Into the Frozen River

         Most coffee shops don’t keep employees on the clock after two-thirty in the morning but Caffeine Delights stayed open till one and I was the night closer. Rick, the owner of Caffeine Delights, liked taking advantage of the fact that I needed a job to work my way through college. Jobs that worked with schedules like mine were scarce these days, except waiting tables which I detested doing. I didn’t really mind the late hours except during the winter, getting off work at three AM made for a cold walk to my apartment. This morning the ground was covered in snow, with the occasional snowman standing sentry at people’s homes.

As I walked across a concrete bridge connecting the two halves of the city I contemplated how I missed being out in the sun. It was daylight when my classes finished but going straight from the university to work meant I spent little time outside while the sun was still up. It was no wonder my normally healthy tan had started turning to a pasty pallor months ago.

My ruminations were cut short when I looked up from the cracks in the concrete at the screech of tires. I was blinded by the lights of a car turning onto the bridge. I had a moment to think they were driving rather fast before I was throwing myself off the bridge and into the frozen river to keep from being crushed.

         I felt scraping on my arms and face as I broke through the ice and then it was cold, so very cold. I fought to swim to the surface but it was no good. My clothes and heavy school bag conspired with the cold water to drag me to the river’s bottom. Finally I managed to kick my winter snow boots off. If I could only get my bag off I would be able to kick off the river bottom and break through the surface. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold my breath. I felt rocks beneath me and suddenly was blinded again, this time by a flash of light as if lightening had struck underwater. I thought the car had fallen in the water after me and I was going to be crushed instead of drown. But no car followed the light.

         My vision returned as quickly as it had left. With a last burst of adrenaline fueled self-preservation I fought free of my bag and kicked off the riverbed, desperate for life giving air. As suddenly as I had fallen in the river I was free, gasping for breath and trying to keep my head up. On one breath I inhaled a lung full of water and almost went under again. Looking around I spotted the shore and started swimming toward it with the current. After a few moments of panicked thrashing I reached the shore near the bridge and sat down, hard.

         For a while I didn’t move, doing nothing more strenuous than sitting and breathing. When I didn’t immediately keel over and die, I took inventory. Nothing was broken and other than a few scratches from the ice nothing really seemed to be wrong, except for me being wet and still in need of oxygen. I took a moment to mentally congratulate myself on having the forethought to take swimming lessons and looked around.

         Two things suddenly struck me as odd. One: I wasn’t freezing to death, two: there was no snow on the ground. On further inspection I noticed the wooden bridge I was standing under wasn’t the concrete one I leapt off and there were no lights on the other bank. I must have drifted further downstream than I realized. But that didn’t really explain the lack of snow that had been a good six inches deep this morning. Maybe it had just melted or been washed down the banks here.

         Odd that it felt so much warmer or I was so cold I just didn’t feel it anymore? Yes, that explained it and with one riddle solved I started climbing up the bank. When I reached the top I thought I had most defiantly drifted farther than expected, the closest lights had to be a quarter of a mile away. With a tried sigh I started walking. It wasn’t long before I decided that I might not be freezing to death but most assuredly wasn’t well either. I think my biggest clue was the cough. As soon as I started walking it was like my lungs were trying to turn themselves inside out add that to the fact that I no longer had shoes and it was not a fun or easy hike. And hike it was, if there was a clear trail I couldn’t find it and soon my socks were in shreds. I was afraid that my feet would soon follow and wouldn’t that make going to work suck?

         I wondered how this had happened. I was just walking home from work when a random car almost turned me into a grease spot on the guard rail of a bridge. I would have expected a mugger first, I was prepared for a mugger with the pepper spray that was now in my bag on the river bottom. And how was I going to explain that to my professors tomorrow? My first two weeks of work were lost in my sketch book. On top of all that I was now stumbling through the woods at night. Oh god, were snakes out in January? Surely it was still too cold.

         Finally, I was almost to the buildings at the outskirts of the city. Just past the outer most ring of houses I heard something. I froze, like a wild thing waiting to see if the right answer was flight or fight. Out of the shadows to my left, further into the city, four men appeared. They were dressed strangely reminding me of period clothes and were far from clean.

