James was starting to drown. He desperately tried to find the surface, his left hand reaching out as his right carried his father’s urn.

‘Where’s the damn surface?! Why can’t I find it?!’

His left arm wildly swung through the murkiness in an attempt to swim. It felt futile. The water was pitch black, freezing, and unforgiving. His lungs begged for air, his instincts screaming for him to take a breath. He tried to swim, but even that was beginning to feel futile. James didn’t even know which way was up.

‘I’m gonna die…’

Horror accompanied realization as his body tried to force itself to breathe, nearly filling his lungs with water. James fought the urge just as yellow spots appeared in his vision, a telltale sign that he was going to die a painful, cold death.

‘I’m so sorry,’

James clutched tightly to the urn as his consciousness faded slowly. Before he could completely fade out, though, James felt the unmistakable feeling of the ground beneath his feet. A thought ran through his head. If he was already at the bottom of the lake, there was no hope of survival.

‘Don’t give up, you coward.’

His inner voice was scolding himself, his tone that of anger.

‘Pick yourself up and press forth!’

James gritted his teeth as he gathered up all of his remaining strength. He couldn’t die like this. Not when he still had some life in him. With one final push, he kicked himself up towards the surface.

James broke the lake's surface, coughing up pitch-black water as he did so. He took a long gasp of fresh, cold air, which stung his lungs. James felt pure bliss breathing in the frigid oxygen, his body’s adrenaline running in full force. As his vision slowly cleared, he slowly realized three things.

One, he wasn’t dying of hypothermia.

Two, the water wasn’t freezing, only mildly lukewarm.

Three, he was standing in the black waters, which only reached to his waist. Once his vision returned to normal, James had a fourth realization. He wasn’t at the lake anymore. Instead, he was standing in the middle of an indoor pool, surrounded by lit candles and runic symbols that glowed on the walls.

“What the hell...?” James muttered, both confused and terrified, as he looked around the unfamiliar room. As he examined the strange painted symbols, he noticed something moving in his peripheral vision, causing him to jump as he looked in its direction.

“The fuck?!”

Somehow, James had failed to notice the thing that had been watching him. It had a woman’s body, which was covered in furs and other garments as well as bone necklaces and animal fangs. It had the head of a stag, the black pits it had for eyes staring at James. The abomination moved cautiously towards James, its head turning curiously.

James couldn’t help but step back, his voice dying in his throat. Countless thoughts ran through his head, all different from each other. It all ranged from escaping, figuring out what had happened, and fighting this creature. For some reason, he chose all three.

James’s fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, his body choosing the former first. He stepped forward and shoved the abomination before him, sending it back against the stone wall. It let out a yelp of surprise that sounded surprisingly human, but James didn’t care. He scrambled out of the pool with his father’s urn and ran like hell towards the only exit.

“Hey!”

It was that thing again, its voice calling out to the young man. James ignored it, his legs propelling him through the narrow hallway. It was dark, only lit with sparse candles and whatever light was coming from the other side. James continued running, ignoring the cold wind that rushed through the hall. He pressed on until he reached the end.

The light of the outside blinded him for a couple of seconds, stopping the young man’s run. James quickly blinked, his vision slowly returning to him. Once he got a sense of his bearings, the young man couldn’t help but feel gripping despair as he oversaw gray cliffs and a vast ocean.

James realized that he was on a mountain, which, now that he had looked around, was putting it nicely. It was more like a big gray, snowy hill with boulders and pine trees peppered around it. He could see what seemed like a sparse forest down the mountain, its trees covering most of the terrain.

Something after that caught his attention, down the mountain’s path, past the trees and forest. It looked to be a small town consisting of stone buildings and wooden homes, with occasional smoke coming from a building or two.

“A town!” James exasperated. He was more than happy to see a sign of civilization, yet his happiness was quickly replaced with instant distrust. His chest tightened at the feeling. Anxiety and fear were the only emotions he could feel at the sight. The town was off in a way he couldn’t describe.

Examining some more, James soon realized what bothered him. This wasn’t some modern town. It looked older, with dirt and cobbled roads intersecting it. Squinting, he could see what looked like old ships docked in the harbor.

Realization slowly dawned on James when he looked around his vantage point. He could only see the ocean for miles.

“An island. I’m on an island…” James clenched his jaw hard. He tried to think of an explanation for all of this, one that would justify it all. Yet his mind came up blank.

