6. The Veteran
Cassia’s setting shifted, which she was used to, but it felt slower than usual, which was different. Also different was the feeling of rushing forward. There was a brief blur of color, and she thought she saw Kevin float away from her. Then her setting stabilized and she fell as if she had stepped off a moving train. With a gasp, she realized she was four feet above the ground and falling through a rainforest. She barely had time to wonder before her head smacked a tree branch as she crashed downward. Cassia could feel her body starting to heal itself from what was likely a concussion, but she lost consciousness just as she hit the ground.
When Cassia opened her eyes she could’ve sworn she saw a leopard head floating in the air by a tree across from her. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. Her head still hurt, but it was rapidly fading. She must’ve really hit the tree hard. Opening her eyes again, the leopard was gone. Cassia slowly stood to her feet, testing out her limbs and muscles to confirm she was fully healed. Everything seemed to be in order, though the headache was still persisting at a low level. Cautiously, she stepped away from the big tree and took in her surroundings.
Apparently she’d crash landed in the middle of a large rainforest, which gave no helpful indication of which Earth she might be stuck on. The Pathfinder had seemingly disappeared, which meant she was going to have to locate another jumper. Cassia gritted her teeth in frustration. She had expected the acquisition of the Pathfinder to be the hard part, but that seemed easy compared to being stranded somewhere in the multiverse. She circled the tree and came face to face with the leopard. For a long moment, the two stared at each other. Then the leopard growled and took an exploratory step towards her. In the back of her mind, Cassia was relieved that she hadn’t been seeing things earlier. The rest of her brain was consumed with trying to remember anything helpful about fending off a leopard, but was coming up empty.
Backing up slowly as the big cat continued to approach, Cassia pulled her belt knife out and held it in front of her. She kept her back to the tree, and slowly circled it as the leopard growled. It pounced without warning, and Cassia barely managed to hit the ground and roll. As it was, sharp claws grated her right shoulder blade. As she came out of the roll, she twisted to face the cat again. This time, she didn’t wait for it to pounce, but feinted to the left then lunged back to the right. The leopard leapt for the feint, twisting in midair to try and change direction. Cassia’s knife point slashed its foreleg, and the animal hissed as it landed. Even though she’d scored a hit on her opponent, she’d paid for it with another deep scratch down her arm.
Cassia could feel her body trying to heal itself, which only took more energy from her. There was no way she could keep dodging leopard attacks. She gritted her teeth and glared at the leopard. It was wary now that it knew its prey wasn’t weak, and it slowly stalked towards her. Keeping the knife up, she backed up until she hit the tree. Then she suddenly launched off the trunk towards the cat. The leopard snarled and leapt towards her. Cassia’s knife struck home, deep into the animal’s neck. Their bodies collided and fell to the jungle floor in a heap. Cassia tried to heave the unmoving leopard off her body, and then cried out as pain rolled along her body. The leopard’s teeth had also hit the target, tearing a large gash at the base of her neck. Her vision darkened, and she could feel her body desperately healing itself, trying to replace the blood she was rapidly losing. Remarkably, there was another floating head approaching from a distance. She briefly wondered what seeing two floating heads meant for her sanity, and then Cassia passed out for the second time that day.
There was a smell of smoke in the air when Cassia awakened. Night had come to the jungle, and Cassia panicked briefly before she realized she was no longer on the ground. Instead, she found herself laying on a pallet of bamboo rods. The source of the smoke smell was coming from above her, and she realized there was another bamboo pallet above her. Light was trickling out of a gap between the pallet and the tree, and Cassia realized there was a crude ladder tied to the trunk. Sitting up, she peered over the edge of her pallet into impenetrable darkness below. Forcing down her fear, she moved back towards the tree trunk and the ladder. Something caught on her shirt, and she lifted a hand to find some sort of makeshift bandage on her neck. Frowning, she unwrapped it to discover it was covered in blood. She felt at the spot the leopard had bit her, and gasped in surprise to find an open wound. It wasn’t big, and it had stopped bleeding, but she couldn’t remember the last time her body hadn’t fully healed an injury.
Cassia cautiously climbed the ladder, still concerned about her wounded neck. She slowly poked her head into the upper pallet to find it empty. There was a small collection of stones that held the glowing remains of a fire, with a rug laid out nearby. With a start, Cassia realized the rug was leopard. She crept towards the embers and realized that she could see the stars, which meant she must be near the top of the rainforest! She couldn’t suppress a shiver as she remembered peeking over the side of her pallets minutes ago.
