My name is Mia. I’m a 20-year-old girl in her sophomore year of college, majoring in biology. I’m currently sitting on a hill under the largest tree I’ve ever seen in my life in almost complete darkness. From the faint light of the moon, I’ve tried to survey the area around me and figure out where I am. It seems that there are sprawling plains in every direction. There’s a possibility of some fields off in the distance in one direction, but it’s too dark to confirm it.

I have no idea where I am. There’s no area this expansive anywhere near where I’m from. So I’m huddled up against the tree in my pajamas trying to stay warm as the wind cuts through me. All I have on my body is a large, faded t-shirt, a pair of basketball shorts, and my silver earrings that I forgot to take out before I went to sleep last night, or earlier tonight, I suppose. Have I found myself in one of those stories? Am I in a different world?

I catch glimpses of large shadows on the plains every so often. At first, I thought it was my imagination, born out of paranoia and anxiety. But as the night goes on, and the moon occasionally peeks out from behind the clouds, I became sure that there are some sort of large animals out on the plains, maybe cows or horses, I can’t tell.

As the moon slowly starts to sink, the temperature suddenly drops. As if I wasn’t cold enough already, damn it! The sound of raindrops hitting the ground slowly starts and then after a few minutes, it immediately escalates into a downpour. I’m able to stay dry under the tree for now, but some time passes, and the wind picks up, occasionally spraying me with water.

A few more hours of this and the sun finally begins to rise and the clouds slowly start to clear as the storm moves away. I did however, get pelted with some hail a few times.

Soaked from head to toe, I stand and prepare myself to leave. I can see a lot more now that the sun is out. There’s definitely fields far off in the direction I saw earlier, and what seems to be a stone wall even farther past the fields. Alternatively, there seems to be a sprawling forest leading to mountains in the other direction. Actually, there seem to be mountains in the distance in almost every direction.

The mountains are the most surprising to me, being from the Midwest in America. There’s nothing like this geography where I’m from.

Well whatever. I guess my only choice in this situation is to head towards civilization and maybe I can get some answers there. Or at least some food.

I start down the hill and begin walking in the direction of the fields I saw before. My walk is uneventful, and I don’t see any of the animals I saw last night. Maybe they found some shelter due to the storm.

After what feels like a few hours, I arrive at the fields. There are no workers to be seen out in the fields at all, which I find strange. My clothes have since dried during the walk but are now damp again from my sweat. The fields look nothing like what I’m used to seeing and seem very rudimentary, there’s also no farming equipment to be seen. I considered taking some food, but it seems to be mostly corn and other grains that need more processing before it can be eaten.

I continue towards the wall that I saw before, and as I get closer, it appears to be a large city. Several spires can be seen over the walls from this distance. The largest seems to be in the center of the city with eight similar but smaller spires around it. The others are scattered throughout the city, and I would guess most of them to be churches, as I can see crosses and some unfamiliar symbols at the tops of them. There are also towers all along the wall.

As I get closer to the wall, there is a drawbridge extended over a moat and two guards next to the wall and the closed city doors on the other side of the moat. Both guards are fully dressed in metal armor like medieval knights. How are they still alive in such an outfit in this heat? I’m sweating buckets in just a t-shirt and shorts…

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As I reach the drawbridge, the sun is slowly starting to move out of the peak of the sky, it’s afternoon now. I tentatively step on the drawbridge, as I’ve never walked on one before. My strange behavior or more likely my strange clothing catches the attention of the guards and one of them walks out onto the drawbridge to approach me.

This specific guard is at least two feet taller than me, and I freeze up as he gets closer. He begins to talk to me, but I can’t understand anything he says. I try to tell him that I can’t understand him, and he says something else that I can’t understand. I try to ask where I am, and his answer is just as incomprehensible. He seems to be growing frustrated, as much as I can tell through his suit of armor, and it’s apparent that neither of us have ever heard each other’s language before.

He flips the visor on his helmet up and I can partially see his face, although I’m not entirely sure why he does so. He looks me up and down, I guess my clothing is really strange here. He smiles at me, and I think he is trying to put me at ease. It doesn’t work because he could crush me with one hand and a smile makes no difference. He turns away from me and motions with his arm, as if telling me to follow him.

I follow him mostly out of fear, and he leads me through a small door next to the gates. It leads inside the city wall, to some sort of a guard barracks. There are a few guards inside at a large desk, all dressed in similar armor, but without their helmets on. They seem to be doing paperwork and other tasks.

The guard I’m following approaches the desk and begins talking to a woman guard with long blond hair braided in a sort of braided ponytail. He talks to her, although I can’t understand what they’re saying he gestures at me during the short conversation. Afterward, he points at me and then points at the woman who motions for me to follow her. It seems he’s handing me off to her as he leaves to resume his guard post, I assume.

The woman leads me through a series of stone hallways and heavy metal doors (I can’t physically open any of them by myself due to their weight alone). During the whole walk, I’m looking around in amazement. The woman tries to talk to me a few times, but quickly gives up and sticks to charades and gestures. She stops at a specific door. (They all look the same to me, I’m amazed that she seems to know where she’s going so accurately.)

She looks at me and points at the floor outside the door, which I assume means “Wait here” as she goes in and closes the door behind her. After a few minutes, she opens the door and leans out, motioning for me to enter.

Inside the room, the majority of the furnishings are weapons mounted on the wall, and suits of armor on stands. The only actual furniture is a large desk with an even larger man sitting in a chair behind it. He is also wearing full plate armor, although his armor is much more intricate and decorated. He has a large black beard that seems to be hiding a large scar, as the top of the scar reaches just below his left eye. I’m guessing he’s the captain of the guard, or at least someone ranked close to it.

He says something to me, possibly a greeting, and I just look at him as bewildered as I did when the other guards talked to me. He nods at my expression, as if confirming that I really don’t have any knowledge of their language at all. He opens a drawer of his desk and pulls out some sort of very gaudy necklace and motions to the woman guard who takes it and approaches me.

It seems they want me to wear the necklace, so I let her put it on me. As soon as she does, I suddenly become very dizzy and faint. I vaguely feel myself being held in cold metal arms as I pass out.

I regain my consciousness a few minutes later, and I seem to be sitting in the captain’s chair. I immediately jump up, but he motions for me to sit back down.

“Don’t try to move too fast just yet, you just woke up. Take it easy.” the captain tells me.

My eyes go wide as I can suddenly understand him.

“Can you understand me now?” He asks in response to my expression.

“Y-yes… I can.” I manage to stutter.

“My name is Sir Devin, Captain of the Defense Guard,” he tells me. “The necklace that Sergeant Lizette put on you magically translates speech so we can understand each other.”

I nod, but still have a confused expression on my face. Magic?!? What is this man talking about? I was beginning to think that I was in a different world, but I guess this really seals the deal.