Diana-sama

"Find Me"

Disclaimer: Hah! Don't I wish.

Summary: An older version of myself wakes up one night to find herself in the world of Tortall- in the palace, completely naked! Anyways, she gets some clothies, and Numair finds her. He's shocked at the resemblance between Daine and myself. Now he must teach me about this world, before the next great war comes. Numair/OC and previous Daine/Numair, all normal couples other than that.

2. Hello Tortall!

Diane shifted uncomfortably in the seat provided for her. Two handsome and beautiful monarchs gaped at her like she was a zombie mutant or something. She nibbled on her finger to avoid having to speak, a bad habit she'd had for years.

"She really is the exact image of Daine," King Jonathan breathed. "The resemblance is... uncanny." Queen Thayet merely nodded. Skysong, who had been there as well, watched Diane with curiosity.

Diane looked down at her lap, avoiding eye contact with anyone. 'What the hell do they want from me?' she thought angrily, worriedly. 'I'm no Wildmage! I'm not very good with animals at all, except my kittens...' "I'm sorry I can't help answer and questions my presence brings up, Your Majesties," she said formally. "I know many theories of magic, but in order for anything to be proven, I would need to speak to the Gods themselves, and have tests run- physical, mental, and magical. World-hopping is a very complicated thing."

"I've never even heard of such a thing before," Thayet said.

"Neither have I," Numair and Jonathan said at almost the same time. They grinned at each other.

Diane smiled, but the smile was empty. "Well, in order to jump from one world to another- one dimension, I should say, as yours contains more than one plane of existance- there is one of two necessary things in all theories: a lot of raw, magical power, or a 'hiccup'. If you believe in the magical power theories, then you must also believe that the person traveling between existances must have a great mental, physical and emotional strength in order to survive unharmed. Also, the differences in matter between two worlds can possess a problem- in my world, I may have been sleeping in a bed, but in your world, what if there had been a wall in my place? Would I replace the wall's matter? Would I be in a different spot? Different questions, different theories.

"If you believe in the Universes having a 'hiccup', or sometimes believed to be in alignment, it is a very improbable thing though it could make sense because of the zillions of zillions of zillions of infinities of universes out there. Basically, one theory is that there is a 'fabric' that makes up the Universe- the entirety of all things- and that 'fabric' can sometimes unravel between two dimensions, and things and people can fall through. This is unlikely, because what if I had fallen through but not my lungs? Or my bones but not my muscle? It's a very tiny probability for this theory. Another is that if two dimensions are in alignment, with every exact particle in the exact same place at the exact same time, a switch can be made. This is disproven here, because Daine and I did not switch places."

She finished abruptly, looking up at the slightly lost faces of the people around her. "I know, I'm a nerd," she looked back down at her hands pathetically. "I've spent my life dedicated to silly things like this, things the people in my world don't believe can happen. People think I'm stupid for wasting my time."

"But it looks like this information came in handy," Jonathan murmured wryly. Diane looked up and managed a half-hearted smile at him.

"Looks like, I suppose."

Numair inwardly frowned at her. 'She hasn't smiled once since she's been here.' "You want to go back, don't you? You miss your home." His voice was that strange, calm tone again.

Diane looked up at him, her expression slightly angry. "Don't jump to conclusions, you don't know me," she snapped, irritated. "I'm not going back again- ever. I swear it." The seriousness of her voice was frightening.

"You don't miss your family?" Thayet asked, wondering. 'Did she have her family killed like Daine's? Or... something worse, possibly?' "Not at all?"

"You can't make me go back," she mumbled. "Not now- not when I'm finally here... it's too perfect to go back." She realized what she was saying and looked up at them apologetically. "Oops. Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble." To Thayet's question, she said, "Not really. I mean, they didn't much want me back home. Not many people cared for me." She shrugged, smiling at them, then frowning. "And I don't want sympathy, so none of it."

They were silent. Changing the subject, she looked at Numair hopefully. "Do I have magic?" she asked, trying to keep herself from seeming too eager. "Any at all? Magic was... disbelieved by my community at home."

"I can sense the Gift from you," Jonathan answered before Numair could speak. "Though, it's very tiny, and faint, as if suppressed or something."

"You have faint wild magic as well," said Numair. "And, I agree with Jon, it does seem- suppressed."

Diane's eyes sparkled. "Really?" she squeaked. The nodded. "...W-wow."

"What do you mean by, suppressed?" Thayet asked her husband.

Abruptly, the door burst open. Everyone glanced to it. Kit/Skysong chirped a note of annoyance. "Sorry I'm late," the short, redheaded knight smiled at the group.

"Wow," Diane murmured. "The Song of the Lioness was the greatest of our stories," she stared at Alanna intently, awed. "I read that one at least four times over."

"Huh?" Alanna looked to the others.

"She's from a different world, supposedly." That was Jon. "And in her world, Tortall and it's heroes are legends and stories."

