Unsurprisingly, the examiner gave me the same questioning look as Ashara had done before. With a sigh, I handed over my wallet that I had yet to put back into my satchel. Figures… Even here everyone sees me like a kid.
The examiner looked at my card, raising an eyebrow and tapping on his ear. “Yeah, I need you to run an ID check. The number…” I waited patiently for him to confirm my age. I felt my slender tail gripping onto my thigh, afraid that I’d be sent back just because of my growth disorder.
Thankfully, when he handed me the card back, he gave a polite nod. “Sorry for the misunderstanding.” He said as he lifted the scanner up to point at me. There was no fancy display, no intricate controls. The device looked like a small square of metal with a radar dish at one end.
When he pointed the dish at me, a green light flickered into existence on the square, a burst of excitement surging through me. “Alright, kid, you pass.” He said with a nod, pulling a small badge from his satchel to hand to me. “Go join the others.”
He lifted his hand to point over his shoulder at the growing group of people that had passed the test. I hurried over to join them, clutching the badge to my chest. By the time that I got to the group, I turned to find Ashara also jogging over.
Supervising this group was another middle-aged man, the mark of the Legion pinned to his chest. This was a mark passed down from the Goddess herself, a trio of sixes arranged in a triangle, their heads pointed inward to meet in the center. I wanted to ask what was going to happen next, but knew that doing so would be rude, as the first test wasn’t quite over yet.
While I waited, I made small talk with Ashara, learning more about her while I told her a bit about myself. Apparently, her reason for wanting to become a member of the Legion was her desire to explore the other worlds, and meet new people. She wasn’t as interested in gaining the strength of the Legion, and saw it as more of a means to an end.
Over an hour later, the last person from the six lines had been either approved or kicked out. Seeing this, the Legion member turned to look at us. “Eighty-seven, huh? Small batch this year.” He mumbled to himself, his voice just barely audible. “Anyways, you all follow me.”
Once he said that, he turned and began walking into the Legionnaire’s Fort, the new name of the old military fort that had been constructed around the gate. “Welcome to the fort.” He said in a bored tone. “For those of you who survive basic training, this will be your new home.”
His words caused the atmosphere in our group of nearly ninety to instantly tense, the meaning of it weighing heavily down on us. As our group walked in silence, he led us towards the gate room. At first, I thought that he was just going to show off the gate, to let us know what we were going to be defending.
“Alright, guys. Open her up!” At least, until he called out to the pair of people working on the platform, scientists by the look of them. No doubt still trying to understand how the gate worked. When the two saw our group, they hastily stepped off the stage that held the concentric stone circles.
“Now, your actual training will be conducted on Deckan.” He spoke, finally turning to address us. “There, you’ll meet up with the locals, who will help you determine what field you should be pursuing.”
After he was done speaking, he turned around and walked back to the gate, standing in the center of it. “Everyone, approach!” He shouted out the command, his face growing more serious as he did so. Those of us gathered rushed up to comply, some hesitating only a moment before they stepped onto the gate platform.
Rather than explaining anything, the Legionnaire pressed his foot down on the centermost circle, the keystone. On cue, the rest of the circles began to break off in segments one by one, lifting into the air and floating around us.
Gasps could be heard from the now trapped crowd as a rainbow of lights began to appear, bridging the gaps between the segmented circles surrounding us. Before long, we could no longer see past this light, it having formed a dome around us. They call it a gate… but it doesn’t really act like a gate, does it?
As I thought that, I heard a strange hissing sound from the environment around us for only a moment, before the lights began to flicker. For a moment, I thought the worst, that the gate had malfunctioned and that we would be lost in some gap between realities. And judging by the panicked expressions on most of the faces around me, the only one not thinking that was the Legionnaire himself.
When the lights flickered out for the last time, I finally noticed that the room around us seemed different. We were still inside a concrete building, but the room was a different size, the door placed along a different wall. “And depart.” The Legionnaire gave another command.
The group around us were understandably confused, not knowing what had happened. Only when he repeated the command in a more… forceful tone did everyone obey. Once we exited the room, we began to truly realize that we were on an alien world.
We saw the kitsune, strange pale-skinned creatures. Where we had horns, they had large fluffy ears poking out through the top of their head. Even their tails, every bit as long as our own, were covered in hair. One curious thing about them was that they weren’t wearing sunglasses. I had heard that they could see in the day normally, but I had never seen it myself.
