Did you ever wake up in a completely unfamiliar place after a loud party drowned in alcohol? Do you remember the feeling of confusion as you sit up and let your eyes wander in search of anything that might ring any bells? Was there a hint of fear too?
Daniel felt exactly that. The weird dream he had just before waking up certainly didn’t help to relieve his uneasiness either. In that dream he was floating in a sea of vague gray, as if drifting along with a slow current, if only there was any visible current at all. While perceiving the unending grayness with his whole body, he heard a voice coming from nowhere in particular, straight into his head.
“Sorry for that. It wasn’t supposed to happen.” The voice didn’t sound apologetic, there was a hint of amusement in it though.
The voice continued, but the tone and volume shifted; suddenly he was unable to grasp the meaning of the words, or perhaps they didn’t reach him properly. Stuck in the void and unable to talk himself, he drifted and listened to the incomprehensible muttering. As the time passed, the grayness encompassing him started to fade. Before Daniel woke up, one final legible sentence registered in his mind.
“I hope you’ll love this world as much as I do.”
Still reminiscing that dream, he felt his senses coming back to him, an uncomfortable feeling when you’re already awake. He was looking at an old fashioned room, so his eyesight was already there, and the sense of touch joined it soon. He felt hard, wooden floor under him, slightly uneven. Next second dead silence was broken by a bird chirping outside, his hearing came back as well. Just as he decided to stand up, an incredibly strong, pungent smell assaulted his nose. He recoiled and fell down on his butt. The odor was so bad he barely managed to stop himself from vomiting what little there was left in his stomach after last night. Even covering his nose tightly didn’t help at all; instead he felt as if he was eating the smell with every breath. It stank of rotting meat mixed with excrement, except no meat could give a stench so powerful. There was also a hint of sweetness in it that was so out of place it made the whole thing even worse.
He fought with his stomach desperately trying to escape through his mouth for a good few seconds before he managed to get used to the odor just enough to even move at all. At this point he was no longer pinching his nose since it seemed to do nothing at all, as if the stench somehow settled down inside his nostrils for good.
When he finally looked up again, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. The room he saw for a few seconds before he collapsed was still there, but now covered by pink fog. The fog, quite dense, turning into deeper pink and purple shades in some areas, somehow didn’t obstruct his vision at all, it was more like he was aware of its presence instead of directly seeing it. It wasn’t exactly a fog either, more like a thick, floating liquid lacking any mass; he could even move it to some extent with his hands and as he took a step, it made way for him, still engulfing everything else. It was like taking two images, of the room and of the fog, and joining them into one but somehow being able to perceive them separately. It could have made him dizzy if he wasn’t already sick from the everlasting stench.
He staggered while standing up. The room was oddly furnished, as if whoever done it aimed for some restricted retro style, but Daniel didn’t pay attention to it. Was it the fog that smelled so badly? Was it harmful to humans? He cast a brief glance over the window to see a few wooden houses with some trees behind them. The high viewpoint told him he was on a second or third floor. The landscape seemed to be quite varied as the fields stretching far in the distance were going up and down forming numerous hills, but the purple fog engulfed all of it. Daniel considered walking up to the window and scan the unknown surroundings, but the horrible odor got better of him. He wanted out of the room, now. There were two doors, and he chose the closer one.
As soon as he opened them, he regretted his choice. The smell was even stronger here. The room behind the door was small, looking more like a closet. Whatever things were originally here were moved out to make way for an improvised bed, and a rotting corpse was lying on it. Daniel never saw a rotting corpse before, but he was very sure it was one. A disgusting amount of maggots crawling all over the weirdly orange and brown body and a sickly gray liquid covering the floor around it were dead giveaways. Daniel couldn’t stop himself from throwing up anymore. Still bent over, he took a step back and closed the door. He wanted to take a deep breath or two, but the putrid smell was lingering around, so he run to the other door. Slamming through them, he found himself in a corridor. The fog was still here, but the smell was much more manageable.
A torrent of questions flooded his head. Why was the body left in the building to rot for so many days? Why wasn’t it burned or buried? Does it mean the building is abandoned? Or maybe it’s the whole town? Does that have anything to do with the fog? And where the hell is this anyway?
