Felix Hyetal was a young man of twenty years. He lived in Godless. This was a place twinning with another. They were two sides of the same coin. On one side there was Earth and on the other, there was Godless.

Godless was a place with many kingdoms and cities. Each kingdom has a ruler. And as the name suggests, they have no god.

Felix was someone of royalty. To be more specific, he is the nephew of a king. This king was the ruler of a kingdom called Hyetal. The Hyetals have always ruled this kingdom for as long as anyone could remember.

One day, Felix and his uncle, King Avian, were sitting on a bench near Hyetal Pond. Hyetal Pond was something like a portal to the other side. On the other side was an anomaly called a Time-Slip. They didn’t have one on this side.

This means that you move slower but time moves the same. When you’re in it, your brain kind of makes you believe that you are moving normally. Let’s say you aren’t affected by it. You would notice that everything was moving very slowly but anything that is affected would see you moving abnormally fast.

“If you want someone to teach you then you just need to ask.” The king was trying to convince Felix to find someone to teach him how to use a bow. He didn’t want the king to go out of his way to find someone. “No thank you, I wouldn’t want to bother you or anyone else,” Felix said, feeling tired. It has been a while since he has talked to King Avian. Their conversations got longer every time they saw each other.

Felix looked around in an attempt to not make eye contact. He looked at the ceiling, outside, at a tree, at the bubbling pond…. Why was it bubbling?

“Um, your majesty?” Felix was concerned. Why would the pond be bubbling? How? It has never done this before! “How could this be?!” the king exclaimed. “Why would something come through now?” What? Something was coming to this side? What did he mean?

The pond looked like it was boiling. King Avian got up and started shouting while Felix was glued to his seat. Out from Hyetal Pond came a black creature. It looked something like a Defective. Felix just recently learned about the Defective in school and was terrified.

The thing flailed to the edge of the pond and stopped. Felix stood up and ran towards it, kicking it back into the center. It wasn’t moving. Could it be dead already? Maybe the air on Earth is different from the air on Godless. If it was, then it probably took one breath and died.

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The king was still shouting and running around while Felix got into the pond. As long as he stays above the surface and doesn’t fully submerge himself then he wouldn’t be transported to the other side.

He swam to the black creature and grabbed it by the leg. At least, he thinks it’s a leg. He pulled it out of the pond and let go. If it really is a Defective then what would we do? If the king is killed by it then the kingdom will be in chaos.

“What is it?! Is it a Defective? Will it kill us? Wait, is it dead?” The king kept asking question after question. The creature was very humanoid. Felix flipped it over to get a better look. The creature was…. A human?!

King Avian came over to have a look as well. When he saw the human, he gasped. “How could a human come through the pond? No one has come through the pond in over 100 years!”

Felix ignored him and stared at the person. They looked like a man. Though he did seem to be dead, he was still breathing. “Let’s find a doctor and just toss him away. He’s not our problem,” Felix said. “He could be useful and we could get information from him, though, but it’s your choice, uncle.”

Felix looked around and spotted a couple of guards heading towards them. They must have heard the king yell. They were unusually late though. They would normally come over immediately if they heard the king shout. He often shouts so they might have thought it was just a false alarm.

Felix walked over to them and they met halfway. “Hello. You’re a bit late for guards who are currently ‘on the job.’ His majesty was shouting for quite a while.” They looked guilty and they obviously felt bad about it. “Something has come out of the pond. I need one of you to inform the queen. Tell her to come over while you’re at it.”

He saw one of them run towards the castle. Everyone else had their mouths wide enough to swallow a horse. Felix turned around and walked back to the pond-man and the king. At the moment, the king was crouched down next to the man and poking his face. The man wasn’t waking up even as a group of chattering guards crowded around him.

“So…. Is he alive?” Everyone started asking questions about him even if Felix didn’t have any answers. Felix was starting to feel tired. After thinking for a while, he said, “You know what, just take him to a doctor. We’ll ask him questions later.”

Two people grabbed both his arms and dragged him away leaving a wet trail. Oh…. he forgot that the man had just crawled his way out of a magical-portal-pond-thing. Oops. the man might not even be in the right headspace to answer questions. Anyone insane enough to go through a one-way portal wasn’t anyone Felix Hyetal wanted to be involved with.

Felix and his uncle stood at Hyetal Pond watching the crowd of people walk away. The king himself walked away after a while, leaving Felix standing there.

A long while later he walked away. He went to his bedroom and went right to sleep. It was as if a man didn’t come out of a portal-pond.