“This is not what I was expecting.” Simone stared blankly at the Alvistide festival in full swing across Kristen Stewart’s Bluff. They had spent the last few hours tracking Craig's massive, rooster-pulled transport cart from Sunnydale, following the heavy wheel ruts and the clue on the glossy discount coupon all the way up the freezing mountain roads to the upper city, only to step right into pure, concentrated chaos. “Wasn’t this based on a single episode of Sealab?”
“Pretty much,” Sara said, shaking her head as she took in the sprawling, brightly-lit bluff. “And it had this big of an effect. That he would give a fictional religion to an entire town... Yes.”
“Let’s just get through it,” Simone said, stalking through the snowy, cobblestone streets with purpose. “We don’t have time to fuck around.”
“Should we even try to stop in the tavern here?” Sara asked, following her down the main thoroughfare as the crush of people around them steadily increased.
“There isn’t a cloud of vapor over this town,” Simone pointed out, looking up at the clear, starry sky, free of the oppressive lung-butter smog. “Not nearly as big, anyway. I mean… I didn’t really think about being hungry here, but I’m starving.”
Sara thought about it. Yeah. She was hungry. “Why didn’t I think about that either? That’s weird. Yeah, I can eat. Do we have money?”
“Unless Earthflation hit here, too,” Simone said, patting her heavy leather coin pouch, “we should have plenty. Just grab something and be out in five?”
Sara pushed through a small group of bundled-up revelers and entered the main town square, stopping dead in her tracks. What she saw was a massive celebration of feasting, drinking, and fighting centered around a thirty-foot-tall stone statue of a glowing, bald baby. Men swilled bottles of rotgut and threw punches in the snowy alleys. Women flashed drunken Alvis cosplayers. Children sat and vaped aggressively at a designated kid’s table.
Across the chaos was the tavern, looking thankfully normal. Sara pushed through the crowd, taking Simone’s hand so they didn’t get split up in the crush of bodies. When they walked inside, the blast of hearth-warmed air hit them, and she was intensely relieved that it looked like a regular festival tavern in a regular town, and not a compromised, corporate nightmare like Hot Wangs in Sunnydale.
They approached the long wooden bar, and Sara sat on the stool second to the end, leaving room for Simone to have a clear path to the door. “Can we get something to eat? Anything quick?”
The man on the other side of the counter was… aggressively jolly. “Of course! There’s plenty of food at the buffet!” He pointed against the back wall where a small line of people grabbed food from heavily laden metal trays set out on tavern tables. “Better get some before Alvis craps it!”
“On second thought,” Sara shuddered, her appetite vanishing instantly. “I can wait.”
Simone froze, her pointed elven ears twitching as they picked up a familiar, exasperated sigh over the roar of the tavern. She pointed a trembling finger toward the shadows of a large corner booth. "Is that... Mark? And a giant Garfield?"
Sara's breath caught in her throat. The heavy, anxious weight that had been sitting on her chest since the strip mall evaporated in an instant. There was Mark, looking exhausted but unharmed, eating a plate of something greasy next to a pale, sharp-featured Drow. And sliding out of the booth, covered in thick orange fur and leather armor, was Cody.
"Holy shit," Sara breathed, her Tiefling tail swishing frantically behind her, betraying her relief. She didn't wait for Simone. She shoved past a table of drunken Alvis cosplayers, her eyes locked on her friends.
Mark looked up, and the recognition hit him like a physical blow. He was on his feet in a second, his Changeling disguise momentarily rippling with the sheer force of his relief. "Sara! Holy shit! Get over here! You’ve gotta meet Raven, she’s fucking hilarious! And Tygra over there is Cody. Have a seat.”
Cody looked over his furry shoulder and slid over in the wooden booth, smiling and beckoning them over. With the orange fur and the leather armor, he did kinda look like Tygra from ThunderCats. “Hey! Stoked you could make it!”
Sara snapped out of her momentary stupor. This was the point, right? Getting the team together. And they were all here. They seemed relaxed. They had a new friend, and Simone—oh shit.
“Hey guys!” Sara looked at Raven and offered a guarded smile before turning to the boys. “I’m Sara, and, guys—”
“Mark. Cody.” Simone stepped forward to the edge of the table, letting a genuine, radiant smile shine through. “I’m Simon. But please call me Simone now. I’m happy.”
