The sun sat high but offered little more warmth than it had that morning. Below, the river shimmered, a moving mirror of silver-blue that carried the reflection of drifting clouds across its surface. The air was soft with a strange clarity that seemed unique to Earth 3 – like everything had been polished just slightly brighter than it would ever look back home. Maybe that was part of the upgrades from the ANIP system.

  Alex walked slowly along the top of the village palisade wall, one hand trailing the rough wood. It was warm from the sun. Below, a pair of guards leaned against the shadowed edge of a watchtower, trading jokes and splitting what looked like a wedge of bread. They waved as he passed.

  Bootsteps tramped up the wooden stairs behind him, measured and heavy, and then the boards of the walkway swayed as Jay stepped up.

  “Hey,” Jay called. “I figured you’d be at the tavern celebrating after what you pulled on Connor this morning.”

  Alex smiled without turning. “Too early for a drink. And too many bruises to sit around anyway.”

  Jay laughed, low and good-natured, joining him along the wall. “You’re lucky Connor didn’t break your staff over your head. Guy’s been in a mood since you knocked him down.”

  “I’d like to see him try. Apparently it’s carbon nanotech. Virtually indestructible,” Alex said. “Although if anyone could I suppose. Connor looked ready to use me as a floor mat.”

  They walked together in silence for a bit, the wind tugging faintly at their tunics. From this height, the village felt bigger. It was a small town really, with hundreds of buildings. It had been barely three days since they’d arrived here, but somehow it already felt like home. Maybe because everything on Earth 3 had more weight; more meaning.

  “Guards sure like you,” Alex said as another passing pair nodded respectfully at Jay. “You’ve got a fan club.”

  Jay rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, it’s weird. I just… helped lift a cart the other day. Word gets around when you move heavy things.”

  “That all it takes?”

  “I guess so.” He grinned. “They probably figure if something ever tries climbing this wall, I’ll just throw it back down.”

  The image made Alex laugh. “Well, I’ve been trying to figure it out, but I think the nanobots are going to make us significantly stronger. Not like twice as strong either. Honestly I think I’m already twice as strong and it’s only been a few days. Can you imagine what we’ll be like in a year? And you started way bigger and stronger than everyone else. It’s just a matter of time before I have to call you Hercules.”

  “Better go find a lion to kill then.”

  “Start by mucking out the stables… There's a river here.”

  They were both laughing by the time they reached the central watch tower, where the wall curved slightly, giving a better view of the lake. The water gleamed like a living piece of glass.

  Jay leaned against the wooden wall, squinting at the horizon. “Crazy how normal this all feels now, huh?”

  Alex glanced at him. “Normal?”

  “Yeah.” Jay gestured out at the fields. “Look at that. People patrolling, someone’s fixing a roof, you can smell stew from the kitchens. It’s like… this place has been here forever. Like we’ve been here forever.”

  Alex nodded slowly. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  Back on Earth, days didn’t really have weight, they had stress. It was always a rush to get from one place to the next, finish one task just to start another. Schedules. Class, work, deadlines, all of it stacked like layers of noise.

  Here, even time itself seemed softer. Each morning bled into the next with training, chores, exploration – all real in a way that felt more earned. The blisters on his palms, the burn in his legs, the bruises from sparring – they were proof that he existed here in a way that textbooks and lectures had never made him feel.

  He didn’t say that part aloud, but Jay must’ve guessed it anyway. “You thinking about the trip back?”

  Alex sighed. “Yeah. Hard not to. A week back at school, pretending like we didn’t spend the last two days learning how to fight monsters.”

  Jay chuckled. “You say that like we’re the only ones pretending. Everyone’s got two lives now.”

  “Maybe,” Alex said, “but this one already feels more… I don’t know… more real I guess.”

  Jay didn’t argue. He watched the sunlight ripple over the water for a time. “You ever notice how the air here smells cleaner?”

  Alex raised an eyebrow. “What, like pine and soap?”

