We took a few moments to get over our surprise. We shouldn’t have been surprised, of course, or at least I shouldn’t have been. After all, Baba Yaga had been to Earth, and by all accounts came from there. And if she could travel there, why not elsewhere in the galaxy?
Burin and Gregor studied the stars for a bit. “I think we are not so far from home,” Gregor said.
“I think he’s right,” Burin said, pointing. “There, I think that’s Castrovel. And that one might be Akiton. There’s another one, but I don’t recognize it.”
“It might be Golarion,” I said.
“That’s a good point. So the question becomes, where exactly are we?”
“Does it really matter?” Terry asked. “We’re here to do a job and get moving. We should focus on that.” He apparently lacked a sense of awe and wonder. Just how old was he, really?
Gregor nodded. “He has a point. I will look around for any tracks or trails that might lead us to someone who can help us with these clues given to us.”
“That will take a while. I’ll check out Baba Yaga’s library for any information,” Terry said.
“Fair enough. We probably need to rest up before setting out,” I said. In truth, I mostly just wanted to leave a message for Greta, but it would be fine to do a little researching before heading out. “Will you be okay out here by yourself?” I asked Gregor.
“I’m going to stay and look at the stars some more,” Burin said. “So just holler if you need me,” he told the fighter.
“Then it is settled. To work,” Gregor said.
I headed inside and had Cortana make me one of those small holographic message discs that had become all the rage a couple Christmases back. Then I sat down to record my message.
“Love, sorry for leaving you here by yourself. I have it on good authority that you’ll be fine, and I’ve bribed the kikimora who lives here to keep an eye on you until you wake up. Please, be kind to Zorka. She can be a bit abrasive, but she’s a lot nicer if you treat her with some basic respect.
“Also, please don’t leave the hut. It won’t attack you if you’re with me, I think, but I can’t say for sure you’ll be safe if you step outside now. I just got you back. I don’t want to lose you again. I promise, that if we’re not running from something terrifying this time, I’ll bring you outside for a stroll once we’re back. We’re on another world, Greta! How cool is that?
“If you need to stretch your legs, the hut has a garden inside. There are several dangerous things in the garden, but they seem mostly locked up in pens. Don’t let them out, and you’ll be fine. I doubt there’s much else of worry that we haven’t already killed, but again, please be careful.
“Oh! And if a merchant stops by with a scroll, thank him for us. We ordered it from him before leaving. He looks a bit strange, but he seems friendly enough. He’s a mercane, so I think we can trust him to be what he says.
“I have so much to tell you about everything that’s happened. For instance, did you know that the young girl I’m traveling with is actually a man trapped in a girl’s body?! Weird, right?
“I’m sorry for everything you had to endure. I can’t help but think it might have been my fault, that maybe you’d have been better off if you’d never met me. If you’re angry with me, I understand. And if you want to break up with me, I won’t hold it against you. I hope you won’t, of course. I’m pretty sure I love you. But I will understand.
Please take care, my love.”
I shut off the disc and set it on the table next to the bed with a note for Greta to hit the button. Then I went to check on Terry. I found him getting frustrated at his inability to find anything. “Fourteen recipes for something called borscht, and not a single reference to this world,” he complained.
“I’ll help for a bit,” I offered. He accepted, and we continued looking until Gregor and Burin returned.
“I am thinking that an army passed through here a few days ago,” Gregor said.
“An army? Are you sure?” Terry asked.
“Not entirely, but it matches with what an army might look like. Prints from pack beasts and at least a hundred individuals, but the boots looked to be of standard design, like those soldiers wear.”
“I think I’d feel safer if we could take the hut with us,” Terry said.
“Is it safe to bring it with us?” I asked. “Won’t it just announce to everyone that we work for Baba Yaga?”
“I am not believing that is an issue,” Gregor said. “As soon as we see someone, Burin will immediately tell them, ‘We’re hunting witches for Baba Yaga!’ and they will probably know.”
“Hey! That’s a really good impression of me,” Burin said.
“I have been practicing.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “Maybe taking the hut will be the best option, after all.”
