Kay fell out of bed as he thrashed around, still mostly asleep and trying to get away from so half-visible dream attacker. He struggled to his feet and spun to face the threat and then froze as all he saw was a bare stone wall. “Wha…?”
“Oh, you’re awake!”
The unfamiliar voice startled Kay, and he spun to face it, unconsciously trying to summon blood to his hands in order to defend himself. Before he could see the person, his foot got caught in the blankets strewn over the floor. Kay slamd into the ground with an audible thud and clutched at his head.
“Shit!” The person scrambled over to him and pressed their hands to his head. A gentle warmth blossod where he’d hit his head, and the pain eased. “Oh good, you didn’t get a concussion from that. Wouldn’t that suck?”
“Who’re you?” Kay asked as he started slowly freeing himself from the tangling grasp of the blankets. He looked up to see a smiling woman with a purple skin tone and pointed elven ears. Her black hair was wound in a tight braid, and her eyes flashed a lighter shade of violet as she smiled down at him.
“I’m not surprised that you don’t rember; that venom really did a number on you.” She held out her hand, and Kay let her help him up.
He shuddered and grimaced as he rembered the excruciating heat trying to consu him.
“Yeah, it looked that bad.” The woman held out a hand, “I’m Chitel, the healer of the little group who you saved.”
“I’m not really sure who did the saving at this point,” Kay muttered as he shook her hand, so of his mories of the fight coming back with the reminder.
“Oh, it was definitely you.” Chitel replied firmly, “Most of us would have been dead if you hadn’t shown up and slowed the hydra down. Leaf and I got thrown really far away when it first attacked, and it would have picked off the others and then co back for the two of us. If we’d been able to stay together for the entire fight, we’d have been fine, but with us splitting us up right at the beginning, we definitely needed the help.”
Kay shrugged and looked away, a little uncomfortable with the direct gratitude she was giving him. “No problem?”
She grinned at him and stepped out of his space. “Now that you’re up, you should probably co outside. Cindy keeps getting into argunts with your teacher.”
Kay frowned, “Wait, we’re at the village?”
Chitel nodded, “Yup, been here for a few days. You woke up once and talked with your teacher, but it was mostly delirious ramblings.” She pointed outside and walked off.
Kay frowned deeper. How’d they find- Oh, right, Murunel was with . She probably gave them directions. He followed Chitel outside, holding his hands up to block the glare from the sun. He squinted as the light stabbed into his eyes and worsened his small headache. “Ow.”
“They’re over at your office.” Chitel pointed off to the right.
Kay looked back and saw the building they’d just left was new to him, and there were a few others next to it. “Darten’s been busy.” He turned and started trudging towards the governnt building, his hand still between his eyes and the sun.
He heard raised voices from inside and stuck his head in to see Eleniah arguing with a young human woman. Her hair was red-brown and pulled back into a ponytail that flipped around as she gestured widely at Eleniah. She was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt that resembled a n’s dress shirt and leather pants, with a strange half chest-plate half bandoleer type of covering on top of the pristine shirt. She had a pair of leather goggles sitting on her forehead, trapping a few stray hairs underneath the band.
“Are you so kind of steampunker?” Kay asked, the question leaping from his mouth before he could think it over.
The two won stopped arguing and turned to see Kay.
The human woman’s eyes flashed with mischief. “Well, G’day mate! Good to see you’re finally awake.”
Kay stared at her, expression blank.
She stared back.
Eventually, Kay shook his head disapprovingly, “That is the worst Australian accent I have ever heard.”
She glared back at him, “It’s not that bad!” Her real voice had a standard Arican accent, and he rembered that voice shouting at him about how to dodge.
“Absolutely terrible.”
“It’s alright!”
“Zero out of anything. You’d get your ass kicked in New lbourne talking like that.”
She pulled back, her brows furrowing. “What? What’s New lbourne?”
“The neighborhood in San Francisco? Near Chinatown? There’s been a bunch of movies based there.”
She stared at him for a mont. “Did you et with a BOA person when you got here?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Does your world have the Mama Mia movie?”
“No, there’s only the Broadway show. Why would anyone make a Mama Mia movie?”
She scowled at him, “It was good!”
“Sure, but why dilute a perfectly good Broadway musical by making it into a movie? You already have a Broadway show.”
She gave him a confused look, “We’re obviously from different Earths.”
