Chapter 8. T for Swearing and Violence

This chapter contains mild depictions of violence and gore. Please read with caution if you know that you are sensitive to these descriptions.

Leda had never been into the whole 'fantasy roleplaying' thing.

As a black woman, pretending to be someone in the Middle Ages (who would most likely have been a second-class citizen due to the colour of their skin) had never appealed to her. Her life was already one big pantomime anyway so why complicate things with prop swords and Olde English?

LARPing, Dungeons and Dragons, even fantasy drama's on T.V. All of it was so foreign to her. What was the point of fantasising about hero's with flowing hair and girls stuck in towers with dragons when she'd open her eyes and be right back to the tragic crap that was her life?

Her whole schtick was 'logical reality'. It's why she went into Medicine and why she could never believe her dad. It just wasn't how her mind worked. She had too many real-life problems to justify escaping to dragon worlds and witch hovels.

Portals to other worlds just didn't exist.

But even as a very real non-roleplaying arrow whizzed past her head and burned away every preconceived notion she had of reality and its limitations, she struggled to really grasp the fact that maybe her dad wasn't actually crazy. Maybe he had been right this entire time. Maybe she was now stuck in another world getting shot at by arrows.

And maybe that meant she was royally screwed.

The greenish grey monster that shot at her sneered as the arrow missed and sliced into the murky water by her shoulder.

It notched another and Leda's heart caught in her throat as it closed one black eye and steadied the bow to aim. She ducked back below the waterline just as it pulled the string taut. Mouth pinched, she spun around and kicked towards the other bank as water gurgled into her ear canals.

She had just about enough energy to keep her swimming until her knees dragged against pebbles and her flapping hands cut themselves on shoreline debris. She winced at the small abrasions but there wasn't any time to assess the damage or acknowledge that she was (maybe) in a new world because as soon as she was on dry land she was being pushed and corralled away from the waters edge.

People in a mix of bronze and silver armour parted and closed ranks as multiple pairs of hands kept her moving until she was at the back of their little armada.

Other than pushing her away, they barely paid her any spare looks. Which was weird, of course. Because if someone popped out of the Serpentine while she was in Hyde Park and crawled onto the grass, she would definitely at least look to see if they were an alien.

Which was also insane. Aliens didn't exist. And neither did The Island, or portals to other worlds. But here she was, half-drowned and being shot at by arrows. Maybe aliens did exist.

God Leda, she thought, you get sucked through one maybe-portal and now you believe in aliens.

More arrows whizzed past her head and the sound of them slicing through the air made her duck madly. One just missed her shoulder and clattered uselessly beside her. The wood splintered in the middle from the force and the sight of it stopped her retreat.

It was dumb to halt but it was like she was on autopilot. Some rational part of her brain knew she was most likely in shock, but one minute she was on her hands and knees and the next her arms were over her head and she was curled into the foetal position. In her little cocoon it was almost enough false security that for a split second, she was able to only focus on the soft breeze chilling her wet back and the drumming of her own heart in her ear.

Ok.

Ok.

This was ok. This was fine. She could handle this. If it just- you know, stayed like this, then she'd be ok. She'd jump back into the river that was also a lake and Astrid would laugh and say she'd just hit her head and everything was a weird dream and dad was still crazy and mum was still dead and everything would be fine because there's no way she was on another world because that would mean that dad wasn't crazy and mum wasn't dead but shewasabouttobedeadbecause-

A cold hand slapped onto her back, slicing through her rising panic. She screamed and threw herself forward, scrambling to her knees and spun to face her fate. She imagined the sneer of the monster that had shot an arrow at her, but instead found one of the people in armour, bent at the waist.

