"What do you mean I'm stuck here? If I came here, I can find my way back," I protested.
"The Convergence occurs only once in every 5,000 years. In that time period, the nine realms align. The ability to travel between realms is relatively normal. However, it ended today. There is no Bifrost in this realm, so you and I are stuck here," he explained.
Now, it might have been just me, but his eyes looked darker than they did before he absorbed that weird red dust.
"I refuse to believe that. 'Where there's a will, there's a way.' Now, if you'll excuse me," I said, hefting my bag onto my shoulder, "I will be leaving that way," I continued, pointing behind me.
With that, I quickly put distance between the two of us. So much for a 'thank you'. I could have left him armless (or attached his arm to the side of his head), but I knew I couldn't. My conscience was too good. My mother called it "being unique and good-hearted". One of her friends called it "a weakness". I guess this guy would call it unnecessary.
The sun (or what I assumed to be a sun) was going down when I found the cave. I figured that being outside in the dark in an unknown place was pretty dangerous. Besides, I could go searching in the morning. When I got into the cave, I tripped over something round. After doing some digging in my bag, I finally pulled out a flashlight. I discovered that I tripped over a soccer ball. Wait; how did a soccer ball get here? I looked around some more, and noticed a lot of glass bottles and shoes (none of which were in pairs). I could sense that a portal had been here, but it was gone now.
Still, I couldn't give up. Granted, I didn't have anything waiting for me at home, but home sounded better than here. I pulled out a pillow and my green blanket from my bag. Now, a cave floor was not my best idea for a mattress, but beggars can't be choosers. I certainly wasn't going back to that… elf guy or whatever he was. I'd rather get my intestines pulled out than go crawling back to him.
It took some adjusting, but I finally managed to fall asleep.
I pulled myself up from the black, rocky soil, the same way I did before. As I brushed off the dirt, my jeans felt wet. I looked at my hands… to find them stained red with blood! I looked back up to see two being in front of me. They were battle-scarred, beaten, and bloody. They had cracked, aged, and blackened masks, but they looked to be the same species as the guy I helped earlier.
"You healed the murderer. You healed the traitor," they simultaneously, creepily chanted.
"What?"
"You healed the traitor. You must die for your wrongdoings."
I tried to run, but something grabbed my ankles. I looked down to see even more bodies littering the ground. Their hands, some halfway rotted to the bone, started pulling me under.
"He murdered us. He killed his people," all the bodies chanted.
"I didn't know!"
"You helped him. You must die. He left us behind. He left us to die. He killed us. He's a traitor."
"Stop!"
They didn't stop. They kept dragging me under. The smell of rotting, putrid flesh filled my nose, making me want to barf.
I was halfway under when I looked up to see him staring at me. His face was devoid of any emotion. I called out to him for help, but he offered none. My hand reached to him before I was pulled under completely.
