The blond man who now considered himself to be Orostas, the sole surviving member of the main line of the ancient and illustrious clan Fennec sauntered down Gods Avenue. He made his way into the portentous palace that housed the Mage’s Guild in the capital. He checked the public notice board and bought a copy of the guilds weekly publication.

Once back in his “ancestral” home he relaxed and leafed through it. He grinned in triumph, the mage’s guild was indeed offering a reward for the capture or death of Akanteri. They were offering far more for Akanteri alive than dead. The man who was now Orostas pursed his lips and considered his options.

‘Not worth it,’ he decided. ‘Now if I have to tangle with him, then I’ll take his head. But better avoid him if I can. The reward for his death is a pittance.’

Orostas rode out of town before dawn the next day and headed north before swinging to approach the Midgardian camp. He changed into an artistically stained and damaged uniform while still far from the Midgardian World Gate fort. After checking his horse to ensure he had ridden it hard enough to give a suitable picture he resumed his journey.

Orostas spent a week in the camp before managing to buy his way into Midgard. By the time he managed he was, to put it mildly, frustrated with how few of these Americans were willing to accept bribes. He was able to sell his horse for a good price. Or what he thought was a good price. He was very dubious of the value of the bits of green paper. The dollars. One thousand one hundred and fifty dollars.

Akanteri had gone to someplace named Georgia. It shouldn’t be hard to find him if he had too. The old man and his family and clients had gone to Washington, and apparently they were using another set of world gates. So now Orostas was getting on a train and it wouldn’t be long before he made it to Washington. He consoled himself with the thought that it should be easy enough to find some World Gates in a city. Cities weren’t that big after all.

= = O = =

Sergeant Tyler Briggs forced himself to listen to lieutenant Asshat without expression. He snapped a parade ground salute and snapped out a snappy “Yes sir!” Grinding his teeth in frustration he watched the idiot lt. disarm his squad all the while yapping shrilly.

Finally his men reluctantly got into the M1126 ICV that was going take them on this glorified bug hunt, and thanks to Asshat they were armed with the M16s experience told them were useless against the bugs. It was just his luck, all bad, that this wet behind the ears, know it all lt. had decided to accompany their squad.

2nd lieutenant Jacob Hanson hadn’t been able to believe his eyes. The squad the captain had attached him to had been armed with an eclectic collection of weapons, some obsolete. Two of the men had even been armed with civilian bolt-action rifles! And the sergeant had been carrying an axe. An axe. Well he’d shown them. They were now properly armed. All according to regulations, how the captain had thought these oddballs were his best he couldn’t fathom.

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Lieutenant Hanson jumped out of their ICV with his squad and started entertaining some doubts. His squad was the only one properly armed and equipped.

The Captain stopped in front of them and looked furious. “Hanson, establish a perimeter and keep watch on our transport. Sergeant break out a couple of M2s and keep watch.”

Hanson watched as the captain strode off barking orders. “Sergeant, I thought we were all going to hunt out the aliens. Why did the captain order us to remain?”

“Sir! Because our M16 are incapable of scratching the ... bugs.”

= = O = =

The kitchen maid placed the picnic basket down on a table and hurriedly backed out of the elderly mage’s study. Breathing a sigh of relief she hurried down the stairs and back to the kitchen.

In the study Gustravios looked vaguely around, “gate, gate, um, yes...” He gestured to a rug that was lying in front of his fireplace. “Um, remove that please.”

Dee and Sar grinned at one another and hurried to drag the rug away, then the fell to examining the elaborate sigil they had revealed engraved on the floor. They watched fascinated as Gustravios added a few lines and symbols with a piece of chalk.

“Hey Gussy, why do I feel tingles?” asked Dee.

“Yeah, tingles and the hair on my arms is standing up too,” confirmed Sar.

Gustravious blinked a bit vaguely, “Oh, that’s just the magic.”

“Oh cool, we can feel magic!” exclaimed Sar to his sister as she looked back at him with shining eyes. Sar giggled as he listened to Gussy chanting. “Hey your eyes are glowing sis. Cool.”

Fassy looked round sharply from where she was perched on her master’s shoulder. “Glowing? Master stop, something’s wrong.”

Gustravious stuttered and recovered. Then with a supreme effort of will he linked his spell to the infernal realms and fed it with a massive surge of power. With a sound like a clap of thunder papers swirled and the abandoned picnic basket rocked on the table of an empty room. A few seconds later with a worried “tsk tsk” Gussy’s invisible servant replaced the displaced books and papers then he replaced the rug in front of the fireplace.

In a forest glade on another world a cloud of sulphurous smoke slowly dispersed. Standing in a circle of dead grass Gussy ran his black forked tongue over his fangs. He collapsed to the ground and withdrew his hooves from his ill-fitting shoes.

Princess Deerassa looked round in excitement her tail lashing while the cute little green mambas that were hiding in her hair emerged tasting the air with their tongues and hissing in irritation.

Prince Sarnollo grinned and jumped up and down with excitement. “Oh cool. You look cool Dee. I really like the tail but I’m not sure about the snakes. At least you still have hair unlike most gorgons.”

Dee hissed at him her hollow fangs dropping into place in her mouth. “You can’t talk Sar, and by the way, your antlers suit you.” She giggled.

“Antlers?” Sar stopped hopping up and down and felt his head. As he carefully felt what seemed like a set of young stag’s antlers growing above his ears, he looked round worriedly. “Um... Gussy where are we. This doesn’t look like Bluestone.”

Dee felt her new fangs worriedly; she shook the drop of poison that collected on her finger off. She watched wide-eyed as the blade of grass the drop landed on wilted and died. Then to her relief her fangs folded up into the roof of her mouth. ‘Huh, I’ve lost two teeth and they just vanished. How am I going to get the tooth fairy to take them.’

Gussy looked up confused. He examined his companions dubiously. “I don’t know where we are,” he replied in Fassy’s voice. His hands flew up to cover his mouth. “What? That wasn’t me,” he said in his own voice.