         One of them stepped a little closer and said something in a language I didn’t recognize. They took another step forward and I didn’t need to know what the words meant, all four men wore looks of leering anticipation. Another one spoke and they started to fan out around me. My body decided that in these circumstances flight was the right answer and I bolted in the only direction left to me, back to the river.

The river was shallower here and it did not take long to cross. As I reached the top of the other bank I saw that my sudden flight had bought me some time but nowhere near enough. The men were behind, crossing the river and shouting in that strange language. I kept running. It didn’t take a genius to know that I wouldn’t be able to stay ahead of them for long. I was already running on burnt out adrenaline and could feel the ground ripping the soles of my feet apart.

         I was in a forest now and knew that while it slowed me down it would hopefully slow the men more so. I needed to hide, to find some place where they could just keep running by and not find me. I was running and franticly searching for a hiding place when, not looking where I was going, I ran straight into something and fell on my ass. I was about to congratulate myself on running into a tree, for whatever it was hadn’t given an inch, when I looked up and met the eyes of the biggest man I had ever seen, we stared at each other a moment, equally startled. I heard crashing behind me and the four men broke through the woods. I gasped and started to scrabble to the side, away from all of the men.

         The first of the men chasing me spoke to the giant and glanced at me. The giant shook his head and walked over to me. I tried to scramble to my feet again but before I move he had my arm and pulled me over to a tree behind him. He pressed me against it and said something that I didn’t understand. I shook my head and he took my shoulders pressing me to the tree again this time I understood, I was to stay there. The giant turned back the men giving me a chance to study him. He, unlike the other four, was clean with black hair cut short though he too wore strange clothes. I realized he wasn’t as big as I thought, maybe six two or three, but he was so well built it made him seem bigger.

         He faced the foursome and drew a sword, something I hadn’t noticed until then. Wait, a sword? Who carries a sword? He spoke to the men and almost immediately they also produced weapons; fanning out around the giant stranger they attacked. I had never seen a fight like this, I had never seen anyone die. The man that lead the attack was quickly behead, after that I closed my eyes and waited for it to be over. I fought not to be sick.

         At last everything was quiet and I chanced to look. The giant was still standing with the bodies of my pursuers littering the ground around him. I quickly glanced away not wanting to inspect their means of death too closely. I felt the last living man’s eyes on me and it occurred to me that I may not have been rescued but rather claimed for this man’s use instead. He moved toward me, stepping over bodies, when I turned and once again started running. I heard the man shout something but I didn’t stop my head-long flight. I heard him following after me and felt he was moving much faster than the men before had.

         I could see clearer moonlight up ahead. This had to be the end of the forest, not much farther. Suddenly I was jerked to a halt by a hand on my arm. I turned and attacked the man with fists and nails. He quickly caught both my hands, kicked my feet out from under me, and followed me to the ground. He held me there while I struggled and screamed. After it became apparent I had no hope of getting away I went still waiting for a better chance. The giant had watched all this impassively, once I was still he spoke but just as every other time it was a language I had never heard.

         “I don’t understand.” I said shaking my head, very near tears.

         His eyes sharpened and I had the feeling he was concentrating on something other than me.

After a few moments he focused back on me and said, “Now do you understand?”

I started to shake my head again and stopped. I did understand him. He still wasn’t speaking English but I understood what the words meant all the same.

         Nodding I replied, “Yes” and gasped. I wasn’t speaking English either.

         “Good,” he said, “I thought that would work but I’m out of practice.”

         “What would work?” It was disconcerting to hear myself speak another language. “How can I speak a language that I’ve never heard before?” My voice raised until the words were coming out at a hysterical pitch and I was fighting him again.

         “For the Gods’ sake stop that.” He said as one of my hands miraculously got free and clipped him under the eye.

         “If I was going to hurt you I would have by now and certainly not cared if you knew what I was saying.” His tone held exasperation and impatience but no real anger.

         It took a moment for that, as well as the truth of his words, to sink in. If he planned to hurt me I had provoked him enough by this point.

         I stopped trying to maim him and really looked at my rescuer for the first time. He couldn’t be that much older than me, maybe twenty five to my twenty two; his most arresting feature was his eyes. They were pure amber and almost seemed to give off their own light. They looked kind with very small laugh lines in the corners, if he wasn’t close enough to pin me to the ground I wouldn’t have noticed them, but weary at the same time as though life had worn on him a great deal.

