Walking, talking fox people were everywhere. They wore armor. They carried swords. The little ones ran up and down the halls of the castle, while the old ones sat in upholstered wingback reclining chairs and knitted scarves.
Or socks. Or hats. Or something. Barb couldn’t really tell, and she didn’t stop to ask.
Oh, and they lived in a castle. A legit castle. Jim hadn’t been exaggerating when he compared it to Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. The similarities were astonishing.
And aliens. Actual not-human aliens. With pointy ears and weird green eyes and cryptic smiles. She’d known about Jim’s studies of alternate dimensions. She couldn’t have missed it. His theories had been scribbled on every restaurant napkin and paper towel they’d encountered since he was thirteen.
She’d known he would figure it out. He always did. But for a whole world to exist underneath their very noses exceeded anything she’d expected him to find.
Was she in shock? Maybe she was in shock, and she had a concussion. Yes, she was hallucinating all of this. She had a traumatic brain injury. That had to be it.
The blonde chatterbox, Jenny, pulled her down the imposing castle hallway to a room full of cots and guided her to a mattress. One of the fox people—Josharons, Meg had called them—approached and reached for her.
Barb tensed and drew back, but Jenny pressed a gentle hand at the center of her back.
“It’s okay, Barb.” Jenny beamed at her. “This is Zyna. She’s a healer.”
Barb narrowed her eyes at the Josharon next to Jenny. This one had brown fur and a dark mane, and she wore a yellow saree. Two bushy tails shifted behind her, and she offered a smile that was somehow welcoming in spite of all her teeth.
“Where did Jim go?” Barb glanced back toward the hallway.
Jenny shrugged. “I lost track of him. He won’t go far.”
Barb didn’t unclench her fists. “Nobody’s touching me until he’s in this room.” She glared at the Josharon.
“We will bring him here.” Zyna bowed her head as she bound her long, dark mane at the nape of her neck with a leather cord. She spoke with an accent Barb couldn’t place, similar to the alien woman—Tzaitel. “But you must be terribly uncomfortable. Would you at least let me—”
Barb hissed and stood up, in spite of Jenny’s attempts to hold her down. “Nobody does anything until Jim is here.”
Zyna didn’t flinch, even though Barb towered over her. The Josharon female must have only been five feet tall.
That toothy smile flashed again. “Oh, Jennifer, you’ve found a human just like your sister, haven’t you?”
Jenny giggled. “I know, right? They’re like the same person!”
Barb scowled, looking from Jenny to the Josharon. Were they talking about Meg? “I’m nothing like your sister,” Barb snapped. “Your sister is a hot-headed control freak with a god complex!”
Jenny patted her arm. “That’s nice, Barb.”
“Don’t patronize me, kid.” Barb yanked her arm back and whirled on her.
The youngest Mitchell didn’t step back, but her eyes did widen as Barb invaded her space.
“You need to start taking me seriously.”
Jenny tipped her head back. “Barb, we are taking you seriously.”
“No, I don’t think you are.” Barb glanced back at the Josharon again. “I don’t care that you live in a big fancy castle in another world. I don’t care that your furry friends here have teeth and claws. I want Jim in this room. Now. Or I will find him myself, and I’ll go through each and every one of you if I have to.”
Jenny stepped back this time, her face losing a bit of color with every word Barb growled.
Finally. Maybe the kid had some concept of self-preservation after all.
The hairs on the back of Barb’s neck lifted in warning, and she cast a look at the Josharon. Zyna hadn’t moved, but she’d lifted her chin. Her fox-like snout had curled up slightly, revealing a long row of glistening sharp teeth. And the two bushy tails behind her had stopped swaying, still and bristling.
The Josharon might have been a healer, but apparently getting pushy with the youngest Mitchell was a step too far.
As for Jenny, she wasn’t exactly cowed, but the expression in her dark blue eyes looked worried. Her lower lip trembled. Was she going to cry?
A knock on the door interrupted them, and Barb glared at the intruder.
“I see you’re making friends like always.” Jim rolled his eyes as he strolled into the room.
Barb flared her nostrils at him. “Where did you go? What did they do with you?”
“Yikes, Red, would you calm down?” Jim shifted to the other side of the cot and set his hands on Barb’s shoulders, pulling her down to the mattress.
