Warmth.
I woke up to a strange warmth that I couldn’t quite place, something alien. At the time I felt it was the view I had, just outside of my window was a thick row of pine trees, their leaves a dull pascal blue, green and purple with clumps of white snow clinging on. The sun shined a dim yellow, an almost perfectly white sky overhead that felt more alien than the skies on Mars.
In the reflection, I caught a glimpse of myself, my brown hair covered in mud, bruises and small cuts from when I fell dotting my already old scars and pale skin, and my right eye was bloodshot from stress, just like Adrian’s. My left eye on the other hand, that just needed a little cleaning.
Next to me was Adrian, still in much of his climbing gear, which was caked in a thick layer of dust and mud. His hand gently rocking my shoulder as his voice slowly started to fade in.
Wake up! Where are we? A simple question, but a look out the window gave an equally simple answer, I didn’t know. Before I had the chance to impart an elegant answer, the door swung open.
Standing in the doorway was a slender girl who looked to be in her early 20’s and stood at around 180 cm (5’11). Her skin was a light bronze, kissed only slightly by the sun. Her jet black hair was tied into a ponytail that was tucked nicely behind her long pointy ears. She wore a tank top and tan overalls with a revolver hanging from her hips.
“Seems like you two are finally awake.”
The girl's appearance was out of place of course but I attempted to hold my tongue, Adrian, on the other hand, was much blunter in his response.
“Elf. That’s definitely a damn elf.”
The girl raised a brow, her dark brown eyes carrying confusion with them, “I don’t know what ya talkin' about there kin,” She replied, pausing to giggle before she continued, “But I’m glad to see you have some sprites about you, couldn’t get a word out of ya last night ‘cause you were shivering like a shaved musk-hound. We found your lady friend after she ate snow and followed her tracks back to you.”
Her words gave me a vague memory of the other night. I nearly knocked myself out when she and an older looking man found me. The girl set my arm and Adrian’s leg while a man made us soup. I didn’t get a chance to speak to them or even a decent look until then. But since I had the chance, I tried my best to think of a way to thank them.
“Pardon my friend, he’s probably still in shock…” I said, gently punching him in the shoulder, “but your appearance does throw us off a little, no offense.”
The look on his face told me that he tried to hold his tongue, but that still didn’t stop him from blurting out more, “ Thank you, but I’m sorry, what are you then because you look just like an elf.”
“What in the Goddess’s name is an elf? I’m a Garan. Eastern Garan to be exact.”
“Rin…” I mumbled, “Give it a rest would you?”
“Well, I just woke up on an alien planet, so sorry if I have a few questions.” He whispered to me, shoving at my shoulder, “Where are we exactly?”
“Portus, a river town in a nation called Greylock.” The girl said as she helped us to our feet “We couldn’t get you two to a hospital because of a storm, but it passed now. We’ll head out soon, but we shot down some gullbass last night when he found ya lady friend over there. He was gonna fry it up tonight, but he’s makin’ it for breakfast this morning. Come get some if you’re hungry.”
The girl and I each placed Adrian on our shoulders and carried him into the dining room. As we headed there, I took the time to take in the cabin's view along the way. The walls were lined with unknown and alien creature’s heads, which included wolves with deer-like horns, a massive lizard-like cat that was stuffed, and an eyeless bear with the nose of a mole-rat.
As we passed by, Adrian and I looked on at each other in confusion before passing by something more familiar to us both, a wall of firearms. Each weapon looked as if it could be lifted from a WW1 museum, if it wasn’t for their unusual designs, with one rifle, in particular, catching my eye. A lever-action rifle with a foldable bayonet the length of a spare.
“That belonged to my mom.” he said as we both eyed at it, “She hunted with it, went to war with it, and nearly blasted my pops with it. About half of the game on the wall was hers, but my pop’s swears it's less than that.”
The girl giggled before letting out a deep sigh as we both sat Adrian down at a kitchen table. Just then a large burly man walked through the door, carrying a massive, four-winged skinned bird. His skin was just as bronzed as the girl’s while his hands and face were covered in old faded scars, each one looking as if it had its own story. He stood at a massive 195cm (6’5) and his ears were just as pointed as the girl. His hair was a dirty blond that met with his beard.
