Rudolph found himself floating in a tunnel of light that seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance. The gravity here was non-existent. Several streaks of colored lines – green, blue, red, and black - came from behind him, arcing, crisscrossing, and embedding themselves into the walls of the light tunnel to form intertwining loops.
The sequencing of intertwining loops went on for quite a while before a drastic change occurred to them. The loops were divided into sets of three, each containing the green, blue, and red line, and gathered around to form a circle with black at the center of it.
Rudolph didn't want to pay attention to the working of the light tunnel but he had been drawn in despite his unwillingness. It was the only thing of entertainment in this monotonous tunnel of light. His head was overwhelmed with pain and his body felt like a deflated balloon, air constantly leaking out from his pores. It was quite maddening.
The seconds prolonged to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to eternity, and possibly, the eternity was just a second in the passing. It was impossible to keep track of the time here.
Motes of light from the surrounding tunnel gathered at the center of the circle and started shimmering. The shimmering black circle then shrank till it was enough for a person to pass through, revealing a light blue color in its midst. Not the blue that made up the loops but the blue that made the sky.
‘It's the exit.’ Rudolph was finally able to conjure up a thought. The appearance of the exit had lessened the strain on his mind, the pain was still there but it was slowly diminishing.
Rudolph flailed his arms in a swimmer's movement to reach the exit but to no avail. He was still in the same place.
All of a sudden, as if the time had sped up in that instant, the circle zoomed into existence, and Rudolph was flung out of the tunnel.
The scenery had changed drastically, the previous white tunnel was now replaced by a navy blue sky filled with smoky white clouds. The air rushed into his lungs and the accumulation of oxygen reduced the remaining bit of pain plaguing his mind.
SCREE!
His thoughts were cut short as he heard a screech and a bird enter his vision. More precisely it was a seagull, similar and different from the ones he had seen on the beach.
The blue-colored seagull flapped its wings and dove down. He followed it with his eye and soon a horrifying realization dawned upon him.
In his contentment, he had forgotten that he was currently in the air and unlike the seagull, he had no wings and he was currently tumbling down towards the sea below him.
“This is so fucked up!” Rudolph yelled.
A part of him was delighted that he hadn't gotten teleported above the piece of land that he saw bordering the sea below him or he would have ended up as a meat paste. But that was only a small part. The rest of him was cursing as he continued tumbling down towards the sea.
The reason?
He did not know how to swim!
Rudolph tumbled and crashed into the sea with a splash. Immediately the surrounding seawater overwhelmed him and bore down on his body. He waved his arms and legs furiously in a desperate attempt to save himself.
“Help! ” he shouted, mindlessly as he sank deeper into the sea.
At this point, he was panicking and still breathing pretty fast so some of the seawater entered his lungs and stomach. His lungs were on fire, it felt like he had swallowed burning hot lava instead of seawater.
The water that entered his stomach increased the pace at which he was drowning. Seeing that he was helpless, he decided to hold out his breath, hoping, desperately hoping that someone would come to save him.
Once again his physique gave him the short end of the stick.
In the pregnant darkness of the sea, head down, he could only hold his breath for tens of seconds until he reached the breaking point.
GASP!
He couldn't hold out any longer and with a final gasp, he inhaled. The spasmodic breath dragged more and more seawater into his lungs, adding to the burning feeling from before and suffocating him even more.
The lack of oxygen made him enfeebled and half-conscious. He was no longer in any position to fight his way back up to the surface.
He closed his eyes and soon entrusted himself to the tranquility and calmness that came after he gave up saving himself.
At the edge of his waning consciousness, he felt a light tug on his shirt and something warm wrapping around his waist, and then everything went black.
———————————————
Rudolph woke up to a burning and tearing feeling in his lungs. His head too, was in extreme pain and dizziness confounded his senses. His breathing was ragged and his eyes were scorched from exposure to the seawater.
Cough! Cough!
