***Present Time***
I imagine the worst while remembering my promise to be there for Athena.
Calm down, panicking won't get me anywhere; I need to be sure Athena is safe. Considering that I’m alive, Athena is probably still alive as well.
I take a deep breath, calm down, and try to assess my environment. I noticed a rack for holding spears against the wall. That could be useful. I think to myself. I quickly shuffle to get off the bed, before I step on what could be considered a... carpet?
The carpet that I was standing on had the hide of some creature I had never seen before. It didn’t even seem like a hide it had white pieces of gas? Fur? I honestly couldn’t tell, but if I had to explain it; It seemed like wisps moving somewhat like water within an ethereal translucent form. I could barely see the translucent form of the rug. It made me have to rely on a sixth sense which I didn’t know I had to help me know it was there. The weirdest part was that the white wisps within the translucent ethereal thing would converge and engross my feet as I stepped on it.
Despite it being the most sinister and disturbing thing I had ever seen and felt in my life, it did feel quite nice; it felt as if I put my feet in a hot bath of slime that was massaging my feet simultaneously. I give it a 4/10 felt great, felt funky, felt fucky, it had it all, it just had a bit too much fucky.
I look around a bit more and notice that there was another normal-looking pelt on the floor; as normal as a crimson-tinted bear pelt can get anyways. Strangely enough, the strangest thing here was a hand-crafted Star Wars canvas in the forms of Kylo Ren and Darth Vader being illuminated by the red glow of their lightsabers in the darkness, and confronting them is a single Jedi with a glowing green lightsaber showing only a silhouette of said Jedi. It was a pretty fucking cool poster, just in a really weird place. I guess everyone likes Star Wars even in a world far far away. I glance around the room a bit more as I carefully walk to grab a spear from the rack. Although I think I might be safe, I can't be too sure. I notice light peeking out from behind a purple fabric curtain that seems to be covering the only door in the hut. I move to the side of the door and carefully move the purple silk door curtain to peek outside.
It seemed as if I were in a completely different environment than the desert we were just in. The first thing I noticed was that Athena was playing with smaller demons in different shapes, sizes, and colors. We seemed to be underground. However, the area was still beautiful regardless. There was a large hole within the ceiling, that allowed sunlight to pour through. The sun- or well suns were reflecting off of the glistening waterfall that was coming down from the hole. The waterfall dropped into an oasis which also refracted the sun off the water. Furthermore, Past the hole seemed to be an entire rainforest that had been encroaching into the dome with vines coming down from the hole. The area around the oasis was bustling with life. there were trees, grass, animals, bugs, and a fully functional ecosystem.
Weren’t we just in the desert? Where are we? I put away the spear as I noticed that Athena was in no immediate danger and walked out of the hut towards Athena who noticed me almost immediately and started running towards me. she was wearing completely different clothes from before. She was adorned with an orange loose saree with an opening coming down from the middle of her thigh on her right leg and a long silk mesh sleeve on her left arm.
“Yo Gael, you’re finally awake; are you fine? You were hit pretty hard earlier.” Athena greats me with a smile upon closer inspection Athena’s getup also had a lot of intrinsic white patterns on it as well. “Well seems like you’ve been having fun” I glance at the alien-like creatures behind Athena “Yeah this place is just so damn cool!” Athena exclaims with enthusiasm “All the creatures of this village are all so unique and interesting; they are beings we could not even imagine in our world!” Athena exclaims with glowing sapphire eyes and an eagerness to jump in the air. “Athena, how long was I asleep for?” I ask pondering how much Athena got to see while I was asleep
“You’ve been asleep for a day or so.” Athena shrugs “Holy shit! Really?” I shout surprised at how long I had been asleep “Language. The kids are watching” Athena scolds me motioning her head towards the things behind her “Hey vous; tu es enfin réveillé.” A blonde-haired blue-eyed man with a chiseled jaw, roughly kempt thin beard, and handsome features approaches us with a hoard of monsters following behind him. He had an air of tranquility about him. He made it feel as if being around him was the safest place in the world.
