Melissa

  My eyes opened, for a moment, then closed again. I was still ying in the same room I’d gone to bed in. I still had breasts, too. Not that I’d really expected things to magically get better, in my sleep. In fact I was just relieved to see that things hadn’t somehow gotten worse.

  I was trapped in another world with a woman’s body, and the only way home was to defeat an immortal sorceress-queen. I didn’t want to think about it, but “defeat” probably meant “kill” in Lonna’s eyes, too.

  I wondered if it was better to get up now, or if I should just close my eyes and try to sleep until I was forced out of bed. I mean, it was probably going to be a busy day, right? Full of walking, and… training? I didn’t know. But I doubted it was going to be rexing. Talith would probably look at me like I was an idiot, too, while Lonna would bemoan the fact that I wasn’t her perfect Heroine. Maybe it was better for me to just rest a while.

  That’s when I heard it, though - a faint humming, coming from outside the room. It wasn’t loud enough to be a bother or anything; it was barely loud enough to be heard. Still, I was sort of… intrigued.

  I mean, so far everything I’d come across had reeked - it smelled of poverty, misery and death as well as a general ck of proper bathing. But this? It sounded happy. Determined. Triumphant. I didn’t know how so much could be stuffed into such a sound, but there it was. The first bit of happiness I’d found in this world.

  If someone was happy, I wanted to know why. Which… probably sounded pretty nosy, but after the night I’d had… I just wanted to share in something good. Maybe it would help me feel a bit better, myself.

  Either way, I decided to open my eyes again, letting them focus on half of an unfamiliar ceiling. The rest of the ceiling was just pin missing, torn apart by some ‘magi’ who wiped it out with a magical explosion.

  Would that be called a Breath Bomb or something, here?

  Whatever. It was time for me to get out of bed. Which meant stretching… usually. I, uh, kinda heard a bunch of stitches popping when I tried to stretch my arms as far as they could go, though, so that pn went out the window pretty quickly.

  I didn’t let that stop me from heading for the door, though. Peeking into the main room, I found Lonna standing over a wood-burning stove. She had a small copper bot bubbling on the stove.

  She was also the one humming happily.

  I stared at her, hardly able to believe she could manage suich a sound, in the middle of all this trouble. There was no doubt in my mind of who it was coming from, though - the music only stopped when she stopped to put out the fire.

  By which I mean she blowed out the fire. Or more like blew lightly in its direction? Causing all those dancing fmes to instantly disappear.

  Was that the result of a spell? Or was there more to Lonna’s gift than she’d let on?

  “I know you’re there, Melissa,” Lonna called out, pcing the pot on the table. “Come sit down.“

  I hesitated for a moment, before ultimately shrugging and making my way over to the kitchen table. Pulling out a dingy little stool from underneath, I plopped down on it, turned towards Lonna, and asked, “So, uh… what’s for breakfast?”

  “Maize porridge, with salted pork and some mushrooms I grew in the corner. Plus each of us gets three eggs! It’s practically a feast. Eat up - you’re going to need your strength for our itinerary.”

  “Our what now?” I asked, a pleading edge in my tone even as I took in the breakfast she’d made. Pale, yellow porridge, with little bits of mushroom and pork studded here and there through it. It looked pretty good, and it smelled great - more than good enough to make my stomach growl. All the same… “I’m not eating random mushrooms that were growing in a corner.”

  Lonna rolls her eyes. “They’re Freeman's Steaks, impossible to mistake for a toxic mushroom - and you’ll eat them, if you want to keep your strength up. Ever been mountain climbing?”

  “I, uh… can’t say I have…” I admitted. I didn’t think I was going to like where this was going.

  Lonna didn’t say anything more on the subject, though. She just returned to the stove, grabbed a pte of… curiously small set of two fried yolks. Other than the small size, though, they looked just like any other eggs - good eggs, even. Crisp underneath, with golden yolks…. Yum.

  Lonna put the pte down next to the porridge pot, and handed me a roughly-hewn wooden spoon.

