Fantasy Time to Make a Change (Kapowne)

[Wandering Fae]

A Brandnew World
​

"You are a wretched human being, and the world would be better off without you!" These were the words that echoed through your mind, the last thing you could remember before everything went back, feeling hands grabbing and clawing at you, dragging you down beneath the floor into the shadows. For a moment it felt like you were drowning before you passed out.

Soon you woke up outside, unsure of how long you had been out you found yourself on the side of the road out by the interstate, which was oddly empty. He must have drugged you and got some of his cowardly friends to agree to take out of town, some kind of payback prank you suspected. When you got back they were going to pay big time. However, as you tracked your way down the road you started to feel uneasy, the city was still nowhere in sight and you could swear you heard something a few times, strange sounds. Animal sounds? But it wasn't like any animals you'd ever heard which probably wasn't saying much coming from a city boy.

As you looked around, you also thought the area seemed unfamiliar even to be out on the interstate...how far did they take you?

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

As Alex opened his eyes, a brilliantly blue and clear sky being the his first greeter. Normally a person who woke up in such a way would feel calm, relaxed, at peace even. Alex’s nostrils flared as he grit his teeth. “Where the fuck...” he growled as he sat up, surveying his surroundings more. Massive pink trees loomed overhead, and beneath his hands was pavement. Alex didn’t know what kind of trees they were, but he knew he was on a road, and it looked old, like some kind of forgotten interstate....

He suddenly remembered what had happened before. The black crystal ball, the hands, the floor... Alex quickly patted himself down for any kinds of wounds or injuries. Nothing.



“I’m gonna fucking kill that kid!” He shouted into the air, his proclamation echoing through the forest. Alex stood up and brushed himself off. In the distance he could see some kind of mountain. “Where the hell did he take me?!” He asked aloud, his fists clenched so tight they might have drawn blood. It was then that he realized this scenery didn’t look familiar at all. The mountain didn’t look like any he had ever seen, and he trees were new as well.


“Alright, come on out you loser, take your beating like a man!” Alex shouted into the forest, expecting to see that punk and his two little friends pop out from behind some tree. Obviously they had drugged him and taken him out to some old deserted road somewhere. They didn’t come. Alex began to get frustrated. “GET OUT HERE YOU LITTLE BITCH!” He practically screamed into the pink forest. However what answered, was not something Alex had expected.


A deep and guttural growl reverberated into his ears, and that was all Alex needed to enact his fight or flight. Typically, he would always be fight, rushing headfirst into any fight. He was the toughest kid anyone who knew him, knew. This though, made his stomach flip. His fighters instinct told him, this wasn’t something he could fight. Quickly, he turned, the mountain to his back, and began walking, quickly and rigidly.


“Great job alex... scream into the wind on an obviously abandoned road in the middle of the woods someplace.... obviously wolves are gonna come...” he chastised himself quietly under his breath as he continued walking. His eyes glancing to the sides of the road every few seconds. It seemed like every time he looked away, a shadow would dart forward behind another tree.


Finally after what felt like an eternity of walking, though in all actuality it had only been a few minutes, he saw his pursuers...


“What the f-“ he started to say, before he quickly started into a sprint. These things didn’t look like any wolves he had ever seen!


The top of their head were hard and had what looked like exposed bone, two small horns at the end of their snout. Two webbed years stuck out at the back of their head. Their jaws were massive, thick and muscled. Their orange and white fur was short and tight to their muscled bodies. The webs under their arms looked pink and fleshy, all in all... they didn’t look like wolves! Alex reminded himself he needed to run, not look!!


He could hear one howl; then two, then three, four and five. A pack, and he was the prey.... he pushed himself to run faster, harder and longer than he had ever run before.... maybe climb up a tree? He though quickly.... no... these trees didn’t have low enough branches for climbing.... fight them? He thought... but five of them?! No way....


“Fuuuuck~!” Alex yelled into the air as he pushed his legs to run more than he had ever done before.

 

[Wandering Fae]

Spoiler: Scene Music

It was the middle of the day, afternoon, closer to sunset than noon, but she still had time. The rest stop should have been coming up soon she thought as she drove down the road in her car. It was a nice black car with silver vine-like designs on it and two golden carbuncles on each door, seemingly running.

The road was basically abandoned which wasn't surprising to her, this was typically the case for most roads outside the king's roads the interstate between the kingdoms that were well, kept, well lit and well-fortified, unlike the backroad she was on right now. She didn't complain, however, the upside to backroads were that there was no traffic, the downsides were these cracks and potholes, at least there weren't any downed trees, that would be a pain to deal with.

The young Selkie was just about to turn on the radio to see what kind of music they played on the local station or if she needed to put her scroll in instead when she noticed something up the road. The closer she got the more she realized it was a Hom being chased by Blood Beasts. He wasn't a very fast Hom either, I mean Selkie was typically faster than Hom's but even for a Hom he was kind of slow for an adventurer...unless he was a newbie?

No that couldn't have been it he was totally under-geared, as a matter of fact, he wasn't geared, like at all. She'd expect this I the kingdoms but out here? She didn't have much time to think about it. For now, he was pulling ahead but the breasts were gaining fast so she stepped on the gas, revving up the engine when she got close enough she quickly turned the wheel and made a sharp turn into the pack of beasts, wheels screeching as she ran into one of them, pinning it against a tree as another ran into the side of the car, hurting itself...but also denting her door.

She looked at the damage so far. She couldn't see it, but she knew damn well her passenger-side door was dented, she knew her grill was fucked and her windshield was clearly cracked. She sighed, half groaning she her pretty pink bi-colored eyes rolled up into the heavens and she took a calming breath. "Relax Zona...there is a rest stop coming up soon...you will get it fixed there." She said to herself in a calming mantra.

She opened her eyes and looked at the beast in front of her the one she had pinned in her car. It was dead, it likely died upon impact, now just hanging there, limp, blood dripping from its mouth and into the hood of her car. "Wash, gas…repairs, " She said, as she turned off the car and opened her door. The three other beasts had not gone but they stepped back very weary no, the fourth and closest treated back with its pack, limping and a bit disoriented after running headfirst into a speeding car, clearly injured but not as worse off as it's unlucky brethren...not yet anyway.

