The Newtopian Ranger and the Bard Witch
"Hello? Hello!"
Marcy ran frantically through the fog, searching for anyone, anything. All there was for the eyes to see was a grey forest with bare, silver trees and a carpet of thick mist, waist-high in every direction.
Marcy doesn't know how long she's been trapped in this forest. Time seems to have no meaning here at all. She's having a hard time remembering how she got here, too. The last thing she remembers was Olivia and Yunan helping her walk to the stairs after the VR eyes trap thing and then…
...nothing else.
Marcy woke up in this endless wood, alone, back in her ranger outfit.
Since then, Marcy has been wandering through this place, lost and alone.
Marcy stopped to catch her breath, bending over and resting her hands on her knees. She lifted her head up. "Anne! Sasha!" She called out. "Anyone out here?!"
"Hello?"
Marcy shot up, startled. That voice didn't belong to Sasha or Anne. She whirled around, spotting a silhouette obscured by the thick fog. It looked like a person - human - walking toward her.
Panicked and with no weapon, Marcy pulls her shoe off and brandishes it like a weapon.
"Stay back! I-I have a shoe and I am not afraid to use it!"
The figure raised their hands up. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want help. I don't know where I am."
Marcy lowered her arm a bit. "Oh, I-I'm lost too. I don't even remember how I got here."
"Looks like we're in the same boat." The figure came into view and Marcy could see them clearly now. They appeared to be middle-aged with mint-green hair, white streaks on the bottom near their neck. Green eyes behind large, round glasses. A grey earring hanging from their right ear. Marcy stares a little bit longer on the figure's ears, noting how unusually pointy they are.
Marcy gestured to her ear with one hand and indicated to the person in front of her with the other still holding the shoe. "Are you…human?"
The stranger, taken aback, shook their head. "No. Are you?"
"Um, yeah," Marcy replied, putting her shoe back on. "You do look human, though. Are you an elf, or some kind of humanoid android?"
The figure gave her a strange look, seemingly not understanding what she meant by that last part before answering her question. "I'm a witch."
Marcy, momentarily forgetting her predicament, gasped in excitement, slapping her hands to her cheeks with shining eyes. "A witch?!" She rushed over to the witch and exploded into a barrage of questions, practically bouncing around them. "Are you from another realm? How do you perform magic? Do you ride on broomsticks? How does your body physiology defer from a human's? Do you make potions? What's your name?"
"Um…I'm Raine Whispers," they answered, leaning away with a grimace, overwhelmed.
"I'm Marcy." Marcy shot her hand out to Raine, the witch hesitantly accepting the greeting. "You said you got here how again?"
"I-I actually don't remember." Raine took a step back and combed their fingers through their minty hair, eyes staring at the ground as if searching for an answer in the dirt. "I was with a friend of mine. We were in trouble and I kept our pursuers busy while she got away. I almost got away too, but then...nothing. I can't remember."
Marcy noticed how distressed Raine looked. She placed a comforting hand on their arm, offering a friendly smile. "Hey, it's going to be ok. At least we're not alone in this place anymore." Marcy glanced up at the thick fog around her and Raine. "Whatever this place is."
Raine looked up and stared out at the fog as well. "It's no place I've ever seen on the Boiling Isles before."
"Boiling Isles?" Marcy questioned. "So, I guess you never heard of Amphibia then?"
Raine gave her a confused look, arching an eyebrow. "Is that in the Demon Realm?"
Marcy had so many questions about this Demon Realm and Boiling Isles, but she had to focus on the matter at hand. She started pacing around, thinking out loud. "Okay. So, we're from different worlds who somehow ended up in this place with no memory of how we got here. There's nothing but dense fog and these silver trees." Marcy touched the nearest one, the bark of the trunk unusually smooth and cold against her palm. "And there doesn't seem like there's anyone else here."
Raine, finger and thumb hooked around their chin in thought, spoke slowly. "Even after wandering around here for hours, I have not felt the slightest hint of thirst, hunger, or fatigue. It almost feels like you are moving in a dream. You almost believe it's real, but you feel nothing. As if your spirit left your body behind."
