’m not familiar with these units of measurement, like say paces.”
“Of course,” Neith replied ”In one second that car at top speed could clear about a hundred and forty-seven and a half meters per second or…. The length of eighty-four paces.”
“What about the fastest horse on Earth?” Viel suggested “that way we can get some reference.”
“In comparison, the fastest horse on Earth was recorded at a top speed of seventy-two and three quarters of a kilometer per hour. That’s sixty-four and a half meters per second or thirty-seven paces.” Neith replied.
“So more or less the fastest horse is three times slower than the fastest car.” Sammy murmured thoughtfully.
“Well don’t get your hopes up, I doubt we can find a car of that caliber here.” Neith said placatingly. “At most we’ll probably have to settle for something around half that speed.”
“Ingrid once drove a Shelby Cobra.” Philia chuckled. “We call it a muscle car since its engine was meant for pulling loads much larger and heavier than the car’s own body.”
“It has a maximum speed of two-hundred and ninety kilometers per hour. That’s eighty meters per second or about sixty paces a second.” Neith said quickly.
“So Ingrid’s old metal steed runs about more than twice as fast as the fastest horse, but half the speed of that Konig-car.” Sammy said.
“Mhmm…” Ingrid murmured proudly “I love that car. I bet it’s in a museum somewhere now, being the vehicle of a fallen hero it’s probably become too priceless to sell…”
The backyard's grass was only slightly overgrown, which seemed to say that it had only been a few days since the worm-head onslaught had begun. A wooden patio led up to the house, where some of the wicker outdoor furniture had been knocked down. Ingrid smiled as she saw fireteam Santiago's leader, Gerard, poke one of the garden gnomes with this glaive. The golden Tixi mouse chittered in relief, seeing that it was only a statue before skittering over to join the rest of his team that took stations by the edge of the patio, peering over with their guns at the ready.
“Ermm…” Ingrid smiled as she saw Cuddly run up a lone sunflower, its leaves had been completely pruned and its head was drooping, no doubt the house’s occupants were in the middle of taking its seeds. The adorable Fae Marsh Hare quickly nibbled at its stem, causing it to fall over and allowing the cuddly hare to start nibbling away at the many seeds.
Ingrid walked up the patio along with Cecil, noting that it was only lightly strewn with dry leaves. Fireteams Montessa and Aviz continued to make short quiet squeaks every minute over the radio to let her know the coast is clear.
A screen door stood ajar, which would have insulated the household from bugs or probably the occasional racoon while allowing fresh air to come in. Or at least it would have, except that the backdoor was closed. Looking up, Ingrid saw that the spring that would have kept the screen door shut was not snapped off but simply unhooked.
Before Ingrid could try the door, she heard the crinkling of paper and leaves as Cecil picked up a newspaper. It was lying near one of the patio sofas.
"The Lakeview Tribune..." the slime read aloud, the paper wasn't yellowed at all, it looked like it was only printed a few days ago. "Saturday, August 10, 1991... Ingrid, this looks recent!"
Philia turned to Neith "Get me what you can from the Lakeview Tribune..."
"Got it." Neith replied quickly. "It's a community newspaper catering to suburbs near Chicago, Illinois. It's headquartered in Downtown Chicago."
“Woohoo! Send me back some deep dish pizza!” Zefir cried. “Also, that answers the Nike shoes.” Zefir quipped.
“That’s an A-firm, Baseplate.” Philia replied.
“So where is this Illinoy place?” Selphie inquired, crowding in with Siria, Viel, and Iohann who were reading the paper along with Cecil.
“Somewhere in the middle of the United States.” Cecil explained, adjusting his hold of the newspaper so everyone could sidle up to him and read along, “There's a huge lake north-east of here, so big it’s a sea of its own.”
"I suppose that that answers our question of where in the United States we are." Kvaris said.
“Also WHEN we are.” Ingrid said.
There were confused looks as everyone looked at her.
