A/N: Read my intro to Benjamin Lamm before you read this if you haven't already, otherwise some of this won't make sense to you. It's on my profile (of course...) or otherwise in the Misc,X overs section.
Benjamin Lamm in Alagaësia
Since I only got the journal a few weeks ago as a birthday present this actually happened two or so years ago, when I was still in senior school and at the young and o so innocent age of 15 (in total I was 169 years old). Just so you know.
I dropped the parker pen in my hand on the table, rotated my tired wrist, and rested my head on the table. I was in the middle of a mock science exam, and it was incredibly boring. I had breezed through it. I was unusually prepared for this mock as I was walking home from school with all my science books in my bag when I disappeared.
I ended up on some unpopulated island in the middle of an ocean. The climate was akin to the Mediterranean, warm and pleasant. I was there for a couple of months and by that time I had literally memorised my text books, except the biology one which I had lost in the sea… Luckily for me the mock was for physics.
Anyway I was sitting in the middle of the classroom when the familiar, and cursed, gut feeling started. I guessed I had about fifteen minutes before I vanished for, hopefully, only a minute or two. Once I had vanished for an hour and people were searching for me as I vanished during a lesson… I sat and squirmed for ten or so minutes when the sucking set in. 'Less than fifteen minutes then', a section of my mind thought, whilst the rest was considering the consequences. Then, without a sound or flash of light or anything, I was gone.
Instantly I started to fall. I yelped instinctively, but the fall was only from a meter or so in the air; a little higher than usual "but", I thought, "I was sitting on a stool". The ground was hard and I had managed to, yet again, land on the base of my spine, jarring me and making my rear end hurt and ache. Not pleasant, I can tell you. Groaning to myself I stood up and looked around me to see where I was.
A huge grassy plain stretched out for miles, and to the north the ground seemed to turn yellow and a giant heat haze smudged the yellow until it was completely unrecognisable and no features could be seen. I slowly turned around 360 taking in where I was. To the south the world went curiously white, with a grey or green band connecting ground to white. High above the band, the white met the blue of the sky. The sun was setting, in contrast to the just past midday time I left behind.
"That will upset my body clock." I grumbled aloud. I had a habit of talking out loud and with no-one there to hear me I was not afraid to 'let out', shall we say.
"Or it could be the morning, making that east, the white north and the yellow south." I thought aloud.
"No, it's defiantly evening. Well we'll see in the next half an hour. Either the sun will rise or it will set." I felt a nagging at the back of my head and with a start I remembered the portal. I had to find out how long I would be 'staying'. The circle haze loomed ominously and I approached it calmly, it would still be there for another hour or so; I just knew. A number was superimposed over my mind. 2 years, it said.
"Ah c'mon! Two whole bloody years, and not a soul to share it with." I moaned. True to my word no-one had been taken with me and there was no sign of civilization. I sighed to myself and got busy. I fell into a routine I had created many vanishes ago, which let my mind wonder whilst I made myself shelter, found water and generally got settled in. I got out what items where in my blazer pockets as my school bag had been left behind. A small pocket knife, with various useful attachments; a pencil and sharpener; a notepad; my school timetable, which was completely useless here but the paper might come in handy so I kept it; and finally gloves and hat. I did once have a small survival guide, which proved to be incredibly helpful, but I had memorised it by now. I replaced my equipment and set off to find water and shelter.
After walking, and running for a bit, for half an hour I had covered nearly four miles on the flat ground. I walked west, towards the now definitely setting sun. Several stars had appeared already and there was a red star approximately at direct north, which would help navigation immensely. After twenty minutes I found out where I was.
After going to several places with magic, and being a magic user myself in most of them, I had been going through my tests to discover it. The magic flooded within me after I had broke an inner barrier within my mind with extreme excursion (I ran a lot). I couldn't release it on its own so I tried a few choice words I had memorised. One word worked.
"Brisingr" The bush I directed it at burst into golden flame and realisation flooded through me.
"I'm in Alagaësia!" I yelled in joy, thumping my hand into the air. I had often wanted to turn up here when I realised everywhere I went was fictional, someone else's imagination. And now here I was. The drain of energy caught me by surprise when I was at the peak of my thump, I fell sideways. When I made painful contact with the ground I cut off the spell. The fire lessened but by now the bush had dried out and it burned alone.
I carried on walking, parallel to the Beor Mountains heading towards free Surda. I was curios as to the date, if it was before, after or during the adventures of Eragon. After another hour or so the sun had set and I found myself next to a small stream that was fringed with short trees and bushes. I quickly made a temporary camp and a rough lean-to. I ate some berries I found and drank from the clear stream and settled down inside my lean-to.
"This," I said to myself, a smile tugging at my lips, "will be a fine adventure indeed."
