Leaving Reality behind

[Julian Lapin]

The silence of the early morning in Wolfenden forest was broken quite uncerimoneously and, it has to be said, rather uniquely that day.

'-N'T TOUCH IT!'

What followed was a sound that was impossible to describe - something resembling a dying whale tripping over a piano string underwater. Then, where once there was but grass and flowers, there now stood two figures, one gripping the other one's shoulder as tightly as he could.

The two stood in silence, only daring to move their eyes and stare blindly at what was laid before them. Then, after what seemed like an eternity of awkward silence, it was broken precisely at the same time.

'Oh gods' groaned Julian Lapis and Edward Kenji together.

[Ed Kenji]

Kenji looked up at the clear sky in silence, and the greenery surrounding him. He was still in a state of shock. Like a child playing a game which has finally escalated to injury, Kenji stood solemnly in the silent forest.

Eventually, he spoke.
"...You're going to blame me for this, aren't you."

He turned to face Jules.
"If you say 'Here's another fine mess you've gotten me into', I may scream. Just to warn you."

[Julian Lapin]

Julian contemplated for a brief second strangling the man in front of him right there and then. Instead, he lowered his head and sighed deeply.

'Once... JUST once, Kenji...' he began, removing his arm from his friend's shoulder and pinching his temples with his fingers, 'I would like to examine something interesting and NOT find myself standing in the middle of some wretched other world. Is that too much to ask? Is it REALLY?!?'

'Well, it doesn't look particularly wretched', ruminated Kenji asidely. 'In fact, I'd say it was actually quite scenic.'

Julian looked up sharply, glowering. He was about ready to stop playing 'who should I kill' in his head and just go with what felt natural.

[Ed Kenji]

Kenji put his arm around Julian's shoulder, and smirked.

"Hey man, calm down. You're going to have an anuerysm if you're not careful."

Kenji held his grin steady, as his brow gently leaked into a worried frown. Julian's eyes were glowing with fury. He let out a nervous chuckle, and turned to sit down on a nearby log. As soon as he was facing away from Jules, he grimaced, his face distorted in agony.

I've... I've never seen him that mad before, Kenji thought to himself. Not even when I grilled his laptop. Not even that time I put his thesis in the card shuffler. Kenji shuffled towards the log, and groaned inwardly. He had the cold flush in his blood that he hadn't felt in years. It was the same feeling he had when he had let in an easy goal during football. That same feeling he'd had when he'd bought something from overseas over the Internet not realising how much of a problem this would pose to his father. He could still hear the words.
"You did WHAT?"
Other sounds too, the cruel taunting of those schoolyard peers who had attacked him for his sporting inability. He'd expected it from them, of course, but coming from Jules... it hurt. It hurt because Kenji knew he'd let Jules down, it hurt because he knew he'd done something wrong. No matter what happened now, whatever good may happen, it would be overshadowed by the initial mistake.

Just once... I thought I was in a place I could do things right. I didn't mean for this to happen...

He sat down heavily, and turned back to face Julian who was still quietly boiling. He put his grin back on.
"I shan't consider it wretched until the white rabbit appears. At that juncture, if and when it comes to pass, I shall then contemplate concern."

Julian looked at him coldly. Kenji chucked, "Anxiety, even."

[Julian Lapin]

Julian kept the gaze for several seconds, the only sounds being the chirping of the birds as they swiftly returned to the morning's melodies. Then, as though the tension had been cut with a machete, he broke into a grin.

'I'll have you know that rabbit had damn fine dress sense' he exclaimed, waggling his finger. Somehow, now the fog of adrenaline had cleared from his mind, he didn't have it in him to stay angry right now. Mentally pulling himself together, he stood up and attempted to regain his normal composure.

'Right. Before we go anywhere, we need to get the ground facts established. How did we get here? Have we linked to another age, or are we still on Earth? And, most pertinantly, are there any obvious ways to get back?'

This was unusually methodical thinking for someone who was quite possibly as far away from their own space and time as was humanly possible to be. But, oddly enough, this wasn't an unfamiliar experience to Julian nor Kenji. This kind of mental process was fast becoming second nature.

'First question is easy. We went through that... portal thing. Or rather, we touched it and it pulled us through. Unless any of the others follow us through, we can assume that it's either closed itself, or they're being sensible and keeping as far away from it as possible. Either way, we shouldn't have to worry about anyone else arriving.'

