by Eddie Patin
Then, using her brilliant blade more like a tool than a weapon, Morgana carefully cut halfway into the beast's chest after slicing its arms off to make way. She stepped back to let Riley through with his hammer.
The work was messy but a lot quicker than before. After a few minutes, Jason added another golem heart to his backpack, which was actually getting pretty heavy and full. It did have thirteen fist-sized glowing rocks in it now, after all.
Jason pulled his pack back onto his shoulders, adjusted the weight and his straps, then walked down out of the tree line, pulling up his OCS. He bookmarked the spot.
"I'm bookmarking this area," he said to the others. "We should head back for a little while. Maybe even take a quick nap. I should at least drop off these hearts."
Riley immediately glanced at Morgana then back at him.
"Not a bad idea, except..."
"Back?" Morgana asked. "Back where?"
"To my world," Jason replied, meeting her gaze with a smile. He imagined that she might like to hang out at his house for a bit as they resupplied and recuperated. "Just for a little while. We'll have all day to hunt these guys down in the mountains." He looked at Riley with a grin. "We'll find ten more for sure."
"Jason," Riley said, crossing his arms and scratching his beard. "I know you're new to all of this planeswalking stuff, but you might want to ... ah ... avoid taking ... indigenous fauna back to our base."
Jason ran a hand through his short hair, looking back and forth between them all.
"Uh ... I think it'll be okay," he said. "Besides, she's been helpful, hasn't she?"
Riley cocked his head and stared at Jason for a moment, then shrugged and slung his rifle.
"Whatever you say, dude."
Jason looked at Morgana, unable to keep a smile from creeping across his face. "What do you think, Morgana? You wanna see a world beyond your stars?"
Riley rolled his eyes.
The young woman gazed quickly and uncertainly between all three Reality Rifters, then settled on Jason again. She looked up at the sky then back at him with wide eyes. Her green eyes were so damned pretty...
"Okay, Jason," she said, then her lips formed an adventurous smile.
Jason grinned in response then slipped his hand into his collar.
He found the focus key on his paracord necklace and rifted them home.
Chapter 23
Stepping into his garage illuminated by the fiery, orange light of the rift and the four windows in the overhead door, Jason immediately felt the dreadful weight of New Bozeman fall off of him. He realized that—with the terrible things happening in that village and Morgana's tragic history—that world in universe 936 had an air of sorrow about it.
Then again, it wasn't like the universe itself had an atmosphere thick with sadness, like some sort of magical blight upon the world. Instead, despite Riley's warnings, Jason had become swept up in the drama of the local politics and the young woman's plight. He felt outright hatred toward Josiah Estren and his Communion, and felt great indignation at what had been done to the Soloster family; what had been done to the people of that town.
Morgana stepped through after him, then came Riley and Gliath. The cybernetic soldier immediately set to removing his gear; even humming quietly to himself. Riley didn't give a damn. He and Gliath began nonchalantly laying their weapons on the big, back table.
All of the negativity that Jason felt about u936 was all in his head.
Sure, bad things were happening there to real people; infinite of not. Of course, just like with the politics of Earth of u934, weren't the people who suffered just as much to blame? What was that saying?
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Who said that? Jason couldn't remember. Those many 'brainwashed' townsfolk of New Bozeman could have resisted the Golden Lady's Communion. They could have rallied behind Damien Soloster to figure out defenses against 'the Darkness' without swallowing Estren's hope-filled poison. Of course, the people of that town had a lot going encouraging them to 'the dark side', didn't they? Before the Golden Lady's Communion had killed Morgana's middle brother and mother then took over, they'd been under nightly attack for ... years? What a tough world.
Now, in the garage, surrounded by stainless steel tables and clean sheetrock walls and various stacked-up gear, everything seemed much more mundane. Jason took a quick glance at the duffle bag that he knew held two wyvern eggs. Well, maybe not totally mundane.
This world was far more comfortable.