“Had to skin these bastards outside or else we’d be picking features out of every little crack in this place.” The man joked as he carved up the bird across from us, “Say kin, we never caught ya names or where you two hail from.”
I swallowed my tongue and pulled up the neck gaiter that I still wore, despite the dirt and mud caked on it. I was nervous to speak, or even show my face, despite what the two of them already did for us. In the end, Adrian stepped in and spoke for me “My name is Adrian Crawford, this is my friend Ella Larsen. There was a third with us, my older foster sister Catherine Crawford. She went looking for help and never came back.”
“Ah, and where do you hail from? Your clothes, they don’t look too familiar and your accents sound Truvan.”
Adrian and I looked at each other for a moment, unsure of what to say. We were convinced that we were in a different world. We didn’t know the lands or the people, we were lucky that they spoke our language. The man could sense our hesitation and raised his arm as he dunked pieces of the bird into a batch of oil.
“Ay, if you don’t wanna speak on it, fine, names are good enough. We all got our secrets, but it would only be fair to know more about two strangers sleeping in your home, am I right?” The man's voice shifted to a much more cautious tone as he sat at the table, his hand at his hip, “You said there was a third? I heard some of the townsfolk talking about a girl running around in the woods bleeding something fierce the other day, just before the storm really rolled in. They said she looked tough too.”
“Yeah, what did this girl look like?” Adrian said as air slowly filled with the fragrant smell of fried poultry filled the air.
“Black hair, pale skin. A really tall lass as well. The way the guards talked her up makes it seem like she could kick my ass pretty good, even if she was banged up.” The man chuckled as his hand ever so slightly slid down his hip, reaching into his pocket.
“That sounds like Cat alright. She’s more of a lover than she is a fighter, but she still can carry herself. Can’t exactly say the same for myself and Ella, but we can still handle ourselves, most of the time.” Adrian said with a smile before reaching to his side and letting out a sharp grunt, “Gaaah, think I busted something more than my leg. Excuse mister umm…”
“Ott, Hugo Ott. My daughter's name is Sarah by the way. She’s the one that found you two.”
“Mr. Ott, do you have anything for the pain?” Just as he finished, a bright flash and loud pop echoed in the room. Gripping at his hip, Hugo turned to the source of the sound. An icicle from the opened window had fallen into the frying oil, causing it to splash over onto the flames.
Sarah rushed to move the pot from the fire, bashing at it with a kitchen towel. An awkward silence engulfed the room until the flames were beaten down and Hugo checked on the food.
“Ah, that was a close one. We almost went the way of a Vezdorian!” The man laughed as he pulled the pieces of fried meat from the pots, “Sorry kin, don’t have much other than some sprites. We were only planning to stay in this cabin for a few days, before the hunting session ended. Lucky for you, your friend there ran into us just before we were packing up our gear. Oh by the way, your nose is leaking a bit dear.”
I ran my hand across the top of my lip, smudging it with blood just before a sharp pain shot through my head. The man walked over to me with a plate and pulled a napkin from his pocket, handing it to me.
“Seems like you busted something more than your hand dear.” He said with a teasing voice, “Eat up and we’ll get you two to the doc in town. Would have taken you earlier, but the storm was a nasty one all day.
“Oh, umm undskyld… I mean pardon. I’m not really hungry right now.” I said, pushing the plate away as the man looked over at me, while my eyes shifted away ever so slightly from him down at the meal.
“Alright then kin, suit yourself.” Hugo said in an almost offended tone, "If you are from near Truvan, you should at least know that it’s rude not to eat at least some of a meal that was given to you, but you two seem to have been through a lot so I’ll give you a pass. At least drink something. You seem pale as a ghost.”
“Sorry.”
The man sat down and ate as an awkward silence engulfs the room. God knows how much time passed before the silence was finally broken by the ringing of a clock in another room. Hugo waved over to his daughter, who ran to the back room without saying a word and came out with a large oval-shaped wooden box. The middle of the box had a green crystal in the center, which started to glow with a red hue as the girl plugged it into a wall.