  “Eat up!” she cheerfully commanded. “But be careful, it’s…”

  She trailed off, wincing as I stuck my spoon into the pot, and scooped the porridge directly into my mouth. Contrary to her obvious expectations, though, I didn’t immediately spit the food out or start waving desperately at my tongue to cool it down. I just swallowed it. It tasted kinda bnd - probably needed more salt than Lonna could provide. Still, it was well cooked, and I could tell it would be filling.

  “Don’t worry,” I said, moving to grab another spoonful, “I can handle hot food. Mom always says my mouth is like a… Wait. Are dragons a real thing, here?”

  “Yes. everyone hates them,” Lonna warned me, leaning forward and lowering her voice to a whisper. “Don’t ever compare yourself to one, in any way, if you don’t want to be treated like a monster.”

  “What? What’s so horrid about dragons? I always thought they were so cool! They’re strong, and powerful, and they look gorgeous!”

  “Stop. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Everyone says - everyone knows…" Lonna’s cheeks were flushed red for some reason. Anger, I guess? Just going off the accompanying glower. "There’s nothing across Auroras half as bad as a rampaging Dragon.”

  “Auroras?”

  “The continent? Largest nd mass in all Mistina?”

  I stared at Lonna for a moment, silently collecting my thoughts. If Auroras was the continent, and Mistina was the world… a world with ringed moon….

  “I’m not just in another world, I’m on a whole different pnet,” I muttered. The fact that there were humans, living in what looked to be a medieval city, made it easy to think of this as just an alternate earth, of some sort. But it wasn’t. It was a whole other world - one that could work in completely different ways than what I knew.

  After another few seconds of contemption, I closed my eyes, inserted the long-forgotten spoonful of corn porridge into my mouth, and continued eating. This time I got a little bit of the salted pork - which, interestingly enough, did a lot to make up for the ck of salt I’d noticed in the dish as a whole.

  “You seem awfully calm about this,” Lonna remarked, pulling another stool out from her side of the table. I offered her the spoon I’d been using, since she didn’t seem to be holding one of her own, but she just waved the offer off.

  “Thanks, but a couple eggs will be fine for me. Light provides me with most of the energy I need.”

  I nodded. Not that I was entirely convinced light could provide proper nutrients all by itself, but I figured Lonna probably knew best.

  “I am pretty worried about it, by the way.” I said, between bites. “I’m freaking out. About everything. I'm on another pnet, where magic is real, and everything is strange and terrifying and out of my control."

  I gave her a helpless shrug. I wanted to express just how scary it was to be living in a house whose st owner had exploded. How exciting, but also worrying it was to be in a world where magic was possible.

  “But if I let myself dwell on that,” I said instead, “I’ll just start screaming and screaming and never stop. Which seems… bad? For my chances at survival?” I smiled, like it was a joke and not me expressing just how deep in the shit I felt I was. “So, right now, I’m just going to eat and take things one step at a time. So… Could you tell me why dragons are so bad, to start with?”

  Lonna didn’t meet my eyes, instead looking into a dark corner. I wondered if that was where she grew these ‘freeman steaks.’ Without realizing it, my tense smile became just a touch more natural, as I imagined her busying herself in the corner, desperately trying to yank out a deeply rooted mushroom.

  Not that mushrooms actually used roots, of course - but that was besides the point right now. The point was Lonna, who was currently letting out a sigh.

  “...Because they used to rule the world.”

  My smile kinda evaporated after that. Like an ice cube being hit with a dragon’s breath.

  “So. Uh. Dragons. Ruled the world?” I asked. “And they did a bad job at it?”

  “I’d say they did a pretty good job of ensving everyone," Lonna replied. "They were merciless, and damn-near invincible. All the races had to band together to defeat them, back during the Burning. Thanks to that, the surviving dragons had their powers suppressed, and they were ensved in turn."

  “The dragon’s royal family was particurly hardy, and couldn’t be killed no matter how many people tried. They were bound, instead, imprisoned under their own pace. They lived the rest of their lives in a gilded cage, surrounded by hedonistic luxury."

  Lonna looked up at me, eyes abze. "Until their daughter killed them.”

