A/N: I've taken a few creative liberties. First off, Skyrim wasn't out when this is set (mid-season 2 time), but I'm treating it like it is, so just imagine W13 is set a year or so in the future. This chapter is set in the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
There's something to be said for soft landings, Claudia decides, as she plummets downwards and slams into the ground with a painful jolt. Sure, the boots help, but when you hit a rock it doesn't really help enough to stop you flailing sideways and almost cracking your head on another rock.
Pete makes an undignified noise as he lands beside her, but the difference is that he stays on his feet. "I like these boots," he announces, then he notices her on the ground. "Claud? You okay?"
She nods, clambers to her feet and brushes herself off with her hands. At which point, she realises she's without portal gun.
She looks around. "Where are we?" she says.
"I have no idea," says Pete.
They're standing at the side of a road of some sort. It's not a modern road, however, instead made of dirt and rocks, and their surroundings aren't the real world. Nothing like it, in fact.
"I'll bite," says Claudia. She casts her eyes skyward and then over the horizon. "Any clues whatsoever?"
Pete shakes his head. "Nothing I've ever seen before. I'm more of a Grand Theft Auto man."
"I know." Claudia turns around, taking in the scenery, speculatively. "Maybe... Hm."
"Hm?"
"Maybe Dragon Age?" She bounces a little on the long fall boots, still on her feet, and looks at Pete's hands. "Wait, where'd your portal device go?"
He looks down at his hands. "I didn't even notice," he says. "Where did it go?"
"I bet we fell through an emancipation grille. Ugh." Claudia pulls a face. "Just what I need; stuck in a whole other world and I don't even get to keep the portal gun."
They turn around when they hear the sound of hooves approaching and there, on the road, is a horse and cart. Multiple horses, in fact, driven by a grumpy looking man.
"Hey!" exclaims Pete, jogging towards the cart. "Can you tell us where we are?"
The man looks Pete over, then Claudia. "You're not Nords, are you, son?" he says, in a vaguely Scandinavian accent.
"Nords?" Claudia mouths.
Pete shakes his head. "Nope, 'fraid not. Where are we?"
The driver looks him over. "Edge of Whiterun," he says. "I can take you there for gold."
"We don't have any gold," says Claudia. "We're lost... We don't even know where we are. Can you point us towards this... Whiterun?"
The driver sighs and shakes his head in despair. "Get on the back," he says, "I'll take you the rest of the way."
"Thank you," says Pete. He clambers onto the back of the cart and grabs Claudia's hand to haul her on with him, then they settle onto the seats. "Hey, uh, where are we? You say we're by this... Whiterun, but where is that?"
"Skyrim, son," says the driver. He sighs. "You must have been at the Nord Mead last night. A lot of it, too. Did you get into a drinking contest with someone?"
"No," says Pete. "I really didn't."
"Skyrim..." Claudia's muttering to herself as they follow the driver towards the large stone walls of 'Whiterun'. "I know the name..."
Pete shrugs. "Hand me a gun and tell me to shoot campers, I can do that. Ask me to work out what game Skyrim is from and I-"
"Oh!" Claudia spins around, walking backwards towards the gates now in front of Pete. "Skyrim!"
"Skyrim?"
"It's a game! Elder Scrolls!"
"...Okay?"
She laughs. "I was going to get it but I bought some stuff to upgrade my Farnsworth instead."
Pete raises an eyebrow. "Okay," he says, again. "So, we're in this Skyrim thing? What do we do in this Skyrim thing?"
"Fight dragons?" Claudia suggests, pulling a face. "Or we can just try and exist as best we can."
They follow the driver in through the gates of the city and once they're inside he points up the lane. "There's an inn up ahead," he says, "you can get a room there and probably some work chopping wood or harvesting crops. Or a bounty or two if you fancy yourself an adventurer."
"Us? Adventurers?" Pete laughs. "Nah."
Claudia rolls her eyes. "Thank you for all your help," she says and tugs on Pete's sleeve. "Come on, let's go find this inn."
The inn turns out to be a nice-looking and warmly welcoming establishment called The Bannered Mare. As they enter a few patrons shoot them speculative looks and one or two seem to prime themselves for a fight, but at the bar they find a lady who introduces herself as Hulda and offers them a room for ten gold.
