No sooner had Rachel and I started to walk out of that vegetable garden, than a rather angry voice called out from the other side of the low stone wall. “Oy! What the dresh do you think you're doing in my garden? If I see a single bean out of place, I'll have you dragged before the magistrate and made to replace everything in there, you just see if I won't.”

  It was some young farmer guy, maybe in his mid-twenties by our standards, but who knew how old that meant in this world. He looked relatively normal, at least if you discounted the Ren Faire look that all of us had going on. He even had a pitchfork in one hand, and was wearing a straw hat. His face, young as it was, had lines and other marks from working out in the sun a lot. And even more lines right now as he frowned at us.

  It wasn't until we came the rest of the way out of the garden and he got a good look at Rachel that the man's expression faltered a little. He gave a quick bow while stammering, “O-of course, I didn't mean any disrespect, Seeker. I'd be glad to provide any food you need for your journey. If I'd known you were coming, I would've prepared something.”

  The thing about being sent into a whole new world that could be any type imaginable was that that on its own was already plenty to deal with. If you had to do it without any easy way to get information about the world itself or what you were supposed to be, it would've been pretty close to impossible. Fortunately, that's not how it worked. Whenever a Freestyler and Squire went on one of these Jaunts, they received what amounted to a mental upload of relevant information to help know what we were getting into, and how to blend in. It just didn’t happen immediately. The information tended to pop in when you needed it.

  I’d been worried that that wouldn't happen here. This was something the Eighty-Sevens had put together, so who knew if it actually functioned the same way the others had? This was all different, all wrong. They weren't supposed to have access to this. We had to find those guys and get them out of here so we could find out how they were able to do any of this, how they had access to that door.

  But first, we had to get out of this specific situation. And that was when the information upload finally kicked in. Just like that, I knew that the world we were in was, indeed, a fantasy medieval place. The world was called Abbejan, and this specific kingdom was Jurikell, ruled by a council of seven judges who were essentially master sorcerers with vast, unbelievable magic power. The kingdom was about evenly divided between humans and these big troll-like beings known as Faurkesh (fair kesh), along with a smaller population of gnome people called Tikkerlauts. This council of sorcerer judges was the same way. Three of them were human, another three were Faurkesh, and the last was a single Tikkerlaut.

  The Seekers, which was what this farmer guy thought Rachel was, were basically bounty hunters who worked directly for the judge council to track down enemies of the kingdom who posed some great threat. A Seeker had vast authority and freedom when it came to pursuing their quarry. So no wonder this guy was suddenly nervous about upsetting one of them.

  Oh yeah, and I knew more about what I was supposed to be too. I was what was known as a Teller. Not like at a bank. More like a bard of sorts. A Teller’s job was to follow the Seeker around and note down everything they did. Part of that was for stories to be spread about them, and the other part was about having a record of their activity when they reported back with their prisoners, or the corpses, when they weren't able to take them alive. Technically, Seekers completely outranked Tellers, but they weren't allowed to force them to lie, or make them leave, or anything like that. The Tellers worked for the Council as well, and were there basically to keep the Seekers honest about things. That was the general idea, anyway.

  As far as I knew, very, very few people actually understood how this whole Jaunt thing worked. We knew it wasn't about completely taking over someone else's body. We weren't possessing someone, not exactly. Instead, the Jaunt actually created a whole new body for us to inhabit, and provided whatever was needed to help you fit in. Sometimes that meant providing legal identification, or changing memories to make people believe they actually knew you. They tried to be as unobtrusive on that as possible, of course. It didn't make you best friends or lovers with someone in this world. It kept your backstory simple, providing just enough for you to walk around without everyone immediately knowing you didn't belong. Or tried to. I’d heard stories from a few of the other members of Dust Squadron about things going sideways sometimes.

  Anyway, as soon as that wave of information passed over me, I knew why I was dressed like this. A Seeker was supposed to stand out and be a beacon that everyone noticed. A Teller, on the other hand, often wanted to blend in and find out as much as possible about the area they were going to. They were sort of like spies in a way.

  Rachel had obviously gotten the same upload, because she stood a little straighter and smiled while shaking her head at the nervous man. “It's all right, good sir. We mean no ill for you or your garden. I'm afraid we were simply chasing a lead that didn't pan out. We’re very sorry to disturb you. My name is Resh. This is Kaynce.” Clearly, she was using names that would sound right in this area, but were still somewhat close to our actual names. Another thing to thank the Jaunt upload for.

