Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer

was the case, having to spend more time doing it wouldn’t be something they’d complain about.
    It was getting late in the afternoon. Soon it would be evening, and while he knew that people slept outdoors for millennia, he’d never done it himself. He had no idea what could attack him in the night, but he’d seen enough movies to have some ideas. Wolves. Highwaymen. Evil queens. He spent a lot of time thinking about being attacked by an evil queen. It actually didn’t sound so bad. At any rate, he did not like the idea of spending the night outdoors. He knew that if things got really bad he could go back to his own time, but he was still in big trouble there. Here, he was alone, tired, and hungry, but at least he wasn’t being actively pursued.
    He reached the top of the hill and saw what might be a road in the distance, near the tree line. He figured it would take another hour at least to reach it. He could see a long way, and there were no other people anywhere. He pulled out his phone, made a quick estimate of the distance to the road, and a few seconds later he was standing in the middle of it . This was more like it.
    The road was a set of two ruts that had been reinforced enough to effectively become one large rut. In one direction the road disappeared into the woods. In the other it continued in open grassland along the edge of the woods, allowing Martin to see nearly a half mile of empty road. He didn’t know which direction would lead him to a village first, but he did know which direction he could travel more easily. A few seconds later, he was a half mile down the road.
    He spent the next half hour leapfrogging huge chunks of land. There were a lot of large, clear sections of road he could teleport past. In a few places the road disappeared around a bend, but he’d see it reemerge in the distance, so he’d jump to that spot, cutting who knew how much distance from his journey.
    He was getting discouraged that he hadn’t seen any other people when in the distance he saw what appeared to be two men on horseback riding towards him. They were still hundreds of yards away. He started walking toward them. He hoped to at least find out how far he was from the nearest village. As the distance between them slowly closed he could see more detail. They were either men or powerfully unattractive women. They had swords. Honest to God SWORDS! He could tell they had seen him. They didn’t seem concerned. They weren’t speeding up at all, and neither was Martin, but the distance between them seemed to be closing much faster than before, and each second brought new, unwelcome details. Their clothes were made primarily of leather and a fabric that looked scratchy. The colors were mottled, and by mottled he meant stained. The worst part was that they were both smiling.
    Martin knew that if they tried anything, he could hit the Escape button again, and it would take him back to the cliffs, but all of his progress would be lost. He opened the app, hoping he wouldn’t need it. He’d lived in the city long enough to know that to show any fear was the absolute worst thing he could do. He forced himself to smile and to walk faster toward the two.
    As he got closer, their smiles faded. Maybe they think I’m gonna attack them, he thought. I’m wearing a wizard robe. He didn’t want them to attack preemptively. He meant them no harm. He only wanted information about the nearest village. Martin decided to act friendly.
    “Hello!” Martin yelled, waving casually with his right hand, but holding his phone with the left, his thumb hovering over the Escape button.
    The men leaned in closer and spoke to each other. They were about a hundred feet away now, and could really get a good look at Martin. Martin could also see them. He noticed that the two men shared three eyebrows and three working eyes between them, but the distribution was not uniform. They stopped their horses.
    Maybe hello was too modern a word , Martin thought .