When I woke up, I was in the hospital, laying on a bed hooked up to an i.v. drip. Severe dehydration, my body has practically sweated out all its water. I'd have thought the entire experience was a dream if not for this and the fact that the strange badge with the odd markings was still in my pants pocket when the hospital released me. I felt lucky to be alive and lucky that I didn't miss work because of it. After this I made a survival kit. I packed a hucking pack with everything I might need if I shifted again. Different clothes for different environments and weathers, as well as gear like a gas mask and even different kinds of gloves. I even packed a flint, a knife, and other basic survivalist gear.

It may have seemed excessive but if the shift happened once, it could happen again. I had no way of knowing if that world of Rust was the only place I'd go to. I started hiking with the pack on in my off time to get used to the weight of it, and even started to take it to work with me. I started to feel a little silly after two whole weeks had passed without incident. I did show the badge to a few people, just to see what they thought of it. Most people just said it looked like a movie prop, probably left behind by some indi film person. I clearly didn't say where I found it for obvious reasons.

The weekend arrived, an entire two weeks and then some since the last shift was on a weekend. I did my usual routine of making sure I had food and everything else packed in my back and went for a run. I've actually started to look forward to running and even started doing errands on foot whenever it was nice and I had the time. So even if it was a long way from my home, I made a hike out of going to the local superstore. I must have been about five blocks away when I stopped running because I felt an odd feeling. Then I felt the pull back and slingshot feelings once more as my vision tunneled and returned. I held my breath and waited.

As soon as I arrived I noticed I wasn't in Rust, but someplace new. Though it was daytime it was darker and I could see stuff floating in the air. I put on the gas mask to be safe and looked around. All the buildings were made of wood, covered in overgrowth of green and large fungal growths. These fungi were puffing out spores and it seemed they were thick enough to create a fog blocking out some of the light. Not having a better plan, I continued my trip to the equivalent location of the super store. This place has basically the same layout as home just like Rust did. A twisted reflection of the Earth I knew. But instead of being consumed in the rust and decay of metal, it was consumed in the rot of wood and the growth overgrown of moss and fungus.

When I came across the location of the super store, I saw a behemoth of stone and even metal. Though some other buildings had stone, this was the first I'd seen with metal since getting here. There were these carts in the parking area, similar to those used by the Amish. Though I saw no horses. The carts had fallen to rot and fungus just like the buildings. The large building of stone and metal however was in much better shape. I walked up to a big metal door and started to pound on it. Smacking a large hammer on it in a steady rhythm. Shave and a haircut, a classic. If there was someone inside, they likely wouldn't know the pattern, but they would know it's not a wild animal. Now that I thought about it I hadn't seen many animals besides the odd bird here and there. It didn't look like any bird I was familiar with, but a bird is a bird.

It took a bit of knocking before someone knocked back. Three knocks. I knock 'shave and a haircut' again, then knock twice after a pause. I hear something get moved before the door opens and I get pulled in fast by a dark skinned woman. The door is slammed behind me before buckets of a fowl smelling liquid is dumped on me followed by a scrub down with some old fashioned flower scented bar soup and soapy water rags. The liquid smelled like piss and the soap didn't exactly get rid of all of the smell. They then run dry rags on me after splashing me with water. I wasn't happy but I kinda knew what they were doing. Ammonia scrub to kill bacteria and the spores, then a bath to remove the smell. I had received a hazmat shower, borderline cavemen style.

I took off the gas mask and everyone gasped and took a step back before murmuring among one other. I didn't recognize the language, but it definitely wasn't English. They were looking at me like they've never seen anything like me. That's when I realized everyone in this building was at least somewhat tan. The skin tones ran from lightly tanned to a deep brown. I took a closer look and noticed everyone had either green, yellow or hazel eyes. I'm rather pale, even for a Caucasian. My hair and eyes are a really dark color, brown eyes with my hair being jey black. I probably looked really strange to them. I also noticed everyone was close to my height, and I'm on the tall end being over six feet tall. Meaning everyone here was at the shortest five eleven.