We stopped and stared at them for a moment until the crowd behind us forced us forward, pushing us along until we exited the building. The sky was the same blue that we were used to, but the ground seemed… different. It wasn’t a strange color or anything, there just seemed to be more of it. The horizon seemed further away than it was on Desbar.
Once we were outside, one of the kitsune, a female with wide-rimmed glasses and black hair approached us. “Are these… new students?” She asked towards the Legionnaire, who simply nodded his head. Her accent was thick and unfamiliar, likely still adjusting to our language. “Understand. Will teach.” Or she was just not fluent in the first place…
“Alright, they’re all yours.” He said, before turning and simply walking away. A few members seemed to want to object, calling out for him, but we never even learned his name. He didn’t stop for a second upon hearing them shouting, as if he had predicted it beforehand.
“Greetings, demons.” The kitsune girl spoke carefully, smiling towards us. “Please. Follow me… to home.”
As soon as I heard that, I had the strangest feeling that I wasn’t going to like it here as much as I had imagined. Ashara on the other hand… she looked like her horns might light up if she got any happier.
We followed this new kitsune woman as she led us towards a large apartment complex. Out in front of it was a stand with a collection of wrist watches, each with a large screen, about three inches squared. “Please, everyone. Take.” She gestured towards the watches as she spoke in broken Nem.
Ashara lunged forward to be the first to take one of the watches, actually grabbing two of them. After fastening one to her wrist, she rushed back to the group to hand me the other. “I wonder what these are for? Don’t they look cool?”
I sighed, shaking my head as I strapped the watch onto my own wrist as well. “I suppose we’re about to find out.” Glancing towards the kitsune woman, I saw that she had a similar device on her own wrist.
Catching my gaze, she smiled, lifting her own wrist and pressing a few buttons on her device. A mechanical voice quickly began speaking out, drawing the attention of those who were starting to move towards the stand. “This is a series-200 Questing Computer. Developed jointly by the demons and kitsune, it holds several built in functions. For those receiving a new computer, the primary function is the built in translation library.”
I thought it was too good to be true. A watch that would translate for us? Once I began to navigate the buttons of my own device, I learned that reality was just as I expected. It was not an automatic translator… rather, it was just as it described. A library of translations. You could search for a word, or type it in, and it would give you the translation in the other language.
Shaking my head, I waited for everyone to finish grabbing their own personal computer, before the kitsune woman gave further instructions. “This, home.” She said, pointing towards the apartment complex. “Rooms… you pick. For now, you learn.”
It took a moment to understand what she meant, until she pointed to her own wrist-mounted device. A series of groans echoed out, even from Ashara, as we realized what our next test was… learning the kitsune language. Though, it did make sense. They learned our language when they went to our world, so now we have to learn theirs.
We looked at the apartment complex, and some already moved to enter, likely wanting to secure a good room before it was taken. Just as I was about to enter to do the same, I felt a tap on the back of my leg. Turning around, I saw that it came from Ashara’s tail.
When she saw that she got my attention, she glanced side to side briefly, leaning in to whisper to me. “Would you like to share a room?” She asked, doing her best to make sure that nobody heard. However, I could see the kitsune woman’s ear twitch slightly as she glanced in our direction.
“Uhm… why?” I couldn’t help but ask, feeling myself get nervous. “I mean… you barely know me. What if I…”
Ashara grinned as she heard that, standing up so that she had to look down to face me. In this position, I was forced to remember just where my line of sight reached on her body. “I think I can handle you. And besides, if I have you around, those other guys won’t be bugging me as much. So, what do you say? You seem like a pretty nice kid.”
I reflexively groaned at the title, shaking my head. “Okay… but one condition.” I saw her smile widen with interest. “Don’t call me kid. Or imp, brat, or anything like that.”
Ashara laughed lightly as she heard that, nodding her head. “Alright, I think I can handle that. So, let’s go make sure we get a room!” As she said that she rushed past me, her tail reaching back to grab onto my wrist. I felt my cheeks darken at the intimate contact, even though I knew she didn’t mean it as such.
Thankfully, there was a surplus of rooms available in the apartment complex. Out of five floors, with twenty apartments on each, only… fifteen of the rooms were taken before we arrived. Either they were planning for a lot more people to show up, or this is meant to house us even after next year’s batch show up. Given what I’ve seen of this place so far… my guess was on both of those being correct.
Because of that, we managed to get a room on the top floor, one with a view that overlooked distant snowy mountaintops. Ashara’s eyes sparkled as she looked out to the horizon, enough that I was beginning to wonder if she was using ki to enhance her vision. “Just think, Karn, this is our new home!”
