My faded shoes traipsed through the dusty path as the five of us continued down the road towards the town.  We had managed to obscure Sierra behind a boulder slightly off the beaten path; that had been twenty minutes ago. Jeremy insisted that no one would be able to see it, though anyone with a discerning eye could probably make out the silent, hulking ‘monster’ in the forest. The sun hung low in the sky, however, and the limited rays of light that granted vision in the evening dusk helped out with the camouflage. My thoughts didn’t want to linger on how I was going to manage backing her out of there. Something told me an auto shop would not be an available resource anytime soon.

We weren’t quite sure how far it was to the town. We drove about half an hour before Maya suggested we continue on foot. Thankfully, the trees were becoming fewer and farther between. What was before a relatively dense forest, was now opening up to low, wide-open foothills. Distant farmland could be seen beyond the tree-line as the trail descended down the hill the forest populated.  The grade of the trail was slight, but steady. It began to remind me of the trails I wandered in my home town when I was younger. It was strange to feel nostalgia in such a foreign place. We even passed a few small structures that might have been homes, but we felt it was best to avoid any more people until we got to the village.

It was turning out to be a very strange day, not to mention taxing. Not that it wasn’t something to be expected, we still had no idea where in the world we ended up. I still found it a miracle we ran into people so soon. My feelings were still a jumble from meeting those two. It sent a chill up my spine every time I played back the whole encounter in my head. My rational brain understood that being scared of technology so ahead of one’s time was understandable, but they just looked so afraid of us. Seeing those two in such a state of shock and stark terror made me sick to my stomach.

It was a lesson in just how out of our element we were. People traveling by horse carts? Tavernas? Ogres? Also, magic’s real, and I’m supposed to be able to astral project myself into a dream world? It all seemed completely nonsensical; my science brain was having a hard time processing it all. The time period was certainly different than what we were used to back home, even our clothes looked strange to them. What era was this world in? How long are we going to be stuck here? Oh god, had proper plumbing even been invented yet? There were so many questions, and the only direction we had was a taverna in a town outside the forest. Even that would only solve our food problem. What was going to be our next step? We needed to find a way home, obviously, but how out of reach is that goal? I had to admit that Katya’s book did need more attention. I resolved myself to see what she found out once we got some proper food.

I was so lost in my own troubled thoughts that I ran myself into Maya, who had stopped in her tracks in front of me. I shuffled around and saw her staring ahead listlessly. Her eyes looked tired, and they matched the rough, dreary look of the clothes we had been wearing for the last two days.

“Is that it?” Maya asked. Her breaths seemed weathered from the exhausting day we had experienced. “What did they call it? Duem?”

The rest of us snapped out of our internal reflections of the day as we all paused to look down towards a town that sat half a mile away in a low valley amid the foothills. It was quaint, but a lot bigger and brighter than I had assumed. My mind had been imagining something a little more medieval, but the image before me was a stark contrast to that. Sure, there was plenty of surrounding farmland with homes and structured dotted throughout, but the architecture gave off a distinctly Mediterranean vibe. Images of my aunt’s home in Greece flashed through my mind. The bleached, blocky, stone material of the buildings brought to mind the little market town I visited with her a few years ago. A waterwheel towered over the river that had followed us down the hill, with small wooden boats attached to the docks downstream.  Little specs of people scurried about in the low light as they bustled about the end of their day. The scene was so much livelier than I had been imagining that the day’s toll suddenly felt lighter.

“It’s… beautiful,” I found myself breathing out.

“A nice meal would be beautiful,” Flynn’s voice sounded out from behind. “Buuuut I guess the town has a nice ambiance to it. Come on, we can’t just stand here and appreciate the aesthetic.”

He, Katya, and Jeremy walked past to begin trudging down the hill again. I gave another glance at Maya; her eyes didn’t seem as tired before. She was taking in the sight as much as I was, but I knew the underlying exhaustion was still there.

“It reminds me of when I visited Greece a while back,” I said to her. “My aunt still lives there; I wonder if this place looks similar because they have similar resources? Or maybe the same type of geography?”

There was a peaceful moment of silence as we looked down towards the impromptu vacation destination. Though, Maya still seemed a little lost in thought.

“JJ, where are we?” She finally whispered.

A part of my mind was having the same troubled thoughts, but the new sights had been helping distract from that worry. I tentatively put a hand on her shoulder, “I—I don’t know yet.”

“Oi!” Jeremy called back. “Stop staring and come on! Aren’t you hungry?”

I looked over to her and smiled, “I’m sure we’ll figure it out soon. In the meantime, there’s no harm in stopping to smell the roses.” I grabbed her hand pulling her out of her daze and down the slope with me, “Or trying the local cuisine!”

----------------

If we didn’t feel like we were in another world yet, walking through the town of Duem solidified that fact for us. Numerous shops and houses were nestled up close to one another, while a myriad of lanterns illuminated the narrow streets that branched off the main thoroughfare. As we stared at the new sights and surroundings there were quite a few stares directed back at us as we made our way through the town. The stares didn’t seem hostile, but people certainly weren’t apologetic about it. Thankfully, it seemed that most of the populous had turned in for the night. The dusky daylight was beginning to fade fast, and the lantern light only helped so much with their day’s work. Still, people walked around transporting supplies or pulling horse carts full of bags and barrels of tools or foodstuff. Others were closing down stands on a stretch of the main road that might have been the local market. Most seemed too busy to gawk at the strange new folks, but most wasn’t all.