"I'm..." Siria began hesitatingly, "I'm sure I heard you right."
"I did." Ingrid replied matter-of-factly, her expression looked like she had said something more conventional like the sun rising from the east. She glanced at the newspaper, noting that it looked like it was still fresh off of the press.
“When we are?” Iohann repeated.
“Girls, we’ve travelled backwards in time. We’re in the past.” Ingrid said flatly. Not surprisingly everyone except the earthlings quickly erupted in disbelief at a statement that she probably guessed was… in their words “cone hat”.
There was a clattering sound as Siria’s staff dropped to the floor.
“Boo!” Neith said, playing a sound clip of an audience booing “Time travel is laaaaaame!”
"EXCUSE ME!?" Siria looked up at her in surprise. She was sure the Nemesis-Stalker did not misspeak, nor was she worried of attracting any undue attention as Viel and Iohann had already recast their [Muffling] and [Slow Arrow] spells respectively.
Viel too looked up to Ingrid, wide-eyed at her bold declaration. She glanced at Cecil who seemed unmoved, yet not disapproving.
“She’s right.” Cecil said, turning the page of the newspaper to read more of the local happenings of August 10th. "The year nineteen-ninety one, or rather, year one-thousand nine-hundred and ninety-one is decades behind the era we lived in. Ingrid, Philia, and Zefir's parents in this era at most, would still be children if they were even born at all… oh look,it’s even got a Mr. Coffee ad."
“Philia?” Peanut squeaked.
“Yup. It’s true.” Philia said, glomping the little mushroom, who made adorable squee’ing sounds.
Siria glanced at the ex-princess then at Neith, neither made any dissent towards the Nemesis-Stalker’s absurd but seemingly convincing observation. Even the latter’s playful heckling; as if watching a play that resorted to a hated trope, served only to affirm rather than refute.
Zefir followed suit.
“We’ve got to go back, Marty!” Zefir said, for some reason imitating an old man’s voice “Go back to the future!”
“Ahhh geez, doc!” Ingrid replied, warbling her voice to a comic degree.
"How?" Viel spoke Siria's unasked question. “What you’re saying is quite absurd, Ingrid…how can you be so sure?”
Ingrid pointed at the newspaper that Cecil was reading, prompting Viel and Siria to come over for a look. "That newspaper’s proof enough. 1991 is decades ago and that paper hasn’t yellowed at all. Even the sound Cecil made while opening it up is still crisp, sounds like it came off the printing press only recently.”
“Maybe someone just had it stored away and decided to take it out for a read before everyone left.” Kvaris suggested. She had walked off to the right-hand of the backyard and towards a small shed nearby. Opening it up while two of the Kiowa mice covered her, she saw an assortment of containers inside, along with some tools hanging off of the inside of the door, though she only recognized a few hammers, saws, and an axe.
“Anubis found a tool shed. Take what’s inside.” Zefir said quietly over the radio.
“Lakota, come over and assist please.” Cecil said, without looking up, still engrossed in his newspaper. At once, the big portal hovered down and the mice quickly put away their guns to assist Kvaris with bringing in the goods.
“Kvaris, what you’re suggesting is impossible.” Philia said as she and Peanut hurried over to help her bring in the shed’s contents into Lakota’s portal. As she turned around, she chuckled as she saw Johnny wiggle over to the bird-feeder, the jolly pumpkin reached out a tendril and snatched the container from the perch, crushing it with his tough ironwood-like vines while opening his mouth to let all the seeds spill into his hungry maw.
“We’re talking about decades here,” the ex-princess continued “,even if the homeowner here had a hobby of archiving newspapers, he would have had a controlled environment to preserve them with and never take them out of it. Once exposed to the outside air and sunlight, even a well-preserved paper like this would begin to rapidly deteriorate considering how long ago it was made.” The ex-princess continued with her explanation.
“Don’t forget that compared to most books,” Ingrid added “Newspaper material isn’t built to last that long. It’s usually made of cheaper, easily mass-produceable pulp.”