Two closed in to examine me closely, a male and a female. They looked at me closely, ran hands through my hair, poked my face, looked me up and down and poked at my arms and legs, giving the occasional grope at my limbs and stating their opinions to the rest. I couldn't understand what they were saying but I did get a closer look at them too. The woman has freckles and the man has what looked like decorative patterns of paint or ink on his body. Lines and symbols across his form. I kinda just let them poke at me as long as no hands went for my ass, junk, or into my mouth. "I'm not going to harm you." I stated, knowing no one would understand. "I'm just passing through, and looking around." My words made them pause and look at one another. The male gestured at someone while saying something. My best guess is he was ordering them to get somebody else. A leader perhaps.

While waiting I got examined more, I tried to focus on the body language. When feeling my hair the description involved doing a finger rub motion, when touching my face, the description involved slowly rubbing hands together. My hair is short, thin, and a bit greasy. My skin is relatively soft and fair. When gripping my arm, the male chuckles while doing an arm motion. My arms are kinda scrawny. After pushing on my chest, the female clenched her fist and shook it. I'm assuming that means my chest feels sturdy. After gripping my leg, the male flexed his arm and said something before pointing at my legs. The female then mimics running with her fingers making thunking sounds before making her hand flat and moving it fast in the air with a woosh. Strong legs, fast runner. When the male felt my hand he made a similar motion as the face before pointing at the back of his hand, but then pointed at his palm before rubbing his hands together and making a scraping sound. Although the backs of my hands are soft... My palms, are like sandpaper. They seemed interested in how soft my shirt felt, but not as much in my pants. They seemed to be wearing either rougher fabric or leather outfits. Relatively primitive. A few in the background had weapons. Swords, spears, shields. Some wood and stone, some hide and leather, some metal. A close look at the building and I came to the conclusion that it was likely built by hand. No advanced technology. Steal age medieval level. But the methods were far more advanced. The bricks were shaped then placed in metal rods, like Lagos with one solid frame. No cement needed.

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After a bit of examination while waiting, a scrawny looking man was brought forward, holding an old fashioned leather bound book. He seems to ask the two that examined me questions then after getting a response he looked me over.

I was getting kinda tired of being looked over and poked at by this point. Then the man spoke to me in a language that sounded different then the one the others were using. I still didn't understand what he was saying. "I'm sorry, I don't understand a thing anyone is saying. Would be a lot simpler if I could." The man seems confused. Like he was sure I'd understand what he just said. He then made a gesture, one I assumed meant he wanted me to talk more. "I don't know what you expect, me talking more isn't going to do much. The sly brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. Peter picked a pack of pickled peppers. She sells seashells by the seashore. None of it's going to do anything. No amount of me yammering on will help you understand me."

There was a pause after I shut up, before the man slowly said "I understand" he then clicked his tongue and smacked his lips "that feels strange. It took a bit longer than normal to figure it out." I blinked as I had a blank look on my face "How... How did you do that?" I asked stunned.

"It's a gift of mine, I'm really good with languages. Though yours is a bit difficult."

I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and simply made a joke "That's because it's not a language, it's more like three to five languages cannibalized and stitched together into an abomination of linguistic fuckery"

He let out a chuckle and I offhandedly said "Too bad I can bring you with me consistently. I could use a translator if I ever run into other people." He looked confused before asking "That actually brings me to something I wanted to ask. You clearly are not from around here. Where are you from and how did you get here?" I had to think for a bit on how to explain it. I wasn't exactly sure myself. "Where I'm from... It looks a lot like here. This place could be considered an altered reflection of my world. I don't have any control over it, but I've been shifting to other places. It feels like my soul is being pulled and flung forward like a slingshot. Then boom, new place."

He paused for a bit before asking "places? As in more than one?" I nodded "Counting my home, this is the third place I've been this way. The other place was also a strange reflection, but it was like a desert."

The man said something to someone in the group and they ran to get something or someone. "I'll make sure you have some understanding of others you may run into. An old family heirloom of sorts." He sits down "There are stories, you know, of other worlds. Old stories, of a war that spanned many worlds."

"Is that why these worlds all seem to be going to crap? I mean, what even happened here?" I asked

"This is more recent. Though noticeable changes seem to have been happening for the last hundred years or so. Small things at first. Some believe it to be a long time coming. That everything has been slowly dying since the war, as it separated the worlds, broke the connection."