Diane nodded. "Alanna, Daine, and two other girls were the most popular."

"What two other girls?" Alanna asked suspiciously.

"I don't think I should say... I don't know if they have accomplished what they are destined yet." She thought for a moment. "How old is your Thom? By that I can estimate where I am, timeline-wise."

"He's nearly ten," she answered. Alanna looked pale. "Is Thom-?"

"No! No, he's fine, as far as I know. The stories only went so far." Diane calculated. "I know... about... six more years of story. That's as far as they went."

"And how far back?" asked Numair.

"Well, I haven't been able to get my hands on everything. The farthest back I ever read was when Alanna was about nine, but there were stories dating back two hundred years from that I hadn't gotten to read yet."

She twisted her fingers as Alanna took a seat. "I loved those stories to death. Those books were more prized than my china "Memories" box. I must have read each book at least twice, even the ones that were more difficult, about politics and whatnot. I read the Lioness series four times over completely, not including when I would just grab a book off my shelf and dive in. The Immortals series about Daine I read several times through." She paused. "I was interested by that series a lot because we looked so alike."

"Say that again," Thayet agreed dryly.

Suddenly, Kitten let out a shrill cry. Diane twitched, looking around wildly. "What's that- that- singing?" she exclaimed, reaching up and scratching desperately at her ears. "It hurts!"

The castle shook. Everyone scrambled to their feet except Diane, who still tried to muffle the sound. "It's not your ears, it's your mind," Numair told her, grabbing her arms to stop her from clawing her own ears off. Already there were bleeding scratches.

"It's an attack from the Immortals," Alanna growled, fingering something around her neck. "And it looks like a few mages, too."

"Owowowowowow," Diane repeated over and over like a mantra, crying from pain. She stood still, struggling against Numair's firm grip on her wrists.

"Focus! Just relax!" Numair tried to catch her attention and failed. The others had already left the room by now. Gently, he pushed a wave of magic into the girl to calm her down and shield her from most of the sound. She shut up abruptly.

"No one ever said it hurt so much," she whispered.

Numair calmly touched her bloody ears with his Gift, healing them and cleansing them from infection. He wiped off the blood with a handkerchief or something, pulled from a sleeve. "Shhh, magelet, you're okay," he crooned, using soft words to try and calm her.

Diane wiped her face on her shirt. "Did you just call me 'magelet'?" she asked.

"It means 'little mage,' well, not technically, but-"

"Isn't that what you called Daine?" she interrupted.

Numair went quiet. "Yes," he answered finally, standing.

Diane stood up as well. 'I don't really know what to say to that,' she thought. "I'm sorry," she managed, mentally slapping herself for being so stupid and awkward.

The black robe didn't reply. Instead, he ran out after Jonathan and the women, Diane hurrying to follow. After a few minutes of dashing through a maze of hallways- Diane was sure she was lost now- they reached a door that led to the outside, and went through.

She gasped.

Four creatures flew through the air on huge, majestic dragon wings. Each creature had three heads: a horned goat, a mane-less lion, and a dragon. It's hindquarters were that of a big goat, and it's forequarters of a giant lion. Two had red scales on their dragon heads, while another had blue, and the last black.

Numair ran toward where Jonathan was, tucked in between two columns that hid him from obvious sight. Diane shook her head. Chimeras had much better sight than average humans.

Sizing up the situation as best she could- this was her first battle, after all- she knew the humans could win. If at least twenty out of all the archers could shoot one beast, it would go down, because arrows cause approximately 4 hit points of damage and Chimeras have about eighty hit points total. If the mages figured out which spells worked the best, then eight or so could handle a Chimera. Since there were four, it would take twice that many to kill them, but they could win.

On the other hand, the Chimeras were fierce creatures. Challenge Rating 7. On a full attack, they could get off two bite attacks, a gore attack, and two claw attacks. On average, that did 25 hit points of damage. That wasn't including each creature's breath weapon from the dragon head, which was different for their colors. The reds could breathe fire every 18 seconds or so, the black could breathe acid, and the blue lightning.

"Numair!" Diane called, going to him. He didn't look away from casting spells, but Diane thought she had his attention. "Use ranged touch-attack spells against it, or spells with no saves. These things have very powerful saves.."

"What?" he asked, not understanding at all.

"Area-of-effect spells! Spells that effect a spot, not a creature. These creatures can shake off most of the direct spells thrown at them."

"How do you know this?" Jonathan asked, jumping into the conversation.

Diane sniffed. "I told you I studied these things. Chimeras were popular legend. I have a mem'ry for myths, that's all."

Numair cast, and black fire jumped from his hands, disappeared, and reappeared next to the blue-scaled Chimera in a giant explosion of fire. Diane grinned when the Chimera staggered out of the flames, it's goat and lion heads obviously singed. The grin disappeared when it turned it's angry eyes toward the exact spot they hid.

'Uh-oh.'