"Ah, sir...sir, are you awake?" a concerned voice called.
"Yeah...give me a moment to...adjust," he replied, slowly sitting up to rub his head. Its spiked with pain, his eyes opened before being immediately forced to retreat when terrible orange light lanced at them with bright fury.
He heard a sigh, perhaps in relief, using his left hand as a shield for his eyes; he started to catch a glimpse of his surroundings. Thin barks of brown rose up around and above him, their peaks blossomed into an umbrella of pale green leaves and small vein-like branches. He saw as the orange lghts fell through the little gaps in the leaves, giving all colours a redish wash. Leaves and other natural remnant laid all around him such as broken branches and twigs.
As he sat up, he felt his back ache with a dull pain that seemed to spread across every part of his back that left the support of the earth. Anna's form appeared next, she was leaning down from above, her shadow covered the top-half of his body. Her pale face had its chilled beauty illuminated lightly with a tint of orange light contrasting with the dark recesses of her smooth features. Her light blue eyes stared deeply into his.
"I, umm," she stuttered, looking away in embarrassment.
"Whatever," he sighed, getting up. His legs felt weak as a dull pain echoed within them. Then the heat began to take over, his outfit was one meant for a cool weather, with its coat-like design and heavy fabric. He felt as heat began to mount on his forehead and neck. "Do we happen to know where we landed?" he asked, drawing his Maschinenpistole 40 from his back.
Anna shrugged. "We are alive in a place that seems habitable, we can survey the area first." He nodded slightly, gesturing her to arm herself before the moved out of the forest.
They pushed through bushes and tree branches as they followed the intensity of the light, intent on finding a better view of their immediate surroundings. Eventually, they crossed the very edge of the forest and found themselves on a rather tall hill, tall grass reached all the way up to their knees as the wind blew by making them wave against the setting sun.
The two of them parted to opposite directions diagonally, their rifles armed. There didn't seem to be anything interesting, all around him was just he same plane of grass that seemingly stretched onto infinity. It seemed as if they had found themselves in a sort of endless grassland. Y/N slung his rifle back before withdrawing a pair of binoculars from one of his pockets to better survey the area.
After looking around for a bit, he was finally rewarded for his efforts. In the distance he saw a small gathering of little black stubs. All the way out in the horizon, he could vague make out shapes moving in and out of the gathering of the dark rectangles in the distance. It seemed to be a village.
He whistled to get Anna's attention, little shapes of black shot up from the immediate trees behind him, taking to the skies as birds. The took their time to climb down the slope of uneven rocks and creaks, occasionally one of them would misjudge the terrain causing them to be threatened with falling down the cliff and suffer certain death. Thankfully one of the perks of being a duo was the other could prevent such misfortune from striking.
Slowly but surely they made their way back to civilisation while the burning eye in the sky turned it gaze away from them plunging everything into darkness. Only the little shards of light offered by the stars and the glows of colours emanating from the village offered to be their guide.
Eventually they reached the very fringes of the village, its architecture took them by surprised. The buildings in their immediate proximity seemed to resemble the cottages of the old, pale brick walls with red roofs and all. Y/N spotted a little chimney emanating a little stream of smoke above one the houses at the very edge of the village until only the pale brown road walked alone. Stunned by the discovery, the two of them conversed quietly in swift encoded German, agreeing to approach the village with care, rearming themselves with the weapons hanging on their shoulders.
They passed rows of buildings, each differing in minor manners such as the arrangement of windows, or the number of floors they possessed, but the overall view of pale walls and red roofs held true. It was considerably dark, even in the village, the only source of light coming from the inside of the buildings, illuminating a little bit of the surroundings near windows.
They passed a few natives, mainly children running all about with their parents waiting at the doorstep demanding their return. The sight itself was a common sight back in Germany, but with a surprsing spin. The clothes worn by children and adults alike were much more old fashion reminisce to those seen in paintings portraying the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, alongside the designs of their buildings, it seemed as if the world they had been sent to was technologically inferior to their homeworld-one that seemed to be stuck in a sort of Medieval Age with a hint of fantastical elements.
Both him and Anna discussed their situation quietly as they walked, whispering theories and ideas about the kind of place they had been wisked away to. But after wandering for a while, with the end of the village in sight, they agreed that it was far too late, and they were far too exhausted, to keep going; hence they began to search for a lodge to stay in.
Their searching in darkness eventually led them to a small group of three long houses at the end of the village, arranged in a pattern that a squarish area was contained by them. A good portion of the rooms had light coming out from them indicating they were. occupied. After looking around the area, they found a little hut at one end, all alone. It didn't look like any more than two people could live inside it at any one time.
