We found our quarry within minutes. Thankfully he was not being hunted by any monsters, but just walking between some huge trees.

He was a tall, rugged-looking guy in his 30s probably, with black hair and a clean-shaven face. He was wearing a really nice leather aviator’s jacket and a pair of khaki shorts, but no shoes. He wasn’t carrying any visible weapons.

Identify kicked in immediately. “Steve McDonough. Baby human. Level 8. Water elements.”

Ruby shouted and rushed past me. Steve froze in surprise, then gaped when he saw us. Ruby rushed up to him and I hurried after. Even if he was our missing teammate, it wasn’t wise to rush in before we knew anything about the guy.

Steve grinned so wide, it looked like his face might split. “I’m so happy to see you guys.”

Ruby slowed and said, “We’ve been searching for you.”

“I’m assuming you’re our missing teammate,” I added as I joined them.

“Definitely,” Steve answered enthusiastically. “This world is insane. I keep thinking I’m in the wildest nightmare of all time, but I can’t seem to wake up.”

“I wish it was just a dream.”

Ruby nodded, but flashed another smile. “We’re stronger together as a team.”

“Did you find the others?” Steve asked, looking behind us. “Aren’t we supposed to be 5?”

“We found them, but they didn’t make it,” I said as Ruby’s smile faded to a frown.

“Damn,” Steve muttered. “I hate this world.”

“At least you got good clothing,” Ruby said, then grinned.

“What’s so funny?” Steve asked.

“Did you ever watch Jumanji?” she asked.

“The new remake, with the Rock, and Jack Black?” I asked.

“That’s the one,” she said.

“I love that movie, why?” Steve asked.

“I love it too.” Ruby sighed. “Your jacket reminds me of Seaplane McDonough’s.”

Steve’s eyes widened and he glanced down at his jacket. “I thought it looked familiar, but didn’t make the connection. Wait, how can there be a connection?”

“My name’s Ruby,” she said, gesturing at her ridiculous outfit.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Of course! I should have recognized you,” Steve laughed until her scowl silenced him.

“Oh yeah,” I’d watched the movie once with Isabella, but she’d been feeling pretty friendly, so I’d been very distracted. I’d liked it, but didn’t remember it as well. “Seaplane was the guy pulled into the game years before the others?”

“That’s the one,” Ruby said.

“Cyrus did say he likes movies.”

“Cyrus?” Steve asked.

“That voice? He’s calling himself Cyrus now.”

Ruby glanced up into the sky, then back to us. “So Cyrus decided to make a team of people with some kind of connection to characters in Jumanji?”

“Since we don’t know how he picked groups, it makes as much sense as anything else.”

“Nothing makes sense!” she shouted, throwing up her hands. “He’s done all this,” she gestured at her hair and outfit, “just for a stupid joke about a movie?”

I shrugged. “It seems ridiculous, I know. Maybe sometime we’ll get an explanation.”

“Ridiculous?” Cyrus exclaimed, his voice booming across the clearing, making us all jump. “Teams are an important element in the first stage of the game.”

“Sorry,” I said quickly. Having the powerful AI angry at us would be a great way to die horribly very soon. “We’re under a lot of stress.”

“I thought you’d appreciate the elegance of the system,” Cyrus said, again sounding like he was pouting.

“Maybe when we meet up with more teams we’ll see the bigger picture better.”

“That’s true. You’ve only been around for a single day.” His bubbling good humor was back in full force. “Get on with it, then.” His voice changed slightly and he added in a rhyming cadence, “You’re late, you’re late, you’re late.”

“Are you quoting the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland?” Ruby asked.

“Good catch,” I said.

Cyrus laughed. “Indeed! Excellent. You’re showing wonderful promise, Ruby. Keep it up.”

“Thanks,” she said slowly, looking like she had to force out the word.

Cyrus did not respond.

Steve looked a bit shell-shocked by the encounter, then shook his head slowly. “At least it explains why I got an ability for mixing drinks.”

“You didn’t,” Ruby exclaimed.

He grinned. “Must be another Jumanji joke. I got a margarita mixing ability, but I don’t have any tequila or limes. I can also mix drinks that purify water or other liquids. Supposedly it’ll upgrade to allow me to add other ingredients, even if I don’t have any on hand.”

“That’ll come in handy,” I said, even though we had Ruby’s Base Camp with a pure water faucet. Having more ways to purify water was always a good idea in the wild.

Ruby was clearly getting pushed into a specific role, and now it looked like Cyrus had started setting Steve up to play the role of Seaplane, with his drink-mixing skills. Hopefully he didn’t also end up with a weakness to mosquito bites.

Ruby scowled and muttered, “What the smolder?”

I blinked, then laughed. “You’re getting into the spirit of it awfully fast.”

