“Then, there was no energy still on us from what Charles did?” Tessa asked, trying to understand.

“I don’t think that’s it,” Zara disagreed. “The portal has been here for a week now and it was only when we appeared that they reacted. Now you could say that there is some kind of energy that the portals attach to us while we go through them that it likes. But I don’t think that’s it either. These spores were a global threat. I highly doubt everyone had that energy on them when it first appeared.”

Zara frowned, her eyes pulling closer together as she continued to think over the matter. “Why would they ignore us one time then, and not the other? It makes no sense. The portal was the only obvious difference between the two times, but if it wasn’t that, then what else could it have been?”

“What did we eat before leaving Earth, anything?” Tessa asked, grasping at straws.

He shook his head slowly. “No, we skipped breakfast that day. Charles brought us to the observatory to look down at the planet instead.”

Zara snapped her head up at that. “We were in space! The spores came from up there, maybe it was enough to throw them off for a while.”

“Does space even have a smell?” Tessa wrinkled her nose.

Zara shrugged. “It must. I heard Beth mention that their moon smelled like something called ‘gunpowder’. If their moon has a smell, I’m sure everything else out there does. Besides, it might not even be a smell, it might be something else that they detected on us at the time that only comes from space.”

Zack sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Regardless, what it comes down to is they’re not going to ignore us anymore. Do we want to wait for the sun to come up and see if that changes things, or just leave?”

“Stay!” Both girls shouted without hesitation.

“We’re not going to get another chance to come here again for a while, Zack. We need to make the most of it while we can, even if that means just sitting here waiting for the sun to rise.” Tessa told him forcefully.

Zara nodded. “Mom, dad, and possibly a younger sister we never met might be out here. I refuse to waste this opportunity without an extremely good reason, and an unknown spore thingy is not one.”

Zack looked away; he had been trying not to think about them possibly having a younger sister more than he had to. All three had popped into his thoughts without his bidding already more times than he liked to admit. It was to the point where he wasn’t sure what he would do if the mean lady who had sent them home the first time had merely been playing mind games with them.

Those thoughts had made their way through his mind more than a few times. Yet, she had known their names, where they were going… It was too much of a coincidence. That didn’t mean it would hurt any less if the people she had mentioned weren’t their parents and unknown little sister.

It would, which is why he didn’t want to think about them any more than he already had.

“I know.” He said at last. “Fine, we’ll stay. At least they don’t seem interested in getting closer than they already are.”

“What are we going to do while we wait?” Tessa finished the question with a yawn.

“I suppose we could just finish sleeping. Zelda and the others will watch over us in the meantime.” Zara glanced at the three bears, who nodded in silent agreement.

***

Zack cracked his eyes open an hour or two later to find Zelda standing at the edge of the safe zone, trying to stab the undulating swarm of spores and dust.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Would you quit that?” He mumbled, slowly sitting up.

It hadn’t been the best sleep he had ever gotten, but it also hadn’t been terrible. The rocky, hard surface should have been far more uncomfortable than it was. Something that he blamed the increase in his stats for. They were currently inside a portal, and on a Changed world, so his portal stats were in effect, instead of his lower, normal ones.

The small bear pulled back the blade and showed it to him. What had once been a knife larger than her was now something no larger than the throwing blade in his sheathe.

“Did the spores do that?”

Zelda nodded, her anger palpable despite not having facial muscles that moved or even real eyes.

“Yikes, it’s a good thing we didn’t walk out into that then. They would have ground us down to bones and then nothing soon after.”

She pointed to George, who held up a nub where a fluffy paw had once been.

“I see you three have been conducting your own experiments.” Zack looked around. “Speaking of where’s Aisha?”

She pointed again, this time with the toothpick-like blade to the area outside.

Tilting his head past her, he could see the larger bear riding a wave of the spores as she came back towards them. It was a little difficult to tell in the pre-dawn light, but it looked as though her fur had been worn bald in multiple spots. It wasn’t terrible damage, but still, more than any of them had suffered recently.

The bears and their suits had all had their durability enhanced by that purple mana crystal he had received. Yet, even after all of that, the bears, and by extension the rest of them, were vulnerable.

“At least it looks like it takes a while for the spores to hurt you all. You realize Zara is going to be pissed when she wakes up and sees them both like that though, right?”

“Who did what, and why is it Tessa’s fault?” Zara yawned out with an arm-popping stretch.

The girl in question rolled over with a groan and half-heartedly tossed a stray rock at them. It didn’t even come close to hitting either of them. “There is too much talking going on for such an early hour. If the sun isn’t up yet, then go back to sleep.”

“It’s edging towards the horizon,” Zack told the two girls as Aisha finally flopped back into the enclosure.

“How’s it looking?” Tessa asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Don’t know yet. It’ll be a few more minutes still.”

Zara, meanwhile, was busy inspecting her bears while frowning. “Which of you three thought it was a good idea to let yourselves get hurt like this? And you Zelda! I never made that knife into a puppet; it’s gone for good now until we can find you a replacement!”

Somehow, Zelda’s rounded ears flattened against her head sadly, a movement that none of them would have thought possible. It was a sign that slowly, as the bear’s soul was developing, she was becoming something more.

“And as for you two…” Zara shook her head. “I didn’t think to bring any extra material with me that could be used to fix either of you up. You’ll have to stay like that until we get back to Aperra.”

George stared at the stump where his arm used to be and slowly shrugged. While he was doing that, Aisha was more concerned with hiding her naked spots from view. Her arms continuously switching from one spot to another.

Tessa giggled at the bear’s antics and pulled out a spare handkerchief from her bag. You never knew when you were going to need something to clean some blood off you after all and held it out to Zara.

A few moments later, the fibers had been absorbed into the bear and she was sprouting some thin multi-colored fuzz to cover the bald spots. Unfortunately, nothing could be done for George with what they had on them.

“You want to give your fire another try?” Zack asked Tessa as the sun finally rose above the horizon.

She shrugged. “Sure, cover your ears, I guess?” She extended her hand and launched her customary bolt of fire after taking a second to let it form.

Right away, it was obvious to them that spores were responding a lot more sluggishly than before. The deep thrumming scream from before was still there, but now it had also taken on a discordant undertone to it that spoke of true pain. If her fire before had been hurting it, now it was searing its very soul.

As soon as she was able, Tessa attacked it again, a second and then a third time. With each attack, the discordant, crying undertone became more prevalent, until it was the prevailing sound they felt.

Finally, nearly a minute later, as she was about to collapse from exhaustion, they each received an experience notification. It had died. After sending well over a dozen attacks at it, Tessa had managed to kill a swathe of the monsters in front of them. There were still plenty more of the spores left to contend with, but the area directly in front of their enclosure was now secure.

For the moment, at least.

Tessa was still recovering a few minutes later when Zack held up his hand and tilted his ear toward the hills in front of them.

“I thought I heard something,” He said after a moment, turning back to face them.

“You did.” Zara pointed past him, her mouth dropping open in surprise.