I was right, drinking my problems away was an extremely bad idea, and how shitty I felt the next day was proof of that. Krumran, when I found him later that day, had no sympathy for me. Not that I spoke much to him, there was entirely too much going on in my head between the investigation and the 'impending magical collapse of my health' drama. Dwarves had magic, right? Or something like that? I didn't want to ask because that might be myth that he would get offended by, or might be some part of his culture he wasn't allowed to talk about, but damn did I want help with this.

I read through the notebook several more times, doing calculations on separate sheets of paper using the half assed details Kyle had given and trying to brute force my way to an answer. It's almost ironic how it came to me once I'd finally given up.

I shoved the papers haphazardly into the notebook out of frustration and stood from my chair, abandoning the subject for now. The next day I was wandering town, Padfoot off with Krumran somewhere, and I was worrying over how long the dwarf would actually be able to stay when a voice called my name. I turned, barely dodging out of the way of the small figure as it rushed me. Kaylin puffed her cheeks out cutely in frustration, blond hair long and flowing behind her in a tangled mess. In her arms was the not-so-young-anymore rabbit I'd caught for her, perfectly happy with its lot in life by the way it lolled in her arms, twitching nose it's only movement.

She related her frustration to me with much waving around of the rabbit and raising of voice, apparently he wasn't learning tricks like Padfoot quick enough for her. I very carefully didn't laugh, instead answering all her questions about rabbits and dog training, freely admitting when I didn't know the answer to one of them, including how fast rabbit fur grows. She groaned, running a hand gently through the fur and glaring down at the animal.

"He's soft, he's just...I don't want him to get cooold! Are you sure you don't know how fast hair grows?"

The answer came to me automatically, mind flashing to the biology book that was languishing in my bag at the inn.

"Human hair grows half an inch every month, but he doesn't have hair."

She'd corrected me often enough on the difference between the words for 'hair' and 'fur' that I felt justified pointing it out to her. She huffed, irritated,

"Well if that's true then why is your hair still so short, huh?"
I opened my mouth to explain haircuts as a cultural thing only to hesitate, mouth closing slowly. I patted her head gently with one hand, the other ruffling the rabbit's fur.

"Why don't you just knit him a sweater, if you're concerned for him."

She took the suggestion and ran off with it, though I didn't hear what she said through the pounding of blood in my ears. I barely made it back to the inn, sinking down at my usual table and putting my head in my hands and trying to breath. My hair was short, it hadn't grown, not at all in the years I'd been here. Nothing about me had changed. True, I've lost weight, and managed to put on muscle tone, but I haven't grown as I should have. My mother, father, even my sister were taller than this by my age, no one in my family was this small by the time they stopped growing.

The thoughts haunted me for a long time, days passed and the investigation continued, with people being cleared of blame and leaving town in the meantime. Lisbet was sitting across from me and going on about the part her husband was playing in the investigation when it hit me I didn't have to worry about it alone. I smiled at her, hand going to where the notebook was tucked into the inside pouch of my cloak before something she said sent me stuttering to a halt.

"...what?"

She flushed, her words catching up to her finally,

"Um, just that, it is kind of strange, you know? Carden has heard so many things, it's just…I'm not saying you did do it, just that...it doesn't exactly look good."

She refused to meet my eye, changing the subject quickly. My hand fell away from the book and I stared at the table in front of me long after she'd excused herself to go home to her new husband. She'd done that a lot lately, but it was to be expected that she would spend more time with her husband than with me, especially since he wasn't fond of me and it caused tension when he saw us together. It wasn't like she'd verbally accused me of stealing from Wymark...so why did that small admission feel so much like a betrayal anyway?

Krumran finally admitted, just to break the silence that surrounded me after Lisbet's admission, that he put some of the blame for this upon himself.

"My people aren't trusted by yours, it is the only thing I can think of that could cause such a rift between you and your own kind, that you consort with outsiders."

I snorted, almost not even deigning to address that bit of stupidity until I saw his serious expression. Rolling my eyes I put down the mug I'd been about to take a drink from and settled my hands on the table between us.

"Look, I don't give a damn what they think, you're my friend and they can suck a dick if they think ill of you for something as stupid as race."

