Natasha tucked a few stray strands of her black hair back under the bandana she had tied over her head. Though the jungle was sweltering, she was glad to be out of Newtown. Though she had spent many years becoming a highly trained warrior and espionage agent, and had killed many, many people in her life, too many to ever want to remember, running into Yevgeny like that in the Rat-On-A-Stick brought old feelings to the surface, the feelings of a terrified little girl she had been years ago.

Natasha was relieved to have to focus on the immediate environment, on survival, insead of past childhood traumas. The number of poisonous and predatory species around them was staggering. Danger could literally be lurking in any trailside bush. Eating the wrong berry, or being unalert when a predator sprung could mean instant death.

D.R. & Associates was traveling with Kazzandra the Mentyl to Treetown, a settlement some twenty miles from Newtown. Treetown was, as its name suggested, built in the trees, in the canopy. It did not use a wall to keep out the jungle such as Newtown and Paradise City did. Treetown, led by a Hierophant Druid, was said to do its best to merge with the jungle and exist harmoniously as part of it.

Natasha could hear Don Espino and Deldric conversing with Kazzandra ahead of her on the trail, asking questions about the brain parasite.

“The Cthullids breed such things to control the minds of beasts of burden in their society,” Kazzandra was explaining. “I have seen creatures as large as elephants made perfectly tame and docile through the use of such abominable parasites.”

Espino’s face screwed up into a disapproving scowl. “We’ve fought Cthullids before. They’re icky! They want to eat our brains.”

“Yes, they would,” the mentyl responded. “Especially those of you and your gnome-friend, for you are magic-users, arcanists. Your magespark is highly sought out by them.”

“Magespark is overrated,” garrumphed Hiln over his shoulder from a little further ahead.

After a brief pause, Deldric asked the mentyl, “How do you know so much about the Cthullids?”

“My people were enslaved by them for generations, bred and raised by them like cattle. Eventually our ancestors were successful in freeing themselves through revolution.

“It must have been hard to revolt against slavers who could read your minds,” commented Espino.

“Yes. My ancestors had to develop mentalist abilities of their own. It wasn’t the first attempt at revolution that succeeded. There were many crushed revolutions before we were finally free.”

“Perseverence shall prevail,” Deldric said sagely.

Espino sighed. “There you go quoting religious books again.”

“The Proverbs of Barolias.”

“At least Barolias was a mage before he ascended to Immortality.”

“When you’ve studied time the way a chronomancer has,” Deldric lectured, “with its Cosmic Cycles, Karmic Wheels, and Divine Plans and Propehcies, religion doesn’t seem so crazy.”

“Of course the gods and Immortals can have their plans come true. They never age. They get to work out those plans for thousands or tens of thousands of years. The only thing that ever really stops them is another god or Immortal working against them.”

“Exactly,” Deldric smiled. “Perseverance shall prevail.”

Espino rolled his eyes. “That doesn’t mean there’s any kind of inexorable, fated Cosmic Cycle. Gods are just really powerful beings who don’t age and never give up.”

Deldric’s short gnome legs pumped several paces ahead to seek support. “Rave, you used to be a cleric…”

Natasha knew that wouldn’t go over well. The party healer Ravenwood did not like talking about his clerical past. Fortunately, D.R. & Associates was saved from further theological argument by the voices of Gayle and Bob coming from the jungle up ahead.

“Hey, folks!” piped the high-pitched voice of the brownie, “it’s lunch time and we found Lunchmeat.”

“About time, too,” came the baritone, yet feminine, voice of Gayle. “I’m starving.”

Natasha was glad for the reprieve from arguing ss D.R. & Associates cautiously examined the ruins known as Lunchmeat, to make sure it was safe to take a break there for lunch.

*******

Before its demise, Lunchmeat had grown to about half the size that Newtown was now. Since the inhabitants had been eaten by dinosaurs, most of the buildings still stood. No earthquake had shaken them down. No fire had burned them down. Some had collapsed, looking perhaps crushed by larger dinos, but most of the buildings kept a silent vigil in the deep jungle, a testament to what had been tried there by unprepared would-be settlers.

On the outskirts of the ruined town, Hiln admired the architecture of some of the buildings. It wasn’t bad for human work. He waited for news from Natasha.

