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Leo

Leo groaned, the disoriented man's head spinning in a daze while he laid out on his back in some brush. The abrupt sunlight made his eyes squint in irritation as he tried to get his senses to work properly, but the task was even more difficult as his ears hummed with a faint ring, like there was a loud explosion that was set off next to them.

He shifted his head around and became a wash with total confusion as his eyes started to adjust to his new environment. “Where...am I?” He muttered to himself as he shakily got to his feet, his chest feeling tight from landing on his back, hard.

The last thoughts on his mind guided him back to where he was at home, on his computer, stretching out in his very comfortable chair, and browsing through a few online videos. It was another normal weekend at his apartment, and he was relaxing while he enjoyed the relative peace and quiet of the evening, but then, without warning, everything went black.

Not in the sense that he just blacked out, but it was like he was in a pure black void. The darkness was so dense that he couldn't even see his hand if he placed it in front of his face, and after that, gravity seemed to just pull away. He started falling for a few moments until his back hit the ground just hard enough to knock the wind out of him, and then the darkness popped out of existence as if someone flicked on a light switch.

Gazing around to get a better sense of his surroundings, he seemed to be in what looked like a pretty generic forest, as large and thick oak trees dotted closely around him. As the sunlight split through the trees and warmed his body ever so slightly, he was more bewildered than afraid at the sudden relocation. When he got to his feet, he started to walk around with some hesitation.

Cupping his hands around his mouth, he shouted out for anyone in the area. “Hello?!” He called out while wandering around a few feet, hoping that there was at least someone close by.

The very confused man tried to recall the details of his time in the void, but he was drawing a blank, as there was absolutely nothing that he could see.

Furrowing his brow, Leo attempted to analyze the situation. ‘I probably wasn’t kidnaped, no one seems to even be around. Wasn't like I got drunk at a party, I was alone at my place and I don't care much for alcohol. Doesn't feel like a dream, I would have known since I lucid dream fairly often, and this feels ‘very’ real. Damn it, what the hell happened?’ The train of thought finished as his face scrunched up in a perplexed irritation, failing to figure out how he ended up at his current location.

After a few minutes of yelling into the forest, while still trying to unravel the mystery of his circumstances, he started to push all that to the back of his mind. He knew he had to get his priorities in order because he was in a forest in the middle of god knows where, so survival had to be at the top.

Thinking back to the basic survival rules he knew that he needed to get water, food, and shelter, in that order, and he needed to find a source of water fairly quickly.

‘Gotta get my bearings if I don't wanna trek around in circles, so I need a good view of the sun to judge where I should go.’ He looked up at the light peeking through the trees, his mind beginning to wander while he casually searched for a clear line of sight to the sky.

‘It's a bit warm, but it was the middle of winter. Don't tell me I'm in the southern hemisphere, god this makes no sense… Well I should probably make a simple fire starter, nights are still co-’ His thought instantly halted with narrowed eyes toward the sky.

“No...” He uttered in a hard tone of denial as he picked up his pace, desperately trying to find a large enough opening to view the sky.

“No... No.. No. No!” He repeated as he frantically ran toward an opening in the forest, but then stopped dead in his tracks when he arrived at a small clearing, and his face contorted to that of complete shock.

“This… What… How?!” He muttered incoherently to himself and dropped to his knees at the sight before him.

In the sky sat two suns, solar streaks feeding into each other as they slowly orbited around one another.

“Where the fuck am I?!”

…

“Lost in a forest.. Stuck on another world…” Leo repeatedly muttered dejectedly, while he continued to trek through the forest, his back sore from sleeping on the ground for the past two days.

The strain of dehydration was starting to seriously take effect on his body, and his only relief was from chewing on fresh bush leaves, because he didn't want to test his luck with mystery berries. He chose to head west, preferring to follow along declines on the forest floor, hoping to come across a downhill stream, although he would even settle for some stagnant puddles at this point.

“Stuck on ano-” His lifeless repetitions broke instantly, frozen in place as all of his senses heightened beyond what he thought his body was currently capable of.

Inhaling deeply through his nose, he felt the fresh moisture in the air fill his lungs, and his body screamed for more of the life-giving liquid. “Rain? No...” He remarked softly upon seeing that the sky was crystal clear.

