Up is down, left is also down. Nothing makes sense for a few seconds that stretch out into infinity. Then, with a lurch, everything seems to slam into itself and the world makes sense once more. At least until Dean is able to get a good look at his surroundings. When that happens he is certain that he is under some sort of psychedelic hallucination. The sky is blue right? That thought flits through his mind as he tries to assert reality upon what he sees. In fact, the sky was not blue, so his confusion was understandable.

Nadira was having a much better time with the disorientation, having experienced it many times before. Even she had to admit though, this time was particularly bad. Taking pity on Dean, she speaks her mind. “That was worse than usual. If I had to guess, this domain is farther removed from our own than most of the spaces connected to our dimension.”

Gaining control of himself, Dean stands straight. Looking around reveals a wonderland that makes him contemplate whether it’s possible that the atmosphere is laced with opiates. A field of purple grass is under their feet. A short distance away there is a treeline, where the bark is blue and the leaves are indigo. Even the sky was a different color than Dean was used to. A vast green expanse was dotted with clouds. At least the fluffy floating bodies looked as they should.

“Everything is different. The colors are so off, wrong.” Dean continues to look around as he talks. Even the sun high overhead is a red color. “It’s like the color scale on the whole world just got randomly scrambled.”

Nadira didn’t even spare him a glance. “Yeah, this is pretty normal. Remember, you are in a totally different dimension. Sometimes that means a whole new universe with its own galaxies and solar systems. Most of the time it’s like the relatively small space we entered before. I think this one is a whole planet though. Considering the extreme shift we felt going through the portal: This may be a completely different universe existing in the same space ours does, but on a different level.”

“Right,” Says Dean. “The whole multiverse theory. So that’s real then?”

Nadira holds out her hand and wobbles it back and forth in a gesture Dean knows means ‘sort of.’ After a shrug she explains. “Maybe? It’s not like there have been a ton of scientists that know about these portals. A few non-human researchers have tried testing them but they get nothing as far as I know of. Some believe that we don’t have the technology to even scan the energies the portals are created from, much less understand where they lead.”

Disappointed at not getting a proper sci-fi explanation, Dean turns his thoughts to what they came here for. While talking to him, Nadira had been scanning the area. Now that Dean was focused on their quarry, he realized that he couldn’t tell where they had gone. They were nowhere in sight and there were trees everywhere. They had arrived in a grassy clearing surrounded by the odd colored trees. Not getting anything obvious, Dean joined Nadira in looking down.

They carefully scanned the area all around where they arrived. Dean’s time in the forest had given him a little time to practice wilderness survival techniques, and tracking was one of them. When he found a disturbance in the grass he called Nadira. He may have been improving his tracking abilities over the last year, but he wanted to confirm with her what he was looking at.

Nadira came to him and looked where he pointed. “Yeah, that should be them. A lot of people walked through here and I don’t see anywhere else they could have gone. It worries me though. How the grass has sprung back up makes it look like this happened over a day ago.”

Dean had to agree. It didn’t look like a large group had trampled the area within the last few minutes. That is why the trail wasn’t immediately noticeable when they first started looking. “Nothing for it. This is the only trail we have so we should follow for now.” Nadira nods and starts leading the way. As they step and push the knee high grass out of the way, Dean noticed it was thicker than he thought. It was also pretty springy, like bamboo.

When they got to the edge of the clearing they both looked back on it. Already their passage was being obscured by the tough grass as it flexed back into place. “I guess that means we’re probably not far behind them. Alien plant life is amazing.” The furry woman just looks at Dean after his comment and shakes her head. “What!” he says after seeing her reaction. She doesn’t answer and just starts marching into the trees.

A last look back at the portal they arrived through is all Dean spares before following along. The trees were dense and they looked familiar, if you ignored the color that is. That wasn’t important though; following Nadira was. And it was apparent that she was following a trail. They couldn’t go too fast because they couldn’t afford giving away their approach to the lost sheep. Dean figured their pace was still pretty good though, compared to what he thought a group of lethargic prisoners were likely to set.