Natasha was the scout for D.R. & Associates. In addition to being a more than capable fighter, she had mastered many talents that most adventurers would describe as roguish. Soon, the raven-haired woman had returned to the group from her reconnaissance.

“There’s already a small group here, a few blocks away. They don’t look like they are camping or staying, just stopping to eat like we planned also. And they’re wearing Harmonizer uniforms.”

D.R. & Associates looked at one another. They were all familiar with the black, sliver, and blue uniforms of the Harmonizers. Wizards wore the lightest version of it, little more than decorated scholarly robes. Scouts, rangers, bards, and roguish folk wore a slightly armored version, while soldiers, fighters, paladins, and knights wore a heavily stylized, steel plate-mail version.

“They’re kind of far from Paradise City,” Gayle noted.

“How many? asked Hiln.

“Four. It looks like a wizard, a bard, a paladin of Tyr, and an archer of some sort. Also there are velociraptor tracks everywhere, but they’re not fresh tracks. A large number of them came through here recently”

Natasha was not a bad tracker. She was even better than some novice rangers, though no one could track as well as an experienced ranger. Rangers had a mystical connection to nature that, given time and experience, made them unmatched by anyone else.

Hiln looked around at the huddled group. “Opinions?”

“I don’t wanna eat lunch on the trail,” whined Bob. “I'm tired and I wanna sit some place proper.”

Hiln knew the brownie must be tired indeed to speak up like that. Normally, Bob was the epitome of an obedient servant and familiar, demurely accepting whatever his master Deldric and the group said about anything.

Deldric, probably feeling sympathy for the even smaller guy with even shorter legs, said. “The Harmonizers won’t attack us. The only danger we have from them is proselytizing.”

“Oh, yay!” came Espino’s voice sarcastically. “As if we haven’t had enough of that today.”

Kazzie broke in, sounding like she was trying to he helpful, “I’m on good terms with several Harmonizers. Their mages and scholars come all the way to Newtown to my bookstore. I know a lot of them.”

It was decided to approach the luncheoning Harmonizers in the most friendly way possible, weapons sheathed, with Ravenwood and Kazzandra going first, hands up in gestures of peace. Luck was with them. The Harmonizers’ wizard and bard were regular customers of the mentyl bookseller

Soon, the two groups were dining together, exchanging stories of their adventures. The four Harmonizers were not a formal group with an established name like D.R. & Associates. They had, however, been on several journeys out into the jungle. They have even visited the Hierophant in Treetown. D. R. & Associates were on their first trip ever in Jasmia beyond Newtown, so they listened intently as the Harmonizers told of finding mysterious ruins of the Civilization Before. This was news indeed to the Associates. Espino, Deldric, and Bob listened with raptly focused attention.

Bart, the Harmonizer wizard, gestured with what looked like the drumstick of some bipedal lizard he was eating as he spoke. “Jasmia apparently had a civilization long ago, but it’s gone now.”

“What did you find?” asked Deldric.

“An entire castle. All the Harmonizer adventuring companies have been exploring its dungeons for weeks now. Even now, it’s hard to find. The jungle has overgrown it so much that you can’t really even see it until you’re right up next to it.”

Espino looked thoughtful, like he did when he was working out some complex problem. “How do you know it’s really representative of an entire civilization? Couldn’t it just be another abandoned colony like Lunchmeat here,“ the elf lad gestured at the ruins around them,”but from much longer ago?”

The Harmonizer bard looked at the elf boy with an impressed look. “Very smart for a kid.”

Bart the Wizard took a small nibble from the lizard drumstick and answered Espino. “Because of the library. There are maps of what this world used to look like before the Civilization Before died out. The castle even had a cool name on the map, Dreadcastle.” 

Suddenly, the peaceful luncheon of the two adventuring groups was interrupted by screams both frightened and angry coming from a few blocks away in the ruins, screams coming from Gayle Garnetstar.

“Leggo me, you son of a bandersnatch!”

“What happened to Gayle?” asked Hiln. “Where did she go?”

“She went for some me-time,” Natasha answered, the group’s euphemism for taking care of certain biological needs.

“Buddy system, people! Buddy system! Natasha, you should have gone with her.” Hiln let out a dwarvish curse as he reached for his great sword and stomped off in the direction from which Gayle had yelled.