There were no gargoyles or evil cult here—at Jason's house, anyway. Instead, there was hot water, comfortable beds, beer, TV, and video games.
Jason looked at Morgana, still backlit by the brilliant, sputtering portal with a vision of a sunny Montana valley and Bozeman's ancient, hidden ruins behind her. She took a few steps on the concrete with her medieval boots of thin, leather soles and stared at the floor. As the rift's swirling gusts tossed her long hair, she looked around in awe at the shining tables and game processing equipment in the back. She looked up at the rafters and the bright, fluorescent light, then toward the front of the deep garage at the clean, smooth door of four metal panels.
Jason released his grip on the rift.
The portal spun like a sideways top of orange light and sparks then quickly folded in on itself to a single point, which snuffed out with a pop.
They were left in quiet and Jason watched Morgana take it all in as he grinned like a fool.
"So, we have twelve hours to harvest ten more hearts," Riley said as soon as the roar of the rift disappeared. "It's great that the Reality Rifters are doing an exclusive job again. I reckon that we can recover and take three-hour naps before heading back again." He eyed Morgana as if wondering how she'd react.
"That sounds good," Jason said, putting his AK on the table and shrugging out of his backpack as he watched Morgana look around with hungry, green eyes. She looked straight up and regarded the hanging light some more. Jason could hear it buzzing.
"Thanks to you, Jason," Riley added. "Getting this exclusive job."
Jason smiled awkwardly. "Sure," he said. "Right time, right place I guess, huh?"
Riley smirked, then he and Gliath went inside, each eying Morgana as they stepped up the two stairs to the inner door into the living room.
With his CamelBak finally off, Jason groaned, sighed, and opened the main compartment. He stared at the warm, yellow light shining out from the towel bundle within.
"What are the Reality Rifters?" Morgana asked, looking at the smooth white metal of the garage door's interior side. Her eyes followed along the chain of the opener to the motor hanging from the ceiling.
"Oh, that's the name of our team."
"What is your world called?" she asked, looking down at Zelda's floppy cat door in the side wall.
Jason was pulling golem hearts out of his bag one at a time, wiping them off, and stacking them along the back of the stainless steel table with the other eight he'd already stored there.
"Earth," Jason replied.
"As in dirt?"
"Yes. Haven't you heard that before? Your world is essentially the same as mine, but many years in the future after ... uh ... a cataclysm."
"We call our world Primoria."
"Why?" Jason asked, stacking up the last heart. They were like a bunch of glowing stone eggs. It was hard to imagine those things sitting in the chest cavities of horrific monsters that could have ripped Jason to pieces hours earlier. Hell—one almost did, if it wasn't for Jason's minotaur-hide jacket saving him.
Morgana looked at the golem hearts then back to him. "I don't know," she said. "We've always called it that. Why do people call your world 'Earth'? Do you know who named it?"
Jason looked down at the concrete floor for a moment and thought about it.
"Actually, I don't know where the name 'Earth' came from." He was tempted to Google it right then and there, but didn't want to waste time that he could sp
end with Morgana, helping her learn about his world. When he was finished stacking the golem hearts, Jason compulsively folded up the bloody towel and put it on the table. "Come on," he said. "I'll show you around."
Morgana nodded, crossing her arms. She looked down as Jason put his gear on the table and took his minotaur-hide jacket off, setting it aside nicely next to his pack. He was amazed to see that it was fine—not a scuff or blemish to be seen.
"We have to hurry," she said.
"Why?" Jason asked. "We're gonna to take some naps then go looking for the dormant gargoyles on the mountain. There's plenty of time."
"But the next night is the full moon," she replied.
Jason stared at her, wondering what she was getting at. "Well, you cut down all of the prisoners, didn't you?"
"They'll probably put more up today."
"Then what?" Jason asked. "Are you going to rescue them all? You'll have to kill Estren or something."
