This part is really short but hopefully I will write more soon. Thanks to Rihanna'sUmbrella , minijo1990 , sam, and Ravenwendigo for your reviews. And also thanks to my beta, asphaltcowgrrl for doing such a wonderful job!

Just inside the door was a sitting room with a fireplace. The sitting room held some comfortable padded chairs and small tables that sat in a semi-circle in front of the fireplace. There were stairs opposite of the fireplace that led to the second floor. Behind the stairs was a doorway that led into the kitchen. Harrington led them through the doorway into the kitchen and gestured for the others to seat themselves at the small table.

Chuck and Shaw sat down and looked around the kitchen. The kitchen hearth was large and had an oven above it. There was a handpump over a ceramic sink and several cabinets and shelves. Several herb plants were hanging over the sink in front of a glass window soaking up the sun. Harrington took the coffeepot off of the hook where it was hanging above the warm hearth and brought it to the table. He then took out of a cabinet three ceramic mugs and placed them on the table. On the table already was a copper and gold sugar bowl. Harrington poured the coffee into each of their mugs, then seated himself at the table.

After everyone was settled and drinking their coffee, Harrington began to talk.

"My partner and I were investigating a rumor of a group that we later found out was called the Ring. We were captured by a splinter group that while a part of the Ring their activities were not generally known. We were forced fed the potion in our world and then sent through a portal into this world. My partner transformed into a big bay stallion. We managed to escape which in the end turned out to be a bad thing."

"How can you say that." Chuck asked.

"Because then my partner might still be alive. This is why I set myself up here after I had learned everything I could. So that I could keep others from dying."

"Wait you said that you were both fed the potion. Is that what makes them transform and if so why didn't you change or Chuck. He was fed the same potion," Shaw asked.

"The potion is what changes them. It has to be given to them in our world for it to work. It doesn't work on everyone though. People who are wizards or have the potential to be wizards will not transform. That is what I learned, what I needed to learn. It took me over ten years, but eventually I became a wizard."

Chuck and Shaw stared at the man in shock.

Harrington smiled at their expressions, "I know it was hard for me to learn that as well. After seeing your partner get transformed into a horse you kinda have to start believing in magic."

"Okay, I guess we shouldn't be so skeptical. I will hold judgment later, but you said that your partner died. How?" Chuck asked suddenly terrified for Casey and Sarah.

"Fourteen days after we came to this world we stopped at an abandoned farm to rest for the night. The moment the sun went down, my partner, Josh Danvers, transformed back into his human form. We were happy, we thought it meant that the spell had worn off. We were wrong. We slept that night and when morning came my partner was gone. The horse was there but it wasn't Josh and it wasn't a horse. Josh was gone, forever. And the horse had no instincts to help it. It just stood there unable to eat or drink, unable to learn to do so. I put it down rather than let it suffer. Afterward, I left the farm and continued to travel determined to find out what happened."

"So Casey and Sarah are going to die in ten days?" Chuck was shocked, he wanted to scream and rant at the man to deny that it would happen. Only Shaw's hand on his shoulder kept him from doing so.

"What did you find out?" Shaw asked.

"I found a wizard who was willing to take me as his apprentice. He trained me and taught me. In his spell books I found the history of the spell and what it does. Why it was created. The reason Josh died is because I didn't bond to Josh as his Rider. The men who brought us here would have sold Josh and your friends to warriors and knights who would have bonded to the war-horses on the fourteenth night becoming their Riders."

"So on the fourteenth night we bond our partners and they won't die. I assume they go back to being horses though." Shaw speculated.

"Somewhat. Once bonded to a Rider, the Rider has control of what form their Mounts take, whether human or horse," Harrington answered.

"Then that settles it. When they transform back we bond to them and they are safe," Shaw said satisfied that they had an answer.

Chuck, however, wasn't sure. "How do we bond?"

Harrington smiled a bittersweet smile. "See that is the real problem. I am not sure that even if Josh and I had known that we would have had to the courage to bond. You see the bond between a Rider and Mount is sexual. The Rider has to be a man for it to work. The Mount, of course, can be male or female. And it's only one Rider per Mount. One of you can't bond both of them."

"You mean we have to..." Chuck trailed off, he wasn't sure he could say it.

"Fuck," Shaw asked finishing Chuck's question.

"Yes. The magic is completed when the Rider's seed is planted in the Mount's human body on the fourteenth night."

Chuck looked at Shaw. "I don't like this and I know they aren't to like this at all."

Shaw nodded at that.