The candlelight flickers as we sat, waiting for Leah to begin explaining herself. Enrique and I sat on a love seat while Frank and Leah sat on the couch.

  Leah cleared her throat, “Do you guys want the long version of everything or the short version?” she asked.

  “Long.”

  “Short.”

  Enrique and I replied at the same time. “Alright, short it is.” Leah went with the easiest option.

  “No we didn’t come to an agreement, that is cheating!” Enrique spat out at Leah.

  “Hush, let me explain it already.” Leah complained.

  Enrique got quiet and watched Leah. I relaxed into the fluff of the couch.

  She sighed and patted Frank on the head before starting her explanation, “You guys are transported. Heros sent from another world to come and fix the world up a bit every hundred years or so.”

  “The first transported came here around 1200 years ago. There were three of them, they were chosen from a place you guys call ‘England’. They were led by a guy named Watkins, who came here at the ripe age of 36 years old. He leads the other two to creating peace between a multi-nation war. Three transported has been the minimum of transported since then.”

  “After that, one of the transported turned on Watkins and joined a cult, which aimed to plunge the world into disorder in the name of the greater spirit, Vorllem. This lead to Watkins and the other non-cult transported to team up once again and take down their fallen brother.”

  “This was the birth of the transported hero cycle. Every ‘hundred years or so a group of other worlders are transported here to create balance in our lands. All transported are humans, but a different kind of human from the one we have here. You guys have larger foreheads and are generally taller.” she kept explaining.

  “Any questions so far?” she asked.

  “What are spirits?” I asked Leah.

  “Good question. Spirits are the reason we have magic in this world. There are way to many to name. But the major ones are the four elemental spirits and the two spiritual spirits. The two spiritual spirits are Vorllem the Negative and Allem the Positive. All spirits are neutral, there is no evil or good with them.” She explained.

  Enrique tried to speak, but Leah cut him off, “Alright, let's keep going.”

  Enrique was outraged, but he kept it to himself as his question may be in the next explanation.

  “The last generation of transported was made up of 5 humans. They were lead my one Joseph from Germany. His big impact on the world was creating the standard bank coins and many other economic reforms. Like generations before them, someone went off the deep end. Not just one but two of the members.”

  “They found some old cult temple from the days of Watkins, and they decided to follow the cult’s ideals, leading them to create the state we are in now.” Leah finished explaining the lore of the transported.

  “Does anyone have any questions?” she asked.

  Both me and Enrique tried to speak, but we were cut off by Frank, “Lady Leah, why did those transported turn evil?” he asked while bouncing on the cushion of the couch.

  “How the hell am I supposed to know?” Leah replied.

  This disappointed poor Frank, and he sunk into the couch.

  Enrique spoke up, “What's with the ears and tail?” he asked Leah.

  “As I said on the way here, I am a Demi-human. Specifically a Vulpes. I am closely related to the fox spirit.” she explained.

  “You said that there have always been a minimum of three transported. Do you know where our third is?” I asked her.

  “I bet you they were taken in by the state before I could get to you guys. But as you said, there is a MINIMUM of three, so there could be more of you twerps.” she said, pushing her shoulders into the couch.

  I nodded along. Frank yawned and stretched onto the couch, “Lady Leah, I am tired, when is everyone going to bed?” he asked.

  “Good idea, Frank. I need an excuse to stop talking to these twerps for the night.” She said as she stood up from the couch and left for the second floor. Frank followed her.

  “You guys can sleep in the guest rooms, there are three of them.” she shouted from the stairs.

  Enrique looked over at me, “I hate her.” he said blankly.

  “She isn’t that bad. She seems to have good intentions.” I attempted to reason with her.

  “And those ‘good intentions’ are?” he asked.

  I thought for a moment, “I mean she saved us from being taken by an evil empire.”

  “We don’t even know if the state is evil.” he stood up clearly wanting to end this conversation as he was tired, “I guess it’s time for us to go and find our rooms.”

  I nodded and stood up as well, “I hope the rooms are clean.”

  Enrique and I searched the bottom floor, finding every room but the guest rooms. So we adventured up to the second floor, where, after some searching, we found the rooms.

  The room I had chosen was a bit of a makeshift library, while Enrique’s was a bit more put together compared to mine. But mine had the larger bed.

  It took a while for me to feel sleepy, so I spend most of my time exploring my room and watching the monsters move in the woods from my window. After a while I fell asleep in the bed.

