Dawn came too early after our disturbed night, but getting up was made easier by the hard ground beneath.

  ‘You have got to used to a bed again, Del.’ I am feeling grumpy and a tad achy.

  ‘Camping is for young folks.’ Arguing back seldom left me in a winning position. I sometimes wonder why I bother.

  Elara looked up at me as I pottered around in the tent, getting my gear on and muttering to myself. She smiled at me and started to get dressed herself.

  “Do you want breakfast duty or camp pack-up?”

  “I don’t mind, but then, I haven’t tasted your cooking, so go get at it, girl,” I quip with a laugh.

  As she leaves, I start gathering up the bedding and collapse the tent. Seeing Naomi is also up, and busily fussing over Misty, I soon have hers packed up as well.

  The aromas coming off the cooking fire make my stomach rumble, so I tell Naomi to come with me to wash and freshen up so we can eat.

  “Alright then,” I say, patting my full stomach. “Who agrees that Elara has cooking duties from now on?”

  It’s a bit disheartening that even the damn cat mewls up in agreement with that suggestion.

  ‘Well, they didn’t have to agree so readily.’

  The next two days soon prove to be a fairly monotonous trudge.

  Okay, monotonous is better than being doggy dinner, and Naomi’s feet toughened up, so there was less carrying, but even so.

  The weather was typical of a balmy late spring, the air is full of the promise of the summer’s heat ahead, Animals can be heard, and sometimes seen, going about their business, while the spring flowers filled the air with scents to blend with that of the grass beneath our feet.

  It leaves me far too much time to get into the hubbub that is my own thoughts.

  I think Elara realised that I was spending considerable time trying to figure shit out, as she mainly spent her days walking along quietly or taking Naomi a little off the track to hunt herbs and other things of interest.

  As for the girl, well, she was a sponge. Lapping up everything in an eagerness to fill her agile brain with new and exciting knowledge. In the evening after dinner, Elara would guide her on ethereal journeys, helping her to strengthen her talents and how to better control her use of mana. She would use her ‘nap-time’ to travel across the nearby fields and trees, identifying any plants or animals that glowed in her sight. Really interesting ones she would mentally mark so they could go and gather them in the morning.

  She did spot a small group of Ashfangs, which caused a bit of concern when she told us, but they appeared to be heading away from our location, so that was fine.

  And as for me?

  I was in a bit of a turmoil.

  My whole life, everything I thought I knew about the world, had been completely rewritten. I still hadn’t got my head around it all, and I think I only just held onto the concept of sanity through the force of my stubborn bloody-mindedness.

  I have always prided myself on my logic. Now, this may be a bit conceited, but I believe pretty much anything can be explained given enough time and information.I knew, for example, that the Earth was a round ball of rock that had been around for billions of years, of which we had only been a part of for a tiny fraction.Before us came the dinosaurs and before that, well, pretty much nothing major.Yet here I was, apparently living in a past that made no sense. Sent here by a power that totally blew my mind to do something ridiculous to save my entire species.

  I mean.

  ‘For fuck’s sake.’

  If I am honest, there is a big chunk of me that believes I am hooked up to some life-support machine in an intensive care unit, having had a major whatever happen.

  Another bit of me wonders if I am in some padded cell, off my tits on who knows what medications, while I dribble inanely in a corner.

  I read somewhere that only the truly sane can recognise their insanity, or was it something else?

  Anyway, I digress.

  I have all these crazy thoughts going through my head as I place one foot ahead of another, idly joining bits of conversation or going through the motions of setting and breaking camp.

  Misty keeps coming up and giving me odd looks.

  I think she realises that this time of active inactivity is giving me time for reflection and consideration. Her concern is obvious, but at the same time, she doesn’t try to impose her own thoughts.

  That’s another thing, damnit!

  ‘What's with Misty? She is a cat! A cat for crying out loud. What the fuck is a cat doing learning to talk and shit?’

  ‘Argh, my damn head hurts.’

  I take a steadying breath.

  Fine, so let’s act on the premise that I am not mad or hooked up to a life-support.

  Hmmm, dead?

  I hadn’t considered that possibility. Was I stuck in some post-life dystopian nightmare?

  Surreptitiously, I check my pulse. Good special effects if I was dead.

  Then again, I ached too much, and if I was dead, then I am sure the afterlife hell would have me beaten up more and maybe ripped apart repeatedly.

  OK, not dead either. Well, I have to admit that’s a bit of a relief - I think.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Around me is too much reality: the smell of the countryside, the singing of the birds, the crunch of the grass and stones underfoot. This is all just too damn real.