Mark’s gears turned for a moment. It wasn’t the graceful turning, it was the sharp, stupid faced, grunting turning before it clicked. ‘Simone. Okay.”
She was relieved. “Now. Our store is here.”
Mark stood frozen in thought for a beat before physically shaking himself free. “Are you fucking kidding me, Simone? Where at?”
Simone’s confidence broke slightly when she tried to answer. “Uh… um. The… the Forest of Nihilism.”
Mark took a step forward, reached out, and put a firm hand on Simone’s shoulder, looking her dead in the eyes. “You’re safe here.”
“I’m queer!” Raven, who was clearly slightly inebriated, belted a little too loudly from the back of the booth.
Simone let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and smiled warmly. “Thank you.”
Cody patted the empty wooden seat next to him with a heavy orange paw. “Now sit your ass down and eat!”
Simone happily sat next to the Catfolk and beamed, genuinely thrilled to be with real friends.
“You!” Raven pointed a pale finger. “Come on! Sit here!” Raven excitedly patted the wooden bench next to her. Something about her chaotic energy intrigued Sara. Plus, she was really cute.
Sara moved in next to Raven, followed by Mark taking the outside edge. Raven’s bluish-gray cheeks flushed visibly as Sara settled in. She looked like she was about to say something big and loud, but just a tiny peep came out. “Hi. I’m Raven.”
“Sara.” She felt the corners of her lips tug upward for the first time since arriving in this world. For all the time she spent practicing social interactions, this time, she completely fell short, and that made her incredibly nervous. “I like girls.”
Sara’s eyes widened in horror, and she slapped a hand over her mouth. Did I just say that out loud?
Raven smiled, a low chuckle escaping her lips, drowning out the rest of the group’s conversation. “Me, too.” Her cheeks were practically Pikachu cheeks now. “You’re cute.”
Everything in the room stopped as Sara’s embarrassment and happiness burned her face muscles hot. She shook her head and slowly lowered her hand. “Y… you, too.”
“Awww,” Simone smiled from across the table, melting a little at the display.
Sara and Raven’s eyes went wide, and they snapped out of their shared stupor, realizing they were being watched.
“I’m okay!” Sara squeaked, shifting her weight awkwardly. Between the adrenaline of the day and the sudden, reflexive, intense heat flooding between her thighs, she was pretty sure she was actively ruining the wooden chair beneath her.
A fit of nervous laughter escaped their lips, leaving Sara and Raven still sweetly blushing at each other until the noise of the tavern washed back over them.
“I was just saying, we need to find a place to stay that’s reliable and close to Sunnydale,” Mark strategized, bringing the focus back to business.
“Ugh,” Raven groaned, leaning her head back. “That place has a fog over it.”
“Yeah,” Sara responded, still feeling shaky from Raven’s proximity. “I’ve been in dozens of vape shops and I’ve never seen a cloud that big. And outside.”
“No shit,” Simone leaned in, her eyes wide. “It’s like everyone vapes there. He’s even got child vapes! I can’t tell you how many kids I’ve seen sucking on Konnichiwa Cat’s long, curvy penis.”
“Yeah,” Cody said, shaking his head. “We saw them outside Vape Much, My Friend?.”
“Whoa,” Sara cocked her head. “You’ve been there?”
“Yeah,” Mark replied. “It’s at the bottom of the lift. There’s a Pizza Hut down there, too.”
“I could tell,” Sara smiled warmly at Raven, who was still wearing her grease-stained uniform top along with her leather goth skirt.
Raven blushed, clearly uneasy and self-conscious. “I hate that the smell of the pizza and the grease just soaks in.”
Sara leaned in, just a fraction of an inch, and sniffed softly. “You smell good to me.”
That razor-sharp line of Raven’s desire—that look of pure, unadulterated want—gave way to a warmth that was much harder to fake. “Thank… thank you. I… I… have to go shit.”
Without another word, Raven jumped up from the table, practically climbing over Mark, and bolted for the back hallway. Sara watched as she exited, her stomach twisting, hoping she didn’t say something wrong.