“Can we drive the hut?” Terry asked. “Or do we just convince it to follow us?”
“I think I can pilot it,” I said. Well, at least, I was pretty sure I could figure it out. “If we can get Zorka to show us where the controls are, anyway.”
“I’ll ask her,” Terry said. “Zorka! Can we talk?” he called out before anyone could stop him.
“What do you want?” the kikimora asked when she appeared.
“We’d like to take the hut closer to our objective. Can you please show us where to control it from?”
“I heard what you said. There’s an army that you’re following. You mean to put the hut in danger?”
“After what we saw with the giants, the hut has more than proven that it’s capable of taking care of itself,” Terry answered. “Please, if we want to get to Baba Yaga quickly, taking the hut will save time.”
“You make a good point. I will think it over.”
“Thank you, Zorka,” I said, interrupting Terry before he could try to rush her. “We’re not leaving until morning anyway, so take your time to consider it.”
In the morning, Zorka agreed to let us try piloting the hut at least part of the way. So we went up to the loft of the vestibule and she placed a bowl of water with an egg floating on it on the small table. “This is it?” Terry asked. “What, no steering wheel like a ship? Not even reins like with a horse?”
“If you are worthy to do it, this is all you need,” the kikimora cackled.
“Well, I’m out,” Terry said.
“I am also unsure of my ability to use such a thing,” Gregor said.
“Hypothetically, what happens if I break the egg?” Burin asked.
“No one has ever done so,” Zorka said.
“Then I don’t think I want to risk it.”
That left me, or Nebula, and since Nebby doesn’t have thumbs, it was probably up to me. I looked at it, and it started to remind me of something I’d seen before. It was something Daddy had that in his collection of old computer parts. I think he called it a trackball. He tried to show me how to use it, but I never got very good at it. I was too used to touchscreen interfaces.
Well, it was worth a shot. I gently touched the egg and rotated it with two fingers. And nothing happened. “It’s okay, we can just walk,” Burin said.
No, I wasn’t letting this stupid hut beat me. But why wasn’t it working? I recalled having similar trouble once, getting frustrated because another input device Daddy owned wasn’t working. Turned out it needed batteries, since it was made to use old style alkaline batteries, and not the much longer lasting O’Halloran batteries.
So, maybe it was unpowered? I chanted, opening a magical pathway into the egg, releasing far less energy than even a cantrip might. Then I turned the egg again, and the hut stood and began walking forward.
Now, knowing how to drive and actually being able to do so are entirely different skills. So I didn’t do terribly well, and the hut meandered a bit aimlessly from time to time as I lost control. But in the end, I was getting the hang of it right about the time we reached the ravine.
“Can the hut jump?” I asked Zorka.
She shrugged. “I’ve never seen it do so.”
I was a bit relieved. I’d have had to admit I had no idea how to do it if it was possible. “Alright, well, end of the line, then.” I pulled back on the egg, slowing us to a stop about thirty yards out from the ravine. “We walk from here. Someone wake up Terry from his nap.”
We checked the wide ravine, maybe forty feet across. “I can maybe make the jump,” Gregor said. “Maybe.”
“Magic might be our only way across,” Burin said. “Though I’d hate for us to waste so much so early in the day. What if we need it?”
“We have plenty of rope,” Terry said. “Why not cast one spell and have that person fly across and tie off the rope over there?”
There was merit to that. “I’ve already cast an all-day flight spell on myself,” I said, hovering off of the ground to show them. “I could do it.”
“Let us do that, then,” Gregor said. A few minutes later, I had the rope set up on my end, and they’d tied it off on theirs. “Is it secure?” Gregor called out.
“Yeah, I think so!” I said. The fighter then ran the entire way across at full speed. “Show off,” I said, flying back over. “I’ll fly right behind you,” I told Terry. “If you fall, I’ll cast a spell to let you fly.”
“Right,” he said. “Let’s get this over with.”
Terry slipped once, but caught himself and managed to get back to his feet and make it across. Next was Burin, who also slipped, just barely managing to catch himself. He then did the rest of the trip by inching along the rope like a worm. Which took forever.
