Demmy groaned. “That’s going to bruise.” He sat up and pushed the kink out of his neck. Disorientation hit him like a train as he realized that he was sitting in a forest. Planting one hand in the soft soil behind him, Demmy lifted himself to his feet. Now where the hell did that elf go?

Immediately after he’d asked himself the question, something hit him hard in the back of the neck. The entire world blurred for a moment and Demmy fell to his knees. Before he could regain his composure, something landed on his back. Two scrawny little legs wrapped around his abdomen. He tried to shake the creature off but was met with a searing pain in his head.

A high-pitched jeer rang out from the imp’s foul mouth. “Not so tough now, are you, psychic? Should have stayed in your own time.” He pressed the lead deeper into the skin of Demmy’s neck. The larger of the two tried to shake off the smaller, but inevitably collapsed onto his stomach. He couldn’t concentrate and he could feel himself losing consciousness. His breathing slowed and his movement stopped.

“There we go,” the imp said in premature conclusion. He unwrapped his leg from the motionless man and hopped up. His feet made crunching noises in the leaves beside Demmy’s head. He pocketed the lead and brushed his hands in triumph.

As the imp waddled away, prepared to trade his day’s haul, a weakened Demmy raised himself out of the dirt with one hand. The small urchin turned at the sound and jumped in terror as his pocket tore itself open. The chunk of lead and bag of gems fell to the ground. He was knocked off his feet by an unseen force as he bent to retrieve them.

Demmy snatched the small sack from the ground and shook his head. He turned to look for the imp but found nothing. Instead, a pair of tiny, grubby little hands wrapped themselves around his neck. Demmy reached around to his back and grabbed the imp by what little hair he had. What greedy little bastards, he thought.

“Stay down, you pest!” Demmy wound up his arm and threw the imp far into the forest. The deafening shrieks of terror were a soothing reward. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. As he prepared to make a jump back to the future, he realized he didn’t have nearly enough energy. The combination of his first jump and his close proximity to lead had left him rather drained.

Demmy could make out what seemed to be the outline of an old fortress in the distance of the forest. From afar, he couldn’t tell whether or not he was seeing things, but a psychic scan confirmed what his intuition had suggested. With no other option, he began a trek to that fortress.

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