Shaken, Not Stirred

The group of people that just came out of the forest consisted of a diverse group of men and women. There were around ten of them if my math is correct. They were wearing what seemed to be black leather clothing and carried various weapons from swords, bows, to just a wooden stick for some reason. Is he going to smack the giant rabbit until it dies or something?

One of the groups of people noticed me and screamed something towards me. His face seemed to indicate that he was quite angry that I'm unresponsive. But of course, that's a given; he was speaking in a language that I can't understand. It sounded a bit like...German? or French. Either way, I don't understand a single word coming out of his mouth.

He gave up talking to me and focused his attention on the giant rabbit with the rest of his friends. A battle then started with the party of 10 against the giant rabbit.

"What the hell...They're strong" I can't believe what I'm seeing. The warriors carrying the swords were moving at a speed that I can't comprehend. The archers were jumping all over the pace in acrobatic movements. They looked like Olympic athletes-turned warriors. But the level of strengths that they were showing is beyond the level of a normal human.

The battle was quite incredible with flawless cooperations between different members. The warriors with swords would be the main distraction for the rabbit while the archers strike the back of the rabbit while it's distracted.

"I have to film this..." My first thought after witnessing the battle is to get my expensive RED camera and film the battle. I walked to the back of the van and retrieved one camera from the back. I turned it on immediately while carrying the camera on my shoulder. I then stood in front of my car to film the action.

"Ah, fuck I forgot the camera stabilizer...well the genre will be a found footage film from now on" The footage will be quite shaky without a proper stabilizer. I started to film the action as the battle was underway. One of the warriors screamed at me in anger, probably to ask me what I was doing carrying a mysterious device on my shoulder and just standing still.

Suddenly, I heard another roar coming from the forest. It was the same roar from before by the giant rabbit. And what revealed itself from the shadows was indeed another giant rabbit.

"That must be its mate..." I said.

The second giant rabbit ran towards the location of the giant rabbit that was still being attacked. It must want to rescue the other rabbit. I heard some frustration left the mouths of some of the warriors. They seemed worried about the situation. Finally, the person with the giant wooden stick stepped forward and started to say something while raising his wooden stick.

"What?" I felt the heat from the equatorial tropical jungle again. The temperature around the area was rising at a rapid pace. What I saw next was a scene I could never forget for the rest of my life. It was magic. Actual magic. Not the ones on earth with clever sleight of hand or misdirection, but magic as in creating miracles that defy the rule of nature.

I saw a huge fireball building up at the tip of the wooden stick that person was carrying. After a few seconds, the fireball left the stick at a fast speed towards the second giant rabbit. The second giant rabbit gave a roar after being hit by the fireball—its furs burnt black. But it was not dead, it started to give chase again at a slower speed yet an angrier state.

I saw more frustration on the faces of the warriors. They were genuinely worried about their lives now.

"Wait...the guns!" Idiotically, I just remembered that my crew brought some of earth's weaponry to the jungle trip. The jungle was prone to attacks by predators as well so we brought some weapons just in case. I ran to the van, put the camera inside again, and picked up a shotgun. It was a standard pump-action Remington 870.

I started to run towards where the groups of warriors were. They were screaming at me again but I didn't heed them any attention—I can't understand them anyway. I pumped the shotgun in my hand and shot the first rabbit. The recoil was too much for me to handle as I was not used to wielding guns so it missed the target and hit its arms. The rabbit roared in pain and charged at me. I quickly pumped the shotgun again and carefully aimed it towards the head this time. BANG. The brain tissue of the rabbit splattered everywhere, including my face. The rabbit dropped dead.

The second rabbit roared in anger. It was furious to see that I killed its mate. It focused its attention on me and charged. Fortunately, the rest of the warriors snapped out of their daze after seeing me kill the first rabbit and started to attack the second rabbit again. After being burnt by the fireball before, the second rabbit was already in a weakened state so it didn't take to long to kill it.

**

I was now standing still in the middle of the grassland while ten people looked at me in silence. Occasionally, they would talk with one another. Some of them were even in an argument with one another. That couldn't be good.

They seemed to already understand that I didn't speak their language. After a while, the guy with the long wooden stick, or perhaps he's called a mage, walked towards me. I still had the shotgun in my hand. I didn't know if they were friendly yet so I kept my hand on the trigger. The mage stopped about two meters away from me and started to chant while raising his wooden stick at me.

After a while, I saw a glow in my right wrist. The glow was of a tattoo that was shaped like a mouth. The glow started to disappear after a few seconds.

"Can you understand me?" The mage said to me. He was a bald man that looked to be in his early 50s.

What the hell? I can understand them now. Was that also magic? A magic that allows me to understand their language? That's incredible.

"It seems so. Who are you people?" I answered and asked another question.

The one who answered was the person standing behind the mage. A female archer in her 30s with a sharp face and a blonde ponytail.

"I think the question is who are YOU? Light-brown skin...green eyes....the traits of a Solarisian."

"Solarisian?" I was confused on what that is. The mage answered the question for me.

"People from the Solaris Kingdom, a nation in the south. They're currently at war with many of our allies. What weapon did you use to kill the rabbit back there?"

Ah, so it was just called a rabbit. How boring.

"It's a weapon called a shotgun. It's capable of shooting projectiles towards an enemy and poking holes at them" I answered.

"I've never seen it before....is it from Solaris? Are you a spy?" The mage asked.

I was dumbfounded. Why was I accused to be a spy in the first meeting?

"Do I look like I order shaken Martini cocktails?" I muttered.

"What?" The mage didn't get the reference.

"*cough* No. I'm not a 'Solarisian' or whatever that is. I don't know anything about that kingdom. I'm...a foreigner. I'm currently lost. I'm just looking for civilization and a place of shelter so I can rest. Can you please lead me to your settlement? I'll prepare some compensation." I pleaded. I desperately needed to get to somewhere safe. Unlike these people, I didn't have any fighting experience. Sure, I have my guns but the ammunition are not exactly unlimited.

"Hmmm..." The mage was pondering something.

"No! Marlon, we need to arrest him! He could be a Solarisian spy! " The female archer spoke.

"He's not, Karen. I know Solarisians. I've been there when I was younger. They don't have the same accent and language as him. Besides, have you seen a Solarisian this polite?" The mage said to the group. The group laughed in response.

"Right. We'll believe you for now. We are from a town called Brent not far from here. We'll take you there but we'll be keeping an eye on you so don't try anything strange" The mage, Marlon, said to me.

"Thank you thank you! I'll definitely think of a compensation." I said with gratitude.

"Alright, let's go," Marlon said and started to walk towards the forest again with his group. It's important to note that they have already skinned the rabbits and carried the meat in their shoulders. But the group stopped after seeing me not following them. Marlon turned around towards me again.

"What are you doing? Let's go." He said in annoyance.

"Ah, I'll be following you guys from behind. I'll get my vehicle first" I said.

"vehicle?" He was confused on what I meant.

I ran back to my white van and stored the shotgun in the back of the car. I turned the car on again and drove the car to where Marlon and his group were.

"W-what is that!?" A person behind Marlon spoke in shock.

"He's inside that metallic beast!" Another person also said.

"Well, let's go to your town" I poked my head out of the window and said to them with a smile.