He ignored my foul language as always, turning away and huffing,

"Well, it doesn't matter what you believe, it's what they believe that has you under scrutiny."

He wasn't wrong. That didn't mean I was going to distance myself from him. He was the only friend I had left, since Lisbet hadn't spoken to me again since that night. He continued to look into things, his own guilt driving him to stay, and mine driving me to get this wrapped up as quickly as possible so he could get home like he was so anxious to do.

He did a lot of the footwork, because if I got caught poking around somewhere it could be used as fuel for accusations and that was the last thing we needed, but he was good at sneaking around, surprisingly so for someone whose beads jangled as much as his did. It was because of this skill that we happened upon the evidence that we did. The dwarf managed to overhear tell of a group of traders who had set up their wares leaving in one large group the day before the theft, only a single member of their company had stayed behind, seen leaving during the commotion of Wymark accusing me.

It wasn't much to go off, but it was enough to have the both of us sneaking off to the next town to look into it. They town likely wouldn't notice I was missing for a while, we were counting on their investigating and theorizing to keep them busy while we found the traders and either crossed them off our suspect list or dragged back the real culprit. Camping with Krumran was about like our normal evening at the inn, only with more trees and less ale. Each night I was infinitely more grateful to have him for a friend.

It was on one of the quieter nights that I broke, pulling out the journal and gearing myself up to explain. His eyes followed the journal and I saw the recognition in them,

"That is the item that was found among your kins belongings, isn't it?"

"...yes. It's a record of their sales, of...of the whereabouts of the last of my people."

His eyes widened and he glanced from the notebook to me,then back again.

"You're not planning to hunt them down, are you? The slave trade is frowned upon, but it's a dangerous thing for one girl to mess with, even if she has a bow and a dog."

"What? No, I…"

The thought hadn't actually crossed my mind, and guilt raged through me for several seconds. There were people out there, people from the same town, country, universe, as me, and they were suffering, confused, dying. And I hadn't spared a single thought to helping them. My plans changed immediately, and I groaned, slapping both hands to my face to rub at it, dropping the journal to my lap in the process.

"Sort of. Not in the way you think. I'll gather information first or something, I've got some sales records in here that are helpful, but really that's not what was messing with my head before." I took a deep breath to brace myself. "There was...a magic, of sorts, about where I used to live, about my country." I'd been very careful with coming up with this not-lie to explain the dimension hopping without actually sounding crazy. Magic was accepted here, but iPhones and gates of truth were not things I wanted to touch on at the moment. "When everything fell, when the gates...let's just say we got disconnected from it. We'd lived with it all our lives, living without it had...side effects."

His eyes were roving my face now, likely looking for signs of illness and I shook my head, smiling crookedly and trying to ignore yet more guilt because I wasn't dying but some of the others hadn't lasted even minutes in this place.

"Not side effects like you'd think." I flipped open the journal. "One woman began aging almost immediately upon leaving our home, dragged away by the slavers. She didn't even make it to the market, she faded to dust within minutes. A man aged backwards, reliving his youth in reverse until one morning his clothes were empty and he was gone. A young boy aged in spurts, reaching his majority within weeks, but stayed there for months, and then aged to his deathbed, where he stayed for a year before one of the slavers put him out of his misery."

I glanced up at my friend, and I couldn't tell if he was still breathing or not, eyes fixed on mine intently. "I didn't know about this, since I hadn't met any of my people since it happened, and...I didn't notice that my hair hasn't grown since I got here. I haven't gotten taller, I don't...the only thing different is the muscle I've built up and the weight loss from the sudden change in diet. Absolutely all of the changes of the others happened before the first year here was up. I've been here several. I'm not sure what to do with that information."

He took in a deep, shaking breath, pulling his hands across his eyes and then one down to tangle in his beard while the other buried itself into Padfoots fur.

"I don't know what to tell you, Lassie, except maybe to be grateful your sentence was more kind."

"...I don't think it kind to outlive all of my people. I should go find them, after this, if any are left. If any age like me, which is not at all apparently, then we could stick together, or something. I don't really have a plan beyond convince the townspeople I'm not a thief. I won't stay there, after. Lisbet hasn't spoken to me in days...she believes the stories, you know."

