Chapter 1 – Exchange

Jack Cross had finished making dinner for himself and his ten-year-old daughter and was setting the table in the dining room. He had already called the cute Sophia, but she was still in her room, feeding her pets.

With a sigh, Jack walked along the corridor of his two-bedroom rented apartment and knocked on her door. "Why are you taking so long? The food is getting cold!"

"I am just finishing, dad! It would be faster if you helped me!" she answered.

Jack turned the doorknob and grimaced at the sight of the big yellow snake swallowing a dead rat inside her glass cage, while his daughter was feeding the rainbow fish in the one-meter aquarium on the other side of her room.

She pointed with her head to the table next to her bed and said, "Give some lettuce to the guinea pigs! I can finish the rest."

Jack took the leaves from the plastic container, and as he put them in the cage where two small guinea pigs were screeching, he said, "This is my fault, you know? I should have only let you have one pet, maximum two, when you first asked me for one. But when I noticed, you had all this! And you keep bringing home sick or injured animals to take care of them!"

"Hey! I find them a home, or I release them in the wild when they recover! The ones I keep are only the ones that have no place to go! And there aren't that many!"

"Sure…" Jack sighed and asked, "Besides the parakeet, that stupid snake, the lizard, the tarantula, the fish, and these guinea pigs? Did I forget any?"

With a big smile, his little daughter closed the lid of the aquarium and answered, "See? Not that many! Let's go eat! I am starving!"

She ran out of the room, leaving her father grimacing at the snake that now had a round lump in the middle of her body as she was slowly driving the rat deeper inside.

He closed the door and held hands with the smiling girl who was waiting for him in the corridor.

They walked along it to the living room and the moment they crossed the door frame, a blinding light surrounded them.

Jack rubbed his eyes with the back of his free hand, and when he finally managed to see anything, he noticed he was inside a narrow rocky tunnel, and he was holding a metallic lantern with glass on top and a candle inside.

"Where the heck are we?" he questioned himself more than to his daughter. Then he looked down and saw a strange little girl with long blue hair, cat ears, protective clothes made of leather, a small sword at her waist, and a tail moving behind her.

The girl gulped and said while looking around, "We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto…"

She looked up and gasped. "Dad… is that you? You… you have cat ears! And… and a tail! You have a fluffy tail! Do I-"

She touched her head and then looked back and screamed in excitement, "Kyyiiaa! I also have a tail! This is awesome! I am a kitty! A pretty kitty with a tail, blue hair, and pointy ears! How did this happen?"

While still trying to find out if they were both dreaming or not, Jack answered, "I have no idea. We were at home, going to the dining room, and then we appeared here. Whoever here is. No… I think I know where we are… I can remember… almost like a dream…"

His little daughter made a slight frown and said, "Yeah… I also remember something, as if I were dreaming, and I have a few memories of that weird dream… I came here with my friends to explore the cave. I stepped on a soft spot near a wall, and the ground fell in and took me with it. I walked for so long in these tunnels, trying to find another exit! Then I heard your voice; I came running to you, and we were walking back… and then I saw a light, and here we are."

"I remember being in… a weird kitchen in an enormous building? Then I joined a search group that travelled to get here the moment one kid arrived, saying you disappeared inside a crack in the ground. I rushed inside the cave, and I jumped head-first into the hole where you fell. I walked a lot, always shouting your name… Meryda… weird name… and I found you, and we were going back."

"Yeah, Meryda Crawler, that's my name in the dream! And you were, or are, Craydon Crawler!"

Then something brushed on the girl's leg, and she looked down. She made a puzzled face and then brightened in a smile as she said, "I remember you! You were in my dream! Lyzy, the pretty lizard I saw hatching from a weird egg in a small cave down here!"

Jack looked to where she was pointing and frowned when he saw his little daughter kneeling on the floor, rubbing the head of a strange orange lizard the size of a medium dog. The tip of his long tail was bright red, like the top of his head and the tip of his paws.

Next to it was a gelatinous form that looked like green jelly with the shape of a bean, as big as a cat. But it couldn't be jelly because it was wiggling and jumping up and down.

His jaw dropped when his daughter said, "I know you! Jelly, the pretty gelatin!", and she hugged the strange-looking gelatinous form. "I found you when I fell, and we then met Lyzy when I was searching for a way out!"

Jack asked while crouching on the floor to take a better look at the strange creatures illuminated by the light of his lantern. "What are they? Animals?"

"In my dream, they were called Monsters. People fear them, mostly because they kill and eat people. But look at these cute things! How can they kill or eat anyone? They are small and so cute! I just want to hug them forever!"