Something at the edge of her senses caused Cassia to spin and draw her knife. She was too late, though, as a giant boulder of a man seemed to have appeared out of the darkness with a makeshift spear pointed straight at her heart.
“You are quiet,” the boulder growled. “I almost didn’t notice your entrance.” He lowered the spear.
“I won’t hurt you. You are safe here, unless you try using that knife.” Cassia watched him for another long moment, then returned the knife to her belt.
“I suppose I have you to thank for bandaging my neck?” she said, more of a statement than a question. The boulder nodded.
“Neat healing trick you did. Might have to teach me that.” He chuckled at himself, then turned and produced a giant leaf.
“Food?” The giant seemed to dislike using many words. Cassia nodded gratefully, realizing she felt hungry and weak. No wonder her healing process had stopped. The leaf was full of large slices of meat that crunched on the outside but had the texture of cooked mushrooms on the inside.
“This is good,” Cassia mumbled around a mouthful. “What is it?”
“Snail,” the man said, then chuckled again at her reaction. “I’m Lieutenant Robert Patterson.” He paused and considered her.
“But you can call me Grit,” he added. Cassia told him her name as he sat down on the leopard rug with a sigh. The glow from the embers allowed her to catch a better glimpse of him. He had a military buzz cut, but his hair was gray. His face had deep lines, and stubble along the jawline. He seemed to be in his sixties, though when he glanced at her his blue eyes were bright.
“So, Cassia, why did you crash land in the jungle?” he asked, and Cassia was startled. Had he watched her fight with the leopard? Grit nodded at her as if he could hear her thoughts.
“Why didn’t you help?” she blurted out without thinking, and Grit shrugged.
“Had to determine if you were a friendly or not. Leopard got there first.” Cassia waited for more explanation that didn’t come.
“This doesn’t seem to be a populated place,” she countered. “Who are you afraid of?” Grit shrugged casually again.
“IPF,” he offered. Cassia couldn’t believe her luck.
“You know about the IPF?” she almost shouted, and he nodded. “That means you know about the multiverse! Do you have a jumper?”
Grit held up his hands as the words flew out of her mouth. Then he stood up and stretched before he answered.
“Thought you might ask about that. We can go see it in the morning.” He made towards the ladder to leave. “You can sleep here, I have another spot.”
“Wait, Grit!” Cassia stopped him with her anxious tone. “I’ve got to get to where I was headed. It sounds trite, but the multiverse needs me too!” Grit considered this for a moment.
“It does sound trite,” he agreed, putting a hand on the ladder and turning to go. Cassia grabbed his shoulder and he stiffened.
“Look, something is wrong with the fabric between the universes. It’s causing…problems. Please, I can explain more but I need a jumper!”
Grit turned back towards her, surprisingly interested.
“You say the fabric between is broken?” he asked, and Cassia nodded.
“It’s causing jumps to have issues,” she said. “Especially the further out you go.” Grit was focused now, and he stepped closer to her.
“I have noticed this,” he said, grumbly voice filled with excitement. “Coming here, my dog…” His voice trailed off as he looked to the corner of the pallet where a small chest was sitting. Cassia could see an olive colored ball of some sort up against it.
“Well, now I have…that,” he said, gesturing towards the ball. Looking closer, Cassia could see that it was covered in scales.
“What is it?” she asked, and Grit whistled through his teeth. The ball unrolled into a strange anteater-like creature that made a chuffing sound and waddled over to Grit, hunched over and walking on its hind legs.
“That is Tango,” said Grit, sadly. “And he’s a pangolin now.” The pangolin reached Grit, who patted it on the head, and then curled back up into a ball. Cassia was unsure of what to say, but Grit spoke again.
“So, yeah, you could say I know what you mean about jumps. I don’t know what Earth this is, but I know it’s far out. The entire planet appears to be jungle, as far as I can tell.”
“Take me to the jumper,” Cassia said firmly. “I can fix this, but we have to start with a specialized ship that can jump through the multiverse. I’m hoping that it’s still on Earth Forty-One, and the sooner we get there, the better. Currently it is in the care of children.” Grit considered her for a moment. His steel gray eyes seemed to be probing her mind, and eventually he nodded.
“I can help you,” he said simply. “I would like the multiverse to remain stable. I don’t like staying in one place too long, and I’ve been too afraid to jump from here for a while.” The older man slung a large pack on his back and whistled through his teeth again. Tango unrolled himself, and climbed up Grit to settle down on the top of the pack. He turned to Cassia.
“Let’s jump,” he said, and then he disappeared down the ladder into the darkness.