Morgana sighed. "No. I can't. But you can—if you can convince the other soldier and the skin-walker to help you. I know that Riley doesn't want to, but—"
"Morgana," Jason said, gently interrupting her. He didn't know what to do. "I ... uh ... I want to help you, but we shouldn't interfere. It's just that ... infinite worlds ... um..." Jason grasped at the reasoning, but he found that he didn't really understand the argument; not in a way that made sense to him. He saw no reason not to help. Riley's apathy about infinite worlds didn't convince Jason to not care. "Isn't it enough that I'm helping you, yourself?"
She stood, staring at him, lips parted. It looked like Morgana was trying to think of what to say next, but was stuck.
"But..." She immediately trailed off.
"Come on," Jason said. "Have some water. Have some Earth beer. Just try to relax for a little while. We need to rest."
Jason stepped through the door into the living room. When Morgana lingered at the opening, staring at the deadbolt and door handle—mundane American craftsmanship (probably Chinese, actually) must have looked exquisite to her—Jason reached out and took her hand.
He led Morgana past the living room where Riley was sitting on the couch with a beer. The soldier's hellhound-hide duster jacket was off and hung up, and his boots were up on the coffee table. Morgana stared around in wonder at his parents' old furniture and the TV and entertainment area. She looked to the front of the house, scrutinizing the closed blinds, then stared up at the popcorn ceiling. Morgana lingered as they walked past the photos of Jason and his mom and dad that lined the hall. She stopped briefly to look at Jason's painting of the Dreadwraith that he'd created back in high school.
Finally, they reached the kitchen.
Gliath was there, still in his warrior form, sitting at the dining table and feasting on bags of raw meat. He looked downright comical sitting in a normal chair at the table in his panther-man shape; seven feet tall, lean, and dark as night with his armor, sleek fur, and an imposing head like that of a great black leopard. Gliath's long tail extended from the back of the chair and Jason's little cat Zelda sat on the floor, watching its flicking black tip intently, visibly tempted to jump up and catch it.
"That's my cat Zelda," Jason said, pointing down at the tiny white feline with the brown splotch over her face.
Morgana smiled. Then her eyes went up to the appliances.
Jason opened the fridge, grabbing a Laughing Lab for himself. "Beer or water?" he asked.
"Water first, please," Morgana replied, looking up at Jason's haphazard collection of various beer bottles he'd stacked along the top of the upper cabinets for the last several years. Every time Jason tried a new craft beer he liked, he had a tendency to climb up there—using the help of a chair—and stack one empty rinsed-out bottle on top. There were many, most with interesting, colorful artwork on their labels.
Pulling out a cold bottle of water, Jason handed it to the young woman. He yanked the bottle opener off of the fridge door to open his beer with a hiss.
Morgana took the water, marveling at it for a moment, then immediately set her eyes on the bottle opener in Jason's hand.
"May I...?" she asked, reaching for it.
Jason let her have the magnetic tool and she looked over it with wide eyes and a creeping smile. Then, her eyes widened with horror. She reached the bottle opener to the fridge and played around with the magnet on its back, gasping when it clacked onto the door again and again.
"What are you thinking?" Jason asked, taking a long, cold sip of beer. God, that was good after fighting and working all night...
Morgana's eyes met his intensely for a moment, then she looked away and back at him again.
Jason smiled.
"I've never told anyone this," the young woman started, taking a moment to look over the cold water bottle again. She squished its crinkly sides in her grip a few times. "Well, Owen knew about it back before ... well ... you know. I have a collection of things in my room that I call my relics. I've found them in the valley west of the village over the years. Not many of my people know about this, but there are ruins there. You can't really see them, but if you look around enough, you can find things sometimes."
Jason smiled again, taking another sip of his beer. "You're right," he said. "There are ruins there. I mean—there must be. There used to be a city there about nine-hundred years ago."