He sighed heavily, muttering under his breath for a second.

"Lisbet...is a good girl. Too good, some might say. She lives to please people, and right now she's shackled too...what did you call him?"

"...cuntmuffin, asswagon, twatwaffle, titsickle-"

"No, no, in this language."

"A pretentious ass kisser."

"Yes, that."

"...I liked the other ones better."

We were still laughing when they came out of the trees. Still yelling about how they knew they were being followed, or something of the sort. I wasn't sure how to react, I hadn't faced a human opponent since those slavers, and I wasn't in the position to fight then. My instinct I had reached for my bow, but these were people, not deer. Someone came close to me and I lashed out, basically pistol whipping them with the bow. I winced in sympathy before pulling back and violently kicking them in the face. When they didn't move other than to breathe I turned my focus back to the main fighting, which was a man I recognized from the village, one of those who had traveled with the traders...a man who had stayed behind to see my accusation.

The man standing in front of my friend, sword to axe, was unfamiliar, and I forced myself to ignore him, because the other had a blade raised, ready to come down on the only real friend I had left. I didn't think, nocking, drawing, releasing, in what felt like the space between heartbeats. The whistle drew both of their attentions, giving Krumran the upper hand against the much larger man, killing him almost instantly. I took deep breaths, trying to look at the one who had my arrow in his chest, instead staring up at the unfamiliar stars of this strange world, and trying to come to terms with what had happened. I knew there was no other way to save Krumran. Check. Would the man have killed me? Check. Did his attempt on our lives take away his right to live? How about I ignore this entire thing for as long as possible. Perfect, sounds nice.

After one more shuddering breath I stood up, turning to start packing our things.

"The probably aren't camped that far from us, we should-"

I stopped at the hand on my shoulder, half turning, pausing when I saw what was in his hand.

"You're joking, he kept it on him?"
"Yes, it's likely he was working alone, and the caravan was not involved. Of course he would join the party following from the village, just in case he had to intercept the accusations."

I nodded along dumbly, holding my key to freedom loosely.

"...fair enough. The movies always made this seem harder."

"What?"
"Nothing. Let's move camp, maybe back towards the village, I'd hate to run into these guys twice in one night."

When we finally made it back to the village a few days later it looked similar to an overturned anthill, people running everywhere and shouting at one another. I stayed behind the treeline, Krumran heading into town to investigate, just to be sure no 'evidence' was found to convict me. I climbed a tree in the meantime, Padfoot napping down in the bushes below it while I sat above with an arrow at the ready, fully prepared to snipe the shit out of anyone who tried to hurt my dog.

When the dwarf returned it was at a full run, stopping only when Padfoot stuck his head out of the underbrush to softly 'boof' a greeting. Before he could look around from me I dropped lightly to the ground, far enough away that if I startled him he wouldn't have the reach to take my head off. He jumped back, and the snarky comment I expected didn't come, instead I got a grim statement.
"Wymark is dead. He was found in his bed this morning, the decision is that you poisoned him and left in the night. Lisbet is sure that she saw you yesterday, tho she didn't speak to you. They've decided to charge you with assassination."
I blinked slowly, then again a few times rapidly.

"What."

"I said-"

"No, I know what you said, I was hoping that I didn't understand the words correctly. Wow. Me, an assassin...nope, can't see it."

I was slightly pissed at the irony of the fact that I actually had killed someone, just not the someone I was being accused of killing.

"...I guess I'll be taking these jewels and making a run for the border?"
"Which border?"
"...I don't know any geography at all, so whichever one I hit first. That direction looks nice."

He rolled his eyes, instead pulling me along in a direction a few degrees East of where I had randomly pointed, pace brisk, I had to almost jog to keep up, I didn't notice the bag he was holding until he shoved it into my arms. My bag. The last of my things I'd left a the inn to avoid weighing me down while I chased the caravan.

"I think not. We shall travel together for a ways, until you come up with a real plan."

Well, who am I to argue with that?

Sorry for the delay, but at least the stories moving now?

~TimeLordOfPie