  “Just, like… real. The forest, the horses… I don’t know. The air is just more clear here.”

  “That’s very poetic of you.”

  Jay grinned. “Hey, I can be poetic. Don’t tell Connor though. He’ll say I’m going soft.”

  The name hung between them. Alex leaned on the wall, looking down toward the training field. From this angle, the sand ring where he’d fought Connor this morning was just a pale oval, empty now except for a pair of people getting in some sparring practice. He could almost feel the ghost of this morning's match still echoing – the clack of wood, the adrenaline, the shock of realizing he’d actually outsmarted the guy who usually mopped the floor with everyone.

  “Connor,” Alex said quietly, almost to himself. “You really think he’ll ever forgive me for that? Or forget at least.”

  Jay exhaled through his nose. “He’ll get over it. Probably.”

  “Probably?”

  Jay tilted his head. “Okay, maybe not. He’s… complicated.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “That’s a polite way to say he’s a jerk.”

  “Yeah,” Jay said with a half-smile. “Look, Connor’s got this thing where he has to win. Not just here, not just with fighting – with everything. If someone’s faster, he runs harder. If someone lifts more, he trains longer. It’s like he’s got this voice in his head that tells him he’s got to be the best… or maybe telling him that he sucks all the time. Same difference.”

  Alex frowned. “Sounds exhausting.”

  “Probably is,” Jay said. “That’s why he’s always on edge. But you gotta admit – that drive? It’s kind of impressive. I mean, he makes me better just by being around. When we train together, I don’t have a choice but to push harder.”

  Alex gave him a skeptical look. “You like training with him?”

  Jay shrugged. “Yeah. He pushes me. Yeah he’s a bit of a jerk, but honestly, I think that’s the only way he knows how to be around people. He treats his own team basically the same. Fighting, competing, proving himself – it’s his way of connecting or expressing or something.”

  “That’s messed up.”

  Jay laughed softly. “Yeah, maybe. But it works for him. I’ll tell you what though, you keep improving and I can switch gym partners.”

  Alex snorted. “Is that your way of saying I should get better?”

  “Exactly. Save me from my gym partner man.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  A breeze drifted up from the lake, cooling the wall. It carried the faint scent of pine mixed with cooking smoke. Somewhere behind them someone was hammering boards together – a rhythmic, distant sound.

  Alex found himself staring out again at the forest line, mesmerized by the shifting layers of green. There was something magnetic about that place. Mysterious. Peaceful. He’d always loved the forests back home where he grew up, but they were all ‘managed forests’ with rows of white pine. This forest was primeval, with towering trees that resemble redwoods but with more branches and hilly land underneath covered in moss and ferns. It called to him in a way he didn’t quite understand. Maybe it was curiosity. Maybe something else.

  “You ever want to go out there?” he asked suddenly.

  Jay followed his gaze. “Into the woods? Not really. Why?”

  “I don’t know.” Alex traced a finger along the parapet’s edge. “It just feels… quiet. Like the kind of quiet that lets you think. I keep wanting to walk in and just, I don’t know, get lost for a while.”

  Jay watched him for a moment. “You sound like you’ve been here longer than two days.”

  “Maybe I have,” Alex said softly. “In my head, anyway.”

  Jay nodded. “You’ll get your chance. After we get back.”

  “Yeah. Next week, maybe.”

  The thought of “next week” didn’t feel real. In a few hours, they’d be back on Earth – in classrooms and dorms, where the air felt thick and artificial, where the sky never seemed as wide and the work felt artificial. The others were excited. Even Connor had joked about finally eating something that didn’t taste like “field rations disguised as stew.” But for Alex, the idea filled him with a strange hollow ache.

  Back home, everything felt smaller – less meaningful. The idea of sitting through lectures again after everything he’d learned here seemed absurd.

  He didn’t notice he’d gone quiet until Jay spoke again.

  “You’re not looking forward to going back, huh?”