"I've finished a scan of the crushed cars." Neith added, her drone returning back to its charging dock. "Their model is consistent with those constructed in this era. Toyota Corollas, Ford Mustangs, and Chevy Impalas. All these models' debut ranges are from 1984 to 1991."
“Most people today are too stupid to drive in manual.” Zefir added, “Meaning, nobody in our era- with exceptions like myself of course, could even operate those vehicles without crashing into things every ten feet.”
“My Shelby Cobra’s manual, by the way,” Ingrid announced grandly “like a real car should be.”
At that, Cecil looked up as Ingrid raised her hand, smacking her hand to Cecil’s tendril in approval.
“Yeah! Real Cars!” Cecil laughed, before returning to his newspaper.
“Also,” Ingrid pointed up at a pole that was pinned to the outer wall of the house. Atop it looked like a big shallow collander that was slanted at an angle, a spike with prongs jutting out sideways emerged from this enigmatic totem. “That’s a really old-school satellite dish. We don’t use those anymore and would’ve been considered an eyesore and taken down in our era. Unless we’re out in the boonies which I doubt.”
“She means to say you guys are close to a major city, probably a few miles give or take, and not in some remote, underdeveloped town.” Zefir explained “Therefore unsightly, outdated things would’ve had no justification marring anyone’s house. America’s pretty big in trying to look nice when around each other, houses being no exception.”
“It’s not even rusted.” Ingrid said with a shrug of her shoulders, letting out an amused snort as she saw Johnny pick up a bag of fertilizer and devour it whole. Meanwhile Cuddly "ermmm’d" cutely as he picked flowers from the flowerbed and tried eating them. The rest of the sunflower head he had deposited into the Lester’s portal for the rest of the Kiowa mice to eat.
“I… ummm… it’s just…” Siria was trying to form words, totally flabbergasted. She knew Ingrid was smarter than she let on; she had that cunning about her and a generous amount of resourcefulness, but this was far more than she could have expected to hear from her.
“It’s not a stretch of the imagination, considering what’s all around us, Siria.” Ingrid shrugged.
“If you want a stretch of the imagination,” Cecil remarked “The August weather is all wrong. Though I suppose that has something to do with the Ether Quartz here...”
"Wrong in what way?" Peanut asked, making cute squee'ing sounds as Philia patted her soft velvety cap before getting back to work transferring the contents of the tool shed into Lakota’s portal.
"It’s foggy and cold.” Philia said quickly “Normally, it should be two months into the summer season. Ergo, it should be quite warm right now."
Cecil turned the page before speaking, “This silence is pretty eerie as well. I guess the worm-heads spooked all the wildlife you’d expect to see in a suburban neighborhood like this. They’re probably in hiding because they’re fair game on their menu.”
“Agreed, also.” Philia said, flicking her thumb at the bird-feeder, “that bird-feeder Johnny gobbled up was untouched. Should’ve seen squirrels and raccoons feasting on them. Even the garbage is left alone.”
“Are those creatures familiars?” Selphie inquired, realizing what those fixtures were.
“No, they’re wild animals…” Ingrid replied quickly, taking out her smartphone and still finding a “No Signal” message. Neith was still not picking up anything.
“Do people on Earth just feed any wild animal they come across?” Sammy laughed.
“Why not?” Ingrid said “It doesn’t hurt to share with the wildlife that live among us, within reason of course.”
“So that’s why you’re so friendly to all creatures you see…” Kvaris snickered, coming over to inspect a stack of abandoned sacks.
“Where’s this garbage you speak of?” Selphie asked, she didn’t see any pile of refuse around “This place looks clean.”
“There.” Philia pointed to a stack of black garbage bags which were bulging. “There aren’t even flies around it. It should’ve been torn open by scavengers already.”
Kvaris’ hand froze, as she was crouching in front of it and was about to try to open it up. “So that’s what it was.” she mumbled, standing up.