“Maybe we should have made harnesses?” Gregor asked. I felt silly for not thinking of it. So I said nothing, opting instead to fly back and untied the rope so we wouldn’t have to leave it behind. Then we set out once more.
It was mostly uneventful for a few hours, though I did see some kind of small animal that looked sort of like a bunny, only not really a bunny. It wasn’t until what seemed like midafternoon that we ran across anything truly interesting.
And a dragon flying through the sky is definitely interesting.
“Should we attack?” I asked.
“Wait!” Terry said. “Someone’s riding it.” Well that wasn’t something you saw every day.
“I’ll get their attention!” Burin said, lighting a torch. He then waved it at the rider, almost looking like he was trying to get the rider to leave instead of beckoning her in.
The dragon hovered and the rider aimed her bow at us, then shouted something in a language I didn’t recognize. “What did she say?” I asked Nebula.
“She’s commanding us to halt and sheathe our weapons,” the cat answered. Terry slung his gun over his shoulder and Gregor put his hands in his pockets like a smartass.
Burin kept waving his torch. We gave him a look. “What? It’s a torch, not a weapon.”
Terry rolled his eyes and pulled out his water skin. He then tried to splash Burin and douse the torch, but missed and hit Gregor instead, soaking the fighter. “Thanks for that,” Gregor said sarcastically.
Nebula called out to the rider in the alien tongue. “What did you say?” I asked.
“That the dwarf is an idiot, but harmless.”
“I’m not armless,” Burin protested, mishearing. “I have two arms. It’s not nice to lie.”
Terry pinched the bridge of his nose. “She said ‘harmless’, not ‘armless’, you idiot.”
The dragon landed about a hundred yards away and the rider made a show of putting down her bow. “Send someone to speak with me halfway,” Nebula translated her shout.
“I’ll go,” Burin said. “Better it be me over there if she decides to attack us.”
“I’ll go too,” Terry said. “To keep an eye on him.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “Give me your phone,” I told Burin. He offered it, and I took it and connected it to mine so I could hear what they were saying, and speak up if I needed to. I then clipped it to the front of his armor.
As they walked over, we listened as Terry tried to coach Burin on what not to say. “… and most importantly, DO NOT TELL THEM WE’RE WITCH KILLERS WORKING FOR BABA YAGA!” he finished.
“Well, I certainly won’t volunteer the information, but I don’t think I should lie if they ask us,” the dwarf answered. Nebula, riding on his shoulder, shot me a pained look.
“Why did we let them go, again?” Gregor asked me.
“Because Burin volunteered and it’s better to get it out of his system while there’s only one enemy to tick off?” I asked in return.
“Fair enough.”
“Who are you?” the woman, some kind of furred creature with long ears, asked.
“We’re on a scouting mission,” Burin answered.
That immediately raised a red flag for the woman. “For who? What army do you serve?”
“We just got here from another world,” Terry said, leaving off the actual answer.
“So it’s to be an invasion?! As if the forces of Warlord Yrax weren’t bad enough,” the woman answered. “You don’t appear to be elves, so you can’t be from Castrovel. So who are you, and what army do you serve?”
“We came from Irrisen on Golarion,” Burin said, missing the woman’s distress. “By the way, this is a torch, not a weapon.” He waved the torch, causing the dragon to tense up.
“We may have to do something,” Gregor said.
“On it,” I answered. I hit the talk button on my phone. “Miss, I’m sorry, we seem to be having a misunderstanding. We’re not on a scouting mission. The word he meant was ‘quest’. We’re on a quest, seeking two magical items that will allow us to rescue our benefactor, whose fate is currently uncertain. We mean no harm to you or your people.”
She breathed a sigh of relief as Nebula translated what I said. “Truly?” she asked. “Then you do not work with the vile dragon Yrax, whose forces currently besiege my home?”
“No,” I said. “We really did just arrive here. For that matter, we’re not even sure where here is. Could you please tell us the name of this world?”
“Triaxus,” she answered. Triaxus? I’d heard of the place, but I couldn’t remember where in the solar system it was. “Come, there is no need for this distance any longer. I do not believe you are my enemy.” She also called the dragon over.
