1 Foreigner

A faded visage, a room filled with blood and viscera as a collection of students are visibly shifting around the door, the light cast onto them showing shadows skittering about like ants as one young man's ragged breathing can be heard, his arm loosely hanging from a string of flesh, his eyes hanging low as a monster of unrealistic proportions inched closer and closer until fading to black. From then, memories were hazy at best, in fact, the boy had believed he died there and then.

Waking up to a foreign environment threw him into flight or fight, sitting himself up amidst a large forest, the trees larger than normal, roots larger than normal, nothing looked like what he had seen before, no matter how eerily familiar it was at the same time. A dull sword in hand wearing HEMA gear which was mostly torn, his platinum blonde hair sticking to his brow and lip as he whipped his head around to look at the environment before him. He whipped his head around back to his own body, looking at his torn sleeve, exactly where his arm was hanging off by a thin piece of flesh not too long ago. A scar sat on his skin, proving that what had happened really did happen, still not at all being able to explain the situation he was in.

The screeching of animals and the shuffling of bushes, a variety of bugs and wildlife visible moving through the trees, some under roots watching the young man as he rose from his previously heavy slumber. These were animals he hadn't seen before, there were bugs he hadn't seen before. Small squirrel-like creatures with multiple arms and small beady eyes, scales running across their backs, large bugs digging into trees, having a sharp mosquito-esque beak with the body of a wasp. A creature amidst a thicket of trees, standing above the young man on a ledge looked down upon him with the hooves of a deer and the facial structure of one as well, but with a mouth too small and a snout borrowing into its face similar to the beak of a duck's - the pattern on its body being a colorful array of oranges and blues, lines of black sitting in between all fuzing together at the end of it's long and black, wolf-like tail. Its long fennec-esque ears whipped into a variety of directions.

The young man was shocked, to say the least, his eyes widened in intrigued terror as he saw all of the animals around him beginning to approach in curiosity. The young man, sensing that there was no hostility, attempted to make his way out of the forest, noticing an odd-looking light in the distance that suggested that there was a large field nearby due to the lack of trees obscuring the view.

He made his way up a hill to the entrance of the forest showing that his prediction was correct as he is greeted by a large sweeping field of grass being blown quietly by a quiet breeze, one singular tree sitting inside a small dirt isle within the large vista of grass. An odd sense of awe came over the young man as he watched the grass quietly lap over one another. She shifted through the grass, the dull sword that he had still in one of his hands as it glided across the top of the meadow. The young man stopped under the tree, leaning against it while looking around the area around him, noticing a large town not too far away from where he was.

Excitement had begun welling up in the young man's chest as he made his way towards the town.

After a few minutes of walking, the young man had noticed a few people encroaching on the young man as he made his way towards the town. The young man looked to the grass below as his focus had transitioned from the encroaching shadows to a small patch of grass slowly shifting in his direction. The young man could only assume that these men were bandits. After watching them closely for a few seconds, he noticed an abandoned caravan in the distance on a small road nearby, it looked new.

"I'm unlucky..." The young man mumbled to himself as he shifted in the moving grass's direction before wrapping up his sword with a flexible rope, keeping the blade within its sheathe. The young man grabbed the sheathe before a man in the grass jumped out, attempting to stab the young man.

The young man parried the stab before slamming the guard of his sword into the bandit's face and taking them to the ground. It was a short struggle that ended with the young man grabbing a flintlock revolver, using it to fire into the bandit multiple times. The shots that were fired off alerted the other bandits, causing them to run over as fast as they could. The young man shook his head, getting the thought that he killed someone out of his head before quickly unsheathing his blade, spinning around before hitting a bandit behind him in the face. The end of the young man's blade broke off, using the broken end of it to stab it into the bandit's throat, bringing him low to the ground.

Blood gushed out of the bandit's throat as their face had begun turning red, their legs being thrown about as he desperately scratched at his throat. The young man lunged over to the knife the other dead bandit had used, firing into another as they sprinted towards him, hitting the bandit in the neck. Three dead -- the young man raised his head above the grass for half a second before diving back into the grass as a shot rang out, a bullet visible going over his head.

The young man's hands were shaking in fear, almost vomiting from causing the death of three human beings before stifling the bile in his throat and hitting himself with the butt of the knife he had stolen as an attempt to regain his composure. A few more shots rang out as two bullets whizzed through the grass, coming to a halt as they hit the dirt below, grass being flung up into the air. "Shit!" The young man yelled as he started firing back, hitting one in the shoulder while the other shot missed, causing the second bandit to begin sprinting towards him. The young man sprinted back, jumping into the air a few inches away from the bandit, wrapping his legs around them before stabbing the bandit multiple time, falling back into the grass.

The young man jumped back out from amidst the protection of the grass, firing at the injured bandit and hitting him in the head, killing them instantly.

He couldn't help but vomit after this as the thoughts of what he had done filled his head, mumbling to himself, "It was me, or them..." The young man took a deep breath before heading over to the seemingly abandoned caravan, stopping halfway towards its direction as he noticed a pair of lifeless legs hanging from the wooden barrier of the carriage. Anxiety welled up in his chest as he approached, "Fuck me... this isn't what I thought shit like this would be like..." The young man whispered to himself, approaching the carriage.

Where there would be horses, there were none, only finding two dead animals laying down on a dirt path leading into a small forested pasture while two more corpses sat beside them, except, they were not animals, they were people. The young man swallowed through a dry throat as he approached the two bodies, still keeping some distance away from the carriage itself. A young blond man and an older man with black hair, a mustache sitting just above his lip. The young man covered his nose as the smell of death had begun permeating around his nose as he lowered himself to the ground, feeling their necks for a pulse, both were dead. He shook his head before turning back to the carriage, walking over to it, and stopping by one of the entrances, looking inside.

It was large and filled with empty boxes, looking inside, "H-" He cut himself off before noticing the lifeless face of a woman greeting him, her eyes glazed over. It started dawning on the young man about what had happened. "Fuck!" He reeled away from the carriage, vomiting once again. A miasma of shit, piss, and blood sat within the carriage.

The young man moved to the other side of the carriage, looking over to the hanging pair of legs. This woman was alive but the other one wasn't. A young girl with an array of bruises scattered across her naked body, blood dripping from her crotch as various liquids sat around her legs. The young man shook his head, "Fuck..." he distanced himself again, "This isn't..." He took a deep breath, "No... of course, it isn't like that... fantasy is different from reality, no matter how fantastical shit might be." He shook his head again, slapping both of his cheeks, "I'm awake, I'm alive... that means that this is real as well..."

The young man looked over to the girl, "I need to find something..." He looked to the piece of cloth covering the carriage's roof, taking that and throwing it to the girl. As if drifting in and out of consciousness, she barely reacted, her eyes focusing down on the cloth and covering herself with it before spacing out once again. "Hey... can you understand me?"

The girl looked to him, fear coming across her eyes, curling up into a ball, keeping her back pressed against a wall of the carriage.

"Can...?" The young man shook his head, "No..." He pointed to himself, "Killian."

She closed her eyes as hard as she could, turning away and shoving her nose into a corner of the carriage. Killian laid down on the side of the road, absorbing the relaxing colors of the sky above, noticing the faint visage of a peculiar-looking moon above.