The lovely young lady stepped out of her car and looked at the young boy, he was a Hom, but he looked around her age, maybe a little older. It was a bit hard to tell sometimes, but she could figure that out later. She placed her left hand over her chest where her heart would be her left hand at her side. The pan of her hand began to glow when she removed her hand from her chest and seemingly tapped the air, waves of light started to come as the air in that spot seemingly began to ripple like water and from those rippled emerged a fairy.

The entire motion only took an instant by now there was a small being glowing with a dark golden aura. She had dark golden hair, pointy elf like ears, what appeared to be fair, somewhat golden skin swearing a black tube top leotard that exposed her shoulders, black thigh-high boots were purple and seemingly lace around the with black gloves that came up to her upper arm with the same purple lace design toward the top. She had what seemed to be black butterfly wings that were purple around the edges with golden designs. Her eyes were purple and her hair was tied up into two swirly buns reminiscent of cat ears. She was small enough to sit on the girl's shoulder no bigger than Tinker Bell.

At that moment a black now appeared in the girl's right hand. The fairy nodded to her and flew off, flying around the beasts and leaving what seemed to be red glowing butterflies made of fairy dust behind. The girl then draws her now, having the beasts within her sights marking each of them with a magic circle, rotating over their bodies in her mind and seemingly an arrow made of light appears. Just before she lets it loose.

The arrow of light then spirals out and splits into four seeking after the beasts within the red butterflies but as they hit the cloud the butterflies explode, killing the beast that was already injured from running into her car and severely injuring the others. They snarled defensively and yet whimpered fearfully before turning tail to run, disappearing into the tree line. She wasn't vindictive and had no reason to chase after them. They were just beasts, doing what beasts do, they were hungry but she wasn't going to let them eat the boy.

Speaking of which the fairy seemed to have taken interest in him, flying around and examining the boy, getting a little close to his face as she hovered in front of him and poked him in the nose, shocking him a little. Nothing too bad, nothing worse than what you'd get if someone touched you after sliding across the carpet for a while, but the little fairy seemed to find this hilarious. "Cursa!" The girl called making the little fairy jump in mid-air, waving her hands frantically to regain her balance although she wasn't even standing on the ground. "leave him alone, you are not a healing fairy" She sighed. The little fairy looked embarrassed and quickly went to hide behind the girl's shoulder.

"Sorry about her, she can't help herself sometimes, she's a little on the Unseelie side." She said and walked up to him, giving him a once over herself. "My name's Zona by the way, you alright? Are you hurt in any way?" She asked making her now disappear as she looked up at him, crossing her arm, funny enough the little fairy was hovering over her shoulder mimicking her stance.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

Alex was sprinting and fast and as hard as he could, the monstrous wolves quickly gaining on him. He was panting hard, already at the point of exhaustion when he heard the familiar sound of a car behind him. Something inside him hoped they would stop and help him, prayed even that they did. Sure enough, as if some god had heard his prayer, the car crashed into the pack, scattering the wolves and killing one. Alex toppled to he ground, exhausted and panting for much needed air.

Moments passed before finally he heard the door open, and a flash of light created a glare over the car. Alex wasn’t sure what his rescuer thought light would do against these crazy looking wolves.

He got up to start yelling when he saw a beautiful young woman, light erupting from a hand on her chest, seemingly created this other even smaller woman with wings.... wide eyed with shock, Alex watched as the fairy like girl flew about the monsters and the other woman began to fire beams of light at them. Alex’s mind reeled, was he being pranked? It didn’t feel like a prank, and if it was, who was this girl? Was she in on it? How were they making these effects happen? As his mind reeled with questions, he young woman had scared the wolves off and was approaching him now. Alex could feel the sweat beading down his forehead when the small fairy booped him on the nose, sending a small static shock through his face. It was more than enough to jumpstart his brain though, until the woman introduced herself as Zona to him.


‘Unseelie?’ Alex wondered what she meant by that, and what the hell was she? Some kind of robot? No. That wouldn’t make sense... questions reeled through his head as he looked he girl and her companion up and down. Though after several awkward moments he realized he needed to say something.



“Wh-what is.... where ar- what was....” he started and abandoned each question as quickly as he started it. He shit his eyes tightly and clenched his teeth as hard as he could. He hated not understanding what was going on! “What the hell is going on here! Who are you?! And what he hell was that?! And where the fuck am I?! And what fucking kind of wolves were those?!” He practically shouted as he opened his eyes, he anxiety of his confusing situation taking over.

Wandering Fae

 

[Wandering Fae]

Spoiler: Scene Music

​

Zona looked up at the clearly confused Hom or at least what she thought was Hom after all. How could she know he was from another world, definitely not by looking at him. He was clearly erratic as he shouted question after question at her but luckily she was able to understand him and keep up.

From the look of it, he really wasn't an adventurer. Did someone kidnap him and leave him all the say out there to die?

"Well in order? Umm, I'm pretty sure I just saved your life, you're welcome by the way. My name is...Zona...again Zona Velona, I am an adventurer if the attire did not make that clear enough. I can tell you're a kingdom hom so maybe you've never seen one? That was...about 60% magic, 10% skill, 5% spectacular driving skills and 25% soul-crushing disappointment." The last bit was referring to the damage done to her car by crashing into the blood beast before she continued to answer his questions. "You are currently in the Wisteriam Wilds, a few miles away from the nearest rest stop and those...were not wolves those were blood beasts. Whoever dumped you out here must have doped you up good if you can mistake a wolf for a blood beast." She said laughing a bit at that last question, placing her hand in front of her mouth for a moment. She didn't mean to make light of his situation, it was just kind of funny.

