It had been a few hours now since I fell from the sky into the ocean.
Drenched in saltwater, weighed down by my clothes, I had slowly swum towards the harbour I saw in the distance. I had made my way around the great wooden ships and climbed up with the help of a sailor who had taken pity on me. He spoke English, bizarrely, but it was good since it was the foreign language I knew the best. I say bizarrely because the hand that reached down to pull me up was covered in scales and the sailor was really more some kind of reptile than a man.
Still, he spoke English. And was nice enough not to get too offended when I swore in terror as soon as I saw his face. But he had work to do, crates to move, and he could not hold my hand any longer – which I admit was a relief, so he left me there.
It had been a few hours now. I had started by exploring the harbour, making my way through the crowds of sailors and merchants and fisherpeople. The ships I saw had reminded me of some Renaissance paintings, though some were of alien design. The rest of it had simply been too strange to wrap my head around. The scenes around could have been of any normal port I knew. People worked. Some sold and some bought, others cooked or carried sacks of merchandise. There were even a few wooden cranes around, loading and unloading the ships. It was all weirdly familiar. Except that the people doing all of this were of no species I ever knew about.
There were a few humans like me, walking around as if everything was as it should be. There were the reptiles like the one who had helped me, standing on two feet with claws poking out of their shoes. There were human-sized birds with meagre wings that looked more like feathered arms, others that flew around and could not have been much bigger than a cat. I saw a cohort of giant otters strutting along on four webbed feet. I watched as some kind of giant armadillo rolled in front of me and unfolded before a merchant to buy some food.
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After that, I had left the harbour. It was all much too unnerving. I had walked deeper into the city, along sinuous streets overflowing with activity. The sun – there was only one of them, thank whatever gods ruled this world – had been high in the sky and the city had been busy.
It had been a few hours now. My clothes had dried somewhat and I had managed to beg some leftover food at a Human-led stall. I had slowly started accepting my new situation and it was time to take stock of what I had learned so far:
1/ This was DEFINITELY NOT EARTH. In fact, I didn’t think it was any world I had ever heard about.
2/ Apparently, magic was real? As I was watching a ship depart, a lizardwoman (I think?) in a white tunic waved her hands around looking like she was possessed and suddenly, a gentle wind started blowing the ship’s sails and leading it out of the harbour. As if that was not enough, a human had gotten bored with waiting for workers to carry merchandises into his ship and simply started levitating them off the docks.
3/ I had not changed at all. I was still the same human accountant I had been this morning when I walked into my office and fell into the sea. I counted this as a good thing.
4/ I had absolutely no beginning of an idea of how I had come to be here.
5/ Margaux was due in a little less than three months. I needed to get back home.