 With our strange clothing and ‘high-tech’ backpacks, there was no question news of our arrival was going to spread like wildfire around the small community.  Jeremy did attempt to talk some of the locals. Some straight up ignored us, while others looked rather startled and hurried off. There we go unnerving people again…  Thankfully the two or three people that did speak to us seemed to become a lot more amiable after conversing with Jeremy for a bit. It seemed the place was called ‘Alabasters’ and people seemed to have a lot of respect for Karna, the owner. After ten minutes of wandering, we found ourselves walking up to a large white building. The two-story structure seemed to be an uncommon sight in the town, but it was still made similarly to the other buildings. They all used thick, washed out, stone bricks, and the color was fitting for the name. The entrance to the place was a squat square door, and a decent amount of voices could be heard through the small windows on the sides.

As we approached Jeremy excitedly pointed out the wooden sign hung above the entrance, “Hey that looks like an old school pizza oven!”

Katya gave a small a laugh as she said, “Jeremy, something tells me pizza isn’t going to be on the menu here.”

“Hey, you never know. The evolution of the culinary arts varies drastically from culture to culture, who knows what they’ve come up with! From what I saw, a lot of the surrounding farmland had wheat, so bread must be a staple, but bread can be made so many different ways… I am getting a pretty distinct pita vibe though—”

Flynn suddenly cut in, “Enough! Why are we talking about food when we could be eating it!?” And as quickly as he interrupted, he barreled through the door of the taverna, continuing his quest for a meal. The rest of us quickly followed suit.

As I closed the door behind the group, a wave of scents filled my senses, both foreign and familiar. The aromas of breads and meats mingled with the stark odor of people who probably need to shower a while ago. Despite the smell, we pushed through and gave took a good look around. Any one of us could read a restaurant’s atmosphere in just a few seconds of being there, and this one seemed to live up to the reputation touted by the townspeople we met. It certainly seemed busy, it was dinner time after all, but it wasn’t overcrowded. Even better, our group of five didn’t seem to be an out of place number compared to the parties that were already there. We would have fit right in. That is, if we weren’t five strangers dressed in bizarre foreign clothing, looking like we traipsed through a forest for two days… and had not just barreled through the front door.

It was a scene straight out of a western film. An awkward deafening silence permeated throughout the crowd in about fifteen seconds. Oh no, this is not okay. We do not belong here. They are all staring, why did we come here, why did we think this was going to be a good idea? As thoughts spiraled down into my headspace, Flynn cleared his throat as he began to speak. Why not make it worse, right?

“Hiya folks… Don’t mind us,” Flynn stammered with a very concerned grin. Ohhh, death would be a sweet, sweet release right about now.  “Look, we’re just really hungry is all… We’ll just sit over… here if that’s alright… Carry on!”

Flynn slowly guided us to a corner of the room, where a six top table was open. I immediately took the seat in the corner, farthest from everyone and buried my face in my knees. Oh no, this is not the time to lose it. Calm down, stupid fucking brain! The rest of the group sat down around me as I felt my chest tighten. A tunnel vision began to suffocate my surroundings as I desperately tried to hold back a flood. Dammit I should’ve just walked out. “Not here…” I murmured to myself, holding my hands to my temples. As my breathing started to quicken and I felt Maya’s hands on my shoulders, gentle and comforting.

“Just breathe JJ, everything’s fine,” Maya said in a low tone. “Don’t worry about them. Slow, deep breaths.”  Slowly, painfully slowly, the room began to return to a chorus of low whispers and murmurs. The effort it was taking not to break down became a little easier. As the low hum of conversations came back, however, all I could think about was how they were obviously talking about us. “Just focus on the four of us.” Maya whispered.

“Shit, man. Are you okay?” Jeremy asked. Not helping. I hadn’t looked up yet, talking was out of the question. If I tried opening my mouth to explain, the dam would break and things would just get worse. I focused all my attention on Maya’s presence, trying to push everything else out. Breathe. In… Out… I felt the tide slowly receding. The calm pressure of her hands seemed to siphon the intense emotions out of me.

“It’s an anxiety attack Jeremy,” Maya said softly. “Just give us a minute.” It was another thirty seconds of internal warfare between me and my mind before I had enough control to get any words out.

“Can we— can we not have that happen again?” I said through slow, broken breaths.

“Are you okay JJ?” Katya asked.

“Yeah… I’m good now.” My hand went up and grabbed Maya’s as I gave her an appreciative smile. “Thanks.”

“Sorry, I didn’t expect we’d experience our very own record scratch moment. Guess I shouldn’t have barged in like that,” Flynn said.

“Well we don’t blend in very well, do we?” Katya said, gesturing to our attire. “Do you think we need to buy some clothing a little more period appropriate?”

My head shot up as a thought cleared out the bundle of anxiety and replaced it with an entirely new bundle. “Wait, do we know if our money is even going to be accepted?”

“Well now, that depends,” A hoarse voice rumbled over the table. All five of us jumped as we looked over to see a dwarven woman standing by the side of our table. She was a stocky woman wearing an apron over thick woolen clothing. She stood only about a foot and a half taller than the table, and her fiery red hair was done up in dozens of small braids that were held together in a messy bun. She crossed her arms, which were quite intimidating in and of themselves, and gave us all a pointed glare. “What kind of coin do you have?”