I thought for a bit. "Hmmm.... So either the worlds were dying because the connection was severed, in that case my moving about might reconnect them.and things can heal again or..."

"Or?"

"Around a hundred years or so ago there was a change in my world, we reached a new age and have been plundering its resources exponentially ever since. It could be the connection was never severed, whoever had the ability to move across worlds simply lost access. That everything else is dying because of the connection. The more the corrupt people poison my world for profit, the more the other worlds die. This would mean my moving about worlds would do nothing, all I would gain is the ability to watch as everything slowly dies."

We sat in silence for a bit when someone brought forth a strange set of glasses. They kind of looked like modified safety goggles. The man handed them to me. "These know every language I do, and can learn new ones like I do. Any time someone talks it'll automatically translate it for you, and everything you read will be translated as well. When you speak it'll also translate as long as the other person has spoken and it has something to go to. I'm not sure exactly how they work, I was told they were made in another world. One that once allied with us in the mythical war of old. You'll get more use out of it then I"

I grabbed it and nodded, putting them on right away. "I thank you." I then took the badge from the Rust world out of my pocket and the glasses did exactly as promised. It didn't translate proper names, but everything else was made to text in the glasses like subtitles. The badge read: 'Town Protectorate. The good of the many, in the hands of the brave and few. In service to the people, an oath made.'

"What's that you've got there?" The man asked

"I picked this up on the Rust world, figured I'd see what it says." I showed it to him.

"I know this language. It's one of the ones that's been taught down my family line. We must have been holding onto half a dozen languages for the past several thousand years."

"So your family has been passing down languages from other worlds not knowing it would ever be useful."

"I guess so. I wish I could remember more stories of other worlds, but they've been passed down by word of mouth so much has been lost to time. You clearly aren't hostile."

"Do you by chance know how many worlds there are? Maybe something about what they looked like or who lived there back then as well."

"The stories from what I was told as a kid said something about there being 'as many worlds as colors of the rainbow'. I remember there being a world of never ending fire and one of never ending ice.... And a black swamp that was filled with death and decay."

I thought that Rust was bad, but a place of fire sounded even less fun. Every one of these places sounded dangerous. I had gear for the cold, but heat was harder to manage. Even with a bunch of portable fans I wouldn't last long. I layed down, tired after such a long day. "I think I'm going to rest for a bit. Hopefully I don't wake up back in my world after falling asleep. It would be hard to explain. Then again I'm not sure I want to stay overnight in Mushroom Land."

The man nodded. "I'll let you rest then. I'm guessing getting tossed around worlds must be exhausting."

I quickly nodded off on the mossy floor in a sleeping bag I packed. Hoping I wouldn't wake up in the middle of a super store.

I awoke from my nap and exited my sleeping bag and stretched out. I took some food from my travel bag and ate because I was really hungry. I checked my watch and it was six in the morning. It was a new day and I was still in the Mushroom Lands. Last shift I was only away for a few hours, but this time it seems I managed twice the amount of time in another world before shifting back home.

I wondered about the building for a while when one of the people grabbed my arm. It was the guy that was poking me. I put on the glasses and asked him what he wanted. Sounds came from the glasses after I talked.

"I was wondering about the mask. You see before during the bloom cloth was enough, and even if you got some when you breathed the worst you got was a cough. Now the bloom lasts till the frost hits, and those that breathe it in don't last long. I was wondering if you had more. I can tell it gives full protection from the bloom, and if we had these masks we could hunt and gather once more. Assuming any game we catch is edible."

I shook my head. "I only have two on me, the second being a backup. I could get more though. I'll pack extra when I get home in case I come here again."

He nodded "We have tried our best to live in balance with nature, but it seems the balance tipped anyway. We are just trying to survive, and a relic like that mask would help."

"Alright. I'll do my best then. Though I have no control over when and where I shift too. So it might be a while before you see me again after I leave."

He nodded in understanding and thanked me before leaving. I spent a number of hours there. Judging by my rations I had spent the entire day in this place. Then, at night, while using a designated "bathroom" area, I shifted on my way out the door. Luckily I had my repacked backpack with me.

I was back home. I walked to my house and went to bed after taking a shower.