Wolves did exist in this world albeit they might have been a bit different than on his world. She shook her head and held in her laughter. "I'm sorry, I'm not making fun of you, it's just...they look nothing alike. I mean I guess they both howl and maybe a bit similar in body structure, but I guess that's not your fault...someone must have been really mad at you. Like we aren't anywhere near a kingdom right now. Anyway, this is Cursa, she is a fairy," Cursa smiled and gestured to herself, and bowed like a stage performer as she hovered over the girl's shoulder.

The girl looked go at the sky the sun was starting to disappear behind the trees but the sky was still clearly an afternoon blue, it was getting closer to sunset and therefore night time. "Listen, it's getting late and you kingdom folk may not know this but things get pretty dangerous after dark so. I can answer the rest of your questions in the car on the way to the rest stop. We aren't near any havens that I know of and trust me, those blood beasts are nothing compared to demons...uh...I'm sorry, what was your name?" She asked looking up at him, just realizing she didn't know it.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

Sheer confusion continued to paint Alex’s face as he listened to her explanation and answers to his questions. He didn’t realize it, but at some point he began to start pacing back and forth.

“Magic? Fairies? Blood beasts? Demons?! None of that exists! Are you kidding me?” He mumbled aloud as he continued his pacing. He couldn’t believe what she was saying, but he had seen it all, the magic, the ‘blood beasts’, Hell he was even looking at a fucking flowing fairy! Was he dreaming? No... the fairy had shocked him, so that wasn’t it... the. Something popped into his head.

“You said this is the Wisteriam wilds right? I’ve never heard it, where is it? Is it in California somewhere? We’re still in California, right?” He continued jabbering questions aloud, and could feel his anxiety growing. He hated feeling this way... when he got his hands around that fucking kid.... he would squeeze until he stopped moving... for good...


Wandering Fae

 

[Wandering Fae]

Spoiler: Scene Music

​

Zona looked at him very confused when he asked her if they were still in California? Where the hells was California? On top of that, he denied the existence of pretty much everything that was pretty much common knowledge and a known fact. He must have been high as shit. She scratched her head. "Umm, I don't know what to tell you, I've never heard of any place called California so I guess we're even?" She said looking at him and shrugged a little.

"Uh, listen I can see you're confused right now and I get that, but can we do this in the car. I'm pretty sure it can still run, but these roads are shit and I don't want to attempt to outrun demons in it like that, I'd also like my car to still be salvageable so I can get it fixed and not have to outright replace it altogether. I'm not sure if you're aware of this but cars especially cars like this one cost a lot of credits, credits that I do not currently have, " She said and a look of dread came over her face as she quickly walked back to the car and started the engine. It turned on just fine, the engine was running smoothly it just seemed to have external damage.

She sighed in relief, it would work just fine. "Listen I don't know where California is which means it's really far away from here, all I know is we're are in Wisteriam. Unless California is a small backwater somewhere it's nowhere near here. Like I said before whoever dumped you here...really didn't like you...for what reason I don't know." She said.

Meanwhile Cursa took out upon herself to sit on his head, crossing her legs in a folded position as she took a thinking stance, seemingly imitating him in her own way. Zona rolled her eyes and shook her head looking at the fairy as if to say 'really?' To which the fairy simply shrugged.

"Off...the hom." She said simply as the fairy returned to her side. "You are several centuries older than me...I should not be babysitting you." Zona said to which Cursa simply crossed her arms and turned away as if she were offended and Zona simply poked her making the little fairy lose her balance in mid-air and held on to the steering wheel as if she were hanging off of a cliff.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

Alex took a deep breath as the fairy sat on his head. He could feel his anger boiling over, he wanted to swat the little annoying thing away, but if ‘demons’ were really so bad, and this lady really didn’t know anything about California.... well... any idiot knew better than to bite the hand that fed you. So he bit his lip, and followed, the passenger door was pretty well dented. The metal scraped and groaned loudly as he opened it, causing him to wince as he got in. Now that he was in the car, and his... Zona was driving, he was able to really take stock of her and this whole world. She certainly wasn’t wearing clothes like his, and her hair was braided waaaay differently than he had ever seen.... not to mention the fucking magic and fairies....


‘Okay... uh... so I’m super far from home, magic, fairies, demons and monsters exist... but so do cars... are we even on earth then? And how do I get home?’ Thoughts continued to swirl through his head as he decided to compartmentalize. This girl obviously didn’t have all the answers, but she probably still had a lot....


“Uh... my name is Alex, Alex Fullman. Thanks for helping me out here....” Alex sounded awkward, and rightly so, not only were thank yous something foreign to him, so was the very idea of help... “so... what can you tell me about this place? Where are we going?” He asked, trying not to overwhelm her this time.

Wandering Fae

 

[Wandering Fae]

Spoiler: Scene Music

​

As he got in the car, Zona slowly backed up off of the tree and the dead Blood Beast that slid off of her hood and flopped onto the ground and she got back onto the road. She supposed turning on the radio would be rude at this moment, plus she did promise him that she would answer his questions in the car.

"Okay, Alex….Fullman?" She seemed perplexed by his name not the Alex part the Fullman part, it was a very odd name, she'd never heard a name like that before maybe he was foreign? She took note of him, his clothes seemed normal enough although every poor in defensive quality, but he wasn't an adventurer so she'd let that slide.

"Well, this is Wisteriam as I said before named for well obviously the abnormally large amount of wisteria trees everywhere, the closest kingdom is Lyra but I use the term closest very loosely because it is...it is pretty far away from here." She said.

She wasn't sure how to explain stuff to him, she guessed maybe he was from some foreign land? Somewhere across the sea maybe? So she would assume he wasn't familiar with...anything here.

"Wisteriam is a newly settled land, they haven't made much headway but they're surviving and that's all that matters. We are going to the rest stop specifically Ascella, it's a haven that means it's protected by holy magic it wards of monsters and more importantly it wards off demons, it's a safe zone where you can rest up, refuel, resupply and grab a bite to eat on your way. Hell, you might even find work there, they usually have something that needs doing." Zona said as Cursa seemingly bored, yawned and waved goodbye before disappearing into thin air as if she had stepped into a pool of invisible water.

