Town From Another World
Xander licked his lips as he lunged for a plate of spaghetti, ready to gulp it down. Then he realized that instead of regular utensils, he held chopsticks. While he puzzled over this predicament, the food slowly receded to the background. "Hey! What's the big idea!"
"Alexander Harris, you shouldn't be eating at a time like this. You have to stop the Hellmouth. There is no time for food in Sunnydale!"
"GIVE ME BACK MY FOOD!" Xander pulled his arm back and hurled the chopsticks at the voices that were stealing his nourishment.
"Xander." Willow's voice slowly made him open his eyes. "Who do you think you're throwing things at?"
He looked up and glanced at Giles, who had a pencil in his hand, and another on top of his head. "Honestly Xander, what were you dreaming about?" He pulled the pencil off his head and set them both on the table. He walked off muttering about today's youth, disappearing into the stacks. "Come on Xander, we've got to get to class." Willow laughed and dragged the still disoriented boy to History.
"Willow? Please don't forget that I need some help with shelving my new shipment of books this evening."
"We'll be here, won't we Xander?"
"How many books we talkin' about?"
Willow smacked Xander on the shoulder and waved at Giles as she left. He blinked once as she left, shaking his head. There was no way the girl was surrounded by a red glow. He had been reading too much.
***
"Giles, can you even read these books?" Xander sighed as he set down the third box of ancient volumes he had carried in. He looked around at the whole gang as they gathered around, unpacking the books that hopefully could replace the ones that had been burned.
"With the proper translating tools handy, yes. It's only Chinese Xander." Giles picked up a small red tome and read the binding, "'Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho'. Hm." He removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
"The Universe of the Four Gods." Everyone turned to look at Willow, who blushed. "What, it's written on the packing slip," she said, waving the piece of paper.
"Oh, is that ancient Chinese?" Westley sauntered into the library, placing his reading glasses firmly on his nose, "Well then, I can read that..."
Giles muttered something and began to walk away when Westley began in a loud, clear tone, "This is the story of the girl who gathered the seven Sei of Suzaku. She obtained omnipotent power and made every wish come true. The story itself is an incantation. Whoever finishes reading it shall receive this power. As soon as the page is turned, the story will become the truth and begin."
"Sounds nifty." Buffy said as she picked up another box of books. "What the..."
Everyone in the library stopped as a strange red light began to flow from the book, across the floor like fog. It engulfed the library, and seemed to continue to spread before everyone was blinded by how thick it had become. A strange sound circled them; it reminded Buffy of an eagle screeching.
"Owwww." Willow sat up, rubbing her head. "What was THAT?"
Buffy stood up quickly, looking about to examine her surroundings. "Where the..." Buffy reached out and smacked Willow on the back of the head, "Hey, does that hurt?"
"YES! Willow shoved Buffy with all her might. "What was that for?"
"Well this hurts too much to be a dream," Buffy pondered while rubbing her rear-end where she had been knocked off balance.
"Oh, it can't be a dream." Willow said nodding her head, "Liam Neeson isn't here."
Buffy rolled her eyes and stood up, about to make a sarcastic comment on Willow's taste in men when she heard the crunch of footsteps and Willow's muffled screaming. She turned quickly, already in a fighting stance.
"Isn't this our lucky day?" The large man leered at Willow, who he firmly held in one arm, his other hand clamped over her mouth.
Buffy gestured at their clothing, "What are you, like a troupe of acrobats or something?"
"You idiot, we're human slave traders!" A man stepped out from behind his not-as-ugly friend. Buffy shrugged.
"Whatever." She launched herself at the first one, quickly knocking him unconscious. She turned to two others that had appeared out of no where and were quickly advancing on her. "Willow, Run!" She jumped for the other two, and quickly broke several of their ribs and other bones before they ran off.
"Buffy!" Willow screamed as another slaver grabbed her around the waist, holding a knife to her throat. Buffy stopped in her tracks as he held the sharp blade closer to her friend.
Suddenly, he dropped the blade and fell to the ground. A young man stood behind him, twisting the slavers arm up in a very unnatural position.
"Yamete." He said coolly as he let the man go, the wind blowing his blue-green hair from his forehead to reveal a glowing red symbol. The slaver attacked and the young man knocked him out cold without even trying. As the slavers all scrambled to get away, the newcomer turned to Buffy and Willow and smiled a small half smile that they both knew rather well.
"Oz?" Willow stood up, in complete shock at the ability her boyfriend had just shown, and the fact that he was wearing some pretty strange clothes, even for Oz.
Buffy grinned, "Guess this means this is your dream after all, huh? Thanks for the help Oz."
"Thanks goes better with money." Oz said, holding out a hand for his payment.
Buffy's jaw dropped. "Excuse me? Since when have you wanted MONEY for helping us? I know your band isn't very good, but why should WE pay you when we could have taken care of it?"
Willow just stood in place, dumbfounded. This certainly couldn't be Oz...what a nightmare.
"No money? What kind of people are you? Oh well. Ja ne!" He turned and started to walk away.
Willow started digging through her pockets, "Wait! I'm bound to have something...at least a couple dollars!"
Buffy took the direct approach and ran after him, "Hey! What do you think you're doing? Where the hell are we? And what is up with that dress you're wearing? You're supposed to help us you..." she looked at the ground, where the same red fog had started to seep through the cracks in the parched ground. "What? Willow!"
Willow turned, pulling a five out of her pocket, "Tada! Oz! Oz? Buffy? Hey, where did everybody go?"
