“Really?” Lance asked with scepticism as himself and the rest of the group removed the chains from Distance’s body. There was not as many links of chains latched to Distance’s body as Lance had originally though. When they had finished removing all of it, they had around one metre of chain links with each chain being almost four centimetres thick.

“Yep, it’ll need to be melted back down to make it useable, but its better than nothing, we really want to find the raw material that hasn’t already been crafted into something or other,” Bill said as he took the chain link, one chain at a time and put it into the cylindrical device they were given. Bill was able to open the side of the cylinder that faced him and was able to place it on the ground so he could throw the chain, one link at a time into it to which the device seemed to grow just a little as it lit up. Almost like circuitry, blue lines appear along the sides of the cylinder which expanded a little.

Gerry took a closer look at the blue circuit lines that appeared and realised he could just barely see inside the device. He saw the chains being moved further inside, but they did not touch any side of the device. In fact, he wasn’t sure where the inside had any sides to be touched as the chain seemed to be surrounded by the same blue light that radiated from the device.

Lance’s attention was not towards the device or the group, but towards Distance as they seemed to just stare at each other. Lance would let out a laugh every now and again with the large creature seemingly joined in with a snicker. Lance walked over to the group just as Bill had closed the lid on the cylindrical device which its glow had stopped radiating from the circuit lines.

“Distance said that they will lead us out of this forest to a village where we can rest up and gather information,” Lance said as he gestured between the creature and the forest that surrounded them.

“That creature told you?” Nathan asked with a slightly worried expression on his face. He expected a response, but he did not receive one as he just walked back to Distance and gave a nod. Distance started to walk in the opposite direction itself and the guards had been progressing towards. The rest of the group were left without a say and followed behind Lance as he followed Distance.

Distance seemed to have a bit more hop in its step as it walked much faster than it had been when it was held by the hybrids. It switched between sniffing the air or sniffing the ground at random intervals, none of which caused Distance to stop in its tracks. Lance was the only one who seemed still able to keep pace with the large creature.

He looked back to see the group almost jogging just to keep up. He sighed and tapped Distance on its leg and pointed back to Bill, Gerry, Nathan and Martin as Distance looked back to see. It nodded and slowed its pace which it did by increasing its strides. Distance only changed the groups course of direction three different times, which Lance had to explain that Distance was adjusting their course so they would end up at the front of the village.

After a few more hours Lance and the rest of the group could see a clearing of the forest. Distance had seen this and stopped moving towards the clearing, to which it looked at Lance and gestured with its head over to the clearing.

“Distance says that the village is just up ahead, he will stay away though as they are not friendly to his kind,” Lance said, once again not waiting for a response from the rest of the group and sauntered off towards the clearing.

“Distance also says thank you for helping them,” Lance called to the group as he continued to progress to the clearing. Each member of the group looked at Distance and thanked him, Bill and Nathan both gave Distance a small bow of its head, while Gerry and Martin just waved at it with a smile on their face.

They exited the forest through the clearing that they had been shown where they saw a village which matched the description Lance had said Distance had given him. Lance turned around to look back into the forest and he could only just make out the general figure of Distance through the forest as it seemed to blend into the forest’s thick foliage.

They entered the village which contained many humanoid hybrids which ranged from humans mixed with elephants or giraffes. They received many odd looks from the populace of the village. They had not walked far before an elephant hybrid dressed in a militaristic uniform which seemed to equate to that of the Middle Ages stood in front of them.

It began to speak in a mixture of noises from its mouth and blows of its trumpet. It first did a series of this quite quickly and waited for the group to answer back. When none of the group responded quick enough for the hybrid it repeated the exact same series of breathy words from its mouth and blows of its trumpet but increased the volume of its words and slowed the series down.

