Chapter 1

"The village is under attack! West Harbor is under attack!"

The sound of a young man yelling startled me into waking. I didn't recognize the voice. I opened my eyes and was immediately startled by how the wall was on the wrong side of my bed. Then I noticed that the bed was too hard. The sheets were too scratchy. I swung around to sit up. The floor was too… wooden. My apartment's bedroom has carpets! I raced through my memory to see where the heck I had gone the night before. Nowhere. I went nowhere! I had stayed at home, watched a movie, and went to bed. I was on the verge of panic when the door burst open and two figures ran in. "Andrea! You're safe! Grab a weapon. We need to help defend the village."

The young man was wearing a strange metallic coat that shone in the moonlight. He quickly lit a candle and gestured frantically for me to get up. The other person that had entered the room was a pretty young woman. Her dress looked oddly medieval.

"Where am I? Who are you people?" I demanded. The young woman knelt down beside me, grabbing my arms.

"Andrea! You're in your room! I'm Amie, that's Bevil, and you clearly drank too much ale after the Harvest Fair last night! Now come on, we have to go!"

Bevil was anxiously staring out the doorway, seemingly oblivious to my confusion. "They came pouring in from the swamp and started tearing the village apart!"

"What-" I was cut off by Amie yanking me up by my arms. "We have to go NOW!"

She grabbed a heavy walking stick that was leaning against the wall and shoved it into my hands. My panicked mind was racing too fast for me to process anything anymore. All I could focus on was that these people urgently needed my help.

"My feet hurt," I whined to myself, probably for the 10th time that hour.

We had just rescued Shandra from those creepy githyanki (again) and we were on our way back to the Sunken Flagon. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and kept on walking. Walking, walking, walking, I hated walking! My only consolation was that I could handle all of the walking better than when I first started this whole crazy business – I would have collapsed from exhaustion by now.

I turned to Shandra, who was trudging along beside me. "You need to rest or anything?"

"Nah, we're almost there. I can probably hold out."

I reached over and gently grabbed her arm as an affectionate gesture. I could empathize with her completely; she had been thrown into a dangerous adventure that she wasn't ready for. True, she was a lot tougher than me, but she still had this look of disbelief stuck on her face.

I suppose I did, too. I still couldn't believe that there were things like magic and monsters. People call me a sorcerer, which sounds to me like I'm some freaky dude with a pointy hat that bosses around little brooms, but I guess it's thought of differently here. Much like everything is.

"So, Andrea…the ranger you brought along… what's his problem?" Shandra asked me, gesturing towards Bishop. He was somewhat ahead of us, presumably leading us back to the inn.

"Ugh, I don't know. Duncan somehow blackmailed him into helping us find you. I definitely don't trust him."

Hell, I was scared shitless of him. I looked up ahead. He was scanning for something in the trees beside him. I saw his shadow of facial hair and my stomach fluttered. Must have been from fear.

"Um, are you blushing?" Shandra asked me, eyebrow raised. My cheeks did feel hot. Damnit.

"No!" My blush got deeper. "Ugh. We'll talk about this later," I scowled at her.

I looked behind me to see if anyone had heard us talking. Casavir was walking behind us a fair distance back, brooding. He and Bishop had argued about something or other earlier. I could see a small chain hanging from his clenched fist – whenever he got frustrated he clenched his little silver symbol of Tyr. It was kind of endearing. He caught my eye and gave me a questioning look, as if to ask if I needed anything. I blushed again and quickly looked forward. Shandra sniggered. What the hell was wrong with me?! My hormones had been raging ever since I woke up in this crazy world.

I still hadn't told anyone that was currently traveling with me. I told Bevil back when we were looking through those ruins in the swamp, but he thought someone must have cast a spell on me or something. If so, they sure went through a lot of trouble to create 21 years of memories of a world with fast food and the Internet. Mmm… fast food… mmm… Internet…

"I miss the Internet…" I mumbled to myself absent-mindedly.

"What?" Shandra asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Uh… nothing. I miss the Inn. The Sunken Flagon. I'm sick of walking. And I want to practice my spells… I think I figured out how to sanitize my cutlery."

She looked at me and said, "You're very strange, Andrea."

"Heh. Yep."

I heard banging on the door. Shit, they were coming in. Whoever "they" were.

"Get ready," Bevil said. Amie started muttering something strange-sounding and she was moving her hands.

I stood behind them both, not knowing what the hell to do.

I heard a loud crack and the door opened. Three people came running in – except, were they people? They were short, stocky, and their skin was a dull grey. Definitely not a natural skin tone. They snarled and raised their weapons. I panicked and screamed.

Bevil lunged at them with a big sword he had had at his hip. I heard metal clashing. I flinched and stepped backwards until I hit the wall with a thunk. Amie's muttering suddenly got louder and all of a sudden I saw this intense light coming from her hands. I stared at it, mesmerized, watching the colours move through the spectrum. How was that possible? The grey people were somehow affected by it – they now looked confused and stumbled blindly. A few more quick movements from Bevil and everything became silent.

"Oh my god, are you guys okay?" I asked, rushing towards them. They turned to me and nodded. Then I looked down and saw the bodies. There was dark blood pooling on the floor, and I thought I saw innards trailing from one of their stomachs.