A staticy hum came through before it cleared up into the sounds of a man humming in a strange language. Both Hugo and Sarah closed their eyes and recited a prayer I’ve never heard. A few seconds passed by before the man began to speak english.
“Kin, I speak to you on the eve of our holiest day and the eve of our saddest day. The birth of our holy Filia and the loss of the family that cared for her. The transgression of eastern demons shalt not be forgotten, but we shall not bath in their flames of their hatred. Rather we will live in the light of our holy Filia, in the hopes that one da-"
Partway through the speech, the device cut out with a puff of smoke and caused Hugo to grunt in frustration.
“Goddess damn this piece of… Gah! We wanted to hear Father Giles give part of his speech today.” Sarah explained as her dad slammed his hand into the device, either out of anger or in a vain hope that it would somehow fix the fried electronics.
“Father Giles?” I asked while I looked over the odd device.
“You really aren’t from around here are ya?" The man said as he raised a brow, "He's the head of the church and the current regent."
“The Father is gonna be in town in two days to give the same speech. We wanted to hear it over the audibox and see the festival before we left Portus. We needed to get you two there anyway but damn it’ll be too crowded there.” Sarah said as she finished up her meal.
“Ay, but you’ll have to deal with it Sarah. The Father hasn’t been near Portus since The Uprising. This may be a once in a century time to see him." Hugo said as he stood, grabbing his coat and a pair of keys.
“The Uprising?” Adrian asked as Sarah helped him to stand, “Wait, the temple we woke up in, there were a bunch of rifles just sticking out of the snow, but no graves. What’s the deal wit-”
“You didn’t take anything, right?” The man asked, not looking back at us. Adrian muttered a soft no just before the man spoke again, “Good, it’s hallowed grounds and I’ll leave it at that. Not that I mean to be rude, but it’s something we don’t really talk about with foreigners. Sarah will grab your bags, I’ll wait for you in the car.” The man said as he stepped outside.
“Wait, a car?” I said to myself, looking over at Adrian, who just shrugged his shoulders. We followed the man out to a buggy that looked nearly a century old. It looked the same as cars you’d find in old museums. Given the radio, or audibox and the way that they dressed, it wasn’t too much of a surprise to see however.
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Hugo and Sarah both loaded Adrian into the car and drove us down the road. The drive was bumpy, very bumpy. We could feel each and every little hitch and hole in the road. No, calling it a road was a stretch, it was barely a path in the snow. The car wasn't exactly the best either, kicking out fumes that choked me and darkened the air around us.
But for the most of the drive was silent, no one saying a word to each other during it. I even found myself almost falling asleep against Adrian’s shoulder, despite the bumpy ride that lasted for almost an hour until we finally reached down. The town itself wasn’t all too big, with buildings and markets compacted together and a large river littered with ports that bisected the town. The streets were crudely paved with pebbles and lined with streetcars, yet many people rode on the backs of horse-like creatures with thicker layers of fur and long, floppy ears.
The people themselves were pointy eared Garans like Hugo and Sarah, but others were of completely different species. Some appeared as lizard people, large beastmen with animal ears and all while others looked human, but gave off a strange aura while standing around them.
“Welcome to Portus Proper, a grand city in the making!” Hugo yelled out with a smile on his face. “Every time we come here it just keeps getting bigger.”
“And a small community in ruin.” Sarah followed, with her arms crossed and a frown that cut across her face.
“You don’t seem too happy coming out here, do you?” Adrian asked as he gently shook me, making sure I was awake.
“It just sucks seeing a place you grew up in change so fast. I used to be able to run around in the street with friends without having to worry about being hit by a car. I could sleep at night without hearing the sound of construction just outside of my window. The place wasn’t so crowded and didn’t smell.”
“I hear you. I lived in the city and the countryside most of my life. The city had some fun places in it, but the countryside was definitely more peaceful.”
Sarah cut her eyes to him and giggled, “Glad I have someone that finally agrees with me.”
