MA11-12 Myth-ion Improbable Something Myth-Inc Read Online Free PDF Page B

tgggghhhh nggghhhh.”
    “What’s the matter?” Tananda asked, smiling at me. “Afraid of a little snake?”
    I nodded vigorously as another monster snake head popped up not more than fifty paces from us. It looked not only hungry, but angry.
    “Yeah,” she said, “me, too.”
    With that we were back in the dust storm on Vortex #1.
    “Skeeve!” Aahz yelled as the dust pounded into us.
    Before I could even act, Tananda said, “Don’t bother.”
    Then we were back in the Shifter’s tent, staring at the creature that now looked just a little too much like the snakes we had just left.
    “I am glad for my percentage to see that you have returned,” it said.
    “I’ll bet,” Aahz said.
    “Vortex #4 please,” Tananda said, getting right to business.
    “The total is now fifteen percent.”
    “I understand our agreement,” Tananda said before Aahz could say a word. “Vortex #4 please.”
    The snakelike-shaped Shifter nodded, and again we were whisked through to another dimension.
    And right back into the same stupid dust storm.
    Okay, I have to admit that when we dimension-hopped back into the dust storm, I was shocked.
    Tananda motioned that we should follow her. It took me almost all the way to our destination before I realized where we were. Now granted, I had the excuse that it was blowing heavily. And to me, one dust storm looks just like another. But it wasn’t until the old log cabin loomed up out of the dust like a ship in the fog that it dawned on me that we were back in the same place.
    Only it wasn’t the same place. This was supposed to be Vortex #4, not Vortex #1.
    Inside the old building it became clear that we were in a slightly different place. This time, instead of being bare, the inside of the log cabin was filled with branches and some old furniture, and there was no sign of the fire I had built.
    “Did you see them this time?” Tananda demanded.
    “See what?” Aahz frowned.
    “Out there in the storm.” she said. “This time I got a good look at them.”
    “What was it?”
    “Dust bunnies. A whole pack of them.” She wrapped her arms tightly around herself and shuddered.
    Aahz and I looked at each other and shrugged. Again we seemed to be oblivious to whatever it was that was setting Tananda on edge.
    By the time I got a new fire going and Tananda had put a containment protection around the cabin to keep the wind out, my lips had unsealed. They were chapped and sore, but at least they were loose.
    “So Vortex #4 is a lot like Vortex #1,” I said.
    “Makes sense,” Tananda said. “Otherwise, why give them the same names with only different numbers?”
    “Any other dimensions so similar that they could be numbered like this?”
    “More than likely,” Tananda said, “but I’ve never seen or heard about any.”
    “So we paid another five percent to that thief for this?” Aahz said, clearly disgusted. “We could have found this on our own.”
    I had no idea how he thought we could have done that, but since I didn’t know much about dimension-hopping, I said nothing.
    “Not likely,” Tananda said. “We are a long, long way from Vortex #1. We’re farther away in number of dimensions from the Bazaar at Deva than I have ever been before.”
    “Oh,” Aahz said.
    “And you know that how?” I asked. “Is there some sort of mileage marker I keep missing in the blink of eye it takes to hop to a new dimension?”
    Tananda laughed. “Don’t we wish.”
    “When a person is dimension-hopping,” Aahz said, “and they have powers to do it, like Tananda does, you get a sense of how many dimensions away you have jumped. Not precise, but just a sense of distance.”
    Tananda nodded. “And the farther away in number of dimensions, the harder the jump. And the greater the chance of missing the target and getting lost.”
    “So that’s why you took us back through Vortex #1 from Bumppp?”
    “Safer that way,” she said.
    “And each of our jumps following this map is getting