2 My New World

Shooting up out of the water, I took a huge gasp of air. I tread the water, all the while trying to calm my heart. My eyes adjusted slowly from some kind of green blur to long grass, trees, and wild flowers surrounding a dark blue lake that I was floating in. This is not a place I recognize.

My calming heart began to panic again as I swam towards the shore. I was making a wish for a new life… I gave the well my necklace… and then I was sucked into the water and ended up…here? And there was a voice…

I crawled out and sat in the grass. A great feeling of being lost, helpless, and terror over how I was going to get out of this if I could. I have no clue where I am. Tears welled up in my eyes and I hugged my knees to my chest. Where am I?

How will I find my way home?

I looked around feeling alone and vulnerable when I heard something rustling in the bushes.

"Eep!" I jumped up and looked behind me, scanning the grass and shrubbery for movement. I started walking towards the left, all the while keeping alert to any movement. If I can just slip away quietly, perhaps I can avoid trouble.

I stumbled over something and lost my footing, falling down in a flailing frenzy, only to be caught by a pair of very cold arms. They looked pale green, strong, and had square-ish scales where arm hair should've been. My view traveled up scale arms over naked shoulders to see a man looking down at me with full jungle eyes. They were like looking from the sky at rugged terrain of green grass, brown dirt, and grey rock. And in the middle of the terrain was a narrow diamond shaped ravine.

I gasped and flailed my way out of his arms and backed away hurriedly while still keeping him in view. He did not follow me, but watched me with a look of curiosity, his charcoal gray hair hanging over the left side of his face in strands of silk.

Then I bumped into something else that was cold. I whipped around and found myself staring into similar eyes, but a female face. Her hair was white and braided back in a weave that I've never seen before with a few beaded strands hanging over her shoulder. Her skin was pale gray with the same kind of scales as the guy behind me.

She tilted her head and said, "She's not a Cold Blood at all. She must be lost."

"How can she be a Warm Blood and have pale skin like us?" This must've come from the man behind me.

Cold blood? Warm blood? Lost is definitely right. And these are the freakiest people I have EVER laid eyes on.

I put my hands up and said, "Yes. I am very lost, but if you let me, I will just leave and you can enjoy the lake without my intruding."

After saying this, multiple men and women, all of the same strange look popped up out of the long grass. Were they all just seriously laying on the grass by the lake?? It's wet down there.

The people wore strange clothes of some kind of moss looking cloth that covered the women's chests and with what seemed to be water weed strands that hung to cover their front and bottoms. They wore vines as an arm brace, tree nuts at necklaces and bark as a forearm brace like some kind of armor. Is this some kind of natural colony? Maybe they just dec themselves out to blend with the environment? The fact that they look like werecrocs doesn't mean they actually ARE werecrocs.

"Little Warm Blood, do not be alarmed. We will not harm you." This came from the female I ran into. "Tell us which Warm Blood you are and we can point you back towards your kind."

"My kind?" I questioned.

"Yes. You are in Cold Blood territory as it is cold and damp, near a lake. To your left would lead you towards the Sharp Tooth Warm Bloods, behind you would be the Flat Teeth Warm Bloods, right of you would be the Knuckle Warm Bloods and finally to go forward would be the Low Belly Warm Bloods."

What??

"Uhh, do you know which way to people?" I asked. These guys must be kidding with those kind of directions. I know we're all a part of the animal world, but can't you just say this and such way to civilization? They must be completely engrossed in whatever way of living they chose to be talking so weird.

The woman's brows raised slightly and she looked around her group. I assume she was seeing if anyone else knew the way.

"I'm not familiar with the term 'people'. Perhaps you mean peopled, where there are all kinds of bloods living in the big city together? That is very far away and will be North West. How did you get this far from the city without finding trouble?" She asked.

"I told you she didn't travel anywhere, I saw her swim out from the abyss in the lake." I turned and looked at the guy behind me and his arms were now folded and he was looking at the girl behind me.

"The abyss?? How could someone come from there? What is she?!" This came from a woman in the crowd and her outburst started the whole group chiming in.

"Cast her out! We don't know what she is!"

"I say we keep her, we could use another female!"

"Get rid of her! She came from darkness! She's a curse!"

"She's beautiful! She's a gift!"

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to make myself small, wishing I could just leave.

"SILENCE." The man I first fell into spoke again.

"She is a lone female and vulnerable. She has nothing that seems harmful, so we will protect her here until the next barter."

"But Kian, that's a full moon cycle away! She'd be here during our coming-of-age ceremony, our mating calls, and our water dance! These things are SACRED!!" A girl made her way towards the one she called Kian. She was white skinned, with white scales, white hair, and gold eyes. She wore a short dress made of some kind of light grey cloth. She had long slender legs and curvy in all the right places. She walked to Kian until she looked up at him, a full head shorter, but brimming with confidence.

"I have spoken." He said.

"But-"

"Jinn." He said her name, but it was low and seemed like a warning.

She stomped her foot and walked away from Kian, who's attention came back to me. "Come with me. The rest of you, finish gathering what you need."

I didn't dare question or push anything. I was clearly someplace new with, whether I can come to grips with it or not, creatures that I know nothing about. It's time I try to wrap my head around exactly what's going on before I make a rash decision and run off into this new world. After all, I am now a part of it and if I hope to survive, I should listen to its inhabitants.