The town was called New Angeles. It was a technical wonder. Even though this was the 21st century, the town was in 1983 condition. It was an ancient foundation, and made of beautiful brick. Being early in the morning, 6:12 last time he looked, people were just waking up. He stood in front of the bar.

James Lom was his name. He stood at the door. He was a Bounty Hunter, and a good one too. His fame had spread a few problems. Some bounties hired an assassin who would try too kill him. He'd end up killing both the assassin and the bounty, and getting both rewards. Another problem was his reputation would make a bounty flee the continent. Most the time he still caught them.

His current bounty was Peter Zalanski, a ruthless computer thief. James was the best bounty hunter known, but Peter didn't care. He was in that bar.

He walked in and strode over to the bar. He set down next to Peter.

No one knew what James looked like, and anyone who found out didn't live to tell about it. His department didn't even know, that was in case of rouge officers. So Lom wasn't worried about Peter knowing who he was.

"What'll ya have?" the bartender asked.

"Red Wolf. In a cup, on the rocks." James said in a gruff voice. Having a built in voice modifier in his throat proved convenient. The bartender turned on the machine, and within seconds his drink materialized.

"So Peter, is it?" he asked, taking a periodical chug.

"Yeah. What is it stranger?" he replied in a evil, sarcastic voice.

"Hear ya got a price on yer head. Some fancy prance bounty hunter been ‘round this neighborhood askin for you. Says you got a.. what did he say, 200,000 C-Notes on your head. I wouldn't tell him no matter what he did." James Lom said. He raised his right hand and showed a huge cut along it.

"Well tell that scumbag to raise the price. That low is disrespectable. Next time you see him, tell him to raise it to a few million. That’s what I'm worth. Yeah. That’s what I AM worth." Peter said.

"Ok...I'll find him and tell him. See ya later." James said. He got up and walked away. About halfway to the door Peter whistled. James turned around. He started to reach for his gun.

"Hey, you forgot your beer." Peter said, smiling. James walked back and grabbed it. He pulled out money instead of his gun and paid the bartender.

"Oh..thanks for reminding me." he said.

"It's ok...I mean, wouldn't want you to leave without it. That would be wasted money, right James?" Peter said. He punched James in the stomach, his beer spilling everywhere. His gun fell out.

James reached for it and Peter stepped on his hand. James grabbed Peter's other foot and tripped him. James got up and stepped back a few feet.

Peter came up firing James’s pistol. James jumped out of the way. One hit his hand. The other two hit a mother and her baby walking down the street. Now James was pissed. That maniac had hurt his hand.

James jumped forward and kicked the gun from Peter's hand. He caught it. Then James whacked Peter's chin with the butt of the gun. Peter fell down.

James felt a chair crunch across the back of his head. He fell next to Peter.

Peter got up and kicked him a couple times in the side.

"He's James Lom. He is? Yeah...and he was here to kill me..." James heard. Then he drifted deeper into unconsciousness.

"Why don't we kill him bozz?? Vord be too easy. Buzz yurt zem through much pain first, then we'll..soqamk,m...." James strained to keep consciousness.

But the chair had hit him pretty hard. He zonked out right as they explained all their plans.

James awoke on a blanket. A horse grazing a few feet next to him neighed as it noticed him waking. He sat up and stretched. The kangaroo eating his left shoe got frightened and hopped away. Of in the distance was a herd of them.

The surroundings were flat grasslands. Off to the east was a forest, and to the west a desert. To the north mountains, and to the south ocean. The whole surrounding ground was dark because of an overpassing cloud. James stopped looking around to look at his right hand, which was in horrible pain. It was wrapped in bloody bandages. James remembered Peter saying he was going to not kill him, but put him through pain.

James quickly unwrapped the bandages and cried. There was nothing left but a bloody stump cut of at the wrist. He wrapped it back up and cried. He yelled out into the morning air "You BASTARD!!! You GOD DAMN BASTARD!!!".

After a few minutes of crying and cursing, he got up and studied the horse.

It had a sword sheathed to its side. He noticed one similar to it on his back. Along

with a shortbow. He noticed a quiver of arrows sheathed to the other side of the horse. James looked at his chest and noticed he was wearing armor. It had a beautiful shiny blue color to its surface.

"Where am I? Why the hell would Peter give me this?" James said. The horse neighed, as though he understood what James was saying.

