After the fight with the goblins, we stacked their stinking corpses into a pile, then covered them with some of the rubble from the crumbling town.

The sun was getting lower, and night would fall soon, so we searched around and found what looked like an old manor, complete with a fireplace and rotting furniture inside. We broke up some of the furniture, a table, and some chairs and used them to start a fire in the fireplace.

There were a couple of heavy dressers and wardrobes in the house, so once we had our supplies moved over from the horses, which wasn’t much, just the satchel Martha had given me, which had just enough bread and jerky for one more meal in it, we blocked the doors and windows and barricaded ourselves in for the night.

If any more goblins came, they’d have to knock the heavy furniture out of the way or drop down the chimney like Santa. Straight into a roaring fire.

The horses were on their own. If more goblins came, they’d probably eat the horses. I had started to like the horse I’d been riding, so I’d hate to see that happen, but it was better him than me.

After the battle, Rhux gave me one of the goblins' blades. It was about a foot long and extremely sharp. It wasn’t as good as her sword, but it was better than nothing. She’d been caught without her sword, and I could tell she was still scolding herself for that. She kept her sword in her lap while she nursed the bite on her shoulder. Luckily, Martha had also put some kind of suave in the satchel, and I showed it to Rhux, who smeared it on her wounds. I spread some on my arm and hand where the goblins had scratched me. It burned slightly, but it was better than leaving it untreated. I worried it might get infected.

“That'll help those scratches,” she said as we sat in front of the fire in the sitting room of the abandoned house. She was stretched out on the couch that had been left behind. It looked like everything had been left behind. I don’t know what happened in this place, but it seemed like everyone had left in a hurry. “Be glad those goblins didn’t get their teeth in you. Goblin bites are deadly to humans. The scratches will be sore, but you’ll live. A bite, not so much. Lots of rot and decay in a goblins mouth.”

“What about you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her bites.

“Oh, I’m a fast healer.”

I’d tried to dust the couch off as best I could before she sat down, but it hadn’t been much help. Now Rhux had her long, smooth, green legs stretched out as she sat up, her corset as tight as ever on her breasts. The bite on her leg wasn’t that bad, and she ignored it, and I tried not to stare as her skirt rose higher on those very smooth, very green legs.

“Oh,” I said. I assumed that had something to do with the fact that she was green and had pointy ears.

Ever since the fight, she’d been nicer to me than she had been, even though she hadn’t come right out and thanked me for saving her life.

“So bites are deadly for humans but not deadly for you?”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

I was trying not to come right out and ask her what in the hell she was. I was pretty curious about her and what would happen next, most specifically if she was still going to take me to the Slave Traders and sell me to them. Giving me a weapon wasn’t a good idea if she was still planning on that. I couldn’t take her in a fight and had no chance if swords or knives were involved, but I was going to make it more trouble than it was worth if she tried to tie me up again.

“Why not?” I asked. “What…” I hated to be rude, but I wanted to know. “What are you?”

She looked at me like I was the stupidest person in the world, which, when it came to a lot of things in this world, I probably was.

“Are you serious? You don’t know what I am?”

I shrugged. “Like I said, I’m not from around here. You just look like a girl with a really weird complexion to me. But you keep calling me a human as if you’re not. But you look pretty human to me. Other than…”

“Other than my green skin and pointy ears,” she said.

I nodded. She looked away. She looked embarrassed. “I’m half-human. And half-orc.”

“That’s cool,” I said.

“No,” she said. “It isn’t cool. Whatever that means… It is the worst thing to be a half-breed. The humans hate you because you’re an orc, and the orcs hate you because you’re human.” She gave me that look again, like she wondered how stupid I could really be or what rock I crawled out of to be so ignorant.

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I didn’t mention it was more like I came through a rift, actually, and had no idea what was normal or not in this world.

“Oh. Well, that sucks.”

She raised an eyeball at me. “Where are you really from, Jack, if you don’t know what I am? Because everyone knows what an orc looks like.”

“Uh…” I didn’t know how to answer that.

She arched her eyebrow a little bit higher. “Where are you from?”

“I can’t tell you that,” I said.

“And why not?”

I need to change the subject quickly. “There’s something I need to know first. Are you still planning on taking me to be sold as a slave?”

She held my eyes. Hers were dark and piercing, the firelight dancing in them, but I didn’t look away. I wanted the truth from here.

“Why did you save me?” she asked. “Why didn’t you run? Those goblins would have killed me, and you could have gotten away. So why not save yourself from me?”

I held her eyes. “Because it was the right thing to do. I can’t explain it. Trust me, I wish I could. I wanted to run. I tried. But letting you die like that… No matter how much I hated you… It just didn’t seem right.”

We continued to hold each other’s stare. Even with her green skin, or maybe because of it, she was gorgeous. Her eyes sparkled, but that’s not why I didn’t look away. I wanted her to see the truth in my eyes.