"That's the thing," says Pete, "we don't have any gold."
Hulda raises an eyebrow at him. "Then I don't have a room for you."
"We were told you might have some work for us," says Claudia. "Chopping wood or something?"
"If you think you're tough enough, there's a chopping block outside and I'll give you coin if you bring me wood," says Hulda. "And I can give you a mop if you'd like to clean the floors." She offers the last part at Claudia, who looks horrified at the thought.
"You don't have any computers for me to hack, I guess?" says Claudia, helplessly.
"We'll take the work," says Pete. "Got an axe?"
"Why are you so determined to get work?" snaps Claudia a few minutes later, after a mop got thrust into her hands and Pete has started heading for the door with a wood chopping axe in his hands.
"I remember how tired you were before this happened," he says. "I figure if we can stop and get some sleep before we get shoved into another game, we should take the opportunity."
Claudia sighs. "I suppose," she says, "but mopping the floor?"
"Hulda says she'll give me five gold for every stack of wood I bring her," says Pete. "I only have to do two and we can afford a room for the night. I figure by the time we wake up, we'll already be in another game."
"Great." Claudia sighs and, grumpy, sloshes the mop across the floor. "And if we don't?"
"We make do until Myka and Artie rescue us."
"Great," Claudia says again. She leans on the mop. "Have a nice time chopping wood."
Pete grins at her. "Have a nice time being a scullery maid," he offers in return, and gets water flicked at him for his trouble.
Pete looks exhausted by the time he brings wood back to Hulda and Claudia doesn't feel much better. For the work she's done she's managed to earn them what Hulda says is a 'good square meal'. Pete, meanwhile, has earned them a room, which happens to be a big one with only one bed.
Claudia isn't sorry; the last thing she wants is to be separated from Pete when they have no idea what's going to happen next.
They sit on the bed together, Pete up by the pillows with his legs spread out and Claudia with her legs tucked up underneath her, and pick through the food.
"Doesn't taste like pixels," says Pete, already half way through his seared salmon.
Claudia sighs down at her own wooden plate. She doesn't fancy the food, knowing that it's not even real, and she feels sick at the idea of having to spend too long in these games.
Pete starts in on his sweet roll and she watches him, glumly. "I'm never going to want to play game again," she says.
"Sure you are," says Pete. "We've been through worse and we still want to do most of the things that tried to kill us. I mean, just look at you."
Claudia raises an eyebrow. "You want to do me?" she says.
Pete chokes on his sweet roll. "What? No. I, uh. I meant... that... you tried to kill Artie and we still like you!"
"I didn't try to kill Artie," Claudia says, and doesn't let Pete's quick correction bother her. "I just... kidnapped him."
"And almost got him killed."
"Yeah, well, there's a difference between almost getting someone killed and deliberately trying to kill them." She drops the plate of food on the end table and turns around to sit up by the pillow on her side of the bed. "What if we get stuck in games forever?"
Pete shrugs. "We won't. And if we do... we'll make do."
"Make do?"
"Sure." Another shrug and Pete places his empty plates on the end table on his side of the bed. "I can think of worse things than being trapped in video games with you for the rest of my life."
Claudia smiles at him, yawns and slides down the bed so her head is on the pillow. Pete climbs off the bed and tugs at the covers until she lets them go and they both slip underneath to lie side-by-side watching the ceiling.
"What if we got stuck in Portal though?" she says. "We'd end up testing. Forever and ever."
Pete laughs. "Nah," he says, "we'd escape and hide and make a camp in the walls."
"In the walls?" Claudia grins. "She'd find us."
"Then we'd find her first."
"That never ends well." Claudia yawns again, rolls over to face Pete and pulls some of the covers around her. There are another two sets of clothes on the dresser, waiting for them in the morning, and Claudia figures if they're still here in the morning she'll put them on. Until then, however, she's happy in her jeans and hoodie.
"We'll be fine, Claudia," Pete promises, quietly.
"Okay," she says, closing her eyes.
Pete lies awake for a long time after that, trying to convince himself of his promise as Claudia sleeps soundly beside him, on her side of the bed.