“Yeah, I got that when you didn’t know what New lbourne was.” Kay shrugged, “Sounds like our worlds are similar enough, though. Still feels like eting soone from ho.” He stepped close and held out his hand, “Kenneth Davis. Call Kay.”
She grabbed his hand and gave him a firm handshake. “Cindy Sauber. Nice to et you, and thanks for saving us.”
“I was just trying to check out what kind of big monster was near my new ho. I couldn’t just leave people to die, though.”
She grinned and let go of his hand. “Thanks.”
“Now that we’re done with introductions,” Eleniah interrupted, “Maybe you can understand what this one ans. I haven’t understood half of what she’s been saying.” She glared at Cindy, who glared back.
“I told you! I was waiting for Kay to wake up so that I could explain all at once!”
“Then start talking!”
Cindy sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes. “I was going to!” She turned back to Kay, “We’re here to join you.”
Kay blinked a couple of tis. “What?”
“We’re here to join you!” She grinned and made jazz hands.
“How did you even know we were here?”
Eleniah threw her arms up, “That’s what I’ve been asking for days!”
“I told you I only wanted to explain it once!”
“Explain then!”
Cindy groaned and threw her head back. “I am!”
Kay shuffled around the arguing pair and took a seat in his chair. The two of them kept shouting at each other for a minute before realizing Kay had moved on. He raised an eyebrow at them. “Are you done?”
Eleniah sighed and sat down.
Cindy walked to the other end of the table and stood there. “It’s one of my Classes.”
Kay raised his eyebrow again and waited.
Cindy rolled her eyes at him, “You aren’t so movie villain.”
Kay laughed and waved his hand, “Keep going.”
“One of my classes is Fortune Seeker.”
Eleniah shot up in her chair, “No way!”
“Yes, way,” Cindy nodded, “She already knows, I guess, but my class helps find things. It’s an offshoot of the Treasure Hunter line, except Fortune Seeker lets find more esoteric things. I wanted to find a place where and my misfits could live, and it led here.”
“That’s a cool Class.”
“It really is. It’s helped a lot since I got it.”
Kay nodded. “There’s more to it, though.”
“Huh?”
“You told which way to dodge when the hydra was attacking before it even happened. Also, one of your people asked you if you’d ‘seen this’. So what’s that about?”
“I was hoping to bring that up after you let us stay,” Cindy muttered.
Kay shrugged, “Sorry.”
“Fine!” She snapped, “But I won’t get exploited by you or anyone else. I am a person, not a tool to use to enrich yourself!”
Kay jerked back in his chair. “Uh, what?”
“Fortune Seekers are really rare. Treasure Hunters show up all the ti, but the regular paths for that line don’t literally lead you to what you’re looking for; they just make it easier to track things down through regular thods. Lots of people try and control Fortune Seekers as use them as overpowered magical dowsing rods.” She turned her head to look at Cindy, “Sounds like there’s sothing else with that, though.”
Cindy glanced off to the side, “My starting class was Novice Oracle. I’m a Dream Seer now.”
Eleniah whistled in surprise. “Okay, yeah, An Oracle class and a Fortune Seeker? I can understand the attitude.”
“You know what?” Kay leaned back in his chair, “You’ve obviously been in Torotia long enough to know things I don’t, and this headache is getting worse, so give your short pitch.”
“We’re a group of people looking for a place to live without the problems of the places we were before, and we have useful skills to help. Plus, as long as you don’t treat like a thing, I can use my Classes to really help you in a lot of ways that are less direct.” She pointed outside, “Like one of the people I picked up on the way? He’s got experience doing city planning, which I knew you’d want.”
“How did you know that?”
“I dread it.”
“Oh.” Kay stared at her for a second, massaging his temples in an attempt to make his headache go away, “You know what? Sure. You’re all on probation, and you have to sign agreents about loyalty and secrecy and stuff like that, but you’re provisionally in.”
“Aweso!” Cindy exclaid and fist-pumped.
Kay winced away from her volu, the pain in his head spiking.
“Since you’re letting us stay, can I tell you sothing I dread of now?”
Kay sighed, “Sure? Why not say it first?”
“Because it would sound like I was being all mysterious or threatening to sway your decision.”
Kay grunted in acknowledgnt.
Cindy turned and pointed in the direction of the cliff face. “There’s sothing really dangerous inside there.”
Kay slowly lowered his head to the table. “Yeah, I’d figured that out.”
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