___
A stretch of the imagination indeed! Siria thought to herself. It was amazing how Ingrid could have even grasped the very concept of going against the flow of time. A scholarly concept that only the most learned, but eccentric and borderline cone hat sages would have ever entertained. She herself had only heard about it once. About three hundred years ago, in a posh city where esteemed magi gathered, and only after some heavy drinking in an out-of-the-way tavern what was the favorite haunt of said eccentric individuals.
“The concept of time-travel is not even considered strange by terran standards.” Neith said, “That’s like a common folk-tale told around the fire here. As a matter of fact it’s a pretty common trope now more than it was a hundred years ago thanks to the advancements in technology.”
“You boo’ed the idea, why?” Siria asked.
“Because a lot of them use time-travel as a means to an end and therefore the science behind it is not accurate and sometimes contradictory.” Neith replied matter-of-factly “Which even for an AI like myself could forgive, if the crux of the story wasn’t such a bore to begin with.”
“You could get bored?” the elf looked at the spider-bot questioningly
“I can measure microseconds, Siria.” Neith said “That’s a million before you can count one second.”
"Here’s a time-travel story that is well-known: Rip Van Winkle" Philia began, heading over to Ingrid as Peanut and Kvaris brought in the last few containers into the portal.
“Oooh, classic piece of literature!” Cecil called out, pointing to her.
“Written by Washington Irving and published in the year one-thousand eight-hundred and nineteen, or… as we call it, year eighteen-nineteen. That’s nearly two-hundred years ago from 1991 by the way…it’s a story of a man who had gone into some Fae mountain on a stroll, only to realize upon returning that he had been transported twenty years into the future."
The team looked at her in silence; that Philia was able to immediately recall and summarize that story said a lot about how ubiquitous the concept was.
Philia didn’t notice however, as she was cautiously peering through the bay windows, finding inside a kitchen that looked like it was inspired from the The Brady Bunch, the earthy brick wall accents might have looked timeless, but the orange counters and backsplash, and avocado accents and chairs made it look like she was looking into a diorama in a sitcom museum than an actual house in the Illinois suburbs. Peanut hovered by the opposite side of the window, her form slightly distorted as she spread her body mass into a loose cloud of spores to negate any hostile projectiles that may break through the window. Neither could see anyone lurking inside, breathing a sigh of relief.
“There’s also ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’,” Zefir added, pausing for Philia to give the date.
“Written in eighteen eighty-nine by Mark Twain, also a long time ago.” Philia interjected, there was no worry of anyone lurking inside to hear her voice despite her being close to the windows, thanks to Viel’s [Muffling Spell] muting her voice to anyone inside. She tried the windows but they wouldn’t open.
“Oh that’s one’s a veeeeery familiar story.” Cecil said in a sing-song voice, going back to his paper.
“What do you mean?” Iohann queried.
“It’s literally our story right now, take it away, Baseplate!” the slime said.
“Sure.” Zefir continued. “It’s about a man who had found himself hundreds of years in the past, bringing forth his knowledge of…at the time, modern tools.”
“I get it now.” Iohann said. “Like Autumnhollow and your guns.”
“Precisely.” Cecil winked.
“And then there’s more contemporary works, like ‘Back to the Future’ which premiered in…?” Ingrid paused so Philia could give the date, which she didn’t know.
“Nineteen eighty-five. Six years ago since we’re currently in nineteen ninety-one.” Philia chimed in, trying the other window and finding also locked shut.
“Which brings up another anomaly we’re facing right now.” Ingrid said, as she hopped off the patio, crouching behind the mice positioned behind it and lovingly giving the cuddly rodents cheek rubs. As she did so, the mice closed their eyes in bliss and made happy chittering sounds.
“The story of Back of the Future…” she continued as she lavished the mice with attention ”...is about a boy who travels back in the past, and due to his interference with the course of history, he almost ends up erasing his own existence.”
The team paused, looking at her in silence, wondering what sort of grave dilemma they were in.