  We’d reached the gate by then, and stepped out onto a mix of grass and weeds. Rachel was still talking. “We thought we might have seen our quarry out here, but there's no sign of them. I don't suppose you've seen anyone else around here you didn't recognize? Any strangers?”

  Oh, right, obviously. If the intruders came through that same door, they might've ended up here in the garden. I wasn't actually positive that that was how it worked, but it was worth a shot. Hell, I didn't even know if the Eighty-Sevens would actually be… put in new bodies. Could the Jaunt system work on them like that? This was all just so confusing and wrong. All I wanted to do was find those guys and get out of here with them as soon as possible. Before they could do any damage to this place. Or worse, escape back out to our world where we might never find them again.

  Wonder of wonders, the farmer guy gave a short nod. “I didn't see ‘em in my garden, Seeker, but there were definitely a few odd types hanging out just down the road there.” He turned a bit to point at a wide cobblestone lane at the far end of his property that seemed to lead around a small hill. “Twas three of ‘em, two human and one Faurkesh. Seemed to be in a real hurry, but weren't sure where they were going. I think Majerjie gave them directions to town, a couple miles south through the woods.”

  Immediately after saying that much, he went and quickly added, “Oh, I ahh, I'm sure she didn't know anything about them being wanted. She's got her issues, but she's a good neighbor. No one around here would be having anything to do with enemies of the council.”

  Honestly, I didn't know if he was telling the truth. For all I knew, this guy was part of some rebel group that wanted to overthrow the kingdom. But that wasn't our problem right now. All we needed was to find those Intruders, then we could go from there. Maybe this guy would be part of solving whatever problem we were supposed to deal with to fix things after that. But I didn't even know if there would be a problem. Usually, the doors only appeared for a Freestyler when there was something for that specific one, and their Squire, to deal with. The original technology came from Salvador Self, but it really seemed like he barely understood exactly how it worked himself. He didn't control everything about it. All he knew was that when a Freestyler was needed, the door would appear on one of the platforms on their station. There was a platform, a bank of computers, and all sorts of other things. But most of the time the platform was empty. Whenever a door appeared, it would always be a specific type and color of door depending on the Freestyler who was supposed to use it. Or multiple colors when more than one was needed.

  So yeah, who the hell knew what was supposed to happen on this Jaunt. There might not even be an actual problem to solve. Which made me worry about how exactly we were supposed to get back. Maybe we’d just go back once we caught these Eighty-Sevens?

  Whatever, one step at a time, and finding them was definitely the next step. Which meant following this guy's directions. Rachel thanked him, assuring him again that we had no quarrel with him or his neighbor, and then the two of us started walking, with Derecho the beagle leading the way. The upload had informed me that Tellers often kept dogs with really good senses of smell. So apparently, that was what he was supposed to be. Not for the first time, part of me wished they could access their other forms. Imagine how quickly we could settle all this and find those Intruders if we could just fly around in a starfighter, or stomp through the countryside in a giant mech.

  But no, obviously, that would do way too much damage to the world around us. You were supposed to change as little as possible. Bad things could happen if you stood out too much. Including being stuck in the place forever. Apparently that had happened to a couple Freestylers over the years. I definitely didn't want to be stuck here, especially if it would mean being in this body. I had been trapped in a male form for over a decade as it was. I’d grit my teeth and bear it for a little while when it was something important like this, but I definitely didn't want to go through years of that again.

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  As we walked, once both of us were sure the farmer wasn't following or close enough to over here, Rachel spoke quietly. “Okay, so we treat this like a normal Jaunt until we can't anymore. The problem we're solving is finding the Eighty-Sevens. We do everything we can to blend in, act like we're supposed to, but we find them and bring them down. We need at least one of them alive and intact for the suits back home to interrogate.”

  “You think I don’t know that?” I had to ask, giving her a hesitant look. If Rachel really thought she had to spell that out for me--

  She gave a very soft chuckle, hand rising to squeeze my shoulder, completely cutting off my rapidly spiraling thoughts. “No, sorry, I just thought it’d help both of us to say it out loud and pretend like saying a goal would sound like we had an actual plan. I’m kinda freaking out a little here, babe.”