“This is just a dream. A messed up dream,” James chuckled as he grabbed his hair. His knees felt weak, and his stomach was on the brink of throwing up his dinner. “The car crash put me in some coma. That’s right… Some kind of–”

“HEY!” a female voice rang out behind James. He turned around in surprise, only to see the thing from before running towards him. James braced himself as it tackled against him, bringing both of them to the ground. He struggled and tried to fight back, his left hand clutching onto the urn whilst his right shoved and punched.

The abomination landed a blow on James's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. It then shoved its right hand onto the young man’s face, keeping him down as it tried to subdue him. James struggled to gain control of the situation before something caught his eye. He focused his attention on the thing’s belt, where the glint of a dagger was present.

A fearful thought crossed his mind then and there, prompting him to try to wiggle out of the thing’s grasp. When that didn’t work, James attempted to grab the dagger. He planned on using it on this creature before it used it on him. He only managed to graze his fingers against the handle before another shout rang out from the thing.

“Stay! DOWN!”

James was shoved back onto the ground, his vision blurring for a moment. The last thing he saw was the thing’s fist, which knocked him out cold.

----------------------------------------

When James came to, he was met with the ringing pains of a concussion.

“Ugh…” he groaned aloud, his eyes blinking as he tried to regain some sense of vision. James was soon met with the sight of what looked like a cabin’s interior, the furniture around him sparse and old-looking. If he squinted, it reminded him of his aunt’s place.

‘Wait, where am I?’ James snapped out of his idle thoughts. He frantically tried to move, only to find himself restrained. He blinked and looked down, seeing his body and arms restricted by a taut rope. He had been tied to some chair.

“You’re awake,” a female voice called out before him. James turned to the source, surprised to see the abomination from before. Only now, it was missing the bloodied stag head it used to have. Instead, he could clearly see that it was a young woman not far from his own age.

The stranger had light brown skin with black runic tattoos visible on her arms. Her raven black hair was tied up into multiple buns behind her head, exposing her face clearly. James could see some strange symbols painted on her cheeks and forehead. If he could guess, it looked like she was the kind of shaman.

“What the fuck is happening?” James managed out in a mutter. He couldn’t shake off the shaman's unmistakable feeling of uncanny valley. It kept his instincts on edge and made him instinctively want to run.

“Sorry for knocking you out like that. When you tried to reach for my dagger, I had no choice,” the shaman said in an apologetic tone. You have every right to be confused and scared. All of this must be a lot to take in for you.” She stepped a little closer to James, her movements cautious and her hands open to show that she held no weapons. “I mistakenly summoned you to this island.”

“Summon? What?” James furrowed his brow in confusion.

“Summoned via a ritual circle,” the woman explained. “I must’ve gotten something wrong and accidentally caught you somehow…”

“Somehow?!” James shouted in disbelief.

‘How do you accidentally summon someone?! Better yet, how is any of this possible?!’

The shaman raised her hands in defense. “I understand your anger. If possible, I’ll help you go back to your home.”

James stared at her, unsure what to make of what she said. He was still thinking about where he had ended up. Hell, he wasn’t even sure if he was hallucinating all of this. For all he knew, this was something his brain was dreaming up while his body lay dying at the site of his car crash. That itself sounded more plausible than being summoned somewhere by some kind of voodoo magic.

“Where… where the hell am I?” James slowly asked the stranger. She sighed, possibly relieved that James was no longer shouting.

“You’re in southern Valenfrost. The island you’re on is home to Yorktown, a small fishing settlement,” she explained. “We’re far from Azurvale’s coast, but if we can catch a ship to Vindis, maybe we can…”

She stopped mid-explanation, her gaze on James. “You’re really pale… Are you alright?”

“I… I don’t…” James tried to get the words out. His throat felt dry as he tried to process what he heard. Nothing the shaman said sounded right. Despite understanding her clearly, it was all still foreign. It was very clear now that he was most definitely not in the States.

It was starting to dawn on James that this wasn’t earth. Something deep inside told him that he didn’t belong here, that he was out of place. He tried to reason with himself, yet everything he had seen and heard had told him otherwise. There was no logical explanation for this.

Somehow, someway, he had been taken from his world and brought here.

‘No. The shaman said it herself. She summoned me,’

He looked at the shaman, who was beginning to look more and more puzzled at his reaction.

