This Is What Dreams Are Made Of
By: Ranariel
Chapter 1: A Strange Place
Before Alex opened her eyes she knew she was in a different place. The smells were definitely not like an underground basement: lemon window cleaner for the glass cases and Febreze. What Alex smelled was more like grass and water. When Alex opened her eyes she saw her assumptions were right. Overhead, trees were covering the sky, and when Alex sat up she saw bushes, and what appeared to be a stream a little ways off.
"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more. At least I'm armed," said Alex spotting her katana beside her but not seeing a wand in her wand holster. "But wandless."
Alex stood up and walked to the stream. She knelt down and scooped up some water. She splashed some on her face and scooped some more to drink. After, she stared at her reflection.
"I need to find a way out of this forest," said Alex.
Alex followed the stream south as someone had to depend on its water. Alex had walked about a mile when she heard a snap to her left in the forest. Alex instinctively went on the defensive: turning around and facing the direction of the sound, with her sword in her right hand at an angle so that her hand was parallel to her hip and the blade was angled up her body. Alex barely noticed the arrow coming towards her, she barely managed to do a barrel roll and get out of the way.
"Who's there?" Alex shouted.
A blond-haired man walked out of the trees with an arrow nocked in a bow.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?"
"How about you put the bow down and then I'll answer your question."
"Answer my question or I will shoot,"
"Would you really shoot me?"
The man raised his bow higher towards eye level.
"No need to get all hasty. How about we both put our weapons down at the same time,"
The man turned his head as to look over his shoulder. His eyes narrowed as if in annoyance. He turned around to face the trees and slowly backed up to stand next to Alex.
"You should get away from this place. Now."
"Something's coming, isn't there? Something bad. It's written all over your face," said Alex.
"Orcs are coming. You might want to run. I don't want to have to protect both you and myself," he said.
"Orcs don't exist. They exist only in… that's impossible. That would mean that I am in… but it's not supposed to exist." Alex started to say, but then she heard the sound of feet stomping everywhere not caring for stealth or surprising their enemies.
The clearing between the stream and the trees wasn't that big and when the orcs came through the trees, the clearing definitely started to feel claustrophobic to Alex. The orcs were definitely the stuff of children's nightmares: they were stooped over as if bearing a great weight, but tiny as if underfed. They had sallow skin, with wide mouths and slant eyes. They were all armed with scimitars.
"You can't take all of these orcs down on your own," said Alex.
"You think that you can help me," the man replied.
"Better me to help you here than for you to die alone while I run away. Now are we going to attack or shall I do it by myself,"
The man did not answer her question, but charged the orcs on the right side. Some of the orcs on the left attacked the man but some charged Alex when she joined the fight. Alex had never faced an enemy in a swordfight that were ruthless killing machines as the orcs were, not even during practices at the local dojo where she and Alana practiced. Alex could feel adrenaline rush through her. She felt so 'alive'. However, this feeling wasn't coming from her, but from inside of her. The feeling was so strong and powerful and took a lot of energy to keep up. Alex finally could not keep standing. She could feel herself falling, and struggled to keep hold of her katana. She could see the orc coming towards her with its scimitar raised, but could not raise her katana to defend herself. She had finally fallen to her knees when she felt the scimitar penetrate her shoulder. The man had just faced Alex when she fell. He quickly defeated the other orcs who started to run when the orc hit Alex.
"I told you to run," he said.
"I'm starting to go unconscious from blood loss and you're berating me for not running?" said Alex, trying to pull the scimitar out of her shoulder.
"This may hurt a bit," said the man.
"If you're going to take that out of my shoulder, you may as well tell me your name," said Alex.
"My name is Iolas. What is yours?"
"My name is Alex. Pull it out,"
The man stood up and pulled. Alex grimaced in pain but did not cry out. The man moved and Alex saw something that, surprisingly enough did not surprise her.
"You're an elf," said Alex, barely having enough energy to point at his ears.
"Yes. I can tell that you're not,"
"Don't insult the woman about to go unconscious please," said Alex as she fell unconscious.
