Chapter 3: In [Another World] With My Bunny Girl

Their small rabbit-eared guest plainly had a lot more questions that she wanted to ask but apparently decided that she didn't know where to begin and chose to hold her peace and observe for the time being. Kurt, still concerned about the drop in the mood, hastened to resume the music. "Let's get back to the music, we can leave the heavy conversation for later. Michael, is your voice warmed up?" Michael took a sip of water and nodded. "Alright, Charlie, how about we try 'Take On Me'? I think we've heard Michael practicing enough on the trail that we'd all like to hear him do it accompanied."

Charlotte switched to her small guitar and they both began strumming the opening chords of the song. Michael, originally Mikhail was, he said, actually a very angular and tanned Malaysian man and not a soft, pale anglo teen that he appeared to be. He was a polyglot who was fluent in fourteen languages, and somewhat less proficient in some twenty more. He'd never told the rest of the group about his experience in the celestial realm, which was no surprise, the experiences in the celestial realm was always an intensely personal and often embarrassing experience that few shared easily. The group had only been together about a month at this point, so likely he didn't feel comfortable sharing his story yet, and maybe never would. But what he had shared was that he had been a Malay man who was on a flight to China for a job interview as a European History professor at one of the universities there when his flight crashed into the ocean.

Kurt tried not to be, but often found himself envious of 'the taken'. Kurt was a second generation 'native' of this world. His father was one of the taken, but his mother had been one of the first children born here. Kurt had to work for everything he had, and it was hard not to be envious. The taken got a free do-over with a body and skills that matched their innermost fantasies. Michael for example had a singing voice as sweet as his boyish face and a chance to live a life as a gay man in a world that didn't stigmatize it like his original home. If the taken hadn't been universally good and helpful people it would be easy to resent them, but despite being an academic with the body and voice of a medieval castrato Michael had volunteered to travel to the continent and assist on their dangerous mission. The guild had little information on the languages spoken on the central continent and someone who knew so many human languages seemed like they would be a great asset for communication when they finally encountered someone who wanted to talk. Michael left his position at the Academy and joined the Explorer's Guild without a moment's hesitation when they announced that they were forming expedition parties.

Charlotte had been teaching everyone songs as they walked their journey. Especially she taught Michael songs that complemented his sweet voice. This one in particular had a very high note and Michael was the only male he knew of that could hit it. Charlotte had taught him the guitar chords for the song which she described as a down tempo acoustic version of the original. They played that song, enjoying Michael's sweet voice and then another half dozen or so others as they waited for the beans to cook. As they played the mood recovered and improved by the time the beans were ready to add the veggies. Everyone including their guest was relaxed and jovial by the time he excused himself to finish cooking their meal.

Kurt placed the iron frying pan from his pack in the fire to heat it up for the eggs and then added the vegetables and oil to the pot, stirring them in with the beans and added some salt and pepper to the mix. It would take another thirty minutes of cooking time to finish and while he waited he buttered the frying pan and set to frying the last of the eggs they had brought with them. They'd used up the last of the veggies and eggs at this point. It would be hardtack and jerky from here on out if they couldn't hunt up some fresh meat or find someplace to get some supplies. But they did have enough of the unsavory trail rations to last them another three weeks which was the official duration of their mission. They'd travel another week or ten days and then turn back and report on what they'd found. Theoretically that would give them enough time to reach their immediate goal.

Kurt glanced at the fuzzy creature watching Charlotte play a song without him. She was taking it all in with rapt attention. Off and on she'd been writing in her journal with a bird's feather and what appeared to be some kind of dark purple berry juice. Kurt didn't hold out much hope that they'd be able to get any supplies from her people. She held what sounded like an at least moderately important position in her clan, but her feet were wrapped in cloth scraps and her clothing was more patch than cloth. It was hard to say because he only had one example to judge by, but she looked thin. That wasn't surprising, the black fog had been getting thicker and thicker over the last generation or so, and even in Origin City an ocean away the weather had been getting noticeably cooler and the growing season a little shorter. Here on the continent things were much worse and he wouldn't be surprised if by this point a people who relied on farming, as hers seemed to, might be running short over the winter. Not to mention that even an average human outmassed these rabbit people by at least a factor of six. There'd be no way that her clan would have enough extra to do much for their food situation. But food wasn't what Kurt was actually interested in from Binna's people. He was interested in information. They needed to find Morkedum, the dwarven capital. Based on what the sages and scholars could glean from the fragmentary texts that were found in and around the origin when the first humans were brought here there was an ancient evil imprisoned under the capital of the old dwarven empire. That prison was the source of the black fog, and whatever was causing it to increase needed to be stopped.

