“What do you think?” Ajalla asked, hands folded under her chin as she watched him chew.

Johann accepted the bitter taste rolling down his tongue. He’d barely eaten anything since waking up surrounded by spiders, a fact his rumbling stomach constantly reminded him of. A surge swept through his body, knocking him over the log he sat on.

Ajalla broke out laughing. A sweet giggle she didn’t attempt to hide. She left him flailing a few moments before coming around. She snatched his arm and yanked him back up to his feet.

“What was that? Edible dynamite?” Johann brushed off the dirt from his trousers.

Ajalla shrugged, turning her back on him. “I don’t know, never tried it. The pimello tree told me her fruit is delicious and that I should give it to you. I think she joked with us.”

Johann’s gaze followed the rich curve of her body. Her hips swayed as she went to pick up the fruit she’d sliced open for him. He noticed a silver tattoo, resembling a thorned spiral at her hips. The same color as Kirilamei’s tattoo along her wrist. She wore a tight green linen strapped around her chest. Sable hair woven together in a short braids. With knitted brows, she tentatively stuck out her tongue and licked the fruit.

“Perhaps.” Johann tried to clear his mind from the attention he was giving her. She was gifted with beauty but what struck him was her warm attitude and open reception. Kirilamei may have helped him escape Zafira but he wasn’t sure why, when all he did seemed to annoy her.

“Na, it’s fresh!” Ajalla said with a sudden pitch in her voice. She held it out to him “Good for human energy. Try again.”

Johann remained standing this time. He leaned in, glaring into her shimmering eyes as he bit into the fruit. The bitter taste remained but was prepared when the jolt ran through his body. “You’re right, it is better the second time.”

Ajalla joined him, biting a chunk of the fruit off and mimicking his mouth movements to the point that she swallowed just after he did. When he finished and licked the juice off his lips, she did the same. Her grin broadened. “I don’t like but it’s fun. Let’s do it again later.”

“Okay, but I think some real food would be a better lunch.”

“Real food,” Ajalla repeated. “I’ll ask and find this food for Reals.”

“Je do rupa, devenk.” Kirilamei approached them from the batch of elder trees. The words swam in Johann’s mind, slowly forming into words he could understand. Thanks, you can go.

“Aso?” Ajalla raced into Kirilamei, wrapping her arms around the slender woman. “Yohanshmitt de pimello na esam.” Yohannshmitt ate a pimello.

Kiri squeezed herself out of the embrace. She stopped a few paces away from him, briefly noting the fruit remains.

“I’ll speak with you later,” Ajalla said with a wink. She darted off into the forest before Kiri could look over her shoulder.

Kirilamei sighed, letting the tension ease out of her expression. For a moment she gave him the impression she could be kind. That was until she clicked her tongue and pointed directly at him. “Until you go back to your world, you’ll be with me.”

“Oh, are we leaving right now?” Johann closed the distance between them with a skip to his step. “That would be fantastic. I can’t say I’d be comfortable staying in these clothes for another day.”

“No, not now,” Kirilamei snapped.

“Why not? I thought you just came from a meeting. It’s all right if you can’t go with me the entire way. If you have a map and can point me in the right direction, I’m sure to find my way out of here.”

Kirilamei slammed her foot on the ground. Roots shot up from the ground, wrapping around Johann’s body and dragging him to the ground.

“Ugh, ha- help me.” Johann tried to pull the roots away but within moments his arms and legs were completely ensnared. He gagged on the tip of one piece that forced it’s way into his mouth and threatened to wander down his throat. His body revolted, clouding his mind to where all he could sense was the nausea.

“You are always loud. When I say no you are silent.” Her instructions were clear. She must have been right beside him, whispering into his ear.

The roots released him and pulled back into the ground.

Johann rolled over vomiting the bit of fruit he ate. He spit out the remains and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Kiri set her foot down a inch from his face. He looked into her squinted emerald eyes. Despite what she had just done he felt a sense of ease wash over him.

“You understand?” she barked.

