While Vonn, Selen and Tazo talked with the newcomer, the door of the shop beside them opened. A Kobold stepped out, indigo-scaled and looking tired. "Vonn, there you are. I'm seeing how long Master Urika will tolerate me."

"Stay out or bring me lunch!" called another rasping voice from inside.

Selen said, "Kotta, this is Polestar. The dungeon prisoner. He's like me and Vonn."

Kotta's slitted eyes widened. "Tell me. Do you know a story called The Zone of Twilight? What was the name of the first airplane builders? Were there ever moon scouts and what did they call their project?"

Polestar looked confused. "Oh, uh. A quiz? Yeah, I know the TV show. Weird spooky stories. The builders were called 'Wright', and in this language that's like 'wheel maker'. The moon thing happened; that was called 'Apollo' or I guess you'd say, 'Sun God'. Why do you ask?" He looked at Vonn and said, "Is he from there, too?"

"He collects stories."

Kotta's head bobbed. "So then: what do you know about Dragons?"

Polestar stepped away. "I just spent a year or so in the Scaled Nation, so I've heard more than I'd like to. If you're gonna force me back or tell me how inferior I am for having hair, no thank you."

The scaly one's fists clenched. "Is that really how they treat mammals out there?"

"I had a good owner. He let me be his scout and shared errand stallion. Kinda backstabbed him for trusting me, since I ran away, but he's got plenty of other peasants. Which brings me to why I'm here. Is there a way to sign up with some new lord as his subject, without being his slave? Or is that just how we do things here in Medieval Fun World?"

Vonn snorted. "That's Renaissance Fun World to you. But yes, our Baron's a good guy. And he'll definitely want to talk with you."

"Uh. I'm not eager to get on the radar of anybody important. It might be best if I just moved on."

"You're not in trouble. He'll just want to ask what happened to you at the dungeon. The guy just stayed up half the night with a warband, trying to personally arrest your captor for treason."

"But if I talk about that he'll know I'm not from around here, because of my Help message. There'll be more questions. Looking to dissect me for magic or something."

Tazo gave an exasperated growl. "Mister, my brother just risked his life and crashed the only airplane in the world trying to save you. Give him some credit."

Polestar scuffed the ground with one forehoof and looked down, his ears low. "I guess I owe you. Does your Baron know about you two?"

Selen said, "He knows we've got weird memories and amazing ideas. Leave it at that, please. You don't have to be the Centaur of attention." She had to switch to English in mid-statement just to make the pun work.

"All right, all right. I want to at least get presentable but I've got nothing to trade but mud. If I can lean on you for a few days I'll dig ditches or whatever you need."

#

They left Kotta to escort Polestar on a tour of town, including a trip to buy soap from Vonn's family's candle shop. The Kobold obviously wanted to interrogate the newcomer some more, either to verify that he was really an Earthman or just to pull more Dragon lore from him. So Vonn, Tazo and Selen were free, and still feeling derailed by everything that'd happened in the last few days.

Selen said, "I need to get home to Grandbridge soon, but I'll try to help from there. What's the plan, now that Polestar has joined my party?"

Vonn grinned at her. "Your party? Anyway, the main thing is to find him a home and learn what skills he brought."

"I'm going to get with the Baron and warn him about the newcomer. He can't legally order me around, but I'll suggest that he shouldn't force you to start cranking out guns or something." The org chart went from the Reeve to Baron Bogstep up to the Duke, and Selen lived in a city under the Duke's direct rule.

She leaped into the air and flew away, whooping at the fun of flight. Vonn leaned against the wall with Tazo. "Whew."

Tazo leaned too, closing her eyes. She said, "I suppose it's good to have another one around. I want a quiet few weeks."

"I'm here for you, still."

She just nodded, as they took a minute on their own to relax. A duck and a couple of otters splashed around in the river -- just ordinary animals, fun to watch.

"Work time?" Vonn asked.

"Yeah."

#

They went into the Rising World Company, their new home and workplace. Urika, the flame-hued Kobold, was supervising the making of axe-heads. Taking turns at the anvil with him was a young Centaur mare named Ashfall, white dappled with grey. Her spiky grey mane was tied back and she wore a leather apron on her front.

Urika waved his tail and focused on striking the iron until it began to dim. He put it back into the charcoal furnace and dusted his gloved hands. "I thought we might get an order for these soon."

The new building was a traditional blacksmith shop, built to continue serving the needs of the town of Shieldpoint. But its unfinished, open rooms, built to allow even a Centaur to move around, held the seed of a technological revolution. Vonn had personally helped build several relatively advanced tools such as a good lathe and a device for cutting threads into screws. Next to the shop stood the world's first airplane hangar, which until recently had held the dinky, rickety biplane that Vonn wrecked. Vonn was now an equal business partner with Urika, exceeding him in Engineer levels. They'd gotten funding from Baron Bogstep and were expected to make him even richer.

"What news?" said Urika.

Vonn said, "That special prisoner escaped on his own. He just staggered into town and almost got spooked and ran when we figured out what he is."

Ashfall finished her turn with the anvil. "Another person with the memory thing?"