  I dreamt of strange faces. A man made of shadows speaking to said faces. Voices from my past, memories dance around. Images of the world I came from are shown. Nothing in this dream made sense. But the rest was good, as the bed felt nice.

  I woke up to the sound of a trumpet being played outside. I got up and rubbed my eyes and looked out the window. There stood two women. A rather petite woman with short gold hair in some kind of fancy outfit, and a taller, shy looking woman with deer-like ears and brown hair playing the trumpet.

  The one in the fancy outfit had her hands on her hips and looked to be very smug. After the trumpet was finished being played by the taller one, she shouted, “B-B-BEHOLD, LADY GRIMALDUS MIKA HAS ARRIVED TO INSPECT HER FAMILY MEMBER!” her stutter was noticeable.

  As she said that, the smug short one looked up at me and grinned even more. Then I heard a knock on the room’s door.

  I heard Enrique’s voice, “Bro, come out here quick, Leah looks unhappy with the visitors.”

  “Got it.” I quickly got dressed and opened the door to see Enrique. He dapped me up and we walked downstairs.

  At the open front door stood Leah shouting at the two people, “GET OFF MY LAWN YOU BUMS!”

  Enrique and I went up to the front door with Leah, “What's happening?” I asked.

  “That’s Frank’s older sister, Mika. The current leader of the gold dragons in the country. She paused and added “Do note there are only 4 or 5 gold dragons in the state.” Leah explained.

  Enrique palmed his forehead, “What a way to start the day.”

  After he said that, we heard a loud, cocky laugh come from the petite lady, “How DARE you call the current leader of the Golden Flight a bum!? I could have sworn that you were the one living rent-free on our lands!” she said in an arrogant tone.

  The taller lady would then cast a mage light spell behind the golden haired one, “I, Grimaldus Mika, came here to visit my dear brother! And you shall NOT stop me from doing such.” she said as she threw her cape onto the taller one, who caught it.

  Mika began to walk closer to the home, while her servant followed her with the mage light. “Oh dear, here we go.” Leah mumbled.

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  “Yes, Mika, you can come in for tea or something.” Leah said, trying to make the approaching Mika glad.

  “Tea!?!? That’s it?! That is an insult to my kind!” Mika replied.

  “I also have sweets for you.” Leah quickly added.

  “DEAL!” Mika replied just as quickly.

  Leah sighed and moved out of the doorway to let the two in. The servant placed the fancy cape on the coat rack and bowed politely before Leah and quietly said, “Thank you for letting me and Lady Mika in.”

  Mika heavily patted the back of the servant, “No need to thank her, Nia, she is living on my land, so I am allowed in here, even without her permission.”

  The shy Nia stood up from her bow and nodded towards Mika before standing at ease while Mika plopped down on the couch, “Where's the tea, which?”

  Leah sighed and went to go brew tea. “Hey, human boy, come sit next to me. I want to know why two of the new transported are here.” her tone changed as soon as Leah left the room.

  “Which one of us?” Enrique asked.

  “The white one, he is handsome.” Mika bluntly replied.

  “What the fuck do you mean white one!?” Enrique replied in an enraged tone.

  “You know what I meant, now, come and sit down.” She demanded.

  I listened to her and sat next to her. “So, what’s your name?” Mika asked whilst spreading out on the couch.

  “My name is Darian, but everyone calls me Shrugs.” I put it simply.

  “Cool, I am Mika, current leader of the Golden Flight. You’ve met my little brother Frank, yeah?”

  “Yeah, I met him yesterday, he is very timid.” I told her.

  “Hey! I am not timid, I am a very brave dragon!” a voice said from the stairs. I turn my head to see Frank walking down the stairs in his pajamas.

  “Hey Frank.” I quickly waved at him.

  Frank nodded and ran to sit in between me and Mika. Mika had a brief exchange with Frank before Leah comes in with a platter of sweets and a pot of tea.

  “This is the best I got, Mika, you better be happy.” she said.

  “It better be up to my standards, or I’ll kick you off my land.” Mika replied.

  Leah sighed and sat down on the love seat, “So what's do you want from me today?”

  “Well, I heard from a few city folk that you were seen stealing humans away from a state owned hospital. So I just came to check it out for myself.” Mika explained.

  “Now that I’ve seen them, I have taken up a great interest in them. Mainly this guy right here.” she punched my in the shoulder.

  “Ow.” I said quietly to myself as she kept talking with Leah.