         “Am I safe now?” he asked breaking me from my assessment.

         Slowly I nodded. He let go of me, stood, and offered me a hand. Shaking I took it and was pulled to my feet. Without a word he led me another twenty feet in the direction we had been running. The man pulled some foliage to the side and I saw why the moonlight was clearer ahead; the forest gave way to a cliff with at least a fifty foot drop. My knees went weak. I would have fallen if not for his hands at my waist.

         I had nearly ran straight over the cliff. As hard as I had been trying to save myself in the last hour wouldn’t that have sucked? I looked at my twice rescuer who, since I was more steady on my feet, had released me and moved away.

         “Thank you.” My voice sounded quiet to my ears but he must have heard since he nodded. He took my hand, and started leading me in what I think was the direction we had run, though I was completely lost now.

         It didn’t take long to remember my hurt feet. After five steps I decided that the adrenaline’s numbing powers were definitely gone. It didn’t help that his grip on my hand forced me to try to keep up with him. At five four I was at a disadvantage. He was trying to slow down for me but it didn’t matter at this point, no matter how slow I went every step was like walking on hot coals.

         After what felt like hours but couldn’t have been more than ten or fifteen minutes we came to a small camp. I was lead to the fire and the man motioned for me to sit on the bedroll there. It was close enough to the fire to gain warmth but far enough away that none of the blankets, or the person laying on them, would catch fire.

         I heard a rustling behind me and saw my rescuer was fishing through several packs. He pulled out a kettle, cup, and blanket. The blanket he draped it over my shoulders, filled the kettle with water and set it over the fire. All this done he sat a little distance to my right.

         “Now,” he said, “lets figure out what is going on. My name is Ryln Marente.” He paused here watching me as if to see if I recognized the name but it just sounded odd like the rest of the language. Deciding who knows what from my silence he continued.

         “I’m one of the kingdom’s Marshals. You’re safe with me.”

         “Kingdom? Marshal? Is that-Is that some kind of law enforcement? What is going on? You killed those men.” My voice sounded accusatory at the end I know and I could see his eyes narrow ever so slightly.

         “It is my duty to up hold the laws of the kingdom. Those men attacked me knowing my status and earned their deaths. Also, they were going to rape you and probably sell you as a slave both of which are against the law.”

         I looked away knowing what he said was true. If I admitted the truth to myself, as ugly as it may be, the men’s deaths didn’t bother me as much as the fact that I had seen him kill them. My upset was more selfish than moral outrage; I would always remember the moment when I saw the first man die. A part of me believed that those men had earned their fate while another part wished I hadn’t been there for it.

         “I understand.” And I did but I didn’t have to like it. Everyone has the right to defend their life and in this case he had been defending mine as well.

         Ryln ran a hand through his hair seeming once again somewhat exasperated with me. I was pretty sure Ryln wished he had never run into me or rather the other way round.

         “Let’s try this again. What is your name?”

         “Anna Holland. I – where am I? I was on my way home but I’ve either had a mental break or something else is very wrong.”

         “You’re about two miles outside of Harverest, I’d guess that is where you ran into those men.”

         I nodded though this wasn’t really helpful. “Yes, but where am I? Last I knew I was in North Carolina. Nothing you’re saying makes sense.”

         “I have never heard of such a place. You are in the south eastern part of Seratia which is between the kingdoms of Gaula to the north and Illiatum to the south. Five days ride to the east is the ocean and four weeks to the west are the Highindar Mountains.”

I had no idea what any of those places were. Either he was crazy, though he seemed sane enough, or I had gotten into a lot more trouble than I thought. Ryln saw the lost look on my face; he stopped describing where we were and asked almost gently what I remembered before the men started chasing me.

I explained about the bridge, the car, and jumping into the river. Ryln looked at me as if doubting my sanity until I mentioned the light that flashed as I hit the river bottom. Then the look changed to surprised and speculative. Not something that was entirely reassuring.

“What is the name of the world you come from?’ he asked once I finished.

“Huh? I don’t understand.” That seemed to be a recurring theme today. “Um, Rocksville, North Carolina.” Ryln looked at me blankly.

