When Meena regained consciousness, she saw that her uniform had stains of mud on it but her backpack was unharmed. Looking around, she found herself in a forest. The trees were massive and hollow, seeing as they had holes at the bottom to provide shelter for bugs and other sun, along with the humidity in the air made the place extremely hot.
Looking up at the sky, Meena could see insects about the same size as English Mastiffs flying. Thinking that she was dreaming, she pinched herself. After confirming that she was in fact, not dreaming, she massaged her arm and realized that she was not on earth. Then, she called out for her friends. "ANNE!, SASHA!, MARCY!," WHERE ARE YOU?"
She walked through the forest, calling out the names of her friends, in hopes that any of them were nearby, but no one replied. After a while of doing this, she sat down under a tree to catch her breath.
That's when it all hit her: she was trapped in another world with no way of getting out, her friends weren't with her and there was no one in sight that she could ask for help. She thought 'My parents, they must be worried sick about me. They've probably already called the police on me.' Remembering the competition that she had spent hours studying for, she thought 'I spent hours studying for that. I had ONE chance to show my parents that I'm not the black sheep of the family, and I get myself stuck in another world.'
Afraid that she may never see her family or friends again, Meena curled up with her legs pressed to her chest and cried. Meena spent a while crying before saying to herself "crying isn't going to do anything, I should try to find some help." Then, she continued walking through the forest, yelling out her friends' names until she came across a river.
'A river? Perfect, I've heard somewhere that settlements are built close to rivers.' Thinking this, Meena decided to follow the river.
Meena walked alongside the river for hours. Her voice was starting to go hoarse from all the yelling, there were now leaves and twigs stuck to the braid of her hair. Her legs were starting to tire and shoes were getting muddy. Meena then noticed that the forest was getting darker and the air getting colder by the minute. The shadows of the trees were also longer than they were before.
'Oh no, it's getting dark, I should stop for the night,' thought Meena before she picked out a nice open area surrounded by trees and bushes. Taking some dry leaves from nearby and some sticks, she made a small fire and sat down to rest for the night. Suddenly, she heard a rustling noise in the bushes.
Grabbing a sharp stick, she called out "WHO'S THERE?" The rustling got louder and closer, and then a tiny catlike creature that had orange fur with black spots popped out of the bushes.
Meena let go of the stick and said "Oh, It's just a cute little animal, nothing to get scared over", and continued resting by the fire. When Meena noticed that the creature started walking closer to her, she tried to pick it up and pet it, but the creature started to transform. As Meena looked on in horror, the little creature transformed into a huge, terrifying beast with razor sharp teeth, claws, and eyes that were completely black.
"Not cute, not cute at all," said Meena as the creature roared at her.
Grabbing the stick again, Meena tried to attack the creature with it, but it barely made a mark on the creature's skin. When that failed, she grabbed another stick, stuck it in the fire to make a torch and tried to wave it at the creature while saying "Back off!" like humans do in monster movies, but that only made the creature angrier. With no other alternatives, Meena ran.
Meena thought 'That creature has completely black eyes, so it could be blind. I'll try to lose it somewhere,' and ran into a thicket of trees.
Running pretty deep into the thicket, she hid behind a tree. "I...I think I…lost it," said Meena, panting heavily, but she was proved wrong when the creature showed up a few seconds later. Meena started running again and thought 'Okay, this creature isn't blind, but judging by the size of its legs, it can't reach that high, so I'll just climb a tree'.
Making sure that she was far away from the creature, Meena started climbing the nearest tree, but due to the size of the trees in this forest, it took too much time. With the creature getting closer and closer, she gave up climbing and started running again.
'Oh come on! I can't hide because it'll find me, I can't climb because the trees are too big. I better think of something quick before I die on the first night here'. As Meena was thinking about her predicament, she was struck with an idea.
'Hang on, the holes aren't too big or too small, I think I can fit inside.'
Once again making sure that she was far away from the creature, she started to climb into the hole of a nearby tree. Just as she predicted, the hole turned out to be big enough to allow her to climb inside. Just as she was starting to settle, the creature found her and tried to reach through the hole, but its paws couldn't fit through. The creature tried to wait Meena out for a while, but soon gave up and ran away.
When the creature left, Meena breathed a sigh of relief, and decided to sleep the rest of the night away. For the next few days, Meena kept on walking through the forest, using a sharp stick to protect herself, living off the food in her backpack and hiding in the trees when night fell. One day, as she was walking through the forest, she felt a sharp pain coming in her leg. Looking down, she saw that a snake bit her. After killing the snake with her stick she sat down and tended to the bite.
"Oh no , I hope this isn't poisonous," she said as she tried to wash the bite with water from her water bottle, but she started feeling dizzy and soon, fainted.
When Meena regained consciousness again, she found herself being tended to by an elderly newt. The newt had wrinkly pink skin with a white underbelly, long gray hair, and wore a green robe.
"AAAAAAHHH," she screamed, "Who are you and what did you do to me?"
"I was collecting tree sap when I found you passed out by the bushes. You were bitten by an Amphibian Tree Snake, but luckily, I managed to heal you just in time" said the newt.
Glancing down at the snakebite, Meena could see that there was some cloth wrapped around it.
"Oh... Thank you," said Meena.
"No problem. By the way, I'm Dhiran Longclaw. The librarian and healer of Ridgeton"
"Ridgeton?"
"It's a town close by here, it's one of the nicest towns in Amphibia."
"Amphibia?"
Dhiran raised an eyebrow and said "You're quite strange aren't you, not even knowing the name of the world you're in."
