Manus Conscivit was last seen on the sandy beach of a an unknown realm talking to a hand, who's kind had been harassing him for 2 days.
"Would you like me to show you around?" the hand asked. Its way of communicating was slightly uncomfortable. The hand backed off a bit and instead grabbed onto Manus' shoulder. It had a slightly looser grip to ease Manus.
Manus remembered that the question still hung in his mind and began to genuinely wonder what sort of place he had stumbled into. "Sure," he said. The hand let go of Manus' shoulder and turned as to do something but then stopped and turned back toward Manus. Manus heard from the hand, "Is it all right if I have a few friends join us on the tour?" Manus got a confused look and began to wonder what kind of "friends" this hand could have. Without letting his imagination run to far, the hand let go of Manus' shoulder and began to make all sorts of formations with its fingers and before too long 5 more arms began to come towards the first. Manus took a wary step back at the sight of more than one of these creatures. The first hand turned towards Manus and gently put its one appendage on his arm. Manus tried not to think of anything while the hand was on him as he knew it could read his thoughts. After Manus felt calmer the hand let go. Manus quickly thought, "I have no idea what things are, what they do, where this is, and there social structure. I really have to learn fast."
As Manus and the group of 6 hands walked down the beach to the cliff that was still a mile off, he noticed that the hands had a gentle urgency to help him but did not want to be officious or over bearing towards him. He quizzically studied one and made a mental note to draw one when he got back to his house.
His house! He had forgot all about every event that had happened up until now! Since he got here he was so much more relaxed, and had lost track of time. He began to wonder how long he'd been here and how Mel was and his business and he was suddenly overwhelmed with how much he had to get back to. The hands around him began to turn to him and one another as is sensing the question Manus was about to pose.
"How do I get out of here?" the question hung in the air for a long time and he expected one of the hands to reach out and communicate with him but none of them moved. He glanced around at them once more and asked again, "Please, tell me how to get out of here." The hand that had first brought him here faced its palm towards the floor and Manus looked expectantly at it. It slowly reached out and grabbed Manus' arm and simply said, "You must die in this realm."
Manus quickly sat upright and put his right hand behind him to lean on. He was breathing heavily and looked around to see where he really was. He was back in his hall that he had been in the night he went to that realm. He had no clue what time of day it was and rushed to his cozy bedroom. He glanced around and looked at the clock that was on his bedside table.
"12:02?! At night?"
He couldn't wrap his mind around the time displacement and wondered if he should stay up or try to get some sleep. Either way he had to be on time for work the next morning or Mel would surely interrogate him. "But first," he thought to himself, "I have to draw what they look like!"
Continued in Part 3......