“I will not calm down!” She batted his arm away and teetered on the bed.
Jim steadied her, hand on her good shoulder, and looked up at Jenny and Zyna. “I apologize for her. She’s gets grouchy when she’s in pain.”
“I do not.” Barb smacked his arm. “Get off me.”
Jim smiled at her. “Not until you start acting like a nice person.”
“I’m not a nice person.”
“No, you’re not. But you can act like one.”
Barb turned to hit him and gasped as she twisted her shoulder. Agony lanced down her arm and across her back, and the room started spinning. She fisted her hand in Jim’s shirt as nausea rolled over her senses.
Jim’s solid presence pressed against her back, holding her still as strange hands began to poke and prod at her injuries. She would have pushed them away, but the room kept whirling. It took all her energy to keep her stomach from upending itself.
And Jim was there.
He was safe. Maybe not okay. But he was as safe as she could make him at the moment. So it didn’t matter how much pain these freaks caused her. She could deal with it.
Mumbled conversations in a language she didn’t know echoed in her ears as though they were stuffed with cotton. Had the pressure changed and that’s why her ears had clogged up? What was wrong with her body? It didn’t usually betray her this way.
“Definitely a concussion,” the lightly accented voice was saying. That was Zyna speaking.
Barb leaned her head back, her neck falling against Jim’s collar bone.
“I know her shoulder was dislocated,” Jim said, his voice rumbling in his chest.
“Yes, but your efforts were successful.” Zyna’s claws brushed against Barb’s shoulder. “The joint is back in the socket where it ought to be. She will experience some swelling and discomfort though.”
“What else is new?” Barb groaned under her breath.
Jim chuckled. “And the knee?”
“Sprained.” Zyna’s claws drifted to the tender area around Barb’s right knee. “We will wrap it with a poultice, and it will help with the swelling. I also have a tea blend with anesthetic properties if she is willing to drink it.”
Barb growled quietly. “It’s probably poisonous.”
Giggle, giggle. That would be Jenny.
“What exactly did we do to this woman to make her so aggressive?” Zyna muttered.
“Goran. Goran happened to her.” Jenny laid a gentle hand along Barb’s forehead.
“Ah.” Zyna shifted away. “Now I understand.”
“You know him?” Jim asked.
“Everybody knows Goran.” Zyna’s voice had grown distant, like she’d walked away to the other corner of the room. “He is—memorable.”
Barb struggled to get her eyes open. The room was still tilting out of control. She screwed up her face in an attempt to make it stop.
“Is the room spinning?” Jenny asked gently.
“Wildly.” Barb muttered.
Jenny pulled her hand away. “Zyna, add some sudha and pudina to the blend.”
Jim sounded the words out to himself, his breath brushing past her face.
“Ginger and peppermint?” He asked.
“Yes!” Jenny’s voice sounded bright and overly loud. “It helps with nausea and dizziness. The tea is a bled of haladi, lubana, launga, and beda chila.”
“Yeah, I don’t know any of those.”
Jenny laughed. “It doesn’t taste great, but it works pretty well.”
A ceramic clinking sound echoed in the room. Barb grunted and forced her eyes to open, in spite of how the room spun. Jim’s arms steadied her from behind, and Jenny sat on the cot next to her. Zyna worked at a table across the room, bashing a pestle into a mortar. A kettle of water boiled next to her.
“How does that work?” Barb grumbled.
“The tea?” Jenny raised her eyebrows.
“The boiling water.” Barb pointed to the table.
“Oh.” Jenny smiled. “Well, I don’t know how the technology works, but we have kettle heaters all over the castle.”
“And you use mortar and pestle to grind stuff?” Barb wrinkled her lip. “I can’t figure out if you guys are Amish or Vulcans.”
Jim barked a laugh, and Jenny tilted her head in confusion.
“You say really strange things,” Jenny said, “but I like you.”
“She’s a nice person.” Jim tightened his hold around her.
“I’m not.”
“Everyone gets grouchy when they’re hurting.” Jenny moved off the bed and walked to where Zyna was working.
Jenny poured the boiling water into a stoneware mug, through a strainer of some type. The powerful odor of spices and herbs wafted through the room, and Jenny came back.