Athena goes to high-five the man but it doesn’t end there Athena begins to have a whole ass secret handshake with the stranger she had known for apparently a day “Brandon mon homme comment tu vas c'est mon frère Gael et il est exclusivement anglophone” Athena says “oh non le pauvre enfant pourquoi n'apprend-il pas une autre langue ou deux comme toi ?” the strange man looks at me with pity “il dit qu'il ne veut pas. il prétend que c'est une perte de temps ou qu'il préfère lire” Athena rolls her eyes
“umm, what are you guys talking about?” I join in “Oh my apologies Gael, it’s just your sister and I were… umm talking about you and how you don’t know well... um. understanding French.” the stranger tries to put his sentence nicely to my confusion and concern in good, but accented English. “Umm well anyways nice to meet you my name is Gael; who might you be?” I ask politely “Ah yes, my name is Brandon and I am something of a guest in this village” Brandon explains in which the villagers make various noises reminiscent of scoffs or laughs at Brandon’s statement. “Anyways we should probably talk at Brandon's house because Gael you have yet to meet the other humans in this fine establishment” Athena states matter a factly “Uh huh,” I grunt suspiciously to see what other humans exist within this village.
We followed a road to a big building on top of a hill along the way I noticed that there were a multitude of holes in the ceiling some with waterfalls coming down and some just existing to bring in sunlight. I also noticed in the distance what looked to be a variety of farms from rice farms being managed by floating alien creatures using delicate telekinetic powers, to potato farms being managed by literal golems who'd rip out potatoes straight out of the ground with raw strength.
How large is this underground ecosystem? I think to myself. There was more to see when walking as well. From plants telling stories by changing the form of their leaves, to getting various reactions out of children to cute blue squirrel-like spirits, with little hands who would greet us as we passed.
The ecosystem was vast and colorful I could see why a nature enthusiast like Athena would be so excited to see all this. I was a hermit until not too long ago, and even I found this to be rather mesmerizing.
As we entered the large concrete house surrounded by nature we heard “Qu'est-ce que c'est de la merde ! Tu as triché!"
as we close into the sound of the irate man. We reach the kitchen where we witness a man with unkempt black hair and a large scar on his eye scruffling his hair as he plays uno with more monsters around the table with him making all sorts of noises at him basically all of them appearing amused. While the uno game was occurring a man with blond hair and glasses was cooking fried rice with a large sludge monster who had basically reached the ceiling “Babban pouvez-vous s'il vous plaît mettre le dernier de l'assaisonnement?” the man in the glasses asks the sludge monster.
The monster nods and then puts a lump of sludge into the fried rice mixture which the man in the glasses begins to stir making the dish all the more fragrant. “Brandon asseyez-vous, nous avons aussi préparé assez de nourriture pour les enfants” the glasses man glances at us “Andre débarrasse la table je pose la nourriture!” the man in glasses yells at the man with the scar “attendez! je dois faire un retour Hankali a agi comme une garce sournoise tout ce jeu!” the scarred man yells back feeling the pressure of the game while the normal looking gerbil closen the cards and speaks fluent french “ton putain d'André tu n'as aucune chance de gagner ce jeu tu vas devoir tirer un plus 16 au prochain tour” after finishing his sentence the gerbil begins making gerbil noises reminiscent of a mocking laugh while pointing its paw at the scarred man “Je vais te donner à manger à Kallo, petite merde!” the scared man yells pointing at the majestic navy blue two tailed cat sitting by the window. The cat looks back to see what the commotion is about, but quickly loses interest and continues to observe the world outside the window
“comment osez-vous me menacer de cette façon mon excellence ne le permettra pas sur mes gardes!” the gerbil drops the cards and puffs out its chest to face the scarred man “oh tu es sur de petites choses tu vas être notre prochain repas” the Scarred man says while pulling out a machete with a menacing smile “Assez!” both the man glasses and the minotaur between them yell simultaneously, the minotaur, in particular, producing enough pressure that weakened my knees and nearly causing me to pass out Athena also recoiled with the sudden pressure that had entered the room but seemed as if she was having fun regardless.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Ok, that's enough out of all of you no more fighting” Brandon interjects the fight “Euh, bien” the gerbil and the scarred man agree like whiny children and begin to clean off the table “Hein, pourquoi parles-tu anglais?” the scarred man asks while scratching his head with the butt of his machete “you see Gael here has finally woken up, but he doesn’t speak french very well so please use English whenever you can” Brandon explains “What the kid doesn’t know french? But his sister is fluent? Ya know what never mind. listen here kid if you don't learn at least this world’s language fast your fucked got it- good because you're fucked either way a shrimp like you wouldn’t last a second in the wilderness” The man points his machete at me and laughs. I glance around the room, there were three humans whom I didn't know, a Gerbil, a sludge monster, a two-tailed cat, and a literal minotaur. half of the "people" here weren't even human; there's no way i-... right? “Wait hold on I can’t be the only one who isn’t bilingual here right?” I ask confuddled at how I've been done by a literal wild animal.
