Village A

It seemed like hours that she screamed her head off. News flash: it was not.

A rough hand abruptly covered her mouth, and a whisper of, "Don't move."

Her eyes widened. It was spoken in English! Her body stiffened and involuntarily stepped back up to the other person when a roar resounded in the forest.

The hand that shut her mouth was lowered down and she was turned around to face her abductor(?). She looked and it was the other guy who was standing below her tree earlier!

Before, she thought he also had sun-kissed skin but he's white with sunburn, and chiseled abs on display. Below, he is wearing what she has mistaken as a leather skirt, but she could see those are some khaki slacks that have been cut off as shorts. He has some sort of shoes on, or more like some kind of sandals made out of some kind of cloth.

She looked up again, trying to be mindful of her manners. She was blinded by his face. His face is handsome, with a sharp jawline and straight nose, and his eyes are a deep green, or was it brown? Anyway, beautiful. 

She was opening her mouth to ask, trying to not be swayed by his pretty face, but the man looked around, before carrying her on his broad shoulders and started running.

She was going to scream again but whatever made the roaring sound earlier made up its mind to show itself. A large kind of foot stomped down on where they were before.

Now instead of thinking to fight her captor, she tried to be still and looked up, and up, and up. She might be losing her mind a bit but she could see that the creature was a mammoth.

Hello? Mammoths have been extinct for like 10,000 years now, right? Where the hell is this place? 

She might be denying it, but her eyes ain't lying. Boy, the mammoth was not alone, there were five of them lounging around the area, eating peacefully while the smaller animals and people like them! were scampering away from that herd.

After a few minutes, the man's gait slowed down. She also calmed down by now since the mammoths were not interested in them in the first place. She was just thankful it was vegetarian, thank god.

After a few more minutes, she noticed that the sky was turning a bit darker now, they were walking on an open field at the moment and she could see that unlike before, this place did indicate living people. She squinted her eyes. In the distance, she could barely see a thin trail of smoke and a bunch of people wearing some type of loin cloth, sitting around a fire.

She was enjoying looking around and she almost forgot that she was being carried. Until he spoke again. In English.

"Hey, can you stand on your own?"

She nodded, then verbalized her agreement after the man slapped her butt hard.

"Ouch! Yes, I can! Now put me down please."

The man put her down gently on the ground. She started, "Where the hell are..."

The man started walking towards a gate-like structure that seemed to lead to a village.

"Ask me later. It's getting dark, we need to go inside the village."

She looked around again and wondered why they needed to go inside the wooden gate if there were people who lived outside, but decided to follow the man quietly. It's too early to assume how things are here without any concrete data.

She heard excited cries before she saw a handful of young people, probably around 15-18 years old, who crowded around the man, and once again, conversed in English.

She felt her shoulders lighten up on that. Even if it's a bit weird, she is still in the modern era, thank goodness.

She was smiling while looking over the commotion while they were walking towards the village. She stopped when she noticed that they all had stopped walking and were looking at her.

"Why did you carry her here, Duke? Does she speak our language as well?" a woman asked. She was wearing shorts and a tank top, and carrying what seemed to be a spear.

Earlier, they were conversing with themselves, but this time around, she heard the questions loud and clear.

The man, the Duke, just shrugged, and replied curtly, "Let's all go inside first, we all need to talk."

The small crowd got going again and continued until they went over the 'gate' onto a wooden house. 

When they entered the enclosure, she was amazed as she saw that the 'village' really looked like a village. It was much more spacious inside than it seemed. There were houses lined up neatly, with cobblestones that seemed to act like roads, and there was a village square where there was a small sitting area - as in large slabs of stones laid neatly to resemble a sitting area - and a stage of some sort.

She did think they were going to go there, but the small crowd just went passed it to go to a wooden house situated almost at the innermost part of the enclosure.

Duke, motioned everyone to get in but stopped Emily from entering. "Wait here," then slammed the door in her face.

She frowned at that and stepped back. She tried to peek in on the window but it was closed and had a dark curtain so that is a bust.

"Is there another one?"

Emily looked back and saw a crowd of people looking at her curiously. They were a curious group of people - some, who wore a smile and curiosity in their eyes, were wearing modern clothes like hers, with jeans, sweatpants, and even a pajama on one frail-looking teen. There were some, who wore flimsy modern clothes that had seen better days. For those people, their faces looked a bit blank.

She waved her hand and said, "Hi!"

The audible sigh of relief and a barrage of greetings further quieted down her discomfort. They all introduced themselves to her, there were about 10 people here now, and Emily tried hard to remember all their names by slapping some labels on their faces.

Christina - blonde, athletic, and clinging to her partner who is named Kent.

Kent - around 30, wearing eyeglasses, which greatly contrast with the state of his clothes, which now only consist of a cut-off slack, and shows off his lack of abs.

Ben and Marie - A couple who are wearing matching shorts and shirts that say King and Queen respectively.

Jeremy - Rich kid, wearing a pajama of all things.

Stephen - Jock. Asian. Huh.

Trisha - Wearing gypsy attire and her long-braided hair around her head.

Wait. She stopped her memorizing strategy and thought of something.

She smiled at them, and thought, finally, people who could answer me.

"I was going to say nice to meet you all, but where are we exactly?"

The smiles dimmed on most faces but one. The man, who must be in his twenties, even chuckled at her question and said, "We all want to know that Missy."

"What do you mean?"

The man shushed a petite woman who was pulling at his arms, and once again spoke loudly, as if daring anyone to stop him, "Dinousars, tribal men, and sucky accommodations? I did not remember signing up for any of this when I went over to my friend's vacation house. Right, Jeremy?"

Jeremy flinched, bowed his head, and tried to hide in the crowd but the grinning man - who looked like a crazed salesman right now with his out-of-place slacks and white long-sleeve shirt - pulled his arm hard and put Jeremy beside Emily.

"This woman is asking the same question as all of us had, Jeremy. Why don't you answer, huh? Where exactly are we?" The man is screaming now, his face contorted with anger.

"That's fine if he doesn't know. I'm sure Duke might -"

It seemed to trigger most of the people around her and Christina even shrieked with laughter.

"Duke has no mind of his sweetie. He's just a beautiful lapdog of that old hag."

Emily was surprised about that, she thought Duke was a leader of some sort here.

The crazed man seemed to lose interest in bullying Jeremy and instead, went over to Emily and started screaming, "If you think that pretty boy will help you go back, think again! I think he deliberately went here to be a savage!"

Christina laughed again, and some of them frowned at that. What exactly is going on here?

The door to the cabin opened up and Duke showed up, indifferent to the other people, and just stared directly at Emily.

"New girl, the Matriarch wanted to see you."

Emily sort of waited for Christina to laugh again, but the mood of the crowd seemed to change. The crazed man just glared at Duke and ran off to somewhere, while the others quietly dispersed as if afraid of just being in his presence.

Emily stared at their hunched backs before going in as instructed to do. She needs information, and she needs it fast if she wants to go back home.