Disclaimer: I don't own FATE, or Woman's Day, only Zarathel, Dantenar and Fiddlestix. I borrowed Trouble from Patricia C. Wrede.

Author's Note: Dantenar is pronounced "don-ta-nar," and Zarathel is pronounced how it looks.

Chapter Two

Zarathel's POV

I looked around anxiously for my sister, but all I saw was green grass, trees and a gate behind me. I started. I was standing next to a small town fountain, with four paths running in four directions. "How did I get here?" Trouble was at my side. I bent down to pet him, and noticed that I was wearing leather shorts and short leather boots. I also had an axe in my hand. "This is weird."

Trouble looked at me. Tell me about it, he said. Did you have to get started so suddenly? And where's Fiddlestix? His gaze was reproachful. I stared at him.

"You just talked. My dog just talked to me. That's it, I'm insane! That explains everything. The grass, the trees, the creepy gate, the old guy with the staff and wizards outfit..." My voice trailed off as I laid my eyes on the little town in front of me. "Wow. This looks just like the Town of Grove!"

A fat guy, standing by a storefront not four feet away, laughed. "That's because this is the Town of Grove. You must be Zarathel the Unknown. I'm Bartleby. Welcome to the Town of Grove! You're always welcome here, hahaha..." his voice slowly stopped, and he had a hopeful look on his face. "Would you like to buy some potions or gear?"

I backed up slowly. "I'm in a loony bin." Suddenly, I ran into an older lady.

"Welcome, traveler. I am Jin the Seer. My wares are both ancient and mystical." I looked at her, feeling panic write itself on my face.

"DANTENAR!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I ran towards the creepy gate, desperate to find my sister. "This can't be happening."

Dantenar's POV

After bumping into a walking mushroom, I decided that I'd make a run for the creepy, rickety old gate that I had seen. I got to the gate and went inside, closing the gate behind me. Creepy music started playing from somewhere, severely freaking me out, and I almost fell over an urn in front of me. The words "cracked urn" were floating above it.

"This is so incredibly odd." the sound of my own voice made me jump. I broke the urn with my axe, and a little pile of gold appeared. "3 gold" was floating above it. I touched it, and it dissolved into glitters. A little dial on my right sleeve went from 250 to 253. "Okay, so that's my gold meter. Gotcha." I kept walking, Fiddlestix by my side.

After breaking another urn and a crate, both with what they were floating above them, I was starting to get used to this. Finally, I saw a wooden contraption with the words "weapon's rack" floating above them. I touched it, and a poleaxe, again with floating words identifying it, and a spiked club appeared on the floor. I picked up the poleaxe, deciding I liked how it felt, and my axe disappeared.

"Oh, I get it! The poleaxe must be a two handed weapon, while the axe is a one handed weapon. I can do this." I put the spiked club in my inventory, how I don't know, and continued on my way.

I came to a large chest. I knew it was a large chest because, again, the floating words said so. It was bathed in a weird purple glow, and I was almost afraid to open it. But I did, touching the floating words to do so. It opened and a vest plopped onto the floor. I touched the words above it and it immediately appeared on me. "Hmm." I turned around and saw a big, green blob coming towards me. The words "emerald gel" were above it, and I poked at it with my poleaxe. After two pokes, it disappeared.

A sewer rat came at me, followed by its other rat friends, and I decided to turn tail and run. They backed me into a corner, and I started blindly slashing. One died, but I saw a long red bar on my chest going down, slowly. I quickly finished off the rats and ran. When I got a stitch in my side, I bent over and breathed hard. "You are exhausted," the same creepy voice that had spoken before I got stuck in the FATE game said. I glared up at the ceiling. "You think I don't know that?"

I turned and saw three "ruby gel"s coming after me. I slowly backed up and ran into someone who was backing up from the other direction. We both whirled around. "Zarathel!" I shouted. She was carrying pitchfork in both hands, and looked grimy and exhausted.

Zarathel's POV

Dantenar looked tired and confused, but turned and killed the ruby gels coming towards her. Then she faced me again. "Zarathel, I don't understand. What kind of game is this? Why are we stuck here?"

I had figured it out by now, after killing at least five sewer rats, a couple ruby gels and a Death Cap. "I think we have to get to level fifty-three and defeat that bad guy with the hard name. Maybe when we beat him, we get to go home!"

Dantenar didn't look so sure. "I don't know, maybe we should ask somebody."

