Young Writers Society

Runi nodded.

That seemed like a good enough plan. The city had to have some kind of clue. Even if the people there couldn't outright say why they ended up in this place, they could probably point them in the direction of someone or something that could.

But before she could even start moving to the city, the city came to them. A woman who couldn't have been more than thirty at most suddenly seemed to notice them standing on the edges of the old-fashioned town. She turned to the woman next to her, said something to her, and watched as the woman rushed over towards the town's center.

Then the first woman started to head towards them.

Runi knew it was bad to be crushing on complete strangers in a situation like this, but this woman was totally her type. She had pretty, bright hazel eyes that sparkled in the light, even when there was dark clouds up above. Her brown curls went down a little ways past her shoulders. She was wearing medieval clothes, but, despite her companion wearing a dress earlier, she wore trousers and a vest.

Runi still wasn't entirely sure what this place was, but at least this old town had a friendlier relationship with non-gendered clothing. It also made Runi wonder if they were somewhere other than the past. She had been hoping that this wasn't time travel, but those clothes definitely made it seem like this wasn't.

"Hi," the woman said. "We weren't expecting travelers today—most people don't come through the ring this time of year. Are you...all part of the same group?"

"Ring?" asked Sean, "I don't know about any ring. And well, I don't know about these people, but I came through alone, so I'm not part of this group, well technically I appeared in the same place as they did so that's sort of a group but not really. But umm...hii, can you tell us anything about where we are? Cause I think we're all definitely very lost."

The woman stared at Sean for a moment.

Then she furrowed her brow.

"That's weird," she said, her confusion clearly displayed on her face. Runi glanced at everyone's fingers for some kind of magical ring that could teleport people, but no one seemed to have one. "You're on Alluren. I could give you the coordinates, but if you don't know what the ring is..."

The woman faltered.

"What exactly is the ring?" Runi asked. "I'm Runi, by the way. It's short for Darunia Vain."

The woman gave her an incredulous look before turning to a distant little dot on the horizon. She raised a finger and pointed at it. "That's the ring. It serves as a gateway between worlds. But that's common knowledge—every world has one of those."

Runi gave a sheepish smile.

"Mine doesn't?" she awkwardly replied.

Rea, naturally, had been making notes.

First she jotted down whatever had happened - she was as exact as possible in describing how she had wound up in this town. Then she wrote down the fact that there were others who were equally confused, all of them from seemingly different places.
Finally, she doodled a very rough, squiggly sketch of the town.

When the local woman started talking about a ring, Rea's fingers itched to start scribbling again. "My world lacks these rings as well. Are they teleportation devices or something? We have something like that, but they're big monoliths, not... rings. And what's the name of this town? What's your name? What kind of sentient are you? Is Alluren the name of this continent? Why don't most travellers come through during this time of the year?"
Rea rattled off all her questions in one breath, ending with a slight squeak. Her ears quivered with excitement, because despite her confusion, this was really quite interesting.

The woman mulled over Rea's questions.

"In older times—before we regularly interacted with travelers—we would call the rings portals," she answered. Runi glanced back at the little dot on the horizon as the woman turned to Rea. It was too far away for her to make out right now, but a portal did make sense when she thought about it. Hell had some of those, too.

(Even though teleportation devices were way easier to use and more efficient.)

"This town is also called Alluren," the woman said. "We're the only town on this world that we know of. You could also called us Allurens, but our histories say that our people were once part of a larger race called the Lanteans. As for why people rarely come here this time of year..."

She gestured towards the sky.

When Runi looked where she was pointing, she understood the point. The sky was darker than when they first arrived here; it looked like it was about to storm.

"It's almost always raining during this season," the woman said. Runi looked away from the sky. "Travelers usually come here during our drier seasons to avoid the sudden storms-"

There was a rumble of thunder in the distance.

"My name is Vivi," the woman introduced herself. "Since it might take some time to figure out what worlds you're from, you can stay overnight at my inn. It doesn't get much business this time of year, so there's enough rooms for all of you."

Runi glanced at the others in the group.

"I'm not sure we have your kind of money, though," Runi pointed out. A moment later, it started to drizzle.

Vivi dismissed the concerns with a wave of her hand. "It's alright. Company during a storm like this is good enough."

Wren furrowed her brow and squinted into the rain. The woman had said travelers used these rings to jump between worlds? It sounded insane, she thought, but she couldn't make herself care. Lost and shivering slightly, despite the heat, Wren was desperate to head inside and figure out how to get back home.

"Sounds like a plan," she announced and started to walk.

"Portals," repeated Sean. That was finally a word that he could actually understand. "So that's an IPG of some sort. Pretty old tech by the looks of it. Those have gotten a lot smaller now, well, bigger, but smaller...if you get what I mean. But alright, that makes a bit more sense. And Alluren, I've heard of names similar to that in my time, but never that."

He turned to smile at the woman. "As much as I love storms, I do think it wouldn't be wise to walk around in one on a world I've not even heard of, so, umm, thank you kindly for your hospitality, not many would provide a free night's stay for unexpected travellers. My name is Sean Argentum. Pleasure to meet you."

