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[Only if you promise to do the same for me, what did this even mean? Where am I? Where am I going? This Isn't normal at all. Oh god…this can't be it, I'm not dying…am I? I'm not dying…I'm…not...]
It all went blank, there was no more to be said, and no thoughts to be had. After what felt like a few minutes, slowly but surely, noises started to re-emerge, strange noises of what sounded like rushing water and people chattering, perhaps she had woken up with something left on the tv before she fell asleep? That could be the only explanation that would make sense at the moment. As Maria slowly regained consciousness, she opened her eyes back up, it was very cloudy and foggy, everything seemed like a blur as the noises and light became more present.
Maria: "Eh…w-what the hell, what is that noise…what…did I die?"
Just as soon the noises became more clear, so did her vision. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Maria slightly tilted her head to the side, seeing something that completely shocked her. It was grass and flowers that surrounded a flowing river just ahead of her, and to her left a weird looking stone bridge that passed over said river into a heavy treeline. All she could do was look around and observe the new unfamiliar place as she tried to figure out where she was.
Maria: "What in the…where am I? It has to be some sort of bad liquor. This is a fever dream, it just has to be, and why is it so damn bright…wasn't It raining just a few minutes ago."
After regaining most of her strength, she lifted herself off from the ground, using her arms to support herself. Something was off now that she thinks about it, after drinking what she had, she would usually be having bad headaches from a hangover but now, at this very moment, she couldn't feel the effects of it at all, it was as if she never even had that drink to begin with. After getting on her feet, she could finally observe what was fully around her, and to say it was unexpected would be the understatement of the century. It appeared to be some sort of old style village, something out of a fairy tale. This town was on the eastern side of the river, with the stone bridge leading to a forested area, with a poorly maintained road cutting straight through it.
Beyond the sign that led to the town were many stone and wood buildings, for what appears to be a small simple place, the structures themselves seemed to be in very good condition and are taken care of by the people who live here.
Maria: "This is a joke…what kind of creep would kidnap somebody, and then bring them to some kind of… weird roleplay reenactment setup."
As she says this, she captures the view of many people walking through the town, all of them were pretty tall, with fair complexions and varying styles of hair, and to top it off, they even seemed to speak like her, the exact same language. Although they seemed human, all the similarities stopped at their clothes. It was bizarre, though she didn't often show it going into adulthood, Maria was always heavily interested and knowledgeable in ancient history and their civilizations, and going off of her memory, these clothes represented a weird mix of Roman and Byzantine design. The sleeveless toga looking tunics were very reminiscent of the romans she used to read about, yet these people wore long wool pants and most also wore boots and sandals of varying types. Some women wore hoods over their heads, and it also became apparent that there was some sort of class system, as some of the people in this town looked much more refined and fancy than others. While some wore simple green or white tunics with rips and tears at the seams, others wore heavy silk ones with decadent designs sewn into the sides, and all wore wool sashes around their waists.
Maria: "Maybe…this isn't a dream? All this wind blowing on my face makes it pretty obvious, you don't feel wind in dreams…i think, but if this isn't a dream then what is this?"
Maria, still very confused, hesitantly started to head into the town. As she passed by people, she noticed that this whole time people have been giving her strange looks, and as soon as she saw what she was wearing it became obvious. Wherever she was sent, she ended up here wearing the exact same attire she was in when she was at home, including the lack of any footwear or normal clothing to wear out in public. She had not realized that she was walking around in only socks, baggy sweatpants, and a tank top. Embarrassed, she began to walk faster towards the middle of the town. Moving aside and dodging other passers-by, she noticed that the sun was still there at least, but for some odd reason it appeared bigger than usual, or perhaps it may have just been brighter today. Maria never really went outside a lot after becoming the shut-in she was now, maybe being inside all day made her not used to the sun beating down on her? Whatever the case, nothing around here helped make her feel any more at ease than she already was.
After a couple more minutes of walking, she finally arrived at what looked to be the town's center, with dozens of different shops, inns and businesses lining the smooth ground she walked on. It was busy, very busy, and being a recluse she definitely didn't like being around this many people with this much noise going on. In the middle of the square, there was a decent sized marble statue built to look like some sort of…horse? Perhaps it was supposed to be anteater? Whatever it was meant to be, it looks very alien to her and pretty creepy.
