“Umm… sir?” I called out to Mr. Quinn. A tall and middle aged man who was dressed in a dark suit that perfectly fit his body. He had dark hair, but greying and Hazel brown eyes. Of the few wrinkles he had, most of them were on his forehead making it look like he was always frowning or at least mildly upset.

“Yes?” He asked while resting his hand impatiently on the door handle.

“Its… his birthday, today.” I said with a lowered head. Unlike Mr. Quinn, I was dressed in the clothes a simple maid.

“Oh? Order something nice for him. You haven’t complained in a while, meaning he’s been behaving. Reward him accordingly.” Mr. Quinn said a he opened the door.

“Alright.” I said while giving him a curt bow.

He promptly left, leaving me in the silence of the hall.

My ears perked up after hearing something behind me.

I turned to find a small hand just as it disappeared into a doorway and so, after taking a deep breath, I walked into the living room to find a small boy, Adia Quinn, sitting on a sofa with his face turned towards the window.

He wore a simple white shirt and some shorts that I thought had more pockets than they needed, but I also knew that he liked storing his favorite gadgets and trinkets in them.

“Is there anything you want for your birthday?” I asked.

“No. Nothing.” Aida said while flipping through channels on the TV.

“Alright, let me know if that changes. If you need me, I will be in the staff’s room. The math teacher should be here in an hour. Keep that in mind.”

Adia nodded prompting me to leave the room.

I then made my way into the kitchen where I placed my hand on my chest as a deep, familiar ache filled it.

I took several breaths, but just as I calmed myself, the entire building trembled.

I didn’t know why the earth was shaking so violently, but as soon as it began, I ran into the living room to find that Adia wasn’t there.

“Adia!” I called as I frantically looked for the boy.

“ADIA!”

“I’m in here!”

I dashed into the bathroom near the kitchen to find Adia fearfully crouching near the sink.

He’s entire face was covered in water for some reason, but I shook that aside before tightly holding him as the world continued to quake.

I squeezed him tightly while squeezing my eyes shut.

A moment passed and the world stopped trembling, but even then I tightly held onto Adia.

“Let go!” The boy cried before pulling himself out of my embrace.

“Shouldn’t you be checking if something is broken?” He asked while messily wiping his face.

“Oh- yes. Of course.” I said while standing up.

I then left the bathroom with a heart that was beating so powerfully, it hurt.

I walked from one end of the house to the other while inspecting everything to make sure it was all still in order.

Adia’s teacher eventually arrived and I companied him and the boy to Adia’s study where they worked together.

Adia was a brilliant student.

He was a keen observer who quickly picked up what he was taught.

Although my praise may be somewhat biased.

He also had an irritable side to him, but that was a commonality for all children his age.

The study session eventually ended and I accompanied Adia’s teacher out before preparing a simple sandwich for the boy

I went up to Adia’s room on the second door before gently knocking on the door.

“Lunch is ready.”

“I’m not hungry!”

“Oh… OK.” I said before returning to the kitchen, grabbing the sandwich and making my way to the staff’s room where a small TV displayed the News.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Apparently, no one really knew what caused the earthquake.

Unity didn’t sit anywhere near any major tectonic plates and even then…

I ate the sandwich before taking the plate back to kitchen where I promptly washed it.

I then returned to the staff’s room where I passed the time by documenting what supplies the house needed.

.

..

I let out a weak yawn before checking the time to find that it was late noon.

I then exited the cramped staff’s room before making my way to Adia’s room where I gently knocked on the door again.

“Time for your bath.”

“Aww… really?” Adia whined from the other side.

“Yes.”

A moment passed as I stood by the door which eventually opened, revealing a grumpy Adia.

Part of my wanted to smile because for all his attempts to look upset, it just made him look cuter.

I accompanied him to the bathroom downstairs, but just as he placed his hand on the door handle, the front door opened, revealing Mr. And Mrs. Quinn.

“Dad!”

“Hey. what do you need, tiger?” Mr. Quinn asked as Mrs. Quinn walked past me.

“Umm… could we watch a movie together?”

“You want to go to the theater right now? It’s pretty late.” He said while checking his watch, but Adia slowly shook his head and with his small hand he pointed at the living room’s entrance.

“Oh! That’s what you meant. Mmm… sorry champ. We’ll have to hang out another time. I’m beyond tired and I’ve got some work to do later.” Mr. Quinn said as he brushed Adia hair short brown hair with his hands.

He then followed Mrs. Quinn up the stairs where they entered the main bedroom.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Adia hurriedly walked past me.

He then stormed into the bathroom before slamming the door.

