Chapter 2: Chapter Two

A few hours went by with me alone in my cell. I came to a few conclusions. 

1. I’m no longer in my homeworld. As absolutely insane as it sounds, I think I’ve been taken to some other world.
2. There are humans in this world somewhere. Normal ones with two eyes. That girl didn’t seem surprised that I’m human, rather she’s surprised that I didn’t know what she was. That means there are humans who are familiar with her kind.
3. I might not have been the target of kidnapping, my truck was. I just happened to be inside it when it was taken. Most of the crates in here are full of food from my truck and likely similar trucks.

When the woman came back into the room, she was holding a plastic plate of steamed vegetables, likely from one of the trucks.

“Here” she said, sliding it through a food slot in the door. 

“Why am I here?”

She stared at me for a second. “We panicked. We haven’t seen a human this far south in awhile, and we didn’t know what to do with you. If the Empire found out we kidnapped a human… it… uhm… it wouldn’t be great”

“Empire?” I asked, picking up a green bean.

“Y’know, it’s weird trying to explain stuff that’s just such basic information. You ever think about that? Like, it’s hard to even comprehend someone having never heard of the Empire before

The Empire is a group of countries, ours included, grouped together under the rule of the United Empire. A majority of the government is human. That’s why your appearance scared us so bad, we thought we had taken one of their people.”

That kind of makes sense. I guess I was right, there are humans here. Apparently they’re doing alright for themselves too.

“So why didn’t you just send me back to where I came from?”

“The Circle is a one-way trip kinda thing. Otherwise we would have.” 

“Okay so why are you stealing trucks of food in the first place?”

“Oh. That’s because…. It would probably be easier to show you.” She grabbed a key and unlocked the door. She also grabbed a cloak and handed it to me. “Cover up your two eyes, you’ll stand out here”

After donning the cloak, which is an incredibly dramatic sentence, I followed her. The dungeon I was in was down a flight I’d very worn-looking stairs. Once we got to the top, we exited into an expansive cave that had my truck in it. Groups of one-eyed people were still unloading it. Another group of people, this group in robes, were preparing something in another area of the cave. It was a well-oiled operation they had running here. 

Once we exited the cave the woman gestured to the expanse. It looked like a savanna but with even less vegetation. No trees in sight. All I could see was a nearby town, and even that town looked like a run-down post-apocalyptic shanty. 

“This soil can’t grow food. We can’t farm. But to maintain our autonomy, we pay taxes. Those taxes are food for the war efforts going on up north. Thank the Gods that some mages forever ago made some ritual site here, or we’d be in hot water.”

I paused to take all of this in. All of this stuff looks modern, even if a little outdated. If it weren’t for the fact that the woman next to me only had one giant eye, I’d swear I’m back home. Don’t these stories usually send people to fantasy worlds that inexplicably have human video game mechanics? This barely looks like a fantasy world. 

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“I’m sorry, did you say that there were mages and a ritual site? Like…. Magic?”

“Yeah. Why?”

Magic! She said that like it’s as normal as the air we’re breathing. “Sorry, I’m just… I’m trying to wrap my head around this. You used magic to kidnap me so you can pay food taxes to an empire. Also you have one eye and live in a modern town instead of some medieval village. I need to sit down” I said, before my legs gave out. While I was on the floor, she sat beside me.

“Y’know, I never stopped to think where the food we got was coming from. I just unload. Sorry ‘bout that.”

My head was swimming. It was a one-way trip, she said. But if she just unloads, how would she know? Maybe there is a way to get me home. “Hey, uhm…” it occurred to me I didn’t know this individuals name. 

“Clara”

“Clara? Who is in charge here?”

“That’d be Foreman Bruno” she said. “Why? Wanna talk to him?”

“Maybe he knows if there’s a way to get me home. Can you…. Can you take me to him?”

She looked at me for a second and furrowed her brow. I could almost see her gears turning. Then she picked me up, which is just as well as my legs still felt like jelly. “How about I ask him and leave you back in your cell. Not that I don’t trust you not to reveal yourself….. but I don’t trust you not to reveal yourself.” 

By the time she got me back to the dungeon room, it really sunk in. This woman, who didn’t appear to be any older than I was and I was pretty young, was able to almost effortlessly lift me. She must carry a lot of cargo. I took a closer look at her and her arms looked very muscular. She placed me on the bed but didn’t close or lock the door.

“I’ll let you know what he says, ‘Kay?”

Once I regained my composure I began to look around the entire dungeon, walking around. There were two cages, one of which still had a plate of steamed vegetables on the floor. I picked the plate up and took it to the desk and continued eating. 

There was a pile of newer looking papers sprawled across the desk. I didn’t recognize any of the writing, but it looked handwritten with ink. As I was looking through them, I realized something. If I still had my clothes on me, maybe I still had my phone on me. I reached into my back pocket and was relieved it was still there. In fact, all of the contents of my pockets were still accounted for. I decided to take inventory.

Lighter, wallet with $15.75, cell phone with no service and 50% battery, and a pencil. Not great, but not awful, I suppose. 

Clara came back into the room. “So I talked to Bruno…” she began.

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