Her scowl deepened. “That wasn’t what I meant to say. Why the hippo would I say that?”

“You just did it again,” Steve said.

She glared up into the sky. “Are you seriously changing my swears?”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Cyrus’s chuckle filled the glade. “Isn’t it fun?”

“No, it’s not,” Ruby snapped. “How can you control what we say?”

“Are you changing words in her mind?” I added with a shudder. What a horribly intrusive power.

“No, but it’s almost as good. You say what you wish, but I change it before anyone can hear the words. I even echo back the changed word so you know what others hear. Isn’t that fantastic?”

“No. I want to say what the smolder I want to say.” She stomped her foot in frustration.

“The swears are pretty lame,” I added, although the last one wasn’t bad.

“What’s lame are your Earth swears,” Cyrus answered. “This way, I can seed more elements from movies we all love and increase brand awareness so viewers are intrigued into learning more and trying Earth movies.”

Huh. Maybe if enough people fell in love with Earth movies they’d choose not to bulldoze the planet to atoms.

“How do we get viewers?” Steve asked.

Cyrus laughed. “Lucas has such a powerful influence. Bare minutes together, and you’re already asking for spoilers too. Impressive. Truly impressive.”

I sighed. “Just drop it.”

“Why? This sounds important.”

“You’ll all receive the information at the same time as everyone else,” Cyrus said.

“So until then you’re going to make us sound like Jumanji addicts?” Ruby demanded.

“You learn so fast. I’m very proud of you.”

It was obvious Cyrus wasn’t going to change his mind, and we were helpless to do anything about it. Antagonizing him over something as silly as fake swear words wasn’t worth the risk. He could do far more menacing things to us if he wanted to.

Ruby paced away, then turned, arms folded, clearly fighting back another angry retort. Then her shoulders relaxed and she said, “I love the movie. I really loved it. I can deal with this.”

Steve asked, “So Cyrus has been giving you a bunch of Ruby Roundhouse gear. Has he given you abilities too?”

She blew out a breath and nodded. “I have a scroll to learn dance fighting.”

“Sweet!” Steve laughed.

“No, it’s not. I don’t want to learn dance fighting and I don’t want to learn nunchucks.”

“Can you learn nunchucks?” I asked. That one was new.

She nodded. “Got a scroll for it. Haven’t read it yet.”

“Why not?” Steve asked. “Both of those could be really boss.”

She shrugged. “Don’t have any nunchucks. Besides, when I was a girl, I tried them once. Nearly knocked myself out.”

Steve’s grin didn’t diminish. He was taking our weird team assignment better than me and Ruby. She hadn’t told him about her forced hair color, or the fact that she couldn’t wear more clothing without losing her defensive boosts. Maybe she worried Cyrus was still listening.

Cyrus was always listening.

“Lucas, why are you on our team?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, which character are you? Your last name isn’t Bravestone, is it?” Ruby asked, making an effort to smile.

“I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Oh, come on,” Ruby said. “You can’t keep secrets from us, not here, not when we have to trust our lives to each other.”

“What, is your name really Shellie?” Steve laughed.

I sighed and stared, mentally preparing myself for that conversation again.

“Wait, it is?” Steve asked, looking suddenly uncomfortable. Ruby stared at me like I’d just grown a second head.

“My mother is a professor of medieval history. She named me after Shelley, the famous British poet. My middle name is Lucas. It’s my father’s name, so that’s what I usually go by.”

“So you’re a perfect fit for our team. Map guy,” Steve joked.

“I did actually receive a special map upgrade called Oberon Advantage.”

“You didn’t!” Ruby gasped, and Steve laughed.

I shrugged. “It’s actually a great upgrade. Lets me see a lot farther than most, with more information that no one else gets until their map evolves a couple times.”

My gloves were another Jumanji reference I had missed earlier too. Smolder’s Grips. They had to be referring back to Smolder Bravestone, the character played by The Rock. He was super powerful, but had a timid teen boy trapped inside. Made the movie hilarious.

The references were ridiculous, but I wasn’t about to not wear the gloves. Speaking of gear, I pulled out the moccasins and handed them to Steve.

He took them eagerly and slipped them on. “Ah. Perfect fit.”

“Every time,” I agreed. His feet were definitely larger than Ruby’s, but the moccasins again adjusted. That was a really nice feature.

“I wonder how Andy and Joseph fit the theme?” Ruby wondered.

“Well, Joseph had a dictionary of monsters. Wasn’t there a zoologist, or something on the team?”

Steve nodded. “Backpack guy, but his name was Mouse, not Joseph.”

Ruby snapped her fingers. “In the second Jumanji, the old guy was named Milo Walker. He was the backpack guy for a while. Walker was Joseph’s last name.”