“The Grandfather Paradox,” Ingrid explained, her eyes closed in bliss as the mice she was cheek rubbing let out small happy squeaks. “Let's say you end up back in the past and meet your grandfather as a little boy. You kill this boy, what do you think happens?"
"Ermmm..." Cuddly murmured happily, pulling up a carrot from the ground. The Fae Marsh Hare waved his wand to dislodge all dirt and soil to clean the root crop before chewing on it.
"What's a paradox?" Selphie asked, not familiar with the term. She made cute dryad noises as Iohann affectionately ruffled her hair.
"It is something that is contradictory to its own nature, yet is." Iohann explained.
Sammy's reply was quick, despite never having heard of this concept before, The Kiowa mice had taken up position near her to help watch the team’s rear. Taking Ingrid’s example, she reached into the portals and gave the mouse manning it loving pats, making them chirp contentedly while they maintained her vigil.
"If you killed your grandfather before he could leave behind any descendants, then you would undo your own existence, as there would have been no forebears to bring you into the world."
“That’s correct in a way.” Ingrid said, straightening up as she pampered the last of fireteam Santiago, she had even jumped up to Neith’s back to rub Riker’s cheeks, eliciting squeaks of delight.
Viel's eyes were twinkling with interest at this peculiar, but fascinating puzzle (as well as the adorable sight) "Wait, something's wrong... any actions performed in the past should have already affected your present..."
"Huh..." Sammy shrugged, reevaluating her response. "Then it's impossible. You've already killed your grandfather in the past, therefore there was no way you would have been born, much less return to that moment in time..." the orc frowned as she realized the conflicting nature of the situation.
"How could you have gone back in the past to kill your grandfather, if there was already a 'you' that performed that deed back when he was a boy," Kinu pondered, voicing what Sammy was thinking.
"...and therefore preventing him from having descendants and thus making your birth, therefore your own existence an impossibility?"
"Are you saying if we act carelessly here," Kvaris postulated "We could undo your own existence?"
"The opposite actually." Ingrid replied, beaming as she confidently put her hands on her hips. "Nothing we do has any bearing on my, Cecil, Philia, and Zefir's existence."
Siria was quiet, watching everyone else's reaction. A thought slithered at the back of her mind that seemed to offer an answer to this question but it evaded her attempt to enunciate it into words.
"What makes you think there will be no repercussions?" Peanut squeaked, "You yourself presented this paradox of someone undoing their own existence by interfering with history!"
Ingrid wagged her finger "Tsk, tsk, tsk... therein lies the fallacy. You see, the scenario as presented in Back to the Future can’t happen. Let's review the paradox again. You DID meet your grandfather as a child and murdered him. That cannot happen if he was your very grandfather from your own timeline, given the contradictions you've all discerned. Therefore, the boy you're looking at as well as the past you've found yourself in is not your own. Ergo, you've travelled to an alternate world. Which is what we are in right now."
The other girls except Philia looked at Siria for confirmation; rather than readily refute Ingrid’s analysis the elf looked lost in her thoughts, as if suddenly having revelation.
“A timeline, huh?” Kinu said “And you say there’s more than one.”
Ingrid walked up to Selphie and gently traced her finger over her branches. The dryad giggled at her touch.
“Some of the top scientists of this world believe that time doesn’t exist as a single thread, but like Selphie’s antlers, diverges and branches out. When we take one choice, Time takes both. Therefore, going back to our Grandfather Paradox, the moment you’ve traveled to meet your grandpa as a boy, you’ve actually gone to a different timeline. Killing him will not undo your existence.”
Ingrid paused to run her hands through Selphie’s hair, the little dryad closed her eyes and pressed her head against Ingrid.
