Alfheim

"What kind of dangers did we figure out we'd face here again?" Alex said. "I remember illusions and time pockets, but I don't remember the rest."

"Misleading paths and illusions, animals that can charm or bewitch you, time distortions that can make hours pass like minutes, elven traps, and poisonous plants," Finn said.

"Nice. I hope we can fight some plants or something," Astrid said.

"The idea is to avoid the poison plants. Not fight them," Finn said.

"Don't bother. She won't listen," Alex said. "I hope we find the silver flag. Which, according to my dowsing skill, should be that way." Alex pointed.

"That's towards the enchanted forest," Finn said.

"Makes sense to me," Alex said. "Easy to get lost or distracted. Perfect place to put it."

"Alex, do you have something that can tell time?"

Alex used his Always Prepared trait to remember that he made sure to bring one for the journey. He also remembered to bring duct tape.

"I see where you're going with this. Astrid, get some sort of sturdy or large branch," Alex said.

"Like this?" Astrid said as she held up a decent sized branch. It looked pretty dry and dead, which was a good thing.

"You made sure to get that off the ground, right?" Alex said.

"Yeah, why?"

"He's worried the trees might be alive or the elves might have something against harming plant life," Finn said.

"Both." Using duct tape, Alex attached the watch to the end of the branch, facing the holder of the branch so they could read the watch.

"Nice. This is better than what I was thinking. I was thinking just holding it in front of me with my hand but this is way better. How did you think to bring duct tape and a watch?" Finn said.

"I didn't," Alex said. "I have an ability that allows me to 'remember' that I brought some mundane object or information with me as long as I can explain away how I have it. But before I use the ability, I don't actually have the thing. It's called Always Prepared."

"That's so useful!" Finn said.

"It is. I almost forgot I had the ability actually, until you reminded me," Alex said.

"What's with the branch and the watch?" Astrid said.

"Oh, here's an apparatus you can play with. If the second hand on the watch starts suddenly moving slower, it means we're about to walk into a time warp zone. If that happens then the other racers will catch up with us. So if that happens, you tell us and we'll walk around it," Alex said handing the branch to Astrid.

"Apparatus! Yay! Now I'm an apparatus haver." Astrid started staring angrily at the watch.

"Alright, let's go. Alex said. A danger sense ability would be really good right now, but he would have to settle for using Empathy.

[New skill created: Sense Person]

This skill was named sense person but it wasn't that simple. It sensed the number of people around Alex experiencing emotion.

So if Alex could suddenly sense emotion from more people than before, then there was someone nearby.

They walked through the forest towards where Alex sensed the silver flag. They had been walking for nearly thirty minutes when Astrid noticed something.

"It's moving faster! The watch." Astrid said.

"Hmm. That could mean that time speeds up when you enter it." Alex said. "That would be really useful for a break. We could rest in there for a bit and not lose much time."

"Or it could age you really fast," Finn

"I have some experience with time dilation and that's generally not how it works." Alex said.

"When time speeds up, your perception of time doesn't speed up also. You could spend years in a matter of minutes in there, but you would experience the years as actual years. And you can leave whenever you want."

"Ok," Finn said, still not convinced.

"Watch. I'll do it. Im just going to walk in ten feet and walk back. It'll look like I'm moving super fast and then I'll be out, no older than before," Alex said.

Alex walked into the time dilation zone, turned around, and felt a knife being pressed against his throat.

"Don't move," a voice behind Alex said.

"Why didn't I sense your emotions?" Alex said.

"I was meditating. I wasn't experiencing emotions," the voice said.

"Damn," Alex said. "So I'm Alex. What's your name?"

"You're not Asgardian. Neither are your friends. What are you?" The voice said.

"Human," Alex said.

"Humans? Way out here? Why?" The voice said.

"Well, I'm in a race across the Nine Worlds to save the multiverse and the only way to save the multiverse is if I win the race," Alex said.

"Who would believe that?" The voice said.

"It's the truth. Don't you have some magic to tell if I'm lying?" Alex said.

"No, but I've been reading your heartbeat this entire time and it hasn't changed. You're either telling the truth or you're insane," the voice said.

"You wouldn't kill an insane person, would you?" Alex said.

"Actually, we kill insane elves all the time. We see it as a mercy." The voice said.

"Well, I'm not insane. Here I can prove it. If you'll let me reach into my pocket, I'll pull out a letter written and signed by the Fate of all Fates, referencing the competition," Alex said.

"Now, I know you're insane. There's no way a pathetic human got Fate to sign a letter for him." The voice said. The knife pressed harder against Alex's neck.

"Do you want to know for sure or do you want to kill me assuming you're right?" Alex said.

"I want to know, but I will laugh as I kill you if you're wrong," the voice said.

"Aren't you afraid my friends will catch you?" Alex said. There's no way his friends would catch them. The time dilation effect was too strong.

"I'll be long gone by the time your friends cross the threshold of the effect," the voice said.

"Damn it," Alex said, as he used his Always Prepared trait. He remembered he made sure to get the letter from Fate back from Hermes in case he needed it to prove his story for just such an event as this. "I'm pulling it out now. The letter, I mean."