Powerless in a New World

Chapter 2

Mychal followed Rusty through the forest while she worked up the courage to ask him several questions.

"So, what were those Aqualites?" she asked.

"The Aqualites? They're just the tribe of aquatic humans that stemmed from the early humans that harnessed the magical properties of water," Rusty replied, sarcastically waving his hand.

"Did you seriously just say magic?"

"You're from a parallel universe, why does magic sound weird to you?"

"It's not from my world. Can you atleast explain it?"

"Magic was just a normal force, like gravity. Early humans harnessed its power and broke up into tribes of those with the same powers, coming into conflict with opposing tribes. After a couple thousand years, the magic they harnessed became genetic and started affecting their physical appearance, which explains the blue skin and gills. Now, it's less magic and more genetics. Atleast, that's what they say in history class"

As stupid as she knew it sounded, Mychal became incredibly fascinated by this new world. "What tribe are you from?"

Rusty was wearing a smile the whole time, but it momentarily disappeared when she asked that question, before coming back a moment later. "I'm an anomaly. A human who's born with a unique power that doesn't match either of their parents. They usually become outcasts, I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay."

"Thanks, I'm just not redy to talk about it with you," Rusty said as he began laughing at himself.

Mychal rolled her eyes, but then smirked to please Rusty. "So where are we going?"

"Oh, that's right! You've been following a stranger from a parallel world to a completely unknown location, haha!" Rusty laughed, but when Mychal wasn't looking, he had a perplexed look on his face. A look of fear and distrust.

"I don't have that many options, remember?"

"Heh, yeah, I know," Rusty said, his friendly expression returning. "Anyway, we're going to a safe place. To get there, we need to pass the tribe that lives in the heart of the forest; the Plantas."

"Are they seriously called that?"

"No, they're actually called Florites, heh."

"Do all their tribe names end in 'ite?'"

"Only the dumb ones," Rusty replies, still chuckling.

Even Mychal laughed at that one. Rusty's easy going nature started to rub off on Mychal as she was starting to feel much more comfortable. She was still scared, but felt better with him by her side.

"So what's so safe about the place we're going to?" Mychal asked.

But when she looked over, Rusty was gone. In front of Mychal stood a small village that Mychal assumed belonged to the Florites. Every single home was covered in vines and moss. The trees and various types of plants grew thick around each small building and engulfed them.

Mychal nervously stepped forward and proceeded into the village. She snuck around houses, but soon found it unnecessary as nobody was around at all. Too afraid to enter any houses, she stuck with outside, constantly trampling over vines. Maybe Rusty's in here somewhere, playing a prank on me. He seems like the kind of person to do that, Mychal thought.

After several minutes of not being able to find him, she began to run out of the village and frantically called his name. Before she left, she tripped and fell forward, cutting her chin on the ground. She tried to get up, but couldn't. She looked at her legs and saw vines tangled around them, keeping them down and together, as if she were tied up. She tried to wiggle her legs free, but it felt as if they were refusing to let go. In fact, every wiggle just made them squeeze tighter than before. Before she could scream to Rusty for help, a small, purple bulb sprouted from the ground in front of her face. The bulb lightly trembled and released a pink pheromone that put Mychal to sleep.