DISCLAIMER: I do not earn any form of legal payment for this literary composition.

This is about the third time I've changed this chapter so I apologize for the constant going back and forth. Indecision is my middle name! REM indecision dream, that's me!

.oOo.

Chapter II

Strangers in a Distant Land

Welcome to a world of new solutions.

Welcome to a world of bloody evolution.

~RWBY

.oOo.

Silence.

Emptiness.

Floating in a quiet peace.

And like shattered glass I was pulled from the water by two strong arms and dragged onto a boat.

On the deck I rolled off of my back and frantically coughed up the water in my lungs. My throat burned so much with every gasp I took.

The world seemed to spin as I sat up and brushed my drenched hair away from my face. A man was crouched in front of me. His face was kind, but my vision blurred his features. As my sight cleared I noticed he had dark brown eyes and a dark tan to his skin. His grey streaked, black hair was pulled back in a short, curly ponytail. He was also wearing strange clothes. They were earth toned for the most part except for a red scarf that was tied loosely around his neck. To sum it up, he was very medieval looking.

The first thought that came to mind once I had calmed myself was if one of the people on the barge really did save me from drowning, but that thought was quickly crushed when the man started to speak.

He was saying something to me but I couldn't understand a thing that came from his mouth. I tried talking but my words only came out as muffled squeaks. My throat hurt so much from the salty water.

The man quickly reached for a canister and uncorked the top to give me a drink of water. I tried pushing it away (you would to if you had just came back from the brink of drowning) but he insisted, and after a few sips I was able to speak.

"Who are you?" I asked hoarsely, wincing at the pain in my throat and nose.

He shook his head and said something I still couldn't understand. He leaned back for a moment before pointing to himself, "Kelvin."

'Is he saying his name?' I wondered.

He did the same motion again, "Kelvin." then pointed at me and said something else.

'He's asking my name.' I pointed to him, "Kelvin."

He nodded then pointed back at me.

I pointed to myself, "Eleanor."

"Elanur." he said.

"Eleanor." I corrected.

"Elanor." he repeated.

I nodded then shivered as a wind blew across the small fishing boat. The man apon seeing me shutter, took off his coat and pulled it around my shaking shoulders with a kind smile.

"Thank you." I said as I pulled his coat closer. He nodded and turned to the hull of the boat where he began to draw in a small net almost full of fish.

I watched him as he dumped them into a wooden crate, then set about unfurling the sail to go back to land. As he began steering the boat to the mainland I looked around for the first time.

My eyes were drawn to the body of water that we were currently on. It was a very large lake, but not so large that I couldn't see the shore on all sides. It was a strange sight to see a desert on one end of the lake then turn around to see a lush forest at the other, and see mountains on all sides, but that was the nature of this place. Thankfully we were headed to the forest side. But that was just it, we were on a lake. And the last time I checked, I was out on the open ocean. Granted I could just be having a weird unconscious dream, but would my imagination really conjure up this? At least give me some good memories to live through, and not this confusion. But what if I got transported here for some reason, and all of this is real. Ugh! I really hate my brain sometimes.

So to tried to remedy the problem; I asked Kelvin where we were, if he knew of the USA, and even if he knew of Mickey Mouse, but it was useless. He didn't understand a thing that I said, and by the last question he looked rather grumpy so I let him be.

'How could it be that he hadn't heard of America?!' I thought, 'Surely he would have heard of Micky Mouse by now! Or at least known of a big country that practically makes itself known all the time!' I sighed, 'I suppose I'll just have to wait and see if I can find someone who knows English. Maybe I can get my bearings then.'

I decided to go with that plan and waited sitting on the deck for what felt like an eternity before the boat pulled up to a primitive looking dock next to a small town. Kelvin hopped over the railing and tied off the boat.

I stood and stepped over after him still dripping wet, although, my hair was starting to dry into a fizzy and tangled mess.

I looked up the small incline to the town. As I said before it's really small. I'd say only about seven or nine houses from what I could see. They were all built out of wood that looked way to old to be safe. A lot of people were around and even some more fishermen were around the dock mending their nets or admiring their catch of the day. Many of the homes had livestock that some of the women were looking after. There were chickens, pigs, and the rare cow here and there in the fenced in areas behind the houses. The town was quaint, but primitive.

