“Looks to be only a mile away. Somehow I doubt the locals will speak English though, which is a problem. “ Samuel brought up.

“I’m actually excited about that. Spanish came easily enough to me and I’ve always wanted to learn a third language. Turns out it's going to be Elvish or something!!” Derek replied. “Anyways that road should eventually lead to a town. Hopefully its close.”

They set off toward the road, then began following it. The road seemed well used and maintained but strangely enough they didn’t meet a single traveler as they walked for over two hours. The terrain remained constant as they walked, the otherworldly trees with the occasion hill poking out of the treetops. Occasionally they heard strange noises in the forest, yelps, roars, and booms. This made them very grateful they had reached the road before encountering anything that made those noises.

Samuel estimated that it was around two and a half hours before they turned a bend in the road and saw a town. It was surrounded by a tall palisade, and they could only see one or two buildings poking up behind it. They had slanted roofs, presumably to keep snow off in the winter, and were made out of wood.

“That isn’t a great sign.” Derek said.

“What?” Samuel asked.

“The town seems rather small. For them to be using a palisade in such a small town implies one of two things. Either whatever is in those woods are even worse than they sound, or war. No one likes strange foreigners that don’t speak the language in wartime.”

Samuel clapped a hand on Derek’s shoulder. “Well if anyone can talk their way out of a situation without even knowing the language it’s you. Plus I don’t want to take our chances in the woods, much as I’d like to study those trees a little closer.”

They exchanged a nod then walked up to the gate. Two guards were posted and immediately brandished their spears and began yelling. Unfortunately for Samuel and Derek, I hadn’t given them a magic translation tool like other gods do for reality travelers. Its just so funny to watch people wave their arms at each other and gradually yell louder and louder as if that will make someone understand them. Which is what the guards proceeded to do as soon as they realized they couldn’t understand.

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Derek just kept pointing to his ears and shaking his head. Samuel was rather hungry so he kept rubbing his belly and smiling. Eventually the guards gave up yelling, got behind them and started poking them with their spears to go inside.

“They could have just motioned us to follow them.” Samuel grumbled.

“Considering it looks more and more likely there is a war, I’d call us lucky. But shh I’m trying to memorize some of the words they’re saying.” Derek replied. He didn’t know the meaning of them yet, but being able to say something and then judge people’s reactions would help him figure things out from context clues.” Derek mumbled, concentrating.

“You can pick words out of that? It sounds like an endless stream of mumbo jumbo to me. Samuel said.

“ SHH!”

The town was made up of the same type of buildings that they had seen from the outside, wooden buildings that vaguely reminded Samuel of a Viking documentary he had seen. They varied in size but had the same general shape. The people seemed fully human, with extremely varied skin colors. A man he saw that he initially thought had dark skin actually had indigo skin. The variety seemed strange given the size of the town.

As they walked people glanced at them, but seemed too absorbed in their own problems to stare at the strangers. In general the people seemed resigned, walking with their heads bowed and talking quietly. He saw other guards posted at various points in the town. It seemed like this town was occupied. He wasn’t too keen on dealing with whatever military dictatorship had arisen. It would be rather sad to change universes only to be executed immediately.

The guards herded them towards a building still under construction, but mostly finished with only a small section of the roof missing. This was the only building with stone incorporated, possessing a stone door. One guard stayed behind them while the other walked up and pushed the door open. Either the door was well balanced or the man was significantly stronger than he looked, because he opened it with ease.

Inside they passed more guards before being brought to a room in the back of the building with 4 wooden cages.

“Well that isn’t a fantastic sign.” Samuel muttered.

They were summarily marched into a separate cage each and the doors locked with chains and locks. Samuel noted that the locks shared the same key which another guard pocketed. Well, the guards were probably soldiers if this was an occupation he realized.

“Honestly it might be a good sign. Seems like they want us for something. As long as it isn’t ritual sacrifice we should be fine.” Derek spoke up after the soldiers walked out of the room.

“Well I guess now we wait. Rock paper scissors or the finger game?” Samuel asked.