"Ohhh....my head hurts from all this crap. Is this a dream? Must be. That or I'm dead. In Hell. Or Heaven. Who knows. I mus-" James said. He suddenly stopped. Now he knew the horse was responding to his words.

James got on the saddle and looked in the saddlebag. There were six or seven colored pendants. He pulled out an orange one and put it's necklace around his neck. It was beautiful.

"Well horsey, where do you suggest we go?" he asked the horse. He laughed at his little joke and started petting it's mane.

"We should find Zagoden, then..." the horse started to reply. James was half stunned with disbelief and the other half with horror. His body responded by lurching back. He fell off the horse and scrambled back, wide-eyed.

"Uh, It was just a hallucination. Must be the loss of blood. " he told himself.

"If you feel like sitting, oh well. Anyways. Then we should go home. Your wife is probably worried sick. And why not, you've been out for over a month. And another thing,...master? You ok Josh?" the horse continued.

He pulled his sword and pointed it at him.

"Whho-o..a-are ya-you..." James mumbled. He kept his sword out.

"Your horse of course. Do you have amnesia? Maybe Zagoden put a forget spell on you. True?" it said, cocking its head sideways like a dog does when it's confused.

"Uuhhhh....yyeeaaahhhh....that’s it. Forget Spell. Sure. Tell me everything again." James said.

"OK. Your name is Sir Joshua Clairborne. Second son of Lengaurd. I am Winslow, your trusty steed. You are a bounty hunter." Winslow said. James paused for a minute and sheathed his sword. He stood and brushed himself off. He got back on.

"Your current target was Zagoden. You left me to go to his castle a week ago. I've been grazing from this field and drinking from that stream while waiting for you." Winslow continued and nodded toward a stream.

"Go on." James said.

"Then a day ago Zagoden came here and put you down in this old campsite. He ran east and his castle fell apart. Out of it arose the Black Castle. You've been asleep since then. I would have gone after Zogaden, but I had to stay with you. I know how mad you got when I did follow a bounty once. I came back and some Goblins and Imps were going to cook you. I chased them away. Is that enough information?" Winslow finished. He neighed in happiness that his master was back.

"Oh...where is this Black Castle you spoke of, Winslow?" James inquired.

"There..." the horse explained, pointing his head towards the sky. James looked to the location Winslow had pointed out and gawked.

Now he looked closer at the cloud. Above him a few hundred feet in the sky was a floating island with a city on it. As James squinted at it more and more, he could tell it was a castle.

"Oh my lord...wait. Explain to me how and why I have a talking horse. Are you sure your name isn't Mr. Ed?" James inquired, turning to Winslow.

"Oh, I sure wish I could talk human. But it's not me, no no, it's the pendant around your neck. It's the Pendant of Language. You won that after your battle with the Carrion Crawler Queen. Don't you remember even that? That was your second assignment, the one where you met Joyce. You must remember her. Mr. Ed? Who is that?" Winslow said, looking a little perplexed.

James suddenly thought of a beautiful blond teenager that he had never seen before. She was hugging him, and he was covered in blood. He had never experienced this, but yet it seemed to have happened to him. He now remembered it clear.

"Never mind...Joyce who?" James responded.

"Oh... well, you and her dated after that. You were only eighteen back then, she was fourteen. You even made love with her on my saddle. That taught me a few things about human culture I won't forget! Hmmm..you went on to marry her. She's the wife I reminded you about. That reminds me, now shall we get back to her? I'm awfully anxious to see my spouse, she should have had her colt by now. I hope it's a boy. So can we leave?" Winslow explained, stopping at last to catch his breath. Talking a long time like that took a lot of breath for a horse.

James remembered more. Dating her, making love on horseback, the marriage, Winslow's female spouse that was pregnant. It all came clear to him as though they happened to him, but yet he had never done them. Then he had a notion.

"Winslow, now I remember. Zargon, Zorron, Zordon, Zog...oz..Za...Zago, what's his name?" he asked his steed.

"Why, Zagoden." his horse replied, happy to help his master.

"Oh yeah...Zogaden put a forget spell on me. The only way to get rid of it is for you to tell me about my past when we come to a object from it.. Now let's go to collect my bounty." James said with a better stature. He was not stupid, in fact he was the smartest man in New Angeles, and he was adapting quite quickly to this world. He had read lots of fantasy books when he was a kid.

