The adrenaline began to fade, and Hōz scowled at the other version of himself who was seated atop Allistar. “Get off my horse.”

  The blue elf slid off the huge stallion and scratched behind its ears. “He’s my horse as well; just saying.”

  “You never answered my question,” the first Hōz pointed out. “What is this?”

  The second Hōz threw his hands up. “I was in the area and I realized you’d left Allistar just outside the pavilion. I moved him before the dark elves positioned themselves for the ambush.”

  “Good thinking,” said the first Hōz. “Why are you here? What the hells is going on?”

  The second Hōz responded:

  “As I indicated in my message, an enemy in the future sent me back into our past. I have no way of returning to the future other than the usual method; moment-by-moment. So, I’ve been hanging around, trying to lay low and avoid causing a problem with the timeline.”

  “You’re following me as well it seems,” the first Hōz accused.

  “Not the whole time certainly,” Hōz number two clarified. “Just the past few days.”

  “Why?” demanded the first.

  “What else have I to do and what difference does it make to you?” asked number two.

  “You should know I don’t like being followed,” the first Hōz complained.

  “You should know I’m only doing what you would do,” the second Hōz retorted.

  “Oh really?” present-day Hōz challenged.

  Future Hōz threw up his hands. “Exactly how could it be otherwise?”

  “It’s just very strange. All of this is quite strange,” the first Hōz admitted as he began stroking Allistar’s neck.

  The horse munched some grass and swished its tail, completely at ease with both blue elves. The first Hōz found this fact interesting and pointed it out.

  “I would have thought this would be troubling for our horse.”

  “Taking it in stride isn’t he?” future Hōz acknowledged.

  Taking the cue delivered as a pun, Hōz number one began to lead the horse away from the pavilion and towards the road. The second Hōz followed along, for he also understood the need to get out of the area before any dark elves came to see why their compatriots had not returned.

  “Isn’t there a real metaphysical danger to our being in proximity like this?” asked Hōz from the present timeline.

  The two blue elves walked in step at a quick enough pace that Allistar almost had to trot to prevent the rope from yanking both he and present-day Hōz.

  “No,” the blue elf from the future replied. “You’re thinking about the dilemma wherein two people from different versions of reality come near one-another. Should this happen one or both people involved could suffer anything from fainting or seizures to insanity or death; allegedly.”

  “From the shock?” asked Hōz number one.

  “No,” the blue elf of tomorrow went on “It’s an energetic response. The one soul seeks to reconcile the issue of two bodies and two personalities in the same space, perhaps by shutting down or eliminating one of the two.”

  “Ok first of all that can only be speculation, unless this has been witnessed or experienced before?” said the present day Hōz. “Second, why am I asking you all this?”

  “I could speculate.” The second Hōz offered.

  “Don’t,” the first Hōz instructed. “How is it you know all this about two people from alternate realities but I don’t? Do I learn all about the distinctions between being a time traveler and an alter ego from another reality in my future?”

  The second Hōz shrugged.

  “So you’re just improvising responses?” the first Hōz asked in a knowing tone. “Just making shit up on the fly are we?”

  The second Hōz brought a small wooden pipe from a buttoned pocket on his tunic. The pipe had a lid that worked on a swivel joint. “Yes, I imagine it is speculation but we know at least the bit about two instances of one person from different timelines is not catastrophic. I did learn this in your future but now you won’t because you learned it just now.”

  Future Hōz turned the lid of the pipe like a screw to the left, swinging the lid from the top of the bowl to reveal the petals of a brilliantly yellow flower crunched into a wad and stuffed into the bowl of the pipe.

  “Although I’ve been thinking.” He paused and looked at present-day Hōz for a moment. “We are not really instances of the same blue elf, since we both inhabit this world, this version of reality. We are in fact the same person in two states or at two different times.”

  “Which is exactly what is stated when we say two instances thereof.” contemporary Hōz pointed out.

  “Yes. Thank you for being the marshal of grammar; wise ass.” Future Hōz worked a tool, resembling a pair of scissors but instead of cutting edges consisting of one cuboid piece of steel and one rough-cut piece of flint. As he pressed the twin handles together the corner of the cubed steel struck then scraped across the flint blade to produce a spark.