She held the steaming mug out. “Behosha tea. It’ll make you gag, but you’ll feel better.”
“That’s a fantastic endorsement.”
“Come on, Red. Don’t be a jerk.” Jim moved her into a more upright sitting position.
“If they poison me, it’ll be your fault.”
“Oh, rest assured, funny human. If we wanted to poison you, I could think of a far more effective means than tea.” Zyna laughed from where she cleaned the table across the room.
“Thank you, I feel much better.”
Barb shut her eyes and accepted the mug from Jenny. She steeled her nerves and lifted it to her mouth.
“It’s just warm enough to drink,” Jenny said. “Don’t sip it. Just—down as much of it in one go as you can.”
I’m going to die. I think this is going to kill me.
The room tilted again, and her stomach tried to crawl up her esophagus.
Oh well. It’s not like I can protect Jim while I’m like this anyway. She grimaced. Might as well.
She drank the tea in a big gulp. It warmed her mouth and throat in a burning rush of ginger, cloves, and turmeric that made her eyes water. It tasted like dirt too and something musky and sour.
It was awful.
It throbbed in her sinuses and deep in her ears. Her stomach lurched as the tea poured into it, and her throat tried to close to keep her from swallowing it. It made her teeth feel hot. Was that even a thing?
“Almost there, Red.” Jim patted her shoulder.
Next time, I’ll make you drink this nasty stuff.
She emptied the mug and handed it back to Jenny with a sniff, ignoring the tears trying to escape her eyes.
Jenny watched her with an open face, eyes bright.
“What?” Barb snapped.
“Feel better?”
Barb started to snarl at her and paused.
The room had stopped spinning, and her stomach had calmed. Even the burning ache in her shoulder had faded.
No.
That was impossible.
Slowly, she bent her knee. It still hurt, but it was more like a bruise or a sore muscle. Not the sharp stabbing agony from before.
“How?” Barb whispered.
“Is it really better?” Jim leaned around her.
“Yes.”
Jenny grinned. “Yay!” She stood up and returned the mug to Zyna, who waited with folded arms.
Barb stared at them.
Zyna’s fox-like features were still hard, her eyes like daggers, but her tails had started swaying again. Jenny bounced like a basketball, cheerful and happy.
“What was in that stuff?” Barb asked.
“Poison,” Jenny answered with a delighted grin.
“Very funny.”
Zyna flashed a half smile. “Bandages, Jennifer. I shall prepare the poultice.” She turned back to the table.
Jim slid out from behind her to side on the edge of the cot. “Is it really better?”
Barb nodded slowly. “Yeah, it really is.”
“Wow.”
As Jenny and Zyna worked together at the table, Barb focused on her brother. His face was scraped and scratched, and he was developing a few bruises on his arms.
“Are you okay?” She set her hand on his knee.
Jim squeezed her hand. “I’m fine, Barb. I promise.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.” He shook his head. “But we’re in trouble.”
“No, really?” Barb spat. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Sarcasm isn’t helping, Red.”
“The only question is which trouble is more of a threat.” Barb glued her eyes to Jenny and Zyna and kept her voice low. “I’m voting for the oldest of the Mitchell kids. She’s going to be a real problem.”
Jim touched her good shoulder. “Have you really not been listening to anything?”
She glared at him.
“Barb, these people aren’t the problem.”
“Of course, they’re the problem. They won’t allow us to go home, Jim. We’re their prisoners. Or did you miss that part?”
Jim hung his head. “Look, I was talking to Tzaitel.”
“Tzaitel?”
“Well, that is her name, Barb.”
“It seems you’ve gotten awfully friendly with the locals, Jim.” Barb wrinkled her nose.
“And it seems like you’re on a mission to make all of them hate you.” Jim shrugged. “So basically, everything is normal.”
Barb sat forward. “Look, I really do feel better. So what we need to do now is get out of here. We’ll find Fallen, and we’ll make our own way back.”
“Barb.” Jim took her hands. “You’re not listening.”
Barb pulled her hands out of his hold and grabbed his elbows. “No, Jim. You listen to me.” She held his gaze. “We cannot trust these people. We know nothing about them. Maybe they mean well, but how do we know that they aren’t scheming to hurt us?”
