“Come on, you gotta get up. If one of the guards catches you on the ground, they’ll make you start the line all over,” someone said to me. They were the first words I’d heard since my brain had settled back into my skull. I was fighting through waves of nausea as well as the pain of what I was sure were several broken bones.
“Just leave him. We don’t have time for this,” another voice said.
“Can you help me? I was attacked pretty badly before I got here, wherever here is,” I groaned as I forced down another attempt at vomiting and finally opened my eyes, trying to see whatever this new world was; instead, my vision was blocked by the person who had been speaking to me. I blinked, trying to clear any fuzziness from my eyes as the man – assuming that was what he was – that stood before me now reached one of his four hands down, offering help. I reached out with my good arm and was quickly pulled to my feet.
“Thank you,” I said, looking up at his faces… He had two heads, and both the voices I had heard earlier in my daze belonged to him.
“No problem. Name’s Cecile and the grouch is my brother Elicec,” the left head said.
“Thanks, I’m Dave. What is this place, and what do you mean by going to the end of the line?” I asked, somehow managing to keep the panic out of my voice. I was still working on getting my bearings. Now, on my feet, I was better able to get a good look around. Everywhere I looked were lines of creatures, some human, some so alien I couldn’t easily compare them to any fantastical creature I knew of, and everything in between. What I didn’t understand, though, is why I could understand the multitude of signs I could see. Each one seemed to be written in plain English, but that was the least pressing question of the many in my mind. For now, it was probably best that I just accept the small blessing that it was.
“This is the spire, specifically the line for new arena fighters, but you should know that. You’re already on the third floor of the line,” Cecile said. I could tell he was getting suspicious by how he looked down at me, and considering the way his brother’s glare deepened, I decided to go with the truth about my situation as an answer.
“My planet was attacked by a faction of orcs, and as I was about to die, a bird froze time and sent me here, saying it was the only chance I’d have to save the world. He said he was going to mark me with his insignia, but I have no idea where that is, or I’d show you,” I said, leaning my weight onto my right leg. It was getting harder to stand on my left at all.
“Oh, that explains it, you’re a newbie. We’ve never met one before. So, if you have an insignia that explains how you cut the line. Most of us just have to buy our way in…” Cecile was cut off by his brother.
“Some of us have to work for our chance,” Elicec grumbled.
“Hey, don’t be mean. Would your rather our whole family be dead to some asshole orcs as the reason we are here? Do you think Dave wanted any of this to happen?” Cecile asked his brother.
Elicec’s glare finally lessened as he answered. “No, you’re right, I’m sorry Dave. You didn’t deserve that. It’s just that there are a lot of shady people around, and we have to be careful. It took a long time for our families to get the funds to send us here.”
“It’s alright, no harm done. So how do I go about finding this insignia?” I asked the brothers. Not that seeing it would do anything for me, but I wanted to know anyway.
“No idea,” Cecile answered.
“Open your right hand and concentrate on who you are,” Elicec answered immediately afterward.
Ignoring the pain, I held out my arm and stretched out my fingers. Then, I focused my thoughts on who I was: Dave Imogen. I felt something in my hand, almost like a thought on the tip of your tongue that you can’t fully grasp but somehow centered in my hand. I considered myself about myself: I was a father. I was once a husband. I was an engineer. I was a refugee of the planet Earth and somehow the only hope to save my kids.
The sensation on my hand changed. Written on my palm was a symbol that just looked like a bunch of meaningless scribbles. Below the symbol seemed to be my address of sorts.
Name: Dave Imogen
Origin: U-1.9392912^10e37 Earth-107I2T112
Origin Status: Unincorporated
Affiliation: Error
Class: N/A
Ranking: N/A
“Should it say error like that?” I asked, confused about what most of it meant. As soon as I stopped focusing, the information vanished from my palm.
“I don’t think so, no. Strange, that’s a pretty far-out-there universe designation as well. I wonder why anyone even bothered invading it,” Ecicec answered. He cocked his eyes at me, and I suspected he once again doubted my story.
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“I don’t know that one either, but they did manage to break several of my bones when they invaded. Is there a doctor, or is there something similar I can see? I’m going to need to get these treated before they get wors.” The pain was moving from vomit-inducing to barely able to suppress a scream. I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be able to stay in this line, required or not.
“Here, take this. It should help!” Cecile said, pulling a pill out of his pocket and pushing it into my hand.
“Dammit, Cecile, we don’t have many of those restoration pills, you can’t give them away like that!” Elicec’s voice had shifted from annoyed to angry.
“You can have it back; it’s alright, but if you can point me to a place to get some medical attention, that would be great,” I coughed into the hand that wasn’t holding the pill after I said this. My hand came away from my face with blood in it. That was an increasingly bad sign, and both of the brothers had spotted it.
