Ian woke the next morning, coiled up on the couch in Nora and Michelle's hotel room. His chin was resting comfortably over a loop of his stomach. A white comforter was draped over him, light worming its way through the fibers.

Wait.

He was coiled on the couch in Nora and Michelle's room? When he realized what that meant, he jerked his head up automatically. Apparently, even having the talisman under his pillow hadn't been enough to keep him from changing as he slept. He glanced quickly around, trying to make sure he was completely covered by the comforter.

He was pretty sure he was. About three feet of his lower body had fallen off the couch sometime during the night, but the blanket touched the ground, and he was almost positive he was fine.

"Ian?" Nora called from somewhere across the room. "You up?"

Great. Ian took a deep breath and started quickly changing back to his human form.

"Ian?" Nora asked again.

"I think he's still asleep." Michelle said.

"Maybe..." Nora didn't sound convinced. "He's moving around an awful lot..."

"So? People can toss and turn in their sleep." Michelle said.

"I guess."

"Come on— let's go get breakfast. He can catch up to us when he wakes up."

Ian nodded to himself; he liked that idea. He'd much rather finish changing in the privacy of an empty room. He figured it was probably for the best, especially since it didn't seem much easier to do today than it had yesterday. Apparently, even the talisman could only do so much to counter the magic of an unauthorized portal.

There was some thumping on the floor as one of the girls walked heavily across the room. The door creaked open. He waited for it to close again, but he didn't hear it.

"Nora? What are you doing?" Michelle called out from the direction of the door.

"Just writing a quick note so he'll know where we are." Nora said from somewhere closer to the window.

"Well, hurry up." Michelle said.

"Ok. And...done." Nora announced. Then, another set of footsteps followed the first. A minute later, the door closed.

Ian continued changing, nearly falling off the couch as he did. Just like yesterday, he was still stuck being at least half-snake. At least the way he'd managed to do it yesterday seemed to work out reasonably well. He decided to go with that again today. He pulled his clothes on and went over to check the note Nora had written on the hotel stationary.

Ian, gone down to breakfast— join us when you're awake. ~Nora

Well, who could argue with a nice, warm breakfast? Ian threw the pad of paper and the pen into his pocket and went downstairs to join the girls. The room was fairly crowded, but they'd managed to find a table in the corner. He helped himself to the buffet before joining them.

"Morning." Nora said as he sat down.

Ian nodded a greeting at first her, then Michelle.

"Feeling better?" Nora asked. Ian shrugged.

"Same." he said. But there was a lot of noise in the room, and he wasn't sure if she heard him. Either way, he guessed she'd figure it out.

Nora nodded at him in sympathy, but Michelle didn't look like she cared either way.

"So we're really doing this?" she asked.

They'd gone over the broad strokes last night. Amon and Sophie had come up to the room, where they could discuss everything in more detail: the five of them were going to try to save the world. Ian wasn't sure he really wanted Amon or Sophie to join them— he didn't trust Amon, and he was still pretty mad at Sophie— but he guessed they were going to need all the help they could get. Besides, he'd been outvoted.

The first stops they were going to make would be to the Realms of Rage and Terror. Amon said he knew a place in Terror where they could get a few talismans to travel to Beauty, Survival, and Compulsions. Sophie insisted she'd heard of a similar place in Rage. Ian wished he'd known of whatever place Sophie was thinking of. It would have saved him a lot of trouble getting back here.

"Well, both Sophie and Amon said they'd be here in about two hours." Nora said, glancing at her phone.

"I still don't understand how those two already knew about portals." Michelle said. "I mean, they were pretty cagey about it when I asked."

Ian reached across the table to get their attention. He pressed his palms together and opened his hands, pantomiming cracking a book.

"Yeah, I know." Michelle grumbled.

Amon had lied, saying he'd read a similar book to the one Nora had found. It was apparently why he knew that the birds were an omen, how to open portals, and where to find artefacts from other realms. As he'd described it, Sophie had gotten a strange look on her face.

"Sounds like the Hall of Knowledge." she'd said.

Ian had just stared at her. He knew about the Hall of Knowledge, of course. It was more of a museum than anything else, dedicated to the so-called glorious battles that his people had waged against the mountain tribes and the ocean-dwellers of his realm.

"Yeah, I know what you're thinking." Sophie said, seeing the look on his face. "But Upala..." She trailed off, clearly realizing that bringing up the local lore-keeper of the village would guarantee Nora and Michelle figured out what she was. Amon probably already had a good guess. Ian was willing to bet Amon could tell they weren't from here just as surely as Ian could tell it about him; the way he'd been grinning at them from the moment they strolled across the parking lot all but confirmed it.

Sophie decided to try again. "Mrs...Upala my...teacher... She told me about it."

It sounded obviously fake to Ian. But then, he already knew who Upala was. But Nora and Michelle seemed satisfied. And all those excuses were enough to give both Amon and Sophie plausible deniability. While Michelle might not have fully believed it, she didn't ask many more questions.

After breakfast, the three made their way into the woods, not far from where, only yesterday, Ian had found Nora. They didn't have to wait long for Sophie and Amon to appear.

Amon pulled a silver chain from under his collar and slipped it over his head. Attached to it was a jagged black stone that looked razor-sharp. He pulled another one out of his pocket, hesitating before handing it to Michelle.

"That's my roommate's." he said solemnly. "Don't lose it."

"I won't." she promised.

He took his own stone and dramatically cut a large circle into the air in front of him. There was a flash of white. Then, a deep violet portal swirled ominously in the space.

"...How did you do that?" Sophie asked before Ian had time to. Amon made it look way too easy for Ian's liking.

"You only need something sharp." he said, looking between the two. "Well, something sharp that's from another realm. And it helps if it was enchanted to cut through the barriers between the realms."

"Oh, is that all?" Ian whispered, but Amon ignored him.

Amon sighed, taking a step towards Ian and Sophie. Then, he made another slit in the air. The new portal was still purple, but not quite as vivid as the first. Ian grabbed Amon's arm. Amon turned and regarded him coolly.

"The color." Ian whispered.

Amon blinked. "...What about it?"

"It's lighter." Ian pointed between the two portals. He'd already gone through one strange-colored portal; there was no way he was going to go through another. Who knew what would happen? Especially in his current state.

"It's fine." Amon assured him. "It's only lighter because it's not going to the Realm of Terror, where this—" he held up the stone, "—is from."

Ian nodded, trying to decide if he believed him.

"Excellent." Amon said. "Then, you three had better be off."

"But...how am I supposed to go through?" Nora asked. "No one's given me anything from another realm."

Amon looked over at Sophie. "What are you using?" he asked.

Sophie pulled what looked like a marble out of her pocket. It was identical to Ian's, except the flower inside was canary yellow.

"And you?" Amon asked Ian.

Ian showed Amon his own talisman.

Amon thought for a moment. Then, he turned back to Nora. "You know, I've been wondering about something all night. I do hope you'll forgive me."

Then, he grabbed her shoulders and shoved her through the portal.