A blinding light pulled me out of my stupor, and with a bitter taste in my mouth, my body trembled, emptying everything I had for dinner on the ground.
"Well, well. You're a peculiar species around here," a voice said.
My teary eyes struggled to focus on the person speaking. When I finally managed to see, I realized that the voice belonged to someone who wasn't human, but something entirely different and intimidating, to say the least. I was in shock.
"Okay. I guess you've never seen anyone like me before."
"Pleasure to meet you. My name is Aredhel, and I should tell you that my race is the Alfs. We are extremely social with any race, so you don't need to worry."
I tried to understand what was happening and where I was. The creature gestured like a human would, but with its almost three-meter height and extremely thin features, to use a euphemism, I could only be stunned by the situation.
"I understand that you may be confused by my appearance. I believe you come from a world that doesn't know us, but I need you to get out of the harvest field as soon as possible. The last thing I want is to see you killed on the first day."
His words came out so naturally and understandably that I could only think of following his suggestion, even though I was apprehensive and didn't understand what a harvest field was. I approached the strange creature.
"Hmm, I see you didn't come alone. What are these peculiar beings?"
When I realized what the creature was pointing at, its words reminded me of the most important things, and with an almost superhuman agility, I directed my eyes to whatever the creature was pointing at. To my delight, my two dogs were there, looking scared at everything while also accompanying me.
"My name is Jonathan, Mr. Aredhel, and they are my companions and I would say the rest of my family. Guts and Témis, come here."
When my voice reached the dogs' ears, they immediately became happy, and all the fear and discomfort, both mine and theirs, seemed to have ceased.
"Well, I see that you couldn't tell a female from a male, but I guess you've never seen anyone of my kind. I must say that it's very rare for there to be a harvest with company. It must be related to your class. Please, follow me, and I'll show you around."
"I apologize profusely for the mistake," I gestured hurriedly.
"No problem."
Objectively, following that creature seemed like a mistake in every way possible, but staying still where I was didn't seem right, and it wouldn't take me anywhere either, so I followed it.
As I picked up my dogs, I looked at the environment, and everything was so different from what I had seen before. Like a big city, everything had the potential to be chaotic, but surprisingly, everything happened in a cohesive and peaceful manner. It seemed like a complete disconnect from reality, and I could only think that maybe...
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"May I ask if I'm in heaven?" I said.
"Pfftttt. My harvest, believe me when I say that the heaven your race knows has nothing to do with where we are. This city is called Broad-wind and is in the middle of the Baliscore continent. Despite what it is and how it is, I like to think of it as my home and it will be yours too, maybe."
Their smile was elegant and delicate, and had nothing to do with its size. Their musings were at least curious; as the word "harvest" had always been pejorative to me, yet for my potential captor, it was just a name like any other, and the meaning was lost.
"May I know what harvest means and if this isn't heaven, then what is it?"
The conversation's atmosphere took a 360-degree turn with my question, and the once distant and reflective eyes became astute with ulterior motives.
"I see you're intelligent. The most common questions I hear are whether they'll become dinner or if they're in a nightmare, but you understood the situation very quickly and seem even happy about it. The person you lost was very important, right?"
"Always."
My one word eased the tension, and with a smile on their face, they began to explain.
"Well. To sum it up, those who come here have a job; it was anticipated by our oracles. Thus, we prepared and planted beings that resembled us, but see how funny it is; the environment and everything around it made you who you are. However, the mission still exists, and that's why we went to collect what we created, which we called the harvest. We've arrived!"
I believe their words had a much deeper meaning than what was said, but I still didn't understand anything about this mission and, most importantly, why it happened.
My mind was wandering through various theories, ranging from an interplanetary apocalypse to a misguided prediction. I came across a house that didn't seem big at first glance, but as I got closer, everything in it was at least three or four times larger than it should be.
"I'd like to make it clear that our leader is a bit sentimental, so don't show him what you showed me. He might take it personally."
"Sorry, it's not every day that I'm transported to another world and come across someone like you."
I think my words were a little ungracious, but the understanding nod I received made me believe that she understood my point.
"Anyway, just be yourself."
The door was enormous, easily six meters high, yet I entered when it opened. My dogs barked at something in the back of the room, and to my surprise, the focus of their barking was much larger than Aredhel.
"Pleasure to meet you, my name is Gildor. I see you've already met my daughter. This year's harvest was done with great care, but I was expecting something a bit...larger."
My mind was in total confusion, and I only thought that that thing should easily be five meters tall, and even though he said he was Aredhel's father, they had nothing in common. While she was tall and slender, her father was tall, that's a fact, but his body was completely different, and even though he was much taller than me, in a photo, I would inevitably think he was a dwarf. His body was squat, almost crushed, yet he exuded power.
"I'm sorry if I didn't meet your expectations, actually, I don't think I was even trying until a little while ago. I thought I had died and that this was heaven."
"I forgive you! Hmm, how interesting. You didn't come alone, which makes sense as a Tamer, but having two classes is very strange. Normally, the most I see is, with luck, one class; I must congratulate you."
My first thought was to try to understand why he knew so much about me and was talking about something that I don't even know.
"My power is to read minds, Jonathan. You can't see your class by your level, but that will be explained in due time. Come here."
As we moved to another room, something surprised me: the house was much larger on the inside than on the outside. When the door separating us from the other room was opened, I could identify that this world is crazier than any dream I've ever had.