The questions remained unanswered; instead a new one flared up when Daniel realized he’s not alone in the corridor. He quickly turned to his right and saw… a person?
It certainly was very person-like. The body shape was quite human, a heavy, very muscular, slightly hunched human, but still human. At least that was the first impression, until Daniel noticed the differences. First, the figure in front of him was about 8 feet tall. Second, it had a tail, rather long and very thick, like a fifth limb. Third, above the face partially concealed by shadows two small, straight horns were protruding from the forehead. The almost-person wore human clothes tailored to its size, a shirt, a vest on top of it and loose pants. Despite sporting a very masculine physique, it seemed to have breasts as well, of quite noticeable size too. It raised its tail a bit in response to Daniel’s stare.
“Sara!” it shouted, not taking its eyes off him. Its voice was deep and raspy, but still definitely more feminine than masculine. Daniel wondered who Sara could be, its companion? Then he realized it might not even be a name – the person in front of him who he still a hard time to think of as human might have not been speaking English at all.
“Mam tu jakiegoś żywego!” it shouted again as if to confirm Daniel’s suspicions. He didn’t understand a single word.
The giant took a step towards him. The distance between them was still fairly large, the building must have been rather spacious to have a corridor this long, but it was still close quarters and it didn’t seem designed for someone 8 feet tall, or at least the doorways weren’t. Daniel remembered the decomposing body hidden in the closet, connected the dots, spun on his heel and dashed as fast as he could. Not nearly fast enough, it turned out.
The distance between them was still fairly large, was what only he thought. It was no problem for the giant; it reacted almost immediately and caught up with him within seconds. Daniel felt a huge weight on his shoulder, collapsing under it. He found himself staring at the floor, unable to move.
“Dokąd?” he heard a menacing growl behind his back. The giant didn’t sound very friendly. He didn’t get to consider his options though, as he was violently turned around face up, grabbed by the collar, effortlessly picked up high into the air and slammed into a wall. The force of impact robbed him of breath. As he gasped for air, he realized his feet didn’t touch the ground anymore. Held up by his shirt, he briefly wondered how long the material will last before it rips under his weight.
The giant leaned closer to his face, scanning him warily from head to toes. Daniel, still steadying his breathing, came to a conclusion the eight foot assailant is very likely a female – her face with soft, feminine features betrayed her ridiculous physique. This realization didn’t help much though, it only made him a bit uncomfortable when she closed in even further, sniffed him and winced in disgust.
“Śmierdzi trupem, ale wygląda na zdrowego.” she said turning her head to the side. Daniel followed her sight and realized another woman, a very much human sized one this time, was already standing there. She was looking at him curiously, then beamed a smile when she noticed his gaze. At her command Daniel was forcibly sat down on the floor.
“Wszystko tu śmierdzi trupem, ty i ja też,” she told her freakishly tall companion with a chuckle, then she turned back to him. “No, ale kim ty jesteś? Tutejszy?” she asked, or at least it sounded like a question. He wasn't able to make anything out of the words of the language he could not recognize at all. It certainly wasn’t English and as far as he could tell, it sounded nothing like French or German either. Both women were definitely white, so maybe it was some other European language, like Russian? He doubted Russians grew horns or tails though.
[https://i.imgur.com/8D4iM1R.jpg]
“Sorry, I don’t understand,” he said after a brief consideration. He was quite certain he wouldn’t be given much more time to think in silence.
The shorter woman furrowed her brows. Apparently it was not an answer she expected, though Daniel was unable to tell if it worked to his advantage or not. Or if she understood him at all, for that matter.
“Fine,” she sighed. “Let me introduce ourselves. I’m Sara McDonahan and this is Ana, my partner. We’re representing Silverfield Mediation Services. What about you?”
This was definitely English, with a slight accent he could not assign to any particular place familiar to him. Daniel cheered up a bit; maybe he could find a reasonable way out of this inexplicable mess.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“I’m Daniel Quaid and, uh… I’m not representing anyone in particular. I woke up here just a few minutes ago and honestly I have no idea where this is or what happened here. Is this still Leicester?”
