Bare with me as I attempt to type up the next two long chapters.

Bioware owns the world, I just own my ideas.

Not At Home

"Wake up child. It is time that you ate," an elderly voice called.

I did wake, but regretted it instantly. Everything hurt in an aching way, and my head was pounding horrendously. I sucked in a breath slowly, then the pain ebbed.

I opened my eyes, I saw a man crouching over me. He looked to be around his mid-60's, but he was extremely gray. Everything was grey about him, except his clothes which were a deep blue. His light grey eyes looked down calmly at me and brightened when I blinked.

"Now we are getting somewhere," he smiled, "can you wiggle your toes for me dear?"

I obliged, seeing my toes dance at the foot of the bed I laid in. It kind of felt tingly, like my feet were asleep, but they wiggled all the same.

The man's smile grew larger. "Lodan will be pleased. How did you end up so far from civilization? Or anywhere for that matter." He was frowning at my clothes in an odd way. I noticed he had the barest hints of a British accent.

I tried to speak, but ended up croaking awkwardly at him instead. He got the message and gave me a cup of water. Then I started.

"Did my friends not tell you?" I started to look around, curious as to why I was not in a hospital. I was in a shack of some sort. Plants and dead animals hung from one side of the ceiling. I was in one corner while a fireplace-open, that had definitely raised some flags-roared opposite to me.

The man was wearing a…robe. I couldn't believe it.

The man noticed my staring, "Friends? Darling girl, you were found all by yourself-"he was cut off when the door opened.

Another man walked in carrying some wood. When he noticed I was sitting up he spoke, leaning on a wall in the shadows.

"Scaring her already Tanin," he said dryly. He obviously did not like this man.

"She says there was others with her Lodan," the man, Tanin, said.

"I was, four of my friends were with me in the cave. Two men and two women," They shook their heads.

"There are no caves in this area, and I saw no tracks around your body when I found you. Even if you were with your friends, that is a very sick joke to play. Even for shemlen. Unless you crawled," Lodan snorted.

I felt odd, like I was missing something. The word he used, shemlen, I had never heard before. Then Lodan stood up and I saw him in the light.

I gasped aloud and stared. His ears were elongated and pointed back along his head. He look lithe and dangerous, a tattoo across his cheekbones. But the thing that stood out the most was his eyes, they were large, at least twice as large then was ever normal, and deep green.

"Who are you people?" I pulled up my blanket uselessly.

"You speak as if you have never seen an elf before girl," Tanin cocked his head at me.

"Elf?" I could barely breath. My head spun and a grabbed the table next to me for support.

"Easy there, here drink this. All of it now," Tanin held my head gently.

I did as he asked. The drink tasted bitter but my head felt a lot clearer.

"Never passed by an Alienage before? Or you just one of those too-good-for-elven-slaves shemlen," Lodan asked venomously.

"Slaves! No, I'm from Canada!" I was desperately trying to get them to understand, and failed. My proclamation was greeted by more confused looks. Both older men looked like they were trying to list off countries, muttering to themselves.

"Is that across the sea," Tanin asked first, genuinely interested. Then something dawned on him, "You do know that, at present, you are in Ferelden."

"That can't be possible," of all things, I too started listing of countries in my head and came up with nothing. I looked at Lodan again, and a bad feeling started to sink into the pit of my stomach.

"I…I…"I couldn't continue, but instead started sobbing pathetically.

"Is the elf really bothering you that much? He could leave you, know," Tanin sounded amused.

"Tanin! Try to take her seriously will you! She must have had brain damage," Lodan barked.

I tried to put myself together, "You don't understand. I'm not from here. I live in Utah, In the United States. I live on a planet called Earth. I am from a place north of the states called Canada. There are no elves where I live, they're myths! My name is Abigail Corbit. You have to believe me!" my random mumblings didn't make sense to me either.

"Planet?" Tanin said stupidly. My heart sank lower.

Lodan's eyes softened, "How can someone believe so much nonsense?"

"Wait Lodan. She may be telling the truth," I sighed in relief and wiped the tears of my cheeks.

Tanin got off the bed and paced the room. "We know that there is the Fade, another world quite impossible to anyone who did not know of it or has never experienced it. Some magi-" he pronounced magi oddly, the a was long-"have always wondered if there were other, different places like it, or ours. In fact a small handful have even tried to get to these places. They failed of course. Damn Chantry stopped them and burnt all of their research. But imagine if it was simpler then that!"

"Fade? Chantry?" it was my turn to sound stupid.

Lodan held up his hand, "Are you going somewhere with this?"

"Yes! What if, just like our world, people live. No elves, no Fade, no Chantry, or…" he looked at me thoughtfully.

Suddenly the whole floor caught on fire. I screamed, but as soon as it was there it was gone.

Lodan frowned slightly "I would prefer it greatly if you did not do that,"

"He did that?" I pointed my figure uselessly at Tanin, absolutely terrified.

Lodan continued, "Are you are saying that she is not from this land, but a place similar. Is it across the sea?"

"No, my dear elf. Not that far. I'd like to think of it as almost right beside us. Like another fabric that is beside another, and another. Who knows how many could be there?"

"An alternate reality," I breathed.

Tanin's eyes lit up, "Yes! What a perfect way to describe it! Also explains the odd clothes, her contraption you found in them, and the fact that she was in the middle of the forest compared to what she tells us."

Lodan sat down, and pondered what had been said, "Then, how is it that she is here?"

Tanin's excited expression vanished, "For that, I have no answer."

The room was silent save for the fire and my labored breathing. I thought about what he had said. His assumptions denied the basic laws of physics that I was aware of. There is an infinite number of alternate realities, each for different decisions or happenings. For each human life alone that was an incalculable amount of realities. So why would I have landed here of all places. It seemed more likely I would be in a place exactly like mine, save for a few differences. Even a world made out of cotton candy and licorice seemed more likely. But this was so much more different.

I stopped, my head was hurting again. "The 'contraption', my phone. Can I see it please?" I asked weakly. Only one way to find out if I was dreaming or if I was being held hostage.

Lodan walked across the room to a table and plunked an object into my hand. It was my phone, or what was left of it. I had been cracked all down the middle of the touch screen, and the battery was disintegrating in front of me.

"My aunt's going to kill me," Then I started to cry again.