Morgana gasped, stared at her water bottle for a moment, then looked up at Jason again. "I have a about dozen relics that I've found there over the years before the Darkness came. That shiny contraption that sticks to the door," she said, pointing at his bottle opener, "is one of them. I have one just like it, even with the black thing on the back."
"Well, now you know what it's for," Jason replied with a grin.
"And the black piece?" Morgana said, reaching out and plucking it off of the fridge again. She let it connect again with a clack. "What makes it stick to the metal wall?"
"It's a magnet," Jason replied. Magnets, he thought with a chuckle. How do they work? His mind dredged up old rap lyrics from years ago that had practically grown into a meme online. "Magnets ... uh ... are attracted to certain metals like the fridge door. This is called a fridge by the way—um ... a refrigerator—which is a powered box that keeps food and stuff cold."
Jesus—there was so much. Jason tried to imagine how many things would be new to someone from the dark ages. Of course, Morgana didn't come from before this tech existed. She came from far after its disappearance. He figured that a society like hers would be more like something out of a Fallout game or something, but they had truly forgotten everything.
"Amazing!" she said, looking at her water bottle again. She fiddled with its opening for a while then looked back to Jason. "How do I open this? The top is stuck."
Jason took it, opened it, and handed it to her with the cap.
"I bet there's a lot here you won't understand," Jason said. "We should get some rest real soon, though."
Morgana took a long drink and sighed with a smile. "Very good! It's so cold. I have one of these too," she said, holding up the bottle. "Part of one, anyway. What is this springy glass?"
"Plastic. It's not glass."
"I also have bottles like the ones you have up there," she said, pointing up above the cabinets. "But without all of the words and designs."
"What else do you have?"
"A metal spoon for eating," she replied, "and another spoon that is not metal with points on the other end. There is also a spiral-rod, and a rod with a cross and glass-like handle that might also be made of ... plastic, was it?"
"Yeah," Jason said, then he smirked and pulled open his silverware drawer. All of the contents made a metallic sound as they shifted and Morgana gasped and leaned in to look at them closely. "Forks, spoons, knives, and other stuff," Jason said. "It's common on my world."
"Yes," Morgana replied. "My metal spoon is like your spoons."
"Come on," Jason said. "I'll show you a little more then we need to clean up and take some naps. We shou
ldn't waste any more daylight than we have to."
"Okay."
With that, Jason brought Morgana out into the backyard. She seemed a lot more comfortable outside under the open sky again. The clouds and sun and trees were the same as on her world, of course. But she stared at the many houses and backyards continuing one after another on Kestrel Drive. Jason also brought her to the bathroom to show her how the toilet and sink worked.
"I guess you might also want to take a shower—not that you need one, but you might want one."
"How do we ... take a shower?" she asked.
Jason immediately blushed and felt warm all over. His mind immediately spun out to images of the woman's tan, naked body slick with soap next to his, under the spray of hot water. He imagined Morgana's hair dark and wet and gathered behind her. Jason could almost feel her breasts pressing into his chest and his hands on her naked hips as he kissed her parted lips...
He stirred and stammered.
"Ah ... well ... that's something you'd do, if you want to; the shower..." He pointed Morgana to the tub with the drawn shower curtain while moving to hide his growing erection. "It's like a machine that pours hot water over you while you wash yourself. It's the way we bathe standing up. You can also use it for an actual bath. I can get you a towel if you want to try it."
Morgana stared at the shower curtain for a moment then drew it back with her hand. She turned to Jason and smirked.
"Sure. I think I'd like to try that."
By the twinkle in her eye, Jason wasn't sure whether or not she was messing with him; whether or not she'd caught on to his discomfort. Jason's neck and cheeks were hot. He was definitely blushing.
Soon after, Jason was showing Morgana how the shower faucet and activator plunger worked, how to change the temperature, and what soaps to use. He didn't have any girly soaps, but his normal body wash, shampoo, and conditioner would probably be fine for her. It was likely that she'd never seen such soaps before.
