Roan groaned as Summers changed his bandage for the fifth time that day. He’d been trying to watch the wound, making sure things didn’t get worse. It had. Roan was looking pale now, the beginnings of a fever showing.

“I know it sucks,” Summers said. “Just hang in there. We’ll take care of you.”

Roan only managed a grunt in response.

They’d made it to the trade road easily enough, but there were no tracks, no signs anyone had been through recently. Which left them at an impasse.

“We found something!” Asle called over.

Summers turned to see the girl holding a set of rags in her hand. Some very dirty, old rags.

“Uh. . .”

“We believe it’s the remains of a camp,” Synel explained.

“We want you to smell it,” Asle continued.

“Uhhh. . .” Summers looked between Asle and the rags. “Why?”

“Because the camp looked as if it hosted a large group of people, recently, and you can follow the scent.” Synel said, using that slow, patient voice she reserved for when Summers was being a moron.

“Oh.” Summers looked at the girl, and the rags once again. From this distance, he could tell that dirt on the clothing was not actually dirt. “Do I want to know where you found those?”

“No, but it was the best we could find. Even then, it was partially buried.”

And that confirmed his suspicions. He’d spent enough time as a grunt to have dug latrines.

Asle ignored his musings, thrusting what, for his own sanity, he was going to continue calling a dirt covered cloth towards him.

“Smell it,” she insisted.

Summers had to remind himself that Roan’s life may hinge on them finding someone, and that the kid had done nothing but help them since they’d found him.

Carefully, Summers sniffed the cloth, and winced.

“Ah, Christ. Yeah okay, I got it.” Summers wiped at his nose, trying to get the smell out, even if that was counter to his goal.

“Do you think you can follow it?” Synel asked.

“I can try, it’s sure as hell burned into my brain now.”

Asle looked at him, a clear hint of worry on her face.

“We’ll find someone, if not Roan’s a big boy, he can hold out until we get to town.” Summers said, putting a hand on Asle’s head. He wasn’t so sure if that was the truth, but that wasn’t what either of them needed to hear right now. “But first, you’re gonna want to wash your hands.”

The plan surprisingly worked. Some part of Summers’ mind really did act like a bloodhound. And after a few hours of “tracking”, with a few false starts, they’d managed to find something. Or rather, someone.

“Don’t move,” Summers whispered to Asle. Night had fallen, they were a little slower going now that they had to worry about Roan. Thankfully, the horses were much more subtle than a Humvee. So, the sentry Summers was now staring at didn’t see them approach.

The man was a soldier, that much Summers could tell by his build. The bright, green uniform he wore just hammered that point home. And as such, he wanted to avoid a situation like they’d run into with Tel’s town. But his only other options, namely aggressive ones, probably wouldn’t be great for diplomacy. Best to just risk it.

“This is either going to suck, or. . . no it’s probably just going to suck. Stay here, I run into trouble just toss up a portal for me and I’ll risk it.” Summers began to stand, only to have Synel shoot him a worried look.

“Don’t tell me you’re walking out there.” Synel said.

“You got a better idea?”

“No, but. . .” She gestured at the man in the distance. “All we know about these people is that there are a lot of them. They could be bandits for all we know.”

Roan gave a noncommittal grunt from her side.

“He’s wearing a warrior’s equipment,” Asle added. “It’s too nice and uniform for a normal person.”

The sentry did look oddly put together, so either a guard, or a very successful bandit.

“He doesn’t have a gun, or superpowers, and I do. So, this really isn’t an issue,” Summers countered.

“Super. . . powers?” Asle asked.

“Too much context, don’t worry about it.” He really missed Nowak and Cortez.

After another moment of hesitation, Summers stepped out, hand raised in an elven wave. As he began to walk towards the sentry, his head turned towards Summers. It was when the man’s hand came up that he began to worry.

He had a crossbow.

“Shit.” Summers lowered his hand as the sentry shouldered the crossbow and aimed. “Asle portal, portal!”

The bolt flew past Summers’ shoulder as he dove, and appeared in the strange, obsidian world. He honestly wasn’t even sure if the bolt could hurt him, but he wasn’t interested in finding out. As he looked around, he realized he was alone, a fact he probably should have accounted for with Asle’s recent changes. Thankfully, the girl herself had the presence of mind to appear a few dozen feet ahead of him.

“Are you alright?” Asle asked.

“Yeah, fine. Honestly if we didn’t want something from this asshole, I’d have just shot him.”

“So. . . what now?”

“This time I give him less of a choice.” Summers looked at the expanse around him, realizing something. “You know, if you can do this every time now, we could really just go anywhere and not worry about running into anyone.”

“Maybe,” Asle shrugged.

“Then let’s put it to the test.” Summers indicated the position he figured was closest to where the sentry was in the other world. “Think you can make me an exit up there?”

Asle nodded, and Summers started to run.

From the sentries’ point of view, he probably saw a man show up, hand raised, then promptly disappear. Which made his absolutely terrified expression as Summers appeared behind him all the more satisfying.

Summers walked up to the man, and slowly took his crossbow. He didn’t resist.

“I’m friendly,” Summers said. “So, let’s have a nice, civil talk.”

“Is that it?” Summer stared at the odd fort in front of him. Well, less of a fort and more of a collection of walls built into some very large, redwood type trees. He was honestly surprised that it had taken him this long to find elves in trees.

That was probably racist. Problems for later.

“Yes, sir.” The sentry, who Summers hadn’t bothered to learn the name of, said.

As it turned out, the group was what remained of a very large force set against what he eventually worked out was the samr. They’d been fighting back when Wendel’s force first started to spread out, and they’d been promptly destroyed, as had their city.

What was left of the military and the few civilians smart enough to follow them had splintered off here. They’d created a sort of forest hideout from the scraps of their city. The camp they’d found was probably a scouting group.

“Okay, you can go. Just tell them what I said, here to buy things, not make trouble.”

“Yes, sir!”

The man ran towards the camp, stopping to talk with the guards. As lights inside began to ignite, Summers surveyed the place.

Now that he had a moment to really look, it almost seemed like the fort was being held together with string. Most of it was just a natural formation in the forest’s canopy. Basically, a bunch of trees someone had decided to build a fence around. In short, this wasn’t a place that could stand up to a real fight. If anything, all of this was more like a placebo, probably to put the people inside at ease.

He eyed the guards on the wall, attentively watching him.

“I know what you’re thinking.” Synel said. “These people are likely to have a grudge against the samr. We can use that, yes, but don’t assume they’ll be on our side just because we share an enemy.”

“You know we’re out here looking for people to help, right?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous to us.”

“Desperate people.” Asle added, looking up to him.

Summers thought on that.

“All right, fair.”

He glanced at Roan, who’d stopped even giving them snide comments for the last few hours. He was curled up, trying to stay warm.

“There is a reason that man shot first,” Synel continued. “He might have assumed you were a trader yourself, in which case, killing you would give him access to your goods. A bit of an idiot to assume a trader would show up alone, but still.”

The sentry turned to Summers, raising his hand. Summers returned the gesture, which meant they were free to approach.

“I get it, and you’re right. We’ll get our stuff, feel them out. But after what happened in the city, I get the impression we’re going to be seeing a lot more people at the base. That could be an issue if we don’t know how to keep the peace. These guys could solve that problem for us.”

“. . .I suppose,” Synel said, skeptical.

As they rode up to the fort, Summers caught sight of an older woman, probably in her forties, wearing a tight fitting, but heavily weathered set of leather armor. At her back, were nearly fifty others, all in green regalia, some with crossbows, most with spears.

“Heard you’re a friend,” the woman called over. “Then let’s have a look at you.”