It fit. “And Andy was a big guy. He could have stood in for Fridge.” That had been the football player who got trapped in the tiny backpack guy’s body. I couldn’t believe I was remembering so much about the movie. Maybe my high intelligence was earning its keep.

“I wish we had the entire team together,” Ruby said softly.

I agreed. We might unlock more team bonuses, but more importantly, we’d be so much stronger together. And it would mean Andy and Joseph hadn’t died uselessly on some alien planet far from home.

“I hope Cyrus continues with the fun movie humor upgrades,” Steve said.

“And doesn’t start experimenting with horror movies,” Ruby added softly.

Yeah, not all the references were fun, like Steve believed. His point of view was refreshing and made it easier to roll with the insanity of our situation. Still, I cringed internally at her words. Why would she say that out loud? Hopefully she hadn’t just given Cyrus a terrible idea.

So I changed the topic. “Well, we found you, Steve. What else can you tell us about yourself?”

“Before we got dropped into this death trap, I was a master plumber. Probably why I got a water manipulation spell.”

“That’s a good one. Do you still have uses?”

He nodded. “I’ve been trying to save it for when I hit level 10. I also have an ice bolt spell that’s saved my life a couple times already, but I can only make one spell permanent.”

“Those sound like great starter spells.”

He nodded. “Besides drink mixing abilities, I also got level 4 archery. I just need to find a bow. I was an avid bow hunter and part-time hunting guide.”

Perfect. I extracted my uncommon bow. “Will this do?”

“Really?” Steve grinned like a boy on Christmas morning as he reverently took the bow. He checked it over carefully, like he was examining a classic car. Good thing one of us appreciated it.

Steve drew the bow back in one fluid movement and a long arrow with a wicked barbed head appeared in his hands, already knocked. With a laugh, he loosed and the bow twanged loudly. The arrow shot to a nearby tree and sank into the trunk.

“Thank you! I can’t believe you didn’t keep this yourself.”

“It wouldn’t do me any good. Now we’ve got an archer, our long-range fighting abilities just jumped a huge notch.” What a relief.

Ruby said, “Lucas is the guy who enjoys the close encounters. I got a blowgun I need to practice with.”

“That’ll work,” Steve said seriously. “If you don’t mind taking on all that risk, we can definitely support from a distance.”

It wasn’t like I wanted to get close and personal with nasty monsters, but I didn’t have a choice. My skills and weapons were best used in melee. If I didn’t need so much more experience than they did, I’d prefer to find targets they could turn into pin cushions from 50 yards out.

“What did you get for utility skills?” Ruby asked.

“Mystic Looter, Base Camp, and Navigation.”

“That’s two Base Camps, two navs, plus my Linguasight and Ruby’s Bio Morph. Not bad.”

“Bio Morph. That one sounded boss,” Steve said, giving Ruby an approving nod.

She didn’t elaborate about her upgrade, but she and I took turns sharing info about the rest of our abilities and spells as we started marching farther west. Now that we had gathered our team, we had to find the main valley Cyrus had said we needed to conquer. Hopefully we’d find more survivors on the way.

We crossed at least two miles moving due west. The mountains to the north remained huge and impassive, with more peaks rising to the south and east. Steve pointed out a break in the hills to the west.

“That suggests there’s a pass through those hills. Hopefully we’ll find more open terrain that way.”

It sounded good to me. I was glad we had an experienced outdoorsman with us. I liked the outdoors, especially on my bike, but usually stuck to roads, either paved or dirt. My brother and I had explored some pretty remote places, and I’d ridden more bumpy woods roads than I cared to remember in the fire crew trucks, but rarely hoofed it across open wilderness.

As we walked, Steve finally turned to me and asked, “If you don’t mind, how can you still be only level 1?”

I repeated the same explanation I’d given Ruby. Steve considered it, frowning. “Sounds like you got screwed.”

“I’ll get there,” I assured him, although I was feeling the crunch of time. We hadn’t run across any monsters, and even the distant roars had fallen mostly quiet. It was like now that we had found our entire team, the monsters had just vanished from our starting area. All the more reason to move on to new places.

By midafternoon, we found a pretty wide game trail that led through a long canyon that pierced the high hills rising on either side. We saw marks in the dirt that Steve figured were probably old tracks, but they were so worn, he couldn’t tell what might have made them.

Finally, the canyon opened into a wider valley covered in tall, waving grasses. In the distance to the west, between another row of hills a couple miles away, I glimpsed an even bigger open expanse.

“That might be the central valley we need to reach,” I said, gesturing toward the distant view.

“Probably, but first, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Steve asked in a distracted voice. I followed his gaze to the north and blinked in surprise.

“Are those cows?” Ruby asked, shielding her eyes from the afternoon sun.

They did look a lot like Earth cows. A herd of at least 50 of them, scattered around the grasses. What made them look so very different was the fact that they were all standing tall on only their hind legs.