"I'm going to assume you come from...someplace far away so gist of it is Avalon is a pretty dangerous place outside the kingdoms especially during the night and as big and great as the kingdoms they're only so big and there can only be so many people on one place before things getting in a word...crowded and when things get crowded things get uncomfortable and unpleasant to put it nicely. So the kingdoms tried to expand their borders but that brought them into conflict with each other so now they have this brand new agreement called the settlement act which us basically a very roundabout way of saying dibs. Basically, if you can settle it, you can have it, but if you can't hack it's up for grabs. They even offer settlers like this really lucrative incentive deals to encourage it, but the only problem is and very understandably...no one wants to get eaten, no one wants to go out and risk their necks to possibly get rewarded if they succeed so they most often choose to stay in the kingdoms. That is where yours truly comes in. As I said before I am an adventurer and adventurers are people who are crazy, desperate and or dumb enough to deal with crazy shit so you don't have to...as long as you pay us in some way shape or form. We come in survey uncharted areas, clear out the monsters, make sure everything is safe and then people come in and set up shop. Sometimes it's a very big one-time payment sometimes it's an ongoing deal like supplies, discounts or getting a room and meals without having to pay. I mean adventurers do a varied number of things but settlement work is usually the most common." She explained and then thought about how she could explain magic...that one she might have to hold off on. "Sorry, was that more info than what you were looking for?" She asked as they continued to make their way down the road, at this point he would be able to see more creatures beyond the treeline albiet they seemed far more friendly or at least more docile than blood beasts. They looked like unicorns in a way, pure white horse like creatures, with long flowing manes and tails of silver hair. They electric blue eyes and golden marking that went across their bodies and the horn on their heads branched off a bit more akin to that of a deer's antler. Their legs were more like that of deet than a horse, each with a tuft of fur right behind the hoof.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

Alex listened quietly to the massive amount of information that Zona was unloading on him. It may have been a lot, but he appreciated it. Though, what she was saying made this sound like kind of video game world.... demons, magic, fairies... but that wasn’t possible... though about as possible as being transported to another world.... he wherever he was, he knew none of this existed where he came from, and no amount of traveling here would change that.

It was then that he remembered the hands and the melting into the floor, the black crystal ball and that damn twerp! He did this! But that meant he had to be here too... because he had seen him being pulled in as well.

Alex was beginning to seethe again, when out the window on his right he saw a beautiful pack of unicorns, which may have been girly to say aloud but no one actually gets to see unicorns... but here he was, looking at a pack of damn unicorns. After they drove past, he decided on what his course of action would be.

“Alright. I’m definitely a long way from home... but I need to get back, so I have to find someone. I need the find the guy who brought me here. But I don’t know how to do that, and I don’t know anything about this place... would you mind showing me the ropes?” Alex asked meekly.. he was never one to ask for favors, but he was very much out of his element here and he had to admit that he wasn’t the hottest shit around anymore. Here, he was just like everyone else, and probably even weaker than everyone else... “I think I’d like to go to one of these kingdoms eventually, but... if I’m going to survive out here I should probably learn to defend myself...” he clenched his fists together as he looked down at himself. These close may have been ‘cool’ where he came from, but they served little to no purpose here. He hoped that Marcus would go to one of these kingdoms as well, but if he didn’t, he’d have to be strong enough to roam these wilds himself looking for him... he better hope he never did find him....

Wandering Fae

 

[Wandering Fae]

Spoiler: Scene Music

Zona listened to the boy, this Alex. As she had suspected he was a long way from home and was not an adventurer and it seemed his only way back was to find the person who brought him there. He suspected he might be in one of the kingdoms which wasn't a bad assessment, eventually, everyone including adventurers passed through the kingdoms at one point or another she supposed, but they were a long way from Lyra even by car and she didn't have enough credits or fuel to make it there in one shot. She'd never thought about having a party member before let alone one she had to teach but...she supposed she couldn't just leave him out there.

She took a deep breath and exhaled calmly and nodded. "Okay, I'll help you out, as you said, you'll need to learn how to defend yourself. We'll see what we can pick up for you, they should have something, adventures are regulars at rest stops so they usually have something. I'm not sure it'll be the best, but it's bound to grant you more protection than...that, " She said glancing at his clothes which should have given him the indication that her clothes were indeed made of something special that was more protective or helpful.

Just as she said that they came upon a clearing on the side of the road and she turned into it. There he would see a grouping of buildings first he would see is gate surrounding the black, and behind that gate there seemed to be a fence or pen which held more creatures. This time they were large husky like animals with tiger stripes that were the size of lions. The males were black with dark red mane, burgundy stripes, their ears were sharp and stood up with single short dark dark red horns in the middle of their forehead. The females which were about the same size as a lioness would have goldish orange fur black stripes, bright red fur around their ankles somewhat like a poodle, their ears also stood up but slightly drooped and had two short red hours in their foreheads. Both, however, had long sharp fangs, claws and long curly husky like tails.

She points to them as they drive by "Those are Komainu, they're exploration beasts, basically friendly beasts that have been trained as mounts, there are different kind and it really depends on which rest stop your at on what kind you'll get, but they're trained to return to their stable after a certain amount of time or if things get far too dangerous. As far as mounts go Komainu are pretty good, they're fast, they're strong they maneuver easily and can even climb and tack things down, they will even help fend off monsters to a certain degree. If you have your phone synced up with the rest stop supplier you can even call for mounts to come to meet you out in the field. Cars are fast but they can't go off-road...least not this one and even the ones that can only go so many places so that is why mounts exist." She explained.

The rest of the rest stop consisted of what looked to be a gas station, an auto repair shop/garage, a supply shop that sold weapons, armor and other things, a diner that sold both snacks and hot meals and then there was an Inn and of course a parking lot. She pulled up in front of the garage and got out of the car and there seemed to be another human man, he seemed middle-aged, a real grease monkey as he stood there, cleaning off his wrench.

"Greetings adventurer, I suppose I don't have to ask if you need repairs done, and I supposed that spatter of blood answers my question on what happened to it...the question I have is was it man or beast?" He asked, removing the cigarette he was smoking from his mouth.

