Alice Longstreet, a young woman in college, suddenly finds herself in another universe, one with magic, dwarves, and elves. She finds she is called a "Wayfarer", in this world, Aleaha. She finds she must call on skills she brings from home, her training as an engineer, her strength as a young woman, and above all, her ability as a leader.
Her travels from the country of Carlsea on Aleaha to other lands with her circle of friends will quickly take up the nine months she must remain there before she can return home. She ponders how she got here:
Alice Longstreet lay for a moment staring at the black sky, looking at the strange, unfamiliar pattern of stars, and listening to the sound of the waves on the beach, one of the two moons was up tonight. One of her new friends was standing watch as she and the others tried to sleep, “How on Earth... no wait, I'm not on Earth, am I? OK how on Aleaha are we going to get back home with that dragon flying around? I just hope we don't see it again,” she thought to herself. Dragons were something Alice had never seen on Earth, that was for sure. She was used to solving problems, engineering problems, science problems, math problems, but how to deal with a dragon was out of her experience. Being a mechanical engineering student sure had come in handy three times on this trip, once in building a bridge, and the second in building a raft. It had also come in at a critical moment to save one of her friend's lives, and Alice still didn't really know how she had managed to do what she had done as fast as she had done it.
She, like the rest of her friends, was exhausted from the day's trip. Sleeping on the ground on a simple, hand woven bed roll wearing chain mail might have been difficult in most situations, but Alice knew she wouldn't have trouble sleeping once she put the thoughts of home out of her head and relaxed. This was a strange place indeed, with knights, armor, magic, elves, dwarves and dragons, Aleaha, as the natives called it, was closer to the Middle Ages than modern times. “How did I get here?” Well, she knew that, if having stepped through what should have been a solid wall like it was a door into another universe could be believed. “No... Why did I get here?” That was another question entirely and one Alice couldn't answer, having stepped into another dimension entirely, with the promise that she could go back, in due time. There were many others here in the same situation, and the people of Aleaha called them “Wayfarers”, and treated them with very high regard. Most of her fellow Wayfarers seamed very human, with some variations, like their skin, ears, or eyes.
“Alice, try to get some sleep,” came some advice from the woman standing watch. It was Allegra, a person who was almost as much an alligator as she was human. Alice no longer considered that unusual.
“Good advice. I wish I had half your wisdom, Allegra.”
“I wish my mind worked half as fast as yours does, Alice, or that I had half your pluck, but, sleep.”
Alice took the advice. She turned and drifted off to sleep, she would have to stand watch later, and her last thoughts were of how they were going to get back home safely.
Her adventures so far had taken all of her training, quick thinking, and mettle she had. She knew how she had gotten here, but the answer to her second question we will have to find out along with her.