The sun caught their bronze breastplate and she squinted as the refracted light stung the backs of her eyes. Even bending down they towered over her, impossibly large. Their body was covered in intricate yellow-bronze armour and beneath, what looked like black cloth that, when she squinted, was actually small black rings woven together. Chainmail, was it called? Their helmet was cut into a weird heart shape over their face, the peak of which extended down their long nose. Grey eyes shone from beneath fair eyebrows and tracked her every move. Their nose was flared and, looking closer, Leda realised it was a guy. At least she thought it was. She'd never actually seen a guy that was as… big as him before. Which was a dumb thing to think when she was clearly about to die if the twin swords at his waist were any indication of just how fucked she was.

He pointed behind her and made a shooing motion with his hand. "Drego."

The sound of metal grinding together pulled her attention past his shoulder to the battle she was doing her best to ignore. The green monsters and the armoured people were clashing in the water now, but each side was moving too quickly for her to focus on.

He tutted at her lack of focus and moved to block her vision of the fight. Her eyes swam before adjusting and focusing to his new position. Had he gotten closer or was he always that big?

He dropped to a crouch and raised a hand to push at her frozen shoulder. "Drego."

Leda's desperate words warbled uncomfortably in her throat and were almost lost amongst the growing sounds of clashing swords. "I don't understand what Drego means!"

Two full lips puckered into a scowl and a sound came from behind his helmet that sounded suspiciously like a groan. He pushed at her shoulder again, even as she repeated her sentence.

He was pushing her away from the fight but back to where the trees grew dense. It was a tossup between allowing him to push her into the dark where he would probably murder her and staying where she was where she would also probably be murdered.

And how the hell was she even supposed to know if he was a 'good guy'? Maybe those deformed things were like freedom fighters or something. Trying to fight off the oppressive Lords of Mars or whatever Hell planet she had landed on. That was always the plot of those dumb sci-fi films she hated.

Maybe they- Wait.

Jesus Christ. Good-guys, bad-guys? Monsters and liberation? This kind of shit was the stuff of her own personal nightmares. And here she was, wondering if this behemoth of a man was a Lord of Mars.

He huffed at her lack of attention and pushed her hard. Her body slid back an inch from the force and she panicked. "Wait! W-wait!"

She tried to pull away, but he'd had enough of her stalling and his fingers curled around her shoulder, rough glove digging into the space between flesh and bone painfully.

"Man cerig? Drego." He hissed, full lips pulling into a frown.

She pushed back against his hand, trying to shove him off. "Just-Wait!"

He shook his head and shoved her again. "Daro! Odúlen gi nathad!"

They pushed against one another, neither of them moving until she grew tired and he seized the opportunity. He awkwardly frog marched her backwards, gnashing his teeth together when she refused to turn and crawl. She didn't want to turn her back on him in case he stuck a knife in it and more importantly, she didn't want to lose sight of her only way home.

He kept pushing until the trees grew closer around them and her view of the lake was part obscured. Her back hit the base of a tree and she stopped.

Unsatisfied with how far she had come he clicked his tongue and tried to get her to move around it but her body had already sagged and she moaned and batted at his arm until he let go of her shoulder.

She closed her eyes as a cough rattled through her chest. Her shoulders heaved and salty spittle dribbled pathetically from the corner of her mouth.

He waited for her eyes to open before he barked another order.

"Dartha!" He pointed to the spot she was crumpled at. When she didn't respond right away his fingers pinched her chin and tilted her head until their eyes met. "Dartha."

She nodded weakly. Her chest felt tight and she winced, breathing deeply through her mouth three times to steady herself.

Clearly nodding wasn't enough because he jiggled her chin and repeated the command until her ears rang with it. What was with this guy and his grabby hands?

"Ok- ok. Jes-" She slapped at his hand. "Dartha. I'll do whatever the hell Dartha is if you let go."

He probably hadn't understood a word she said but he nodded stiffly and released her chin, satisfied with her compliance. His grey eyes roamed her face and beneath the tense pull at his eyes she saw what might have been concern. He lingered for a moment making her feel uncomfortable under his stare and then he stood to his full, dizzying height.

"Dartha." He said softly and then he was gone, bounding back to the line of other armoured people, melting between their bodies until he was lost in a sea of silver and bronze.