Maria: "Oh…if this is some sort of reenactment area then they really went all out I guess. This is next level commitment to the whole Roman society thing they have going on. I look really weird and out of place wearing these around all the people, there has to be somebody around that could help me."
As she says this, she starts to talk to herself, in some effort to acquire what little comfort she could get out of this situation. Building by building she got a sort of feel for what kind of place this was. It was some sort of small trading town, there were what appeared to be houses no doubt, but there were a lot more shops and stalls than houses in this area. It could be assumed that most of the poorer people who lived in this town simply lived inside of their shops, since a lot of the second floors to these buildings looked like houses, while the first floors looked like what a shop should look like. Dozens of stalls, some filled with strange looking wildlife products and food that she had never seen before, while others were lined with more armor, clothing and jewelry than one person could ever ask for. Simply put, this one little town could supply an entire small army if it needed to.
[This place is…weird and scary. All these people are looking at me weird and their stuff looks weird as well, not a single phone, or any sort of electronic in sight, this could actually be real…this can't be. Why is this happening??? Where am I? Where in the actual hell am I…there has to be some sort of person or guide that I can talk to, I have played some fantasy games before, and in every single one there is some guide that helps the new person, won't they notice me wearing these normal looking clothes and help me? Oh.]
As she finished that thought, she realized that if she was brought here with her clothes, wouldn't it also be true that the things she had in her pants pockets would also be there? As she digs her hands through the deep pockets she feels the poking and prodding of a few items. She quickly rushes to a table nearby, sits down and pulls out all of the things in her pockets, throwing them onto the table.
Maria: "C'mon, c'mon! There has to be something useful here, please for the love of god let there be something to help me, I can't just be stranded here with nothing useful!"
A stick of gum, 3 quarters, a ring and a wallet, this was all she had. Obviously the gum wouldn't be of any use, she wasn't even too sure why she had it to begin with…she almost never chewed gum, and upon watching a few people pass large coins to each other, currency in this world consists of only coins, no paper money to be found anywhere so the few paper dollars she had in her wallet would be of no use, as well as the multiple cards and the her license kept inside of it. The only useful items she had were the 3 quarters and the ring.
Maria: "Well, if this place really is some sort of different world that I got sent to, these are the only things worth keeping…but…I'll keep the wallet as well."
In an instant, she remembered that she also had kept pictures in her wallet as well, quite important ones, but now was not the time for that. Throwing the gum onto the table, she put the rest of her belongings back into her pockets and abruptly dropped her head onto the table…the reality of her situation started to settle into her mind. Where was she? Why out of anybody in the world was SHE the one chosen to be sent to a place like this. She felt the breeze of the wind, she pinched herself to wake herself up, she even splashed cold water from a random bucket onto her face in a desperate attempt to see a change in her surroundings, but nothing worked. It just had to be it, she had been transported to this new world, this new planet, this new reality. Even if she wanted to believe that this was all just some massive prank, she couldn't. Everything from the clothing, to the weird animals and even something as random as the sun was different from her old world.
Maria: "No…no…no no no no no, this can't be happening to me. Please! What did I do to deserve something like this? It has to be some sort of punishment. All these noises…all these weird things walking around me, the smells, I don't understand any of this. What do I do…what in the world do I do? I admit I enjoyed the few weird fantasy games I had but I never wanted it to happen for real! What if I die here? Will I go back home or will I just be forgotten like some sort of forgotten memory? please, I just want to go home…"
The only thoughts that were in her head at the moment were thoughts of home, she swore to herself over and over again that if she got sent back, she would never take anything for granted again, she could improve, right? Surely that is why she got sent to this place. An act of god? Maybe her guardian angel finally got sick and tired of her and decided to leave her here for somebody else to deal with? As Maria sat on that bench and table, she began to panic, tearing up at the thought that she is stuck here with absolutely nobody that remembers her. This was an alien world, and there could very well be millions of things about this new place that she has no concept of. It was a stroke of luck that she was able to understand what the people here were saying, but other than that, she couldn't understand the writing, the currency, the animals, the clothing or anything that inhabited this place.
Maria: "What am I supposed to do…I trust these people even less than the ones back home so how in the world am I going to ask anybody here for help. How do I know what to say to any of these people? Please someone in this place jus-"
Then, suddenly out of nowhere, around the corner of one of the houses, she sees a little kid staring at her. It was a boy, seemingly around 7 or 9 years old wearing shaggy looking clothing, with that light brown hair and green eyes, he looked a lot worse off than most of the kids she knew in her old apartment complex, and that was impressive considering the run down place she lived in.
