Aaron woke up with a start, only to find himself in an unfamiliar land. He was surrounded by trees on all four sides. There were soft and sweetly scented grass below his feet and a tiny creek meandered gently across the grass. The weather was just right for a picnic. However there wasn’t supposed to be a picnic scheduled for today, it was suppose to be his wedding!
Aaron looked around frantically, he didn’t have a habit of wearing his watch in sleep so he couldn't tell the time.
Where am I??? Wasn’t I at home last night? What time is it? I need to make it home on time!
Questions and concerns like these coursed through his head. Judging by the air and surroundings, Aaron could tell he was somewhere in the mountains. Which was strange as he lived no where near any highland. That ruled out the possibility of a few friends pulling off a mean trick the day before the wedding. It might be possible that he was kidnapped but there was no point in leaving the captured stranded on a mountain without receiving a ransom of some sort.
I’ll find out the reason afterwards. The objective now is to find my way home.
And so, Aaron made his way down the mountain, cutting through trees and bushes. Aaron couldn’t help but notice how strange the mountain was. Leaves the wrong color, wood the wrong texture, pine the wrong smell. In addition, the light seeping through the trees danced around violently.
As Aaron walked further in the mountain a peculiar mist surrounded him. The mist was purple with hints of blue and grey. As Aaron walked further the darker and thicker it became. Very soon he was struck by a massive headache and his ears felt as if a bee was buzzing inside. He held onto a tree for support but his legs gave out and his whole body fell to the ground. Black spots started forming in the corner of his vision. Aaron’s mind went blank, he had no idea what was going on and all he could do was whisper in a cracked voice, “ Help! Somebody save me...He..help..”
Before blacking out, Aaron saw a few men appearing from behind the trees, wearing unusual clothing and exotic masks. They were pointing at him excitedly and with their mouths, they shouted at him, shouted at each other, shouting something Aaron could not comprehend.
Aaron woke up for a second time that day, but this time it was a different place than before. He woke up on something like a bed. Unlike the one he usually used, this bed was in the shape of a circle instead of a square, the mattress was several layers of cloth on top of a large circular stone so it wasn’t extremely comfortable. His pillow was a rough piece of wood, thankfully the wood used wasn’t too hard. The bed was located in a room made of stone. It was a pretty small room but the ceiling extended farther than what his eyes could see. There was a window but it was closed with a door of wood. The door in the room was also made out of wood. Besides the bed, the only pieces of furniture was a chair, a desk and a small carpet spread on the floor. These things took almost all of the room. Leaving only enough space to travel from the door to the bed and from the bed to the window. It seemed almost like the rooms in the medieval age.
As Aaron observed these things the door gently creaked open and an old man holding a cane hobbled in. The old man’s hair was a fuzzy white and the wrinkles surrounding his eyes spoke of experience coming from old age. They were also the proof of years of hardship and worry. The old man wore a brownish tunic of some sort that went down to his knees and grey baggy pants. Aaron was starting to believe that he either was in some place far away from home or he time traveled to a different era or perhaps both.
Before the old man could say something Aaron spoke up first.
“Thank you sir, for inviting me here to your house when I was kinda dying in your backyard or something. But I really need to leave now, I’m really late for something really really important, my wedding....and so… would you be so kind to direct me back home? I’m a bit lost here.”
Aaron got off the bed, feeling the need to leave immediately. The old man looking confused for a while opened his mouth to speak, “cdj$jskh%h uH#h *Kqoue#dwerkll” was how it sounded to Aaron.
Bewildered, Aaron asked, “Would you mind saying that again? I didn’t quite catch that.”
“ji*)H$kbv#jgt@fy!fuj?iI8hJH^” the old man responded.
It took a moment for Aaron to get it but after a while he understood that the old man was speaking in a different language and was not actually a senile old man speaking jumbled up gibberish.