“I just don’t get it,” James finally forced out. Nausea and dizziness soon overtook the young man’s senses, blurring his vision and making him lightheaded. He wouldn’t get a chance to say another word as he fainted.

----------------------------------------

“Are you alright?” The shaman asked.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I’m fine. I think,” James muttered a response. He was currently sitting on the floor, right next to a small fireplace in the wall. He savored the warmth from the flickering flames, as his clothes were still wet from his untimely swim in the lake.

James had fainted not even a minute ago, which had prompted panic from his summoner. She was sitting right in front of him; her serious expression from before now changed to genuine worry.

“I’m sorry for putting you in a position like that… uh…” she blanked a little, her brow furrowed in confusion.

“James. My name is James,” the tired man revealed.

“Right. James.” the shaman nodded. “You can call me Dahlia.”

“Dahlia,” James repeated softly. He looked around the room he was in. There were some chairs weirdly positioned against the wall, along with a table and a chest. It left the middle of the room spacious and empty.

“I’m guessing this is your place?” he asked as he examined the floor. His heart stopped at the circle carved into the wood. It was large and barely noticeable in the flickering light of the cabin but he could clearly tell that this was some kind ritualistic carving. It reminded him of those pentagram circles he had seen in horror flicks.

“Don’t worry, I don’t do my rituals here anymore,” Dahlia quickly explained with a nervous laugh. The tone of voice was similar to the way someone might use when explaining an embarrassing hobby. It was too casual, almost as if this was supposed to be normal.

“Rituals?” James asked. “You do rituals? Like sacrificing?” He almost kicked himself when he added that last part. Thankfully, however, Dahlia didn’t seem to be offended at the question.

“No. Well… Not exactly,” the shaman rubbed her chin in thought. “Rituals always require a cost. The difference is how much we give. Sacrificing people is something that only necromancers and cultists do. I tend to give my own blood or if possible, animal blood. That’s technically a sacrifice…”

James didn’t know how to respond to that. It only reinforced the feeling that he was in a different world.

“Where are you from, James?” Dahlia asked. The question caught James off guard. He racked his brain for a response that made some kind of sense. There had to be some plausible answer behind this. Then again, this entire situation was already teetering on the edge of pure fantasy.

“I don’t think I’m from here,” James answered in a near whisper.

Dahlia tilted her head in confusion. “I already figured that out the moment you bursted from those waters.”

“No, not like that,” James shook his head. “I’m not from here. This place, this world, it’s all foreign to me.” Granted, while James had only experienced a small portion of this place, it was more than enough to convince him that he was no longer on earth.

Plus, with what he saw back on that lake, this was all starting to make some kind of sense. The alternative explanation was that this was all a product of his dying brain, desperately trying to make sense of the car crash and his injuries. Of course, the thought of that was mortifying at best. James rather believed otherwise. At least then he could die blissfully ignorant to the real world.

Dahlia stared at him with a look of disbelief, which soon turned to hesitance, and finally to realization. James didn’t have to say anything. He knew that she must’ve noticed the same uncanny valley feeling emanating from him, not unlike she did for him.

“By the gods,” she muttered, “That’s not possible. Travel between alternate worlds shouldn’t be possible.” She looked just as James felt. Skeptical. She stood up from the ground, her gaze downcasted as she paced around the room. James could hear how she muttered and cursed beneath breaths.

“I’m sure there’s some kind of expla—” he was interrupted quickly by her snapping fingers.

“Yes! The ritual wasn’t a complete failure!” Dahlia exclaimed excitedly, her entire demeanor changing. She sat back down with James, almost too close for comfort. “How did you do it? What happened at your end?”

“I, uh… was at a lake. I saw this weird wooden slab there,” James started. He slowly leaned away from the shaman as he recalled what had happened before he was summoned. The car crash, the freezing temperatures, the soft whispers that guided him to the lake, and the foreign object he witnessed.

“I remember blindly walking out to it like I was hypnotized or something. There were runes on it,” James recalled the glowing glyphs, which looked similar to the ones he saw in the cave he was summoned in. “I remember trying to touch it before falling into the water.” He shivered at the memory of nearly drowning to death.

Dahlia’s excitement slowly died as she listened to James’ story. In the end, her expression was replaced with uncertainty.

“That’s all? You didn’t perform any magic? No circles?” She asked.