Simone leaned in as the guys were locked in conversation. “Go easy on her. She’s used to even her sibling trying to kill her.”
“She’s…” Sara couldn’t explain it. “I don’t know. I like her.”
Simone’s eyes widened playfully. “The indomitable Sara with a crush?”
“So!” Sara flushed. Simone was right. It had been far too long since she had dated anyone. Hookups, sure, those were a dime a dozen, but actually being around someone who cared? That was a dream she didn’t know if she was ready for.
The others talked, but Sara worried. Did she say something that upset Raven? Time dragged by, feeling thicker and heavier with each passing minute. Sara glanced at the darkened night sky beyond the doorway. Nothing.
Five minutes later, she checked again, her leg bouncing anxiously under the table while Mark and Cody argued about logistics.
When she checked the door for a third time, the pit in her stomach deepened into genuine dread. Something wasn’t right. It was taking far too long for a simple bathroom trip.
Suddenly, a violent commotion erupted from outside the heavy tavern front doors. “Let me go!”
It was Raven. Sara knew her voice already by heart. She was the first one up from the booth. “Something’s wrong!”
The rest of the group followed as they burst out of the tavern into the freezing air and saw Raven being dragged toward the massive mechanical lift by a group of armored owlbears and—Craig.
“Craig!” Sara shouted, her blood running cold. “Let her go!”
Cody’s feline eyes went wide. “That’s Craig?”
“Yeah,” Sara responded, her fists clenching. “We saw him at Party Mart.”
The fuzzy white rabbitfolk smiled, his long ears twitching, and changed direction, turning to face them with his massive entourage. “Well, that was easy. I thought I would have to scour this world for you, and here you are. Right in my city.”
“It isn’t yours!” Raven yelled, just before she was brutally backhanded to the snowy ground by an owlbear.
Craig shook his head and looked at Mark, his eyes dead and unfeeling. “You made it so I can’t go back home, so you are fucked now. Take them. Throw them off the bluff. The drow, too.” Craig turned dismissively and began walking toward the lift.
The owlbears snapped into action. An owlbear’s massive, razor-sharp talons bit brutally into the back of Sara’s neck. A sharp, blinding pain shot down her spine, and the sheer drop of the mile-high cliff loomed terrifyingly at the periphery of her vision. Craig didn't even look back as he walked away.
He's actually going to kill us, Sara realized, the cold wind whipping her face. He's going to throw us away.
Hot, unadulterated rage flooded her veins, a primal Tiefling fury she didn't know she possessed. As the owlbear hoisted her up, preparing to heave her into the abyss, Sara snapped. She wrenched her body sideways, dropping her center of gravity, and drove her head violently backward. Her thick, curved horns sank sickeningly deep into the beast's chest armor.
The owlbear shrieked, a deafening screech of pain, its grip faltering. Raven lunged from the ground, grabbing Sara’s leather collar and yanking her back from the precipice just as the beast stumbled backward over the edge, its heavy body plummeting into the dark.
Beside them, a towering Bugbear lunged for Simone. Cody was a blur of orange fur. Utilizing his new feline agility, he slid low under the Bugbear's guard, his new short sword flashing in the moonlight as he sliced cleanly through the thick tendons behind its knees. The beast roared, collapsing forward, right into a shimmering puddle of magical grease Mark had just conjured onto the cobblestones.
"Raven!" Mark screamed.
The Drow didn't hesitate. She snatched a burning brand from a nearby iron street brazier and hurled it end-over-end into the grease. The cliffside erupted in a wall of blinding, roaring orange heat, engulfing the screeching Bugbear.
They all stood, gasping for breath in the freezing air, the smell of burnt hair and ozone thick around them. Raven looked around frantically at the panicked festival-goers. “We need to get out of here. Now. He will send every fucking owlbear in Owlbearnia after us.”
Sara looked at their small group of misfits. Craig was going to hunt them down, and he was going to kill them. They had just arrived in their fantasy world, and already they were hunted.
“Summon the horses,” Sara commanded, her voice hard and steady. “I’m riding with Raven. Time to get the fuck out of here.”
[SYSTEM ALERT: Encounter Cleared.]
[XP Awarded: 4,000]
[Level Up Available! Unspent Attribute Points: 2]