Blurs of light pass by my vision. A gust of wind blows my hair back.

Thud.

My feet land on solid ground. The blurs fade away, and the world solidifies and ceases to spin. But the world around me is unfamiliar.

I blink rapidly, trying to comprehend what I'm seeing. There's no table. No room. No house.

I'm in the middle of a beautiful grassland, standing on a wagon trail which leads to a walled city. The afternoon sun beams warmly overhead. A gentle breeze blows through my hair.

I still stand in a circle, holding hands, but... with complete strangers.

"What the...?" says a man with slick hair and dark eyes.

A very short man with pointy ears and a long beard stares at his own hands. "Am I dreaming?" His voice is high-pitched and raspy.

Laughter. A hooded figure laughs as he removes his hood. I instantly recognize him. "Malcolm?" I ask. My voice comes out deeper than usual.

"It worked!" Malcolm picks up a metal wire on the ground, gazes up at the sky, and closes his eyes. "Oh, it's so good to be home!"

"Where are we?" the female creature to my left asks. She has bright red skin and real curved horns protruding from her head. Just like...

"Jesse?" I ask.

She glares at me. "Yeah. And who are you?"

"Jake."

She furrows her eyebrows. "Jake Nelson?" She scans me up and down and snorts "No way."

"Was that real magic?" a woman to my right asks.

I turn and see Laura. Her face looks the same, but her figure is taller, and her hair is thicker and longer, her ears are pointy, and she has several small star-shaped tattoos on her forehead and temples.

"Did we... get sucked into the game?" the slick-haired man asks.

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Jesse touches the man's shoulder. "Sam?"

He nods, his eyes wide. "Why is my voice so low."

"Because you're in Wruce Bayne's body," the short man said.

Jesse and Sam look down at the short, bearded man, and they both say: "Dad?"

"No," I say, shaking my head and laughing. "This can't be real. It's some kind of virtual reality or--"

I notice a peculiar sensation. One I hadn't felt in a long time.

Slowly, I gaze down at my right hand. My eyes grow wide.

There it is! A wrist and five fingers! I hold it up close to my face and wiggle my fingers, unable to believe my eyes.

Laura gasps. "My leg!" She rubs her hands from her thigh to her ankle, then she starts hopping on one foot. She looks up at me, and I can see tears welling up in her eyes.

"Malcolm," the short man--Gary--says, hands on his hips. "Explain yourself."

Malcolm glances at each of us, as if realizing we were still here, and he turns to face Gary. "Very well. Welcome to my home world, Aelindia. I am a renowned sorcerer of this land, who accidentally plane shifted to your world: Earth. A world full of only humans with vast technology, but no magic. For three years I was stuck on Earth, trying to get home, but the magic wouldn't work."

"Finally, I discovered a game called Dungeons and Dragons, which peculiarly followed the magical laws of nature of my world. After much research and trial and error, I supposed that if I cast the spell while role playing the game with a group, it might be successful." Malcolm grins and stretches his hands to the sky. "And as you can see, the spell was finally successful. I'm home."

"I can't believe it." Sam grins from ear to ear. "A real life sorcerer! And he bampfed us into a real-life fantasy world!"

Gary steps forward. "Take us back."

"Not yet," Jesse says. "We just barely got here."

Laura and I gaze back at our restored limbs. The thought of losing my hand a second time makes me sick.

Malcolm sighs. "Unfortunately, I require a long rest before I can summon the strength to cast that spell again. Plus, I don't know if it will work. Your world is difficult to attune to my forked wire. The first time I plane shifted to your world was by accident. I may be the only person in Aelindia who has ever traveled there."

"Please try," Gary says. "We can't stay here for long."

"Why not?" Jesse scans her new body and clothes, which both seems to have been designed to be as attractive as possible. "I could get used to this!"

Gary raises an eyebrow. "Do you want horns for the rest of your life?"

Jesse handles the horns coming out of her head for a few seconds and shrugs. "Maybe."

"Come on, Dad," Sam says. "I can't wait to see what the Shrieker can do." He pulls a crossbow from behind his back and gawks at it. "This is so cool!"

"Put that down before you shoot someone's eye out," Gary orders.

Sam huffs. "Dad, you want to go home just because you got the short end of the stick."

We all chuckle.

Gary shakes his head. "No, I'm fine with being a gnome. But I've got responsibilities back home, like work. And if we spend the night here, your mom will wonder where you are."

"He's right," Laura says. "We need to go back."

I cock my head. "Really? But you'll go back to having a prosthetic leg."

She frowns. "I know. But it's home."

I scratch my head, not following her logic.

"I will attempt to cast the spell again tomorrow," Malcolm says. "But for now we can--"

A deep rumbling cuts him off. The ground shakes beneath our feet.