Then he reconsidered. Would the smartest man in New Angeles walk into a trap such as the one that Peter had so cleverly laid out in the bar?

"Ok, but its Zagoden, not Zogaden." Winslow explained.

"Whatever." James responded.

Winslow started off and they were made great progress across the grasslands. They were headed south to the ocean. James could see that an arm of the desert reached out between them and the ocean. But Winslow had already thought of that and redirected the course to pass it.

By nightfall they were there. The town looked deserted. It was a regular medieval village. Something was wrong, James could feel it in his gut. He normally got that feeling when something was wrong. Why couldn't he detect it in the bar? Peter must have used magic. Winslow perked his ears up.

"Something evil is here, smells like a shipper." Winslow replied, now walking slowly and very cautious.

"Something wicked this way comes...eh. What's a shipper?" James asked.

As the horse was about to answer when a tentacle whipped by James’s head. He jumped off Winslow and drew his sword. He still wasn't very handy with it, but he would get use to using it.

Winslow trotted back and watched from a distance. Not that he was afraid, but because Joshua always made sure he didn't accidentally hit Winslow.

James looked at the monster and almost puked, luckily keeping it down. The thing stood ten something feet tall, and spread out in front of him on both sides in a slimy blob substance that ended in tentacles. Tentacles very much like an octopuses. The whole thing was dark green.

It had small human sized heads all over it's mass of a head. Below the small heads, but above the tentacles, laid an open cavern filled with an uncountable number of teeth in all sizes. He suspected this was the mouth.

Then James noticed the heads. There was Peter. And John, and Marcy, and Fred from his bar. All the people he knew. They all cried for help as they each drooled saliva different colors. Red, orange, gray, black, and so on. The drool dripped down into the mouth. It sucked all the spittle in.

One of the lighter green tentacles wrapped around his waist and pulled him towards its open maw.

"DiE! DiE! DiE sO I CaN dIgEsT yOu!!!" the disgustingly grotesque creature screeched loudly in a voice like fingers across a chalkboard. He wasn't sure which head the sound was coming from.

He noticed one of the heads was of his own. He stabbed it through the temple. It screamed as red blood poured from it's wound.

"AAAAhhhh....you murderer! Aahhhh..." it screamed in his own voice as it withered and died.

The creature suddenly dropped him to mend its wound. James whistled, and Winslow trotted up to his side. This horse knew when his master was in trouble.

Without a word of explanation, he went for the saddlebag. But four tentacles wrapped around his legs and torso. It knew it's mistake.

James grabbed his sword tightly and whacked the saddlebag with the tip hard. So hard, infact, that a green pendant flew out. He didn't know what it did, but he really had no choice about it. James caught it.

Without thinking he cut off all the tentacles on him. He jumped at the middle and sliced diagonally down it's chest. No cut. Damn.

Suddenly it stopped moving. A red line appeared where he had struck. Blood slimed out, and the top half slid down on the sludge and fell to the ground. It started to reform back into a blob. Tentacles started reforming. He had to move quickly or it would be back to normal.

He did. His body took over and pointed the sword to the blob. A cold breeze blew out and froze the thing like nitroglycerin. He kicked it and it shattered into snow.

His body took over again and he pointed the sword at the snow. This time a flame licked out and melted the snow. Soon all the water was evaporated and the fire was burning the ground. Then it stopped.

"That, my sire, was a shape shifter. Shipper for short. That is the Pendant of Combat. Now can we..." Winslow started, but was cut off by a strange old robed man who was rushing up to join them.

"Thank you Sir Joshua for vanquishing that evil creature. He has been terrorizing us for months. You are always welcome here, no matter what that poster says. That thing killed that poor man Ramus. I saw it with mine own eyes.

You art not to be blamed." he said.

"Uuhhhhh...what poster?" James inquired.

"That one, of course." the man said.

James stridded towards a wall where a poster was hung. He tore it down and read it.

Written upon it was "WANTED: Dead or Alive (Preferably dead.) Joshua Clairborne. Going under alias of James Lom. Reward of 2,000,000 gold pieces for Kidnapping and Murder of our Mayor Ramus, Treason, Conspiracy against the Kingdom, and Spying. -Your Beloved King Pete" with a picture of James on it. He crumbled up the paper and threw it down a sewer drainage.