  Alex shook his head. “It’s not that. I just… I don't know how I’m supposed to pretend this isn’t real. Like, how do you walk through a campus after sparring with actual swords and pretend I don’t have a computer in my head that is making me stronger and faster than a bodybuilder?”

  Jay chuckled. “You don’t. You just… compartmentalize. Pretend you’re in a long dream between training sessions.”

  “Maybe.”

  They kept walking, the wall curving gently downward toward the main gate. The guards stationed there saluted as they passed. One of them, a woman with a scar across her cheek, grinned at Jay.

  “You leaving soon, big guy?” she called.

  “Couple hours,” Jay answered.

  “Shame,” she said with a wink.

  Jay laughed and waved it off. Alex noticed the guard’s eyes follow him even after they’d walked on. “You weren’t kidding about being popular.”

  Jay shrugged, pretending not to notice. “It’s the shoulders. They make people trust you.”

  “That looked like a little more than trust.”

  “Who Liz?” Jay laughed. “Maybe, she’s cute right? I met her yesterday in the cafeteria.”

  They stopped near the south tower, where the wall’s shadow cut a sharp line across an empty courtyard below.

  Alex picked up their previous conversation, “It’s just weird, you know? After the first day I thought going home would feel like… relief.”

  “And it doesn’t?”

  Alex shook his head. “Feels like leaving summer camp. The kind you don’t want to end.”

  Jay smiled faintly. “That’s a good sign. We are going to be spending a lot of time here.”

  “Yeah.” Alex looked around at the village, and the rolling hills leapfrogging into the distance.

  “Maybe someday we’ll move here full time. If everything goes well,” Jay said, then stretched, his shoulders cracking like wood beams. “Till then, I’m looking forward to sleeping in a real bed. And maybe a cheeseburger.”

  Alex grinned. “Priorities.”

  “You bet.”

  The sun had started to drift lower now, softening the light. Long shadows stretched across the training field. A pair of recruits passed below, laughing about something, the sound echoing upward.

  Alex leaned on the wall and let himself just feel the air. The hum of the world here. The sense of being surrounded by something alive but patient. Earth 3 didn’t demand anything from him right now except to find out who he really was. And it was waiting patiently for him.

  “I’ll miss this,” he said quietly.

  Jay nodded beside him. “You will. But that’s what makes it worth coming back to. Besides, we’re lucky. It’s not like the university is in a big city. There’s lots of fresh air back home too.”

  They stood there for a while longer, saying nothing, just watching the forest line shimmer under the slow golden light. Eventually, Jay pushed off the wall.

  “Come on. Let’s grab our gear. I want to be early for once.”

  Alex smirked. “Scared the portal’s going to leave without you?”

  “No, scared Connor will get there first and call shotgun.”

  They both laughed, tension easing. As they started back toward the stairs, Alex glanced one last time toward the lake. The sunlight glinted off the water like a wink.

  ***

  I don’t know why I’m writing a letter home that I can’t even send. But I needed to get some things out of my head. Maybe I should just start a journal; I’ve seen a lot of others doing that.

  I doubt there is a way I can explain any of the things in my head that would make any sense to anyone on the Earth side of the gate. You’ve always been there to help me work through things like this (well, not like THIS… this is a new one) and I’d really like to talk to you now, but this is going to have to do and I will just try and imagine what your answers might be.

  …Earth feels wrong now. Not bad. Just… off. I go back to school on Mondays but my hands want to pick up a sword, not a pen. I keep checking corners and every single shadow.

  People here complain about traffic and coffee, and project due dates and I want to shake them and tell them that last weekend a thing with too many legs tried to eat my friend.

  Then Friday hits and I’m packing again, my stomach knots because Earth-3 is beautiful and terrifying and real in a way Earth forgot how to be.

  The worst part is the switch.

  You step through the gate, in either direction, and you are in a world where the other one, and all the tools you need to survive in it, just don’t exist and don’t matter.

  Some days it’s really hard to figure out which version of me is real anymore.

  Unsent Letter Home,

  Wayward Suns

  Jonah Martin