A/N: Chapter 1, as promised, is significantly longer. Enjoy!

812 A.D.

Patrol had been going smoothly, as usual, and Dragon and I were on our way home to the castle when we saw a bright light coming from the forest beneath us. I moved to say something to Dragon, but he had seen it and was attempting to lower himself carefully and quietly into a nearby meadow. I dismounted and drew my sword, ready for some sort of fight if need be. Using all my training, I moved stealthily towards the tree line and from there into the clearing. I managed to make my way completely silent, and came across a girl of about my age sitting on the ground in front of me. I couldn't see her face, but from the way she kept shaking her head I could tell she was confused. She was wearing some sort of vest, like I had seen Gunther wear sometimes, and to my shock she wore absolutely nothing below her knee but a pair of odd colored boots.

I took another step nearer, curious and stepped rather loudly on a twig. In addition, the shifting beneath my feet threw me off balance, and as I stepped to regain it, my chain mail swished quite noisily. The girl, who was evidently not hard of hearing, sprung to her feet and spun around, and all but fell when she saw me holding a sword. "This is not good, not good at all!" I heard her whisper. I considered sheathing my weapon, but she was holding something I did not recognize in her hand, and thinking of Sir Ivan's collection of weapons, I took an offensive stance, just in case. As a second thought, I issued a warning. "Drop your weapon and show me your hands."

She appeared confused, and then started laughing. "You think my SKWAK is a weapon?"

Her confidence unnerved me, as did her strange accent. I remembered the purple light, and realized that if she were a magician she would need no weapon. "What magic caused the purple flash I saw?"

She paused in her laughter, and began laughing again. "That wasn't magic, that was technology. Something must have gone wrong with the portal Motherboard sent me through. I'll bet it was Hacker, back at his old tricks again."

I was shocked when I heard Gunther's nickname for me, that he would use whenever he saw me working at the dummy. He said I would hold my sword like I was hacking at the dummy. I realized that I had relaxed my grip on the sword, and I brought the tip in front of the girl's throat, hoping for some straight answers.

She seemed to understand the unspoken threat, as she ceased her laughter and tried to explain herself. "My name is Inez. The...Queen of a...country I visit had the...wizard...open a portal for me to return home. The Queen is called Motherboard, ruler of the land of Cyberspace, and her wizard is the master of the magic form, technology," I didn't like the way she paused to think of what to call things. It was as if she thought I was slow.

"Do not mock me. I may not have understood what you said at first, but it sounded like the truth. You are making excuses, may I ask why?"

The girl, Inez, sighed. "You want the truth? I'm from Amer-" She ceased speaking comprehensibly. I felt a shadow pass over us, and the girl began stuttering "D-d-d-dragon! L-l-l-look out!"

Of course Dragon would decide to show himself the moment I seemed to be getting somewhere with Inez. "Dragon, you seem to be scaring our guest."

"Yes, I know, it is just that I have never heard of this land called 'Cyberspace'. Is it near the isle Britain? Are there dragons there?" I sighed. Something about this girl hinted to me that she would not have seen any other dragons.

"Well, I only personally know one dragon, and he's not nearly as big as you, but I'm sure there's a few."

Dragon looked hopeful and excited for a moment, but his mood soured. "You better not be fooling me. If you are, then," the fist meeting Dragon's open palm clarified his meaning, in case it wasn't obvious.

"There are, I'm not lying. It's just...I doubt I'll ever make it back to Cyberspace, so it doesn't matter anyway."

I was confused, but a part of me seemed to believe her. "I think you should start at the beginning." I shot a dirty look at Dragon. "Again."

"I'm from America. You might not have heard of it, especially since I'd guess it's around the year 800. Correct?" I nodded, not sure why she didn't know that. "Anyway, it's a long way away, to the west, over the ocean. Most Europeans discover it in 1492, but Vikings have already known about it for centuries-"

Dragon laughed and I giggled. "You're talking about the place we get potatoes from. Dragon told us about that."

"Having a 300 year old dragon has some uses." Dragon looked rather full of himself.

"Yes, well, that's where I'm from."

"No, it is not. You speak impeccable English, even though you sound funny. They have not heard a lick of English over there." I obviously trusted Dragon on this count, as I couldn't know for myself.