"I'm not from this world," said Meena .
"Hmm?" said Dhiran, now confused.
Meena introduced herself, saying "I'm Meenakshi Sundaramurthy, a human from another world. I'm trapped in this one for now."
"I was wondering why you looked so strange. How did you get here?" asked Dhiran
"My friend opened a weird music box"
"Are your friends trapped here too?"
"Yes."
"Do you know where they are?"
"No."
"Do you have the box with you?"
"No."
"Well, finding them again and trying to get back to your world can take a while. In the meantime, you should find a place to stay. I can take you to Ridgeton with me."
"That's okay, I'll just live in the trees like I've been doing for the last few days."
"What if there's a storm? Lightning might strike the tree."
"Huh, I haven't considered that," said Meena. Considering his offer, she raised an eyebrow and said "How do I know I can trust you?"
Dhiran replied "If I wanted you to die, why would I heal you?"
'True' Meena thought, before immediately saying "Speaking of which, why did you even heal me?"
"When you've spent enough time with the monks," said Dhiran, "you'll realize that all creatures deserve life", before adding "unless they attack you first."
Finally relenting, Meena said "Alright, I'll come with you."
The two then started their journey to Ridgeton at sunset and reached there as soon as the first stars dotted the sky. Ridgeton was a nice looking town, with rows of white houses, markets and large buildings centered around a statue of a newt wearing armor. Wherever Meena walked, the newts in the area immediately stopped what they were doing and whispered amongst themselves. Meena grew uneasy.
Realizing that Meena is growing uncomfortable, Dhiran said "It's best to ignore them, Meena, no one in this town has never seen a human before, so naturally, they're a bit shocked."
Suddenly, a young newt with blue skin and blonde hair came up to Dhiran and said "You've brought a lot of strange things from the forest, but bringing back a monster?"
"She's not a monster, Bartholomew" said Dhiran.
"Then what is she?"
"She's a lost child from another world who needs to find her friends and go back home. Until she does, I want you to treat her with the same respect you treat me with," said Dhiran, sounding firm.
"Where will she stay?"
"She can stay with me."
After pausing to consider Dhiran's words, Bartholomew sighed and said "Alright then, but make sure she doesn't get into any trouble," and left.
The duo then walked to Dhiran's house, which was a smaller house, with a white exterior, a roof with red shingles and small brown windows. Stepping inside, it had black walls, which were decorated with bookshelves and pictures. Meena then walked into the living room, and noticed a large painting of a younger Dhiran, with two little newt girls, standing at his sides.
Leading Meena into a small bedroom, Dhiran said "Make yourself at home."
"Thank you Dhiran," said Meena, "and I'm sorry if I'm taking up too much space."
"Don't worry, you're fine. In fact, I welcome your company. It gets pretty lonely here."
"Good night Dhiran."
"Good night to you too, Meena."
Meena unpacked the things in her back and pulled out a photo of her standing alongside Anne, Sasha and Marcy. The caption underneath read BFFS. Setting it up against a lamp on the nightstand, Meena said "Stay strong girls, I'll find you someday, and we're gonna go home," before laying down on the bed, turning off the lamp, and going to sleep.
Meanwhile in Newtopia…
King Andrias, the leviathan ruler of Amphibia, was sitting on his throne, thinking deeply about something. Suddenly, Lady Olivia, his advisor, walked into the throne room.
"Sire, is anything wrong?" she asked.
"I assure you everything is fine," the king replied.
"It's just that ever since Marcy was found in Newtopia, you've started looking gloomier than usual."
"Everything is alright, Lady Olivia," said Andrias, sounding slightly more exasperated.
Not wishing to trouble the king, Lady Olivia just said "Alright then," and left the throne room. After she left, an orange eye opened up on Andrias's crown. Glancing up at it, Andrias said "It is true, a human has appeared in Newtopia."
"SO THE PROPHECY IS TRUE" said the eye.
"Yes, it appears so. After thousands of years, the prophecy is now unfolding," replied Andrias.
"WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO TO PREVENT THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR LEGACY?"
"According to the prophecy, there should be three more humans. I will send out scouts to find them and bring them here. The box will fall back into our possession and our mission to conquer the multiverse will resume."
Walking over to a flipwart board, he pulled out a game piece of a figure wearing a cloak and placed it on the board. He pulled out three more figures, all of which looked like humans wearing armor, and placed them to a side.
"It is time for the game to begin," he said.
AN: And that was chapter 2. Here are some explanations:
English Mastiffs are widely considered to be the largest dogs in the world, which is why I used them as a reference for the bugs in the sky.
The creature wasn't inspired by anything. I just made it up on the fly. I've decided to name it "The Amphibian Ocelot". It takes the form of a harmless animal to get close to its prey. Once it's close enough, it shows its true colors(pun intended.)
The trees in the forest are inspired by the famous tamarind tree of Azhwartirunagiri.
The beginning of the chapter and the chase sequence was included to show how Meena's thought process works, and how she adapts to the situation(two skills which will be important in later chapters).
When it comes to Dhiran Longclaw, He's inspired by Uncle Iroh from ATLA, one of my absolute favorite characters in any piece of media. His name is taken from the word Dheeran meaning victorious.
Now the questions are: why is he helping Meena, who are the newt girls in the painting, and what is Andrias planning to do.
If you have made it this far, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Feel free to leave a review and follow/favorite the story if you liked it so far. If you have any questions, you can PM me or ask in the reviews section. I apologize for any grammar mistakes.
See y'all next time.
