"Roger, what--" she stopped as she saw who stood before her.

The girl from her dream. The one with the braids... what the...?

Anaera looked at this girl. The one from her dream. Complete with Beatles tshirt. She should talk to her... what language? Ancient Greek? Latin? English? Well, they seemed to speak Japanese everywhere, so...

"Watashi wa Nadori Anira. O namae wa?"

Susanne was taken aback. Wata... wha? The words were foreign, but then it registered. Roger had told her to just accept... so the fact that she understood perfectly what Anira was saying wasn't questioned when she answered.

"Watashi wa Susanne." She paused. "You're an otaku."

Anaera was a little surprised when the girl answered in Japanese, then switched to English. This girl, Susanne, probably knew English better than Japanese, that was all. She nodded assent.

"Does Celly know you're here?"

Anaera's expression was puzzled.

"You'd know her if you saw her. She's got black hair and is insane."

Silence followed.

"Well, ah... have you met anyone else? Rapath? That other girl in the trenchcoat? I can't think of her name."

"I've met only you."

"Oh." Susanne paused. "I know there's more, you see. Well, I think there are. I had this, like dream..."

"You had the dream?" Anaera said suddenly.

"What, you had a dream, too?" Susanne said excitedly. "So you saw everyone? There were three girls I didn't recognize, and one of them was you, so now I guess there's only two more. The little one with black hair and--"

"And the blonde."

"Yes."

The girls regarded each other.

"Do you think all the other girls had this dream?" Anaera asked after a moment.

Susanne thought about this. "No," she finally said. "I'm sure that at least Celly and the other girl didn't have it. Of course, I can't speak for Rapath or the others."

Anaera nodded. "So, uh... did you notice there's a tiger right there?"

Roger chuckled and lay down. They might very well be here awhile.

"Oh, yeah, this is Roger, my, uh, guardian cat. Right, Rog?"

Roger nodded.

"I'm, ah, pleased to meet you," Anaera said. "Well, this," she said, pointing to her hair, "is Orpheus."

"Who is?"

"I am!" said a tiny voice.

Susanne took a few steps closer and looked... "Oh, a little mouse! How cute!"

"Bet no one says that about yours!" Anaera laughed, gesturing to Roger.

Roger only chuckled.

"Okay, well... I guess... we should probably go to the Mori, then," Susanne said.

"The Mori?"

"Don't ask, I don't know. It's Celly's bar... don't give me that look! I just met her, I can't explain her! But... I have to go back."

After a pause, Anaera said, "Okay, let's go."

Susanne picked up her backpack to leave.

"You know," Roger said, "You can put that in your HammerSpace."

"Oh... how?"

"Just try."

"Okay..." She took the backpack off, then imagined she was setting it on a shelf or something behind her. When she turned around, it was nowhere to be seen! She beamed with pride.

"You know, I don't think I've ever met a tiger who spoke with a British accent," Anaera said as they walked. Susanne raised her eyebrow. "Okay, so I've never met a tiger who talked, period."

Of course, Susanne hadn't even noticed the accent... she lived among Brits, so she was used to it.

Before they even realized it, they had left the forest, and were now in the desert. They could see the Otaku no Mori not too far away.