James shook his head. “Nothing like that, no.” he looked down at his hands, which were still shaking from the entire experience.

“That’s strange,” Dahlia commented. “The ritual I was performing shouldn’t have been enough to summon someone from an entirely different world. Unless…”

“Unless what?” James asked. “What kind of ritual were you doing?”

Dahlia’s cheeks flushed red at the question. “I was… well…” She broke eye contact. “I was summoning a demon familiar, one that could help me.”

James felt his blood run cold at the mention of demons. “You tried to summon a demon?” he almost shouted it out.

“Don’t panic!” Dahlia quickly raised her hands. “I know for someone like you, that’s probably a bad thing. Well… even if you were from here, the reasoning won’t really change,” she shook her head. “What I’m trying to say is, please listen.”

James wasn’t sure what to say or do. He felt tempted to start running again, maybe even head towards the town he had seen earlier that day. Yet the way Dahlia spoke and acted assured him that he was not in danger. If anything, she had been nothing but a beacon of hope for him. She might’ve summoned him, sure, but she also took responsibility for ripping him out of his world.

‘Still, you have too little info to go on.’

That was the problem at hand. James didn’t know anything at all about the shaman or this world, meaning that he couldn’t judge nor accuse. Still, he had to make sure she was at least sane. That meant listening to her side intently and carefully.

“Alright, I’m all ears,” James agreed.

Dahlia made a face at what he said but didn’t comment on it. “I was only doing the ritual out of desperation. You see, this island has been the target of pirates. They’ve been threatening to raid the town, asking for tributes to be paid to them.”

“The town… Yorktown, right?” James remembered back when she first mentioned it.

Dahlia nodded. “Yes, Yorktown. It’s not a thriving settlement, not for some time anyway. Regardless, these pirates have been causing nothing but chaos. The townsfolk are scared and the merchants coming here are numbering less and less with every coming month.”

“There’s no guards? Or anything like that?” James wasn’t really sure what to call them. Police sounded too modern to use, and the military was a bit too far-fetched.

“There is a town guard, but it’s not much against them. I myself can’t really fight so…” Dahlia trailed off, her gaze moving the sheathed dagger on her belt. “The ritual was really the one thing I thought might work. The instructions were… cryptic at best. Of course, there was the price of using the blood of a virgin.”

“Virgin?” James blinked. “You didn’t…”

“No no!” Dahlia shook her head. “I used a goat to perform that part. The butcher in town was nice enough to allow me a bucket of the necessary ingredient.” She groaned as she flicked the side of her temple. “That’s probably why the ritual summoned you instead. The Gods must be punishing me for trying to cheat them out.”

As Dahlia cursed to herself, James himself came to a consensus.

‘She’s not malicious. If anything, she seems a little naïve.’

Dahlia had tried to protect her home. While summoning a demon wasn’t exactly an ideal way to go about it, it seemed like she didn’t really have many options to fend off these bandits. It was weirdly commendable in a way.

As James watched the shaman curse to herself, he came to another, much more different, realization, one that had hit him like a truck.

‘Dad! Where is he?!’

James frantically looked around for the urn. He soon spotted it near the fireplace, its silver material reflecting the light of the flames. James grabbed at the vase, nearly hugging it out of worry.

“Oh, yeah. I was going to ask about that,” Dahlia commented. “What is it to you?”

“It’s personal,” James answered. He opened the urn’s lid, happy to see his father’s ashes intact. Not only that, it was completely dry. It puzzled the young man, since he himself was still damp from his unpleasant dip in the lake.

‘Weird.’

James decided not to put much thought into it. He chalked it up to just being lucky.

“Do you want to change out of your clothes?” Dahlia asked out of nowhere. James turned back to the shaman, almost embarrassed to answer.

“What?” James asked.

“Your clothes are wet. You’re gonna catch something if you keep walking around in them,” Dahlia explained as she headed to the chest nearby her cot.

“It’s not much, but it’s pretty much the only thing that can fit you,” Dahlia called back before she produced a set of clothes from the chest. She handed them off to James, who examined them. It was only a sleeved gray tunic and baggy black breeches, their material similar to wool and linen. James glanced at Dahlia, who simply watched him.

“Well? Are you going to change out of those clothes, or are you really going to risk it?” She asked, seemingly oblivious to what privacy meant.