“Where’s Triaxus?” Terry asked.
Gregor drew a crude map of the solar system in the dirt. “Here, I think. Seventh planet from the sun.” He then showed the woman where Golarion was, since she was curious.
We introduced ourselves, learning that the woman’s name was Bescaylie, and the dragon – actually, a dragonkin, which was similar, but not quite the same – was her bonded partner – in the non-romantic sense – and was called Efrixes. She was one of the native people of this world, their race known as Triaxians, and she was what was known as a winterborn, a denizen who would spend her whole life living in the decades-long winter of Triaxus.
“Perhaps, if your people are in trouble, we could help?” Burin asked Bescaylie. Terry kicked him in the shin. “What? If we help them, then maybe they can help us find the things we’re looking for. We’re a lot better at killing than searching.”
He had a point, and it wasn’t like we knew enough about the place to be able to make a wise search. Even a map would really help out at this point. “I’m in,” I said.
The road was fairly long. On the way, Terry and Bescaylie talked about being raised to fight, and seemed to bond a bit. I wondered how Bescaylie would react when she realized the apparent girl was actually an adult man. Wasn’t really my business, to be honest.
It was late afternoon when we reached Bescaylie’s people, who were holed up in a fortress called Spurhorn. Yeah, that caught our attention immediately. When she revealed the name, we’d asked if she knew anything about a two headed eagle. Apparently her commander had one as a pet. When we told her that we might need the eagle, she told us that she was sure that her commander would likely be willing to trade it for our help, if we proved capable.
The fortress was located on a cliff, surrounded on one side and most of two others by a deep chasm. The remaining area was a steep climb up dangerous, rocky terrain. It was nearly perfect for defense. It wouldn’t have surprised me that they held off the siege for years, if you had told me so.
Even so, the army surrounding them was nearly ten thousand strong, and comprised of powerful looking forces. Gregor immediately knelt down and began drawing up a map of the area. “I am thinking this is doable,” he said.
Burin nodded. “It’s only about two thousand each. You two can handle a couple thousand between you, right, Bescaylie?”
“Surely you jest,” she said.
“So you can’t? Well, that’s unfortunate.” He looked serious, and so did Gregor.
“Then, another plan,” Gregor said. He laid it out and we agreed that it was probably the best course of action. The gist being that we’d create a distraction and fly into the fort, where we could coordinate with the defenders.
Late that night, Gregor and Terry put on grey cloaks and snuck their way into the enemy camp as we watched. They were nearly discovered several times, but narrowly managed to avoid detection each time. Of course, it was probably only by luck that they managed, because at some point, it was clear that they were taking unnecessary risks in some kind of goofy competition with each other.
They made their way to the army’s pack animals, and tied torches to the horns and tails of several of the poor creatures. Burin had especially liked the torches, having somehow become convinced that the people of this world were terrified of torches. Then they lit the torches and sent the animals running straight up through the army. Gregor tossed a thunderstone into the nearest set of tents, to increase the confusion.
Then it was my turn. As they quickly made their way back to us, I began casting flight spells, first on Burin, then on Terry, then Gregor. Finally, I hit all of us with a spell to increase our movement speed, and we were off.
We flew around to the side of the fortress over the chasm, having determined that there were fewer patrols there. Distracted by the commotion, we easily made it past the first patrol, and zipped past the second too fast for it to keep up. The third, however, was a Triaxian sorcerer on the back of a dragonkin.
Burin slammed straight into the sorcerer and sent him flying off of his mount into the chasm below. He didn’t have a chance, having already taken a blow to the shoulder from Terry’s gun. The dragonkin retaliated by breathing fire at us as Bescaylie charged at it. The breath was mostly bearable.
But it hurt Nebula so much that her projection blinked out of existence. Now, that really pissed me off. I knew she’d be fine and come back tomorrow, but I wasn’t thinking about that at the moment. He’d hurt my poor Nebby, and he was going to PAY.