“We’re inside an alternate timeline right now, and I have proof.” Ingrid continued, tapping her temple with her finger before resuming giving Selphie her head pats. “None of us earthlings know of this event. Chicago, Illinois was an important city in the United States of America in 1991. Culturally, socially, and economically. Also, the Gulf War is taking place right now…”
“Hate to break it up to you Ingrid…” Cecil said, lowering his newspaper so he could look up to her. “But I’ve already gotten past the headlines and editorial and there’s not a single mention of Kuwait, Saddam, or oil for that matter… it’s like the Gulf War never happened in this timeline.”
“Welp, there we go, more proof we’re on our Earth.” Ingrid said as the slime resumed reading the paper. “See? We know about that event despite the fact that we’re in an era where our parents are still toddlers.” Ingrid paused for a bit. “Also, an attack on American soil of this magnitude, and on such an important city would become a talking point for generations to come, I bet even my great grand-kids would grow up still hearing adults talking about it then.”
“Also, this was and still is the most powerful country on Earth in terms of military power.” Philia added, “The last country that dared attack American soil was brutalized with two nuclear bombs. The thought that anyone or anything would have the audacity to do that again would have provoked widespread fury that would be passed down for generations as well.”
“...you mean those bombs that tear apart the very fabric of reality?” Peanut squeaked in query, remembering mention of nuclear power.
“The same.” Ingrid said. “What I’m trying to say is that there’s no way this could have been swept under the rug and forgotten in a few years. As a matter of fact, ten years from now, two…” Ingrid held up two fingers for emphasis “...and I mean just two towers were felled by foreign entities in New York City, a far more important city in this country and that is still a sore point despite it taking place decades ago.”
“A world like our own, but with only a couple of differences…” Iohann thought aloud “I wonder what this mirror of me would be doing?”
“Hard to say, Iohann.” Ingrid said “There’s this thing we call the Butterfly Effect. A butterfly flaps its wings and half a world away a storm is raging because of it. Little actions can have great consequences. There’s probably a mirror of you that isn’t even a priest because of some minor choice she took differently.”
Siria looked like she was about to question her own sanity. Part of her wondered if the moment she had stepped through the Rogue Rift, Ingrid had been replaced with a far more intelligent, scholarly version of herself. For the past couple of minutes the human was just delivering rapid-fire academica that she felt like she was back in that city of the magi where scholars all around the world were casually discussing wild but tantalizingly plausible theories of what could be or might have been. The only difference was that Ingrid had something to show for it every time.
She glanced at Philia, who met her gaze with a knowing look, the ex-princess’ eyes letting her know that she not only shared the same conclusions as the Nemesis-Stalker, but deliberately held her silence and let speak. Ingrid herself probably wasn't aware of it, but the Elion-Nosco princess, as well as Neith ---her academic superiors--- staying quiet was a brilliant move to prop her up as she unwittingly asserted her intellectual bonafides to the team.
The elf let out a sigh, a half-laugh, sheepish and just utterly impressed at how learned this human was. Behind her eccentric choices such as adopting dangerous creatures and a penchant for utilizing weapons and techniques considered cone hat, it seemed that her choices were tempered with a deeper understanding of the natural world’s lesser-known aspects. Aspects that while little-studied still governed the fabric of existence with equal gravity.
"So that's what it was..." Siria muttered, Ingrid’s exegesis of time-travel and mirrored worlds brought to mind her own encounter with something she could not understand.
Ingrid raised a curious eyebrow.
"Not your first rodeo is it?"
"I suppose, I'm not sure what a rodeo is… I’ve never spoken about this to anyone since most would have dismissed it as a tall tale or consider me a cone hat but… at one time,” Siria related, “I entered a Rogue Rift and it looked eerily like the Arlon Highlands. It had the Star Trees but they looked much smaller-" she paused as Zefir quickly interrupted for an explanation.
"Those are like, really tall world trees." Zefir said for Ingrid and Cecil’s benefit.
"They were only a quarter-height to what we have now-" Siria continued.
"In our timeline they breach the atmosphere." Philia added. “My guess is that their leaves are adapted for anaerobic environments and maximum solar radiation.”