It was so gruesome. I had never seen a dead body before. I swore quietly and tried to turn around, but my limbs weren't listening to my brain and I fell over. The image I had just seen kept flashing in my head like a horror movie scene.

"Oh god, they're dead," I gasped as I knelt on the floor facing away from the carnage.

"They were going to kill us, Andrea. They're attacking the village!" Bevil said quietly from behind me. "I know you aren't in the militia, but you weren't this squeamish when we found Albrecht torn apart in his field that one year. What's going on with you?"

"I… I'm just not feeling like myself. Give me a minute."

I crawled into the other room so that I couldn't see the bodies. Whatever was happening, it wasn't safe to waste time trying to figure it out. I had to play along so that we could all stay alive.

I breathed a sigh of happy relief as we walked through the Flagon's door. As I walked up to Duncan I tried to figure out which was more desirable: sleep or food.

"Hey Duncan, we're back! Well. Obviously."

Duncan hastily wiped his hands on a rag and ran up to us. "Hey, welcome back! Glad to see you've all returned... and in one piece, no less!"

"Heh, thanks to Elanee and Casavir." I smiled, gesturing to them, then rubbed my arm in remembrance of a particularly nasty gash I had gotten from Zeeaire. Magical healing was totally awesome.

"So, um, I need to talk to you about this scar I have," I continued, pulling down the neckline of my robe. Casavir quickly turned his head away. I rolled my eyes and snapped at him, "Jesus, Casavir, it's not like I'm flashing everyone."

Before he could say anything, I turned back to Duncan and continued. "Duncan, I have one of those shards inside me. That must be how I got this scar. What the hell really happened during that battle?"

He gave me a pained look, but answered me. "All right, lass. I truly didn't know you had a shard in you, but I will tell you the whole story."

He told me about the battle at West Harbor that occurred when I was a baby. How my mother had died protecting me. How this shard must have killed her and become lodged in me. Well, if it was me. Still, I didn't have the scar before I woke up on this world.

I must have had a sour look on my face because Duncan gently took my shoulder. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. My brother-"

Bishop came swaggering up with a drink in his hand. "Why the long faces, you two? Somebody die? If so, sounds like a cause for celebration to me."

I looked at him, dumbfounded. Who the hell would say something like that? Well. Bishop, obviously.

"By the way," he continued, "I've decided it would be in both our interests if I stay on with you."

Again, I was dumbfounded. "Why the heck would you want to stay on? You complained the whole time you were with us."

I tried to figure out in my head whether I wanted him to stay. It sure was useful to have a tracker. And who am I kidding – he was awfully nice to look at. I didn't really feel like getting killed in my sleep, though.

"We don't need any more of your help," Casavir growled while I was pondering the situation. Well it was no surprise that Casavir didn't want him around – they definitely did not get along.

"Ah, why don't you let our leader speak for herself, 'paladin,' without you speaking for her, eh?" Bishop retorted.

Hmm. Point to Bishop.

Then a strange thing happened. Duncan assured Bishop that his 'debt' was paid – but Bishop insisted that he still owed Duncan. A debt is a debt, all the way until the end, he said.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," I quipped to myself under my breath.

I figured more arguing was going to ensue, but Shandra interrupted.

"I hate to ask... but what happens now? I can't go back to my farm, ashes and all."

I gave her a sympathetic look. "Oh…well you can keep traveling with us. If you want!" I had had fun with her so far. She was easy to talk to. Usually the others didn't really…'get' me.

Bishop scoffed. "Why, because we need someone who's easy on the eyes? That's what I'm here for, I believe.

"No, that's what Casavir's here for." I retorted, then immediately regretted saying. I was just trying to take Bishop down a notch. But now I had a feeling things were going to get awkward. Although it was true that Casavir was damn pretty.

I glanced over at Casavir, despite me desperately telling myself not to. He blushed and looked away. Yep. Awkward.

Shandra quickly came to my rescue by interjecting, "Yes… so… I will take you up on your offer. I won't try to get in your way or anything, but I don't want us to part ways again."

I smiled at her. "Awesome! Let's go sit down and I'll fill you in on everything that's been going on." I grabbed her arm and quickly walked us over to a table in the corner of the inn, glad to be free of that conversation.

We talked for hours, about all that had happened so far, about the Haven, about my companions. But every time she asked something about my childhood I evaded the question. I wondered if I should tell her the truth. It was hard to keep it all in.

"Look… there's some weird stuff going on with me," I half-whispered. I drummed my fingers on the table anxiously.

"Hey, you don't have to talk about it," she reassured me. "But I'm here for you. You've saved my life on more than one occasion."

I smiled at her and sighed. "Well, maybe sometime we can talk about it when we aren't surrounded by eavesdroppers." I gestured to our companions, who were scattered about the tables. Because seriously, they took eavesdropping to a whole new level.

"Anyway," I continued, standing up and stretching my legs, "I'm gonna head off to bed. See you in the morning?"

"Pleasant dreams," she said suggestively, flicking her eyes towards one of the tables I couldn't see.

I pretended I hadn't heard her, but I'm sure she saw my nostrils flaring with held-in laughter as I walked off to my room.