Everything was swirling. His vision was filled with flashing, twisting colors snaking in and out from every direction. A low hissing noise seemed to permeate from his own mind, but the strangest part of it all was the absence of any smell, feeling, and external sound. Jonathon couldn’t feel his body, and he couldn’t even tell whether his eyes still existed. It seemed as if his mind was floating through space, forcing him to struggle just to remain conscious. He lost the battle as his mind succumbed to the nothingness that had already taken his senses.

The first thing that came back was the sense of smell. A scent of fresh greenery seemed to leak out of whatever world Jon had found himself in. Next came his sense of touch. He could tell that he was lying on the ground and he could feel the Sun’s rays on the back of his neck. He even seemed to be able to feel his legs- his real legs, not those metal substitutes had been using for years. Finally, his sense of taste returned, and with it came the delicious taste of dirt. He had no doubt that he was lying face down, not that there was anything he could do about it quite yet.

Suddenly, he could hear birds chirping and crickets stridulating. He also heard Skye groan somewhere to his left. At last, the world came into view. A world of brown, crusty earth. Damnit, I still can’t move.

“Skeh ah ou okah?” he said, trying out a mouth that was still being pushed into the ground by humanity’s unrelenting friend and foe, gravity.

“Yeth,” she replied. It seemed she was in the same position as him. It was lucky that she understood his muffled question.

A minute passed, then two, then five. Jon was growing rather tired of counting the seconds, but time continued to stretch.

After over an hour of being stuck, Jon heard Skye yell out, “I mood mah hahd!” Of course, what she meant to convey was that she had successfully moved her hand, but Jonathon got the message anyway. Over the next few minutes, the grandfather and granddaughter duo slowly regained mobility in each of their limbs until eventually they sat up and examined their surroundings.

“Woah,” Skye said. They were atop a hill in a forest somewhere. There were dark trees in every direction, though Jon thought he saw some smoke rising far in the distance. The scent of nature and the intense greens had a quality that outshone most of the remaining locations on earth, rivaling the rapidly shrinking Amazon forest.

“Where are we?” Jon asked. Skye turned to her grandfather for the first time since sitting up and, seeing his unwrinkled face, let out a small yelp. As if on cue, the world around them flashed bright white and from the light, a young man appeared. Well, he at least appeared to be a young man, but there were a few incongruities between the normal image that phrase implies and the sight before the two Marshalls. The largest one was the fact that this particular young man was currently floating five feet above the ground.

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The levitating being opened his mouth to speak, but seeing the looks on the faces of his two new introductions, paused for a moment and lowered himself down to the ground.

“Hello, mortal beings, and welcome to your new world,” started the previously floating young gentleman. And a gentleman he appeared to be, dressed in a full tuxedo, bow-tie, purple pocket square, and all. It seemed as if he was prepared to give a full speech, and neither of the two humans in front of him thought it prudent to prevent the gravity-defying man from doing so.

“I have brought you here, to the world of my creation, Althesia. I have appeared before you to explain the situation that I have, either kindly or unkindly dependent on your perspective, dropped you into.

“First off, you may refer to me as ‘God,’ or by my name, ‘Alty.’ Secondly, I will only be staying long enough to explain the basics of this world, the knowledge you would be expected to know had you grown up in this land instead of that nasty globe you called Earth.” The self-proclaimed God held a look of disgust on his face as he spit out that final word.

Jonathon recovered his senses, at least as well as could be humanly expected in this situation, first. Seeing his opportunity, he interrupted Alty, “Alright, Alty, if you are some sort of God, then why did you bring us here in the first place. Just to give us a speech?”

Skye looked at her grandfather, though she had trouble even thinking of him as such when he looked like a teenager, with disbelief. Perhaps his youthification caused him to lose his wits?

Alty, the God, looked at the once-old man with something he hadn’t felt in a long time: curiosity. “It has been a considerable amount of time since I have been spoken to like that, Jonathon. Although, in truth, I should have expected it. I didn’t exactly bring you here for your impressive amount of respect for those above you.

“I will answer your question, then. You are here because this world has become rather dull. Nearly all Althesian nations have been hoarding their own information and magical progression, slowing progress as a whole. This means the overall power in this world is decelerating, and my own power relies somewhat on that of the people here.

“In other words, I brought the two of you here to shake things up a bit, and hopefully progress the entire world further. Technically, I am barred from interfering too directly, so this is the most I was able to do,” Alty smirked as he finished his monologue.

Skye seemed to have regained some confidence after the majestic being in front of them had chosen not to immediately smite Jon for speaking out of turn. “Where exactly is this world, Althesia, as you called it,” she asked, “and would you mind telling me why the fork my grandfather looks like a hardly-pubescent teenager?”

“Ah. That explains the legs, then,” Jon spoke up before Alty could provide an explanation.

“Do not fear, there will be time for you to be awed by my power later,” the overdressed man began, “for now, just be happy that your legs are once again functioning and, well, the other issues that plagued your body have been disposed of.” Alty offered Jon a slight wink at that moment, and the teen grandfather let out a sigh of relief.

“The two of you have been returned to the way your bodies were when you were seventeen years of age, one year before Althesian humans choose their class. Yes, this does mean the system will have less time to decide what classes best match the two of you, although I do sincerely doubt that will matter in the slightest.” Alty did seem to love his speeches.

Skye finally decided to ask the question that had plagued her from the start, “Why the fork can I not curse?”