A skittering, clicking, clacking sound chased Lucas and Terrasin through the narrow alleys. They were only a few minutes away according to Terrasin, but her dress and shoes- not to mention her far shorter legs than Lucas’s- and before she could complain, Lucas threw her over his shoulder and ran.

“Holy fuck you are heavy,” Lucas grunted. “When the hell did I get so old? I used to be able to lift a girl like you as if it was nothing, unless that dress happens to weigh and extra twenty or thirty pounds?”

“Actually…” Terrasin coughed in embarrassment as Lucas ran, and Lucas took that as confirmation that the dress was fucking heavy. On the bright side, that meant that he wasn’t as out of shape as he thought- but he was certainly going to start working out after this. If he had known he would have ended up in a place like this, Lucas would have kept up the running exercises he had done in high school.

Terrasin sudden screaming told Lucas that he should probably not look back, and to be frank the sounds that it made as it followed them had already spooked him to a point of near terror.

“Duck!” Terrasin shrieked into his ear, and Lucas did not question it. A white glob shot past where his head used to be and hit a nearby wall, sticking to it with a slight hissing sound. The sudden shift almost caused Lucas to lose his balance and drop Terrasin, and the slowdown let the thing catch up to be right on his heels.

He could see the end. A straight line in this direction eventually opened up into a street, and beyond that, empty air with only a railing between the road and it. If Lucas could make it to there, their soldiers would be see them and aid them. However, whatever was behind him would certainly catch him before then.

“Lord Hero, Lucas,” Terrasin’s voice was no longer panicked. If anything, it was simply determined and grim. “Drop me and I-”

“Got it,” Lucas interrupted her and tossed her into a nearby garbage pile that looked somewhat soft. That single look of absolute betrayal when he would not let her finish her words and so easily tossed her aside was priceless. An unfortunate reminder that he was a rather sadistic bastard.

He also was not the kind of person who could simply leave a woman in danger like that. He hadn’t seen what was chasing them like Terrasin had, but despite the louder sound due to the size, Lucas would not be much of a biologist if he had not realised roughly what was chasing him by now. All he needed to do was to take advantage of Terrasin as a distraction and…

Lucas turned on his heel and jumped on top of the gigantic spider that had been chasing them. Ignoring the fact that it had a human head, holy shit why did it have a human head!? Lucas refused to think about that, instead he gripped the things back and hung on for all his life as the thing let loose a horrendous shriek.

That he was still alive after ten seconds confirmed Lucas’s suspicions, the thing could not reach its own back! His brief moment of self-congratulation was ruined when the creature moved to slam him against a nearby wall. Lucas, meanwhile, was doing his best to hold on and kick a certain part of the monster.

Leaving aside that this thing had an actual human head, the part Lucas was clinging to was the spider-demon-thing’s cephalothorax, but that was not particularly important. What was important was that the cephalothorax was connected to the abdomen by a small pedicel, and that most of the organs in a spider were located in their bulbous abdomens. Although it was technically part of the cephalothorax, the last segment of it, it could be considered to be the weakest part of a spider.

Not something that mattered when all you needed was a shoe and a step to kill them, but now Lucas found himself betting his life on it. His last stomp caused a cracking sound, but that could have been his ribs when the beast smashed him against a wall. It hurt. Horribly. But if he let go now, he would die and it turns out that fear of death was quite a motivator.

Another stomp, another crack, and Lucas felt warm fluids on his legs. It shrieked again, but it was already weaker than before and it soon died due to what effectively amounted to suffocation. Or just blood loss, Lucas supposed, but the reason it actually died was that oxygen could no longer reach the freaks brain.

Soldiers had come running, that knight of Terrasin’s had sprinted down the alley, sword drawn, and was now looking warily at the dead spider as he helped Terrasin stand up. She seemed shaken, but otherwise ok.

“By the Gods,” she gasped, it really was a High Spider!”

“A juvenile,” the knight agreed grimly, and then with grudging respect he nodded to Lucas. “Good work there. Those things, even the young, are no joke.”

“This thing is a kid?” Lucas exclaimed, looking at the corpse. The thing had to be roughly two point four meters long! He did not even want to try and figure the length of the legs. Looking at them just disturbed him.

“Adults are much, much bigger.” Sir Forus explained, “too big to actually get here, in fact. The adults need bigger Skyrivers, though often times the things can just jump. They have a variety of magic and abilities all their own as well, a single adult is a walking disaster.”

“Lord Jaeger,” Terrasin came up to Lucas and bowed. “You saved my life again, thank you- I won’t forget this debt I owe you.”

“Or, you could call me Lucas- like I asked- and we could drop the whole debt thing.” Lucas waved the courtesy away. “Are we ready to go? I have to admit that this High Spider thing has convinced me to get the hell out of here, and as fast as possible.”

