The 2020 Leeds and Grenville Reach For The Top Regional Championship Team made their way down the steep and winding mountain road that led away from Nalk Baland and, inevitably, into the lands of the Dark Lord. At least for now they could take comfort from the fact that they still had a ways to travel before they reached them.

It was a nice, cool summer morning but the sun was already threatening the hot day to come.

Aubrey had the map out and was looking at it rather than where she was going.

"Foignar said that there was a high likelihood that some of the villages marked on this map are going to end up having been sacked by the orcs," she said, "but with any luck we should be able to find a place to resupply before we have to actually enter the lands of this so-called 'Dark Lord'. I that should be our first priority."

"Shouldn't we try to keep a low profile?" asked Ollie. "Stay away from the cities and main roads?"

"Why?" asked Aubrey.

He didn't have a good answer for that.

"Think with your brain, idiot," said Victor.

"Leave him alone, Victor," said Aubrey, looking away from the map at least in order to chide him. "At least he tries."

The four teens suddenly stopped dead in their tracks.

A party of three dwarves blocked the road just a ways down. They were dressed in steel plate armor but wore no helmets so Aubrey still recognized them. It was two of the most prominent Royalists and, for the love of God, the Ex-King.

Aubrey rolled her eyes. Here we go.

"You!" spat the former King. "You desecrated a hundred dwarven generations of tradition and honor. You dragged our subjects down into the filth of your wretched dung-worshiping animal people. Your crimes are unforgivable. As the King of Nalk Baland, regardless of whatever poisoned alien ideology has convinced the common rabble, we sentence you four to death. Submit now to your beheadings!"

Aubrey closed her eyes and groaned.

"What are they saying?" asked Victor.

"They're here to kill us for... a lot of reasons. The exact ones you're thinking," said Aubrey.

Victor and Ollie unslung their rifles.

"You do know we have rifles right?" shouted Aubrey.

"Your shaven weapons are no match for an axe-wielding dwarf warrior!" retorted the Ex-King, brandishing his axe.

Aubrey really didn't want to have to kill these idiots.

"Please don't make us shoot you," she shouted.

"For Nalk Baland!" screamed the Ex-King, and he and his warriors began to charge up hill on their stubby dwarf legs.

They'd be in melee range in a matter of a minutes.

"Oh for the love of-" said Aubrey.

Victor and Ollie were ready to shoot.

"So we're shooting them, right?" asked Ollie.

"Yes!" snapped Aubrey, her anger with the situation seeping through.

Victor and Ollie opened fire, belching smoke into the air. Both shots struck the King in the chest and punched through his armor. He fell to the ground.

The other two warriors ceased charging immediately to tend to him,

"Let's get out of here!" said Aubrey, and the four teens ran off in the other direction. With their long human legs.

* * *

The kids decided to try and put as much distance between themselves and Nalk Baland as possible. They weren't sure how their recent regicide was going to be taken and they didn't want to be anywhere to be found if the answer was "poorly".

After a long, exhausting march, made even more long and exhausting by constantly complaining for all four teens, they finally decided they had traveled far enough to rest for the night. The sun had set and it didn't seem wise to travel in unfamiliar terrain at night.

They had made it all the way down the mountain and into the nearby evergreen woods. The woods were thick and overgrown, and only the road seemed remotely navigable.

They kids found what passed for a clearing just off the road, removed a few rocks and sticks, and put down their bedrolls in a circle and immediately sat down atop them.

"So we should start a fire, right?" asked Ollie.

"Won't that attract wild animals?" asked Hak-Kun.

"No it scares them away," said Victor.

Everyone looked at Aubrey.

"I have no idea," she admitted. "I was never an outdoors... person. I like it indoors."

"I'm going to start a fire," said Victor, standing.

He started to collect some rocks to made a fire pit.

"What if it attracts animals though?" asked Ollie.

"Well we don't know either way," said Victor, "and this way we'll be warm."

Ollie and Hak-Kun shrugged and started to collect firewood and kindling.

Before long they had a small campfire going. Hopefully it wouldn't prove to be a giant "come kill us" beacon shining in the night.

"Someone should stay up and keep watch," said Aubrey.

The three boys immediately and audibly protested.

"Okay fine I'll take first shift," said Aubrey. "I'll wake Victor up in two hours."

"Why me?" asked Victor.

"Why indeed," said Aubrey.

* * *

On the verge of dozing off Aubrey heard something.

She wasn't sure if she actually heard it or if it was just her mind playing tricks on her. She cocked her head to the side and tried to focus on the sound of the voices. It almost sounded like one of them was speaking... English?

"You don't want to eat me!" yelled the voice. "Don't you know how cursed that is? Do you want to have that kind of bad magic inside you? Ask any old wife, it's one of the worst things you can do to yourself!"

Another person from her world! Who knows, they might have some more insight into what brought them all here. They might even know a way home.

There was no reason to get too ahead of herself. It sounded like the person was in trouble.

Aubrey kicked Victor lightly.

"Victor. Hey Victor. Wake up," said whispered.

"Give me a minute," groaned Victor, turning over.

"Something's up," she said. "Wake the others. Quietly."

Aubrey kept trying to listen.

"Dhaub stargush! Flot-ari nagransham," barked a low, guttural voice. It sounded like an orc but Aubrey couldn't be sure.

"Moz logon," added another, equally unpleasant voice.

They were getting closer. They might see Victor's stupid fire!

Aubrey went over to her bag, took out a water skin, and dosed the small fire. It sizzled loudly as it went out.

"Hoshat! Grroll rend!" said the first voice.

It was only just barely audible now; they were trying not to be heard.

"Vuras," agreed the second.

Shit. They must have noticed.

"Everyone: guns," said Aubrey, still low but a little louder than before. "There's orcs. But I heard someone speaking English a few minutes ago."

"What?" asked Hak-Kun, sounding half asleep.

"Just... be careful where you shoot."

"It's pitch black! You put out our only light source!" whined Victor.

"I said careful not perfect," replied Aubrey. She was fumbling with her own weapon in the dark.

"Sma shorat."

"Oh shit I think I hear them," said Ollie.

"Halt!" shouted Aubrey, in Dwarvish, pointing her weapon near the indistinct black blob she thought might be the orcs. "This is Lady Aubrey of Nalk Baland and her Entourage, slayers of the ogre mage cousins, come no further or you will be killed!"

"These are orcs, not dwarves," came the English voice in reply. "They can't understand you. Wrong violent idiots."