Len Gilbert - The Furred Reich

Hans didn’t know too much about the world. He knew that Britain had a centuries-old empire. How could Britain win the war, then lose everything soon after? Even he knew that wasn’t how the world worked. James was talking fantasy.

“I doubt it…” The German finally shook his head. “You don’t need to be nice, you know.”

“I’m not!” James laughed and took another gulp.

“And if those English in Rhodesia knew what was in store for them, I bet they’d have joined the not-sees and hit the damned reset button!”

“What’s a reset button?”

“…Um. Nevermind.”

James finally settled down. “You might find out if you can go back.”

“We’ll see.” Hans said, “I’m going to find that plane. It buzzed me when I was further south. If all that stuff you say is true maybe my future isn’t so bad anyway.”

The American sighed. “Just think twice before going back into it. You probably don’t believe me. That’s fine.”

Hans folded his arms. “If you’d been through a day of what I have, you’d know how hesitant I am to go back into what I came from.”

“Uh, yeah sorry. I suppose you’re right huh…”

“It’s alright,” Hans smiled, “may I stay for two days?”

“Yeah yeah, sure no charge too. Don’t worry about it.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. Yeah don’t worry. But. I just have one favor to ask.”

“What’s that?”

“If you find them, and decide to stay… Just come back for me, OK?”

“What? Why?”

“Because here I’ve been captured. I’m just a servant. If you stay around here long enough you’ll probably be captured by someone, too. For some reason Humans here aren’t very well-liked. I mean, this job is pretty easy but, if you guys could get me the hell out of here I’d tag along.”

That was all the more reason for Hans to leave, but he let James know there would be no promises attached to this. After all, the ‘North Continent’ might be even worse than Deltia.

The next day, Hans ventured out to spend his coin and stock up on food; food that was as close to his rations as possible. Deltia had races of all kinds streaming up and down its streets, as well as goods from dozens of different places, none of which Hans knew anything about. In Deltia’s teeming marketplaces he found an abundance of dried meats and many kinds of bread. If bread here was anything like bread in his world, then the darker kind was generally the heartiest. He found the darkest bread he could, and some other bread that looked as if it were fortified with something. In the muggy evening he caught up on a little more sleep.

On his last day in Deltia Hans returned to the dockyard intent on bribing his way into the cargo hold of some ship bound for the ‘North Continent.’ He found most outfits willing to do business with him and willing to make some extra money, so long as Hans understood that they couldn’t be responsible for his safety.

Before that evening, Hans found himself with an agreement to board the cargo section of a passenger boat. He headed back to the inn to pick up his things and say farewell to his friend from the future. Upon Deltia’s orange-pink sunrise Hans set out to the dockyards and the long ride north.

Asril led Tanjung out of the fray. The two of them scurried away from the fort as quickly as they could. Ahead was a three-way fork in the mountain road from which they came.

“Tanjung?!”

A frightened voice called out from a nearby ditch. Tanjung and Asril went running to the source and found Tari crawling out from a ditch, a place that seemed inappropriate for such a graceful furre.

“Anyone else make it?” Tanjung asked.

“Ani still has a fever,” Tari quivered in shock. If this was too much for Tari, it was a wonder how she even got this far.

“Alright. We have to get Ani back to Miao somehow.” Tanjung piped up.

“There IS no more Miao.” Asril stomped her hindpaw. “The monsters are probly there right now…”

The trek back would be too dangerous anyway. There was no going back.

“Look…” she tugged on Tanjung’s arm and pointed to the sign that stood in the fork in the road. It had three arrows. “Back that way is Miao, right? And west is Preena. Can’t go there. But the sign says that way leads to another place, Dalaam. Let’s try that way.”

Tari looked at Asril for a moment and went to pull Ani up from the ditch.

“C’mon Ani,” Tari said. “We’re going to Dalaam. It’s gonna be safe there.”

Ani emerged discolored, and she shuffled up to the group. “Asril and Tanjung made it?”

“Yep. We did. Now lets go before the orange tigers come looking for us.”

“HEY! WAIT UP!”

An unfamiliar voice called to them. Asril turned around and saw a ‘Foxing’ running up them. He looked familiar. And he had three tails! It was the smart-looking one that Asril had been watching the other day. Asril blushed when she caught glimpse of him.

“Hey! Hey! Is your party going west? If so, take me with you.”

“Yeah, we are,” Tanjung looked at the newcomer with narrowed eyes.

“Uh, I suppose you can travel with us,” he said, “but don’t try anything.”

The fox caught his breath and nodded.

“Thanks. We should get going as soon as possible, shouldn’t we?”

The canine filed behind the four of them as they hastily walked down the road to Dalaam.

The path ahead descended deeply away from Preena. Asril was thankful for that; the further away from the border guards they were, the better. She had a sinking feeling that the border men would be out looking for them.

“What’s your name, foxboy?” Tanjung turned back to the fox, sizing up the other male in the group.

“I’m Hex.” The fox reached into his tanned side pouch and unfurled a well-pressed map.

“We’re here,” Hex’s orange paw pressed against a mountainous part of the map. Asril stretched up to see that they had come a good ways west of Miamar.

“…And Dalaam is here.”

On Hex’s map the distance didn’t look so great.

“I’ve been to Dalaam before,” Hex continued, “you’ll know it when you see the golden monkey nestled between two mountains.”

“Is it safe?”

Hex shrugged. “Nothing seems safe since the monsters broke from their desert prison.”

Tanjung looked down. “I already know all that.”

The group trekked on in tense silence. Ani groaned from the back. Tari propped her up as the party hiked further north and west.

“Hey. Tanjung. I don’t think Ani is feeling good enough for this…” Tari’s usually-melodic voice called out from the back. Already the sun had sunk beneath the solid crag.

Hex craned back and looked at Tari. “Alright. But let’s camp a ways from the road in case the tigers go out looking. C’mon.”

It seemed Hex had the same fear that Asril did.

“No.” Tanjung interjected again. “I’ll take over from here. Follow me.”

Tanjung at least listened to Hex’s advice. Asril breathed a sigh of relief as the party veered off the road for the night. Once they selected an opening in the woods, Hex unrolled a blue tarp.

“What’s that?” Asril queried.

“A tent that I brought from home. It houses three.”

Tari set Ani down in the tent and tended to her. The other three sat in the open moonlight. Asril folded her legs together and turned to Hex.

“So, um. Where are you headed Hex?”

“The edge of the world.” Hex stared off past the treeline.

“That’s where my brother is supposed to be. I’m going to find him. He was orphaned before the monsters came to our country.”

“…Your country?”

“Yeah. You might know it as the Peninsula of Kitsunes.”