His weary body stood stock still in the near deafening silence and shut his eyes to focus on the sounds echoing through the forest, before they shot open at the rumbling noise of the relief to his physical pain calling to him.

He immediately stumbled as fast as he could manage toward the direction of the rushing water, his body aching desperately for an end to the pain. He tripped more than a few times as he got closer to his savior, but frantically clawed his way back to his feet whenever it happened, until he finally arrived next to a river that parted the forest flowing away from a large waterfall further upstream. The mental alleviation he felt at the sight of it stunned him for only a moment, before he rushed forward and unceremoniously dunked his head into the cool clear water.

When he finally pulled his head out after guzzling the refreshing liquid, he immediately collapsed onto his back and stared up at the sky. He was transfixed by the two suns, both having a slightly more orange tint than the one back home. Closing his eyes, he finally had time to properly think about his situation, now that he found a source of water.

Leo sighed, his body feeling lighter as relief started to slowly spread through his limbs. “Well… Going home probably isn't an option...” He thought aloud as he looked up at the flaming twins.

Frowning, he took a moment to really think about his current predicament. He had to admit to himself that even if he did find his way back, there was nothing to really motivate him there. Being a solo game dev with not much in the way of a social life and only a few friends online didn't exactly feel like something he wanted to expend the effort in journeying back to, especially when his current location was on another fucking planet.

‘Yeah, just look on the bright side. All I really did in my free time was play games, watch YouTube, and watch anime… Wait… Was I isekai'd?’ He thought to himself before he sat up right, and contemplated a few tropes in anime.

Likely still under the effects of his delirious dehydration, he started calling out a bunch of commands while waving his hands around. “Menu, Hud, stats, skills, abilities, inventory, console?” He finished a little disappointedly, while the only thing he managed to actually achieve was looking like a complete idiot, but that was not entirely unsurprising.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Tilting his head down a little sullenly, he resigned himself back to thought. ‘Nope, not a game. And here I was hoping to put my knowledge of exploiting systems to the test.’ He sadly thought and glanced down stream, figuring that if there was any civilization on this planet, then something should be along this river.

Resigning himself to his current situation, he was about to start his trek along the bank, but a blade appeared next to his neck before he could move from his spot.

“Aw shit…”

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Elaria

Elaria took up a posting as a guard for a border town when she was drafted to serve in Selaria's army. The guard was an offshoot of the military, whose duty was to protect the people and surrounding areas of their station, but recently has doubled as a growing military support system.

There hasn't been a major conflict between the races for a few generations, but recent tensions between the two most powerful, Elves and Dwarves, has put all the others on guard. She hoped that if, more like when, war broke out between the two, that Selaria could remain neutral.

Seeing as Selaria's trade is tied heavily to both empires, neither would want to disrupt their own trade by attacking the others. Unfortunately for the other races, any who traded heavily to one side were sanctioned by the other.

‘Hopefully we can maintain our balance.’ It was an optimistic thought, which ultimately made her let out a resigned breath.

The watchful guard was on her patrol along the river as she enjoyed the calming sounds of the forest and running water, only a few miles out from the town she was stationed, Telnar. The route was only up to the waterfall and back, but she liked to stay there for an hour or two to simply enjoy the freedom. She always had a habit of stressing out when too much was on her mind, so the ambiance took a load off her shoulders while she was there, forgetting about memories of the past and ever looming threats of war.

She was almost to her destination when the sound of a rustling movement from the forest drew her attention, and she reflexively ducked into the tree line to see what was frantically rushing towards the river. Not a moment later and what looked like a strangely colored elf burst out of the tree line, stopped for a second, and then rushed over to the river in a stumble. The mystery person submerged their head into the water as Elaria moved slowly within the tree line to get a better view, taking great care to not make a sound.

As she circled around to make out the features of the questionable individual, she found herself in a bit of a shock. This person looked like a mish mash of traits from a bunch of different races. The body shape of an elf, the height of a tiefling, the facial hair of a dwarf, the tan skin of a dryad, sparse hair along their arms and legs like if they were part beast clan. But all of that wasn't what she was most shocked by, what was most shocking is that this was a male.

The birth rate of Selarins are ten females to every one male, and this is a middle average compared to the other races. Beast clans have twenty to one and dwarves have two to one. While the dryads and tieflings are females only, but are able to mate with any race.