"Blood beast...and partially a tree, " She said, rubbing the back of her neck, slightly embarrassed about the tree part.

The man walked around the car and took a look at the car before noticing Alex and turned back to Zona. "We'll take a look at it, as long as nothing's wrong inside you should be fine, but it'll take time and it won't be cheap either way, " he said.

Zona thought for a moment, she had a decent amount of credits but she doubted she could afford to buy Alex gear and supplies and pay for the car so she came up with an idea. "Okay, so how about I take care of your listings and you can take our expenses out of the reward money, " She said.

He thought about it and nodded "I suppose it'd just be credits going in a circle otherwise, but you gotta stay until you pay it off and we keep the car until you do." He said.

"Not a problem, " She said.

"Fair enough then we have a deal, the name is Doran, just Doran...you should stop by the supply store...your partner's underdressed." He said as he began to take the car into the garage whenever Alex got out of the car if he hadn't already.

"I am aware and we will be fixing that soon." She said before turning back to Alex and placed her hands behind her back, interlocking her fingers. "Well, we're not going anywhere until morning so, you wanna gear up or get something to eat first?" She asked, looking at the boy. It was not sunset and starting to get dark, it seemed they had arrived just in time as the rest stop started to close the surrounding gate and the street lamps came on, all around, magic symbols etched into the gates, ground and on the buildings started to glow, but more than that the surrounding area began to change, the flowers on the trees began to glow and sparkle, giving off a crystalline sheen and colorful auroras began to rise from the forest like mist. If it hadn't hit him yet that he was in another world this would probably be one of many defining points.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

Alex was surprised that Zona seemed so agreeable to his joining her, but he appreciated it, even if he didn’t say it out loud. The rest stop looked pretty much like any other he had seen, minus the monsterous “mounts” and the metallic gate that circled the area. As he got out of the car, the older gentleman seemed to take issue with his clothes as well, which Alex scoffed at, he knew they might be appropriate, but they couldn’t be THAT bad... right? Though Zona and Doran seemed fairly confident he was not dressed appropriately.


As Zona was speaking though, Alex noticed the sunset beginning and the whole world seemed to shift right before his eyes. Luminescent leaves, glowing glyphs and a strange feeling on the air he couldn’t describe. He lifted his hand into the air, feeling the wind pass between his fingers, but it felt like there was something... more.... more to it. It felt like he could actually grab the air if he tried. Zona’s words finally snapped him out of his awe though. Food or gear?


Alex was far too intrigued to eat right now, so he decided quickly. “Gear. Definitely gear.” He said as he returned his attention to Zona. Even she seemed to have a different aura about her in the coming darkness... Alex made a mental note to ask about that when they were done with the gear, maybe while they ate.


Leading the way into the nearby weapon shop, an older, heavily scarred man stood behind the counter. “Howdy, we got mosta whatcha might need, lemme know if’n ya can’t find it.” He greeted, his accent thick and heavy. “Lookin like ya might need some gear there boyo. A might dangerous to be goin about in a gear like that.” He added, a sharp whistle punctuating his statement.

“Yeah.... so I’ve heard...” Alex added, biting his lip from cursing this guy out.

“So, what canna do for ya?”


Wandering Fae

 

[Wandering Fae]

Spoiler: Scene Music

​

Zona smiled and nodded to the shop owner and proceeded to make her order, telling the man what she needed. "Well obviously he needs something with more defensive properties, I don't know what you have ability-wise but I'll settle for something with higher defense for now, highest you got." She said. What Zona was wearing may have looked relatively normal but it was made of steel silk and armored hide, light, flexible but it would take a lot to tear through it. As for the rest, she went through.

"I need some Links, a phone, and a bag, preferably a small one." In this world, bags were kind of like what a D&D player would call a bag of holding, adventurer bags could hold up to 100 items standard, it didn't matter what size...well it did somewhat, she couldn't fit here car in there, but she could fit decent sized things in there like weapons, tents and such. The smaller the bag was the lighter it was and easier it was to carry around. It was how she pulled that bow seemingly out of thin air, she actually held her hand next to her bag and through about the item she wanted before retrieving it from the bag, the bags she had now could carry upto 120 items each, but she only had two, they could get the space in his expanded later but for now she felt 100 was good enough and whatever he didn't have she'd share with him from her stuff. Links served two to three purposes, they could be used as noise can cling earplugs to protect your ears, you could listen to music with them or communicate with others. To him they would probably look similar to Raycon earbuds there came with a little carrying case and like the phones in this world could be charged by electricity solar power and of course they would be no use to an adventurer if they easily fell from one's ears to that was a bonus.. She wasn't sure if he had a phone but even if he did the one he had would be of no use to him in this world, there were useful apps and such that he'd only be able to get standard with an adventurers phone in this world but they did look like smartphones.

"Now other than that I'm going to need potions, ethers, antidotes, elixirs, and some flasks...one for drinking and 3 for magic...I will explain in a minute, " She said to Alex without looking at him just yet. "Lastly I'm gonna need a body light, some camping gear and I don't suppose you have any dark matter and...whatcha got on weapons here?" She wasn't going to pick his weapon for him, after all, he was the one who had to use it, depending on what he picked she'd get him some live ammo, but she'd also teach him how to use magic ammo as well which is where the flasks came in...she had a lot to teach him.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

Alex watched dumbfounded as Zona began to effortlessly ramble off various items she wanted, not just for him but also for herself, the shopkeeper nodding along as she did so. Alex wasn’t sure what was more impressive, the way Zona listed all the necessary items off from memory, or the way the shopkeeper remembered everything without needing a pen and paper. Every time she finished her list, he would quickly, seamlessly and wordlessly make them appear. Link, phone, bag. Though Alex didn’t know what they were, the shopkeeper easily produced several little bottles as she listed off potions, as well as a few empty ones. Alex wasn’t sure how much older Zona was than him, but doubted this kind of experience could be gained in such a short amount of time.


