"J'teul les dit combien d'fois de pas ramener du monde icitte pis de les terroriser?"

 The voice of a woman speaking in a foreign language echoed through the room. A small groan from whatever were  in the room with us answered her. It sounded hoarsed, making me scared to open my eyes. Thus, I continued sleeping.

"Pis gah lé, ye tomber à cause de toi." 

Even though I didn't understand what she was saying, her voice sounded accusotary to the thing she was talking to. The sound of her footsteps got louder as she walked closer to me and stopped. Was she staring at me?

"... Are you awake?"

The switch in languages surprised me so much that it made me open my eyes. The posture and glare she was giving me instinctively told me that she was the one in charge. Her hair was pretty long, a brownish colour. I couldn't tell the colour of her eyes though, since they were mostly hidden by the shadows of the room. She gave such an intimidating vibe that I could tell that messing with her meant death...

My eyes then flicked to that thing behind her, it was that bald headed demon from earlier.

"I apologize for what he did, he was just excited to see someone new in the forest."

I couldn't believe it. That bald headed creature almost looked apologetic. It bowed its head to the woman standing before me. I thought not to mess with her or she might tell that dog to attack me again...

"What's your name?"

"Caelan." I answered almost immediately.

"Age?" I frowned at the question.

"What do you need my age for?" She stared down at me with no reaction. Behind her, that bald headed demon stared back at me too.

"... 19 years old."

She nodded before turning around to face that thing to tell it something. The language she was speaking muddled me.

"Làlà, tu vas y dire tu suite que t'es désolé. S'tu claire?"

The bald headed demon nodded its head before walking up to me slowly. That's it, I'm gonna die. I instinctively tried to grab my sword, but it wasn't tied to my waist anymore. I froze as it stopped a meter away from me and bowed its head, walked backwards and disappeared into the shadows.

I incredulously stared at the spot it disappeared in, still seated on the floor in disbelief at what just happened. Not even an hour earlier, it was chasing me down the forest at the intent to probably kill me. And now, it was acting like it was the victim. Fucking hell, God just had to be messing with me today...

"You can stand up now."

That woman's voice brought me back to reality and I stood up. Now that I was more calm about the situation, I realized that the room we were in was odly dark. A lamp on the table next to me was the only source of light in this dark atmosphere. The woman that had questioned me was already sat at the table and staring up at me expectantly. I sat down on the chair that faced hers.

"First of all, I'd like to ask you some questions about yourself." I frowned, once again wondering what she wasgoing to do with that information.

"So, where are you from?"

"I'm from a nameless land in the south." she frowned at my answer, giving me a look to explain myself further.

"The land I was born in wasn't given a name due to the never lasting war that's been happening right now. You know, the war we're in right now."

The woman seemed even more confused with my answer than she was before.

"What war?"

I felt my heart drop at that answer. All of the fantasy books I had read when I was in the army coming back to mind. Had I.... gone back in time?!

"What year is this??" I asked eagerly. This would explain all the weird things that's happened till of late.

"The year 2025, why?"

Fuck, I wasn't a time traveler. My excitment vanishing in the blink of an eye to be replaced with a question I've been dying to ask since the beginning.

"Where is this place exactly?"

"You don't know your own geography? What a loser."

She snickered at me, I couldn't help but feel embarrassed even though it wasn't my fault. I glared at her and she giggled even more.

"I'm just messing with you. We presently are in Quebec."

My lips parted a little as I gave her a puzzled look. She scowled at my reaction and her smile gradually dropped.

"And um, where is that on a map?"

She stared at me before signaling something behind her. A clawed and big hand stretched out of the dark behind her and handed her a map of what seemed like a continent. She grabbed onto the paper and the hand disappeared just as fast as it appeared. She placed the paper at the center of the table.

"Here, that's where we are. Do you see it?"

She pointed to a red dot on the map, but I didn't recognize it at all. This was not my world map.

"... are there no other world map?"

She gave me a questionning look and seemed to think I was kidding.

"Boy, we ain't in call of duty." 

I gave her a serious look and she finally took me seriously.

"You don't recognize this map?"

I shook my head. She leaned back in her chair and thoughtfully gazed over the map on the table. Her gaze flicked back to me before she asked.

"You talked about a war earlier. what did you mean?"

I thought of the question before answering. I wasn't sure either, actually...

"I'm not sure either since I was born into it... I know that it was caused by the invasion of another country onto our land, bt either from that, I don't know."

She looked even more dumbfounded. It seems she didn't understand what I was talking about.

"That's weird..." she pinched her chin and thought out loud.

"So, you don't recognize this world's map, your land is at war at the moment and you don't seem to know how you ended up here. It's almost as if you had switched dimensions or something." she sarcastically said.

I frowned at her statement. What she was saying did make sense, but I never told her that I didn't know how I ended up here. And let's be for real, dimensional traveling? That woman sounded like she knew more than she told, which was suspicious....

"Just who are you exactly? How can you be so sure?"

"First of all, none of your business. Second, anyone who at least lived in the surrounding area wpuld know of the language that I speak of. Third, your outfit and blade."

With that, she pulled my sword from underneath the table and placed it on the flat surface. My eyes gleamed at the sight of my long lost best friend.

"The emblem on your sword is also different from our own."

She handed me back my sword and I snatched it away from her, placing it back on the side of my waist, where it should be. The woman then slowly got up from her seat and walked around the table only to stop a few feet away from me. I felt myself tense even as she spoke.

"I'm going to send you back now, sorry for the trouble."

She reached her hand up to touch my forehead, but my question stopped her.

"Wait!! How do you know about the traveling universe thingy? You weren't serious, right?"

She laughed. "There's a book that talks about it." 

Without further explanation, her hand touched my forehead. I felt my eyes forcibly being closed by themselves. When I opened them again, I was outside in the forest. She was gone. Looking around, I couldn't see any sign of her anywhere.

What a witch...

-END CHAPTER 2