2 Strange Encounter

A gloved hand rested at his eye-level, and Jun Long shifted his vision from it to the owner's face. The young man in front of him had a lean face which was accentuated by his protruding cheekbones and jawline. What stood out the most about this young man were his striking green eyes. They shone against the sunlight and that made them look majestic.

He retracted his outstretched hand and waved it through his short blonde hair. Using the sky as the backdrop, everything about this small action looked as though he were an idol in a boyband.

"Hey, man," the young man said. "You don't look like you're from around here. Don't you know you can't just stand around in this field?"

"Uh…" Jun Long could only make this random noise.

"Geez," the young man spat, a clear look of disappointment on his face. "These outta towners. Always giving me trouble."

He looked Jun Long up and down. It was easy to tell that this confused-looking boy wasn't from the area. Heck, he might not even be from the region! His clothing was all white, and the texture looked too fine to match the normal level of clothing from these parts. His brown eyes and dark brown hair, which were common back on Earth, was a rarity even within the region.

"Can you talk?"

"… y-yes…"

"Oh, good," the young man clapped his hands together. "Seems you at least talk! You don't look like you're good for much else, though."

"… where are we?"

"What?! You don't even know where you are? This place isn't even on the way to anywhere, so only people who live around these parts or have a purpose come here!"

"Oh.. sorry," Jun Long apologised out of habit. "I'm … new to the area. I'm … actually just looking at the scenery."

The young man, who was now crouching next to the horned rabbit, snapped the horn off of the rabbit's head and tossed it into his crude-looking backpack.

"Are you some kinda noble?" The young man asked. His face was starting to show anticipation, probably due to the chance that this boy, clad in mostly white clothing, might be a noble of some sort. "Are you a mage?"

"A … 'mage'?"

"You know!" He said, as though it were commonsense. "A mage! A magician! A powerhouse of firepower where even the most novice of them could level a building with a wave of their hand!"

"… a …"

"A MAGE!!" He yelled, thinking that Jun Long might be a little deaf.

The sudden out burst surprised Jun Long, and he jumped a little. Something in his brain jolted, though, and he was reminded of his younger days, where he would play video games such as Final Fantasy, or Gauntlet. These games' characters had specific roles given to them, which gave the player some diversity to mixing and matching their party members. The 'mage' was one of them.

"Magic…?" Jun Long asked the young man. "This world has magic?"

"What the…?" He asked back, stunned that there was actually someone in this area that didn't seem to know about magic. "Just where are you from that you don't even know about magic?"

Sensing that things might go horribly wrong if he told anyone about his real origin being Earth, Jun Long stuttered as he made up a lie about him being from the far east.

"Hmmm… I don't really know any much else about anything outside-a town, so… I guess that magic hasn't spread all over, huh?"

It seems that Jun Long was able to convince the young man.

"Say!" The young man suddenly moved closer to Jun Long. "If you don't know this area too well, do you want me to take you to my town? It's a little far away, but we'd make it there before the afternoon!"

"Um… yes, please." Jun Long replied. "I'll follow you to your town."

"Great! Then let's head off! My name's James Tarker!"

"I'm Jun Long."

…

It wasn't long before Jun Long and James Tarker reached a road-like path. They had conversed with each other as they walked down the road. Jun Long was trying to garner some information about this new place, and James Tarker was more than happy to oblige. It seemed that James Tarker was one of those people who just loved to talk.

"… so then, when my cousins came back from the academy," James Tarker was excitedly telling Jun Long. "They would always show me what kinda new skills they had learned! Their swordplay is so cool!!"

"Haha!" Jun Long laughed. "It seems that everyone's very combat-oriented around here."

"Oh, for sure! If you aren't you can't hunt. You can't live a proper life if you can't fight! That's why my cousins are so cool!"

"Oh, yeah? Just how strong are your cousins, then? Are they stronger than you?"

"Hell yeah, they are!"

"Like, how strong?"

"My cousins could take down a full-grown Red Bear!"

"What's a 'Red Bear'?"

"Huh?" James Tarker looked at Jun Long, once again stunned by this dark haired boy's lack of commonsense. "You don't even know about the Red Bear?"

"No. Never heard of it."

"These outta-towners… Geez!"

"Haha!" Jun Long laughed.

"A Red Bear is one of the strongest animals in the forests around these here parts. Its fur is as hard as iron, and its one swipe could topple a small shed!"

Swoosh! James Tarker imitated the Red Bear's claw attack. They both laughed at how silly it looked.

…

Finally, Jun Long and James Tarker reached the town. The town was named 'Jovial Town'. It was bustling with people wearing all different kinds of clothing and armour. The buildings looked like something out of a medieval fantasy story. The roads, leading into and through the town, were paved with bricks, and there were many horse-drawn carriages.

It was a refreshing sight to behold, for Jun Long. He had never seen anything like this in real life, before - only in movies or books.

As the party of two neared the town, Jun Long started noticing that the townspeople were staring at him as he passed. He saw a few whispering to each other, too. It could only be seen as a normal action, as he was the only person there with a different hair colour to everyone else. If someone with rainbow coloured hair walked past him, he would find it of note.

Deciding to ignore the constant staring, Jun Long had followed James Tarker all the way up to the town's entrance. Jovial Town wasn't a castle town; it was just a village that was walled off. In terms of trade routes, it was just another stop in between the much bigger castle towns. To protect the townspeople from bandit raids, Jovial Town had erected a stone wall and gate, and stationed guards to watch over them.

It wasn't until Jun Long had seen this kind of scene that he actually started to truly accept that he had been taken from his original world and put onto another.

"That'll be a silver piece from each-a you!" A gate guard said, nearly in the same fashion as James Tarker had when he saved Jun Long from the horned rabbit.

James proceeded to take out two silver coins, from his small pouch, and dropped them into the guard's hand. Jun Long had already made it known that he had no coinage of any sort on the way to the town. He felt a little guilty as he watched James Tarker pulling out the extra coin for his sake.

"Who's the dark hair?" The gate guard asked James Tarker. "He some sorta demon race?"

"Mmm, it doesn't seem that way," James Tarker replied, not sounding too convincing. "He hasn't shown any sort of magical prowess or anything, really."

"Well, keep him outta trouble, you hear? We don't need no outsiders causing no trouble, not after that last time a doppelganger slipped in an' killed them Farris boys."

"Yeah," James Tarker's face turned a little saddened.

…

Jun Long and James Tarker was now walking through Jovial Town, along the main road, heading towards an inn that James Tarker frequented. Inns were always a good place to take the time to discuss all kinds of matters, or meet up with other people, or just to have a warm meal and a pint of ale.

"James," Jun Long started, turning his head to face the blonde young man. "What's a doppelganger, and what happened for people to be killed by it?"

"Oh, man," James Tarker replied. "You seem to not know a lotta things, huh?"

"Heh…" Jun Long made a strained smile.

"Well, a doppelganger is a monster that can turn itself into anyone it sees! Depending on the level of the doppelganger, it can even talk like you! If the level is high enough, it can even take on your memories!"

Prior to asking the question, Jun Long already had a vague guess as to what a doppelganger could be, based off of his gaming knowledge from his original world. In fact, a lot of what he has asked James Tarker about, both on the way to Jovial Town, and whilst walking towards the inn, coincided with most of what he already knew from the many roleplaying games that he had played.

"Jun, didja lose some of your memory?"