“What Philia’s saying is that the upper branches of a full-grown star tree don’t need to breathe air and have adapted for withstanding the true power of the sun’s rays, something we’re all taking for granted.” Ingrid explained.
“What do you mean a star tree’s upper branches don’t breathe?” Kinu inquired, she was crouching down as she examined a small squat house. It reminded her of a miniature kobold's house as it had a pole set in front of it, but it lacked a door. A name plate was set at the entrance which her [Interpretation Spell] translated as "SPOT". She crouched and peered in but found it empty.
“Dog house. Someone’s pet lived there.” Zefir quietly explained to Kinu, watching her feed.
“Not anymore…” Kinu whispered, a chain was affixed to the pole in front of the dog house, she lifted it and found it broken. “...the worm-heads took it.”
___
“Good question Kinu,” Ingrid replied as she saw her inspect the dog house. “If you fly up high enough, the air will be so thin you can hardly breathe. You’ll notice that if you climb up very high mountains. Now, go even higher and there’s no air at all. That layer of air that surrounds our world is the atmosphere, not only does it allow us to breathe but it also shields us from the harmful effects of the sun. Yes, harmful. Without the atmosphere’s protection, the unbridled power of the sun’s rays would… how do I say this, corrupt and destroy everything it touches. Therefore, a Star Tree’s upper branches that poke out from the atmosphere must have adapted to not only live in an environment where there’s no breathable air, but also thrive from the sun’s rays at full force.”
“I’ve seen it…” Gwen said, a slight tinge of dread in her voice. “A long time ago King Fish brought high beyond the sky a series of machines called Satellites… I observed through their cameras the ground shrink away as they were steadily brought higher and higher up. The ground curved and…” there was a crinkling sound as the cat girl maid shrunk back in her seat. “...it’s nothing but dark out there…”
“Welcome to the club, Outlaw.” Ingrid said.
“Save it for another time.” Philia said dismissively “And if you keep that attitude up Outlaw, I’m going to take you with us should we need to visit the ISS.”
There were looks of apprehension from most of the girls as Gwen told her vague story, but none of the earthlings looked disturbed.
“Go on, Siria.” Ingrid encouraged, “You said the Rift World you visited was like our Terragalia but with younger star trees.”
"Right…” Siria replied slowly, her mind still spinning at how Ingrid didn’t seem to run out of scholarly sageness. “Also, the Highlands didn't have the Skyeater Titan's bones either."
"Okay, now that's just impossible in our Terragalia's timeline." Philia said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. "Because that Titan predates the growth of the Star Grove. I would know, I carbon dated them."
"A what?" the elf's ears drooped inquiringly.
"Carbon-dating. It’s a way to get a precise age of an object" Ingrid explained for her "When you burn things, you’re pretty much just reducing them to carbon, albeit in the form of charred remains. It’s in all living things and carbon has a very predictable rate at which it decays, which is why Philia is so sure that you weren’t thrown into the past of our Terragalia but a mirror of it.”
“I…ummm…” Siria began again, feeling the full brunt of the level of these earthlings' understanding of concepts that delved literally into the fabric of reality and beyond.
Ingrid patted Siria’s head purring as she did so. “Don’t worry. Let’s just ransack a university library somewhere, if it exists. I’m sure our week-long sabbatical will give you enough time to read a lot of them.”
“I’d like that.” Siria smiled, going back to read the newspaper alongside Cecil and the rest.
“Well that makes making decisions easier for now, doesn’t it?” Kvaris beamed “If we’re in the past of a mirrored Earth, then we can act here without consequence.”
“WELCOME TO THE THUNDERDOOOOOME! Woo-oooh-oooh-aaah-aaah-aaaah!” Ingrid, Philia, Cecil, Zefir and even Neith cried out in chorus, raising their arms and screeching like rabid chimpanzees, causing everyone else to burst out laughing at the sudden outburst, especially at the strange animal-like sounds they made afterwards, even the mice were squeaking in mirth.
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