“Barb.”
“No. We’re going to get out of here, and we’re going to find our way home.” Barb squeezed his arms. “I promise you that, Jim.”
Jim sagged a little and shook his head. “And how are we going to do that, Barb?”
“We’ll figure it out. We always do.”
Jim glanced toward Zyna and Jenny. “I don’t think so, Barb. Not this time. We’re massively in over our heads on this one.”
“There’s nothing you can’t figure out, Jim.” Barb released him and sat up straight. “I believe in you.”
“I’m glad to know that.” Jim smirked. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I have no idea how we got here. I don’t know what Fallen altered in my calculations. I don’t know if repeating what we did will even change anything. Besides, we don’t have the equipment here to reproduce the experiment to begin with.”
Barb watched the emotion flicker across his face, burning in his eyes as he processed through a response. She let him think. Jim had so many thoughts in his head that it often took him a while to organize them into a coherent statement.
“I can’t get us home, Barb.”
She frowned. “Are you just saying that?”
“What?”
“Are you just saying that because you’re curious about these people?”
“Come on, Red.”
“We have enough friends, Jim. We don’t need any more.”
“We don’t have any friends, Barb.” He rolled his eyes. “And, no. I’m telling you the truth here. If we want to get home, the best way to do it is to work with these people.”
Barb huffed and crossed her arms, hissing as the motion pulled her sore shoulder. She couldn’t deny that the tea really had worked.
“I don’t like them,” she muttered.
“You don’t like anybody.” Jim stood up and worked his shoulders with a wince. “I’m going to see if I can find Tzaitel or Velanna.”
“That’s the mother, right?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “They’re the ones who seem to have the best idea of how to fix this mess. I want to help if I can.”
“I don’t like you wandering off without me.”
He turned to her. “Barb, I’ll be fine.”
“I told you. I don’t trust them.” She threw a glare at Zyna as the Josharon started bashing the pestle into the mortar again. “You’re not exactly good at taking care of yourself.”
“Well, you’re just going to have to trust them, Barb.”
She snorted. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Well, then trust me.” Jim chuckled. “Think you can do that?” He rested his hand on her good shoulder. “Come on, Barb. They could have left us in the forest. They could have killed us straight out. Why help us? Why bring us to their home?”
“It could be a complicated ploy to get us to trust them.” She rubbed her sore knee. “And as far as you’re concerned, it’s working.”
Jim crouched down at her bedside, his expression worried. “Look, it doesn’t matter to me if you trust them or not, Barb. I can’t tell you that I do. But right now, they’re the best chance of us getting home. And they’re the only chance we have of finding Dr. Fallen.”
Barb pressed her fingers into the sides of her head. “Fine.”
“Fine?”
“Yes, fine. Go.”
“So if I walk out of here and go talk to the alien people you don’t like, you aren’t going to tear the place down to find me?”
She glared at him. “No promises.”
He laughed and stood up, turning to face Jenny and Zyna. They spoke for a moment before Jim stepped out of the room and into the hallway beyond.
Barb scowled at his back and then shifted her glare to Jenny and Zyna. Maybe they did mean well. She couldn’t deny that the tea had helped, but what was their angle? Surely they weren’t just helping because they could. Nobody did that. They had to want something in return. Barb just hadn’t figured it out yet.
Jenny approached with a stack of cloth bandages she had sterilized, and Zyna followed with a wooden bowl full of some sort of foul-smelling paste.
“It’s just as well he left.” Jenny set the bandages down. “We’ll need to get you out of your trousers to wrap your knee.” She set her hands on her hips. “Do you want me to help, or would you rather do it yourself?”
Barb turned her back on the blonde teenager. “I’ll do it myself.”
Jenny’s smile was sad. “I thought you might.”
Awkwardly, biting back hisses of pain with every movement, Barb kicked off her tennis shoes and stripped her trousers off. Neither Jenny nor Zyna made a move to help her.
That was something, at least.
But she couldn’t pretend that Jenny’s sad expression didn’t make her feel a tiny bit guilty.

The content of this page is distributed to members of the Heirs of the Mazzaroth Patreon Group ONLY. This content should not be shared outside this group in any form, whether in screenshots or printed media.