"What a long day at work!" Ethan mutters to himself, closing the laptop lid and leaving it on the desk. Mentally exhausted from his work at Hydro One, prepping distribution construction drawings for the expansion of the power grid in Northern Ontario, he heads out of the office and heads towards his car in the parking lot. Walking through the snow with his coat on, he stops for a moment to enjoy the cool breeze and setting February sun. Continuing walking, and staring up at the blue sky, the next thing he realizes he is falling. Not because of slipping on ice, but because he stepped in a rather large bucket. Now a bucket in of itself outside is somewhat unusual, especially on a snowy February day, but the main thing that Ethan realizes before whacking his head on the ground is that it is made out of wood with a metal band around its top and bottom, and is way too large to be a bucket, and too small for a tub.
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"I told you it wouldn't work!" the very tall, graceful woman shouts at the comparatively shorter man.
"It must have worked! The engravings all lit up, and the 50 people around us are passed out and unable to move from the energy drained from them!" He snarls back. "Maybe you didn't press the Glyphstone properly!"
"It's a glyphstone! It takes no special function. Hell we even have this exact one as one to flush the plumbing in the castle!"
"My point still stands!"
"You calling me Incompetent you blithering old rockhead"
"No..."
"Good"
"but the similarities in traits are quite related, knifeears"
"Why I'd never do this in formal company, but " The woman stands up, arms outstretched and dumping the contents of one of her many pockets into her hands, sets off a massive fireball in the stone room, directly at the man"
"THA Tis ENOUGH o THAT" an elderly green man, hunched with age wheezes his way up the steps to where they were arguing, using the last of his energy to blow the fireball into the wall, where it explodes harmlessly.
"Now I know yous get along as well as o'l an' 'ellfire, but coul' ya at leas' try ta kill eachotha afta we's move the channelas"
Resentful, the other two look around the room and realize an all out battle in the middle of the most powerful summoning circle for the last 2000 years would probably be a bad idea, as even though it is dead, enough manna flooding it may cause it to misfire, and who knows what it would pull, or use for its source for the next summoning.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Over the course of the next half hour, they move all of the channellers to the hospital area to give them some rest and let them rebuild their strength before they try again. As they walk down the main stairs, they hear the howls, screeching, and snapping of last month's failed summons.
The elderly green man mumbles "The council wil' na b' happa 'bout this. We needsa 'ero. hopefulla we's get one so'n."
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Ethan Mitchell, location: half in a bucket
Waking up, all I can feel is my head. It hurts. Real bad. Not, "I got nailed in the back of the head with a soccer ball" bad, but still pretty bad.
Staggering to my feet, I quickly lose balance and fall into the bucket. Bracing for landing on its metal band, I put my hands out to try and catch the sides so I don't end up with a ring shaped bruise on my chest, I end up moving too quick and have plenty of time to move my hands as I fall. Grabbing the bucket as I continue to fall, I feel reassured that I won't get a major bruise.
The bucket just broke in half from me grabbing it. The bucket... broke in HALF. From me... grabbing it.
Quickly stumbling to dodge the now splintered bucket still looking like it will hit my chest. I manage to clumsily roll to my side to not be impaled by it. Carefully standing up, I am glad that I avoided becoming that newspaper headline "man killed by being stabbed by bucket" and "Man vs Bucket, bucket won"
Looking around I notice the rest of this room is dark, with the only light I can see coming from a window in the back wall. Looking at the floor, it is finely cut stone. Now I don't know much about architecture, but finely cut stone is not something used much today, so I either fell into the old district of the city or someone spent way too much money in this section of office space. Turning around to see if I can see my office, I faintly see a very large door on the wall behind me.
"Must of really hit my head and someone is now making a joke of it"
Walking towards the door, I realize it takes me many more steps than I expect to get to it, and it is dark here. Reaching for my phone, I quickly shake it to turn on the flashlight. Looking around, I am in a giant room filled with a few oversized buckets, mops, brooms, rags, and unmarked glass flasks. Still confused on why the janitor's closet has wooden buckets I head to the door, and search for the handle.
I find the handle, It is right in my face. A big brass knob the size of an orange.
Grabbing it, I open the door and shine my light into the dimly lit room. Looking inside, I immediately slam it shut as the cacophony of animalistic snarls and growls alerts me that they are very much awake, and seemingly very hungry. I hear several thuds and crunches against the heavy door and it shakes a few times from the impact. Leaning back on the door, I feel it bow, but not inwards as I expect, but me leaning on it slightly causes it to bow OUTward.
Panicking slightly, I sit down and try to make sense of it all.
Staring blankly at the cleaning shelves for a few minutes, I cannot think of anything sensible. No joke this complicated would be pulled on someone with no friends within 200 km. Those animals looked, sounded and smelled way too real even if it was slightly off. Everything is way too oversized and flimsy, and things look almost correct but the anacroisms do not make much sense. Glass unlabelled jars of stuff in what is definitely a broom closet. Buckets the size of washbasins. I must be having a stroke!
I quickly pull out my phone and start dialing 9-1-1. Only for it to ring, and ring and ring.
It clicks, sayingcall could not be completed. Looking at the bars, it says none.
Quickly going through all of my options again, the only one left makes absolutely no sense, but however unprobably, it must be the truth.
I've been Isekai'd!