  Oh, well… that kinda made me feel better and worse at the same time. Better because it meant Rachel didn’t think so little of me that she had to explain very basic stuff like that. And worse because if she was freaking out… eesh.

  But why wouldn’t she be? We had taken an unfamiliar, probably untested Jaunt door in the middle of Intruder territory out to this new world. Seriously, what if we were stuck here? What if there really was no way back? What if any of a thousand possible things went wrong while we were here and cut off from anyone else who actually knew us?

  Well, then Rachel would handle it. That was what I had faith in above all else. No matter what happened, no matter what kind of trouble we got into or how bad it got, Rachel would be right there with me. The whole reason she had become such a strong Freestyler right off the bat, besides just being an amazing person to begin with, was by solving a huge Jaunt problem on her first trip. That had been before she had me as a Squire. She had gone in with one of the other Squires, a veteran, on a training run. That was how these things worked. A Freestyler always had to go in with a Squire. If they didn’t… well, something about the Jaunt would go wrong.

  When normal people were sent to new worlds, their memories were overwritten. They became part of that new world. They forgot where they came from. The Jaunt system stopped that from happening to Freestylers, but only when they had a Squire with them. Squires like me were like… anchors to their real selves. There was some big technical explanation about it, but that was the gist. Squires anchored Freestylers to their Earth lives so they wouldn’t forget who they were.

  Rachel had gone in on her first trip with that veteran Squire. And he had died. He died during the mission, but she stayed. She stayed, survived, and came out with an enormous boost. She was a hero. Well, she'd always been a hero to me. But by that point, everyone else in her squad knew it as well. That was shortly before the previous squad leader, Limerick, was transferred to a new squadron. Which had been a whole thing. When it was done, they needed a new leader, and despite being the newest member, Rachel was eventually chosen for that spot.

  So, if I was going to be stuck in this place with anyone, I was glad it was my sister. She would get us out of this. She would find those missing Eighty-Sevens, and drag them back so we could find out just how they had accessed that door.

  With all that running through my mind, it was no wonder I nearly stepped on a snake. Just as my foot started to descend, Rachel grabbed my arm and yanked me back. I caught a glimpse of the serpent rearing with its mouth wide open and fangs visible, before it gave a startled hiss as Derecho snatched it up in his mouth, ran off the road where it had been sunning itself, and quickly devoured the thing.

  Yeah, mech or not, Derecho was pretty damn useful to have. And dangerous to anything that thought it might be able to hurt Rachel for me. Especially me. Rachel could handle herself.

  Even as my sister looked at me, I quickly stammered an apology, promising to pay attention to where we were going. God, I've been so lost in thought right then, I almost walked right on top of a snake. A snake that my information upload thing was very helpfully informing me could have killed me in about four seconds if it managed to pump that venom into my leg. What a way to end everything that would be, dying like an idiot to a snake bite because I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking.

  I could tell she was worried about me, and terrified about what had almost happened, but Rachel didn't make me feel bad. Certainly not any worse than I was already making myself feel. She just told me to watch out, and apologized for not warning me herself. Which was just great. The last thing I wanted her to think was that she had to put even more of her focus on watching out for me. I was supposed to be her backup. I was supposed to be helping her, not giving her even more to worry about.

  Shoving aside the thought that this whole thing would've been better if she came in with Bellboy instead of me, I resolved to just be better, and not let myself get so distracted.

  We rounded that hill, and found ourselves looking at a huge forest ahead of us full of very tall trees. No wonder that neighbor lady had needed to tell the intruders that there was a town on the other side of it. There was no way to see it from here.

  With a few more steps, Derecho abruptly gave a short bark and shoved his nose against the ground. He sniffed rapidly while pacing in a circle, then looked up at us and barked again.

  “They went that way, huh? All three? And they still have the Intruder smell? That's useful.” Only the Freelancer that a Kite was bonded to could actually understand them. To me and everyone else, it was just animal noises. But to Rachel, what Derecho said were actual words she could understand. They had a very special connection that way.

  And if he was right about these Intruders still having that smell, maybe it wouldn't be as hard to track them down as I've been afraid of. Maybe we could actually get this done fairly quickly.

  Hey, it could happen. Maybe this world had a lot of flying pigs and very cold areas of eternal torment.