  It took three scrapes to generate a spark big enough to ignite the yellow flower. Hōz puffed rapidly on the pipe, pulling air over the fledgling flame to expand it across the entire wad of petals.

  The blue elf from the future finally took one long, deep puff and then exhaled a thick cloud of the most wonderfully yellow smoke onto the blue elf from the present. The horse the latter was leading protested and shook its head as it hurried through the yellow cloud.

  Hōz from the current timeline scowled. “I don’t generally do that during a work day. I’ll thank you for not blowing any more clouds my way.”

  Future Hōz laughed genuinely. “Who do you think you’re speaking to here? Don’t generally do this during the work day…”

  “Oh,” said Hōz from the present, realizing he was trying to lie to himself in the most literal possible sense of the phrase. “Very well, but one is enough for now.”

  “Agreed.” Future Hōz put the pipe away. “Now that you are more relaxed and attuned to the subtle frequencies, however, I would like you to try something.”

  “Try what?” asked the first Hōz.

  “Try to remember hunting the teal coastal frog,” future Hōz instructed.

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  “What?” Hōz from the present looked over his shoulder at the pavilion, now over one-hundred yards away, to be sure nobody was following them.

  “Just relax and think about what I said; teal coastal frogs.” future Hōz reiterated. “Can you remember hunting them?”

  “I have never hunted teal coastal frogs,” said present day Hōz.

  “True from your perspective,” said future Hōz. “But in truth you have hunted teal coastal frogs because I have and you are me.”

  Present day Hōz said nothing. The warm, joyful glow of the paloderm began to creep around the edges of his awareness.

  Future Hōz clarified his instructions: “Just try to recall going into the water around Sigma’s Archway. Very early in the morning, still dark in fact; you waded in with a field knife to find the frogs and…”

  “Remove a gland from the back of their mouth.” the Hōz of today finished the sentence.

  “Exactly!” Hōz number two clapped his hands once, loudly. “I knew it could be done!”

  “So strange,” said Hōz number one. “I can actually remember, see myself in the water. When did this happen?”

  He searched his memories for a timeline this memory belonged to. Wait; that can’t be right.

  Future Hōz saw his past self cock his head at an angle and frown.

  “What is it?” Future Hōz asked.

  “I remember something that happened tomorrow morning,” present day Hōz complained.

  “Yes,” Future Hōz affirmed as much. “I knew we could do it but needed validation, which you have given me. This will help immensely with the time looping and related issues.”

  “Which are due to begin when exactly?” asked the blue elf from the present.

  “It began for me tomorrow. Who knows if it will be the same for you now that we’ve talked but it will happen.” The blue elf from the future explained.

  The pair had reached the road by this point. Both looked east, where the road would lead to the Waywards.

  “What else can you tell me?” One H ō z asked the other.

  “I can tell you more than I will obviously to avoid upsetting the timeline, most of which has worked out to this point,” Said the other to the one.

  “If being stuck in the past as a doppelganger to the resident version of yourself is working out,” the present-day Hōz pointed out. “This is ridiculous; what ludicrous quest have we found ourself on this time and by whose imposition? I should like to have no part of it, mind you Hōz.”

  “Of course. I understand,” Future Hōz conceded. “What can I say? When you’ve been reliable for five-thousand or so years word gets around and you tend to get picked for these things.”

  “Moon elves eh? So your message said,” The irate Hōz of the present pressed.

  “Yes,” said future Hōz. “Just hear them out, that’s all I ask…

  “This Mother of Thorns? Who is she?” present-day Hōz interrupted.

  “You’ll know her when you see her. A very powerful magic-user,” said future Hōz.

  “Great,” muttered the first Hōz.

  “You will think her guard is down,” the second Hōz reiterated from his message. “Resist the urge to strike. That at least will get me out of this mess; I’m pretty sure anyway.”

  The first Hōz looked at himself from the future. In that moment he recognized himself, realized though the two images interacted as two different people, in fact they were not.

  The second Hōz felt himself from the past recognizing the two parts of but one person. Good. Yes, I am you and you are me.

  This is what the time-stranded blue elf had hoped for, what he wanted to do in the first place but he dared not pre-emptively act. He feared upsetting himself with knowledge of future misfortunes, knowing this might prompt a steadfast refusal to walk the same path again when the time came.

  His misgivings no longer mattered. The one soul these two bodies and two minds belonged to had opened all four of their eyes and would now reconcile this displacement, this division.