The knight frowned at the disrespect, but with Lucas still dripping gore from his kill as proof of his heroism he said nothing and escorted them out of the alley and to the dock. Lucas, meanwhile, was considering how badly they were misinterpreting his actions. That High Spider had waited to attack the carriage; it was not a dumb beast. Terrasin might have been willing to sacrifice herself, but Lucas figured that she would merely momentarily distract the thing. After all, it was not here for her. True, there was certainly a part of him motivated by chivalry- but it was not enough to move him by itself.

As he limped towards the slipboat, he resolved to fix this misunderstanding as soon as possible. Lucas did not want people getting the wrong idea of his motives. Clarity is important, perhaps one of the most important things involved in human interaction.

Before he left, Lucas looked back over Northgate. He had barely arrived before being chased out, and he somewhat regretted not being able to take a look around. Or maybe that was simply the anticipation of future regret during his roughly fourteen day journey.

“Well at the very least I hope there is something to eat when I get down there,” Lucas mumbled to himself. It was better to focus on his hunger than the pain, he was sure he’d have huge bruises by tomorrow all along his sides and back. Waiting to eat until he reached the next sky island, Low Goldengrass, turned out to be a good idea.

“How the hell does a river have a corkscrew in it?” Lucas complained as he retched off to the side, thankful that he had nothing to throw up. “This whole place is like what I imagine a bad trip would be like.”

“Not very good on skyrivers?” Forus seemed much too satisfied with Lucas’s misery, “well, not many people travel very far, I suppose.”

Lucas, of course, responded with eloquence and grace as befitted his status and education, “fuck you, asshole.”

If nothing else, the statement had the element of surprise as the knight appeared to have no idea how to respond as Lucas dry heaved again.

“I travelled quite a bit in my own world,” Lucas managed to straighten up, exhausted. “However, none of our rivers were like glorified amusement park rides sans safety measures!”

“Sir Forus,” Terrasin interjected, trying to keep the peace. “Records from the first two Heroes say that there worlds were much different from ours. There are neither sky islands nor Skyrivers. Rather, the ground sits upon more ground.”

“Well, I have no idea about their worlds,” Lucas finally had a chance to eat breakfast and planned to take it wholeheartedly. “However, my own is spherical, but of such great size that it appears flat to those who walk on it. Rivers flow into oceans, and none of them float in the air.”

The knight was vaguely interested in Lucas’s story, but Terrasin’s eyes were just about glowing. Lucas was not entirely sure he wanted to talk about it though. It would not take long for him to miss the comforts modern life afforded him if he thought about it too much.

“Now that I’m done trying to heave up air,” Lucas changed the subject instead. “Could I get something to eat as we get on our way? I very much wish I had been woken up sooner, but I suppose there is no point in looking back at that now.”

A soldier passed Lucas a wrapped meat thing. Much like a burrito or wrap that he might have found in his world, however the meat had clearly come from one of the fish Lucas had noticed in the floating rivers. Professional curiosity had him wondering about how an ecosystem like that worked as he thanked the soldier and absently took a bite.

It was good, tasting like fish but with a lighter and fluffier texture. However, more interestingly, part of the taste was very familiar. A very slightly lemony, minty, taste that paired very well with the fish, and that even hidden among other tastes and scents was very recognizable.

“Does this have thyme in it?” Lucas asked rather incredulously, not really believing his own taste buds or nose.

“Indeed it does sir,” the soldier who had given it to him replied nervously. “It very much helps to add flavor when the taste of fish grows boring- did you not like it?”

“No, it is quite good- but this is thyme!” Lucas exclaimed, now incredibly confused. “This is basically impossible, it should not be here!”

Of course, his confusion was contagious. The people around him, busily setting up the carriage again, paused at the spectacle of a tall man who had fought and killed a High Spider in single combat, staring at a fish wrap as if it was a world wonder.

Which, of course, it actually was. Lucas had not really thought of it before now- what with injury and being chased by monsters occupying his thoughts- but things like humans, horses, and thyme really should not be here. They were all things that had evolved in his own world, and the first two had extremely well documented fossil records. Of course, he had been brought here, but he had changed his clothes in the transition and suddenly became shackled. If he had simply been teleported, that would not have happened, right? He was not a physicist, but it did not take a genius to figure out that if he had been moved from place to place he would have brought what he was carrying with him.

Lucas, while perhaps not arrogant enough to call himself a genius, very much thought of himself as highly intelligent. Now that he stopped to apply that intelligence to what he knew about his own appearance in this world, he would bet a large amount that it had involved some kind of human sacrifice. Which had fascinating biological implications by itself, because he still looked like himself.