“Lester?” Sara repeated. Apparently she wasn’t familiar with that name, thus the probability of them being still in Leicester dropped drastically.
Fair enough, thought Daniel, if you are a foreigner and not a football fan, you might not know Leicester, it’s not London after all.
“You know, England,” he clarified. “United Kingdom, Great Britain…?” followed as neither of the women showed any reaction.
“Ana, mówi ci to coś?” Sara turned to her companion. “Ingland, Zjednoczone Królestwo, Wielki Briton?”
Ana only shook her head in response. Daniel started feeling really uneasy.
“Hey, come on, you’re speaking English but you don’t know about England? There’s only so far you can go before a joke stops being funny,” he tried to laugh it off but ended up sounding rather nervous. He wasn’t sure it was a joke at all. If it was only Sara, he wouldn’t take her seriously, but Ana’s appearance defied common sense. He heard of very tall female basketball players, but she was far above that, in a category of her own.
Sara stared at him for a few seconds, then turned to the giant again. They started discussing something, presumably revolving around him. The tone of conversation was flat and steady, without any heated arguments that would make Daniel worry about his situation more.
What were the possible circumstances? At first he thought Ana might be responsible for the dead body, but now, sitting on the floor before her, he realized the carcass had already decomposed quite a bit. It wouldn’t make much sense for the killer to stick around the scene of crime for days. Were these two some undercover law enforcers then? The foreign language they used made that option unlikely. Salvagers or grave robbers? That sounded far more plausible. It would explain why he was apprehended on sight – a competition for potential spoils wasn’t welcome. In that case he might be able to talk his way out of this, maybe. Not like he could run; he was already proven escape attempts not backed with any weapons are futile.
The main questions remained unanswered though. Where was this? The building looked really old but at the same time well maintained. No signs of extensive use, abandonment or old age were to be found on the floor, wooden stairs or walls. What killed the person in the closet? Daniel felt sick trying to remember the corpse, and he didn’t take a look close enough to recall any details anyway. A decomposing body meant nobody took care of it; did residents leave the building before the poor man died? In that case…
“Hey,” Daniel interrupted the conversation between the two women. “What’s all this purple fog? It’s not some kind of a toxic gas, right?” He felt silly after asking; of course it wouldn’t be toxic, these two have been calmly standing in it for a good minute or two already, probably even longer considering it’s been everywhere.
“What are you talking...” Sara started with clear annoyance in her voice, but she stopped before finishing the obvious question.
A silence followed. The shorter woman lost herself in thoughts; it was Ana who got her out of it by shaking her shoulder. The foreign language conversation between the two that resulted out of this was short this time.
“You said your name is Daniel, right?” Sara spoke to him again. “So, Daniel, you say you somehow found yourself in this building without any recollection of how you got yourself all the way here, is that it?”
“Right.”
“And you see a purple fog here?”
“That’s right, it’s everywhere! Around you two too.”
“Was there any place you didn’t see it?”
Daniel had to pause for a second there. He did catch a glance of the outside through the window but he couldn’t really remember much of it.
“I think there was a place free of it outside, but I didn’t take a good look,” he answered carefully. He felt keeping this conversation up was improving his chances of getting out of this mess without too many scratches, even if this particular answer was only half true. Seeing it or not didn’t matter, it’s not like the gas could have spread absolutely everywhere.
“Bierz go. Idziemy na dół,” Sara told her companion and Daniel was lifted off the ground to a standing position. Ana held him by his arm and pulled along as she went down the stairs with Sara leading the way. It looked pretty funny, with her hand covering almost his whole forearm, except he was too intimated to enjoy a good laugh, doubly so at his own expense.
As they were passing the rooms on the first floor, Daniel once again detected the odor of death he got overwhelmed by a few minutes earlier. All the doors were closed, so he could only wonder how bad the situation must had been on the other side. He got pulled outside before the smell got unbearable.