“I do.” He held back an apology, out of fear of saying too much and receiving a second dose of nature’s tonic.

“Good.” She helped him back up. “Come over there.”

Kirilamei supported him with a hand at his waist and led him through the clearing and out past the bushes. On the other side was a pond roughly ten square feet large. Insects chirped around the shallow water and he could hear the birds from earlier scattering from the tree tops.

Johann sat down on a stone. His reflection on the surface was grim and dirtied. He balled his hands and suppressed the urge to scratch his face. The water was cool to the touch so he splashed his face, then cupped his hand and drank.

“You should drink lots while you are with us. The feet clothes should be removed,” Kiri said gesturing towards his shoes.

“Why I have to take them off?”

Kirilamei stiffened, placing her hands at her hips. “Everyone can hear you walk, which will make you food for those out there. I can not always protect you.”

“You mean there’s more than just spiders out there wanting to have me for lunch?”

Kirilamei noded. “Lots but they stay away usually and don’t hear us walk outside. They will hear you. Maybe they come, maybe not.”

“What about Zafira,” Johann said, turning his face back towards the water. “Will she be coming here?”

“Perhaps. That depends on Zafira, if she is willing to listen to the Elders.” Kiri took a seat and rubbed her knees. “You still feel her?”

“A little, I think.” Johann leaned over and plucked his boots off. He eased his feet into the water. A tang of pain shot into his sore foot from months spent in the trenches. “I don’t understand anything anymore. That’s not normal. What is she … are you people?”

“I’m Alseid,” she said, her voice suddenly more cheerful. A hint of a smile crept along the edge of her lips. “Zafira is Erythrai.”

“Erythrai?” Johann asked as he scooted in closer to Kirilamei and met her emerald eyes. He’d heard Zafira mention it before.

Kirilamei cocked her head to the side as she considered. “Hm, like an otter.”

“An otter?” Johann tried to see the resemblance between Zafira and an otter but even his imagination couldn’t wander that far. An army of evil otters chasing him was almost preferable to his current situation.

“No, an Other. Alseid is the path to peace but she is a daughter of the evening. It’s why her skin is paler than our own.” Kiri took a twig and drew a massive tree into the ground surrounded by smaller ones. “The Erythrai were Wardens on Gaia but they failed to protect their garden. That was before my time, I only know of Zafira since her return.”

“So do you have any brothers or sisters?”

She gave him a quizzical look. “Brothers…sisters?”

“That’s right. People you are related to,” he said pointing back to the village. “ Like your mother.”

Kiri shook her head. “We have Elders and Lefaljac is the eldest among them. Ah! You mean seedlings. Ajalla and I both came from the same pod. She claims to have come first but I can’t remember if she speaks the truth.”

Johann struggled to put together what she said in a way that made sense. “So you’re twins. I’ve never met any before. So when is it safe for me to return home?”

“I can open the gateway in three days.”

“Three days,” Johann muttered under his breath. “I’m going to be in serious trouble whether or not I make it back.”

“Yohanshmitt,” Kirilamei paused and fiddled with the tips of her hair. “You do know where you are?”

“In South America? I’m not sure.”

She laid her cold hands on his. “This is not your homeworld. This is Amazon, the wandering world.”

“Not my—Amazon…” The world spun around him as he attempted to process the new information.

That was impossible. He was in a nightmare. That’s all it was, he concluded. That would explain the giant insects and amount of attractive women. He must have passed out from a gas attack and let his imagination run wild.

Kirilamei reeled him back and steadied him. “Don’t be afraid. I will help you return to Gaia and then all will be as it should.”

He focused on her speaking. Such lush lips. “Why are you helping me? A couple minutes ago you still tried to gag me with your plant things.”

“Alseid value all life and protect it. My thinking about you does not matter.”

Kirilamei pointed out the finger-sized fish in the pond. Insects hovered along the edge of the water, only to be gobbled up by the fish as they sprang up and snatched them.

“Not exactly heartwarming but it’s all I got.”