Marcy hugged herself, gripping her arms. She didn't like how that made her chest sting. "What are you saying? That we...are we stuck in some sort of purgatory? Maybe we're dead?" Did Andrias kill her? Did the wound in her chest not healed? The thought sent her heart racing.
Wait…her heart.
It was still beating.
"We're not dead," Raine replied, answering what Marcy already concluded. "But I think we might be in some sort of limbo. Whatever happened to us, it landed us here." Raine turned their gaze to Marcy. "What was the last thing you remember?"
"...I remember Olivia and Yunan," Marcy recalled, the ache in her chest growing, "They were trying to rescue me after Andrias put me in that rejuvenation tank." Her fingers ghosted over the scar under her shirt. "After he stabbed me through the chest."
Raine gasped softly, eyes widening in horror. "He what?"
Marcy squeezed her eyes shut, trying to hold back the tears welling up. "I thought he was my friend. I thought I could trust him. He was just playing me this whole time. I was so selfish, I didn't want to move away, I didn't want to lose Anne and Sasha."
Raine reached a tentative hand out, giving Marcy a concerned and non-judgemental look that the girl nearly broke down completely after seeing it through the blur of tears. "Are Anne and Sasha your friends?"
Marcy let out a choked sob, nodding. "Best friends. Since kindergarten." She shouldn't be telling this stranger this, but she couldn't hold it in anymore. It felt like she was a dam beginning to crack apart. "I found this box that supposedly travels between worlds and I didn't think it would work, but it did and it was the best adventure in my entire life. Andrias promised to take me and my friends to the other worlds, so that the three of us would never grow apart and be together forever. But Andrias betrayed me. He lied. He exposed me to my friends." Sasha stepping away from her grasp in anger and Anne's hurt expression popped into Marcy's head, making her break apart more inside. "He told them the truth: that I was responsible for getting us stranded in another world." Marcy fell to her knees, body trembling. "There was a fight and I managed to get the box. Anne and the Plantars got into the portal. I wasn't fast enough. He...he still has the box. I-it's all my fault." That last sentence came out as a watery sob, then multiple sobs followed. Tears trailing down her cheeks as her back hunched over.
A gentle hand rested on her back, Marcy flinching slightly at the unexpected contact. She brought her head up to see the warm and sympathetic expression on Raine's face.
"I'm sorry," Raine spoke gently, not the slightest bit of disgust or anger in their voice.
Now that really broke the dam apart.
Marcy flung herself on the witch, wrapping her arms around their neck, openly crying. After their initial shock, Raine returned the hug, making soothing shushing noises and rubbing the human's back in comfort. "I got you. It's going to be ok."
Marcy let out a watery hiccup, shaking her head. "I could never show my face to Anne or Sasha again. They must hate me."
"Is that what you're afraid of?" Raine slowly untangled Marcy from them, looking her in the eyes. "Let me tell you something. A friend of mine used to say something about 'punching fear in the face'? What I do remember is that I told her not to give up so easily before I was caught, that the people close to her need her more than she realises."
Marcy sniffled. She wiped her arm over her face. "But I ruined their lives. I got them trapped in another world and betrayed their trust. How could they ever forgive me for that?"
"You have to give them a chance to tell you themselves," Raine answered. They placed a hand on the human's shoulder. "You can't keep running away. We all have to face our problems eventually. It's the only way we can move forward unhindered."
Marcy considered Raine's words, the silence of the woods hanging over the two. After a while, she replied back. "Even if I did, we're stuck here."
Raine stood up and offered a hand out to Marcy. "Then let's find a way out of here. Together."
Marcy stared at their hand before taking it, a surge of renewed determination filling her as she let Raine pull her up. With a small smile, she nodded in agreement. "Okay. Find a way out together." Marcy pumped a fist into the air. "Onto the next level!"
"...Okay. Um, that way?" Raine gestured to the fog ahead of them.
After a verbal agreement, Marcy walked on with Raine by her side. Who knows how much longer the two of them will be trapped in this grey forest with the bare, silver trees and the endless mist. At least now neither the human nor the witch were alone.
In celebration of the two shows returning this March, I posted this little story. It will be a duology, meaning there will be another chapter. Funny thing is I wrote this before the announcement:) Let me know what you readers out there think about it then. Stay weird, nerds;)