“The United States,” I tried again. But still nothing.

“Earth,” I said a little desperately, getting scared now. I really hoped this guy was crazy. No other alternative came to mind but I’m sure I wouldn’t like it.

Recognition lit his eyes and he seemed satisfied about some inner conclusion.

“I’m sure you’re very confused then if you are from Earth. This is Saferiam and you may have trouble with what I’m about to tell you.



         *********************************************************

         “What do you mean I’m not on Earth?” Ryln had been trying to explain something to me about different worlds and the walls between them being thin or something but I was still stuck on the first thing he’d said.

He stopped, sighed and started over. “The place that you live called Earth, you are not there anymore.”

That really didn’t sound better the second time around. Not on Earth, so he was trying to tell me I was on another planet. Not seeing any way that could have happened I shook my head.

“Yes,” He said. “I know it is hard to believe but I’ll explain as well as I can. If you want a better explanation you’ll have to ask one of our scholars. There are many different worlds all existing independently from one another, separated by walls. But these walls aren’t uniform or unchanging. The walls of Saferiam seem to be thinner than most. Sometimes the walls surrounding Saferiam meet a thin spot in the walls of another world, in your case Earth, and something or someone comes through. When you fell you passed through the walls leaving Earth and coming here.”

When he finished I didn’t say anything. I could tell he was waiting for a reaction but I honestly didn’t know what it would be. Did I believe him or think he was crazy? He obviously believed what he was telling me.

“I don’t know that I believe you.” I finally said. “It seems too farfetched to be true.”

He watched me for a moment and shrugged. “You may as well sleep here tonight, you’re not in any condition to go anywhere anyway.” He added eyeing my feet. “I’ll take you with me into town tomorrow and you can see for yourself.”

Without waiting for a reply he stood and began sorting through his packs again. This time he pulled out a couple bottles, blankets and what looked like bandages. After setting up the blankets a distance from me by the fire he turned and fixed a cup of something from the kettle and handed it to me. I smelled the streaming brew, a cautious sip confirmed that it was a herbal tea though I was so thirsty at this point I would have drank whatever it was. Ryln sat on the bedroll by me and picked up one of my feet; reflexively I jerked away.

“What are you doing?” I gasped.

“Your wounds need treating. Infection and blood poisoning are as likely here as at your home.” He reached for my foot again.

“I can do it.” I said trying to evade his grasp.

“If you think so.” Ryln replied raising an eyebrow.

I put my foot in my lap and looked at the damage. Most of the cuts were shallow with one or two deep enough that if I was home they might needed stitches. There was no way I could clean those completely myself.

With a sigh I set my foot back down and let him take it. Ryln worked carefully wetting a cloth with the liquid from a bottle and cleaned the dirt and blood away. It smelled faintly of alcohol and unfamiliar herbs.

The stinging made me grit my teeth then the herbs started to take affect and dulled pain. Ryln worked quickly probably hurting me less than I would have hurt myself. Soon my feet were bandaged and Ryln returned his medicines the packs.

“Dawn will come early, sleep.” He said as he turned back to me and proceeded to take his own advice settling into the extra blankets leaving me to sleep the night in his bedroll.

I had to admit crazy or not the man had been kind to me. But still I dearly hoped he was crazy. I was certain that I wouldn’t be able to sleep but I drifted off and dreamed of home.

*********************************************************

I woke to the sound of birds and Ryln breaking camp. He hadn’t been kidding about dawn. The sun was a pink haze over the trees. Sitting up I saw I had slept through most of the packing. The only things left were a battered pot over the warm coals and a spoon. Seeing I was awake Ryln brought them over to me.

“It’s a hot cereal with some fruit. We will leave as soon as you’ve eaten.” With that Ryln moved off into the forest.

I poked at the cereal a little trying to identify what was in it without success. I sighed and took a taste. It was sweet and mellow in flavor and very filling. By the time I finished the pot Ryln had returned leading a sliver colored horse. It was a beautiful animal with a graceful, solid build and cloven hooves instead of the solid ones I would see on a horse at home.

“This is Fidele. He’s a gentleman so you don’t need to worry about teeth or hooves around him. He can carry both of us and my packs to town but we will have to find you a mount there.”

