Blocking all but the edges of Theo's vision was a new screen of inscrutable nature.

"Oh, it's just trash," the woman said, and Theo could hear her sheathe her sword.

Other sounds were present, too. People walking. Distant conversations. A door slamming.

Traffic.

The sounds of a city.

"Where am I?" Theo asked for the second time that day while he tried to figure out what had popped in front of his face and, more importantly, how to get rid of it.

As soon as he had wanted it gone, it was.

The swordswoman ignored his question and began to walk away, out the alley they were in.

Sitting up, Theo noticed the sheath for her sword was the length of her torso, and that she wore all black, with a long cape. Was it some kind of cosplay? But then why had she drawn the sword on him?

Between all the oddities of the situation, and the strange visions, Theo could only conclude that whatever was happening was outside his current understanding.

Theo was familiar with stories of going to other worlds, having read more than a few himself, but he let the possibility hang only at the edge of his thoughts, refusing to accept such a far off chance, no matter how tightly the little evidence matched the fiction.

It would be like having a one-night stand and concluding you were in eternal love.

Theo caught up to the swordswoman, who only looked ahead of herself, not sparing him a glance.

Out the alley, Theo noticed two things immediately. First, everything looked as worn down as the market he'd been in, even the roads. Second, the traffic was only motorcycles, with just one or two passing at a time.

The swordswoman put her fingers to her lips and whistled. A biker woman with a ridiculously colored ponytail - bright pink and yellow - pulled a sudden u-turn, bike screeching to a halt.

"Where to?" the biker woman asked.

The swordswoman climbed on. "The Celebration."

The biker woman glanced at Theo. "What about your boytoy?"

"Not mine."

"Wait!" Theo interjected. "I seriously need help. Please. I'm completely lost. I don't even know what city this is."

"Somebody break you, boytoy?" The biker woman asked, grinning. "You at least have any cash?"

Theo desperately searched through his pockets...

There is a story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields.

One day, the horse escaped into the hills. When the farmer’s neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?”

A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills. This time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, “Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?”

Then when the farmer’s son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this was very bad luck. The farmer’s reaction was, “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?”

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer’s son with his broken leg, they let him off.

...

...and came out with ten dollars. Wait, not quite dollars. They looked different, but the biker woman snatched them from Theo before he could examine them more closely.

"You good if he rides too?" She asked the swordswoman.

She grunted in reply.

"I'm fine with just information," Theo said.

The biker woman laughed. "It'd take too long to explain. Faster and funner to show you. Hop on!"

Against his better judgement, knowing just how dangerous motorcycles were with one rider, let alone three without helmets, Theo did.