Finally with all the items on the counter, and beside it he raised an eyebrow. “Weppons? Oh, I gotcha there. Fer sher.” He said as he finally walked around the counter, revealing a somewhat pot bellied middle aged man. Alex hadn’t noticed before, but he was missing his left arm at the elbow. Which made the previous showing even more impressive.


“Cmere boy, let’s see whatcha might like” he said as he slapped a button on the side wall, causing it to fold upward in pieces, revealing a large grated wall with weapons neatly placed on racks. Swords, daggers, guns, bows, lances, gauntlets. The shopkeeper began quickly rambling about the various types and effects, sounding more like a used car salesman than a humble shopkeeper, all the while Alex tried to intake all the information.


“Okay okay okay! I get it!” Alex finally burst, the stress of all the choices and the shopkeepers ranting finally getting to him. He didn’t like not being in control, and this was finally his chance. his chance to pick something that would be the first building block he placed all these ontop of.



“Well, Alrighty then, just do yer lookin an let me know if you want to try anythin out.” The shopkeeper grumbled, a little dejected by the young man’s harsh rebuke of his helpful advice. Though, before he had an opportunity to return to his counter, Alex pointed something out.


“What’s that?” He asked, his finger pointing towards a large weapon hidden below the rack of weapons, behind a large barrel of common spears.


“Oh, that?” He said as he fished the blade out. “Oh, this here’s an outdated model, just didn’t have the heart to throw er out. Used to use er myself even. Called a gunblade.” He said as he brandished the large sword. “You can load this sweetheart up with six roundsa whatever ya want. She’ll pack the punch like any ole shotgun ya find around. Not to mention her blade’ll cut yas clean through.” He looked at the old, slightly rusted weapon for a moment, as if reminiscing of a time long passed. “Eh, well, you probably want a much better weapon.” He said as he went to put the sword back where Alex had seen it.


“No, that sounds perfect, old man. I’ll take that one.” Alex couldnt put it into words, but he knee in his bones somehow, that this particular weapon was the one for him.


The shopkeeper smirked, his eyebrow cocked upward. “Ya sure ya can handle a broad like this? She’s a real sassy one.” He questioned. Alex simply nodded. He’d made up his mind.


The shop keeper sized the boy up. ‘Maybe this kid could handle’er....’ he thought. “Arright. She’s yours then. No charge. Sides, your girlfriend here is buyin more’n I sell in a week all’n’one.”

Wandering Fae

 

[Wandering Fae]

Spoiler: Scene Music

​

Zona smiled as the boy picked out his own weapon, a gun blade, an interesting choice a bit too heavy for her, but to each their own style. The best part was the shopkeeper was willing to let them keep it free. The awkward bit was that he thought they were a couple. She wasn't sure what gave him that impression. The statement kind of caught her off guard and made her blush a little for a moment.

She cleared her throat and rubbed the back of her neck. "I kind of just met him today but anyway, if we're getting it, we're gonna need live rounds, speaking of which, what do you have when it comes to arrows?" She asked. Mana arrows were great seeing as how you didn't run out of them as long as you had mana and they virtually drained no mana but they weren't very customizable without using spells which if course used more mana. Live rounds may have had a limited number but they were very useful and mana savers.

Whenever the shopkeeper gave her that, she would put her phone up to the console and transfer the credits needed to purchase all this stuff, before she turned to the boy holding a dark grey, almost black rectangular cube "This is dark matter, you can use it to repair your gear and weapons, just touch it to the item you want to fix it'll fix it like new, now it won't improve it beyond its original quality if you want it improved then you need to see a smith. I'm not sure it'll do for that gun blade but it's worth a try unless the kind shopkeeper has a better suggestion for us?" She asked as she started to put the items in his bag, each item seemingly just disappearing as she moved them over the bag and then she handed it to him. "Just think about what you want and you'll be able to get it from the bag, not much to know on that. Potions heal, ethers restore mana, antidotes cure poison, and elixirs heal as well as restore mana, just break the bottle open or drink it whichever one works better for you, as long as it makes contact with you in some way, it'll do its job." She said when she seemed like she just had a realization.

She pulled out her phone and took a few steps back and took a picture of Alex and the shopkeeper with his new stuff. "There, almost forgot, it's that kind of day." She said before putting the phone away and realizing she forgot something else and walked up to Alex taking his links and his phone. She connected the links to the phone which wasn't really the part she was concerned about but she added him as a contact on her phone and took a picture of his face and took a selfie, flashing a very cute smile with his phone as she added herself as a contact on his phone. "You can take a better one later if you don't like it, " She said making it unclear as to rather she meant he could retake his contact photo or take another picture of her, though she probably almost certainly meant the first one, still it was open to interpretation, worst she could say is no.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

Everything was happening so quickly that Alex was even beginning to find himself starting to get excited about it. Magic bags, potions, gunswords, and adventurers. If he was going to do anything here, obviously that had to be it. Back in school his counselors had always grilled him over what he planned to do after school, but that only stressed him out and pissed him off, which then made him have to give Marcus as visit for some lunch money. Thinking about that gave him a strange pang though, and he instinctively looked over at Zona. What would she think if she knew how he had been before... but what did that matter? Unlike the shopkeepers assumption they definitely weren’t dating, besides there was no way a badass like her was going to think of a kid like him that way.


Shaking the growing insecurities from his head he turned his attentions back to Zona who was still giving information to him.


“Wait, so this black matter, just ‘repairs’ anything? How? And why? Is it just another kind of magic?” He asked annoyed, though he wasn’t sure why out of all the absurdities of this world, this was the first thing he had taken issue with.

