Maude stepped into the bakery, the bell fixed to the top of the door tinkling as she opened it. The dogs waited by the door obediently. Satsuki, who had been leading the group after her, stopped in front of the door, unsure as to what to do. The building didn’t seem big enough to handle a dozen extra guests, so Hana asked them to line up outside to wait. She let down Souta, her arms burning from carrying him the whole time.

The smell of bread, rich, warm and inviting wafted out, and the view of fresh loaves of bread, rolls, and sweet pastries through the windows were impossible to ignore. More than one child mentioned being a bit hungry, and that got Hana thinking.

How much time has passed since we got here?

The walk into this strange town might have been less than an hour, but what about the time from the daycare to waking up in the forest? A whole night might have elapsed, and it looked to be about midday now.

Her thoughts would have spiralled further, if not for Maude stepping out of the shop with company. A young woman and man, both around Hana’s age.

The woman was only a little taller than Hana, with long light brown hair tied in a half-up style with a strip of cloth. She wore an apron dusted with flour over a green skirt that matched the colour of the storefront. She made a surprised sound when she got a gander at the line up of dirty, strangely dressed them.

The man trailed behind, lanky, with dark hair. Hana must have been hallucinating, because she could have sworn that his hair had a purple undertone to it. He wore a blue robe over his tunic shirt that almost looked like a haori coat. A basket with two large, dark loaves was tucked under his arm. He was looking at them in equal surprise and fascination.

A wizard?

The sentiment was repeated in hushed tones by her students.

«▭▭▭?» The woman asked Maude, who shook her head. She had a softer, pleasant sounding voice, in contrast to Maude’s deeper and more intimidating one. The woman approached Hana. «▭▭▭▭?»

That sounded like a different language that the one Maude was speaking, but not one that Hana knew. She shook her head apologetically.

The woman’s eyes lit up with an idea. She turned to the man. «▭▭▭?»

He tried. Another different language. «▭▭▭?»

“I’m sorry. I don’t understand at all.”

Hana felt like she had been asked the same question multiple times at this point, but all she could do was shake her head.

I’m so screwed.

If she could get her hands on some paper and a pen she could communicate by drawing, but all she had on her was a stupid handkerchief.

The man’s eyebrows furrowed, eyes swimming back and forth searching for a plan. He tapped a finger against his chin in thought.

“Hello?”

“Argh!” Hana’s hands flew to her temples. The man’s voice was inside her head, and more shockingly, she understood it. But that wasn’t right, she could still hear him talking in that other language she didn’t understand.

“Can you understand me now?”

“Huh… Huh? Huh?! How are you—?” Whatever was going on, she didn’t like the feeling she got from it. It was uncomfortable every time he spoke, like someone was tickling the inside of her brain. Even when he wasn’t talking, there was a sort of static hum in the background, the same kind of pins and needles feeling when a part of her body fell asleep.

“It’s a spell.”

“A spell… Like magic?!”

He did not share her incredulous sentiment, but he seemed amused. “Yeah.”

WHAT?!

This was bad. So, so bad. Beyond bad. It meant that wherever she was right now was not Earth, much less Japan.

“But… But—”

“Your name is Hana?”

She nodded, still uncomfortable at the humming in her brain and still reeling from the fact that magic existed. Desperate, Hana asked, “I guess you don’t have telephones? Or the Internet?”

“Tele-whats? What kind of net?”

“Nevermind…”

“Maude said she found you in the forest,” the man continued with a nod at Maude. “What were you doing there?”

“I don’t know, really. We just woke up there.”

“Where are you from?”

“Japan.”

The word stumped the man.

“… Earth?”

“Is that a country? I’ve never heard of it.”

Maude asked him something. She couldn’t understand what, but she did understand him explaining what she had just told him, and both Maude and the other woman’s faces looked confused. They began pelting questions at him.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

«▭▭▭▭▭?»

“No, I never learned anything like that.”

«▭▭▭▭▭▭▭▭▭?»

“How would I do that?”

«▭▭▭?»

“Magic has its limits, Vurrie,” he sighed.

The woman, Vurrie, by the looks of it, had many more questions, which he continued to answer in the same curt manner. Their situation must have been incredibly peculiar if even the wizard didn’t know what was going on.

The man turned back to her. “You didn’t anger a mage or anything, did you?”

“No!”

“Were you part of some experiment?”

“No.”

“Are you a mage?”

“Not at all! Magic doesn’t exist on Earth.”

“Exiled?” He tried.

Hana shook her head. “I really don’t know how we got here.”

“That settles it. Another world it is! Explains those weird clothes!” Unlike her, he was taking this ‘another world existing’ business remarkably well. Maybe he knew something that the rest of them didn’t. Hana was glad to see that Vurrie was equally as confounded as she was.

“Is there any way to go back?”

“To… What did you call it? Earth? I’m not sure.”

Hana hung her head, muttering to herself. The urge to curl up into a ball and give up on everything increased with every passing moment. “What am I going to do…”

“Do you have anywhere to go?” He looked at her mournful expression. “I… I guess not.”