'Now, second question. Where are we?'

[Ed Kenji]

Kenji smiled genuinely and stood up, walking into the clearing in the hope of getting a better view.

"Best case scenario, this is a field behind the university. There's probably a PE class somewhere looking at us and laughing. As for the worst case scenario?"

He paused.

"Could be a forest in Milton Keanes."

He picked a small flower and smelt it. It had that generic plant smell that all flowers had but nobody would admit, but he still threaded it through a hole in his lapel.

"Maybe we should try and find our way to some sort of civilization? Other than the rabbit, of course. I don't want mercury poisoning again."

Julian's eye ticked momentarily. Kenji hurried on.

"How many more Ages can there be? Don't worry Jules, it'll be Shropshire. We're standing in the Cotswalds. Lake District, max. It'll be okay."

[Julian Lapin]

'Well, I must say, this place seems to lack the otherworldly vibes of most of the D'ni worlds' conceded Julian, taking a few steps around the clearing. 'In fact, there's something quite familiar about it. Almost like we just stepped into the New Forest. Plus the place doesn't strike me as a typical link in spot - they'd be a book left here for a start, and this isn't the best place to hide one...'

'I've really got to start carrying my Relto around with me again. Quendor would have been so much easier if we could jump out whenever we liked...'

As he spoke, he cast his gaze around the clearing, looking for the black fissure that had bought them here. No such luck. It was either one way, or it had sealed itself upon their arrival. Either way, it didn't look like any possible way back could be found here.

Julian was disappointed, yet also strangely elated. He had been sharp with Kenji, but truth be told it was moments like this that he lived for. No complications, no distractions, just him and a whole new world waiting for him. Right now, this very moment, everything was so gloriously simple.

[Ed Kenji]

"You're right, this isn't D'ni. It doesn't feel like D'ni. Doesn't have that... ambience, you know?"

Kenji looked around the clearing for a moment.
"Look, over there. The plants are beaten back, looks like a trail. I don't see where it ends though, it could go on for miles."

Julian came over, and peered along the roughly defined path that had been beaten though the undergrowth.
"You're right," Julian mused, "it could. Got any plans for today?"

Kenji grinned. "Nothing I can't cancel."

The two marched off into the greenery, pushing past unkept bushes and wildly sprawling branches. The bracken pulled at Kenji's trousers, making him feel lucky the only corduroy he owned was currently lining a dog's basket.

After a while, they emmerged from the trees to a rough dirt road which looked much more promising.
"It could still be Earth," Kenji pleaded, "they have dirt roads on Earth..."

A rumbling, clanking sound.
A regular hollow *clop* and a shaking, clanking, rumble of a sound.

Kenji turned, half expecting a monstrous and horribly beweaponed battle machina to rise over the horizon. What he saw was a delapidated cart, drawn by a horse which seemed unconcerned with the notion that it was meant to be employed in the movement of the vehicle to which it was attached. To Kenji, it appeared as if the cart was moving out of an indulgent politeness to the horse. This was, of course, madness.

"Hey, you there!" he cried.

[Midnight]

[ModNote: Continued from Here be Dragons.]

*Well whether the two were dreading a white rabbit or whether they would actually see one, well only they and the future knew but up in the sky a faint blue dot appeared, seeming to grow bigger with each passing second. Whether they noticed it or not was unknown but the dragon and the rider had been flying for hours, or had it been days. Rhiannon couldn't remember, time has passed extremely slowly in the silence that followed theleaving of Arios.*

*No smile turned on ehr lips as she finally saw the land she was looking for. Her hair whipping around ehr head with the eyes winds and the bedraggled outfit flapped up and down slightly.*

[Midnight]

*Rhiannon attempted to keep the dragon as high up as possible but the dragon started to swoop down closer to the ground despite her guidance with her knees and hands. Soon the dragon nor the female could actually be missed by the three down on the ground as the dragon swooped down more deeply all of a sudden a female voice crying out.*

WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE GODS ARE YOU DOING?

*Before the dragon lowered her neck and opened her mouth up wide catching the donkey in between her teeth and lifting up again lifting the cart and the poor man driving it up and throwing him off the cart before biting through the wood that attached the cart to the donkey, the wood landing with a heavy thud just a few feet from the three as the dragon flew back up wards again the distinct sound of bones crunching being heard as Rhiannon pulled a face and went slightly green around the neck.*

You know next time a bit of a warning WOULD be welcomed and next time DON'T eat another persons damn life stock!