Again, the group looked at each other but could not work out what the hybrid tried to say. Lance had thought that the sounds had seemed to a mixture of sounds that originated from Chinese and Spanish mixed with sounds that would be familiar of some African languages that he could not place. Bill finally spoke up and said,

“I’m sorry but we do not speak your language,”

The militaristically dressed elephant hybrid seemed to reel back as it looked up a little like it tried to remember something. A light bulb seemed to switch on in its head and gestured with its hands which were in the shape and size of an elephant but had fingers on the end to follow it. The group obliged the hybrid as they did not know what else to do.

They were guided through the village now, which allowed them to look around with less worry. The buildings all seemed to be that of basic straw roofs with stone walls. The people here did not seem to be that advanced which brought the question to Lance’s mind of how some of these creatures ever figured out how to use the portals or even find them to be able to invade earth.

The hybrid that guided them showed them into a large building that looked like a mix between a chief’s hut and a castle. It had large windows that spanned around the castle walls around the fourth story. The front entrance was also quite large which spanned two stories. The hybrid that guided them knocked on the front door and opened it up a few seconds later. It seemed to require a large amount of force to open, as the hybrid seemed to hold its breath as it exerted itself.

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Inside was a large room that held stairs in the middle that deviated to the left and right after extending up to the where the second story would be. It was much more lavishly decorated than what could be seen on the outside. They were ushered into the castle away from the prying eyes that followed them. They were then urged to move into a side room that’s entrance was to the left of the main entrance.

Inside this room was a giraffe hybrid show read a book and did not look up at who had just entered their room. The room was full of books to one side of the room, while the other side of the room seemed like it would belong to a witch or a wizard. The two hybrids began to converse in their strange language with the noises that the elephant made with their trunk was replace by a humming from the giraffe.

They seemed to argue a little bit before the giraffe hybrid seemed to sigh in exhaustion and defeat and walked over to the witch side of the room. It grabbed a few vials from the shelves and placed them onto a workbench. It measured out the ingredients inside the vials with its hand and put the ingredients into a large pot which was half filled with water already.

After having placed a series of ingredients into the pot, the hybrid began to stir the ingredients in the water. It began to chant a little, still in the strange language that was indecipherable to the group. The concoction bubbled up which caused a sweet fragrance to emanate from the pot. Gerry’s stomach started to growl, despite the stops that they had made on their journey in the forest, they had not eaten anything since their freeing of Distance.

The hybrid used the ladle that they used to stir the concoction to pour it into a small bowl and handed a few to the lion hybrid that gestured to the group to take and drink. The whole group was very sceptical as they held their bowl that contained the almost greenish brown soup that still gave of the same sweet fragrance, but it became much more subtle as they each hesitated to drink it.

Unbeknownst to them they had not even seen that the two hybrids had taken a bowl of the concoction each. The Elephant hybrid made a noise with its trumpet to grab the attention of the group, which once it had it, the hybrid chugged the entire concoction without a second notice. They waited a few seconds before they all took it. Lance nodded to the rest of the group as he raised the bowl to his lips. The rest of the group did the same, but Lance waited as Bill, Nathan, Martin, and Gerry all gulped the liquid down. He did not see any adverse reactions from the others, so Lance followed suit.

Lance’s mind began to swirl as if different memories switched places in his brain constantly back and forth. Despite the discomfort that the shifted memories provided, it was not painful, and the discomfort passed after a minute. Lance shook his head around to try and readjust his head. It took a few seconds for him to realise he heard a voice that he though was vaguely familiar but not one that he should recognise.

“…Communicate now, who are you people?” the voice asked. Lance looked up to see that it was the elephant hybrid that spoke.

“We are from Earth, I am Bill, this is Gerry, Lance, Martin, and Nathan,” Bill had said before anyone else spoke up.

The elephant hybrid hummed as it seemed to go deep into thought. Lance almost though he could hear the gears in the hybrids head.

“I do not know of this Earth, but we have seen creatures like you…” The hybrid said before it got interrupted.

“Really?! There are others here?” Gerry interrupted with a surprised expression.

