I gaze in shock at the empty area in front of me. Just a moment ago, Malcolm, the man who magically brought us to this world, vanished before out eyes. Taken by some evil wizard dude called Sergor.

Chirping crickets fill the silence. The sun dips toward the horizon, casting its final rays of light across the grassy plains and rolling hills.

Laura, Jesse, Sam, and Gary watch the spot with me, wordlessly, as if we're expecting Malcolm to reappear.

A minute goes by.

"So... we're left all alone, in a D&D world, without a dungeon master," Sam states. A smile spreads across his face. "This is awesome!"

Gary grunts. "No it's not. Malcolm was going to take us back home in the morning. And now we could be stuck here for who knows how long!"

"I know!" Sam says. "That's what's so great!"

"It's not great," Gary retorts. "We could get eaten by monsters in the night. Or thrown in prison by an evil cult."

Sam raises his crossbow and aims it at a nearby tree. "We'll fight 'em off. Just wait 'till they get a piece of the Shrieker!"

"What if we're here for a year or more?"

Sam opens his mouth to argue, but pauses, startled that the question didn't come from Gary... but from Jesse.

I raise an eyebrow.

"I know I was excited about the idea of being stuck here initially," Jesse says, fiddling with her red fingers and sharp nails. "But not for a long time. I have things back at home that I'd like to get back to."

"But..." Sam presses his lips together and stares at Laura and me. "What about you two? Don't you want to stay here? Keep your real leg and real hand?"

Laura and I glance at each other. She still looks pale and injured. "I would love to keep my leg," Laura says. "But I'd rather be home in my own body, even if it means losing my leg again."

Sam clicks his tongue, clearly unhappy with her answer, and looks at me. "Jake?"

I glance down at my right hand and form a fist. For the past few months, I have wanted nothing more than to do that with my hand again. I'm not used to living without a hand like Laura is. She's been without a leg for years. My life has been miserable ever since I lost my hand. I can't play baseball or football anymore. My whole identity has been in flux ever since the accident.

My identity, I think. How strange it is that today my identity has literally changed. I'm still Jake. But in Ander's body. It's almost like... I've been given the chance to start over. Discover my new identity here, while still having all my limbs.

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"I don't know," I say, stretching my fingers. "I don't really like my life right now back home. Maybe things could be better here."

Sam's smile reappears. "That's what I want to hear."

Laura stares at me with furrowed eyebrows. I swallow and try to avoid her gaze.

Gary huffs. "Well, either way, we're going to be here for a while."

"How long?" Jesse asks.

"However long it takes to find someone who can plane shift us back to Earth," Gary says.

"Malcolm said he did it on accident," Laura says. "I doubt any other mage could do it besides him."

"And even if we found someone who could," Jesse adds, "they'd likely require some sort of payment."

Sam notices a pouch at his belt and looks inside. "Ooh! I have ten gold coins!"

Curious, I follow suit, and open a pouch latched to my belt. It looks empty, but after rifling through it, I find two small coins that seem to be made of gold.

The rest of the group fairs about the same as me. We probably have about 20 gold coins in total.

"Yeah," Jesse says. "That's not going to be enough to get a wizard to plane shift us home."

"So we slay some monsters, make some money," Sam says, jumping onto a rock and raising his short sword to the sky. "That's what I'd do even if we weren't stuck here."

I raise an eyebrow at how odd Sam's movements look. He has the excited energy of a 12-year-old boy in a 25-year-old man's body. And his eyes have a strange darkness to them, like they've seen horrible things. But again, his energy doesn't match his appearance.

"Or..." Laura says. "We level up until our wizard can take us home himself. At what level can you learn to plane shift, Gary?"

Gary scratches his head. A white die and words appear above his head.

Arcana Check 18+5 = 23 -- Success

"It's a 7th level spell," Gary says. "So, not till I reach level 13."

Laura and Jesse groan.

"How long will it take to get to level 13?" I ask.

Laura sighs. "We're at level 3 right now, so we've got a long way to go. It could take ages."

"In our last campaign, it probably took us about a year in-game to level up that much," Jesse says. "We had probably a hundred dangerous encounters with monsters to get there."

The idea of fighting monsters sounds scary... and at the same time... thrilling to me. I'm sort of anxious to test my new body's limits, especially after I somehow grew to ten feet tall.

Gary blows air through his lips. "I think our quickest option is to find Malcolm."

Sam raises his palms upward. "But he disappeared. Remember?"

"Yes, son, I remember," Gary says. "But if we ask around, maybe we can find where Sergor took him. And what was that other name Sergor mentioned." A white die rolls above his head.

History Check 2+3 = 5 -- Failure

Gary stares up at the words in red. "Well, that's bothersome."

A die rolls above Laura's head.

History Check 12+2 = 14 -- Success

"It was Zauramesh," Laura says. "We could ask around. See who knows Malcolm, Sergor, or Zauramesh." She points to the north at the walled city about a mile away. "That's a good place to start."

I have to squint to make out the details of the walls and gate. Torches are lit and placed at the top of the wall near the gate. The sun has officially set, and darkness is closing in. A cool night breeze sends goosebumps up my back.

"First things first," Gary says. "Let's set up camp."