"Am I alive?” Rudolph managed to cough up some words despite his parched throat. He almost couldn't recognize his voice.
As soon as he opened his mouth, he felt nausea forcing its way up his throat. He doubled over and vomited. It tasted like the cup noodles he had eaten last time but extra salty.
He only stopped puking when he had retched his lungs out and then lay on the ground gasping for air. He was feeling a lot better now that he had forced the seawater out of him.
His thoughts finally gained a semblance of order and he sat up to assess his surroundings.
He found himself sitting under the shade of a tree with many more surrounding him. The dim sunlight made its way from the treetops making polka dots on the ground.
In his vicinity, he could hear the chirping of birds, and the buzzing of insects, all drowned as the sound of waves washed over him.
‘I should be on the land I saw from above.’ he mused. ‘But who saved me?’
He was deliberating if he should try walking around to see if he could find someone when he heard the bushes near him rustle.
“Took you long enough to wake up.” He heard a voice and a figure emerged from the thickets. “The hunt started half a day ago.”
Carrying on his shoulders a bundle of sticks twice his weight, the speaker was a young man with shoulder-length auburn hair adorning his handsome face.
He was handsome to the point of being feminine. This wasn't what caught his eye but rather the long, pointy ears sticking out from under his wavy hair.
“E-Elf!!” Rudolph exclaimed, stuttering. He couldn't help but stare wide-eyed at the individual in front of him. He was stunned to disbelief. Elves were beings he had only seen in books and TV shows and strongly believed that they were nothing but a product of fantasy.
“Elf?” The elf gazed over in his direction with a bemused expression. “It has been a long time since I have been called that.”
“And you? Round ears and silly expression, you must be a human.” The elf continued speaking while he placed the bundle on the ground.
“What's wrong? Is there something on my face?” he said, seeing that Rudolph was still gawking at him like a fool.
‘Wrong? The teleportation, this place and you, everything is wrong!’ Rudolph screamed inwardly.
“Nothing.” Rudolph shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Where am I?”
The person shrugged his shoulders and got busy assembling the firewood into a pyramid.
“I don't know to be honest. It seems that we were all teleported to random places upon entering the Evengale Sanctuary. It makes the hunt a lot more interesting.” he answered, much to Rudolph's puzzlement.
“It's quite commendable that someone like you could remain conscious after teleportation despite being such low ranked.” he continued.
“Someone like me?” he asked, his mind reeling from all sorts of questions.
“If my guess is right, you must belong to some powerful faction of Acadia. The fact that I didn't see or heard of you in the previous two rounds, you must be one of the seeded competitors in this decades hunt.”
Rudolph was getting more and more puzzled every time the person in front of him spoke but he did realize one thing.
‘Everything seems to be pointing towards this hunt.’ he thought. ‘Maybe I would find something about my circumstances if I know more about this hunt.’
“What is this hunt you speak of?” he asked.
He was in the dark too much and needed some explanation, and fast.
“Oh! You don't know?” he asked, to which Rudolph replied with a shake of his head.
Seeing Rudolph's befuddled expression, he discerned that he wasn't lying.
“What a pity! It seems that your family sent you here without letting you be aware of the situation,” he said, “You are lucky that I was teleported to the same place and heard you screaming for help. If not, you would've long become fish food.”
The person had done arranging the firewood and beckoned Rudolph to sit beside him.
“Come sit here or you will catch a cold. I will explain everything to you as we eat,” he said and began searching for small stones around him.
The last rays from the Sun had died out and the place was getting colder and colder as minutes passed. Not to mention Rudolph was still sodden from head to toe in seawater. He didn't want to catch hypothermia.
“How are you going to light these?” He sat and pointed to the thick chunks of firewood in front of him.
“If you plan on using the stones in your hand, then you might as well give up,” Rudolph stated.
“Oh, these? I am using these just to balance this stack.” the elf said, placing the stones underneath the pyramid of wood.
