«▭▭▭▭▭▭?»

Hana stared at the woman, and the woman stared back. Despite her intimidating appearance and weaponry, the woman didn’t seem hostile. She did look between Hana and the children suspiciously, or maybe she was confused, it was hard to tell. Either way, to her, they must have looked incredibly out of place.

The woman repeated the same question, slower this time, as though that might help. «▭▭▭▭▭▭?»

“Hello?” Hana tried in English. She wasn’t proficient in it, but years of in-school instruction had to count for something, right?

It didn’t work.

«▭?»

Hana racked her brain, but it didn’t sound like any language she recognized. It was definitely not English. The children didn’t think that though, and despite their initial surprise, a few of the braver ones waved and said “hello” in English. Hana hushed them.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

«▭▭?»

She shook her head again. “... I’m sorry.”

The woman tilted her head to the side, making a small “hmm”. She thought for a moment, one hand scratching the back of her head, freeing more red wisps of hair from her long braid.

What should I say?

The woman reached for the whistle around her neck and blew into it, but it didn’t make any sound. Then she pointed to the children and then Hana. Her head was tilted, questioning.

“I’m their teacher.”

«▭▭▭▭?»

“Uhh…” Hana had never been good at charades. The last time she played was at an after-work party, and she wasn’t even able to sign out the word ‘dog’. She was better at guessing, but that was poor consolation, and the mediocre skill wasn’t going to be of any help in this situation.

«▭?»

I… I want to cry.

Maybe she should have taken up Hikaru’s offer to learn a new language at the nearby international language school. What had he been learning, French? Every time he talked about it, he always mentioned a different language, so she wasn’t sure if he was actually being serious or not. She doubted the woman was speaking French, but still… By the sound of it, it wasn’t an east Asian language, though any sort of leg up would have been better than nothing. She hadn’t felt this helpless since that time a non-English speaking tourist had asked her for directions on the train. And even then, she had the help of her phone to brokenly translate.

«▭▭▭?»

“I… I…”

The woman pointed to herself. «Maude.»

“Mau… de?” The word sounded foreign to her tongue, and she knew the sound that came out wasn’t perfectly articulated.

Is that her name?

Hana quickly did the same. “Hana.”

«Hana,» the woman, Maude, repeated, without the same difficulty Hana had, not that it was a particularly difficult name. She said nothing else, but continued to observe them silently until the dogs returned.

The pair trotted into the clearing rabbit-less and without any barking, though they did give their owner a friendly woof in greeting before sitting by her feet, tails wagging. They looked to be the same breed, just different colours, one a pale gold and the other a warm brown. Maude gave each of them an absentminded scratch on the head, in between their floppy ears. The arrival of the animals immediately sparked the interest of the children, though they didn’t have the courage to approach them. Jun was still frightened and huddled behind Ritsu.

“Ms. Kano, who is she?” Momoka asked, tugging at her apron. “Why is she dressed like that?”

“I’m not sure, but I’ll try and talk to her.”

“But you don’t know what she’s saying, do you?”

Nope. Not a clue.

“I’ll… I’ll still try!”

«Hana.» Maude made a gesture waving her over, and pointed to the direction she had come from. «▭▭.»

Does she want us to follow her?

Hana knew very well that this was the exact opposite of what they taught children, but if it was between staying in the forest and following a stranger…

She doesn’t seem like a bad person, but…

Hana glanced back at the children, lined up like she asked them to, talking amongst themselves. Even in this bizarre scenario, they were very well-behaved. She made up her mind. It was questionable at best, but they had a higher rate of survival if they followed Maude than not. Her first priority was making sure that they were safe, that is, out of this forest. She could figure out anything else later.

“Alright, everyone, let’s go! Satsuki, follow Ms. Maude!”

“The lady? Where are we going?” Satsuki eyed Maude suspiciously. Hana was relieved that the girl had the good sense not to follow strangers, but this was an emergency.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Out of this forest! She’s going to show us the way!”

Hopefully.

She brought up the rear, ushering the children along. Maude led the way through the trees, walking slowly and checking over her shoulder every now and then to see if they were keeping up. Horrifyingly, Hana realized that their already slow pace was hindered even further by the fact that they were all wearing indoor slippers. She heard a few complaints and shouts when they crossed a muddy patch of trail. There were a few slips, but luckily no one face planted.

“I saw a squirrel!”

“Where? Where?”

“Is that a bird? It looks weird.”

“Are there more rabbit-deers?”

The mind of a child was truly a marvel. They treated it like a field trip, excitedly pointing at this and that. Whereas between helping the children up the uneven ground and imagining the multitude of disasters that could happen next, Hana was optimistically weary.

“Ms. Kano, is that lady your friend?” Taiga asked. He had picked up a stick along the way, brandishing it like a sword. His walking buddy, Tsugumi, was searching for a suitable sword of her own. If this was a regular outing, she’d have asked them not to pick up anything, but this situation wasn’t regular in the slightest, and anything that kept them in a good mood was welcome in her book.

“Yes, she’s a new friend!”

“Oh. My mom said not to trust new friends right away.”

So did mine.

The golden dog stopped following Maude, circling back and weaving amongst the students, feathery tail swishing. It allowed itself to be petted by the students happily.

“Doggy!”

“Be gentle, okay? Don’t upset the dog.”