Before he could reply, the car came to a sudden stop, sending him into the back of his seat.
“We’re at the clinic, the doc should get you two patched up in an hour and we’ll be ready to go,” Hugo said, grinning at Adrian before helping us both out of the car and into the clinic. Inside it was small, really small. One main room and two back rooms, one an office where the doctor sat and a room with a large metal door with a skull and crossbones on it. The inside was lit with normal light bulbs, but yellow crystals that dotted the ceiling also provided light along with a soft warm feeling just by being around them.
“I have some stuff I have to do in town, but I’ll be back for you in a bit. Sarah, stay here and help them if they need something.”
Sarah nodded to her father before ringing a bell. A moment passed before a tall pale-looking man walked into the room and eyed me and Ella down. He wore dark shades and his long jet black hair was tied into a neat ponytail running down his back. He looked just slightly younger than Hugo, but still around his mid 30’s. He wrote in a small notebook before sighing.
“A clean broken leg and mild concussion for the male Gennin. A hand shattered in several places and minor cuts for the female Gennin.” The man spoke just as quickly as he returned to the back room.
“H-huh? You got all of that just by looking at us?” Adrian would shout out before the man returned with a green crystal necklace along with a book and three pill bottles. The man spoke a short prayer over Adrian, causing the necklace to glow before tossing two bottles at him.
“One black one and two red ones every two hours. Black ones will help with the binding and red ones will let you walk on it with less pain, I think.”
“Wait, you think? Is that all you’re going to do for us? Pray over us and give us pills?”
“What more do you want? I just bound your bone back together, but it was already partly healed. Whoever did it did a piss poor job though.” The doctor said before looking over at Sarah, “I thought I told you to stop trying to cast heal bindings. For a Garan, you do a shitty job at it all the time. I still remember that one time where yo-”
“Hey! It wasn’t my fault you set up shop at the bum edge of town at the time. Also ain’t my handiwork, I thought it was one of theirs.”
“Well whoever it was set most of the bone back into place, but didn’t finish the job with a binding.” The doctor said before turning his sights towards me, “Now as for the girl, not much I can do for you kin, other than pills for the pain. Your hand is too busted to bind normally, but the Father will be in town in two days performing miracles, maybe he can help you.”
Adrian reached down to feel his leg before standing up, walking around normally to both of our surprises. “How, you barely even touch me. But my leg feels normal...”
“You don’t know what bindings are? Shit Sarah, where did you find those two, the East?”
“Camped just outside of the old temple. They’re travelers, but they don’t know how they got here and lost a friend of theirs. Not telling where they’re from either.”
“Hmm, I remember seeing someone dressed like you, not too long ago,” Jacob said, pointing to me, still in my climbing gear, “I was walking to town when I saw her in the woods. She was bloodied to all hell but took off like before I could speak. I wanted to follow her, but she waved something at me, looked like a gun, but ain’t one I’ve ever seen before. It was all black and the barrel was long, but it wasn’t a rifle I’m sure.”
“A gun? Cat was carrying a gun on our trip?” I ask Adrian, who looked was scratching at his head
“I think I saw her put something in her bag back in the hotel. I was going to ask her about it during the climb, but the cave-in happened.”
“Sounds like your friend was keeping something from you two. Either way, I’m not looking to get shot, so you three have fun playing detective. And if you two don’t fancy being a jail cell, I’d keep your little camping story to yourselves. That temple is sacred. I’m the town’s only doctor, but I’m an outsider too so they’ll put several neat little holes in me if I so much as piss in the direction of it.” Jacob said, looking over at Sarah before his eyes locked with mine for a brief moment, “High gods know what they’ll do to a trio of outsiders from the East that have nothing to offer. I’ll send Hugo the bill tomorrow, Sarah.”
Jacob tapped Sarah’s shoulder before returning to his office, leaving the three of us in the lobby.
“Things just keep getting weirder. Where the hell do we go now?” Adrian asked as he crossed his arms and paced around the room.
“The marshal might know something, but your friend sounds like she’s dangerous. I want to believe that you three are really lost but it feels like you aren’t telling me or my father the whole story. I’m still willing to help, I just want you to tell me how you ended up here.”