He offered a hand to shake. Hopefully that was a thing on this world.

After shaking Sean's hand, Vivi led the group to her inn. She brought them through already emptying streets. Not that Runi was really surprised; she wouldn't have been out and about with that storm rolling in. The few people they did pass watched them with curiosity in their eyes. They were dressed a lot like Vivi, even though the two or three women they saw were wearing old-fashioned dresses instead of Vivi's tunic and pants combo.

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at the inn.

The inn also fit the Renaissance fair/medieval vibe the rest of Alluren had. It wasn't a big inn—it was just two stories tall, with only a handful of windows visible on the top floor. Like the other nearby buildings, it was made of drab stone and brick.

Still, the inn had a homey feeling to it. There was a flower box out front and an open sign hanging on the front door. When Vivi opened it and Runi followed her inside, she discovered that the inn doubled as a tavern. The tables were all empty, but there was a few lamps bathing the room in a warm, gentle glow.

As the door shut behind the group, Vivi made her way over to the tavern's counter.

"I can go get you all some warm drinks," she said. "Afterwards, we can go to the second floor and sort out your rooms. There's a lounge with a fireplace there, too, so we can dry off there."

Vivi slipped off into a room behind the counter, gently shutting the door behind her. From the little glance that Runi had gotten, it seemed like it was some kind of kitchen.

Runi plopped herself down on a nearby stool that was right in front of the counter. The rain hammered away at the two windows right beside the front door.

"It's a good thing we got here when we did," Runi said. "I would not want to be stuck outside in weather like that."

Wren glanced outside the window, watching the rain fall in sheets. She suppressed a shiver at the thought of being caught outside. "Seriously," she agreed. "That would've sucked."

Wren walked over to the counter, sitting on a vacant stool next to Runi. Immediately after sitting down her leg began to bounce. The new environment coupled with being in a group of total strangers (who were definitely not from the same world as her) was sort of nerve-wracking.

"Cosy," Rea whispered, throwing a huge look of affection at the door Vivi had stepped through. What a sweet lady.

All this information was just a little bit intimidating; while she was enthusiastic about learning as much as she could, she was also worried about getting back to her own home.

And the storm. They didn't have anything this fierce in Rodinia.

Her mind drifted to her fellow... adventurers? Unsuspecting victims? Stranded travellers? Well, what she called them didn't matter.

"Well!" Rea said out loud. "Shall we go around introducing ourselves?" she looked around at them all, beaming.

Sean made his way into the inn, with a smile. It wasn't a particularly impressive looking one, but it had a cozy feeling that put him a bit at ease. Despite how far away from home he was, he couldn't help but feel a bit relaxed in the homely feel of the inn's interior.

The storm was also starting to come in and it was certainly one of the bigger one's Sean had seen. And he'd seen a lot of storms, both natural and not so natural.

"It's not too bad," said Sean, "but you would definitely catch a cold of some sort from wandering around in that."

Then one of them suggested they introduce themselves. Considering they were all stuck in a strange land with no currently visible means of escape that was probably a good idea.

"That sounds good," said Sean, "I'm Argentum. Sean Argentum. But you can call me Sean."

"I'm Runi," Runi offered, pulling her legs up so she was sitting cross-legged on her stool. "It's short for Darunia Vain."

She thought it was a little weird that Sean introduced himself by his last name and then said he would go by his first name instead, but she wasn't going to judge. People always tried guessing where she was from when they heard her name. It wasn't really a normal name according to them, so it was a constant guessing game when it came to her home country.

(She usually let them guess. It was easier than faking a nonexistent accent.)

"I'm Wren," Wren stated absently as she picked at a string hanging off the hem of her shirt, which was still a little damp from their short trek through the rain. "Wren Deltroy."

The girl's anxiety was still pretty high, and the wet fabric sticking to her skin didn't help how overwhelmed she was feeling. Glancing around the room, Wren searched for the closest source of light. If one was close enough, maybe she could coax the light over to dry her clothes without the others noticing.

"I"m Tithorea!" Rea bubbled. "You can call me Rea for short! I'm looking forward to getting to know you all better. And this place, too!"

She whipped out a pencil and paper, then began studying the architecture of the room. It wasn't backward, obviously. It was partially made of stone. Besides, these people seemed to have a technology similar to Waystones; that alone would have assured an influx of different cultures. But the clothes she had seen earlier were a little odd. Back home they didn't have that.

I wonder what species of cotton they have here?

Raleigh didn't say much as Vivi led them to the Inn. Being in a strange new world was a lot to take in, and they were overwhelmed. Still, they thanked Vivi quietly before sitting down and joining the others. It wasn't like they were trying to be rude.

The others in their group were starting to introduce themselves. Raleigh did their best to pay attention. Remembering names had never been their strong suit, but these were important. They were all stuck here, after all.

Soon it was their turn.

"I'm Raleigh," Raleigh said, tail flicking apprehensively at their heels. "I don't have any nicknames or anything, but you're welcome to try and come up with some."