“I won’t!” Taiga gave the dog a pat on the head. “He's my friend!”

So the rule doesn’t apply to animals.

It wasn’t long before they reached a narrow, well-trodden path, and in another fifteen minutes, a wider dirt road. There was a parallel line of groves on both ends of the path, a cart or wagon of some sort must have passed by recently. Horse-drawn, by the looks of the imprints in the dirt. It didn’t help Hana identify where they could possibly be, and there were no road markers anywhere.

“Ms. Hana!” Satsuki called from the front of the line.

“What is it?”

“Souta said he’s tired.”

“Alright, how about I give him a piggyback ride?” At three years old, he was the youngest of the students, not even in kindergarten yet, so it only made sense he was tired already. Souta shuffled towards her, and she let him clamber onto her back.

“I want a piggyback ride too!”

“I only have one back, Kazuo.” She didn’t mention that he was far taller, and proportionately heavier.

He wasn’t bothered by this, but in true fashion, he said, “Imagine if someone had two backs.”

“I’m not sure how that’d work. Where would the second back go?”

“Hmm… They would have one head facing forwards and one head facing backwards!”

Hana was going to pretend that whatever he described wouldn’t be considered nightmare material.

Rolling green fields spread out on the right, empty meadows and trees on the left. The sound of flowing water hinted at a river. Lazy white puffs hung low in the sky, rounded like cotton balls. She was reminded of her grandparents’ home in the countryside, which she visited during the summer. Rice paddies were scant here, but storybook red barns dotted the fields, and the children excitedly crowded around the fence when they saw a small herd of cows grazing by the fence. A few farmers worked in the distance on wide fields of crops and there was no machinery in sight, so wherever they were must have been quite rural.

The walk would have been almost enjoyable, if Hana didn’t pay attention to all the jumbled and confused questions in her head. Or the fact that her arms were starting to go numb. Souta had drifted off to sleep a few minutes ago, and he was now dead weight.

Hana could see what appeared to be their destination. A clump of buildings in the distance. Dusty brown stone, with dark tiled rooftops, only a couple of stories high. A town. Immediately ahead was a thin walkway surrounded by trees that led to a stream. The water appeared shallow and slow-moving, thick green reeds lined both banks. The weathered grey stone bridge that crossed it wasn’t very long, about six meters in length, and even though it had few small cracks here and there, it seemed sturdy. On the other side, an old weeping willow stood guard over the path that led to a dark and narrow cobblestone alleyway. It was wide enough for two adults to walk uncomfortably side by side.

This looks so sketchy…

It was suspect, and definitely not Japanese at all. It was like one of those fake European medieval town sets that movies were filmed in. The thought that none of this was real gave Hana a strange sort of comfort. Like they’d walk into a film crew soon, who might be able to help them.

What broke the illusion was the smell. It wasn’t strong but it was ever-present and hard to ignore. Hana recognized it as the smell of animal waste, and there might have been some sewage and trash thrown into the mix. More than one complaint from the children was made about the smell.

What sounded like church bells chimed. They were loud, so the location of their source must not have been too far away. It rang on for what must have been a whole minute, and Souta was startled awake. Jun and Aiko covered their ears.

Maude turned the corner to a somewhat wider street, where on either side there were signs hanging above doorways in some foreign language that Hana couldn’t even begin to guess how to read. It was a street of small shops, a few of them had displays— assortments of items, bolts of cloth and spools of ribbons in one, bundles of dried herbs and sacks of dried goods in another. About half of them looked completely vacant, boarded up doors and vacant display windows. None of the shops looked open, the whole street was quiet, eerily abandoned.

The end of this street intersected an even wider one. A few of the buildings here were taller, three stories at the most, and noticeably more well taken care of. Some of the windows had wooden box planters with bright flowers, or vine-like plants spilling out from them. Nothing looked modernized, and there weren’t any electricity lines or telephone booths, no street lights or cars.

There were people in the streets, dressed in clothes that made them look right out of a medieval fantasy— colourful dresses, skirts, and tunics with leather belts. Most of them stared as Maude led them down the street, whispering to each other.

Somehow, they had ended up in an old-timey, foreign country. In the middle of nowhere no less, given the lack of modernity. The last thing that any of them remembered was being at the daycare. If it had been an abduction of some kind they wouldn’t have just been dropped off in the middle of the forest. Things weren’t adding up.

How am I supposed to get help?

Would there even be any help available? How would she communicate with them? Their language was entirely different from anything Hana had encountered up until now.

Maybe…

No, she didn’t want to think that. This was definitely Earth, and not some other world. She couldn’t be conjuring up fantasies right now.

This whole situation is already so weird.

“A horse!”

“Horsie!”

A wagon passed by, and the man in a broad sun hat driving the cart called out to Maude with a wave, probably a greeting, to which she responded in kind. The back of the cart had a few wooden containers filled with vegetables. It very quickly outpaced them and disappeared into the distance, rickety wheels rattling against the cobblestone streets.

Maude stopped in front of a cute looking shop on the corner of a street. It was a building that had a store on the ground floor, and residence on the upper floor. The storefront entrance was painted green, and although Hana couldn’t read the words above the entrance, she could guess the function of the building from the sign above. It hung on metal hinges, and burned into the wood sign was a picture of loaves of bread in a woven basket.

A… Bakery?