Of course, Morkedum was over a thousand miles away from the beachhead that the party had departed from. Kurt and his fellows had been tasked with finding a small unnamed dwarven trading outpost that had been marked on an incomplete map of this part of the continent. The map, though incomplete, seemed to indicate that the trading outpost was linked to a smallish dwarven city high in the mountains. Logic seemed to indicate that a dwarven city would at least be a good stepping stone for finding their way to the capital. It wasn't a clear path to their goal, but it was a start. If they didn't report back within another three weeks another team would be sent up after them to see what happened. Kurt hoped to check in at the beachhead before then with good news. And if nothing else, making contact with Binna's people would be a very good sign for the success of the mission.

"Chilli's done!" Kurt announced. Everyone was hungry and they eagerly took the large bowls that he ladled out to them. He gave a much smaller bowl to their guest and she sniffed it curiously. "There's no meat in there at all. It's my dad's recipe. It's just veggies, beans, and spices. Hopefully you're not allergic to anything in it."

The smallest spoon that the party had was still comically large in the hands of the small creature but she cautiously tongued the steaming contents. "Hopefully it's not too spicy for you, I cut back a little on what I'd normally use."

Binna took a cautious mouthfull of the vegetables and beans and chewed carefully. "Yes, this is more spicy than I'm used to. I can taste the peppercorns but the other spices, I think you called them 'chilli pepper' and 'cumin', those are new to me. I think it's delicious, but I might need some water." Charlotte offered her a cup of water from the cistern and the group began to converse over their meal.

Binna had obviously organized her thoughts as they had waited for their meal and she spared no time in launching into a barrage of questions.

"You come from another world? What's it called?"

"Earth."

"Like dirt?"

"Yes. Now that you mention it, it's not a very creative name."

"How did you get here?"

"The celestials took us from our home world and transported us to an island far southeast from here. We call it Origin."

"How did they do that?"

"I don't think it's really possible to explain. We were there, then we were in the celestial realm, then we were here."

"What's the celestial realm like?"

"Intensely bright white, and so cold that it chills your very soul."

"That sounds unpleasant."

"It is."

The questions continued until the food was long gone and everyone was relaxing in the warmth of the fire. Eventually Binna finally ran out of questions save for the last, "You said before that you're here to stop the miasma, the 'black fog' from the maw at the center of the continent. But that's a thousand miles over mountain peaks from here. What are you doing in this place exactly?"

The others deferred to Kurt to answer, "Well we're looking for Morkedum."

"Mor'ke-dum." Binna squeaked.

"Huh?"

"In the dwarvish language it's pronounced Mor'ke-dum. You have to roll the 'r' sound a bit and there's a guttural stop after the second syllable. It means 'Great Stone Home'."

"So you know it?"

"Yes, it features heavily in many dwarven stories. It is their capital city. It's where the maw is, the place where the miasma comes from."

"Well, we need to get there if we want to do anything about it, and that's why we're here."

Binna considered this for a while and then responded, "You can't get there from here. At least I don't know of any way to do it. There's a thousand miles of mountains between here and there over peaks and canyons."

Kurt nodded, "Yeah, but as a wise man once said, 'a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.' We're tasked with trying to find a small dwarven trading outpost somewhere up the pass here because it's supposed to join with a dwarven city high in the mountains. We'll figure out the next step from there."

Binna brightened immediately and said, "You're in luck, I know the place you are looking for, they called it Teh'del-dum, 'Southern Market Home'. My clan burrow used to be there before the long ones forced us out. I can lead you there if you like. But I'll need to speak with the grandmatron first."

"Excellent! That would be a big help." For the first time in a while, Kurt was feeling optimistic rather than daunted by the mission.

The group continued to chatter, asking and answering questions of their guest as the night wore on. Brent as usual kept apart from the group, listening but not engaging in the conversation. He was watching the snow fall outside the redoubt alert for any sign of danger. It wasn't until the snow piled up over the low entrance that he finally returned to the group and made ready to sleep.

Michael and Binna continued to converse and take notes until midnight when Kurt had to instruct them to get some sleep in preparation for their early morning. They would escort Binna back to her clan and then they'd head to Teh'del-dum. Binna estimated that it would take three days to get from her clan's current burrow to the old one at the dwarven outpost, which would put them well ahead of schedule.

Things were looking up.

(End of Chapter 3)

Written by Charles Caplan, all characters and situations are fiction.

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