“Can…. can you please, at the very least, look away as I change?” James protested, hoping that Dahlia could understand that he was very uncomfortable. The shaman sighed, understanding his discomfort as she turned away.

“Don’t touch my stuff while I’m looking away,” she warned as she faced the opposite wall.

James quickly got undressed, but not before making sure Dahlia didn’t peek or try anything. He began to put on his new clothes, which turned out to be uncomfortably itchy. He even had some trouble tightening his pants, which was different from any kind of clothing he had worn. Still, in the end, James managed to get dressed up in no time.

“Are you done?” Dahlia asked almost impatiently, her foot tapping against the rough wooden floor.

“Yeah,” James answered. He spread the damp clothes in front of the warm fireplace. It felt nice to get out of his wet clothing, even if his new woolen clothes itched like crazy. Dahlia had already turned around, her gaze moving to watch the fire with James. No, it seemed like she was more interested in James’ clothes. He could see how her eyes were glued on them, her hand reaching out to feel the fabric.

“Fascinating,” Dahlia muttered. She picked up the sleeve of James’ bomber jacket, her fingers rubbing against it. “What kind of material is this?”

“Polyester, I think?” James muttered an answer, almost to himself.

“Poly…? Forget it,” Dahlia sighed. “Considering you’re from another world, it must be some kind of material beyond my understanding.” She laughed a little at that.

“Yeah, beyond your understanding,” James chuckled. He sat down on the floor once more, his eyes on the fire. “You said I was summoned to Valenfrost, right?” he asked. “I’m guessing that’s the name of this country or continent?”

“Not really,” Dahlia sighed as she sat back. “Valenfrost is complicated. It’s not really a continent or country, more like a collection of many small islands in the north,” she explained. “A disconnected nation composed of nomadic clans and cities is a more accurate depiction of it.”

James couldn’t help but frown, a bit disappointed that he couldn’t really explore this new world. Not only that, but judging from what he managed to pick up, leaving this town was going to be a challenge in itself.

Dahlia seemed to have the smallest hint of a smile on her lips as she noticed James’ attempts to hide disappointment.

“What’s wrong? Were you expecting to be summoned to a sprawling kingdom with a distressed damsel?” Dahlia joked with a grin.

James couldn’t help but chuckle at that. His fear and confusion from before had all but evaporated. As of now, it would probably do him some good to stay calm and keep his mind clear.

“Well, I’m going to rest up for tonight,” Dahlia yawned as she stood up, her arms stretching above her head. “I can lay down a couple of pelts and blankets for you. Temporary bed until we can get you a proper place to stay.”

“Thank you,” James voiced as Dahlia headed off to her chest.

“Don’t worry. We’ll figure out what to do tomorrow,” the shaman called back to the young man. “Sending you back to your world should be as easy as summoning you from it, right?”

“Yeah, hopefully,” James couldn’t help but mutter his response. He looked up at the ceiling, where the smoke of the flames was heading. There was a small opening on the hut roof, giving James a peek into the night sky.

He could see the moon through clouds, shining through them faintly.

‘No, not one.’

James suddenly realized that there were two moons up there, both a dull blue color. The first moon wasn’t much bigger than the one back home and the second one was much smaller, like a little sibling. Stars he had never seen before also lit up the dark night sky, speckling the parted sky with red and blue shimmers. It was eerily familiar to him, in a way.

Watching the night sky began to hypnotize James, his thoughts let loose as he watched the shimmering stars. They were so different from the ones back home, giving the sense that this world was beyond his own understanding. With it, the weight of the situation slowly dawned on James then and there, reminding him of how far from home he was.

He had no friends, no family here except for his father’s ashes, and no idea what to do. This wasn’t earth anymore. He was in a world he knew nothing about. One that could tear him apart like nothing. The idea of it all should have terrified him, overwhelm him as it would with any other sane person.

Yet, the faint promise of a fresh start in a dangerous world strangely excited James, which surprised him. It almost scared him. James was supposed to be praying for a way back to his world, not dreaming about a new start. Then again, it wasn’t like he was doing well back on earth. James didn’t have much to go back to. He had no real home and no real job. Earth didn’t really have much left for him.

‘Fresh start. I kind of like that.’

James couldn’t help but smile at the thought. His situation didn’t look so bad now. The possibilities set before him were endless.

All he needed to do was simply survive.