I froze. Five things went flashing through my mind, one after the other.

One: The voice was deep, male, and confident.

Two: It spoke English, but with an unidentifiable accent.

Three: Although I was not sure, it sounded like the voice was coming from about five feet behind us.

Four: We had not heard anything approach, so whoever this was, they were good at not being noticed.

And finally: No matter how scared I was at the moment, as soon as I heard the voice, I felt like I could trust whoever it was, they were friendly.

Feeling this, I turned around to look at the person who had spoken. I saw that Brooke had already been looking at him.

He was human, that was a relief, at least. He was tall, with pale skin and dark, almost black, hair. His features were handsome, but had an edge to them, one that caused a small twinge in my stomach. I would have put him at maybe twenty, maybe more. This was a man who had been through many hardships, it was obvious. His eyes were bight green, and had a curious glint in them. He wore a light gray shirt with black, loose pants. His shoes were cloth. The clothing had an old-fashioned look to it, it was handmade, that was for sure. This served to further reinforce the idea that we were in some kind of twisted middle age version of Earth. He also had a dagger in a sheath on his hip. He made no effort to hide this, was it some kind of threat?

I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off.

"Wait, let me go first." He said, in his soothing, deep voice. "I'm sure you two are confused about what's happened to you. I'm a friend, I'm here to help you two. My name is Cassius Olcinius. I'm part of a small group of people who help people like you, people who came through the cave."

I was surprised; I had gotten the feeling that the cave was a one time thing, something that would disappear when we were done. To think that other people had come through was comforting. Even more so was the fact that there were people who wanted to help us, and that understood our situation.

He continued when we said nothing. "Yes, I know how you got here. When I saw you two on the hill, I knew immediately you were not of this world. Your clothing is evidence of that. I would like to take you to a place where we can discuss your situation, and arrange for us to help you acclimate yourselves to Cyrodiil." I gave a small start when he said that word; it was an unexpected relief to know the name of the place we were trapped in. He continued, ignoring my expression of surprise. "You two will not be going back to your world, I assume you already know that." I nodded; I looked over at Brooke for the first time since he started talking, and saw her standing with her eyes closed. She was smiling slightly. I took this to be a good sign, and turned back to the man. "Yes, we know." I said. "Good," said Cassius, "You are going to have to learn the ways of this world. Come with me, we have a small farm at the base of this hill, there you can meet the rest of us, and we can start explaining things."

I was about to agree, when Brooke spoke up beside me. "Wait, I don't like this, how do we know that you are a friend? Why do you have a dagger there, if not to harm us?"

He frowned, looking confused. "I have this dagger to protect myself. This world has many dangers for the foolish traveler, as you will find out for yourself if you decide to go out in the world unprepared. You need to come with me if you want any chance of surviving this place. Besides, if I were planning of harming you in any way, I would have done so, instead of announcing my presence and talking to you."

Brooke looked at me for support. I shook my head. "He's right, you know, this is our best chance of surviving. Let's go with him."

She looked down and sighed. I took her hand and went up to Cassius. "Alright, let's go."

He nodded seriously and started walking down the slope. We followed after him. At the base of the hill, he paused, looked around, and started off into the woods. His movements were confident; he knew this area well, and that made me more relaxed. The woods were a bit foreboding, and it was a comfort to have someone who knew their way around.

After possibly a half-hour of trudging through the trees, I began to see the first hints of a small house in the distance. Coming closer, I saw it was a small cottage, standing in a large open space bordered by a wooden fence. It was a squat, comfy looking place, and it felt good to see something undeniably human is this world. The three of us went up to the small wood door and Cassius put his hand on the knob. "Alright, there's going to be a few other people in here, and before we go in, I'm going to warn you about one of them. Her name is Tsajadhi, and she is not like you or me. Here we have many different races, and there are a few that are very different from people like us. I'm telling you this so you don't panic or start in motion a bad situation. Do you understand?"

"Wait," Brooke said, "What is she then, if not human?"

"She is a Khajiit, a race of catlike beings. They have feline features, tails, and fur. Do not worry about being rude or staring.. Tsajadhi will understand."

I was slightly more nervous about going in now. I didn't know what to expect.

He looked at us to make sure we were ready, then opened the door and beckoned us in. Inside I saw three beds, a small fireplace with shelved for cooking, and a table with three sets of plates on it. There were windows on the far wall, through which I saw the field behind the house. I stepped in, and looked around further. In one corner stood a man, with dark skin and a kind face. He wore the same kind of plain clothes as Cassius and was looking at us with a small smile. "My, my, Cassius, you've done it again. So how are we going to cook them this time?" His voice was light, and sounded like he was trying to contain his laughter.