Why would I need a horse when I was planning to take a cab home as soon as possible? I’m not sure how I thought we were going to travel but by horseback had nowhere near occurred to me. The big gray had to be five and a half feet tall at the shoulder. I had never ridden a horse before and could see no way to get onto his back without killing myself, gentleman or no. Ryln didn’t seem to notice my plight and easily swung himself into the saddle. He held down a hand and looked at me expectantly.

“I’ve never ridden a horse before.” I confessed before I, at the very least, made a fool of myself. Ryln merely raised an eyebrow.

“I will help you mount. Take my hand, put you left foot in the stirrup and stand up on your left leg.” I have no idea how it was accomplished but next thing I knew I was sitting on Fidele behind Ryln. The horse shifted and I grabbed Ryln’s shoulders trying not to fall off.

“Put your arms around my waist or you’ll unbalance us and we may both end up on the ground.” Hesitantly I did as he said and held tighter as Fidele set off at a walk.

Keeping my balance, even holding onto Ryln, was difficult but by the time we reached the edge of the forest I was able to pay attention to more than falling off. Which was just as well since when we cleared the last of the trees I nearly fell off anyway.

There were no paved roads, stop lights, or vehicles. Instead there were people working in fields with horse pulled plows and dirt paths. The buildings in the distance, low one story affairs, looked as sophisticated as the plows. I felt my vision start to get fuzzy around the edges and forced myself to breathe. Passing out wouldn’t accomplish anything.

This was not home. As I had the thought I still couldn’t accept it. My mind kept going in circles. This wasn’t possible, but it had happened. The foreign language I was speaking, the massive change in weather, men carrying bladed weapons and rustic people using horse drawn plows outside an undeveloped village. All of it pointed to what Ryln said being true. I had fallen into a river and resurfaced in another world.

Somehow I kept my grip on reality as we passed the farmers, the fields and made our way into town. I managed not to let go until Ryln helped me dismount and a group of men carrying spears came running up at us. The shocks were adding up so I don’t blame myself to much for fainting.

I woke laying on a bed, it was soft and comfy the kind of bed you’d spend a couple thousand dollars on at home.

The walls were a light wood paneling and soft light came from glass globes hanging around the room. Getting up I saw a small pile of packages on the chest at the foot of the bed. Inside were clothes of soft cloth and leather. They all looked like a good fit.

I dressed in the blue and tan outfit distinguishing the under layers from outside without much trouble. A soft band of cloth that seemed to function as a bra, a long tunic shirt that laced midway down, soft undershorts that made me think of boy shorts underwear, and leggings that laced from hem to knee. Sitting in the floor were a pair of slipper shoes made from fine cloth on the sides and leather souls.

Dressed I ventured toward the door; on the other side was a sitting room with the same paneling and bright rugs over the hardwood floor. On one of the couches sat Ryln. He was reading over some papers but seeing me put them down.

“Did you have nice nap?” He asked with a faint smile.

“Nap?”

“You’ve been out for about six hours. It’s almost time for dinner. For which you are dressed quite appropriately. I'm glad that the clothes fit. I hope you like them though I know they are not what you are used to.”

“The clothes are very nice, thank you for them.” I had a moment of awkwardness when I realized Ryln had bought my new clothes including the underwear. Then I thought about the rest of what he said, six hours. My classes, my job I had missed both without a word. The classes weren’t such a big deal, it’s college, but my boss was going to kill me.

“I need to get home.” I said looking a Ryln intently. He look away and hesitated. After a moment he looked back at me.

“We’ll talk about it after dinner.” Seeing I was about to protest he added, “You were physically drained before you got here and are well on the way toward making yourself seriously ill. You need to eat.”

My treacherous legs chose that moment to go weak and I swayed catching up against the couch. Ryln raised an eyebrow and I nodded. It was hard to win an argument when you can’t stand up straight.

Ryln motioned for me to sit in the chair across from him it was soft and thickly padded just begging to be curled up in.

“The innkeeper will bring up a meal soon, until he gets here there is water or cold tea.”

“Nothing, thank you.” My stomach was jumping around even though it was completely empty, the oatmill-ish stuff this morning hadn’t lasted especially when there wasn’t anything on my stomach to begin with.

“You’ll have water.” Ryln answered getting up to fix me a drink.