They were on what looked like a town square; all buildings were facing each other. The first unusual thing Daniel noticed were setts on the road circling the square, something he would expect from a tourist attraction rather than a functional element of public space. The second unusual thing were the buildings with their uniform, yet reasonably colorful brick walls and intricate designs of window frames. There were no yards or lawns to speak of whatsoever, exits from each house leading straight to the square. When Daniel looked to the side however, he noticed one of the roads leading out was a gravel one, and in the distance poorer looking wooden houses could be seen. Odd street lights were only found in the square too.
It didn’t just look like an old town, it very much seemed to be one.
“Finished gawking?” Sara interrupted his assessment of the area. “Is that fog here too?”
It was, mostly. Daniel noticed it was no longer just floating heavily in the air.
“It looks like it’s moving slowly to our right,” he informed. The double vision was straining his senses and giving him a slight headache. “The area to our left, where that gravel road leads, seems to have less of it.”
“Bullshit,” Sara replied dryly, looking in the direction Daniel pointed.
“What the hell? Are you blind or something? This damn thing is everywhere, what’s even the point of us coming out here to confirm that?” he snapped back. The woman hissed in annoyance.
“I’m going back. You can have some fun with my friend here while you’re waiting for me,” she said without any smile. “Wracam po papiery. Pilnuj, żeby nie zwiał, a jak będzie próbował, to połam go troszeczkę,” she added, clearly not to him, as she turned around and headed back to the building. Daniel looked up at the giant next to him, wondered just what kind of fun would they have and how to avoid it if push came to shove.
And so they waited. Ana let go of his arm, instead placing her big hand on his shoulder, but it didn’t make him feel any safer. She certainly didn’t beat around the bush and just kept staring at him, a wary, stern guardian after a misbehaving child. He tried to stare back but couldn’t keep his gaze up for long. Her face was actually quite pretty, but the difference in their sizes was intimidating enough to force his eyes off her. Daniel got reminded how he was once caught red handed stealing from a shop as a kid; the way he just couldn’t look up while being scolded was irritatingly similar.
There was no scolding, of course. In fact, he didn’t sense any hostility from her current behavior yet he couldn’t calm himself completely. Simply waiting for Sara’s return was also quite boring, so as he took another glance at his new companion, he decided to break the silence.
“Hey, is this tail real?” he started with the first thing that came to his mind and looked up when he didn’t hear any answer. Ana was still staring at him, her eyebrows rose a bit though. Daniel quickly recalled it was only the shorter woman who spoke English, so his question might had not been understood at all.
“Tail. Real?” he tried again, this time pointing his finger at the topic of the question. Ana followed and looked back over her shoulder. “Yes, that. Real?” Daniel asked again as the tail twitched a bit.
It was almost long enough to touch the ground when it was hanging limply, and given Ana’s height, it must had spanned over some four feet. At its base it was thicker than his leg, with its top covered by long fur of the same reddish brown color as the owner’s hair. The bottom side seemed to be slightly darker and rougher than the giant’s skin. As he contemplated the materials it could be made of, it suddenly rose and slowly moved towards him. When it was close enough, the tip started swinging from left to right, rose a bit further and finally pat him on the head.
Daniel looked up in disbelief with his mouth hanging half open; Ana was grinning, clearly amused. She gave one of her horns a few flicks with her free hand as if to show they won’t fall off either.
“You. No see ogre?” she asked in broken English. Daniel assumed it was because of her insufficient knowledge of the language rather than low intelligence, after all she was speaking freely with Sara just a few minutes ago. He shook his head.
“Now you see,” she pointed out cheerfully. The giant certainly seemed to be much more easygoing than her partner, at least when she wasn’t tackling people down and slamming them into walls.
“Ogre?” Daniel asked just to be sure he heard right.
“Ogre,” Ana confirmed with a smile as her tail retreated to a half limp position behind her.
Ogre. He remembered they were fictional, fantasy humanoid creatures, like elves or dwarves, except evil, big and ugly. The big part certainly matched and Ana with her huge body didn’t quite fit the standards of beauty either, but she looked nowhere near like dumb, fat ogres he knew from Warcraft series. He would be inclined to believe “ogre” was just some kind of a moniker around here, but maybe it really was a different race or even different species. If that turned out to be true, then forget England, he wouldn’t even be on Earth anymore.
The party last night must had been really something else.