It didn’t take long before they left the trees. the landscape completely changed here. It was so abrupt that Dean likened it to changing zones in a video game.

All that was before the pair was a desolate plane of red sand, hard packed valleys, sun baked hills. The passage of so many people had made it obvious which way their targets were going. A clear trail of disturbed dirt was visible in some of the softer parts of the ground. It led straight in between a pair of hills.

The sun beat down on them as Dean began to follow the tracks. Nadira grabbed his shoulder and held him back though. “We shouldn’t follow directly behind them. They could be watching for something to follow. Maybe not us, but there are probably monsters here.” After he nods back she steps in front and leads them up the hill to the left of the trail.

When they got to the base of it the ground softened and Dean found the hill was mostly loose sand. That explained why the lost sheep had led their group between the sandy dunes. It would be harder to walk with the soft sand and would leave even more tracks to follow. Not to mention how tiring it would be to walk up and down the hills constantly. At the top of the hill Nadira gets on her belly before the peak and crawls up to look over as Dean follows her lead.

What they see from there makes them both excited. Despite the delay and slow going through the trees before, they could see the group they were chasing. The line of chained people were trudging forward through the hot landscape and between another pair of sandy hills. Taking a second to scout the area shows them very little else. As far as they could see were more of the sandy hills with hard packed trails between. There was no sign of anything else living.

Dean was a little worried about what they would do for water if they got stuck out here for an extended period of time. He shook this off a moment later. They had some water already, but if they needed to he could probably come up with a way to gather water for them. He had a few ideas percolating in his mind even as he shrugged off the worry.

Something else was causing him far more anxiety at this moment than the possible water shortage. Why were all of the chained people just following along without complaint? And why did they all look practically catatonic?

In the distance, Dean could see the only thing for miles that broke up the view of the desolate lands. A small mountain rose above the dunes. It was in the general direction that their quarry was headed in. They should pass by it in a few hours at their current pace. The structure was familiar to Dean. Being from Arizona, he had seen plenty of pictures like that little mountain from his home state. It was all light brown stone with holes and caves all throughout. It was like a coral reef made of stone.

Nadira pointed it out to dean. “We can ambush them around there. It looks like they are going to be passing by it in a few hours. We should get ahead of them and prepare. Remember though, Sandy is the goal. Not killing the lost sheep.”

Without further discussion, they head off parallel to the advancing party and their prisoners. They kept an eye out to make sure that they didn’t get spotted by the lost sheep, but they were able to pass by them with little difficulty. When Dean had seen them from the top of the dune he had noticed that the members of the lost sheep were pretty relaxed. Like this was all routine for them. It made it pretty easy to slip by them without notice and get out ahead.

Sticking to the valleys between dunes they are able to get a mile or two ahead of the group. The mountain they saw was farther than they had expected and they still had a long way to go by the time the sun started to fall. They abandoned the idea of going that far and moved into an area that they thought the group would be coming through. Nadira was careful to remove any sign of their presence there as Dean took a position at the top and behind the peak of a nearby Dune.

They were cautious because it was still a three to two disadvantage, and they couldn’t count on Sandy to help. Whatever they had done to her was likely to prevent her from putting up much of a struggle. On top of that, Dean was pretty sure Nadira was a much higher level than he was, which meant it was likely the lost sheep were higher than him too. Nadira had said they weren’t as strong as her or Sandy, but they were close. Now, Dean knew that level wasn’t a very accurate measure of power, but it still mattered some.

Nadira had climbed up on a dune on the other side of the trail she thought the group would pass through and was waiting. She was also in a better position to tell if the lost sheep would head through this particular valley. After waiting there for something like an hour, with the hot sand pressing into his chest, Dean was getting a little restless. That's when he caught the brief flash of a hand signal above the dune where his companion was located. A thumbs up told him they were good, and that it would start soon.

