“It’s so dark.” All Nox could see was a small sliver of dim glow ahead of him.

“This ground feels hard like packed earth.” There was a distinct smell of manure in the air. With every breath Nox held back a gag. He was from the city, born and raised. He was completely unaccustomed to the smells of pasture or animals.

“Where am I? How did I get here? The last thing I remember was... Wait, what was the last thing I was doing? I remember who I am, but I can’t for the life of me remember what I was doing just before I passed out. Did I just go to bed like normal? Did someone kidnap me?”

Nox’s eyes were starting to focus. There was a faint glowing outline of a door a few steps away.

“Is this a trap?” The door was huge, and not locked. It slid open quietly and let a cool night breeze blow into the room.

“I can hear crickets and frogs. I guess I’m not in the city anymore. Maybe I got drunk or drugged. But still, if I was just drunk, this would be the first time I woke up somewhere this strange. I don’t feel hungover either.”

The outside air brought a sense calm and refreshment. The moon was waxing so there wasn’t much light. Still, Nox could make out the structure he was in was a barn.

“Where is my phone and wallet? I don’t have any bus passes or money so it looks like I’m going to end up hitch hiking all the way home. In this day and age, who’s going to stop and pick up a scruffy looking man in the dead of night.”

“I’m really screwed.”

“I must really be out in the middle of nowhere. The roads aren’t even paved. There isn’t a telephone pole in sight. No street lights and no electricity. This is freakin scary.”

The road was deathly quiet. After what had seemed like miles of walking without a car or light in sight the sun finally started rising. All you could see for miles was fields and farms.

“It’s like I wandered into an Amish settlement, or a medieval times reenactment.” Nox didn’t hold any particular interest in either so it perplexed him further.

“How did I end up here?”

There was a horse drawn cart coming up the road.

“Finally someone who can tell me where I am!”

“With some new found hope Nox called out to the driver.

“Excuse me, sir!”

“[][][][][][][][].” The man replied in a foreign language and tone.

“Wait? What language is that?” Nox thought to himself.

“Do you understand English?”

“[][][][][][][][].” The man called back in a confused tone.

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I’ll take that as a “no”.

The man gestured for Nox to get up on to his cart.

“Do I trust him? Maybe he’s taking me to the city or someone who can speak English. I’ll just jump off at the first sign of anything suspicious.”

About an hour later Nox cried out after remaining silent for the better part of the journey.

“This ride is taking forever!” the cart was super uncomfortable and Nox keep getting thrown around whenever they hit the smallest bump.

“[][][][][][][][].” The man spoke as he Motioned to pass a pouch with some water in it.

“Thank god, I’m parched.”

“Pfftttt”

It wasn’t water.

“It is way to early to be drinking beer.”

The man looked on at Nox.

Did I just insult him by spitting out his drink?

“Hahahaha!” The man burst out into laughter. Apparently humor is universal.

“I’m glad someone is in a good mood. I am not having the best morning.”

“[][][][][][][][].” The man again responded in a strange tongue.

“You’re probably telling me how much of an idiot you think I am, right.”

After another long period of silence the man said something still incomprehensible and pointed off into a patch of trees on the edge of a field.

“What is he trying to show me?” Nox looked on confused for a moment and then a bit of movement caught his eye. There was a deer nesting in a bush grazing on a few berries. It would have seemed rather usual for a deer to be spotted grazing in the country side but this was no ordinary deer. It was small, about the size of a fawn or dog. It had mossy leaf encrusted antlers with a flower sticking off the tip of each point. The reason Nox had such a hard time spotting it was because it blended in perfectly with the bush and grass. It’s fur was a camouflaged shade of green with the occasional leaf sticking out.

“This is super weird! Things like that just don’t exist.” An animal that was clearly from another world was just lying down next to a bush in an ordinary field.

Nox crained his neck to keep looking at the deer like animal when three more stood up from beside the other bushes.

There was no doubting what he had just saw. Nox pinched his arm several times and came to the tentative conclusion that he was not dreaming.

“Maybe I was drugged.”

The farmer sitting next to Nox kept looking over to him with a big smile and pleased look on his face.

“[][][][][][][][]” The man spoke aloud what Nox could only guess at and the ride continued on in awkward silence.