"Who, the creepy voice? Dantenar, there's no one to ask. And don't try the Death Caps, believe me. They're not in the mood for talking."

Dantenar made a weird noise, and I finally placed it as a giggle. "Dantenar, no laughing, we have to beat the game so we can get home!"

Dantenar cracked up. "It's just the way you worded that, it sounded so funny and I'm so stressed and laughing is a good way to relieve stress. It says so in Ms. Sharitin's Woman's Day magazine."

I started laughing to. Soon we couldn't stop and so we just laughed helplessly for a long time. Finally, I managed to get a hold of myself. "Okay, sister, we've got to get to level fifty-three." I turned and speared a topaz gel. A yellow light, with little stars, started from my feet and went up my body, a little circle around me.

"You have gained new skills," the creepy voice said.

I looked at Dantenar. "I wonder what that means?"

Dantenar shrugged. Her features were odd, a mixture of herself and her characters. "Maybe you should touch that little Red Cross insignia on your left shoulder." I followed her advice, and a little book popped up in front of me. I had five points to spend on one page, two to spend on the other.

"Uh," I said, and touched Strength, Vitality and Dexterity on the first page. Three points went away, and I felt stronger and healthier. I also had a better idea on how to fight. "Okay, um," I muttered to myself and pushed Vitality again, twice. The points both went away and that page went blank. I somehow knew that my pitchforks were polearm class, and so I pushed that on the second page, and also the Critical Strike button.

I looked up to see Dantenar staring at me. "Wow. How'd you know what to do, what to press?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, sis. It just sort of come to me. Like second nature, you know, that kind of thing. I think I'm getting the hang of these," I added, lifting the pitchforks speculatively. Dantenar looked like she didn't know what to think.

"Well," she said, "we'd better keep going. We have a long way to go to get to level fifty-three," she added, gesturing to a little white sign that said "level one" in the upper right hand corner of the Dungeon. At least, it looked like a Dungeon. We tentatively started forwards. Dantenar held her poleaxe at the ready, the thing taller than she was. As we turned the corner, a tunnel rat rushed her. She reacted quickly, spinning her poleaxe and hitting it. It squeaked. She slashed at it and it fell over.

The little circle of yellow light went up around her as the creepy voice said, "You have gained in experience and skill." the book appeared in front of her. I looked over her shoulder as she touched Strengh twice, Vitality twice and Dexterity once. That page of the book went blank, and she assigned one point to polearm, one to Critical Strike on the other page.

"Good choices," I told her. "Now let's go." We journeyed on through the seemingly endless tunnels. Whenever we had to stop and rest, the creepy voice said,

"You are exhausted" or "Your stamina is low." It got really annoying. Finally, my inventory was full and so was Dantenar's. We had filled up our pets inventory as well, which made no sense considering half the weapons were bigger than the dogs were. But I managed to scrounge up a Town Portal scroll and we returned to town.

When I had sold all my stuff and was waiting for Dantenar to do the same, I bought a fishing pole and started fishing off the little dock by the lake I had found. I caught a fish almost immediately. Floating words above it said "Fingerling Ruffy." I looked at it quizzically, then shrugged and threw it onto the dock. Trouble ran over and gobbled it up, quickly, before I could stop him. "Trouble!" I groaned. With a blue explosion, a Gryphon stood where my beloved dog had stood before. "Yikes!" I shouted and jumped back.

Zarathel? What happened? The world is so much smaller, Trouble's voice sounded in my head. I cocked my head at the Gryphon.

"Trouble?"

The one and only, he replied. Who'd you think I was, Fiddlestix? Honestly, I love my sister but she gets into more pickles than I do. She's practically dead.

We both watched as Dantenar and Fiddlestix went to a girl with the words "Dreya the Healer" floating above her head. When they came back, they were both in perfect health. Me and Trouble went next.

"I am a healer by nature. Will you allow me to soothe your wounds?" she asked. I nodded.

"You feel refreshed," the creepy voice said.

I glared up at the sky, squinting as the sun got in my eyes. "I didn't need you to tell me that. As always, the voice never answered. I rolled my eyes, and we stepped back into the portal.

I found stairs leading down, and we looked at each other. "Should we?"

"We have to, it's the only way to get to level fifty-three," Dantenar answered. We started down the stairs. As soon as our feet touched the stairs, we were standing on level two. I took two steps, then stopped short as a huge rat bathed in a red glow came towards us. The words "Screamdrinker the Unstoppable" floated above its head.

"Uh-oh," we both said at the same time.