  “...Sorissa?”

  “Close. Sorissa’s wife, Arasitelle. The only dragon in existence who didn’t take part in the oppression, because she hadn't even been born yet. The other races still bound her, though, even as a baby."

  Lonna chuckled, though there wasn’t much humor to it. "Worked great, until Sorissa broke her out of the pace, undid her bindings, killed the royal family and the ruling council of Auroras - Look."Lonna narrowed her gaze. “Do you really want a history lesson?”

  “Uh. Yes?” I nodded. “I love history, or I wouldn't have minored in it. And I think I have a right to know about the person you want me to ki- dethrone.”

  Lonna frowned, her golden eyes meeting mine for a moment. Then she bowed her head, and sighed. “Like I said, Sorissa freed Arasitelle of her bindings, then killed the royal family - something people had been unable to accomplish for centuries. Then she had Arasitelle legally annex this queendom of Resperan, from her throne, at the center of Auroros. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, she handed over the rest of the country to her army for loot and pilge and let things go to shit from there - these days, the only way you can tell the knights from the outws is by what's on their shields.”

  I nodded, taking a moment to absorb this information. While it was possible that Lonna was lying, for some reason, the way she described things sorta tracked with my lessons about the Anarchy in Engnd.

  “And the mountain we’re supposed to climb?” I asked. “Is it in the gang nds, or…?”

  “Everywhere on our itinerary is firmly in Sorissa’s control. It's not great, I admit, but I won’t have to sneak you over any borders, at least.”

  I nodded, eating a bit more of the porridge. Now that I knew to mix it with the pork, whenever possible, I was finding it much tastier. Hunger had a way of adding its own spice, anyway. “So, why this mountain?”

  “Mount Drogone is where we find the Lunargent Scale. A magical suit of armor that covers its wielder from head to toe. It’s capable of fitting any life form, and which will protect its wearer from all harm… Or at least most harm. I wouldn’t exactly be in a rush to test it against legendary css weapons, like the Quecaw, but anything short of that!

  “It was armor used by the Dragons - most of it was destroyed, and the singur scale that remains is within that mountain.”

  “Alright, let me see if I understand the pn…” I replied. “The goal is to get me that suit of armor, so that I'm not instantly vaporized when Sorissa the Sorceress breathes on me. Which means magic bounces off of the Scale, right?”

  “Sorissa the… source-eress? I’m not sure what that is. And she's not a dragon, or a… whatever that is? She’s a dryad."

  Lonna grinned, the brightest smile I’d seen on her face as of yet. "You’re getting it, though, yeah! The scale should totally protect you against her. We just need to combine that with the power of the Quecaw, and you’ll be able to defeat Sorissa!”

  “Wait. A dryad? Like, a tree person? And the Que-what now? That’s the second time you’ve mentioned it.” It was my turn to look confused, this time, the porridge spoon stopped halfway to her mouth.

  “A dryad’s human form is actually more of a fruit, while their own body’s a tree. Sorissa’s just a fruit, though - I heard some stupid story about her having a friend that made her immortal, at the cost of her own life, but I don’t know if it’s true. And I’m talking about the Quecaw! The fabled weapon located at the heart of the Forest of Night - which draws the Breath out of whoever dares wield it. Half the reason we need the armor is just so you can grip that thing without insta-dying.”

  My appetite suddenly vanished. “Good to know,” I forced out, making myself gather up the st spoonful of the leftover porridge. I scraped up what was left of the salted pork, too, and took what was probably my best bite of food yet.

  Too bad it was like ash in my mouth.

  “You should have the eggs,” I said, pushing my pte towards Lonna. She’d given me six of them.

  Lonna frowned, though. “I’ll eat mine, if you eat yours. Eggs are a part of a healthy diet, you know.”

  “Thanks, but I’m mostly out of appetite.” I poked one of the eggs with my spoon. “What sort of eggs are they, anyway?”

  “Pidgeon,” Lonna replied, taking the spoon from me, and scooping one of the eggs into her mouth with the yolk still intact.