Kelvin finished tying the toe rope then gestured to me to follow him.

I hesitated, 'Can I trust this man? Where is he going to take me?'

Kelvin turned around from where he had been walking and called for me and gestured again.

I sighed, 'What other choice do I have?'

Several people stopped their work to stare at me as I followed Kelvin up the dirt road. Some had looks of sympathy others confusion, and still some looked very cautious and not in a good way.

We continued to walk for a few minutes before we came to a cottage somewhat in the middle of the town. When we got within twenty yards of the front door a woman I would assume to be in her late twenties, came rushing out to meet Kelvin and me. The former I assumed was her husband. She had long curly brown hair, and dark brown eyes. He skin was slightly paler than Kelvin's but still tanned. She was short but still taller than me and was fairly skinny. Chubby if you compared her to me though. Lewis would always call me little bird because I was always so skinny and never ate a lot. My heart sunk a little more at thinking about him.

While they were talking I noticed a girl hovering just inside the front door. She looked to be about fifteen or so. She was skinny like me, with long curly black hair. She had richly tanned skin and dark brown eyes. She was wearing a knee length dress with long sleeves, but she didn't have shoes on. 'I suppose she's their daughter.' I thought.

She turned away from sight however, when Kelvin grabbed my attention back to him. He pointed at his wife, "Cardia."

I pointed at her, "Cardia." and he nodded. He then said a few more words then Cardia gently took hold of my arm and led me into the house while Kelvin walked back to the way we had come.

She led me into the house and set me on a low stool. She said something to her daughter and the latter hurriedly climbed up to the loft.

Cardia made herself busy and I awkwardly looked around while I waited. The house itself had one room on the floor and a ladder that led up to a loft of sorts where the girl had disappeared to. The kitchen, bedroom, and dining/living room were all conjoined with the stone fireplace in the center. It had a dirt floor and the stove in the kitchen looked fairly decent. All in all it was a very nice house.

Her daughter soon came down with a bundle of clothes. She walked over to me and held them out for me to take.

I stared at them not sure what to do. She said something and thrust the bundle at me again, but when I still didn't respond she put them on the table then proceeded to start to strip me of my wet clothes. I quickly twisted out of her grasp with a half yell, "Hey! I can dress myself if that's what you want me to do!"

She huffed and went about her business in another part of the room and started sweeping the dirt floor. When her back was turned I looked through the clothes she had given me.

It was a total of three items: a long sleeved dark brown dress, a chemise, and a pair of underwear. 'This is all very strange.' I thought while I figured out how to put on the dress that she had given me. 'Where in the world am I? I haven't recognized anything these people have said.' I sighed in frustration. 'Dad said that I was going to the Florida Keys, but I couldn't have made it that far in one night. So where am I?'

The chill of my still wet clothes brought me back from my thoughts. I looked down at the clothes then at Cardia and the girl. After making sure they had their backs fully turned I took off my shoes and socks, my sweat shirt, my t-shirt, and my pants.

I looked down at the wet underclothes that I still had on. I don't want to get nude in front of people that I barely know, and yet I don't want to feel uncomfortable while they dry either. Plus what if the water leaked through the dress. 'That would be unforgivably embarrassing.' I decided. So I pulled everything off, and as fast as I could slipped on the underpants that the girl had given me. I slipped on the chemise on first then pulled the scratchy dress over my head. I had barely just pulled my hair out of the dress when the girl turned around.

'That was a close one.' I mentally sighed.

Once she saw that I had finished changing she walked over and picked up my clothing to hang it over the fire to dry but she suddenly froze when she saw my t-shirt. She exclaimed something to her mother, who came over and looked at the brightly colored shirt as well. They looked it over for a few minutes until Cardia finally hung it on the rack beside the fire. Where the girl still stared at it.

The expression on her face reminds me of the time I showed Michael my drawings for the first time.

Michael. Why you too. 'No, shake it off. You have to move on.' I scolded myself.

I decided to at least try to talk to the girl. "Hello." I awkwardly said.