I unleashed the most powerful fireball I’ve ever conjured and engulfed the dragon in a blast of ice-cold flame. It tumbled from the sky after its fallen rider.
“Keep moving!” Gregor said. “They’re right behind us!”
A frost drake managed to catch up, so Gregor punched it in the wing, sending it tumbling about fifty feet. It righted itself before striking the ground, but it was no longer close enough to threaten us.
Bescaylie called out something as we approached – I no longer had Nebby to translate for me – and the numerous crossbowmen on the walls let us fly in, reserving their volley for another drake that had come too close in its desire to catch us.
We were surrounded by guards. They were wary, and a bit agitated, but they didn’t seem to be hostile. It was only then, in the commotion, that I heard something unexpected. “Did you hear that, lass?” Burin asked me.
“Yes,” I replied. I had indeed heard someone speaking a language I recognized.
“Don’t worry,” Burin said calmly in the language of dragons. In hindsight, it’s not surprising they spoke it here. “We won’t bring out any torches.”
I sighed. “Please don’t worry about him,” I said, also in the language of dragons. “The dwarf sometimes just says weird things.”
Gregor leaned in and whispered, “Torches, right?”
“Yeah.”
Bescaylie led us to the commander’s office, high in the keep overlooking the fortress. There, she took us before the leader of her people – apparently called the Dragon Legion – Commander Pharamol. He was an impressive looking Triaxian with white fur and a clear military bearing. I guess some things transcend planets.
“What are these strange creatures you bring before me, Bescaylie?” he asked.
“I encountered them out in the mountains. They seem to be a witch, a warrior, a simpleton and a child. From what they showed on the way in, they’re competent enough.”
“I see,” he said. “And tell me, I’ve never seen creatures such as you. Where are you from?” he asked us.
“We come from Golarion,” I said.
“We’re looking for keys,” Burin added.
“Keys?”
“They claim they need a two-headed eagle,” Bescaylie offered. “I was hoping that you’d be willing to trade if they could help us break the siege.”
He stroked his chin. “I see. If they can deliver, then I am certainly willing to part with my pet. But can you deliver?” he asked us directly. “Can you defeat the enemies surrounding us?”
“Not alone, probably,” Burin said. “But we are pretty good at violence. Just point us in the direction of the most valuable targets, and we’ll do what we can to turn the tide.”
As Burin was speaking, I translated what was said to Gregor and Terry. “Tell him that he has nothing to fear with the machine of death on his side,” Terry said.
“I look forward to finding something interesting to fight,” Gregor added.
I passed on what they said. Commander Pharamol laughed. “Good! I like enthusiasm. The council will, of course, make the final decision, but I believe you can be of help to us. For now, perhaps your people have ways to make war we haven’t considered. I will assign a detachment to you to show you around the fortress, and, of course, to keep an eye on you. See if you have any ideas on how to shore up our defenses. I will let you know when the officers out on patrol return so you can meet with the council.”
“The council?” I asked.
“Eight of Spurhorn’s highest ranking officers. You’ll need everyone’s support for our people to trust you. I suspect that you’ll have no trouble earning it, but earn it you must.”
“Understood,” I said. “I’m sure you have a lot to do, so we’ll try to keep out of your hair until you need us.” As soon as we walked out of the door, I turned to Burin, “Keep an eye on Terry,” I said, still in the language of dragons.
“Understood,” the dwarf answered.
We took a look around, and the others had plenty of ideas. “We could secure the gates with barrels of pitch and boiling oil,” Gregor suggested.
“Remember that explosion in that shaft after we jumped down at the redcaps?” Burin asked. “What if we did something like that?”
“If they’re in the air,” Terry said. “We’re gonna need guns. And maybe some bombs we launch with the catapults against the ground forces. Can the box make a bunch of them?”
I thought about it. “As long as they have the resources, I think Cortana can make a couple dozen guns and still have time to make bombs, and whatever we need for the other two plans. So, shall we bring our ideas to the commander and get started?”
The others nodded. It was going to be a long day and we were going to be busy. Which was probably good, since I was a married woman and I needed something to keep me from getting too distracted by all the big, muscular soldiers around me.
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