"I'm defini tely not in Kansas anymore Winslow." he muttered.

"Kansas? Where’s that? Do you mean Kansu?" Winslow replied.

He saw the old man run into a hut, and ran after him.

"Wait, Joshua. That man is Zagoden! Be careful!" his horse replied. James ran to the door and kicke d it open. He did a double handstand into the hut, flipped in the air two times, landed on his feet and drew his sword in one fell swoop motion. He looked all around and spied Zagoden setting in a chair smoking a pipe.

"All right Mr. Sherlock, snuff the pipe and explain before I chop you up worse than that shipper. I just woke up today, find out I'm someone else, my hand is missing, I have a talking horse and some weird pendants. So I'm really pissed off!" James told the wizard.

"Ahh..he speaks. " Zagoden said, putting the pipe down.

"First, you are yourself, your arm is of no consequence to me, your horse only talks because of that pendant. Secondly, you won't touch me because I'm the only one who knows about James Lom of New Angeles that will tell you the truth." Zagoden said.

"True." James stated. He sheathed his sword.

"Now do you want the truth?" Zagoden asked.

"You bet the hell I do! Tell me what you did." James said, crossing his arms looking much like a woman on P.M.S.

"I don't own hell and wouldn't intend to bet it if I had it. Ok. The truth. This'll be long, so take a seat and bring Winslow in." the wizard said. James whistled and his horse came in. Zagoden had a bail of oats. Winslow looked worried about them, thinking them poisoned. James nodded and Winslow happily munched on the food.

James set at a table. He looked around and noticed the house was filled with books, bottles, a woodstove, a food shelf, a table, a couch, a chair on each side of the table, and an alchemist's bench far off in the corner. There was a door leading to what James suspected as the bedroom.

"Would you like some Herbal Tea? I got it from China a month ago." Zagoden said, pouring himself a glass of tea from a pitcher, which had evidently been on a wood stove.

"Yes, I...are you delaying me? Tell me now Dammit!" James said, slamming his fist on the table.

"Fine. The truth. This is a another dimension. Everybody shares a soul with someone in the other dimension. You shared a soul with Joshua, Peter shared one with Pete, and I with your father...." Zagoden started. James sit back and listened, taking sips from his cup periodically.

"Oo...k.." James replied, thinking the man insane. Then he realized the events that had occurred today.

"...No one knew how to get between them until a magician known as Pete came to us and showed us how. We trade with your reality, but Pete got greedy. He found Peter and they planned their plot to take over the world...." he continued.

"Don’t tell me it’s another "Take over the world Plot". Those damn villains can never think of anything original." James whined.

"You’re right. Now, as I was saying...the problem was that both you and Joshua tried to kill them at the same time, but in different realities. They took you both and came to me. I wouldn't help them so they imprisoned me in my own castle. They chopped off both your right hands. Then they killed Joshua. They were about to kill you when I used a forge spell on you two." the wizard said, finishing.

"What's a forging spell?" James asked, obviously curious on the subject.

"Aahhh...it put you and Joshua in one body. You have Joshua's body and mind in you. You may have recalled some unexperienced memories?" Zagoden said, finishing his cup of tea.

"Yes. I understand all of it now. What happened next." James concluded.

"Ah, the best part. I was almost there. That's where I come in. I escaped my chains and broke you two free. The reason I was able to was because they left to go to the bathroom. I got away and left you on that blanket. Then I led Pete and Peter to this town and lost them. They gave up and went back to planning their plot." he answered.

"That explains the shipper and the wanted sign. How do we get back to that castle?" James inquisited.

"Ahh. But of course, Foihler can take us there. The problem is getting there. We must go to the Gratalingi Mountains." he replied.

"Who is this Foihler?" James asked.

"Not who, but what. He is the biggest dragon on this continent." Zagoden replied.

"How do we get to him?" James asked.

"But my lad, it's simple. We must go to Dragon Mountain." he answered.

"What else is on Dragon Mountain?" he replied.

"What else but dragons? We leave in the morning, ok?" Zagoden said.

James swallowed hard. He didn't even know how to use his sword, and they were going into the heart of dragon country. Why didn't he just stay home? James now realized why his horoscope this morning had said "I wish I weren’t you".