“...Unbelievable. I can’t- I genuinely can’t take this anymore. Honestly, what was I even expecting from a party called ‘Prophecy’s Eve’? A calm, easy evening? Of course not! Nothing is easy anymore!”

Mark came to, groggy. With every word in Horan’s far-off rant came a stab of pain between Mark’s eyes. “Hey, Horan, buddy? Keep it down, I’m trying to sleep.”

“Oh? Sleep?! Yeah, sure! Now is the perfect time for a quick power nap! Go ahead, doze away! We’re only stranded in the middle of who-knows where! No biggie!”

Mark slowly lifted his bleary-eyed face out of the ground. “...What? What happened?”

“Dude, now is not-” Horan took a deep breath and helped Mark to his feet. “Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t yell. It’s giving me a headache too. I’m just really mad.”

Mark slowly looked around. The two of them seemed to be in a field about a hundred feet away from a small road, on the other side of which was a modest treeline. Miles behind the trees, a snow-capped mountain made itself known against the backdrop of the sky. “What in the…”

“Yeah, I know!” Horan stepped away from Mark, keeping one hand on his shoulder to make sure he didn’t fall back down. “An hour or so ago, I get invited to a lovely post-apocalypse meet and greet. Then a bunch of monsters show up from wherever, heralding the end of the world! And now, because of that stupid magic portal, I have no idea where we are! Awesome! Awesome times all round!”

“...No, I meant…” Mark craned his neck to look straight up, falling dead silent.

Horan looked up in turn. “What, the sky? Yeah, sure, it’s… Wait, the sky?!”

Instead of the dismal cloud front that by all rights should still have been there, it was a clear, sunny day. Barely a cloud was in sight. Mark’s skin felt the sun’s warmth on his skin for the first time in years. “...Yeah, I’d say we should find out where we are, exactly. Because I really would like to know.”

Horan floated over the guardrail and landed on the road. Looking at the path stretching as far as he could see in both directions, he kicked the tarmac. “I don’t get it. Did we die? Go to a different dimension? How is the sky clear?!” He sighed. “Well, the answer isn’t here. Let’s get moving.” He took a few steps, then looked back at Mark, who was still staring at the sky. “Uh, you coming, dude?”

“Um, yeah, yeah…” Mark took a single, small step forward, and stopped, still looking up.

“...Do you… need a minute?”

Mark nodded silently.

“Okay then.” Horan walked back towards the guardrail, but stopped when a glowing green ring appeared around him. A five-foot-wide, ten-foot-high, open-top cylinder of shimmering green light manifested around him. Horan hesitantly touched the edge of the cylinder, then pulled his hand back. The light appeared to be solid. “Uh, Mark? There’s been another complication.”

Mark tore his eyes from the sky and looked at Horan. “Okay, this day is just gonna keep getting weirder, isn’t it?” He tentatively began to approach Horan’s cage.

“Can’t pass through it. Looks like magic.” Horan placed his hand on the force field. “Why would someone put this here, off all places?”

Mark placed his hand on his side of the cage, only for him to be swept off his feet as the force field pulled him inside the cage. He collided with Horan and sent the two sprawling against the far side of the cage.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Horan picked himself up. “Great. Now we’re both in here.” He would’ve launched into another rant, but stopped when he heard a rustling noise from the tree on the opposite side of the road. From the darkness of the treeline, two glowing, green eyes emerged.

Still on the ground, Mark reached for his gun behind his back. He had no idea what the attackers were capable of, he had barely even processed what had happened. But things weren’t looking good for him or Horan.

The rustling intensified and a head peeked out from the shadows of the tree. Wait, was that..?

“Salutations!”

Quet shimmied along the branch she was clutching, grinning from ear to ear. She had to continually crane her neck upwards to maintain rough eye contact as the branch creaked downwards the further she slided forward. “Caught ya! Thought you got the best of ol’ Quetlachticicue, eh? Well, guess wh-AH!” The branch keeping her up snapped and she tumbled onto the pavement. Without missing a beat, she sat up. “You didn’t!”

Mark struggled to his feet. “Wha- Quet?”

Quet noticed Mark. “Y… Uh, the-the guy from the party? Ugh, I knew I’d forget it…”

Horan looked between the two. “What, you know each other?”

Another voice came from the treeline as a fourth figure came into view. “Okay, what happened here?”

Horan recognized the new arrival’s purple and yellow eyes. “Omet?!”

Omet blinked in surprise. “Horan?”

Mark’s eyes darted between the three Primoi. “Okay, what’s going on?”

“Oh, yeah, right.” Quet walked up to the two in the cage and began inspecting them. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve got you right where I want you. I’ve got these here traps set up all over the road.”

“And you can let them out now.” Omet stepped out of the undergrowth, brushing leaves and twigs off of their hand-knit cardigan. “I know both of them, I helped them stop that crazy storm guy a while back. Pretty sure you were there.”

“Yeah, I was there. I met the human at the party, too. And I don’t buy it. Sorry, by the way, I can’t remember your name.”

“What?” Horan put his hands up on the force field, pushing it slightly in random places. “What do you mean you don’t buy it? What about this situation is not being bought?”

Quet folded her arms and looked Horan up and down. “I mean, we just got attacked by someone who made a bunch of creepy illusory copies of themself. Who’s to say these two aren’t a bunch of fake doppelgängers meant to lure us into a false sense of security? For now, we keep our distance.”

Mark looked up. “Hey, it doesn’t look like the barrier has a ceiling. Is this thing open-top?”

Quet half-heartedly raised a finger. “Uh…”

Mark raised his arms and Horan grabbed him by the armpits. The two flew up over the force field and landed in front of Quet and Omet. Quet turned to run, but Omet blocked her escape. “They’re real, sis.”

Quet reluctantly turned around, keeping a hand on one of the bags she had slung around her shoulder. “Oh yeah? Prove it.”

Mark immediately reached up and slapped Horan in the face. “Feels pretty real.”

Horan rubbed his cheek. “Really? That was your first instinct?”

Omet stepped forward. “Sorry about my sister. She’s been jumpy ever since we all marathoned my horror movie collection the other night.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry for being on a little on-edge after getting gatecrashed by the armies of the apocalypse! Totally unjustified of me, I know.”

Mark held up his hands. “Look, it’s okay, we’re out. I feel like the main thing we should be worried about is where exactly we are.” He pointed up at the sky. “Because that isn’t normal.”

“Mark’s right.” Horan looked out at the expanse of road in either direction again. “We’re stranded in the middle of who-knows-where, and if that guy’s prophecy was right, we might start ending up face-to-‘face’ with whatever attacked us back there. And we can’t fix either of those problems by standing around out here.”

Omet folded their arms. “And what exactly are we meant to do instead? We have no idea where that portal spat us out.”

Mark stepped into the road. “This is a paved road, there’s got to be something nearby. Pick a direction and start walking.”