  But what is real?

  How the fuck am I supposed to know what is real?

  Elves for gods’ sake?

  And from what I have heard, dwarves?

  I swear if they end up talking with some fake Scottish accent like some mad take on a Tolkien film, then I will lose my shit.

  ‘At least nobody mentioned fucking hobbits.’

  But magic.

  Magic!

  Damn, I know I was given the choice, and I decided on archery—which I suck at—but damn. I wanted magic.

  That feeling I got in my gut whenever it was used near me. I wanted to be able to control that, use it, learn from it.

  ‘Hey BB or Menolly, or Teach. I know one of you is watching all this crap.’ I cast my eyes up, though why I thought they were up like some omnipresent deity, I didn’t know.

  ‘What's the chance of me learning magic?’

  I waited patiently but got no answer. Didn’t really expect one, but it would have been nice.

  Fine, so I am here in a past I never knew our little blue marble ever had and, if I take that as truth, then I also have to accept that for some totally inane reason, I have to convince this great shit-for-brains boss man, that we as a species are worth the time and effort of his minions to save from destruction.

  But then what happens?

  Nobody had told me that bit.

  Here am I, living through my own persona cosplay adventure theme park ride.

  What the hell happens after?

  If, I assume, I manage to do the right thing and save our sorry arses.

  Do I just get dumped back into my sad and lonely old life with other people carrying on as if nothing happened? Could I go back to that?

  What about my stats and skills?

  Would they all get stripped from me, leaving me once again a crippled shadow, with nothing but harsh memories of what I could be?

  That seemed cruel, unforgivably so. But considering what I had already seen of the powers controlling this mad universe, why should that even be a consideration?

  I was a lab rat, running through a maze with no real idea of the rules or even if there was an exit.

  You know, nobody ever said this was easy. In fact, I am pretty sure that Menolly said it would be a bit of a tough challenge.

  That’s another thing.

  Was I being played from the start?

  I get sent a, if I am honest, damn fine-looking woman with all the right curves and moves to persuade me to do something, that any half-sane person would laugh at uproariously and then throw them out the door.

  If I had been a lonely old woman, would I have been sent a Brad Pitt lookalike?

  ‘Hey Menolly, did you use pheromones?’

  Okay, so let’s get back on track.

  I am here, I have a job to do.

  Now then, that’s a start sure enough. I don’t have a clue what the job actually is.

  ‘A fucking job description would have been nice.’

  All I know is to survive—oh, and help Elara—but once again, no clues as to how or in what way.I am assuming that

  Naomi may, or may not, be salient in one or other of those cuvats. Then again, she may be completely unconnected and her survival or otherwise absolutely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

  ‘Now that is something completely unacceptable,’ I disagree.

  ‘She is a kid, and you are responsible for her, Del. Full fucking stop.’

  I can live with that. Her relationship to the whole cuvat thing is irrelevant. I have accepted responsibility for her, and I take that seriously.

  Besides, if something happened to her, I dare not think how it would affect Elara.

  That settled it then, at least for now.

  Look after the girls, fight those who want to harm us.

  And then, save my whole damn planet.

  Simple, really.

  We broke camp on the dawning of the third day since the Ashfang fight. The morning was another one promising clear skies.

  I looked across to see Elara at the fire cooking and Naomi playing with Misty.

  I smiled.

  Maybe the first proper smile in too many days, and went over to the campfire and gave Elara a hug from behind.

  She gave me a questioning look.

  “Are you alright, Del? You seem to have been a bit distracted lately.”

  I sit on a log next to her.

  “More than a bit distracted, I’m afraid,” I tell her.

  “A lot has happened in a short time, and I just had to try and process some of it.”

  “And?” she asks.

  “I think I am getting there. Life on my little island was too quiet to prepare me for what is the reality of Gondowa.”

  ‘Well ain’t that the damn truth.’

  “I’m still in a bit of a state adapting to what life is like here.” I smile at that thought.

  “But I think I am getting there.”

  She gives me a long look, her eyes searching deep into mine.

  “Good,” she says at last with a satisfied smile.

  “Now get yourself washed up, breakfast will be ready in a few.”

  As I stand and head to the river that still runs nearby, I feel the nudge of Misty in my mind. Her gentle enquiry seeks assurance that I am well and, to use her terms,

  ‘Able to hunt again.’

  I smile ruefully at that.

  ‘Yes, Misty, my head is back in the game, and I can hunt again.’

  I guess it’s time to see what else this damn world has to throw our way.