The next few minutes felt like all the rest of the time lying in wait all by itself. First one, then two of the prisoners came around the corner of the dune ahead of them. Then the first lost sheep member came into view. It was at this point that a thought skittered through his mind and Dean wanted to kick himself.

Why hadn’t he raised the damn Minotaur as an undead? It would have been really useful right now. Resisting the urge to curse out loud, Dean continues to wait. They were in such a hurry to follow along that he hadn’t even considered it, and now he was left with regret. His distress about killing another sentient in what felt like an execution was also preventing him from thinking rationally at the time. The past was the past though, and wallowing in the missed opportunities was a fool's errand. His future was looming in front of him and he had to be prepared to meet it.

When all of the lost sheep were all the way in the valley next to the hill he was hiding behind, he enacted the plan Nadira and he had come up with. Basically, he was a distraction. The way things were, it was unlikely they could take on the lost sheep and avoid hurting any of the prisoners. So the goal was to get some reinforcements by freeing Sandy and fixing whatever the lost sheep had done to her.. From his hiding spot, Dean activated his Kinetic Vector Shield and Mana Deflection Shield. With his defenses up, the real fun starts.

There were only a couple of things he could use at this distance, but he needed everyone’s attention. For that reason he chose the more flashy of the two options. Power flowed into his arm building into a massive amount of electricity. Dean was sure it was the most he had ever pushed through his Arc spell, or maybe any he had ever used. There was so much power building and waiting for release that it actually started to burn.

At first Dean thought that it was just the feeling of containing too much power for his current level, but the smoke that lightly drifted up from his right arm told him that the limb really was burning. From the inside out. Ignoring the panic that threatened his mind at the realization, Dean focuses on his target. The taller ram horned man of the two was the target. He was muscular compared to the others and carried a spear. The lost sheep must have felt something from Dean’s building skill because they stopped and started to look around.

Before they could get set in a defensive position Dean released the lightning in his veins. Like always, the blue white bolt of electricity leapt from his hand to his target in an instant. Unlike its usual size of a finger width, this one was twice as thick. Dean noticed that his control of the skill wasn’t perfect at this strength too. Little arcs had leapt from the main bolt to strike the ground between him and the target. Some of the power of his attack was lost because of this, but the effect was still encouraging.

The ram he had aimed for seized up at the massive discharge and flopped to the ground shaking. Despite the surprise and the power of his attack, Dean had no illusions that he had killed the wild fae, but it was out of the picture for a few seconds at least. Quickly changing target, Dean starts firing Necrotic Bolts at the other two fae as they ran to help their party member. The woman was thinner than the other two and pulled a bow from her back. When he stepped up next to her, the other male coated his hands in fire.

They knew exactly where he was from the line of magic he opened up with. This was the point though. As his Necrotic Bolts flew at them the woman interposed herself between Dean and the downed fae. The mage had a reddish force field of magic that appeared. Both of them took multiple shots before they could start firing back.

Fire hands seemed particularly shocked that his magic shield didn’t seem to do anything to stop the dark purple magic that Dean was using. Dean ducked down behind the top of the sand dune in time to avoid an arrow in the eye. For a split second he recalled the mage’s baffled look when Dean’s skill ignored his protections. Dean didn’t know that would happen, but theorized the mage’s skill only worked on mana based or physical attacks. Essence, on the other hand, had no problem circumventing the defense.

Everything was going as planned. Not wanting to give them a chance to move forward, Dean rolled to the side and popped up over the top of the dune again to launch a few more Necrotic Bolts their way. The cumulative effect of the debuff the skill caused would hopefully wear down their desire to follow him when the time came. As he was attacking from his new position Dean saw Nadira coming down the Dune opposite from him, behind the distracted lost sheep.