Sarah's voice shifted to a more serious tone, her body tensed up as she looked at me and Adrian with concern. I stood in silence for a moment, my lips unable to conjure any words. I considered the things that already happened that day and it wouldn’t have been too ridiculous to tell her where we were really from. I’m not sure why I didn’t tell her at the time, maybe I was still in disbelief myself, but the silence was finally broken by Adrian with two simple words.
“It’s complicated.”
Sarah giggled and soon busted into laughter while a large smile cut across her face, “You don’t say do ya? I already got one foot into this mystery, and I wanna see just how this ends. A helluva lot better than selling meat in the cold.”
“We can probably go to the marshal, but what about what Jacob said? What’s the punishment for being around the temple?” I asked as we walked outside of the office into the streets of the town.
Just then, a breeze of frozen air brushed against us as we walked through crowded snow-covered streets, our climbing gear doing little to protect us from the cold. While our jackets did offer some protection, they were meant for nights in the desert, not for snow. The girl, who noticed him shiver, brushed up against Adrian and grabbed his arm, pulled him to the side.
“Don’t worry, I won’t mention that. Let’s just say you were travelers heading to um...Prican via the river and got lost in the storm. But we probably head to the market first and get ya somethin’ warm, you two look pretty cold!” She said, a smile cutting across her face.
“Do we really have time for that? We also don’t have any money on us.” Any that they would have accepted that is. Most of our stuff was still at the temple too, including Cat’s gear that was on the upper floors.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be on the house! The Marshal’s office is down the block from it anyway.” Sarah said as she pointed to the other side of the road, away from the direction we were heading.
“It wouldn’t hurt anyway Ella. We should get one for Cat too, doubt she’s enjoying the cold.” Adrian said as the girl grabbed his arm and happily walked him to the other side of the street.
I followed them, reluctantly, down the street to the market square. Stands lined the snow-covered streets, selling all manners of exotic looking foods, clothes, and even weapons. In the middle of the street was a massive stage that was being set up. There was a strong festive vibe in the air, which likely had something to do with the visit from their equivalent of the pope. But there was also an ominous feeling.
Looking around closer at the people, each person carried some form of gasmask with them, even Sarah had one under her jacket just barely visible. Groups of what looked like soldiers lined the street, massive bolt action rifles in hand. Likely security for the event, but this much made it seem like a warzone.
Either way, we followed Sarah to the end of the market to a stand headed by a single man who was hunched over a book, but one could mistake him for being half-asleep. On the rack around him were coats made of all kinds of exotic furs and leathers. The man himself was a balding “human” dressed in a black winter coat. Although the aura around him felt off. The doctor called me and Adrian something earlier, Gennin I believe. Maybe that’s what they called humans in this world?
“Hmmm, see something you like there kin?” The man asked Adrian, not looking up from his book, “More importantly, do you have the coin for it?”
“It’s on the house Richard, or at least it should be ‘cause of that extra musk-hound hide I slipped you last week.” The girl said as a smug grin crept its way around her face.
The man peered up from his book and scoffed before looking back down, “Don’t take anything too expensive Sarah, barely turning a profit as is.”
Adrian smiled at the girl and took his time looking through the shop’s wares, while I stood to the side, trying my best to truly understand our situation. None of what was happening made any sense. One minute we're in the caves of an ancient Middle Eastern desert city, the next we’re in an American style city in the early 20th century. The locals' reaction to us, while welcoming, gave off an eerie vibe. It was all too friendly for a group of strangers, especially when one of us was waving a gun around in the woods.
The lack of talk around town felt off, not even a whisper of what was happening floated in the air. But I could feel their eyes follow us as they walked passed. Outsiders, they thought, or at least that what I believed they thought. It was the only thing they could be thinking of. The doctor at the clinic was the only one who showed any real concern, but that was only because we didn’t know what kind of magic they used. He did fix Adrian’s leg, but at no cost to us. The girl took it on her own tab.
