Out of This World Experiences

After a comfortable sleep, Luna slowly opened her eyes with a yawn but the red wallpaper of her room that she should have seen was out of nowhere, and instead, a clear blue sky and a flower bed filled with tiny flowers welcomed her.

"Where the heck did I ended up?" she uttered and began thinking but she could not find any logic in what was happening to her.

She rubbed her eyes countless times to see if it was just an imagination but she could see, and feel everything so real. The weather was nice compared to the one she was used to which tangled her already confused mind.

Luna stood up and observed her surroundings. She could only see the endless patch of flowers in the grass field and noticed a familiar umbrella. She took the umbrella that belonged to her while not knowing the reason why it was with her when she clearly remembered that it was not her hobby to sleep with an umbrella.

'Who would?' she thought.

Meanwhile, Luna could see that the place was beautiful but she could not feel at ease as if someone was watching her. She started to walk and then run towards the unknown land with her hair being fluttered in the wind.

However, Luna hurriedly stopped when a loud noise echoed. Nonetheless, she followed the sound curiously but immediately regretted her decisions when she saw a huge number of soldiers clad in metal armor with horses not that far away from where she stood. The soldiers from the left were wearing red clothes and armor and the people from the other side were wearing blue. She could feel the intensity of the place even though the enemies were just staring at each other with only a few meters of distance.

"I can't believe this!" Luna uttered as she couldn't help but shout from the things happening in front of her. Everything was too fast for her to catch up. Luckily, a big solid rock stood not far away that could cover herself from the soldier's sight. She slowly tiptoed that way and made sure that they wouldn't notice even a shadow of her.

'What's this all about? In this day and age, there shouldn't be war with soldiers riding horses. It sounded too unrealistic in this modern age,' Luna thought.

Countless ideas began running through her mind and even though they might be filming, there's no cameras, director, staff, or other things needed to shoot a film.

Her mind started to get clouded with negative thoughts and ironically, the clouds above started to gather. It seemed that the skies pitied her situation and joined in on her misery. The dark clouds finished gathering and heavy rain soon followed. Luna quickly got back to her senses and opened up her umbrella.

'It's a good thing that I didn't leave it earlier,' she thought as she loosened its strap.

When she opened it, her eyes widened when she saw a blinding light that had shown up without warning. She quickly closed her eyes but after that, she felt a strong wind that almost blew her away and the only thing she could do was hold tightly to her umbrella and pray for her safety.

Luna expected that she would be carried away by the wind but it vanished instantly. She opened her eyes after that and looked around.

"I didn't even have a single idea about what will happen next! I want to go home already," she uttered as she looked around.

A village with houses made of stone was in her sight while the grassland which she had woken up was nowhere to be found but her mind was beyond confused for her to worry about those things. It was enough for her to end up in a village far from the incoming war earlier.

With a sigh of relief, she decided to stroll around the place and find a way to go back home. While nobody's stopping her from going around, Luna felt their weird curious stares but they're not only the ones looking at them weirdly because she also looked at them the same way.

"What kind of clothes are they wearing?" she whispered while seizing in mind that nobody should hear her.

The people around were wearing long dresses and suits and it became stranger than earlier as she walked further. Their appearance looked like they came out of a fantasy movie or a novel. Their attire made her self-conscious and looked at herself who was in a very plain blouse and a pleated skirt she usually wore indoors.

She looked away from them and acted normally in an attempt to blend in on the crowd. On her walk, she noticed that wooden stalls were all around the area and the sellers were endorsing their products to the customers.

'So this is their market,' Luna thought and continued walking when she felt that the weather changed suddenly into familiar hot weather. She took her umbrella and opened it but it won't open. Another attempt, but it failed again.

Luna almost shouted but she prevented herself from doing so. The weird stares of the people around were enough and she didn't want to gain more attention from them.

"It just opened a while ago but why can't it open now?" Luna couldn't help but think of any reason why wasn't it working.  She really couldn't take so much heat coming from the rays of the sun. It's even hotter than the usual afternoons she experienced.

"Great! Just great," she said with sarcasm and rolled her eyes.

Luna would not let herself stay under the heat of the sun so she thought of looking for something to shade and ended up in a bakery. An old-fashioned one for her at least for the others were glancing like it was the newly built bakery in town.