His eyes met Anna's before he stepped forward, almost tripping because of the invisible slab that marked the entrance stand half a foot above ground. He felt a force opposite to the direction he was falling in suddenly solidify and hence held him up in an awkward position, tilted diagonally with his eyes faced down on the bottom of the door.
He muttered a thanks to Anna for saving him that embarrassment before recovering to knock on the seemingly wooden door lightly. A string of muttering came in response, unintelligible to either of them, taking a wild guess, Y/N pushed the door open to reveal a cosy interior. The warm air hit them, causing immediate contrast between the heat on their front and the cold at their back.
The floor was made up of dark brown wood, mainly shadowed by the darkness they had allowed inside. A mantel was located beside the door, a warm inferno of sparkling orange housed within it, giving off sounds of breaking wood as it devoured its supper of sticks and twigs. Just ahead of them was a little counter with an aged woman, with glasses, sitting behind it, reading from a book with a rather exotic looking cover of lime green and gold, he assumed it was sourced from the towering bookshelf behind her, causing the stone walls the bend around it. On the walls he saw little sticks of glowing white, held up by golden arms. In between two of such glowing sticks, at the very right of the room, was a banner displaying ornate symbolism adding to the fantastic theme of the world they had been transported to.
"Its like we were sent straight into the world of western children and cartoons," Anna muttered dreamily, seemingly taken in by the magical charm of the new world, as she closed the door behind them, ending the chilly sensation.
"Yeah, and those that turn out to be lies and jokes, shadows of the truth used to shield children from realism," he added in.
The woman looked up from her book before opening her mouth to form a series of shapes of varying size before emanating sounds and tones used in such a way that it manifested as an unintelligible language to him. He looked to Anna, expecting to see a similar expression of helplessness. It wasn't so, from the expression she produced, it was like she actually understood what the older woman was saying.
After the woman finished, looking at them awaiting a reply to which Anna returned in a few lines of similar tones and pronunciations. This went back and forth for a little while until they seemingly reached a deadlock, Anna eyed the woman suspiciously before taking out a little brown pouch from a pocket on her belt. She opening it to withdraw a few Reichsmark coins: each displayed the familiar symbol of the eagle and the proud swastika it rested on. Its golden surface reflected the warm light from the flames to create a contrast of light and dark across its surface.
The woman blinked before pushing her glasses up, she was clearly entranced by the apparent wealth Anna manifested. They went back and forth again before reaching a seeming agreement, Anna took out a handful of coins from the pouch, but just before handing it over, she stopped and opened another short exchange of words and phrases. Eventually she sighed, as the woman seemingly rejected whatever she was proposing, before handing the coins over.
The woman accepted the payment gracefully, taking them in her cupped hands before disappearing below the counter. He heard the soft creaks of wood underneath the table, a little bit of shuffling and a few muffled clicks before the woman emerged from below. In her left hand was a little key, old-fashion in design and much larger than what they were used to. She handed the key over to Anna before they exchanged a few more words. After that, Anna beckoned him to follow her as she left the building.
"What's going on?" he demanded, the moment they left the warm atmosphere of the lobby and re-entered the cold embrace of the night.
"I booked a room," she explained simply. "For us to stay tonight, surely you would rather have a bed than sleep on the streets, right?"
Y/N felt heat touch his checks for not deriving such an obvious answer for himself. "Right," he replied meekly. After that their walk was silent. He observed as they passed many rooms during their travel diagonally across from the lobby, one for every three was lit.
Their room was all the way out at the very edge, on the right, of the little complex of rooms. The door was made out of heavy wood, dark brown in colour. A sliver handle was present and a little keyhole below it, Anna slid the bronze key she had received from the older woman into the cavity, turning it to the right unlocked the door with a satisfying click.
The room itself seemed to be just large enough for two people. Twin beds, kept apart by a little table with a bowl of fruits above, were sighted at the very end of the room: placed against the wall where one of the beds touched the edge of the room on the left. There wasn't much furniture besides the beds, a larger, rectangular table, was seen towards the furthest right of the room with a few cheap-looking chairs next to it.
The next thirty minutes was spent by them refreshing themselves up, taking a shower that sort of stuff with an apple or two for dinner. After they were done with that, the darkness of sleep took over as exhaustion claimed its due.
Timeskip- The next day
Their morning started rather unannounced, beginning with Y/N getting up the moment a little ray of light came to rest on his eyelids. He sat up in bed, it felt good to have such a soft place to rest on, it contrasted sharply with the flat and hard surfaces of the beds he was offered back in Germany. As he rubbed his eyes to wake himself up, his back began to ache with a sort of dull pain, the darkness still shadowed a good portion of the room so, in the spirit of not wanting to wake his subordinate up, he got out of bed in a semi-blind manner, meandering around the room for a bit until his hand came upon the handle of a door which was not the exit.