  “Care to explain why you have the two of the transported here?” asked Mika.

  “They were going to be taken into the army and forced into service. I thought I would butt in and take them before that could happen.” explained Leah.

  “That’s cool. But you should be more careful, I do not want the state looking into the forest. It would be bad for business, you know?”

  “I was as careful I am always with the state.” Stated Leah with pride. She shifted to a more relaxed and confident posture in the seat, spreading out her arms on the back of the seat.

  “Is that why you left a wagon in front of the trail leading here?” questioned Mika.

  “I didn’t leave it, I was saving it there for later.” Leah said while she rolled her eyes.

  “Well I had it moved and burnt, thanks to Nia.” After Mika said that Nia waved politely at Leah.

  “Great… You are going to pay the rental place then.” Leah was clearly upset at this fact.

  Mika scoffs, “Me? Paying for a problem you created? How funny of you.”

  Leah pours some tea for Mika and offers some to Nia, but Nia politely declines the tea. Mika takes a fancy sip of the tea. She nods for a moment, taking in every single note in the tea.

  “This tea. It meets my standards.” She told Leah.

  “Great, now can you get out of my home? I have things to do today.” asked Leah.

  Mika laughed, “Aw Ha Ha HA!” in a very condescending tone, “No, no. I came here to investigate the transported and see my little brother. That is what I do.”

  Leah has a deep sigh and pushes the plate of sweet towards Mika, who quickly snatches a small cake and chomps on it. She exclaims in joy with the sweet, “THIS IS DEVINE AND VERY SUITABLE FOR MY MOUTH!”

  “Good to hear.” Leah said with little to no enthusiasm.

  Mika takes another sip and changes her demeanor, “So, have you gotten their mana potential checked yet?” she asked Leah.

  “Not yet, I was planning on take them up to the mountain shrine tomorrow.” Leah replied.

  “You should do it today, I heard a real bad storm is approaching that area. I doubt you’d want to get trapped on the mountain.” Mika further explained.

  Leah nodded in agreement, “Alright. I’ll take them there as soon as you leave.”

  “Who said I didn’t want to come?” Asked Mika, “I would love to see the potential of two of the transported.”

  “Will you get in our way?” asked Leah

  “Not if I have to.”

  “Then I am fine with you trailing along.” Leah said as she got up, “Twerps, there are some mountain clothes in the closet, you guys go get dressed in them, we are heading to the mountain.”

  Enrique seemed happy, “We get to leave this shithole.” he said looking towards me.

  I gave him a thumbs up and left to go get changed. Enrique waited for me outside the room we were to change in. The clothes that Leah said we should wear were heavy and thick. Perfect for a mountain.

  I had put on a thick wool shirt, a parka and a pair of mountain khakis pants. I was very cozy and warm. I left the room to let Enrique get dressed, and I went back downstairs to meet with Leah, who had already changed. Mika and Nia were nowhere to be seen in the room.

  “Where did Mika go?” I asked Leah.

  “She and Nia went to the cave to get their own clothes. They said they would meet us at the fork that leads to the mountain.” explained Leah.

  I nodded and sat down on the couch to wait for Enrique. After a few minutes Enrique walked down in the same clothes I had on, but his parka was green instead of my brown one.

  “Looking good twerps. Now let's get going, the hike shouldn’t be to long.” Leah slung a large backpack over her shoulders and opened the door.

  As she did so, Frank rushed down the stairs in his own winter outfit, “I’M READY!” he shouted.

  Leah quickly turned around, “You are not coming with us Frank.”

  This quickly ruined Franks joy, “Why not?” he whined with disappointment.

  “Because we need a big strong guard to protect the house while we are gone.” Leah made up a lie so that Frank may not cause a problem.

  Frank smiled and nodded, “Of course Lady Leah, I will protect this house with the might of a gold dragon!” his joy returned. Leah nodded and we left the house.

  It took us about 20 minutes of walking to get to the meeting point where we met Mika and Nia.

  “You are way too slow for a Demi-human.” was the first thing Mika said when we got there.

  The path to the mountain was rough and rocky. It seems that not many people walk this path. The trees around the path are strange, different from all the others. The way they twist and turned as we walked the path made them look like dancers.

  Other than the trees and the one lone deer, the hike to the base of the mountain was uneventful. It was mainly Nia and Mika talking about random things such as sweets and teas. Enrique and I spoke to each other, talking about how we both miss home and our desire to see family again.