Vlad walked down the street, boots clacking merrily. His money purse was jingling, his cloak was fluttering, and life was altogether good. He wasn't even going anywhere in particular. Just walking for the sake of it wasn't something he was accustomed to, but it wasn't turning out so badly. This was a pretty nice alleyway...
At least it seemed so until he heard some old klagga bottles falling over behind him. A dagger quietly reaching his fingers, and he silently cursed his familiar for being away on an impromptu honeymoon.
"Uhhh..." he heard, from a shadowy place about eleven feet away that he couldn't see into. He sincerely hoped that no one was doing anything...interesting...over there, and stalked stealthily towards it.
A trail of long red strands of hair led up towards the face of a beautiful girl. Who was lying all alone, unprotected, and unconscious in the street. She was also naked.
Sure, he had had plently of experience in girlish nakedness, but it wasn't every day that you found a specimen like this lying in the street. Why was she there? And why was she unconscious? And for God's sake, why was she naked?
Embarrasment colored his cheeks a little - she did have a nice body, long but curvy in all the right places - but he drew off his cape and tucked it around her. He found that he wasn't willing to just leave her lying there after that, so he eased himself down next to her to wait out her faint. Waiting was boring, but the girl certainly wasn't. Well, perhaps girl wasn't the right word. She was really a woman. Just a young one. Perhaps eighteen or nineteen...not Dragarean. She looked like a blend of Easterner and Dragarean, actually. Not quite tall enough to be a Dragarean, and her features weren't quite haughty enough. They were elegant features; a small nose and a cupid's bow mouth that looked used to smiling. He wondered what color her eyes were. And more than that he wondered who she was.
While he was looking elsewhere, wondering if there were any clues to her origins lying carelessly around, the woman woke up.
She blinked dark grey eyes and raised up slightly on her elbow, throwing the long red hair over one smooth, bare shoulder that the cape had slipped off of. Then she focused on herself, the foreign object covering her, and the strange man at her side. Her mouth opened in shock and she gasped before she could help it.
Instantly, Vlad swung around, cursing himself and wondering how he hadn't noticed her awakening. He surveyed her with cool eyes as she stared back at him with panicked ones. She clutched the cape to her chest and scooted quickly backward, running into a wall before she had gone too far.
"Who...who are you?" she asked in a horrified tone. "What have you done? You..." she looked around wildly and stumbled to her feet.
Vlad stood up smoothly and extended a hand. She shrieked and shrunk back against the wall. He tried not to think about what a very interesting picture that made.
"Listen," he said gently, drawing back his hand, "I only found you. I don't know how you got here." Her eyes looked a little less wild, and she straightened up a little, but she still looked wary.
"Where am I, then?" she asked suspiciously.
"East Andrilankha," he replied promptly.
She asked faintly, " Am I... on Earth?"
He stared at her hard, wondering what was wrong with her. "What's Earth?" he asked cautiously.
She fainted.