Before he ducks back down, Dean sees the line of prisoners are more alert than back in the warehouse. They are obviously nervous and start inching away from the fighting, like skittish animals. More worrisome is that they weren’t trying to get away in the confusion, just avoid the conflict near to them. Dean didn’t have any more time for observation though. An arrow actually clips his ear as he is dropping down, too slow to avoid the agile archer. A split second after getting behind cover a ball of fire impacts the sand and sprays embers over the top to float down on Dean.

Rolling a few more times to take up a new position and smother any lingering embers, Dean goes a little pale. A rope of flame crested his cover and slammed into the spot he was at just a moment before. The sand popped and hissed as the fire crackled before slithering back from where it came. A deep breath later and Dean repeats his hit and run tactics. Popping up and firing another Arc sends the archer to the ground. Unfortunately, the first one he had used Arc on was getting to his feet once more, using his spear to help him up.

Dean also got a good picture of what the fiery rope was. Dangling from the pyro’s hand was the slender form of a whip handle. Only getting one more Necrotic Bolt off and a brief glimpse of Nadira’s situation, Dean was then forced to dive to the side and behind the Dune again. He went left, and the flame whip slammed into his former spot like before. This time was a much closer call though. After it slithered it’s way back over, Dean immediately rolled to the same spot he was before. Lightning doesn’t strike the same spot twice right?

He was glad he did. Since his dive before was noticeable by those he was hiding from, the flame whip came back a moment later as the mage guessed his landing point. What he saw before he had to dive was not good. Nadira had headed straight for Sandy and managed to get to her without being noticed. She had used a skill to cut the chain that connected Sandy to the other prisoners, but their friend was fighting Nadira. Nadira was pulling on Sandy’s wrist to try and lead her away, but Sandy pulled back and tried to free herself.

With the left arm, the less fried one, Dean starts pumping more mana into it than the Arc skill required. He didn’t do as much as his first attack, not wanting to cook this arm too. Besides, the power he lost with the lack of control probably evened out the resulting effect anyway. At the limit of his control, Dean popped up again. The lost sheep were looking in every direction they could along the same dune he was behind, except for the last place he had appeared. With a vicious grin in place, Dean punches his hand forward.

The focusing crystal on the back of his glove lit up again and electricity connects Dean to the spear wielding fae. He made sure not to aim at the mage because the caster’s shield skill probably would have made the attack less effective. A burned spot appears next to the first one on his chest and the fae man falls back again. The surprise of appearing in the same spot as before gave Dean an extra second to launch a few more Necrotic Bolts at the fire mage.

The fae man didn’t stand his ground this time. Knowing that the shield he used wasn’t stopping the skills from Dean, the mage opted to dive to the side to avoid them. Dean recognized that he must have been stacking enough Necrosis debuffs on the mage for it to become a danger. Up in a flash, the flame whip was headed Dean’s way a moment later. Instead of diving to the side again, Dean dropped back down the hill in a roll and then slid even further through the sand toward the base of it.

During his last attack, Dean saw Nadira running away, with an unconscious Sandy slung over her shoulder. That was his signal to get out. They had decided on a rendezvous point closer to the porous mountain before they started fighting so he ran as fast as he could. He wasn’t good at obscuring his tracks so he wanted to meet up with Nadira as fast as possible. She could help with that and hopefully they could avoid being followed. Nadira’s physical stats were much higher than his own so he wasn’t surprised that she was already waiting for him when he arrived.

In a hushed voice, Nadira cuts off any questions he has about Sandy’s current state. “Quickly, follow my lead and try to step where I step. No more talking after this.” Without any more explanation, the deceptively strong cat-girl takes off into the dunes under the darkening sky with their friend over her shoulder. Dean loses track of his surroundings as he follows behind, watching where Nadira steps and trying to place his feet in exactly the same spots.

They ran in the dark for some time with Nadira leading the way, only able to continue so late by the light of an inordinately large moon. Finally they come to a stop and Dean has to shake his head to bring himself back to his senses. The singular focus he had achieved was almost like a trance that he had to shake off. When he looked up, a large shadowy structure loomed over them, casting a shadow all around them as it blocked out the moon.