“No, Elicec, just because we aren’t on the farm doesn’t mean we are going to lose our manners. Dave clearly needs our help, and you aren’t the kind of man who just leaves someone to die like that,” Cecile said.
“Dave, take the pill right now, forget what I said, do it, or I’ll have to force it down your throat,” Elicec said, his glare dropping again.
Not having much choice in the matter, I shoved the alien pill in my mouth and swallowed. Instantly, I felt a rush of energy throughout my body. It reminded me of the first time I’d ever had an energy drink. I felt like I could do anything, but as quickly as that feeling came, it vanished. It left behind a body devoid of pain. Either it was an amazing painkiller, or it had instantly healed my bones. The latter seemed nonsensical, but considering I was in another universe talking to a two-headed creature that towered over me, I figured it was well past time to argue what was possible and what wasn’t.
“Okay, I feel amazing. How did that work?” I asked, blinking rapidly, still shocked at the pain being completely gone. Even the usual aches and pains I felt in my knees and back seemed to have gone. I lifted my cracked glasses off my head; sadly, the world turned blurry. The pill hadn’t fixed everything.
“It was just a C-grade healing pill, nothing special. Good enough to knit bones back together, but can’t do much beyond that. Have you never had one before?” Cecile asked.
“There isn’t anything like this in my world, no magical healing or whatever this is at all,” I replied. The bird had said something about that, hadn’t he? How he’d been surprised anyone would come to our universe with its complete lack of mana? Did that mean other worlds were full of magic or mana if that was somehow different from magic? I probably shouldn’t assume they were the same.
“That sounds awful, and I’m sorry you came from such a hellish world. Stick by us, and we’ll do what we can to help you through registration, though I don’t know that we’ll know too much more than you. Our planet is pretty backwater itself,” Cecile replied, once again offering a hand. This time, it looked to be for a handshake. Were those somehow universal?
I reached my hand out to grasp his, and he squeezed once and twice and released. Okay, that was different than the handshakes I was used to, so not quite universal. “I appreciate it, and thank you again. I’ll try to find a way to repay you for the healing pill if I can,” I said, and I meant it. For all I knew, they were here trying to save their own planet, too and had just wasted one of their precious few resources to help me. That was a debt I had to repay.
“Don’t worry about it. As much as Elicec might be a bit of a grump, even he knows making some friends and allies here is a good idea, especially someone who already has an insignia. You really don’t know who gave it to you?” Cecile asked.
“I only know him as the Big Bird I found with a broken wing once, and up until minutes before I ended up here, I didn’t even know he could speak. Oh wait, I just remember he gave me something else,” I fiddled around in my pockets, ignoring the cell phone, keys, and wallet that were likely wholly useless now, until I found the small orb Big Bird had spat at me and pulled it out.
“Put that away, quick, before anyone sees!” Elicec said gruffly.
I dropped it back in my pocket, not willing to argue with someone who had a better handle on what was going on than I did. “Okay, but why?” I asked after I had done so.
“That’s a crazy amount of refined experience, and it’s worth a fortune. Someone is going to steal that if they see it. Don’t tell anyone else about it, and we can talk about it more once we get somewhere private. Here, get in front of us. It looks like we’re next, so you go first, and we’ll block your insignia from prying eyes,” Elicec explained, then gestured for me to move in front of him.
I took the offer. I wasn’t sure if I entirely trusted these two or if I just didn’t have much of a choice in my friends at the moment. I walked in front of them just as a surprisingly human-like figure behind the desk called next.
“Form twenty-nine C, please,” the lady behind the counter said to me.
“Uh, what?” I asked back.
“Show them your Insignia, Dave,” Cecile whispered behind me.
“Did you lose your form? You will have to go back down to the first floor…” She had started explaining before I cut her off.
“Sorry, I have an insignia right here, see?” I raised my hand to show her the symbol and read out.
She studied my hand for what felt like much longer than she needed to before speaking again. “Are you two with him?” she said towards the brothers behind me.
“Yes.”
“No.”
They both said this at the same time, causing her to glare at them. “Alright, I want all three of you to follow me. You’ll be getting a private meeting with my boss. There’s something off with that insignia, and I don’t like it,” She explained as two extremely large elephant-like creatures walked up beside her. They were dressed in a way that screamed security guard to me.
“Yep, you heard the lady. We’re coming,” Cecile nudged me forward after her as he and his brother followed behind. I guessed that meant they were some sort of security guard, and the brothers didn’t want any trouble. Was the insignia some kind of fake? Had the bird been lying to me for some reason? I hated being so far out of the loop on information that I didn’t even know the right questions to ask. So I just shut up and followed her silently into the hall.