I wriggled my fingers as I felt them gain sensation. The air smelled crisp. Fresh and clean. A wave of calm and relief washed over me.
I was finally waking up from that horrendous nightmare. I became aware of the light through my eyelids. My hand searched around me for Mobius and felt... Grass?
I opened my eyes to find an unfamiliar man staring at me.
"Good! You're awake," he said, his tone laced with satisfaction.
I sat up, taking in my surroundings with wide eyes. Everything seemed vivid. Too vivid. Like my vision had always been blurry, and now someone had given me glasses. The ground itself seemed to be humming with energy. And someone had to have painted the sky. Streaks of pink, purple and orange filled the sky, and the strange, unique cloud patterns gave anything I'd ever imagined a run for its money.
"Who are you? And where on earth are we?"
The land stretched out beyond a distance I could see. Grassy with trees of all shapes and sizes littering the landscape.
"You're not on earth princess, and my name is Asa, loyal servant to the god Maahz, Ruler of Vyn, on which you stand,"
He turned and bowed. My eyes slowly followed his line of sight. Then I saw him. All I felt then was lurching terror, hot and immediate, like my body remembered something my brain hadn't caught up with yet.
My breath snagged in my throat and my head began to ache as the memories came back to me. Dangling, uncanny Kelly, and the split in the ground.
I shoved myself backward, heels digging into the earth, palms slipping against the ground, as I pushed myself away from him. I tried to get up, but my joints felt locked and restricted in their movements.
"Hey!"
Asa approached me sounding surprised at my sudden shift. I moved away from him and he raised his arms in a show of surrender.
"Hey, it's okay. No one's going to hurt you."
He said. I looked past him at the personification of chaos and my breathing became even more laboured.
"Hey, it's okay, you're okay," Asa said in a way that slightly calmed my nerves.
"The big guy is just bad at first impressions, that's all," he said, like that thing hadn't choked me.
I forced my breathing to slow, when I realized that he wasn't even looking at us. Instead, his gaze was cast on to the horizon beyond, like he too was mesmerized by its beauty, I almost forgot that he wasn't a man.
"You see, big bad Maahz is waaayy over there minding his own business."
Asa said.
So his name was Maahz.
I sat there, every instinct in me wanting to stand up and bolt as Asa kept reassuring me. He said that that he too, would be nervous on such an occasion.
"Nervous?!!" I turned to him, "He stormed into my life! Traumatized me, and now I'm God knows where-"
"We're in Vyn,"
"WHAT-THE-FUCK-IS-VYNNN???"
He bristled, eyes darting around like someone else would come and explain it to me.
"It's uhh, like earth, but much better and magical. We call it a realm," he said like he was talking to a toddler.
I shook my head, bringing my knees up to hug them. The worst part is that I believed it. It was hard not to, when my mind kept replaying the last few days of my life.
"Now I don't want you to go crazy, okay? But the big guy over there is gonna open a portal, you know what that is?"
I looked at him.
"Good!" he continued despite my lack of response, "And then we're going to step in, fix everything and you'll be on your way back home, alright?"
"Back home?" I asked. Not having thought of it.
"Yeees, back home, to your overpopulated, exhausted, little realm. So will you work with me?"
Asa helped me to my feet. And kept glancing at me warily as he led me in the direction of Maahz. I stopped once we were a few places from him, flinching when he looked at me.
The urge to hide behind Asa was strong, but instead I squeezed his hand to release the tension in my body. He didn't react. I kept my eyes on the ground.
When I looked up, He was staring at our joined hands. And the tension returned when Asa gently wriggled his hand free from mine.
I gasped as Maahz waved his hand and the fabric of reality began to tear apart. Jagged lines widened into a doorway that hummed and vibrated with pulsing energy. He'd opened a portal. Just like that. All of a sudden this seemed too real.
I really was in some strange world. And someone had just opened a portal. It crossed my mind to run. Then I remembered how Maahz had me hanging in the air.
And besides, where would I run to?
Asa nodded towards the portal as I stared at it warily.
"It's not going to eat you, girl" he said.
"step into it,"
The sound of someone retching stopped me in my tracks. I turned around to see a man on his hands and knees, hunched over, brown hair covering his face, and his glasses that I knew too well on the ground.
Ben?? How the hell—
"Ben?" I ran to him, crouching down to be at his level. I cast a glance at the towering monster, then turned to Asa instead and gave him my meanest glare.
"You were going to leave him here!"
I accused and he shrugged.
"We don't need him."
The sound of Ben's heaving pulled my attention back to him and I rubbed his back.
"Breathe in slowly, Ben," I said.
Not knowing if that's what he was supposed to do, but it felt right. He took in deep breaths and his heaving eventually stopped.
"What the fuck?" he breathed, "I just came back for my phone- what?" he asked.
"The pathway will close in about 30 seconds, human,"
Maahz said and walked into it, disappearing from my line of sight.
Asa came and grabbed Ben by his underarm, grumbling that if he got in without me, he wouldn't live to see another day. Good call, because I was prepared to fight if we weren't bringing Ben.
Asa got Ben got into the portal. And I began to follow. I had somehow dragged Ben into this whole mess. Of course I had.
I'd find a way out. I just had to figure out what exactly Asa meant by 'Once we fix things'. What were we trying to fix? And why did they need me?
My whole body tingled as I stepped in through the portal, and it felt like the shimmering magic was analyzing every molecule I was made of. The world changed around me as I found myself standing in front of the largest structure I had ever seen.