Luna opened the left side of the two-way door and entered the shop. There, she found an empty two-person table. Even though it looked like an old-fashioned shop, the tables, chairs and other things didn't look old. It is the design that made it look like an old bakery compared to a modern one she was used to seeing.

"It's indeed new, it might be a new shop," she uttered.

Her interest in that shop was to shade from the heat of the sun because standing under a tree wouldn't be enough. Although her stomach immediately grumbled at the sight of the loaves of bread in the stand as those newly baked bread made her even more hungry.

Luna stood up and walked towards it. She didn't have any money on her but she doubted if they would accept it if she happened to bring her own. 'It's an odd place after all,' she thought.

Moreover, they were most likely had a different currency. After examining the surroundings, she concluded that it wasn't her country where she belonged or might even be a whole different world.

The others were falling in line just like the one in her modern world. They took turns and when she looked at them directly, a lady in her turn simply took her bread and didn't pay any money or some kind of strange things. Luna already expected that anything unusual could be possible in that place. Then she waited and looked at the other customers who were also not paying. Her eyes shone with a plan on mind.

'Are this for free?' Luna thought. She badly wanted to eat after remembering that she only ate a cone of ice cream and skipped lunch.

She joined the line and patiently waited for her turn. 'There's nothing wrong in trying to get one,' she thought and when it's finally Luna's turn, she randomly pointed out two pieces of bread with a smile.

"Two pieces of croissant, coming up!" the woman said in her full enthusiasm. Then she gave the bread quickly after was placing it on a rectangular wooden tray. 

"Thank you," Luna answered and returned a smile.

After that, the woman didn't ask for her payment so she took a few steps away and returned to the table she sat at earlier. Unfortunately, a lady was comfortably sitting at her table. Luna would usually not mind it and go for her umbrella but she was distressed because all the tables were already full. It was to be expected since everything was free in the bakery.

Luna hesitated at first but she took all her courage and went towards her. The lady saw her eyeing the umbrella so she approached her immediately.

"Oh! I think you are the owner of this thing and I thought you already left so I sat at this table. Anyway, can I share the table with you? There's no vacant table already," she said with pleading eyes.

Luna sighed in relief as she first thought that the young lady would get mad in sharing a table with someone she did not know. She was even a stranger from another place which was clear just from looking at her clothes. The woman would eye her suspiciously and ignore Luna although she could get away by saying that she was a traveler from a faraway land.

 'A traveler that didn't even want to travel and go back home,' Luna thought sarcastically and mentally rolled her eyes.

Then the woman introduced herself as Sylvette. She was a friendly and cheerful person and Luna could not sometimes see her small eyes every time she laughed. Her short brown hair complimented her looks and she dressed like any other people in the village.

Luna met a good friend from the unexpected trip. Meanwhile, she asked why the food here was free.

Sylvette laughed a little and explained, "You're new here, right? Here in South village, a store which has just opened on its first day, the owners sell their foods for free in two hours in the afternoon."

Luna was enlightened upon her explanation. She wanted to ask more about this village but Sylvette had an important thing to do so the latter suddenly bid goodbye and left.

"See you again Luna!" Sylvette said while waving her hand, walking away.

Luna smiled at her and said goodbye. After that, she noticed that the weather outside looked good now. She left the bakery and walked around the village. Although the place was old-looking, there was not any smoke coming from the vehicles and the place looked fresh and peaceful. It didn't look that she went into the past though. If that were the case, she wouldn't see a huge park named the Candy Kingdom.

Her eyes sparkled like a little child. Luna could not help herself be amused. The trees, benches, fountains, and everything looked like candies. She also took sight of a giant candy castle with the crowded people that were as amazed as her.

"This park is made of candies!" she uttered like a child. She's enjoying the view until someone suddenly grabbed her left arm tightly and pulled her away from the park.

"H-hey, let go of me!" she shouted but he ignored her.

"Who are you and what do you need from me?" Luna said in irritation as her arm was in pain from his tight grip.

'Who's that person?' she thought.

Luna's mind went confused. She tried to break free of his grip until she became dizzy.

Her eyesight turned black and lost consciousness.

~~To be continued..