He then noticed that the old man had also caught on and was waving around to get his attention. Aaron looked at the old man who kept on pointing to himself and saying something. Soon Aaron realized that the old man was trying to introduce himself.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Aaron listened closely, the old man’s name sounded something like [Shadwrf] with a slur in the R. Carefully, Aaron pronounced the name, “Shadwrf…”
The old man’s , or Shadwrf’s eyes lit up and he made a gesture with his hands. Then he pointed to Aaron as if to ask his name. Aaron pointed to himself and said his name. Shadwrf slowly mumbled out Aaron’s name with a thick accent which Aaron did not doubt he himself had an accent when pronouncing Shadwrf’s name.
Aaron had never heard this language before even when he had once prided himself to be semi-fluent in 9 languages. Aaron contemplated on how to ask Shadwrf where he was. The best he could think of was pointing to himself, gesturing around the room, and giving an universal gesture for why, a shrug.
Shadwrf gave a perplexed expression at this so Aaron repeated the act. Finally, after a couple times, Shadwrf finally got it. He went up to the desk and slid out a plate of wood from a drawer and also grabbed a greyish blue stub. He sat on the chair next to the bed and started drawing. Curiously, Aaron peeked over and observed Shadwrf’s drawings. It wasn’t anything fancy but simple enough to understand.
Shadwrf held up the plate. There was a little guy to the left and smaller people behind the guy. Shadwrf pointed to the little guy and then at Aaron. Aaron nodded to show understanding. He drew another guy to the right, one that was obviously older, this one was himself. he then drew a line in the middle. On the right side Shadwrf drew some swords and other weapons, there was also a dead guy lying in his own pool of blood. At last, he circled the little Aaron and drew an arrow across the vertical line. He then drew another little Aaron on the right side and smudged out the weapons and the dead guy. Thus ending his drawings.
Truthfully, Aaron understood exactly what Shadrwf was trying to convey, but it was just too far from reality.
A man gets teleported to a different world to save it from chaos.
This is way too much like the books Iris keeps reading to me. Is this old man kidding with me? Why me?This is not possible, absolutely not.
Feeling extremely irritated, Aaron grabbed the tiny stub Shadwrf used as a drawing utensil and drew a large X on the right side of the plate. Scribbled out the arrow across the line and drew a circle around the picture to the left. Throwing the little stub on the ground to signal the end of discussion.
Shadwrf looked at him mournfully speaking in his own tongue, seeming to apologize. Feeling remorseful for his actions, Aaron just shook his head and pointed to his bed and himself trying to tell Shadwrf that he was only tired and wanted Shadwrf to leave. It took him a while to understand but when he did he rose to leave. He glanced back a few times and when he was halfway through the door he mumbled something in a soft tone before closing the door shut.
As soon as Shadwrf left, Aaron darted towards the window. The doors were a bit stuck but when Aaron forcefully pulled on it, the doors opened. The windows had no glass so when Aaron opened the doors a cool gust of wind entered the room.
Aaron was trying to escape this place but when he opened the windows, he was shocked by the sight he saw. He was still in the mountains and there were many trees, that were glowing. But what was really astonishing was the night sky. There were no stars and there were three moons.
Aaron slumped down and fell to his knees. The reality of the situation suddenly struck him like lightning. He really was in a different world. There was no point in escaping when he did not know anything about this world, not even the language, let alone the direction home.
As he was in despair and all hope seemed to have lost, something cold and metallic pressed against his chest. With trembling fingers, Aaron took out the locket he had always hanging around his neck. He flipped open the locket and there was a picture of Iris. It was about a year ago when she gave it to him and it was only less than a year when he promised to be with her always.
A spark of hope flickered into life and his determination was revived. Whispering silently where no one could hear, Aaron made an oath to himself and to Iris, “ I Will definitely return home, so please wait for me.”
And maybe somewhere, across time and space, another voice responded, “ I will.”
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I thought it would be interesting to write about a language barrier so, no there will not be some sort of magic that would make the MC suddenly know the language. This also serves as a mystery element since it's mostly from the main characters perspective... by the way, [ ], symbolizes how the word sounds to the main character. Thnx for reading XD