She guessed Dartha meant 'stay put woman whom a portal spat out' but despite the shake in her arms she knew it would be dumb to stay put. She should go now, find somewhere to hide and then leg it back to her ticket home when the fighting was over.

Her legs buckled three times before she could stand and she winced as something jabbed into her thigh, momentarily distracting her. She reached a shaking hand into her trouser pocket. Her fingers grasped the smooth plastic of the taser Astrid had given her and behind it, the cool stems of the leaves she had found on the Island.

Holy shit. She forgot she had it. Hope bloomed in her chest. Thank God for tall, morally ambiguous Frenchwomen who liked hand-held firearms.

As a Doctor, Leda had thoughts about weapons, even supposedly 'non-lethal' ones like tasers, but she had never been happier in her life than right then to be carrying an illegal weapon on her person. She hoped it wasn't damaged from all the water. Were tasers waterproof?

She tugged at the it, but it was wedged in side-ways and got stuck on the too-small zipper. The sounds of fighting grew louder and drew her eyes as she tried to free the stupid hunk of plastic.

Watching them all fight was like something from a movie.

The two sides duck and spun and sliced around one another like they were all performing some kind of elaborate dance. Each drop of blood spilled made her stomach churn. Warm saliva filled her throat as she watched the armoured people hack at the never-ending stream of green-skinned monsters. They held the line for as long as they could, but even Leda, who knew nothing of war, knew that they didn't have nearly enough numbers.

The monsters would be through soon, and then there was nothing between her and an arrow to the head.

A monster clipped the shoulder of someone in silver armour. They weren't wearing a helmet and as they turned, the sun revealed another male. From her limited view she could just about make out his stern face and blonde hair braided into two French plaits. As he spun and sliced, his hair seemed to shine like gold under the sun. Something hit him on the back of his head and she watched his face scrunch in disgust. He turned, too quickly for her eyes to track and when her vision settled he had embedded a large sword through the skull of a monster.

Leda didn't need sound to hear the crunch of bone as the blonde kicked its dead chest away. Its body fell back in slow motion, blood sprouting from the gooey middle of its split head.

Jesus.

Jesus, what the fuck?

More saliva gathered in her mouth and she blinked against a wave of nausea at the hellish sight. What the hell was that? Her eyes burned. What the hell did she just see?

Emergency Medicine was often brutal. It was often disgusting and vile and traumatic but Leda had never seen anything as gruesome as that. Ever. She wanted to shut her eyes and run away but the shock of such a savage attack kept her rooted to the spot. Maybe the guys in armour weren't the good guys. She was pretty sure good guys didn't cleave heads in half. Usually that went against the whole 'good' thing. He didn't have the disfigured green skin of the others but he still looked pretty monstrous to her.

And with that assessment the half-hearted attempts to get the taser grew more desperate. If the armoured guys were monsters too, then there was no good or bad wherever the hell she was. There was just death and she wasn't going to die there. She wasn't going to die before she got home and told her dad that he was right.

The fallen body left a small gap in the armoured line and other monsters tried to take advantage and muscle through the minute gap. The first few, however, were cut down by the blonde man and each time a body fell Leda felt the bile rise in her throat until she couldn't fight it anymore. Leaning to the side she threw up, almost relieved at the short reprieve from watching the blonde man hack away at living things. She heaved until there was nothing left and looked back, wiping a hand over her mouth and wincing at the burn in her throat.

More monsters fell around him in their threes as he swung his great sword. He even used their bodies as steppingstones, hopping from one bloody back to the next to hack into more of the disfigured things. Streaks of black covered his face and hair until he was dripping in it. His mouth twisted savagely into a grin as he cut another down and for a second, Leda imagine him as Death. Saw the bones shift under his skull and arms and the rot of his flesh as he lauded over his victims. Then she blinked and the vision was gone and it was just him again, hacking away until his pride made him screw up.