Cassius gave us a reassuring smile. "I wouldn't say that, Nanniton. This one," he put his hand on Brooke's shoulder, "put up a bit of a fight. She seemed to think I was going to hurt them."

Brooke gave a shy smile and mumbled something with the words "careful" and "precaution" in it. The man walked up to us and shook our hands. "I'm sorry, friends, I didn't mean to scare. Cassius has told you the truth; we're here to help you. My name is Nanniton, as you have probably guessed. I am a Redguard, as Cassius may have explained. Cassius piped up, "We haven't really gone over that yet, I've only explained about Khajiit, to make sure we didn't have a repeat of last time. The other man, Nanniton, gave a shudder at this, which made me wonder about the other people who had come through. I hadn't seen the woman Cassius had spoken of yet; I was starting to become curious about her.

"She's hiding in the cellar. Seemed to think she would frighten the kids. She was probably right, judging by the look of these children."

I gave a small chuckle, and Nanniton looked at me. "Don't worry, friend, although she may look it, she won't bite you. I'm surprised she's survived so long, she would walk up to a bear and give it flowers if it looked nice."

"Do not underestimate her, she can fight when she wants to," Cassius said, "but let's bring her out to meet them. Tsajadhi! You can stop hiding! Come out and meet the newcomers!"

I heard quiet footsteps on the other side of a small door on the wall with the stove. It opened with a creak, and out stepped a tall figure, completely covered with orange and yellow fur. She closed the door behind her, and paused to let us have a look. She had catlike, backwards jointed legs, and clawed feet, or paws. Her face was also feline, with a large pink nose, reminiscent of a lion. Her ears were pointed and were pierced in several places. Hanging from them were jewels of several different types. Her eyes were catlike also, and shone in the dim light of the cottage. She smiled, and we saw she had very sharp teeth, in keeping with the catlike features.

"Hello, I apologize for my startling appearance, and wish to welcome you to Cyrodiil." Her voice was a bit raspy, but had a motherly tone to it. It was a friendly voice, and any misgiving I had about her from her looks were swept away by that voice. She slowly approached us, her smile taking on a concerned look. I realized that in our surprise at her appearance, we hadn't even said hello.

She held out a hand, and it was definitely a hand; this part of her, although still covered in fine fur, was human. I shook it, feeling claws underneath the hair. "Hello," I said with a smile, "my name is Zach, and this is Brooke. I guess you already know how why we are here."

"Yes," she said with a sorrowful expression, "you came through the cave. Oh, and so young. Why did you bother with that horrible thing? No, I'm sorry, its not your fault, we know the kind of power that place contains."

Cassius stopped her. "Now, Tsajadhi, there is no reason to make them feel worse about this situation. Why don't we sit down and talk about things." He motioned at two chairs by the fireplace. Brooke and I sat down. I could tell she was as exited as I to finally get some explanation of the events that happened here.

"I'll start at the beginning, when we found the first traveler who came through," Cassius said, and then proceeded to launch into his story.

"Around 2 years ago, Tsajadhi, Nanniton and I were exploring this area of Cyrodiil. Back then, we were a team of adventurers, who would accept payment to go out and find relics or items that people wanted. At first, we were successful, but later on, we usually ended up on simple missions, like retrieving items that people had left in caves but were too lazy or afraid to get for themselves. This particular mission was an interesting one. We were hired to go to an Ayleid ruin, which I will explain about when the time comes, and get something called a Varla Stone, a powerful object, very rare. Our employer had given us a general idea of where the ruins were, but we had to do some searching to find the place. While doing so, we heard screams in the distance. Curious and slightly worried, I decided to investigate. At first my friends here were hesitant, but I convinced them that we could help someone in need, and they came along. Moving farther into the woods, we heard the cries getting clearer, until we could make out the words. It was someone screaming for help. We started running towards the source of the sound, and came upon a man writhing on the ground. We went to help him, but stopped when we saw his clothes. It was like nothing we had ever seen. He wore some kind of fancy blue jacket and thick black pants. The material it was made of was close to what we have here, but it was different to the point where we knew he wasn't from around here. What really made us uneasy were his shoes. Here we just have simple cloth shoes, his were some hard material, and had harder bottoms. They were a primitive version of the shoes you two are wearing."

At this I realized how different we must look to them. With my zippered jacket, Brookes bight and decorated shirt, and our jeans, we must look like some kind of alien. Which, when I thought about it, we were in a way. I continued listening to Cassius' story.

