The young man slowly cracked his eyes open, eyes unfocused as he looked over the room. Blurs of color swirled and combined in his mottled vision. Vaguely he was aware of a high voice speaking, but it was as muted and indistinct as his vision. His head lolled from side to side, trying to shake the haze from his mind. His body was as slow and unresponsive as his mind; limbs like dead-weights and his chest heavy and tight.
His senses came to him slowly, as if pulling a thick wet cloth from his face or exiting from shell-shock. The colors gained definition and shape, transforming the blurs of color to an ornate wooden room dressed up in long tapestries and golden candelabras. Before him was a long red carpet and a set of stairs leading to two thrones as regal as the man and woman who sat in them. The two were dressed in what looked to be silk and fur, jewelry shining in the firelight and casting shadows upon their frighteningly beautiful faces. It was the woman who's voice was slowly gaining coherency to his recovering ears. He watched her lips move and form sentences, though his mind was still too muddled to figure out what she was mouthing.
"...The choice is yours, Child of Man."
That, the first sentence to pierce the thick haze clouding his mind, sent ice-cold shivers down his spine and started to clear away the fog. The boy tried to move his arms only to find them unresponsive. Looking to his sides it became immediately apparent why; his arms were being held by two armor-clad guards while his legs dragged on the carpet behind him.
Information slowly trickled into his head like a mountain stream gradually defrosting during the spring. He had been sitting at his desk working on nothing when there was a screeching ripping sound and he knew no more. He felt the comforting weight of his switchblade and hair pick in his pockets, but not that of his phone or wallet. He was wearing his normal business clothes and his worn-through rockpor- A jarring blow to his head stopped his mental catalog. After his teeth stopped rattling, he glared up at the guard before turning his gaze to the two in front of him. "Where... am I?" His throat was sore and dry, causing his question to come out as more of a growl.
The man sneered at him but said nothing. The woman stared down her nose at him before speaking in a high, almost musical, tone. "You were found in the Grove of Lilliandriel; a sacred place where no filthy mongrel is to set foot, yet there we found you Child of Man. The punishment for trespassing in our home is death, Child of Man, but you did more than trespass; you defiled our sacred grove and we find ourselves in a quandary as to what to do with you. Death seems too lenient a punishment."
Something blinked at him from the corner of his eye, but he had more important things to deal with. Taking a second look around the room he noticed that the guards, of which there were many in his field of view, all wore armor that seemed more ornamental than functional and all had a sword, bow and quiver of arrows within easy reach. What really gave it away was the ears; he had been captured by elves.
The thought was so absurd it actually made him laugh aloud. With his throat in such bad condition, however, it came out more as a hacking wheeze. "So I've finally lost my mind; god, that's a comfort. For a while I was sure I was completely sane." King and Queen elf bristled at the blatant dismissal and he felt another harsh slap connect with the back of his head. "Ugh, could do without the pain though."
The Elf King's face took on a dark hue as it twisted into a snarl. "If it's pain you want, human, it's pain you'll get!" With a wave of his hand, he signaled for one of the guards by the walls to move forward and kick him in the ribs. After two such kicks, biting his cheek to keep from crying out, the human decided to take a shot in the psychological dark. "He'd still be *urk* alive if it wasn't for *oof* you!"
The guard froze mid-kick as the King's face drained of color. His hands started to shake with how tightly he was gripping the arms of his throne. The Queen looked as if she had seen a ghost, staring off into the distance. The human spat a mouthful of blood onto the carpet and tried to stabilize his breathing.
The King licked his lips absently, "Take him... take him to the holding cells. We will offer him to the Great Guardian tomorrow. Take him away."
The human spat another glob of blood onto the floor and glared at the King as the two guards dragged him away from the monarchs. As the two warriors dragged him, the human studied the path they were taking and how the walls looked. He made several attempts to stand, only to be smacked down by the guards. Resigning himself to the painful transportation, he noticed that the walls were made of natural wood as if the halls had been carved out of the insides of a massive tree. The deeper they went, however, he started to see solid blocks of stone, very unlike the normal thought of elves. The structures reminded him of something... but it was just out of his grasp. It wasn't until they passed a set of glowing crystals that the answer hit him like a slap to the face. 'Ayleids... what the fuck is going on here?'
He was roughly tossed into a cell and the guards left, locking another door farther up. Looking around he noticed several other prisoners of various... species. Humans, a couple elves and what looked like an gnome. On a whim he called out, "Erky Timbers?"
The gnome looked up sharply and stared at him. "How did you know my name?"
The human couldn't respond, he was too busy laughing. "Oh, oh god, we might have a chance at surviving!" He ignored the rest of the prisoners as he retreated into his mind, blocking out the sheer impossibility of this reality; denying it's existence. He realized something was still blinking out of the corner of his eye, but no matter where he looked, it stayed just on the corner of his vision. He unfocused his eyes and tried to focus on the spot which led to the most startling thing he'd seen yet in this world; a small rectangle that said 'Level Up!' He was struck stupid for a moment, all he could say was, "Damn, Chaos actually did it."