  The second Hōz on the road began to fade.

  The first Hōz became more than what he had been the moment prior. New understanding, new lessons, from new experiences became part of him.

  Memories of his future flooded his mind briefly, then washed over his being as they became integrated with his psyche. Everything came so quickly; the haze from the paloderm became a film of irritability, then a weight of sadness on his chest and stomach.

  A great catastrophe, many lives lost. Immense pressure on him to act and deliver aid.

  A good friend… murdered before he could intercede.

  The wolf. The far future. A voice in the swamp.

  The second Hōz resembled an apparition of himself. Transparent and wavering to behold, he felt light as a feather and knew his time in this perspective would very soon be gone.

  He conjured the magic he had prepared before this meeting. Drawing a black moonstone from his pocket and channeling its essence, he directed a fog onto the mind of himself on the road in front of him, the Hōz who represented his past.

  “De’ah H’mōd Orn”. he whispered before vanishing.

  The moonstone fell from his disappearing hand and itself faded away before it could hit the ground.

  The only Hōz on the road suddenly felt his stream of thought pulled from his mind, not forcefully but abruptly and completely. He struggled to regain the past few moments to no avail.

  Looking back in the direction of the pavilion he saw the two dark elf corpses and remembered lining them up there before returning to the road. He recalled entering the market to ask Zemahilda for any messages from his clan.

  He had been given a message, and it warned him of the dark elves. He remembered hiring two red elves to help him take the assassins out; Hasiksus. was the name of one of the red elves.

  There was another. Someone else. Who was with me dammit. I know I was just thinking of something – or perhaps talking to someone about something of great import; I was upset.

  “Dammit!” Hōz spat in anguish. Something was very wrong in that moment but he had no idea what nor a clue what had just happened to him on the road.

  He looked around in all directions. Nothing, and nobody.

  “Dragon shit! What meddling and nuisance is this?” He demanded of the spirits of the air.

  He knew he needed to get clear of the pavilion before dark elves emerged to check on their missing agents. He further knew he was ultimately heading to the Waywards to rendezvous with Mlasha and her companions.

  For the time being that would simply have to do. He climbed onto Allistar and prompted the horse forward.

  The elf took a few deep breaths as his horse trotted along. His best idea for the moment was to let this go and re-focus on the work at hand, namely helping take out a wyvern to the east.

  Then he remembered sticking the message he’d gotten from Zem into his pocket. He quickly pulled the message from his pocket and re-read it.

  He sighed and put the message away. “Sounds about right.” he muttered.

  Still unable to remember who was with him before confusion set upon him a few moments before, at least he had the gist of his current situation. “Always some nonsense like this, is it not Allistar?”

  The stallion replied with a snort and a lip trill.

  ?

  You just left Terwa and Sha this morning. You sent that arrow wide and lost the match. Have your attention now do I?

  It’s me, Hōz. I’m you from the future – leaving this note for you in your past so you’ll see it now.

  Time will begin to loop for you very soon. It is the result of Moon Elf meddling and you’re going to be caught right in the midst of it. You will find yourself repeating moments, days even – just roll with it.

  You came here seeking a message from your clan as you often do. In my past I received a message from Althyra – typical news: three new babies this past summer, Jgobinnin has begun his apprenticeship as a sorcerer, and Remvettridge awaits your return over the winter and another match of haerikil.

  You didn’t get that message because I pre-emptively sent word to the clan on your behalf a few months ago. I needed your sole focus on this message.

  An enemy has sent three dark elf assassins back through time to kill you at this very pavilion – and they succeeded. I know what you’re thinking you grim bastard and NO – that’s not good news. You are needed in the future; others are depending on you and the stakes are quite high. You must survive this attempt on our life!

  They’ll be awaiting you outside the tent. Take care.

  One final note: in the future there will come a moment when you think the Mother of Thorn’s guard is down and you will be tempted to strike. It’s a trap! Avoid that mistake and you can avoid my being sent back through time.

  I know what you’re thinking now also… if I am not sent back the dark elves will get the jump on you once more. That’s not how it works; thwart them or escape this time and you’ll not have to worry about dealing with them again. Time travel is complicated, just trust me!

  Now get out of there and be alert. I’d say use another archway but you need to stay on your current course.