*She looked back over her shoulder to see the owner of the now passed donkey shaking his hand in the air.*

[Ed Kenji]

Kenji blinked. He rubbed his eyes with his fingertips until he saw spots, wiped his eyes with his sleeve, and blinked again.

"I must be going very strange these days, Jules. You'd never..."

He stared down at the ground, then kicked a clod of dirt across the road. Following its path, his gaze fell upon the irate man with the destroyed cart. Kenji turned to Julian.

"I'd been expecting a curious old man. That old man would take us into town and it'd be Cornwall. It'd be Cornwall and everything would be alright...." he trailed off.

"I mean, a dragon. A dragon. That just... complicates things. Ye gods... since I never had a walking cane, I feel the need to invest in some stiff drinks to keep me standing."

He smirked.

[Julian Lapin]

Julian was dumbstruck. He'd seen some bizarre things in his lifetime, but nothing to match this yet.

'Th... th... that... was a... dragon...'

'Sod the dragon, what about my DONKEY?!?' yelled the more than irate former donkey-owner, who was now waving his hands with blasphemous indignation at the fastly disappearing winged beast.

Ignoring the peasant's plight, Julian started sprinting in the same direction as the flying beast, grabbing Kenji's sleeve as he did so.

'Come along Kenji! The game is afoot!' yelled Julian, the grin on his face one of undisguised joy.

[Midnight]

*Rhiannon looked back over her shoulder looking behind her to the ground seeing the two men starting to run after them strangely not the man who had actually from wht she could gather had owned the donkey itself but then who would want to chase a dragon.*

Obviously at least one of the two.

*She turned her attention back to the air in front of her shouting loudly to be heard over the wind blowing around her ears.*

Now you have gone and done it. What we going to do about those two?

*She indicates behind her with a thumb the dragon looking back and a mischevious smile of all accounts formed on the dragons face as she made a sudden turn going back the way they had come slowly dropping lower to the ground.*

I should of kept my mouth shut...I really should of....

*She muttered as twp sets of claws reached downwards and scooped one man up in each paw grasping their bodies firmly enough to hold but not to harm before lifting up again into the sky.*

You know.......were going to get enough attention anyway...do we really have to draw even more?

[Julian Lapin]

Julian kept a close eye on the dragon as he sprinted on the dusted pathway. He didn't have any particular idea where he was running to, or whether or not he could even keep up the pace - right now, all he cared about was keeping sight of the magnificent creature that had appeared and passed with such haste.

What he hadn't counted on was the dragon stopping right in mid flight, locking eyes, and diving towards them.

'Oh you can't be-' he began before Kenji, considerably more quicker on the uptake than he was in this regard, skidded to a halt and began running the other way. Quickly taking the hint, Julian followed suit, and within the space of six seconds the whole situation had taken a complete, almost laughable u-turn.

They made it about five seconds before they were elegantly scooped up in the beast's claws. Julian felt the wind knocked out of him as he was torn from the ground and lifted skywards, and for that vulnerable time he could only watch as the ground grew further and further away.

'Wha... what's the game? You there! Let us down!'

He swiftly recognised the idiocy of that last command.

'No! Disregard that! DON'T let us down!'

[Ed Kenji]

"JULIAN!" Kenji cried over the rushing wind.

"If I'm not very much mistaken, " he exclaimed, "we are 70 feet off the ground, and I don't know if you'd noticed, but there's still a bloody dragon!"

Kenji felt the sharp spikes of the beast's talons ripping into his flesh, however, he grabbed onto them tightly. If a dragon wanted to scoop him into the air it wasn't about to let him go so easily.

"Oi!" he yelled, with as much dignity as he could, "down! DOWWWWNNNN! Dragon! You know about down, right?"

He stopped, and rolled his eyes. This was an insane idea, who the hell reasons with a giant, winged monster which can't exist?

Crazy people, that's who.

Still, he considered his other options at this point. He squirmed ineffectually against the mighty grip and then decided that it wasn't a good idea anyway. Glancing over, he saw Jules in a similar situation. Their eyes locked, and with a wretched sense of resignation taking over from the blind panic, Kenji called out again.

"Yo, Dragon! I was wondering if I had fully informed you, " he screamed, " of all the possibilities that down might offer?"