“Aha! Another idiot joins the fray!” the gerbil hammers at my incompetence “damn that's rough buddy getting insulted by a gerbil” the glasses guy looks at me in pity while putting down a plate of fried rice for the scarred guy “s-sorery me f-freends are no sensitive” the minotaur tries to apologize for his friend's behavior with broken English “me no study English, uhh a lot. Me no need it for long time” the minotaur explains his struggling English pronunciation “Don’t worry about it, I didn’t really study in school much” I explain to the minotaur who looked like he still processing what I was saying “n'essayez pas de le couvrir il doit apprendre ses défauts s'il veut un jour s'améliorer” the scarred man says while taking a big bite of fried rice and muttering something to himself between bites. The minotaur looked upset with whatever the scarred man said but ultimately grunted in affirmation.
The minotaur looked at me seriously “You not smart try become smart” the minotaur pointed at me seriously, causing Athena to burst out laughing, the scarred man to choke on his food, the glasses to furiously hold in his laugh, even Brandon was trying to hold in his laugh “n-now everyone don’t l-laugh, Gael just i-isn’t bilingual; l-learning a new language is hard” Brandon tries to hold in his laugh while scolding everyone. Am I being bullied? Why’d he call me dumb? What are they saying?
I started to get visually upset and I think Athena picked up on this because she started to change the conversation. Athena wipes a tear from her eye and claps her hands “Okay before you guys go back to shit-talking Gael I think you should all introduce yourselves” Athena starts the game of introductions “We actually doing? Uh fine whatever. Sup kid m’names Andre and I'm a war veteran if you couldn’t tell already” machete guy gestures towards his scarred eye with his machete. “My name is Oliver. I don’t have an interesting backstory like Andre here, but I was a weatherman back in my day” the glasses guy introduces himself “Greetings small human, I am known as Hankali” the Gerbil declares with confidence “Hello, me name is Karfi, me guardian” the minotaur reaches his hand to shake mine I hesitantly go to shake the minotaur's hand only to realize the most I can shake is about one finger, so the minotaur essentially just shook my entire arm as a handshake causing me to bobble around, like a bobblehead. The sludge monster used a tendril to spell out some words right in front of my face causing me to recoil a bit "Greetings, My name is Babban" it wrote in eloquent handwriting. After having introduced themselves, they all look at me expecting me to introduce myself “Hey, I’m Gael, I’m uhh a teenager I guess,” I say slightly embarrassed
“Ahaha well anyways let's eat we can learn more about each other around the dinner table” Brandon awkwardly tries to switch the conversation in consideration of my lackluster characteristics.
The giant sludge creature pulls a chair from across the room and puts it behind me “Oh thank you” I awkwardly thank the creature which in turn gives me an expression where its supposed "mouth" formed into a warped tor reach past the black balls which I can only assume to be its eyes. The eerie smile that the monster had produced caused me to recoil back in my seat. After the monster sees the fear in my eyes, its body begins to droop. The creature then crawls out the kitchen door “Babban wait! The kid didn’t mean it!” Andre urges the monster to stay, but the monster had already left “Ah shit god damn it” Andre mutters while ruffling his hair. Andre gets up and runs after the monster only to stop and look back at me when he reached the door “jackass” he called me before he began running after the monster again.
What the hell is his problem? Anybody would freak out if they saw that shit. “Please be afraid not; Babban very nice.” the minotaur says with a somber expression “Me leave now; enjoy stay Gael” The minotaur gets up from his seat and leaves the door. “ugh listen, Gael, I know this might be overwhelming for you as a teenager in a new environment, but try to get along with everyone okay.” Brandon says with a sigh “It’ll be fine they'll get over it sooner or later” Oliver says with a sigh while handing me a plate of fried rice “That's not good enough!” Athena exclaims “Gael hurt Babban’s feelings, so he’s gotta apologize!” Athena says.