"Yet." The puzzled look covering my face informed her she needed to explain. "I already referred to the year 1492, when Columbus 'discovers' America. The truth is, though, I'm from even later. I'm from the year 2012, a time of great metal ships, buildings that nearly scrape the sky, ships that fly like birds, or dragons, across the ocean, and instantaneous movement of information all around the world. All this is technology, far greater than that found here, or should I say, now, but as technology grew, another dimension was created, one filled entirely with high level technology, and that is Cyberspace. I would guess it doesn't even exist yet..." She continued to tell a story so farfetched I couldn't believe it, and yet for some reason I did. I think it was the fact that either she had imagined all this, and was the most insane person ever seen, or she told the indisputable truth. Mostly indisputable because no one could say otherwise for several centuries. And besides, it sounded like Matt might have even descended from someone living within a few hundred miles of me, perhaps even my own posterity."...and I'm convinced that Hacker somehow made the portal glitch, sending me here." She paused, searching for a reaction. "So, do you believe me?"

I paused, still not entirely convinced. But no matter what I told her, she would have to return to the castle, where I should have been already. I sheathed my sword. "I do, but I doubt anyone else will. Unfortunately, as a knight, I am honor bound to inform my King of your presence."

She lowered her head in something like relief, or perhaps thanks, but she lifted her head after only a moment and I signaled for Dragon to come closer so that we could get ready to fly. We mounted, and Dragon took off. I remembered when Rake had first ridden Dragon, and prepared to cover my ears. Inez gasped slightly, and then released an exhilarating whoop. I remembered her story of great ship that fly like birds and understood. She had flown before. "Well, you've told me your story, so it's only fair that you hear mine." I went into just as much detail, describing how the first lady squire of Kippernium came into being. Of course, as expected, I neglected to mention my feelings for either Jester or Gunther, as I felt she excluded something between herself and Matt. I remembered as we neared the castle that she wore a skirt absolutely too short for the King, so as I concluded my tale, I told Dragon to try to set us down outside of my tower. It was definitely good that we were the same size, as once we entered I removed one of my old lady-in-waiting dresses from my wardrobe. Inez seemed to understand, so I exited the tower to begin warding off unwanted attention.

Jester arrived first, more curious than anything. "Jane, was that a girl on Dragon with you?" I nodded. I noticed he started blushing in preparation for his next question. "And, was it just me, or...was she wearing nothing beneath her knees?" By now, he was an amusing shade of scarlet.

I tried to resist, but failed. "Did you get a good look?" I wondered if that had gone too far when he began to resemble one of Rake's beets.

"No! Of course not! I'd never look at another..." He saw that I was smiling and knew that I had caught him. "I have to be somewhere...not here!" In an effort to restore his good humor, he ran with arms flailing and yelping, as though in pain. I laughed quite hard until I heard the door open behind me.

I recognized the dress she was wearing with fondness. That was the dress I was wearing when the King granted me my apprenticeship. "Come on, then. I need to present you first to the Captain of the guard, then probably the King. Now, you understand I can't defend you in any way. If we discover that you are mad, or you turn on us, and I do support you, then I could lose my apprenticeship. Even if I was a man and I did that, I would cease to be a knight."

"I understand. So, you need to present me to the Captain?"

"Yes, follow me." I led her to the knight's quarters where I delivered my report of my patrol while Inez waited outside. I was admonished for being late and instructed to clean out the stalls of the stable as a punishment. Sir Theodore summoned Inez. He seemed rather incredulous at her ridiculous story. Of course, I suggested that it might be wise to keep her near the castle if she was telling the truth, as she couldn't fend for herself without help, and she knew no one. As expected, Sir Theodore instructed Inez to report to the King. However, I was specifically instructed to begin my punishment and not to be anywhere near the throne room. Jester, being Jester, saw that I was not going to the same location as Sir Theodore meandered to the throne room as well so that I could remain in the loop on my 'find'. Sweet. Kind of.

I mucked out the stalls, as instructed, though it took me all afternoon. By the time I finished with that and my other chores, it was long past dinner. I travelled to the kitchens to find Pepper cleaning up. "Hello, Pepper. How was the dinner service?"

"It didn't happen," stated Pepper. "Rake and Smithy had a fine meal, though."

"How is that?"

"Well, the King is still speaking with the girl you found-"

"Inez." My, I was getting defensive of a girl I had held a sword to only hours before!

"Right. The King is still speaking to Inez, and Jester is still listening at the door." She must have sensed my next question, for she then stated in a reassuring tone, "Don't worry, he ate. I brought him a roll and some fruit."

"Thank you. I hate to see all this food go to waste..."

"Of course, Jane. Eat what you like."

"Thank you once more." Jane began eating, and though she ate large amounts of food, she was rather distracted by wondering just what was happening in the throne room.