 

[Wandering Fae]

Spoiler: Scene Music

Zona crosses her arms and tilts her head to the side a little as she thinks about how to answer that question concerning the dark matter. She shrugged. "I don't know if it's magic, it's essentially blank matter, but it only seems to react to non-living matter. When dark matter bonds with an object it takes the form of whatever matter that object is made of and fills in the blanks to repair it, but that's about as much as I know. I don't know if it's magic, a mineral or something else, all I know is it works and that's good enough for me, " She said smiling at him with and expression that kind of said 'sorry that's all I got'

Despite the shopkeepers obviously wrong assumption, she supposed he was kind of cute though she hadn't really considered having a boyfriend. Not because she was opposed to boyfriends, she just hadn't thought about it she wasn't sure if it was because she never had the time or if it was because she might be a romantically oblivious dunce. She shook her head, was it inappropriate to pursue a relationship with someone you just saved and met on top of everything else? Besides he was trying to get home to California...wherever that was. She doubted he wanted to spend his time permanently with a crazy girl who chose to spend her time fighting monsters and doing other crazy shit.

Besides it was kind of early to think about that right? Just because she was 16 didn't mean she had to boy crazy...even if he was, in fact, cute, but lots of things were cute, Komainu were cute, unicorns were cute...okay, unicorns were beautiful...but her point stood!

"I guess all that's left to do now is grab something to eat, I can explain more there...unless you'd like to change into your new gear first...or you're interested in something else here?" She asked looking at him curiously to see what it was he wanted to do. She didn't want to overwhelm him seeing as how all of this seemed to be new to him, this must have been very different in California.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

Alex nodded at Zona’s suggestion, he was beginning to get hungry as well, and he didn’t want to waste anymore of her valuable time. He was about to suggest they go ahead and get food when the shopkeeper cleared his voice.


“I reckon y’all are forgettin somethin. Got yerself a run down old weapon now, but nothing in the ways of defense. Tell ya what, since yer taking that ole blade off my hands, hows abouts I throw in some old armor? If it’s just the same to ya, you’ll be doing me a right favor by takin it. Nobody round these parts has a need for old garments like these anymore anyhow.” With that he put a large folded up coat, with pants, a shirt and a pair of grimey old boots with mud so thick and dried Alex wasn’t sure it would ever come off...


“Thanks old man.... I uh... I appreciate the help.” Alex said as he scooped up the gear and put it in his bag. Sure enough, they disappeared just like Zona had said.


“Don’t mention it kid, and the names Culvar. Y’all ever find yerselves in trouble or want some updated equipment. I’ll be here.” He motioned like he was tipping a hat, but wasn’t actually wearing one, but the gesture came off just as well. Alex returned it with a light wave and they left, walking a short distance to their right to a small little diner.


To Alex it looked like a diner from old movies about the 50s. Black and white checkered floors, padded sparkling red booths and stools. The ceiling was even the same colored sparkling red as the booths, except with sparkling yellow stripes. ‘Way too much color...’ Alex thought.


“Welcome to the baheamoth shake shack! Take a seat wherever, menus on the table!” A middle aged woman. From behind the counter greeted. Her short blond hair looked dyed, and her outfit was a black and red checkered dress, obviously to match the decorum.


Alex took a seat at the closest booth and began looking through the menu, but then stopped. “Uh.... thanks for all this Zona.... I Uh... you didn’t have to do all this...” he said, his gratitude coming out awkward and clumsy.

 

[Wandering Fae]

Spoiler: Scene Music

​

"I suppose not, but I didn't not have to either, " She said with a shrug and a kind smile. "I suppose if I weren't actually trying to help you or if I wanted to be a dick I wouldn't have to do all of this, but...I want to, so don't worry about it." She said. He seemed kind of awkward, was he embarrassed? She didn't take him for the shy type but then again she had only known him for a short amount of time. She took her jacket off, and put it in the satchel on her left leg and pulled off the single glove she was wearing on her right hand, putting it away as well revealing her shirt had short sleeves underneath that jacket.

"Now, what do I want to eat? " She said looking through the menu they seemed to have some pretty good looking stuff "Well, I know what I want for breakfast and that might be a good snack, but not dinner...not today, " She said resisting her teenage urge not eat full meals, but she knew she needed an adequate amount of food and it would be foolish not to get one when she had the opportunity.

"So, Alex, got anything you want to ask me? It doesn't have to be about adventure stuff but I'm happy to answer if it is. We're probably going to be together for a good long while so we might as well get to know each other right?" She said just as she had finally spotted the items she wanted to have for dinner tonight "I would like the behemoth curry, a side of fries and a strawberry shake and...do you know what you want yet Alex?" Zona asked, looking up at him from her menu as she handed it back to the woman, the glow from auroras outside reflecting off the luma-rings in her eyes making the indigo circles around her strawberry colored irises appear to glow. Of course, natives of this land would recognize this as a normal selkie trait, but he may not have realized that she wasn't human just yet. This outpost seemed to be mostly run by Homs, which were pretty much humans in this world so he probably hadn't really thought about the fact that everyone in this world may not have been human.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

Alex looked over the menu as well, seeing familiar named dishes, but being monikered after something he had never heard of... baheamoth curry? Chocobo burger? Cactar poutine? Alex sighed heavily before deciding he’d just have to jump in and hope he liked whatever he got...


“Chocobo burger and fries.” Alex stated simply for the well dressed waitress, who nodded and went into the kitchen behind her. Alex wasn’t sure if she was going to cook it herself, or if they had a cool. Either way, he didn’t care, he was ready to eat.


“Anything I’d like to ask? Why are your eyes that color? We don’t have anyone with eyes like that were I come from. You wear contacts?” Alex asked, maybe a little forcefully. He’d often bullied people for being different in the past, offering a similar line of questioning, though more.... sarcastic and sadistic.


Wandering Fae

 

[Wandering Fae]

Spoiler: Scene Music

"My eyes? I'm a Selkie, I was kind of...born like this? All of our eyes are like this?" She said truly confused as if this were common knowledge and that she was slightly confused bordering on slightly uncomfortable that she actually had to explain it. "Well, I mean, not exactly the same color, but close enough. They...don't have Selkies where you come from?" She felt very baffled, wherever this California was it most definitely different, she supposed she'd have to explain...her race to him? He sounded kind of forceful with it, which caught her off guard a little.