Buffy landed with a thud on the library table. She looked around, expecting to see everyone staring at her. Instead, she was greeted with silence. "Giles? Xander? Anybody? I'd even settle for Westley?" She looked around, seeing the book that Westley had dropped. She picked it up, seeing an illustration done in the style of ancient Chinese woodcuts. "Whoah, this is too weird."
The scene depicted to girls, who seemed to be wearing jeans and T-shirts sitting on the ground in front of a boy with a Chinese character written on his forehead. She looked at the foreign words next to the illustration, and was amazed that she could almost read it. She dug through a pile of books next to her until she found an abridged ancient Chinese dictionary. "The things Giles keeps laying around." She muttered, and started to thumb through the book.
Meanwhile, Willow decided to find the nearest form of civilisation. If she could find a town, then she was bound to find a map or something that could tell her where she was. She climbed on the back of a passing hay wagon and rode until she turned and saw one of the most beautiful cities she had ever seen.
"Sugoi!" She stopped for a second and shook her head. "What AM I saying?" She looked at the city again, amazed at how lovely it was compared to L.A. "It looks like a film set from Shogun." She hopped off the back of the wagon and made her way to the city.
"I should be able to find somebody here that can tell me where I am..." She walked up to a booth selling something that looked like round biscuits. "Hello, sir...ano, have you seen a blond girl, a little taller than me but dressed like this walk through here?"
"You buying something?" The man said, gesturing to the strange biscuits.
"Umm...okay." Willow picked one up and pulled a few quarters out of her pocket, "So, have you seen her? Or a guy with blue hair and a bright red mark on his forehead?"
The man grinned as he took her money, "No, but you could...hey! What are you trying to pull, this isn't money!"
Willow paled, "Yes it is, it's seventy-five cents, isn't that enough?"
"Thief! The-if!" The man started screaming, pointing at Willow. She turned around and saw everybody looking at her and did the only sane thing she could think of. She ran.
She stopped when she reached a secluded alley where she could catch her breath. "Geez, this isn't Sunnydale, that's for sure. Where's Buffy? Where am I?"
"Excuse me miss?" A nice looking young man leaned over towards her, "You seem lost, do you need help?"
Willow looked up. She knew she shouldn't trust strangers, but she was desperate. "Yes, I need to find out where I am, and I'm trying to find my friend Buffy. She blond, taller than me..."
"Oh, I saw her a few minutes ago at the tavern! Is she dressed like you?" The man smiled.
Willow brightened up, "Yes, oh thank you, could you tell me where it is?"
"Yeah, it's right down the road, I'll show you!"
***
"Did you hear? There's a girl running around in strange clothing asking about someone with a mark on his forehead. I heard she took food from a vendor and didn't even pay!"
"Can you believe that? What kind of mark?"
"A character I think, but she doesn't even know what it is."
The Oz-lookalike sat in the corner of the bar, chewing on a toothpick. He listened to the strangers' conversation with great interest. As the stood up to leave, he stopped one of them. "Hey, the girl you were talking about, was she with anyone else?"
"As far as I know she was by herself, why?"
"No reason, sorry to bother you." He stood and left, "She must not be one of the girls I met earlier then." Then he caught a glimpse of bright red hair, and decided to check.
***
Willow was starting to get nervous. The man had led her behind the main street of town, and she started to think there was something quite wrong with the situation. "Hey, how far is this tavern, I mean, you said it wasn't far and we've been walking for a while..."
"Oh, it's right here." The man grinned, gesturing to an alley. Three men stepped out of the shadows.
"Well, look here, what do we have?" One of them grinned and moved over to Willow, grabbing her arm, "You're clothes alone will fetch a good price."
"Excuse me?" Willow looked. "Okay" she thought, "I'm outnumbered, I'm alone, and I'm really not sure where I am." So she closed her eyes, "Goddess Hecate..." she muttered the rest of the spell, hoping she would cast it correctly, she hadn't gotten it right yet...
"Hey what the..." one of the men screamed as strange lights engulfed him. In his place stood a nasty looking rat.
The other three men turned, not happy with this turn of events. Willow frowned. She sighed, thinking that she didn't have enough power to turn them all into rats. Just as one of them started to reach for her, a rock came flying from the sky and hit him on the back of the head.
"Nani?" All eyes turned in the direction of the rock, where the blue-haired young man stood, casually tossing a rock up and catching it.
"It takes three of you, for one lousy girl?" He caught the rock, and crushed it, letting the dust fly from his fingers. "Why don't we even the odds?" He grinned again, the character on his forehead glowing brightly as he leapt from the rooftop.
Willow slide towards the wall as the man fought with the three of them at once. In the end, they ran shouting for town. She looked up at the man who looked so much like Oz it made her heart ache with homesickness. Her eyes started to water, she didn't think she could take much more of this.
***
"The man with the symbol of the...ogre! So that's what that was..." Buffy was quickly getting the hang of the book. She brushed aside the strange feeling that she was learning the ancient Chinese script a little too fast. "Okay, so the Oz-guy saved the girl from the men in the alley." She put the book down for a second. "God, I hope Willow is okay..."
Coming soon:
Willow is horribly confused and frightened at this turn of events, and the strange young man isn't much help. He refuses to help her find Buffy without payment, but she hasn't any money. When they see the Emperor, Willow decides to ask someone in authority for help, but ends up in trouble with his guards instead.
Chapter Two: Willow no Miko!