But despite how nice everyone seemed, a voice kept itching at the back of my head. That voice screamed at me and told me to act, to do something. Run or fight. You’re not safe. Run or fight. There’s only enemies here. Run or fight.
“Ella? The black one or brown one? Which looks better?” Adrian's voice snapped me back to reality as he held two winter coats. My thoughts still weren’t all together and I simply pointed to the brown one. “I thought so too. Hey, are you okay? I think your nose is bleeding.”
My legs grew weak and I reached up to press my hand to my nose and felt as blood oozed it’s way through my neck gaiter. The girl reached her hand out to pull it away and I responded by slapping it away. I wasn’t sure if it was instinct or if I just didn’t want her to touch me, either way it earned me more stares from the townspeople as a crowd formed around us.
The more people that gathered around, the more that voice screamed at me, to the point that my head felt like it was about to split open. I heard Adrian and the girl calling out to me, but their voices were slowly fading away, drowned out by that voice. By then I was already down on my knees, their cries falling on deaf ears. I could feel the blood pooling in my mouth, running down my neck and my chest. I remember not being able to breath, every breath I tried to take only carried more blood into my lungs. That burning feeling of my lungs crying out for air… It hurt. It hurt so much, I don’t even want to remember it. I honestly thought I was going to die until a hand fell on my shoulder and the pain, the cries, the voice, and the crowd all disappeared. For a brief moment, it was just me.
“That’s a pretty nasty nose bleed there, child.” A voice said to me, a calming, smoothing voice. I turned and saw a tall hooded man. His skin was fair, but scars ran along his neck, mostly hidden by his dark grey beard. I couldn’t make out the rest of his face.
Next to him stood two people, who looked to be bodyguards. One stood unnaturally tall, almost 215cm (7’0) and wore a hooded gas mask. The other appeared to be a man, but most of his face was covered with a gaiter. He stood next to the titan, carrying a briefcase in one hand and kept a gun strapped just under his shoulder.
The bearded man himself pulled away my gaiter and replaced it with a black scarf, but not before he got a good look at my face, including the burn scar that ran from my left eye to my neck to which he smiled. Without a word, he left just as fast as he showed up.
Looking down at my hand, there was a lot less blood than I thought and the crowd around us was much smaller too and by the time I was back on my feet, they were already gone.
“Ella, are you okay? Who was that guy?” Adrian asked, his voice calming me down even more.
“I’m fine, just a bad headache I guess. I don’t know who that guy was, but he seemed familiar.”
I said as I tied the scarf. “I’ll take the black one I guess, it matches the scarf, but I need to talk to you in private.
Sarah nodded, leaving the two of us to ourselves in a more secluded part of the market.
“Something isn’t right Rin, this place, these people, even that girl seem off.”
“Ella, we’re on a planet that isn’t Earth, Venus or Mars. We just made first contact on an alien planet we found in Jordan. No shit something isn’t right.”
“Then why are you acting like things are fine? We should be focused on trying to find Catherine, not chit-chatting around and shopping. Don’t you find something off about those people, they seem to hate outsiders but the family is over friendly.”
Adrian sighed before letting out a soft giggle, “That dad didn’t seem too friendly, he had a gun pointed at me for most of breakfast, Not that I blame him, two hurt strangers stalking around in the woods would put anyone on edge. I’m more concerned with the military presence.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been in DMZs that had less security than this, not even Parias was this bad and it was hell on Earth there. They’re preparing for something, but I’m not sure what. In any case, if things do get bad, I have this...”
Adrian reached into his pants, pulling out an engraved revolver with an ivory handle, loaded with four massive rounds, close to around .44.
“Shit Rin, where the hell did yo-”
“I snatched it from that temple while you were gone. Couldn't find any other rounds for it, so the four is what I have. But if push comes to shove, I’m ready to use it.” Adrian hostered the handcannon into his jacket and placed a hand onto my shoulder, “Ella, you and Cat watched out for me for the longest, it’s time I finally carry my own weight. We’ll find Catherine and head back to the temple, but we need more information. We’ll stay with the family one more night and head out, okay?”
I grabbed onto Adrian’s hand and nod, “Alright, let’s get moving.”