‘A male out here on his own…’ Her mind began to drift at the opportunity before her morality crashed into those thoughts. ‘No! I will not use another like how I...’ She let the thought trail in a bit of self disdain.

The strange man waved his arms around while speaking short phrases in his tongue. ‘I wonder what he's saying, is it a spell or something?’

Elaria considered that if he actually turned out to be a mage, then she should proceed with caution when attempting to confront him, so she needed to get close because it was the only way to not end up getting herself killed. She chose to sneak up behind the strange man, who sat up from laying out on his back and gazed down the river.

With her sword drawn, she placed it lightly against his neck, and he let out a short phrase in his tongue, which she could probably guess the meaning of.

Gesturing the sword lightly, she got the man up to his feet to face her. His face changed from worry as his gaze traced along the blade to it's wielder, becoming that of total-

‘Astonishment?’

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Leo

Standing in front of Leo was a woman that looked like someone morphed a garden snake into the body shape of a very slender human female, her sleek curves momentarily drawing his eyes to her hips.

She was roughly his height, at five foot five, and had smooth leafy light green scales that slowly shrunk in size just under the jaw, which also faded into a lighter hue as they continued down beneath her clothing.

She had large eyes that were a cross between that of a human and lizard, light amber with the frame being quite wide and almond shaped.

The contour of her head was similar to that of a snake, smoothing up from the back of her neck, adding to her sleek reptilian features. The extent of her snout was relatively short and narrow, as her facial characteristics were overwhelmingly feminine, and her face appeared way more animated than one would think for a lizard person, as she was giving him an obviously curious look with her head slightly cocked.

She had a tail that tapered out from behind her, it was about half her body length and arced to her left, most likely to help balance the sword in her right hand, which made him notice her claw-like nails that narrowed and curved ever so slightly. She stood clad in light leather armor that covered her joints and stomach, the rest being lightly padded cloth, with a mix of leather straps holding her armor and a few pouches in place.

Though his fascination and slight physical interest in the mystery woman was immense, his concern was more toward the half sword she was pointing just a few centimeters from his neck.

Leo's analytical mind raced as a flurry of questions and educated guesses raced through his mind while he stared at the lizard woman. ‘Okay, intelligent life is indeed on this planet. Are there more than one intelligent species? The sword, medieval garment, and alien race hints at fantasy. Would fantasy mean there's magic? No, best not get my hopes up again… I wonder if there's a monarchy. What religions, if any, are prevalent? If I trip over any cultural customs, what punishments could I face? Oh god, what are the laws?’

His thoughts paused at the realization of where he was staring during his storm of speculations, while one final question exited his mouth as he stared back up to meet her eyes, seeing that she was giving him a coy look.

“Why does a lizard woman have breasts?”

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Elaria

‘He's staring at my chest, oh gods, he's just ogling my chest!’ Elaria's thoughts screamed excitedly to herself, before reason slammed back into her.

‘Wait! Calm down and think. This man is out on the border, possibly lost, but more likely a spy. For who he is spying for is anyone's guess, given his appearance. I'll have to take him back to the outpost for interrogation. I hope he isn't too tight-lipped, it would be tragic if we sent him back to the capital to be tortured.’ Her thoughts paused with a bit of sadness that drew up unwanted memories, but it was brushed away when the man blinked out of his daze.

‘Maybe I could enjoy myself before that happens.’ She gave him a coy look.

“Wy dosl arzdw oman veb asts?” The man said in his language.

Elaria frowned slightly. “Right, language barrier.” She remarked with a resigned sigh, while reaching into one of her pouches for a translation necklace.

She offered the enchanted item to him, and gestured for him to put it on. His eyes narrowed in confusion, which made her question if he had never seen such a commonly used item before.

When he got a better look at the necklace, his dark brown eyes seemed to go wide, as if she handed him a stack of gold coins. It was only a translation necklace, most people wore them, and guards carried a spare or two just in case someone didn't have one. The state he was in, and his apparent surprise at the item made her consider that he might not be a spy, and was more likely a runaway slave.

Elaria began to speak as soon as the man put on the necklace. “So, do you understand me no-” She was cut off by his loud and excited yell.

“FUCKING MAGIC?!”

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