“If I drink anything, I’ll throw it up.” I said bluntly.

“Sip it slowly,” he returned implacably “I have no doubt you are dehydrated. If you don’t get some fluids in you you’ll have the gods’ on headache.” He held the drink out to me with an air of command. I took it but couldn’t help commenting.

“You’re used to bossing people around aren’t you?”

He looked started for a moment but smiled and replied “I guess I am. It comes with the job. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if your fainting was due in part to dehydration.”

“Oh, no,” I said, “that was shock from finding out I’m really not on Earth and then those men running up to us with spears. I thought they were going to try to kill us.”

Ryln laughed which I didn’t appreciate and gave him a sour look.

“Sorry,” he said though it didn’t ring true seeing as he was still chuckling. “That was the city guard. The captain was coming to give me his report.”

Before I could ask any questions about that there was a knock on the door. Ryln bid them to enter and the innkeeper opened the door. Two girls that looked to be in their teens followed him in carrying covered dishes and a pitcher with glasses.

“My lord” The innkeeper bobbed his head and the girls followed suit.

“Thank you, Martin. Here on the table is fine.”

Depositing their burdens they nodded again with another course of “my lords” and left. The sips of water seemed to somewhat settle my stomach and the smells escaping their dish covers made it growl loudly. With a slight smile Ryln uncovered the trays and poured us both drinks.

“I didn’t know how you felt about alcohol so I had Martin bring us Kava. Not that you need any alcohol right now.”

“I’m not much of a drinker. What’s Kava?”

“It’s a mixture of fruit juice, water and honey. The fruit used can vary by region but they’re all called Kava.”

I picked up my glass and smelled the mixture. It was sweet but not sickingly so. I took a sip and was surprised by the smooth flavor and bite at the end, it kind of reminded me of lemonade. Next I turned my attention to the plates. One held roasted vegetables of some kind and the other strips of cooked meat.

“I had them keep the meal simple since you are unfamiliar with our foods. Hopefully something will be pleasing to you.”

So far Ryln had been one of the most considerate people I had ever met, which sadly made me suspicious. Why would he be so kind to a complete stranger? But there was nothing I could do about that question other than ask him directly so I set about eating. I found several vegetables palatable as well as the meat. And so we passed our meal in a silence that wasn’t uncomfortable.

At last we were finished and I tuned my attention back to Ryln feeling much better and ready to win any argument with him.

“Now,” I said “how do I get back?”

Ryln realized that he couldn’t stall me anymore and seemed to steel himself, though for what I couldn’t imagine.

“You can’t.” Two simple words ground my world to a halt.

“What do you mean? I got here, there has to be a way to get back through.” My words were less calm than I had meant for it to come out. There was a definite quivering in my voice by the last word.

“The thin spots move or disappear entirely, there is no way to predict where they will be.” Ryln’s voice was still calm and he may have looked sympathetic but I was too caught up in my tumult of thoughts to really notice.

“I can’t go home?”

“No, have you left family there?” Ryln asked gently.

“No, they – I’m an orphan. I never knew my parents or had any family.”

“I’m sorry. If you truly wish to find a way home the best chance would be the scholars at the college and the library in the royal city.”

“Great and how would I get there assuming that they would even talk to me. I know nothing about this place and have no money. At this rate I’m going to end up dead in a ditch or selling myself so I don’t starve!” By the end I was almost shouting, my voice rising with the level of my panic.

“You’re welcome to travel with me.” Ryln looked at me steadily, his eyes earnest.

“Why? Why would you offer to take me with you?” I asked astonished after all his kindness this was still a bit much.

“People from other worlds often become our greatest scholars or heroes. Many have become legends for their deeds. The king would be sorely disappointed with me if I left such a person to fend for themselves.”

“Because you’re a, what did you call it, Marshal?”  He didn’t answer my question just smiled.

“Will you give me the honor of your company?” I stared at him half wondering if he was telling the truth about all of it, any of it, or if he really was someone I shouldn’t trust.

Slowly I nodded. I had few options at the moment and right now he was the best one. Ryln seemed pleased by my answer.

“I promise traveling with me will not be the hardship you imagine.” He said. “Tomorrow we will get you properly outfitted for our journey.”