I sighed as I was once again left alone in the hall in silence.

I heard the water run within the bathroom, but it couldn’t drown out the sound of Adia’s cries.

My face twisted in pain as his whimpers practically filled the air, but there was nothing I could do.

So I made my way to his room, got him a new set of clothes before returning to the bathroom.

I knocked on the door of a now silent bathroom.

Adia opened the door, revealing his sorrowful face.

I handed him his clothes, but just as our hands touched, the world trembled once more and I could no longer feel the ground.

I looked down to find that ground was no longer there.

Instead, Adia and I were surrounded by a pitch black darkness which quickly vanished only for my body to slam into what appeared to be the ground.

“Ah!” I cried as it was my left arm that hit the ground first.

I bit my teeth while frantically looking around.

It looked as though we were in an open field of some sort and laying next to me was Adia.

I rushed to his side, even as my arm stung.

“Are you OK?” I asked while reaching out to hold him, but he smacked away my hand before dusting himself off.

“Yeah! I’m fine! What happened? Where are we?” He a prompting me to look around.

We were on a farm of some sort-

My eyes widened as I gazed upon what looked like an image from the end of the world.

Hanging eerily in the evening sky was what looked like another planet. It was a big and blue world that looked not too different from the earth.

The world trembled once more before the planet vanished.

My mouth hung open as I tried piecing everything together, but none of it made sense.

I spotted a building in the distance and so, after standing up, I pointed at it.

“I’m not sure what happened, but let’s go there and see if we can find someone who can help.” I said prompting Adia to nod.

I then led him across the dry field and it wasn’t long before we reached an old farm house which had a rickety barn behind it.

Sitting in front of the house was an middle aged man who stood upon noticing us.

He was dressed in old dirty clothes and had yellowed eyes.

He said some things I couldn’t understand as we got closer.

Based on his appearance, I assumed he was of European descent, but the language he spoke sounded like none I’d ever heard of. Not that I knew many.

The man spoke for a solid minute or so and it seemed like he was asking us various questions.

“What’s he saying?” Adia asked from behind me.

“I don’t know.” I said.

The man’s eyes narrowed and after placing his large calloused hand on his chin, he triumphantly pointed up before pointing at himself.

“Ueel.”

“Your name is Ueel?”

Ueel’s eyes widened and he clapped his hands while making the happiest of smiles.

He then pointed at Adia and I.

“Oh- My name is Zuri and this is Adia.”

“Hoh? Zuri… Adia…” Ueel said. His eyes sparkling with excitement.

He then gestured that we followed him to his small house and we did to find a small woman sitting inside the living room.

She, like Ueel, had dark brown hair only hers was much longer. She also looked a little older than Ueel who said various things to her.

She gasped before looking at us curiously.

Her aged eyes then fell to Adia, who still hid behind me.

The woman then said various things which seemingly displeased Ueel.

The two spoke some more before seemingly coming to an agreement.

Ueel gestured that we sit next to the woman while he fetched something in the kitchen area.

He handed me what looked like a sack of peanuts.

I graciously accepted the bag before eating one.

It was… a normal peanut, but I graciously smiled while nodding my head.

My reaction made the farmer smile even more and he left the room to go grab something else.

The woman sighed and I could tell she was a bit exasperated.

I wanted to apologize, but I’d need to learn how to communicate with her first.

Part of me wished that this was all some sort of dream.

Maybe I had fallen asleep in the staff’s room and was imagining all manner of things, but even in this dream-like world, I swore to protect and watch over Adia.

The farmer eventually returned with an old book.

He placed it in front of me before opening the very front page which displayed four worlds clashing with one another.

There was a bunch of text all over the page, but I couldn’t read it so I focused on the images.

The farmer flipped to the next page which showed what looked like three different armies and a Horde of… dragons?

I wasn’t too familiar with fantastic things and so I did my best to link what I saw with what I knew.

He flipped to the next page which showed the armies and dragons all fighting each other.

According to the images, the war eventually ended with the victory being soldiers dressed in bright golden and silver armors.

Leading them was what looked like an angel, only he didn’t have wings.

He was far taller than everyone else on the page and had a golden light behind him and he held in his hands a golden spear.

The farmer flipped another page which showed a map which was divided into three, although some parts weren’t filled in.

The farmer pointed at the middle of what I assumed was the kingdom that won the war.

“Is that here?” I asked while pointing at the floor.

The farmer smiled once more before nodding his head enthusiastically.

So we were in a fantasy world filled with dragons and knights.

If this was a dream, it was the most bizarre dream I’d ever had.