Opening his eyes for the fifth time, Akiel finds his height has increased to that of a dog. A regular unadulterated, huggable dog. Stretching his limbs, he sighs in exhaustion. Although he didn’t get tired or need any sleep, his mental capacity did seem to reach a point where he needed to take short breaks.
Walking around the stone pile, he looks for his encyclopedia. If not during his breaks, he would probably never find the time to leisurely read. Finding the book corner sticking out from behind a sizeable stone he reaches for it.
Just when he is about to touch it, it jerks away. Confused, he hastily grabs at it again only for it to jerk just out of range again. Not believing that the book is avoiding him, Akiel hastily runs around the stone and grabs the book. Pulling on the book he manages to move it 2 centimeters before something tugs it out of his hands. Falling backward, he stares as a rabbit comes out from behind the book and watches him.
Turning back to his book it jumps on it and pushes it into a burrow. “Hey! Hey, wait. That’s my book.” Akiel frantically shouts as the rabbit hurriedly pushes the book deeper into the burrow. Akiel scrambles to the rabbit and tries to grab it when both the rabbit and the book disappear into the borrow.
Screaming in frustration, a half meter tall Akiel pounds the ground. Looking into the burrow, all he saw is an endlessly deep pit. Several exposed roots could be seen from the entrance but there is no sign of the rabbit or his book.
Sighing in regret, he jumps into the pit. Not even a meter in, his foot gets caught by several intertwined roots. Dangling upside down, he struggles to bend his short body and free his foot. Using the pit walls, he leverages himself closer. With one hand, he digs into the walls and heaves himself higher. His other hand roughly grabs onto one of the roots. Letting go of the wall, he grabs the roots with his other hand.
Pulling his foot out gingerly, he now dangles right-side-up by his hands. Glancing down and seeing the numerous obstructions left, he sighs. Heaving his body upward, he scrunches his body into a ball. Reducing his chances of getting caught on an obstacle, he barrels down the pit.
With a juicy plop, he flattens on the muddy floor. Getting up, he swats off as much mud as he can and looks around. It was surprisingly clean for a pit with a muddy floor. Ignoring the mud that splashed on the furniture because of him, it was a well lit and furnished room. On the left is two couches lined up along a wooden wall. To his right is a modern kitchen as well as a small dining table with a glass chandelier hanging above. Behind him were two doors and a hallway that turned left. Lastly in front of him was something impossible for this world an old cathode ray tube tv.
Even if this world had tv’s there was no way that they would look exactly like the ones that came out first in the 1960s. Stepping backward, he turns and examines the doors. There is one door on each side of the hallway, exactly the same distance away. The left door was large and rotting while the right one was smaller and pristine. Looking closer, he could see footprints leading through the door. Turning the knob he opens the small door and peers inside. Adjusting to the bright light he finds himself just outside a pristine white castle. Getting cold sweats, he slams the door closed. Glancing at the rotting door, he decides to explore the hallway before opening it. Going down the hallway, he finds himself in a large room with a detailed topographical map.
Examining it, he finds the map divided by an obvious shift in the territory. On one side is a well ordered and neatly organized land highlighted by the very same castle he saw through the tiny door. The other side was full of unclaimed land, devastated towns, and uncontrolled forest. This side also had a castle, fully purple and not a single symmetrical feature about it. If anything, the castle was made by several architects that all seemed to disagree.
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Going by the topographical map, the white side seemed to be at an advantage as it encompassed more land. Looking closer, you could see that the uncontrolled forests seemed to form a natural barrier to keep the white forces from advancing further.
Throwing a cursory glance at some of the landmarks and extra illustrations, he finds the word door written just outside the white castle. Getting excited, he finds another door in the middle of the overgrown forests. “Although I’d like to just ask for my book again, I refuse to enter a castle again. Once you're in it’s too hard to get out. On the other hand, the other door opens in the middle of nowhere. Just where I’m at home.” he muses to himself. Stroking his chin, he frowns at the lack of facial hair.
Throwing one last look around the map, he walks back to the rotting door. Grabbing the doorknob, he turns it around and pulls the door open. With a grating squeak, the door opens to reveal the ruins of a building. Stepping through, he looks back to find the door gone, “Talk about no refund. Well, this is better than being chased from the beginning.” Examining his surroundings, he finds that the building should have been some sort of mansion. He could see the ruins of red walls and decor for quite a distance.
Deciding that finding his whereabouts and the location of both castles first would take priority, he climbs onto one of the ruined walls. While the walls were in disarray and crumbling, stone walls tend to be structurally sound no matter how much you batter them with. Standing on the highest stack of stone bricks, he spots the start of a dense jungle ahead. Looking back, he finds plains with lush overgrown grass.
“Clearly, the forest leads to the purple castle and the plains leads to the white. For now, let's get some information. I’d rather not run around clueless.” He mutters before leisurely walking towards the plains.
*******
“Hey! Hey, Mortimer.” Helios whispers while staring into space. “What Helios. What could you have possibly found now? Is it an extinct species? A two-headed elf? Those are rare now that most elves are dead.” Mortimer replies in annoyance.
“Not even close, it’s a time rabbit! It came to our world and left. It was here, it broke the pact. It stayed on the world for a whole 3 minutes. You know what that means right?” Helios excitedly says. “A time rabbit huh? Are you sure? If it is then we get to declare war on their little dimension.” Mortimer says while examining his nails.
“Yup! Look at this beauty. 13.5 pounds and time dilation strength of at least 7 minutes and 23 seconds. That's an elder! A few more centuries and it’ll hit godhood naturally. Just look at the striations on its ears! They‘re grey and there’s thirteen of them.” Helios passionately points out.
Slightly more interested, Mortimer asks, “What does that mean? You know I don’t care about wildlife, you kill it and move on. It’s why I never kept a pet, it’s just a waste of resources and time.” not discouraged by Mortimer’s lack of understanding, Helios says, “It means that it’s been tamed and by someone pretty important. In this rabbits case, it should be one of the two currently reigning monarchs or something of equal importance.”
After thinking about it, Mortimer lazily asks, “So what did it do? Take a carrot? Do time rabbits eat carrots?” Interest waning, Helios replies, “If you used your time looking at the other worlds and dimensions, maybe you would know that time rabbits don’t need to eat. This one appears to have stolen a book. Get this! It took our Akiel’s book. The one about basic mana structures and runes.” After a silence, Mortimer looks up from his nails, “And? What did our little champion do about it?”
Remaining silent, Helios turns his pink stag body around, “He went into the transfer gate. He followed the rabbit to the other dimension.” Frowning, Mortimer asks, “Is he still there? Is he still alive?” Visibly bubbling with happiness, Helios says, “Yea. He picked an abandoned area to enter the dimension. What a smart guy, he avoided instant death by disintegration.”
Unable to keep his laughter back, Mortimer chortles, “Perfect! Call the other gods. We have a rescue and annihilate situation on our hands. It’s finally time to obliterate that annoying little dimension, how dare they make me work more.” This time Helios does his best to frown. “Helios, don't look at me, please. You look ridiculous. I know what you want to say. It’s up to him if he wants to live. The best we can do is send an army of random beasts over, he just has to survive and ride the wave. As for his book, I would advise him to leave it. There is no way he can retrieve it from that witches hands.”