She gave me a puzzled stare and said something in that strange guttural language they all spoke in.

I then remembered the trick Kelvin used so I pointed to myself and said, "Eleanor." I then pointed at her, "What's your name?"

She caught on pretty quick and pointed to herself, "Darcy."

I smiled, "It's nice to meet you." and stuck out my hand for a handshake.

She looked at my hand in confusion so I just withdrew it and smoothed out the wrinkles in my dress instead. 'When was the last time I actually wore a dress?' I wondered, 'I think it was Easter. Who would have thought that things would change so badly over just a few months? I wonder if things happened differently, if they would still be alive... No. Don't think about it. You need to find out where you are. I need to find Mom and Dad again.'

Cardia's voice snapped me out of my thoughts and Darcy took hold of my hand and led me over to the table where she gave me a knife and laid a squash like vegetable in front of me. She mimicked the motion of slicing it and I cut a little off the end of it, then looked to her for recognition. She nodded and went to another part of the kitchen.

I really didn't know what to do at this point, so I just did what I was told, and after I finished that one she handed me another that didn't look like anything I had seen before. It was red with more peach fuzz on it than the normal fruit, or vegetable, I knew of. But I just continued to chop it up and every other one that Darcy handed me as well.

When there weren't any more to cut Darcy led me over to a pot where she told me to stir the soup in "sign" language. While I stirred she tossed in different ingredients, all the while telling me their names, and the words of the cooking tools. Which developed into me pointing at things and her telling me what they were, and apparently, the name of the mystery fruit/vegetable was Sokwappha, whatever that means.

It was about an hour later when supper was deemed ready. The sun had almost completely gone down over the horizon and Darcy set about lighting candles while I was given wooden dishes to set the table with. I put everything out onto the table like I would at home but when Darcy came over she not only switched the fork from the left to the right side but also moved all of the plates to the other side of the table. I stood there confused for about a minute before Kelvin came through the front door. He knocked off the dirt from his shoes and hung his coat by the door then walked over to the head of the table where he sat down. He was soon followed by Cardia then Darcy who motioned for me to sit in the chair beside her's.

Surprisingly the soup tasted ten times better than it looked. Maybe it's because I hadn't eaten in a while, I'm not sure, but it was about the best I had tasted in a while.

After supper Darcy set me to washing the dishes in water that was scorching hot. I was happy for the distraction though, because so many things were reminding me of my brothers.

Every time the people here would talk to each other I would imagine that they were talking about me. I must have looked dead inside because the family gave me sympathetic looks every so often.

When all of the chores had been done Darcy led me up the ladder to the loft where she handed me a night shift. I inwardly groaned, 'How many times do I have to change in front of these people?' (meaning Darcy in particular). I sighed and just decided to get it over with and quickly changed.

In the moments of my indecision, Darcy had made a bed for me on the opposite side of the attic than her's. When I had finished changing she pointed to it then lay down on her bed. I slowly walked over to my own and sat down on the edge. The mattress consisted of one cover on the floor and the sheet was just another cover on top. Both of which, were hand stitched.

I looked back at where Darcy was lying. She had turned her back to me. I noticed she had been giving me kind of the cold shoulder ever since a rather lively family debate at the dinner table. 'Could she be upset that I'm in her personal space?' I wondered, 'Or could it be something completely different?'

I mentally sighed, 'I wish I had my journal.' That thing has been with me for so long. It's filled with so many memories that I sketched down on the pages, and the inscriptions are filled with happy thoughts. 'I could use some of that right now.' I snorted.

'I wonder what would have happened if Lewis and Michael didn't go to DC. What if there was something that I could have done to save Will?' A silent tear slid down my cheek, 'Mom, Dad, I miss you so much. Why did you have to leave me? Why?' I closed my eyes to the tears, 'Please come find me. I don't know where I am.'

'I don't want to be alone.'

oOoOoOo

I am planning on creating a story that depicts the POV of other persons in this story. So be on the lookout for that. I won't tell you much but I will tell you that the first two chapters are going to be of how Lewis, Michael, and William die. Hope that wont be too morbid for you! Leave a review and tell me what you think.

Thank you for reading!