Babble - Beyond Dimensions

Chapter 1: The one where you get dimensionally misplaced

Waking up with a horrible headache as if you had bumped your head against a wall a few too many times was not one of the most pleasant things to wake up to. It was not the worst thing, mind you, you had worse, but still, it was not too pleasant either.

Waking up in a grassy field in the middle of nowhere was new, though. This was...not good.

The last thing you could remember was sitting in the bus on the way to your university, going over the notes one last time, so you would be prepared for the examination you had today.

So how had you come from the bus to wherever this grassy field was?

You wracked your brain for answers, but you could find none. That was - mildly said - concerning, but not the worst thing you could have gone through. After all you were currently simply in the middle of nowhere instead of, say, a hostage situation. Point for creativity for your kidnapper though, as you could only assume because of your unawareness of how you found yourself in your current situation.

Taking your current situation into consideration, you were actually very surprised that you still had your bag with you. Within it you found your folder, notebook, pencil case, some food you had packed as snack, a water bottle, some things you had bought for your parents and forgotten to unpack and most surprisingly your phone. It even had about 50% charge, still, which made your kidnapping theory sound less valid.

Which made the matter of how you came here more pressing.

Checking time and date, you found that barely five minutes had passed. Which was just odd, to be honest. How had you come here (wherever here was) from where you had just been?

And the worst thing of all, you had no signal. No internet, nothing.

And that was when you realized, oh my, this must be a nightmare.

After coming to this enlightening conclusion, you understood that you must have fallen asleep while sitting on the bus. That was not good at all and you really hoped you would wake up before you missed your bus stop.

On the other hand you were simply said amazed by the details of your dream. You could touch everything here, pluck up randomly flowers and smell them. You could hear the grass and stones and sticks beneath your trainers. You can randomly stray off your path.

It was honestly intimidating how real your dream was.

Even the group of menacing gigantic pig like monsters with their threatening cubs looked crazily realistic into the smallest details. Oh, and they were coming straight at you.

Dream or no dream, you did what every sane person would do in your situation: you make a tactical retreat.

You jogged in a normal tempo until you threw a look over your shoulder and realized the monsters are a lot closer than they were before. And the tiny part of your mind that tried to rationalize the current situation said: "They're chasing you, duh."

And that was when your jog turned into a sprint, because dream or not you do not want to make a meet and greet with these beings.

And so you ran and the monsters chased you and that tiny voice grimly states that the aches in your side seem awfully realistic. You shoved it rudely aside.

You're panting by the time you saw a group of travelers in front of you. They're dressed a bit too medieval for your tastes, but well, at least they carry weapons (sadly no guns from what you can see, which is a pity, because it would be a lot better if they were able to head-shot your followers).

So being the damsel in distress you currently were, you screamed "HEEEEELLLLLP!" as theatrically as you can before rushing past all nine of them.

Oh dear, there were even little kids under them. Hopefully they'll be as save as you were as you were while hiding behind a boulder.

Then you heard a cry of alarm, and fighting sounds followed, screams intermingling them. And then, suddenly there was silence. And heavy steps coming closer.

That's when you realized with cold dread that these monsters probably made minced meat out of these poor strangers.

Alright fine, you got it. You were going to have to defend yourself with what little you learned in that self-defense course you once visited. That was sub-optimal but you refuse to get down without a fight. And so you readied your fists.

And then one of the beings comes around the boulder and you punched it as hard as you can. Only to realize you met human skin. Oops.

The guy that came to get you glared at you, a nice shiner the same color as his scarf already forming.

"Sorry" you said, sheepishly grinning.

The other guys followed the first one and one of them, clad in red with a bit of (is that pink? Interesting choice, man, respect) pink in his hair snickered at his companions misfortune.

One of them, the tallest of the otherwise small traveling group approached you, a slight scowl on his scarred face. And when you saw his face tattoos, you whistled in appreciation, ignoring the tense mood around you: "Wow, man, where did you get these tattoos? They look really cool! You gotta tell me where you got them!"

He blinked with his single left eye (his other one was scarred and closed) and gave out a surprised: "Hyaa?"

"Hi, to you too" you said, grinning and held out your hand for a greeting. "Nice to meet you, sorry for the mess. I did not expect to run into these monsters and I did really not plan to bring them to you. Thanks, anyway. Do you know where I can find the next bus stop? I kinda have an important appointment I have to get to. Like right now."

Leader guy turned back to his companions and you numbly realize, oh my, they have elvish ears. That's nice, dream, give me some cute elves to cuddle.

Funnily enough were you surprised that they kind of reminded you of some characters of your favorite videogames series ever. You might have sworn off of anything causing you to 'waste time' years ago so you may get to study your dream subject and get top marks in it, but these beloved videogames would always have a special place in your heart (especially as the selling of said game collection and gaming consoles resulted in a nice boost of your study found). Your dream must get it's inspiration from these fond memories, who would have guessed.

But even more so are you were surprised by the sounds they made. "Hya, hyyyaa ah hy hya" Leader guy said. And when some of his companions answer in kind you realized that you were screwed. Because you found a very hindering language barrier.

Good going, brain. Thanks a lot for complicating my dream a thousand times.