“And do you always do the right thing?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“And what have you done that wasn’t right, Jack?”

“My friend, Charlie, and I smeared dog crap on Mr. Thompson's car door once so that it would get all over his hand when he opened it.”

She gave me that you have to be the stupidest person in the world look again, then threw back her head and laughed. “First off, what’s a car? And second, smearing dog crap on the door is the worst thing you’ve done?”

It pretty much was. “Yeah, I guess.”

She got control of her laughter. “And the goblins… was that the first time you killed?”

I hung my head. I’d gone to that dark place. I’d done it to survive, but I’d still done it. This time it hadn’t been fun. It had been scary as hell.

“Yes. But I beat three guys up pretty badly the other day. That was definitely not the right thing to do, even if they did threaten Martha.”

She said, “I’m glad you did what you felt was right. Thank you for saving me, Jack.” She looked at me so I would know she meant it. “And no… I won’t be taking you to the Trader’s now.”

I breathed a loud sigh of relief.

She said, “But I expect to still be paid my one thousand coins. So you’ll have to find a way for us to get it.”

She stretched out further on the couch and knocked the dust off the pillow. “So there’s no reason for you to kill me in my sleep now. And tomorrow, we’ll think about the coins you owe me and how you’re going to get them.”

I wasn’t sure how’d she come to the conclusion I owed her the coins, but it was better than getting sold as a slave.

She closed her eyes and said, “Now tell me where you’re from,” sleepily, like she couldn’t have cared less.

“Around,” I said.

“Jack…”

Here we go. I wonder how she was going to react to this. I had to tell her. She wasn’t buying any of my bullshit.

“I’m from a place called Earth.”

“Uh-huh,” she said so sleepily I wasn’t sure she even heard me. “And what realm is that in?”

“Uh… It’s not really in a realm. More like… through a rift.”

Her eyes shot open, her feet hit the floor, and the sword was in her hand so fast I could barely process it.

“You’re a rift jumper!”

I held up my hands. “Please don’t kill me. I’m not a monster if that’s what you’re thinking!”

She looked at me long and hard. Then sat down on the couch, her legs spread wide, poised to spring to her feet again. With her legs spread wide, her short skirt hid nothing. It was right in front of my face as I sat there, so I tried not to look.

She saw me look, then try not to look. “Maybe you’re not a monster, then,” she said. “All men ever think about is that little thing, and you’re thinking about it now.”

“More like it’s in my face,” I said.

She didn’t close her legs. “Only monsters come through the rifts…”

“So I’ve heard,” I said. “But I’m not a monster. You can see that. You know that. It was just an accident, and I’m trying to get home.”

Rhux eyed me carefully. She relaxed a little and at least sat back and closed her legs. Now I didn’t have to stare at her naked crotch, all shaved and smooth and oddly green.

“Tell me everything then,” she said.

#

I told her everything. All about how my brother and the other three had gone missing, then how Charlie and I had found the stairs, and about Cythyne, - I might have left some stuff out there – then about Martha – again, I left some stuff out – then about Harper and the story of how the four of them had gotten here and their encounter with the Queen and how she was trying to help them. Everything all the way up to when she’d taken me from my original kidnappers.

It took a while, and then Rhux laid back on the couch and stared at me as I sat on the floor.

“And here we are,” I said. “I didn’t bring anything from my world with me when I left Martha’s, just in case someone caught me,” I smiled at her, “and found it and figured out I was a rift jumper and killed me for it.”

She stared at me.

“Are you going to kill me?” I asked.

She considered it, and I started to get nervous for a second. Then she said, “No, Jack. I won’t kill you. There have only been stories about the rift jumpers being monsters, and I’m not sure anyone’s ever actually seen one that isn’t huge and animal-like. So I’m fairly confident you’re not a monster.”

I was happy she felt that way.

“So what are you going to do now?” I asked. “Let me go tomorrow so I can get to Citadel City and find my brother.”

She said, “No.”

My heart sank, and a cold feeling ran through me. “Why?”

She smiled at me, and her two sharp bottom teeth appeared above her lower lip. “Because I have to train you first.”

What had she said? “Train me?”

“Yes, dummy. Train you. You’re shit with a blade but good with your fists. You’ll need some training if you’re planning on sneaking into Citadel City and rescuing your brother. Although you’ll most likely be killed.”

“Wow.” I couldn’t believe this. “That’d be great. So you’ll train me, then let me go?”

She shrugged. “No. I’m coming with you.”

“Wait? Why?”

She smirked at me like Charlie sometimes did before he told me a really dumb idea that usually involved us stealing beers or wine coolers from someone. “Because we’re also going to sneak into the treasury and steal some gold.” Her eyes got big, “Lots of gold.”