The humming in her brain stopped. She wasn’t sure whether or not to be grateful for it— it was a welcome distraction that was currently preventing a total mental collapse. He had a quick conversation with Vurrie and Maude. More with Vurrie— Maude hardly spoke a word, but was listening intently.

The hum returned. “Vurrie says there’s a place where you and your children can stay for the time being.”

“My children?” Hana looked behind her, her students still lined up neatly and watching with wide-eyed interest. “No! They’re not— I’m a daycare teacher.”

“… Daycare?”

“Their teacher! When their parents are at work or they’re not in school.” She didn’t think explaining in full would do much for the purpose of the conversation. “I do take care of them… And if we’re staying here we will need a place to stay.”

“Perfect! Vurrie, let’s go.”

Vurrie nodded, slipped back into the shop.

While they waited, the gears in Hana’s mind began to turn to the alarming again.

“Umm… Excuse me!”

The humming returned.

“What is it?”

Hana began rapidly stumbling over her words, about the disappearance of Yui. That was to say, she didn’t even know if she was here, but the chances of her being here and being missing weren’t zero. Given the oddity of their coming to this world, she explained how it might not have been out of the question if she had appeared somewhere not too far away or wandered off.

He seemed alarmed, asked her for a description of the girl, which she gave readily, and explained the predicament to Maude. The woman frowned, clicked her tongue, to which the dogs responded, untangling themselves from the children to chase after her as she raced off.

“She said she’d take a look. The dogs should be able to pick up something.”

“Thank you, Mr…”

“Aloys. Just Aloys is fine.”

Vurrie returned, without her apron, carrying a set of keys on an iron loop. She locked up the bakery, and gestured for them to follow along. Hana took the lead this time, looking back constantly to make sure all five pairs plus one were accounted for.

“Ms. Kano, where are we going?”

“A place to rest!”

None of the kids complained at this. All of the walking back and forth to places and circumstances unknown was draining on her, much less the children. She desperately hoped that they couldn’t see that she was equally as lost as they were.

“Ms. Kano, how do you know what he’s saying?”

“She said there was magic,” Ritsu said.

“Ms. Kano, is that man a wizard?”

“No, maybe Ms. Kano is the one that knows magic!”

Their theories quickly devolved. The next time Hana tuned in she was part witch, part dragon, and her mother was a queen. Then Momoka mentioned Pri Princess Dream!— that one Hana recognized as an anime— and now she was a magical girl.

Aloys played translator as they went along. Vurrie explained how the place was an inn that her uncle had meant to open, but never got the chance to. In any case, the building was currently out of use, and they were free to stay there for the time being. Hana thanked her profusely, and when Vurrie heard the interpretation, she smiled.

Aloys added his own thoughts. “Diris doesn’t get a lot of visitors, and there’s already an inn on the main street, so Vurrie hasn’t done anything with it. She keeps saying that she’ll do something with it, but she’s always putting it off.”

This remark earned a good-natured retort from Vurrie. Aloys chose not to translate what she had said.

Hana had a million questions, none of which she could seem to articulate at the moment. Instead, she put one foot in front of the other. The next street over was the main street, as Aloys pointed out, and she could feel the stares of other street goers. They were going in a different direction from where they had come from, and in between glancing back to count pairs, Hana tried picking up landmarks. A tall building on the corner with a flag hanging off a pole that jutted from the wall, a green copper statue of a dragon clutching an egg that was nearly the same size as itself. She knew it would escape her mind, but it gave her something to focus on.

A large building with a bell tower loomed over the main street square, it was lined on either side by a row of trees. There was a long and wide staircase that led up to the whitewashed building. Aloys labelled it as the temple as they passed. Hana wondered what sort of religion was practiced here. She hadn’t grown up practising any religion, nor had she ever thought of joining one herself, but judging by the prominence of the building and its prime location in the middle of the town, it must have had a significant presence here.

They then turned away from the bigger street into a more residential one. The buildings were uniformly the same dusty brown brick, though a few had shutters and trim in colourful but peeling paint. The houses were cute, adorned with an abundance of planter boxes with greenery and flowers, ivy crawling up the sides of walls. Hana thought the town would have made a wonderfully quaint tourist destination.

At the end of the lane there was a semi-private residence which bordered a copse of trees that probably extended into the forest further down. It had a low brick wall without a front gate and a wide front yard littered with construction materials. It didn’t give the impression of being an inn— it had a more homely feel to it, in part due to its less than prime location. Hana couldn’t be too sure, but they seemed to be at the edge of the town. The would-be inn was quite wide in comparison to the homes in the surrounding neighbourhood, with two stories and an attic space, topped with the same dark roof as the other buildings in Diris. The first floor was made of solid grey brick, the second was whitewashed with a dark wood trim. There were no signs of the place being occupied, unlike the other homes nearby. No flowers, no colourfully painted trim.

Vurrie unlocked the tall front door with one of her keys, inviting them inside with a smile.

Hana stepped in, but didn’t get a chance to look at the interior. Instead, a heavy grey-white haze washed over them.