He pushed it open with some effort before making the room light up and then took a shower, it felt good to revisit the pleasure of being drowned in warm water. About fifteen minutes later, he was peeling an orange for breakfast, the smell of sour citrus filled the room banishing every inch of sleepiness from his mind. He took a slice of the translucent fruit and chewed it, sour juice oozed out onto his tongue and shook his senses awake, he swallowed hard.
He then plotted another slice of orange into his mouth, trying to swallow it as soon as possible so the citrus didn't harass his tastebuds any longer than it had to, the only redeeming feature of his morning was the singing coming from the showering. Although it was muffled by the splashing of water droplets and his own silent chewing, enough of it got through for him to discern that song, Ich wollt' ich wär ein huhn, he smiled inwardly, Anna was a good singer.
About half an hour later, they had checked out of the motel. They walked all the way to the very edge of the village from which they had entered the night before and began planning their next move. "So, what's the plan?" Anna asked while stretching her hands, a few strands of her hair stuck messily against her face and shoulders as it glistered with water.
"I was considering on going to the nearby city given what the old woman told us," he replied, turning away from the horizon to meet the glare of his partner. "If we are going to find a way to survive in this world, a city seems to be the best bet given that its likely to be developed and hence would offer us the more opportunities than a town like this."
"Sounds good," Anna replied. "Any idea how we will get there?"
He shrugged slightly. "I would imagine we could look for a shop that offers transportation services and purchase a horse or so. Do you happen to have seen shops like this?"
Anna adopted a thinking pose for a few seconds. "I think I have, actually. If I recall correctly, it was somewhere around the east of the village, not too far away from here."
"Lead the way," he gestured.
A few minutes of wandering in vaguely remembered directions eventually lead them to the object of their pursuit. It was a small little market, about five or six stalls all held up by thin brown poles which supported slanting wooden roofs. There wasn't much on sale at the moment, perhaps it was because of the time, only about two of the five stalls were opened for business. One was manned by a young looking man, clean shaven and all, with dark eyes. He smiled warmly as the duo's gaze met his before gesturing to all the rather exotic looking fruits that were laid out neatly over a small table set in front of him.
As eye catching as the small collection of fruits were, it was the second stall that was the focus of all their attention. Like all the other stalls, occupied or not, it had a slanted wooden roof held up by thin poles. There was a small table with a rather fat man manning it, he was leaning back on a small chair in such a manner than his feet could rest on the table as he seemed to be in a semi-asleep state. Behind him was a small area of dirt surrounded by dark fences that reached all the way up to a man's waist, within that fenced-off area were a number of horses that came in varying colours from white to deep brown. All of which were completely outfitted with the usual accessories needed for horse riding.
They purchased an older looking horse, dark brown with a black mane, alongside a map from the fat man running the store. After Anna had a short discussion with the man over what routes to take to the city named Axel, Y/N got onto the horse: after strapping a light brown saddle on it of course Anna sat directly behind him, a little too close for his liking, holding herself close to him by warping her hands around his waist. And then they set off, the familiar sensation of the irregular movement of a gallop returned as wind ran past them cooling them against the heat emanated from the sun.
Timeskip- A few hours later
According to the map, they were fast approaching Axel. One of the key indicators of this was the apparent sighting of a river that curved in luminous blue. All around it were patches of vegetation and trees in the lower recesses of the land, little pockets of natural spires crowding in areas where the ground dipped slightly down, amiss the otherwise hilly landscape of smooth green.
He was somewhat lost in thought as he puzzled over the paraphrasing Anna provided, only to be rescued from thought when Anna lightly placed a hand on his shoulder. "The city is northwest from here," she told him lightly.
He took a breath, the cool air blowing past was sucked into his body and tickled his lungs dry in retaliation. "Of course." The time seemed to approved of their decision, for the sun was setting below the horizon rather quickly, the last few rays of orange light illuminated the world around them as darkness begun to claim the land. Once the horse began to change directions, he leaned back slightly before whispering: "You are going to teach me the language of this world."
Anna seemed to affirm with an excited squeak. "I was beginning to wonder if you would ever ask."
End
A/N: A million apologies for the insanely over-due chapter: poor health and a bussy schedule has been keeping me from updating. Combine those factors with my inherent laziness, well, let's just say I'm not good to keeping to time. So, once again, a million thanks and apologies to those of you who have been waiting for a new chapter. ANd don't worry, I won't abandon this book ;)