A monster slipped past him as he took three on at once and swung a rusty cleaver into the neck of a bronze-armoured archer. They went down and widened the gap of dead even more and despite her whole 'get the fuck outta dodge they're all evil' attitude, she hoped it wasn't the one that had told her Dartha. Despite their dubious intentions, they at least hadn't tried to shoot her in the face with an arrow. Yet.

The gap was too wide now and between one blink and the next, the monsters were through to Leda's side of the river. They clambered over their fallen and mashed their bodies in the shallow water of the bank with their heavy feet until everything was a mess of flesh and blood. Dread hardened the liquid in her stomach as they scattered behind the armoured warriors onto the bank and more worryingly, closer to her.

The taser was still stuck and she growled, frustrated and yanked savagely until the pocket ripped and she managed to get it out. Her glee was short lived though, because as soon as she got it free, one of the monsters spied her pathetic, drenched body through the trees and made a beeline for her, obviously thinking her easy pickings.

It's only clothing was a dirty loin cloth, leaving its barrel chest out in the open. As it advanced she saw that its skin was littered with scars and it looked like a chunk had been carved out of its face. The skin had grown back as best it could but it was still horrific. How the hell had it survived? If they were using bows and swords to fight and not guns, then they obviously hadn't discovered sanitized hospitals yet. A wound that big should have killed it. But it had survived, living long enough to now be able to chop her head off.

She needn't have worried though because it only got as close as ten steps away.

A flash of silver detached its head from its shoulders with a spray of black blood. Startled, a scream clawed its way from her throat as its head rolled right and its decapitated body lurched forward and left. It slammed into the earth at her feet, shaking the ground and kicking up a plume of dust. As it cleared, there stood her DarthaGuy, chest heaving from the strain of committing a war crime in front of her. Normally she hated women being saved repeatedly in books and films but right then, she couldn't have been happier to see him again.

He took a step towards her but another monster rushed him from behind. It swung what looked like a mallet up and knocked his helmet off, releasing a wave of pale wheat coloured hair. His eyes were wide set and upturned and his cheekbones high and sharp. His wide, full mouth was twisted into a snarl and he spat at the monster as it began to circle him.

He was beautiful, for sure, but it was also a weird beauty. His features were lovely but almost too much. Too sharp. Too beautiful. Too spaced apart to be human. The snarl at his lips coupled, with the angle of his eyes seemed to give him an almost animalistic look.

He rushed the monster, slicing up first, cutting the thing from hip to breastbone and then slashed sideways at its thighs before it had time to register the first attack. It fell to its knees and the skin of its chest unknitted before her eyes and gruesomely parted to show grey flesh beneath bubbling dark blood. Her body shook as she tried to ignore the alarm that seeing grey flesh instilled in her.

Humans didn't have grey flesh. She had been calling the green-skinned fighter's 'monsters' since they shot at her, but she hadn't meant it as actual monsters. Just- monstrous people. Just like the armoured people who were a thousand-foot-tall were just tall… people.

Grey flesh? Black blood? She could barely wrap her head around being in a new world. And even that she wasn't totally convinced of. Black blood and grey flesh would signal new species and that- that was something she wasn't entirely sure she could deal with.

This was the stuff of fantasy and Leda hated fantasy. She hated it just as much as she hated how quickly she was believing in this other world bullshit. Because if she could believe all this in the space of twenty minutes, why couldn't she believe her dad in the space of ten years?

Dartha Guy swung his knives at the same time, drawing her out of her thoughts. They swung down and jammed into the monster's neck, not quite fully cutting it off. She gagged as it dangled at an angle by a few stringy tendons, and wished this battle would be over so she could settle her stomach.

Dartha Guy kicked the monsters' body away from him with a yell. The corpse slumped into a heap at his feet he didn't have any time to rest because two more monsters were coming and they were largest she had seen so far.