"Umm, Selkies are kind of like you Homs, but we're a little different, we're typically shorter, lighter, more flexible, typically have better balance and faster than you Homs, we can see in the dark a little better, and we're all natural-born empaths. It means we can read emotions, " She smiled at him laughing a little "But it's nothing to worry about, it isn't passive and I can't read your mind I can just feel what you're feeling oh and uh... we're all born with these prisms, " She said, brushing her hair to the side a little for a moment to show him what seemed to be a jewel on her forehead, it didn't look weird on anything, to him it would probably just look like an adornment or jeweled version of a Hindu chakra mark, it wasn't even that big, it was a little red jewel the color of fire and blood, shaped like a diamond in her forehead, but according to her she was born with it so it was literally in her head, it was apart of her body.

Spoiler: Reference

"That isn't to say we're better or anything every race has its advantages, compared to us, you're usually stronger, have more durability, vitality and you usually heal faster...stamina is hard to gauge since we use it for different things though we tend to be more evasive than you, this is speaking overall, of course, each individual is different after all." She said letting her hair fall back to where it was. There were other more social details about Selkies she supposed but, she didn't see any reason to go into full culture blast or bring up any less than savory factors that never usually came up outside of the kingdoms. So she chose to leave it alone for now.

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

Alex listened intently to Zona’s explanation, though the more she explained, the more questions he had. So not only were there monsters and demons, but also other humanoid races? Though he found himself a little nervous about the fact that she could ‘read’ his emotions. That could make things in the future very... very awkward... he quickly brushed those thoughts aside and focused on the information he was being given.

“No, we definitely don’t have any selkies, or even any other races where I come from. Back home it’s just us humans... which brings me to my other question, do you call regular humans here ‘Homs’? I guess they are similar enough in name.” He said, slowly piecing together how this world worked. “How many other races are there? Like, intelligent ones.” He questioned as the waitress brought by two large glasses of water and placed them on the table. “Food’ll be out in a bit folks.” She said as she glanced curiously between the two of them.

Wandering Fae

 

[Wandering Fae]

Spoiler: Scene Music

​

"Well, I've never heard of a human so...I guess if you say you're a human then Homs are what we call humans here, " She said. California sounded weird, there were no other races in California? She thought about his question about the other races, intelligent races as he put it and she counted it off while thinking on it. "Other than Selkies and Homs, there are 8...not counting fairies or moogles, there's a debate on rather or not Tonberries are intelligent but...they don't talk much or at all, no one knows if its because they can't or just won't, but they know how to use knives and they are the stab first and ask questions never kind of people so, we will...just, not count them, " She said looking around to see if she could spot any other races in the Diner with them "Oh, see that girl over there, she is a Mythril and the guy sitting across from her is an Au Ra, " She said pointing to a girl with cat ears and a tail, she also had stripes on her cheeks and forehead, the guy across from her was pretty tall and had ink blue, almost black tattoo-like scales on his his body when he also had curved dragon-like horns and a tail. Like lila had Luma-rings around his irises although his were of similar color to his eyes just a brighter shade as opposed to Zona whom was a different color.

When the woman came with two glasses of water for them and told them their food would be ready soon Zona smiled and accepted the water. "Thank you, "

Kapowne

 

[Kapowne]

If he wasn’t already, Alex was beginning to feel quite excited about this new world. Everything was so different, so new, so... Alex didn’t even have the words to describe it. The mythril girl and Au Ra were so unlike anything he’d ever seen! Not to mention the cute girl with the jewel in her head sitting across the table from him!

“Okay, so what do we do now? Eat and sleep obviously. But you said you’re going to do some jobs in exchange for work on your car? Is it like, killing some monsters or something? Gather some medicine? Find a missing person?” Alex felt silly for asking these questions, this wasn’t a video game... but a lot of it felt super similar. So maybe some things would be? He wouldn’t know if he didn’t ask. Besides, anything he could link to his previous knowledge and experience would give him an advantage. If he was going to find Marcus somewhere in his world, he needed all he could get.

Wandering Fae

 

[Wandering Fae]

Spoiler: Scene Music

​

"Well I suppose I need to get you up to speed on magic and we should probably get some practice in with that new gun sword yours, but I suppose we do whatever jobs they have posted, enough to pay off the car and then some before we hit the road and move on to the next place on our way to Lyra, so if there need to us to fight monsters we'll fight monsters, if it's something else then we'll do that too." She explained looking on her phone to see what listings they had posted.

"Well it seems they need some monsters hunted on a few of these, one of the Komainu went missing...that's kind of sad. There are some potions and food deliveries for a nearby settlement. Fiend hunting...a little risky, but we'll see how things pan out before resorting to that, they aren't demons but they only tend to come out at night or hang out in dark places which means we would have to be out during the night when the demons come out." She said and took a look at the map, which had been updated good news is that there are camping spots, they're havens just smaller, still, they were protected from demons and monsters, worst comes to worst they'd make a break for the nearest on if they had to, but she'd try to have them back at the rest stop before sunset, she didn't want to push Alex too hard so soon. "Deliveries seem easy enough, we can start with that and work our way to hunting, sound good?" She asked, looking at him with a smile when suddenly a loud roar could be heard outside into the darkness of the night, it was a deep thundering nightmarish sound that made everyone stop what they were doing and look outside the, not just the diner but the entire rest stop was silent as each and every adventurer instinctively reached for their weapons the entire diner armed to teeth, some of them even seemed to be ready to use magic. They were all clearly familiar with this kind of sound and it had them all on edge even if only for a moment until the owner of the diner stepped forward, a large blue man, big and bulky with a mobius beard.

"Now, now, calm yourselves. Remember this is a haven, that thing's miles away from here and even if it weren't it couldn't get in here. This is a safe zone, so rest easy and enjoy your meals. " he said as steadily the adventures began to breathe a sigh of relief and each at their own pace started to put their weapons away.

Zona whom for a moment herself had summoned her now, quickly put it away, a bit embarrassed to be so worked up, forgetting that they were in fact in a haven right now. She blushed embarrassed and turned back to Alex "Well, in case you were wondering...that is what a demon sounds like. " She said.

Kapowne