  Her eyes closed as she chewed, and she hummed in delight at the taste of the food. Whether she needed to eat for energy, or not, it was clear that Lonna enjoyed it.

  Next time, I’d try to leave more food for her. For now, I decided to wait until Lonna had popped another egg into her mouth before asking, “When do we leave?”

  Lonna regarded me through narrow eyes. She didn’t say anything, though - not right away. She just popped a third yolk into her mouth, chewing and swallowing.

  “I assume that means you’re in?” she asked, at st, holding out the spoon.

  “Do I have a choice?” I asked, sarcastically, taking the spoon and trying to scoop up one of the eggs with it, as she obviously wanted me to. It was a little harder than Lonna made it look, and I broke the first yolk when it fell off my spoon and back onto the table.

  “If I want to get home, I need to dethrone your evil queen, and you’re the only one with a pn on how to do that. Right? Besides…"

  I scooped up the broken egg and stuffed it in my mouth. It was creamy, and delicious. I probably should have started with them, over the porridge.

  “Besides?” Lonna asked, impatient.

  "Besides…” I smiled faintly. “If I stay, maybe I’ll hear more of your happy humming.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Lonna demanded, voice slightly sour. “I’ll have you know I’m only interested in women. I couldn’t care less how gorgeously muscled your body is, if the one inside it is a man.”

  “...Noted.” It wasn’t a surprise, hearing that Lonna wasn’t interested. I’d already decided not to try and flirt with her, anyways, what with her being my main line of survival.

  It still stung to hear out loud, though. Even if I understood: I wasn’t really a woman, after all.

  “I just meant…” I gave a wry smile, trying to push my feelings aside. They were petty, and unimportant. “...There’s been nothing but misery, poverty, and chaos since I got here. So when I heard something happy… it was nice. I want more of that - we need more of that. That’s all.”

  Lonna frowned, looking me over for a long minute, before shaking her head. “You’re strange. Following me against Sorissa because you like my humming? But if that’s what gets you to come with me, then fine. I’ll hum the bald of Sorissa’s defeat.”

  I grinned, then rapidly scooped up the next two eggs - actually managing to get them both into my mouth, whole. My appetite had just returned, and the creaminess of the egg yolks as they broke in my mouth was a delight.

  “I don’t suppose you have any more of those mushrooms?” I asked.

  Suddenly the front door swung inward. Talith side-stepped into the kitchen and smmed a piece of vellum down on the table.

  On it was an illustrated picture of a woman. She had soft, round cheeks, long flowing hair, a cute little nose, and surprisingly soft looking lips. I didn’t know who the drawing was of, but the artist clearly had talent to capture her looks.

  There was writing at the bottom of the picture, for some reason. I couldn’t guess as to what the characters meant, but I was pretty sure it was the local nguage.

  “It says that this is a picture of the seditious, self-described Heroine,” Lonna muttered. “Reward, five hundred crowns for your capture, alive. Fifty for information leading to your arrest."

  "These have been springing up like mushrooms in the corner across the entire town," Talith snarled.

  "Then we need to get out of here.” Lonna was already moving to the door, with Talith falling in behind.

  I moved to follow, but Talith held out a shield-sized hand to stop her. “Hold it. First thing first, before we officially say we’re all allied and go to take on the Queen or whatever… I need to hear it for myself.

  Talith spyed his stony fingers and recited: “Through thick or thin, through rain or shine, through life or death, and may the Majesty Trees impale you with their roots should you lie - are you with us?”

  Talith had no nose, and his mouth was little more than an opening in the cy, but he was still pulling off a dubious expression, as if he didn’t really trust what I had to say.

  Personally, I didn’t appreciate the attitude.

  “I already told Lonna,” I replied, out loud, walking around Talith so that I could file out the door after her. “But yeah. May God strike me down where I stand, God forbid, I’m in it for the long haul. Besides, it's not like I have a choice with that poster everywhere."

  Talith paused, then nodded.

  I grinned. "Then let’s haul ass before they catch us!”

  With that, I was out the door.

  EmilieEmber