While his little daughter was caressing the strange lizard and poking the gelatinous creature, giggling as he bounced on the floor, Jack got up and looked around.

From where they came, there wasn't anything besides a narrow, long tunnel. A strange glowing moss covered some places on the walls and ceiling, providing enough light that the lantern was not doing anything more than brightening the tunnel a bit and making the gloss glow even more.

He faced his daughter again and said, "Listen, we can't tell anyone about where we came from or what our real names are. From now on, and until I figure out what happened, I am Craydon Crawler, and you are my daughter, Meryda Crawler. The memories we have that seem like dreams might help us live here. Understood?"

"I… I understand… Do you think we will ever go home, dad?"

"I don't know, but right now, this is our home. Well, not here, exactly, but where we live… lived… What do you remember about our home here? Like, I think I work as a cook in a building, but I am not sure."

With a slight frown, she said, "I remembered a few things while I was walking down here. I… I mean, not really the me, me, but I am often at the Guild of Adventurers and Explorers, training and learning stuff. I used to be with you in the kitchen when I was little, helping you cook for everyone, and when I got old enough to hold a sword, I convinced you to let me train with the Explorers." she got up, holding the gelatin creature in her arms, and continued, "Mommy died when I was born, like my real mom."

"Now that you talked about it, it is coming to my mind. I think I remember seeing someone shoot a ball made of fire, but that seems impossible."

While pointing at her friendly lizard, Meryda asked, "More impossible than Lyzy here? I never saw a lizard looking like him on the Discovery channel!"

"Yes, he doesn't look like a normal lizard with those colours. He has teeth? Lizards don't have teeth!" Craydon said, while staring at the strange orange lizard that was moving his long tongue from one side to the other. He then tapped his daughter's shoulder and said, "It is better if we try to get out of here because I came with a group of people. Explorers, I think."

As they were walking along the narrow tunnel with the orange lizard behind them, Meryda asked, "Do you think the Explorers at the Guild will let me keep Lyzy and Jelly? I remembered that people really hate Monsters, around here."

"Maybe for a few days they will let you because they seem harmless. As they grow, I am not sure if it will be safe for you or anyone else."

"I hope they let me keep them. They are so cute..."

On a certain house on Earth, a man and his daughter blinked after the blinding light they encountered while they were walking in a rocky tunnel in their World disappeared.

The man looked around and said, "Meryda, where are we?"

"Oh! Dad, is that you? You look weird! Where are your ears? And…" after touching her head, she gasped, "And where are mines? My tail! I don't have a tail! Neither do you!"

"I was looking for you inside those caves, then… There was a light, and now… Where are we? I think I remember something, like a strange dream I had. We live here, and we were about to eat…"

While looking at her hands, the little girl said, "We look Oomans. Or Humans… I think that is the word… My name here… I am Sophia… Sophia Cross. And you are Jack Cross? Is that it?"

"Those names ring a bell. I am a Human, and I work… I work as a security guard for a company. I go there by subway… You go to school by bus… How is that possible? Only Nobles go to school because it is expensive!"

The little girl pointed to the furniture and said, "I think we are Nobles now. No… medium-class people. That's the name. And here, the school is free. Dad, I think we are not in Crosslot any more! This is… Earth. That's the name of this World." She looked at the ground and made a sad face. "Oh, Lyzy and Jelly are not here. They were so pretty…"

"Meryda… I mean, Sophia, until we figure out where we are and how we got here, we can't tell anyone that we came from somewhere else, understand? People will be suspicious of us, and we may have a lot of problems. From now on, you are Sophia Cross, and I am Jack Cross."

"Do you think we will ever get back?" she asked while looking at her hands, and continued with a frown, "Weird, I don't feel my Magic. What about you?"

"I feel like I always did because I never had any Magic, remember?"

"Oh, right!" she said as she went to the table and looked at the plates with food. "I might as well eat because I am starving! Oh! I remembered I have a lot of pets in my room, and we fed them before coming here to eat! I mean, it is more like a dream than a memory, actually."

Jack grabbed the strange-shaped fork, and as he was cutting his steak with a weird knife that made him frown, he said with a smile, "At least this looks tasty! We need to explore this house and see if we remember more things. About our dreams, or what we can call it."

"I know you work as a security guard, and I am a student. Cool! I am a student! That means I am going to learn a lot of stuff!"

With a forced smile, her father said, "Yes, let's make the best of this. We will see how things go for us. As long as we are together, everything will work just fine." He did his best to not worry his little daughter, but deep inside, he was frightened.