More importantly, it implied that things could not be directly brought over from his world to this one. For that matter, Lucas was not sure that the previous heros had come from his world at all. The Demon King certainly had not.

Yet, there were humans here. Horses as well, and herbs like thyme- all of which most assuredly evolved on Earth. The chances of something similar to any of those evolving in a similar world to Earth’s was actually pretty high. Convergent evolution was a well documented phenomena, and was to be expected.

However, the exact same thing evolving in a world that had a wildly different geography? It was not technically impossible, but the odds were so low that it might as well be. The difference between an infinitely low chance and no chance was mathematically significant, but practically the same in the real world.

“Lor- Lucas,” Terrasin corrected herself quickly as she asked. “Is something wrong?”

“It is difficult to explain succinctly,” Lucas replied, still bewildered by the wrap in his hands. “But does the word, evolution, translate for you?”

Terrasin frowned and shook her head, “It did not, what does it mean?”

Lucas just shook his head and took another bite as he thought about how to respond. Much like when he was asked about his education, he did not think his audience had the knowledge to understand the tools necessary for him to explain everything. No, he was overthinking, a critical flaw of his. They did not need a breakdown of the specifics, but a general overview.

“Evolution, in this context, is change over time in a species,” Lucas spoke after he swallowed. It really was quite good, despite being baffling. “Driven, generally, by the processes of natural or artificial selection.”

Gesturing to the wrap in his hands, he continued. “Considering the rush, and my own distraction, I did not give much thought to a few things until I took a bite of this. The short version is that with vast quantities of time- millions, if not hundreds of millions of years- one species can change into another, or even divide into two new, species.”

“For the moment, how this process works is not very important. However, I can tell you that I know for a fact that humans, horses, and probably thyme- though I must admit to not being sure if there even are fossils of it- all evolved on my world. The chances that I would find the exact same species in a completely different world, with completely different geography and environments, are so incredibly slim that the realisation that these things are here almost floored me.”

Lucas then had an amusing thought, which he shared with a chuckle. “Actually, honestly speaking and despite all other evidence to the contrary my senses provide, it is far more likely I am insane and none of this is real than that I would find a species that is the same as one from my own world. Not that I have anything I can do besides trust that my perceptions of reality are correct, but there you go.”

The soldiers and nobles around him were quiet, mostly from confusion if the looks on their faces had anything to say about it. Terrasin, though, had a pensive look.

“So at one point,” she said slowly as she began to lay out a deduction she made. “There must have been a way to travel between our worlds in the flesh.”

It was, Lucas thought, a disturbing conclusion, albeit the only rational one that did not include declaring himself insane. Modern humans, homo sapiens, are a species roughly two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand years old; the beginning of recorded human history was somewhere between four thousand and ten thousand years, depending on how you defined things.

Magic seemed to, very definitely, not exist in his world- though his own presence here called that into question. Lucas, however, still believed that his world lacked magic regardless because otherwise it would have been discovered. The history of the scientist traces itself back to alchemists and seekers of magic, but for all the effort nothing was ever found. Which implied that if humans had been spread to other worlds, they had either done so through technology or through some outside force.

While the subject of prehistoric humans having some kind of advanced technology made for great stories and careers for more than a few wackjobs trying to pass off pseudoscience to the ignorant, Lucas was very much aware that prehistoric humans likely had little more than the most basic of stone tools. Ergo, some outside force was responsible for all of this.

Lucas did not reply to Terrasin, instead he pushed all of those thoughts out of his head. He could do nothing about it, and by all accounts- presuming time was relatively the same between his world and this one- whatever or whoever had placed humanity and other species here had done so well over four thousand years ago. It had nothing to do with him, or the current situation, and he lacked both the education and tools to even begin to try and investigate possibilities. So he would ignore that and finish his fish, and damn any other thoughts that-

“Wait a minute,” Lucas said with a frown, speaking over a soldier who was telling them that the carriage was complete. “How the hell do you people have thyme and not know of its antiseptic properties? Is it a rare herb here or something?”

They had, after all, tried to bandage an open wound caused by a monster without any disinfectant. Yet Lucas was fully aware that thyme was perfectly capable of fulfilling that role. Not as well as most modern drugs perhaps, but it was perfectly serviceable.

Terrasin looked at Lucas in confusion, pulled out of her own thoughts by Lucas’s sudden expletive and jarring change of topic.

“I’m not certain what “ann-tie-sep-tic” means,” the lady replied anyway, despite the oddness of the question. “Thyme is not particularly rare, however it is not common either. We barely have enough space to farm as it is; herbs are quite expensive and something only enjoyed by the upper classes.”

“Well, I guess I have some more explaining to do,” Lucas sighed as he got into the carriage again, though he was grateful that he had the chance to explain as a distraction from his earlier, far more unsettling, thoughts.