Chapter one: in which we...

Chapter one: In which we establish characters.



Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden stood there, narrowing his eyes and ignoring the chill of the winter air. He was dressed in a simple Aerosmith t-shirt and some nice comfortable jeans. His boots were large, as he is a large man, and he didn't wear a coat or gloves. He smiled a little at being able to be out in a blizzard like this. Ever since he'd become the Winter Knight temperature never really bothered him. Or, to be more accurate, COLD temps didn't bother him. Heat did a number on him now, to where he can't even take a hot shower without being a little overheated. He had brought his protege with him, and the  young man his student was friends with. The three of them had been searching for weeks through the Nevernever for this portal Mab had alerted them about, and he was getting worried about how cold the two young men were getting. He soon shook his head and led them through the portal, thinking they could warm up wherever it leads and then go back to Arctis Tor to report.



Unfortunately that didn't work. Soon as they landed in the dirt on the other side, the portal closed up with a small burst of blue light. Harry pushed himself to his feet and helped his friends up. "Shit. We're boned." he muttered, shaking his head again and sighing. Soon he realized they were surrounded by men with swords. He gulped a bit and turned in a circle, holding his hands up and looking harmless. Rory and Devon both looked surprised and held their hands up to indicate they didn't want to fight. Soon the Captain of the Legion limped over and looked the three men over. "Who are you and what was that thing you came out of." he demanded, hand on his sword.
Harry simply breathed slowly to keep himself from freaking out. "My name is Harry Dresden, these are my friend Rory and Devon, we're not here to fight. The thing we came out of was a portal. It leads to this world from ours and we're kind of stranded here, as it closed up on us. We mean no one any harm, we just need to find out where we are."



The shorter man narrowed his eyes and nodded. "I'm Sir Miles, Captain of the Crown Legion. You are on the continent Alera, in the world Carna. You will come with us peacefully or be chained and beaten." when Harry nodded, he started limping off, barking orders to his men. Harry, Devon and Rory all followed him at a proper distance and made sure not to make any sudden moves. As they neared a large camp area, Miles barked out more orders to the men on the ramparts. Soon he brought the trio to a large tent, making them line up. "So. A portal, eh? And it closed up? Well fine, then we'll find something for you to do here." he nodded and crossed his arms over his chest, frowning in deep thought. After about thirty solid minutes he nodded again and sat down. "Alright, what Furies do you have and what are your best skills?"
Harry sighed. "What are Furies, sir?" the man looked up at the giant man, shocked. "You don't have Furies where you come from?" when Harry nodded he frowned more.
"Well, shit. Hmmm..." after a while he got up and went to his runner. "Go get Miss Knight Terra for me, boy." Off the runner ran, faster than most of the other ones, he'd been assigned to the Captain as his personal message runner. After about five minutes the young man returned with a small woman in armor. She had two swords, one on each hip, and she had a small scar on her lip. The girl looked up at the two taller men and the shorter man, then frowned deeply. "Who the hell are these guys?" she asked the Captain, looking them over with a critical eye.  When she finished thinking, she nodded and grabbed hands, dragging them off. "Valet!" she called out, making a young man come running. "Get a set of three tents and set them up for these gentlemen. NOW."
Frightened by her tone, the young man ran off to make things for the guests. Until then, Melanie took them to the mess tent. "Get some food in you, guys." she said in her tone-less voice. Harry frowned and muttered under his breath before getting some food for him and his friends. They all sat together, eating quietly and once in a while stealing glances at Melanie. She just sat there, arms on the table and her head resting on them. She had her eyes closed and she breathed steadily, looking like she was asleep. Soon enough the valet came in and poked her cheek. Startled, she decked him. Then sighed and helped him up. "I'm sorry, you scared me..." she checked him for any serious damage, as being an Earthcrafter she could hit pretty hard. Noting that there was merely a bruise on his cheek, she sighed with relief and stretched. "The tents are up, they're near yours!" this made Mel nod, and she let the men eat before escorting them to their tents. The valet pointed out which tent goes to which man, then scurried away and went to do other important things. Mel just smiled softly and looked up at the tall men around her. "Get some rest, you're going to have a very busy day tomorrow."




The men went to sleep in their separate tents and in the morning they were wakened by loud noises. Harry got up and looked out his tent and sighed, seeing men working with swords and shield. "What, did the damn thing take us back to the middle ages?" he muttered under his breath, grumpy at being woken up. Out came Devon and the young man just growled. In the next tent over, Rory could be heard snoring through the noise. Harry snickered a bit and blinked, seeing the small girl from yesterday come up and cross her arms over her chest. "Alright, get ready for breakfast, then we're going to find something useful for you guys to do." she grabbed Harry by his arm and started dragging him back to the mess tent, but stopped. She then went into Rory's tent and all Harry knew was the snoring stopped and Rory let out a surprised shout. He then followed the miniscule girl out and the three big men went with her to the food tent.
After a short breakfast she brought them to the Camp Followers area and frowned, looking them over. Rory was obviously used to hard work so he was put in charge of hauling heavy things. Harry was wiry compared to the man and she decided he'd be better in laundry stuff. Lastly Devon was put in charge of running messages for the Followers. She smiled as they didn't complain and got to work. Then she headed off to do her morning drills and take care of her Knights. She was almost like a den mother to the group of Knights in the Legion.

She then squeaked, as a young man bigger than she landed on her. She imediately got ready to kick his ass, but he rolled off her and freaked out. He was wearing the same type of strange clothes as Harry and his friends. She eyed him from the ground, hand on her sword. She slowly got up and sighed, looking up to see a portal closing. "Another victim of kidnapping. Great..." she circled him quietly and then stood in front of him. "Name and what can you do?"
He blinked a bit. "Are you hitting on me?" he asked, looking surprised. She snorted and shook her head. "No, just trying to gauge what you can do for our Legion, as it seems you're trapped here."
Those words made the young man get nervous and start twitching. He gulped a bit and looked around him. "Is this some sort of military camp?" he asked her, frowning when she nodded. "Well, my name is James. I...well I can control fire." his expression had turned to fear and worry, and made Melanie frown as well. She shook her head and put her hand on his shoulder. "It'll be alright, you're among friends here, sir." she turned and led him to the Captain's tent, wanting to introduce James to Miles. She had the page announce them and waited patiently til she heard a growling sound, then Miles hobbled out of his tent and crossed his arms. "Who is this?" he asked her, frowning and narrowing his eyes.
"This is James, he's from the same place as the others, fell through a portal onto my back." she smirked as she heard the young man make a slightly uncomfortable sound, then nodded. "He can control fire, so he can help the Knights Ignus. I'm going to take him over to them and get him some armor and such." Miles made an approving sound, proud of her decision to help the Legion...but then, she always helped her Legion out. This was her home and family, so she protected it fiercely, like an angry Phrygian mama bear. He gave her a rare smile and saluted her in the Legion manner, with a fist to his heart, then nodded and went back inside after she saluted him in return. She then grabbed James' hand and led him off to one of the sections of the camp that belonged to the Knights. This section was for the fire masters, you could see scorch marks everywhere in the section, making the girl chuckle and shake her head. "Be careful you don't get burnt, these marks are still hot. I think a couple of the Knights got into a fight." as she walked, she made comments here or there about this or that, just generally trying to be informative to her companion. After a while they finally found the Knights Ignus for the Legion, and she introduced them to James, letting them know about his elemental control.