They grunted and snarled as they ran and attacked the blonde. Their moves were sloppier than the his but what he had in speed they had in brute force. She watched him fight steadily until he made a wrong step. The largest of the two monsters saw an opening an it lurched forward, slamming into this side and the other used the distraction to stab him in the shoulder. His armour crunched inwards and the sound of metal grinding made Leda wince.

Dartha Guy yelled and dropped one of his knives but still managed to skip to the side, out of the monsters reach. Her stomach dropped as he gripped his last remaining sword tightly. If he died, she'd have no chance of getting back home because she'd be dead.

The taser rattled in her shaking hand and she thanked whatever asshole 'Higher Power' there was for this saving grace.

She'd never used one before but impending death had her popping the lid off and pressing the ON button like she had done it a thousand times before. In all the shows, you pressed the button and electricity buzzed to life but as she pressed it a second, fourth and tenth time, nothing happened.

She groaned. "Shit. Shit."

The man, tiring quickly, allowed one of the monsters to slip past him as he put his remaining energy into fighting the larger of the two.

The monster (ogre? Up close it looked like a hellscape version of Shrek on steroids) growled and squawked as it approached slowly and after a moment Leda realised it was talking to her. By the smile on its cracked lips and the yellowy points of its rotting teeth, she was sure it was actually taunting her. Heart juddering in her chest, she jabbed the taser button repeatedly as it approached but still nothing happened. Each time it didn't work breathing became more difficult.

She was going to die.

Dartha Guy managed a shallow cut to the other monsters' arm, it roared at the offence and the sound stuttered the breath in her chest. The monster spun and lashed out, kicking the blonde in his chest. The blow sent him reeling but by some miracle he managed to stay on his feet.

Leda sighed in relief. Thank God. If she managed to-

Her throat closed as a hand wrapped around it, cutting off her air and thoughts. Sneering, cracked lips filled her vision and the monster said something again that sounded like rocks being ground together. It lifted her until her feet dangled uselessly off the ground and she desperately pressed the taser button again and again but it still wouldn't turn on.

It shook her, scraping her legs and backpack against the brittle tree behind her.

"Le-Let me go-" She squeaked, using her free hand to hit uselessly at its scarred chest.

Spittle flew from the corners of its dry lips and slid down her shocked cheeks as its rock-slide language suddenly morphed into something she could understand. It's voice was gravelly, and it pronounced it's vowels strangely but the next words were as clear as if she had said them herself.

"You stupid little girl. You shouldn't have come here."

Shit, she thought, was that English?

Drego: Flee

Dartha (Noldorin): Stay

Man cerig? Drego: What are you doing? Flee

Daro! Odúlen gi nathad!: Stop! I'm here to save you!

Hello!

The quality of writing takes a real dive in this chapter. I'm not good at action. Like, at all lol but I'm using this story as a way to work out the bad kinks in my own writing. Unfortunately, action muddles my mind and makes the writing dense like it is here. Action is supposed to be short and snappy but as you can see, I can't shake the habit of describing too much. I'll learn eventually, but until then, sorry for how wordy this is but I'm sick of trying to edit it down lol

This was originally one chapter, but it's too long so I split it again. Just in case you were wondering why it ended so strangely.

I know my updates are all over the place but it's all I can manage right now. University has just started back up and it's the last year of my MA so I'm trying to be responsible and split my time between fanfiction and original fiction. I can't promise bi-weekly updates because I don't want to let you down so I think we'll just agree that I'll do my best aha. I've set up a twitter account for anyone put out by my chronic slowness. The handle is: aobh_fanfiction

Feel free to come talk to me about fandom stuff, when I'll update next and what kind of food you love because I love talking about food!

To all the Guests, I can't respond to your reviews privately so thank you so much for reading and taking the time to review! It means so much to me that everyone is enjoying this adventure fic. Thank you also to the people who have left constructive criticism. I'm glad to have you all along with me for this slightly bumpy ride aha

Hope you're all having a lovely week! I'll update again hopefully by Sunday, the next bit is written, just needs to be fine-picked.

Novaer,

Aobh x