"So after determining that this man was from some other place, we propped him up against a tree and tried to calm him. He finally stopped struggling and tried to talk to us. We couldn't understand him, he was delirious. He seemed to be talking about a cave and poisonous mushrooms. Then Tsajadhi here gave a brief examination and determined what had happened. The man had somehow been foolish enough to eat a type of mushroom growing in this area. The mushroom is poison, and can cause death within the hour. We had no way to help him, and so we tried to help him be comfortable the best we could. He died shortly after. We went through his pockets and found three things, all of which we had never seen before. There was a small round object, with indecipherable letters around the edge and a needle in the middle that was swinging rapidly around. There was also a pen and some paper, with more symbols we couldn't read. We took the things and went to investigate where the man had come from. We soon came across the cave. It was the same back then as it is now, and I don't think I need to describe to you the attraction we felt to it. We went and took a peek inside, but I stopped us from going in, thinking it was dangerous. It turned out I was right. After I had pulled my companions away from the mouth, we started hearing calls from inside. Soon after, another man, dressed similarly to the one we had met, stumbled out. As he passed thought the door, he stopped and fell to his knees, trembling. We were worried, we didn't know if we could help. Our fears were for naught, however, when we saw the man began to laugh and twirl around. We had no idea what was happening. After a few minutes, the man calmed down and began to look frightened. He started to call a name which I do not remember, presumably his companion. He eventually gave up and sat down. At this point we had decided that one of us would go out and talk to him. I was chosen. I approached and talked to him much the same as I did to you two, and brought my friends out. He was initially surprised by them, especially Tsajadhi. He said something like 'I can understand the slave, but what about the cat-woman?' I told him none of us were slaves, and I explained to him about the beast races of our land. Eventually he seemed to understand about our world, and then told us some things about his. He told us his name, John Frenson, and where he lived, a place called New England. He also told us a date, but we didn't understand. You must use a different system of dating than we do. He said over there the year was seventeen-something. He said he was on an expeditionary mission with his friend, the man we had seen earlier, and that they had went in the cave and found their way here. When asked, we told him what had happened with the man that we had first encountered, he was sad, but got over it quickly. After a short burial, we discussed what he would do. We again explained more things about our world, this time focusing on how he could survive. He ended up following us back to the city you just saw and finding a job at an inn. He died a few years ago."

"That's too bad," Brooke said, "It would have been nice to have someone here with whom we could talk to and understand a bit better about things. There is one thing I don't understand, though. How long ago was all this?" Cassius replied, "3 years, why do you ask?" "Well," Brooke said with a confused look, "He said the year was in the seventeen hundreds, right? Well right now in our world, its 2009. That means our world moves incredibly fast compared to yours."

This time Nanniton spoke. "This is very interesting, Tsajadhi, have you hears about such a thing in your studies?"

"I have not," she said, "but I will be sure to investigate further."

We were silent for a second, and then Cassius spoke again. "Alright, but there is more to tell. You said you wished for someone from your world you could talk to? Well, there was another person who came through. About a year and a half ago, we were exploring the area again. We were walking thought the woods, this time looking for a woman who had gone missing. We were actually a short distance from this farm when Tsajadhi here got a felling we should check out the cave we had found long ago. I at first was against it; I thought we should continue our search for the missing woman. However I was outvoted when Nanniton agreed and we set off in search of the cave. It was easy enough to find, but we found nothing unusual, and were about to leave when a voice called from behind us. 'Stop! I want you to slowly turn around and keep your hands in the air. You, the one with the mask, take it off!' At first I was confused, hearing a woman's voice, I was thinking it was the missing woman, but turning around, I saw this was most certainly not her. It was another person from the cave. She was wearing unfamiliar clothes, tight dark pants, and a tan coat. She had on a strange hat with two circles on the forehead. Looking closer I saw that they were supposed to go over her eyes. I didn't know what purpose they possibly could serve. 'I said take off the mask!' she shrieked again. I had no idea what she meant, neither of us was wearing a mask, but it dawned upon me that if she was from the other world, then she would have never seen someone like Tsajadhi before. 'Please calm down,' I stammered, 'my friend is not like you or me, but she is a friend to the both of us. We would like to help you.' The woman would not listen, though. 'No! You are going to tell me what this place is, and how I got here, and you are going to take off the mask!' She then jumped at Tsajadhi and they fell to the ground, struggling with one another. Tsajadhi is an accomplished fighter, though, and was able to easily subdue the woman. We tried again to calm her, and this time succeeded. After explaining what had happened to her, and where she was, she seemed to be much more receptive, and apologized to Tsajadhi. She accepted the apology, and then took over in explaining what she could do. Then we asked her how she had come to the cave. She tried to tell us she was in a flying machine, a plain she called it. She said that her plain had fallen from the sky over an ocean, and she had been left on an island. She had looked around for a way to get help, and found the cave. We asked her more about herself, and she revealed that she was from the year nineteen and thirty seven. She was surprised when we told her about the other men, and when they had come though."

"You haven't told us your name, ma'am," I had said.

She said, "My name is Amelia. Amelia Earhart"