I trudged through the now-dark streets of New York on my way to my final class of the day. The days were getting shorter as the bitter cold of winter descended on the city, forcing people to dorn their much bigger coats and mittens, and hope that the weather would not cause any disruptions in their day. New Yorkers don't hate anything more than delays in their busy schedules.

I paused outside of the building I had to go to as students streamed out of the doors, eager to get home after their last class and escape the cold. Many stereotypical groups passed by, chatting as they left the school, the athletes talking about their upcoming game, the geeks discussing their plans to go to the next anime con, the nerds talking about their upcoming game they have been designing, and programming since the beginning of the semester. I envied many of them, even if the subject they talked about didn't interest me. I envied them cause of the groups they had formed. Being a transfer student isn't easy, considering you haven't had those two first years in the college to get to know people and form groups based on your interest. It's even worse when you commute every day, so you barely see people outside of class. I was hoping that this time around, it'd be different than middle school, and high school, and my first college… but it just ended up the same.

As the final students left the building, I made my way in and into the elevator. For once, I actually ended up by myself in the elevator, a rarity in such a busy college as this, and as I pressed the button for my floor, I felt the elevator lurch and start moving slowly. I looked up as the elevator pinged each floor slowly, the older building not having the sleek new elevators that went up 5 floors in a second.

Slowly but surely, the elevator finally approached the 5th floor. I waited for the elevator to start slowing down, but after the elevator's 5th floor lit up, it simply kept going. I frowned and looked at the button I pressed, and surely there was 5 lit up. But the elevator kept going and going, slowly going past 6, then 7, then 8, then 9. At that point, I was getting worried, as the elevator KEPT going up, even though the top floor was 9. I went over to the elevator and pressed the HELP button, but nothing happened.

I looked around, looked down at my hands, wondering what the hell I was going to do when the elevator started going slower. After 20 seconds, the elevator finally stopped and pinged its normal sound, indicating that it reached its destination. When the doors opened, I was greeted with one of the strangest scenes I've ever seen.


I looked out of the elevator and saw a lush field of green, something foreign to the eyes of a native New Yorker. In the distance, I could see a forest filled with trees, deer prancing around near the edge of said forest. It was extremely peaceful and on a normal day, I would have loved to go out and sit in the sun. However, given the fact that I just went from a building in New York City, into an elevator, and out into a random field in god knows where, I think it's fair to say that I was freaking out.

I pressed the buttons on the elevator again, but none of them seemed to work, so with a tentative glance to both sides outside the elevator, I stepped out into the field. After another couple of seconds of wondering what the hell was going on, I took some steps forward and into the middle of the field.

Suddenly, I heard the familiar ting of the elevator, and as I looked back, I found myself alone in this field, the elevator seemingly disappearing from the world. I started freaking out even more, reaching into my pocket for my phone when I discovered that it was no longer in my pocket. It seemed to be gone. I took off my backpack and opened it to reveal that everything inside of it was also gone; no laptop, no pens, no notebook, no nothing. I let my backpack fall to the ground as I fell on my ass and gazed around the place I was in. That's when I noticed a tree in the distance, with what seemed a lone person on their back underneath it. I got up and made my way over to them, hoping that they could help me understand the situation.

As I got closer, I noticed the strange garments that they wore; a large purple cloak with weird symbols that resembled eyes on it, boots that seemed straight out of a museum, and a brown tunic that covered up the upper half of their body; the part that wasn't hidden by the cloak.

"Excuse me?" I called out, hesitant to get any closer in case they were dangerous. I wasn't the most agile, but I'd be damned if I allowed myself to be that easy to kill.

The person looked up a little, and with a little wave, motioned me to get closer. I was hesitant to get any closer, but given the fact that they didn't seem to be having any weapons, I inched forward. The person had a hood on, hiding any information regarding their face other than that they had light-colored skin.

"I seem to be lost and was wondering where I was," I asked, still maintaining a healthy enough distance.

The person inclined their head towards my direction, and after a second of seeming to analyze me, stood up and started walking in my direction. I backed up a little before they put their hands up and stopped walking, a gesture that they would stop if I stopped. They reached up and pulled back their hood, revealing the person beneath.

Turns out, the mysterious person under the hood was a girl and a really cute one at that. She had pink hair stylized into two pigtails that fell down in front of her shoulders. Her brown eyes looked up and down my body, seemingly analyzing every part of my not-so-incredible self. Her smile never wavered, however, as she went up to me and put out her hand.

"My name is Robin, a citizen of the Plegian kingdom, daughter of a top general and failed experiment of Validar. I hope you can help me out with getting some revenge on my bastard father."