The wagon’s wheels rattled with every pebble on the dirt road. Covered was the canvas above as the pitters and patters of evening rain descended upon us. A train of carriages and horses led the way down southern roads and out of the mountains. I didn’t realize how high up we were until the hills of Kamahlor loomed behind.
Taro, I, and five others were confined to this rattling wagon of wood and nails for three days now. Labellum was the end of the road of the eastern coast of the continent and the caravan now returned south to restart the cycle of endless bartering. On our travels, we visited an orc farm called Rivonmok and the dwarven lake-city of Derkrao. The dwarf hybrids Taro and I ran into there weren’t fond of him slaying one of their kin in the colosseum. But like Taro told the dwarves, it was him or Cescov. It was safe to say that we left the city in a hurry before tensions between the bloodlines escalated.
Trapped by trinkets and crates of silk, I sat in the back of the wagon with four others: Taro, two orc-hybrid twins that we met at the inn named Ethan and Mell, and a hybrid elf that called themselves Selara. The two who sat above us, leading the horses, were Gadaan and Briar. They were both beasts of fur but Gadaan was the only one with a snout. He was a pure-blooded beast. The first I ever saw in this world. A canine on two legs with furred fingers on their hands and paws for feet. His passenger, Briar, was much the same. Despite the ears, tail, sharpened nails, and furry skin, it was easy to discern that they were a hybrid like the rest of us.
The orc, Ethan, groaned and stretched his arms from the constricting bench he sat on and looked over at the blonde-haired half-elf. “Hey, dagger-ears, where’d you spawn from?”
Selara scoffed and rolled her eyes while Ethan’s sister punched him in the arm.
“Be nice!” Mell exclaimed.
“I was just asking a question! What am I not allowed to ask questions in this world that you brought me into!?” Ethan said.
His twin sister gave an agape expression. “Me!?” she yelled. “You were the one who decided they needed a ride to Fraums!”
The back and forth bickers of blame happened for well over a minute before Taro or the driver told them to shut up. The identical siblings were doing this well before Taro and I ever stepped foot in the wagon back in Kamahlor, and they would continue to do so until we reached the end of the day.
Campfires lined the road behind and ahead. Hundreds of passengers and traders dotted the shrublands. While the stars glittered above the silhouettes of mountains, I opened my [Map]. It updated while we were on our travels and showed two different areas, the harbors of Drafael southwest of us and the city of Hubloc to our southeast. We didn’t rest at Drafael but each new location I heard rumor of, it seemingly marked on my [Map]. Where these locations were exactly, I couldn’t tell unless I reached the edge of my current [Map] and entered a new area.
The only city that I previously discovered through forced-teleportation was roughly 400 miles away. Hubloc was surrounded by a dark blue of unexplored area on my [Map] but a large section of it was colored with its proper sand-ridden terrain since I was last teleported to it.
Zooming in on the city, I could see the colossal arena that seated over a billion hybrids. If Hubloc is the only location discovered by all of us, then everyone must be headed there. If Alex or Donovan travel there, I’d know. I swiped to my [Party Members] tab. Elixir and Don were still listed as unknown, but if I made it there first, hopefully they’d be in a rush to meet me.
“You fuckers better not have spawned across the world,” I muttered under my breath.
The half-beast, Briar, heard my grumbles and tilted their head, “Say again?”
“Oh, it was nothing. Just hoping some of my old friends go to Hubloc.”
“Friends from Earth? How do you know they were transported here?”
“I can see them listed in my [Party Members] menu. Can you not see yours?”
Briar’s ears flicked as they nestled into their cloak. I could see their eyes move about as if they were digging through their menus. “Mine is empty.” Briar gave a stifled laugh, “But it’s not like I had many to begin with.”
“Were you with anyone when you got transported here?” I asked.
The beast shook their head.
“Huh.” Maybe because I was in close proximity with Alex and Don, that’s why they’re listed. It’s not like every friend I had or any of my family is listed on my menu. So it’s not based on relationship statuses from Earth.
“Taro?” I asked. He was staring deep into the fire like before with the cold steel of the knight’s helm guarding his expression.
“Yes?” he responded.
“Were you near anyone when you got transported?”
“Yes. I was in the office.”
“Any friends, coworkers, or family that you were near? Any of them listed under [Party Members]?”
He shook his head. “My nephew that I worked with isn’t listed on the menu. Nor the coworkers I was close to. Nor my boss. We were being… physical before I was taken here.”
“Like fighting!?” Ethan spewed with a mouthful of jerky.
Taro grumbled and I could only assume that he was looking for a better way to explain himself, but he settled with a blunt “No.”
I hid my smirk, Alright Taro, you fiendish bastard. But damn this [System] is strange. So it’s not based on relationships or proximity.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
I looked over at the siblings, I wondered how they were together in such a vast world. “Mell, did you and Ethan spawn next to each other? Were you both already partied up?”
Ethan took another bite, “Yah, we were both—”
“He asked me!” Mell yelled before altering to a more calm demeanor. “Yes, my brother and I both spawned a little ways south together. And yes, we were already partied together.” She gave a gleeful smile before turning her head and scowling at her male counterpart.
I stoked the fire and watched as a mass of embers erupted into the moist air. Well, that only leads me to more questions. It’s not based on relationships or proximity, so maybe they were just lucky?
While I was deep in thought and trying to rack my head around the rules of the [System] or gain an ounce of explanation, the elf, Selara, raised her hand.
“I didn’t spawn with them, but I can see my five brothers in my menu,” she said.
“Damn!” Ethan blurted out. “How tall are they?” He scooted closer to the elf but his sister put a hand on his chest and shoved him off the log he sat on.