Child: "Mama mama look! There she is! That's the girl I was talking to you about, I found her lying on the ground next to the river earlier like a crazy person! She's here!"
[*Tsk* crazy person??? I just got here and you're already calling me crazy? How would you like it if somebody dropped you off in some middle of nowhere village town.]
Though after a few seconds to think about it, she WAS completely out of the ordinary when compared to everybody else, she wore clothes that didn't match anybody else's and was walking around without any shoes, one could assume that anybody willfully walking around like that was indeed crazy. After a couple more seconds of the child yelling towards the front of the building, Maria lifted her head up to see that a woman had walked up to her, standing mere feet away from her. She was pretty, with long golden brown hair and green eyes that looked like shimmering emeralds. Along with that she was clearly this kid's mother, she had a certain air to her that exuded a sense of authority towards the kid, the way she looked at Maria insinuated that she was worried about her.
Mother: "Well hello stranger…my son told me that you looked pretty ill while sitting here all by yourself, so I decided to check up on you, you ok?"
She seemed very nice, and she gave off no sense of obvious malice or aggression towards Maria, the first ever person to talk to her since she came here and it was a person who was concerned for her.
Maria: "Oh y-yeah I'm…I'm doing just fine, just…taking a rest for a little bit on this table, thanks for checking…on me."
Maria, for being somebody that had not talked to another human being for weeks now, tried her best to talk normally to the women. Yet despite her best efforts, every word that came out of her mouth was either a stutter or was barely coherent, she was still very much weary of this place and the trust issues that became second nature to her were still in full effect here.
Mother: "Ah well that's good, good to hear. Though I'm still not too convinced that you're doing well…you look like you're about to throw up, and you're shaking."
Child: "Yeah! Also you're sitting on our family's bench, you should ask before doing that!"
The mother looked down at the kid with frustration in her eyes and a scowl on her face. It was clear that the kid was quick to say whatever was on his mind, and it must get him into a lot of trouble. On the other hand, it did appear that maria didn't pay attention to where she was sitting, looking up she now notices that this little plot of grass where the bench stood was bunched up right next to the wall of this building, with all the objects and the cloth line nearby, it was obvious that it was somebody's backyard area, and yet she still didn't notice until now. Maria quickly jumped off the table and started to apologize to the women, but the mother quickly hushed Maria and covered her mouth as she started to laugh. It was possible that the women found Maria's attempt to apologize for such a small mistake cute, Maria was shy and the women knew it.
Mother: "No need stranger, it was just a little mistake, we all make them every once in a while, but I know who should be the one apologizing for being so rude…Ruid?"
The lady slowly turned back to the child and pulled on his ear, a yelp coming from him as he tried to pull away.
Ruid: "Ow ow! alright! …I'm sorry ma,am for being so rude, I didn't mean to, so please accept my apology."
After saying this, the woman let go of the boy's ear and he spent the following seconds rubbing it in an attempt to get the pain to go away. Maria looked back up to the mother and blushed, she felt pretty guilty, after all if she had never done that then this entire thing could have been avoided in the first place.
Maria: "Uh…n-no problem! I fully accept your apology, though again I shouldn't be here, so I should go, Bye."
Maria turns her back to the 2 and starts to walk away but…she is quickly stopped when something appears to get caught in her tank top, it wasn't a loose branch nor an animal, but the hand of the woman she was so readily quick to leave behind. She slowly turned her head to look back at the mother, all the while she smiled at maria.
Mother: "Well hold on now! Like I told you, you still seem ill and what kind of inn keeper would I be to abandon a possible future patron, and even more so a cute girl like yourself in need? I say you should come on inside and make yourself at home for a little while, after all most of the people who come to this inn in particular are regulars so i don't have a lot of chances to talk to new people, so what do you say?"
Maria looked at the women with a sense of wonder in her eyes, she didn't even know Maria and yet she was so friendly to her, and after all was said and done she was then invited to stay at the inn for a while. Now that Maria thought about it, she was pretty hungry. All the stress and panic got to her and a nice meal would be very good indeed. After a few seconds of thought, Maria slowly lowered her head and looked at the women.
Maria: "W-well I mean…sure, why not. Please…ma,am."
And with that, the mother grabbed Maria's hand and led her from the back and around the building, heading towards the entrance, with Ruid quickly following behind.
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