“Not here, we have had a few of your kind pass through,” The elephant hybrid said.

“Why are you all here anyway?” The Giraffe hybrid said quickly before anyone could get another comment in. Taken aback by the straight forwardness of the question it took a few seconds before anyone answered or spoke up.

“We are looking for a metal to take back with us,” Bill finally said. He shifted his centre of gravity nervously as he waited for a response from the hybrids.

“What type of metal are you looking for?” The elephant hybrid asked. Even though the elephant hybrid had the face of an elephant, it seemed to give the impression of a raised eyebrow, almost mockingly. This question even caused Lance to shift uncomfortably who had not showed any indication of nervousness that the rest of the group had shown.

“We are looking for a metal that we call ‘Kuthendium’, I am not sure what you would refer to it as,” Bill answered which he followed up with a link from the chain they had put into the storage device. The elephant hybrid grabbed a hold of the chain and handed it to the giraffe hybrid who closely inspected the chain. It performed multiple tests, first it tapped the metal with its knuckle, licked the metal and gave it a sniff which Lance found the most unusual out of all the tests performed.

“This kuthendium, where did you get it?” the giraffe hybrid asked the group.

“We got it from some lion people that we crossed paths with,” Lance said without a moment’s hesitation. This caused him to receive an annoyed look from both Gerry and Martin. Lance chose not to notice this and kept his eyes locked with the giraffe hybrid’s.

“Well, those lion people as you call them are slavers, so it is unlikely you just got this from them,” it said with an inquisitive tone.

“However, that is not my problem how you got it. We call it randium. Its rare on this floor, it becomes more common on the upper floors.” The hybrid added before he handed the chain back to Bill, who put it back into the storage device.

“Randium is very useful, but even if more common on the higher floors, I’d suggest you strengthen yourselves before ascending there,” The elephant hybrid added. Lance just rolled his eyes at this.

“Do you know where the portal is to go up further then?” Lance asked now with his arms crossed which made him look like he had run out of enough patience to deal with the two hybrids. Annoyance washed over the giraffe hybrid’s face, but it held its tongue before it let its mouth run amuck. The elephant hybrid spoke up instead,

“I know where it is, but I am sorry I cannot let you go there.”

Lance immediately brandished his glaive’s blade to the elephant hybrid’s throat.

“And why would that be?” Lance asked annoyed. He tried to push the weapon up a bit closer to the elephant’s neck, but he was now being held back by all his group members. Bill had torn away the glaive’s blade away from the elephant’s neck. Gerry tackled Lance to the ground and with the help of Nathan and Martin they held Lance on the ground.

Lance thrashed around as he struggled to get the others of him, but to no success.

“Stay down, we will find that out it a little bit.” Gerry whispered in Lance’s ear. This caused Lance to accept his new position and stopped struggling.

“I’m sorry for my friend there but may I ask why you won’t let us go there?” Bill asked in his politest tone and gave a deep bow in apology towards the elephant hybrid.

“Portals are always tricky; they are like rolling a six-sided dice. You will usually end up where you want to go, but there is a one in six chance that you will end up going elsewhere and its this time of year that chance increases to about a thirty-seventy chance.” The giraffe hybrid said who now sat back at the desk it originally had been seated in.

“It doesn’t matter, we will still need to go to the portal,” Lance said, still stationed underneath, Gerry, Nathan, and Martin.

“I actually agree with Lance on this one,” Gerry said. “I mean don’t get me wrong, it is a risk, but we will need to get there eventually anyway.”

The rest of the group considered this fact which they all could see the point that Gerry had now brought to their attention.

“How long is this season of chance for these portals?” Bill asked, the question being more directed to the giraffe hybrid who seemed to be the more learnt of the two.

“Five sets of complete lunar cycles,” the giraffe hybrid said who seemed to understand that the question was directed at itself.

“Five months?” Martin exclaimed harshly which sent a ringing in Lance, Gerry, Nathan’s ears.