I couldn’t help but grin whenever the two of them fought. It reminded me too much of Sage and Don. “I hope you find your brothers, Selara. Hubloc would be the best place to go. They’ll see that you’re there since everyone discovered it.”
Selara looked solemnly at her leather boots and nodded.
Soon, Gadaan approached our little camp. He told us before he left the camp that he was going to talk with other drivers, but like the nights previously, we knew he’d spend the night drinking away. It was amusing to watch a coyote-like beast dressed in a cloak and brimmed hat down a bottle of purple wine, but I worried that he wouldn’t sleep it off by the time the sun came up.
“You all need to rest! We’re going off the path this week.”
“What do you mean?” Briar asked.
“You’ll see, little pup… you’ll see.” Gadaan left the camp with a stumble and a hiccup before leaning against his wagon and passing out.
The rest of us soon followed suit. Upon the ground of barren soil and dry grass, I looked to the stars and moons unfamiliar to me. Although fascinating, it saddened me to my core that there was a high likelihood that I’d never see the ones recognizable to me ever again.
* * *
Winds whipped through the canvas and scattered loose trinkets across the sands. I knew I should’ve covered myself when Gadaan put on goggles and wrapped himself in a scarf. The rest of us braced ourselves in a circle of limbs and linen shirts in the back of the rickety wagon.
The sky was a haze of dark orange in the morning sun, shadowed by the arid storm. From frost, to grass, to shrubs, to desert. I was unaware how dreadful the lands would become at the base of the northern mountains. I poked my head out and saw the dim light of a lantern ahead. We were still following the caravan.
After hours of thrashing winds that threw hot sand across our bodies, the storm stood still. The skies were still a cloud of dim red that blocked the blue above, but the wheels of the wagon continued to turn. Gadaan’s four horses embraced the sands and trotted through the desert with ease.
Dawns would rise and dusks would fall. The sea of sand was freezing in the night and scorching in the day. Clumps of snow would build in the shadows of the tallest dunes, only to thaw and be consumed by the sands beneath.
While the sky turned pink in the dusk’s light, we lurched off the caravan path and headed east. By nightfall, the skies were clear and we could see the yellow and white dots of wagon lanterns meet the stars on the horizon.
Our driver pitched a tent and laid ragged blankets for us on the dunes. He carved a small pit for a fire but his spark wouldn’t catch the kindling.
I offered an empty hand, “Let me try.” With a single strike from his fire starter I was able to light the kindling and make it spread to the dried lumps of wood. It was challenging to not let it be extinguished by the sands that surrounded us, but I somehow knew in my mind that the fire would hold for the night.
“Some skill you have,” Gadaan huffed.
I scoffed but a smile grew across my face, “It’s about the one thing I’m good at.”
We sat in silence while the others fell asleep without hesitation once they stepped off the wagon.
“Are we still heading to Hubloc?” I asked.
“We are.” The beast gazed at the stars and petted the dust off the satchel on his side. “Did you know that you are not the first of your kind to enter this world?”
I furrowed my brow while I replayed what he said in my mind, “What do you mean exactly?”
He produced a low growl, not out of anger but of frustration or contemplation. “Hybrids have come before. They weren’t around in this millennium until now but I have reason to believe that they came before. Besides the fables and mythos about a new type of creature formed from split bloodlines, I have seen artifacts and architecture that are not native to this world. But… maybe they were from a different realm not native to yours either.”
“I’d have to see it to be certain, but I find it humorous how our realms have crossed. Bloodlines of elves, orcs, dwarves, and beasts existed only in art, ink, and… let’s just say theater. But now, we’re living in a world where it’s physical. I’m sure some of the hybrids are ecstatic to have left the old world and live in this new one but—”
“But not you?” Gadaan asked.
“No. Now, I don’t blame the others. We come from a realm of death, disease, and destruction not caused by giant wolves or literal gods, but caused by our own human nature. As much as Earth could be improved and with how much hate is encapsulated inside it, it is my home. I know if we return then we'll have the power to mold it into something beautiful.”
Gadaan leaned back on his forearms and raised his chin at me, “So you wish not to flee your Earth like your peers and change it for the better? That is noble… although a challenge.”
“It's one I’m willing to accept,” I said.
Gadaan scoffed, “It seems our hearts and our realms are all too similar, but I assume we have more dragons,” he cackled.
“Shit, those are real here too!?”
He gave a sly smirk and a shrug.
“Well at least you don’t have nuclear bombs… yet, ” I laughed.
The driver’s ears folded back, “Knew-clear what?”
* * *
After two days of driving in the flat empty sands, we saw the first beacon of stone and red rock. Gadaan pulled over to inspect the landmark and flip through crumpled parchments in his satchel.
“What are we out here for? Hubloc is south of us,” Selara said.
Gadaan held a piece of paper up to the scorching sun, “I’ve heard tale of a dungeon not far from here. You all will help me locate and extract its treasures.”
“Treasures?” I asked.
Taro gripped his hand and the spirals of sand encircled his gauntlet. “What is stopping us from leaving you here and taking your wagon to Hubloc?”
Dammit Taro, you have a thirst for blood now?
“Yeah!” Ethan and Mell exclaimed.
I was going to defend our driver and his escapade but he defended himself well enough.
“I carried you this far and now you threaten me!? I beg of you to relieve me of this realm of sand and send me to the grasslands with Seismont! But even if you haul yourself through the dunes, with my horse team alive, and sell all my wares at Hubloc, you’ll still be coinless compared to what we’ll find here!”
“And what would that be?” Ethan mocked.
The beast smirked, “If only you could fathom such fortunes.”