Wait are you serious? Nah, no way am I dealing with that shit again; that shit took 20 years off my life span. I’m fine just watching those things from a distance like how you watch a spider from a distance, but if that shit comes close I'm running for the hills. “Umm maybe later. I think we should eat first we don’t want the food to go cold ahaha” I try to avoid the subject with an awkward laugh “Gael you seriously-” Athena scowls at me “I'm going to go after Babban” Athena remarks and walks to the door “you're welcome to follow. Gael” she says with a glare. For fuck sake I'm sorry I have a decent survival instinct. God damn, I'm not crazy, right? Wouldn’t most people freak out when they meet a monster for the first time; like what the fuck! how is this my fault?
The gerbil then speaks “Worry not child it is natural that you would fear that which is unknown to you. However, if thou can not see the error of thine ways and make no attempt to reconcile then thee shall make no connection and be left in isolation”
“Uh-huh,” I look incredulously at the gerbil who was drinking tea which it got from god knows where “Listen I'm not exactly here of my own free will and i’d rather find a way to go home to my old connections rather than stay here and build new ones” I fire back “wow you're a real jackass, you must not have many connections in your old world either huh?” the gerbil gives up its attempts at being sophisticated, but being completely right regardless. The cat jumps down from the window and walks around me
“Well, why don’t you leave the child be? He clearly doesn’t seem interested in making acquaintances. The feeling of wanting privacy and time to oneself is a universal desire is it not?” the cat says surprising everyone in the room except me
“There is a difference between isolation and alone time Kallo.” the gerbil says. “I’d argue differently, isolation is alone time and alone time is isolation. They are one and the same, just in different quantities, But different people require different amounts of social interactions and different amounts of isolation. It doesn’t make sense as to why you're trying to force the boy to interact. The boy is not you Hankali” The cat nudges the gerbil in the same way a bully would push a geek.
“The boy had not even tried to connect with others in this village yet. He has given up on obtaining bonds before even trying. How is he supposed to know what he’s missing if he’s never had it in the first place!” the gerbil grows in size and pushes the cat back
“You act as if he wasn’t content with his life originally. The boy said he had already made bonds before; why force him to make new ones? Is that not why he wishes to go home? Who are you to attempt and keep him here with the chains you call bonds?” the cat begins floating
“How dare you call them chains! You’ve had a bond as well, SO HOW CAN YOU CALL THAT BOND A CHAIN KALLO?!” the gerbil yells while simultaneously growing to the size of the giant sludge monster from before. However, the gerbil’s statement seemed to piss off the cat to an unexpected degree
“YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO CRITICIZE ME HANKALI YOU KNOW VERY WELL HOW THOSE BONDS BECAME MY CHAINS! YOU KNOW VERY WELL I HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO CALL THEM CHAINS!” the cat yells back and starts floating and emitting a blue thunder from its body.
I slowly got up and headed for the door; I was ready to bolt at a moment's notice. The only reason I hadn’t run already, was because I didn’t want them to notice me. “Good lord will you both just calm down!” Brandon suddenly yells summoning tree branches to burst through the walls grabbing both the cat and the gerbil and pinning them both to opposite sides of the kitchen. The sudden destruction and violence made my instincts scream at me to get the hell away and who was I not to oblige? I start to bolt out of the room and run out of the building. Brandon runs after me “Wait, Gael, stop I'm sorry!” Brandon yells after me, but at that point, I was already deep within the crowd of villagers.
I slip through the crowd of villagers looking at the ground trying to avoid bumping into anyone or stepping on anyone. What the hell was that? Is Brandon a monster with human skin? Is this a trap? Fuck I gotta grab Athena and leave. What if this whole thing was an elaborate plan to split up me and Athena? What if Athena is already captured somewhere and these monsters are planning on eating her!? My imagination goes into overdrive and I accidentally slip through a cloud-like creature and fall to the ground “Quon a bell?! Mook ver tare gaio!” the cloud-like being yells at me I look around and notice monsters of all sorts staring at me from shark-like monsters breathing purple smoke out their mouths to monkeys with no faces looking at me from the tops of village huts. Oh god, they’re going to murder me. My hair on my skin stands and I scramble to my feet and continue my run. I have to find Athena and get out of here. These things can’t be safe. As I run away I bump into more monsters who would yell similar things at me.
Suddenly feel a dark ominous feeling of something large and monstrous following behind me.