“Well, then how will you do it? I don't see anything that will help us to light these up.”
Rudolph was quite curious about what the elf was up to.
“Even though I am not proficient in manipulating fire aether, kindling a small fire is something I can still do.” the elf replied and turned his attention to the task at hand.
He raised both his hands and joined them to form a circle in the direction of the wood pyramid.
“4? No… 5 filaments of aether should do it,” he muttered under his breath but it was loud enough for Rudolph to catch on.
As prepared he was by a diet of hundreds of novels, movies, and TV shows, Rudolph was still surprised when several wisps of thread-like lights gathered between the elf's hands.
“Ignite!” The elf gave a low shout.
A ball of fire shot out from his hands, blasting the wood into flames.
Rudolph almost stumbled upon a gnarly tree root as he shrieked and stepped back in amazement.
'Well, fuck me!’
-------------------------
“And you took that out of thin air?” Rudolph stared at the bear carcass lying next to his feet.
“Not out of thin air but from this space ring,” The elf said as he stroked the red gem studded ring on his finger.
“And that is real? Like space are really a thing here?” He still couldn't believe it. Sure, he had been teleported, seen an elf, and seen the elf conjuring a fireball but the concept of there being a space ring had never crossed his mind. According to his conjectures, no amount of damn physics could be utilized to create such a miraculous object.
He could attribute the creation of the fireball to some oxidation-reduction reaction or something similar but the compression of space into a small, finger-sized ring was something he was unable to theorize.
"Duh. Of course, it is real, you saw me using it just now." The elf stated as a matter of fact.
Rudolph took some time to calm his nerves and down plopped down onto the ground. He had seen enough wonders for today. His recent adventure had completely drained him and the warmth from the fire compelled him to close down his eyes and sleep.
"Hey Elf, Could you teach me how to perform that fire trick?" Rudolph sat cross-legged and asked him with a hopeful gaze. It was one of his dreams to be able to cast a fireball and now that dream turned out to be a reality, he didn't want to miss out on this chance.
"Sure, it's just a simple spell. Even those at the beginning stages of aether manipulation can perform it if they know the principle behind it." he nodded in affirmation.
"Ah! Where are my manners? I still haven't introduced myself." The elf exclaimed.
He bowed down slightly and introduced himself, "My name is Aryn Von Mercer, third scion of the house Mercer of Acadia. I go by the alias of Green Fork. You can simply call me Aryn."
He then looked at Rudolph, wanting to gauge his reaction upon announcing his identity. Upon seeing no special change in his expression, he gestured for him to do the same.
"My name is Rudolph Foster, the only scion of the house-" he said as he scratched his head in confusion, not knowing what to say. He quickly thought of the only house that came into his mind and continued, "Rudolph Foster, from the house Gryffindor of Hogwarts. I don't go by any alias but my friends call me Rudy."
'Sorry, Harry. I hope I don't get sued for copyrights.'
"I haven't heard of House Gryffindor before so it must be some house from another city," he said as he strained to find the recollection of this particular house.
"Well, what am I thinking, the world is vast and it isn't unusual to come across houses from other places. Whatever, it's nice to meet you, Rudy." he extended his hand to him.
"Likewise, Aryn. It's nice to meet you too. I hope we get along." Rudolph shook his hand in acknowledgment.
Rudolph and Aryn talked a bit about themselves and ate barbecued boar before lying down to sleep. He found that they were currently in the Red Leaf City of the Acadian Empire, the City that comprised the Evengale Sanctuary that they were currently at.
Rudolph was quite excited to learn about magic and stuff tomorrow morning as promised by Aryn. He tossed and turned on the ground until drowsiness overtook him.
"Hey Aryn, do you have a blanket in that space ring of yours?" Rudolph asked as he woke up shivering in the middle of the night.
He got no response from Aryn who was sleeping
"I am definitely freezing tonight," Rudolph muttered and forced himself to sleep once again.