  The scent trail led right down the road we'd been told that they were planning to follow, so we went the same way. Together, the three of us moved as quickly as possible. Easy to track or not, we still had to catch up with those guys. Preferably before they did any real damage to this place. I couldn't even imagine what sort of horrible things a group of Intruders could do to a place like this. Let alone what their whole army could do if they actually had access to more of those doors. We had to find them and put a stop to this right now.

  Of course, just because we wanted to be done with this immediately didn't mean the world itself was just going to roll over and let that happen. No sooner had we stepped into that forest full of giant trees, than I immediately felt eyes on us. It was enough to make me shudder reflexively as I looked around. But nothing stood out. I didn't see anything that could be staring at us, no rodents or wolves or whatever, and definitely no birds. Actually, that was the creepiest thing of all. There should've been animals in here. Sure, maybe they were just hiding out of sight. We were strangers barging into this forest, after all. But still, this was a road. Anything that lived in this place had to be accustomed to people traveling through it. I felt like we should have been able to see something here.

  Rachel seemed to have the same thought, because she slowed her pace, stepping in front of me while putting one hand on the hilt of that sword. A sword that my Jaunt upload helpfully informed me was made out of some special crystal material that allowed the Seeker to cast special combat spells. That was just something Seekers could do here, apparently. My best friend, Madison, would’ve said they were spellblades. She played a lot of those fantasy games. Only the tabletop ones though. Madison and video games didn’t really get along. Actually, Madison and most technology didn’t get along. She barely even used a cell phone.

  Holding my breath, I turned to look around the forest as well. We were only a few steps in, but the whole area was practically pitch black. There was only a tiny bit of light coming in through the thick foliage, and the nearby entrance we had just come through. It was hard to make out anything.

  Oh wait, I could do something about that. My Jaunt information updated with that little tidbit, and I quickly reached down into a pouch at my belt. There was some blueish-gray dust there. I took a pinch of it and basically tossed it in front of my eyes while saying the words, “Eurilesh baynea streh!” And just like that, my vision adjusted. I could see as well as if we were still standing out in broad daylight. Which really helped this whole forest not seem as creepy as-- oh, Rachel!

  Turning that way as she watched me, I did the same for her. That was also part of the Teller job, to help out the Seeker with simple support magic like that. Healing, dark vision, anything to make it easier for them to track down and kill or catch the target.

  Well, no wonder the Jaunt had made Rachel a Seeker and me a Teller, that fit almost perfectly with the whole Freestyler and Squire thing. Convenient.

  So, we could see better. Which was also convenient, because it meant both of us immediately noticed the tree that was staring at us.

  I hadn’t noticed it before, mostly because I just thought those eyes were a couple knots when it was all cast in shadows. But now, looking up that way, I got a very good look at them. Yup, definitely eyes. And then the upload kicked in. This thing looked like a tree, but it was actually something called an Uhlbeh (Oohl-Beh), a big predator thing that lured in prey by acting like a tree. Most of the time it would wait until the animals it was after actually climbed on it, but if it looked like they wouldn’t come close enough, it would--

  The Uhlbeh lunged at us. Rachel’s hand caught my arm and gave me a hard shove to the right, sending me flying a good fifteen feet to crash into a bush. She went the other way, sword drawn. I barely caught a glimpse of her cutting through part of one of those ‘branches’ the Uhlbeh was trying to grab us with. Then I crashed into the bush and rolled.

  Clambering back to my feet, I saw Rachel backing up, leading the thing deeper into the forest. It crashed through an actual tree, knocking the thing out of its way in its hurry to catch up. And… and there was another one. Rachel was focused on this Uhlbeh, but there was another waiting patiently for her to keep backing up toward it. In another few steps, she would run into the thing. Neither she nor Derecho, who had circled around to one side, seemed to notice it.

  My mouth opened to shout a warning, but before I could, an enormous branch completely encased me. I tasted leaves and wood, as a third Uhlbeh grabbed me off the ground. The air went out of me as it squeezed me painfully, hoisting me right off the ground.

  Rachel and Derecho were backing away from one of these monsters, trying to lead it away from me. But in the process, they were both about to walk right into another one. And a third had picked me off the ground, squeezing me so tightly I couldn’t cry out, as it twisted me around and brought me closer to its suddenly widening mouth. I had to break free. I had to get enough air to scream. I had to warn Rachel about what was behind her. I had to… I had to…

  I had to.

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