"Wh... what...? I-..."
"There- there's no way...?!"
Stumbling back slightly, the perplexed boy's foot lands slightly more elevated than before as it strikes something hard. Spinning around and looking down to see what was stepped on, while somewhat difficult to make out in the darkened environment, was revealed to just be a small rock; however, this did little to quell the boy's panic, and looking back up and observing his surroundings better only helped to increase the worry bubbling up inside him.
"I- no... no..."
Think Dylan think... is this really- NO... that's impossible... right?
The boy, whose name is Dylan, thinks to himself. He searches his mind for an answer - for any logical explanation for this predicament he has unwittingly found himself in.
Okay, maybe this is... level... gah, no, that doesn't make sense... not like any of this does anyways, but that can't be it.
Randomly counting the fingers on his hands while contemplating this thought, Dylan quickly disregards the notion as he did not recall falling before ending up where he was now; besides, if his hypothesis was correct, he would not be in a forest but rather the endless yellow maze.
"So... what even is this place" he says out loud, finally taking the time to fully analyze the surrounding foliage.
From what Dylan could gather, he seemed to be in the middle of a forest clearing, with trees surrounding him in a circular fashion roughly twenty feet away. It was also night, which Dylan had known before he had appeared in the forest, but was additionally confirmed as he looked straight upwards towards the sky; he was met with a sight one did not often see where Dylan was from. A beautiful star-studded sky, laid out along a perfect blueish-black cloudless night sky, but as much as Dylan would have liked to ignore his situation and admire the shining stars, there were bigger issues at hand; these stars also served as another clue that Dylan was far away from his home. Shaking his head to escape his starry trance, Dylan put his focus into what was right in front of him. Before him - no, all around him in the clearing were tens, if not hundreds of small orbs of yellow light floating in the air. At first Dylan mistook them for the glow of fireflies, but upon the realization that their light was constant and did not "blink", he also quickly surmised that they were slightly too big to be fireflies.
The glowing orbs seemed to move throughout the air without reason, some moved up and down, others left and right. This was the final nail in the coffin for Dylan, it had become pretty clear to him that he was not in or near his home, and these orbs were not something he had ever encountered, nor had ever heard of before.
Before he could fully process this information however-
"Huh?"
Dylan noticed a small group of five orbs that had seemingly stopped in place in front of his face. Putting deeper focus onto the orbs he noted that they were not unmoving, slowly moving up and down in place as if levitating.
"Uh... hello there..." Raising his right hand, Dylan reaches out to touch the middle orb. As his hand approaches the orb slowly back away from the hand; Dylan, taking this as a sign they did not want to be touched, began to move his hand away before stopping in place as the same orb suddenly "leaped" forward, landing in Dylan's palm.
"Woah... I- I kind of expected you to be warm but... fuzzy wasn't on my checklist."
Saying this as the orb in his palm began to roll around within his hand, Dylan couldn't help but wonder if the orb was either playing - or it itself was analyzing him; no matter the case, Dylan would have to now register the orbs as intelligent living creatures rather than mindless points of light.
"It seems you like my hand little buddy... wh- woah?! Wait, what are you guys doing?!" Speaking louder then intended, Dylan was taken off guard as the four other orbs -which up till now remained in place - were now moving to surround Dylan. Two of the orbs moved down towards an individual leg, one moved towards his left arm, and the last one circled around his torso. While initially startled by this sudden change in behavior in the orbs Dylan did not attempt to swat away the orbs instead allowing them to move around his body while still maintaining his gaze on the orb still rested in his right hand. After what felt like an eternity of standing in place allowing the orbs to check Dylan head to toe the orb in his hand began to float upwards and moved back to in front of Dylan's face. After coming to a stop before Dylan's eyes, the orb began to pulsate, its light fading and shining brighter at seemingly timed intervals; with each change in the light level, the orb gave off a quiet, low droning noise.
Maybe this is how they communicate? Because if this is morse code or something like that... I'm screwed.
While Dylan lamented over his lack of morse code knowledge the orb finished its "communication" and began to circle around Dylan. As it was doing this, the other orbs - which were still analyzing his limbs - one by one joined the first orb to form a sort of "orb train", with each time the orbs came into his field of view another was added on, until all five were circling him.
After circling Dylan for what he believed to be the eleventh of twelfth time, the orbs finally came to a stop once more in front of his face, although this time they were back to their starting distance from him. Slowly, the two left-most orbs began to move, forming a shape along with the other three that Dylan quickly recognized-
"An arrow? You want me to go left?"
The two orbs had positioned themselves diagonally from the now left-most orb, and with one above and one below, it became clear the orbs were forming the shape of a left facing arrow.
In response to his question the orbs that now made up the arrow flashed their light a few times, seemingly giving an affirmative. Dylan then turned to his left and began to slowly make his way across the clearing in the indicated direction; the orbs followed close behind Dylan, as he could see the arrow in his right-side peripheral. After walking only a few feet to the left the orb arrow quickly got in front of Dylan as if to stop him, and after stopping in his tracks the orbs oriented themselves to now make the arrow point downwards. Following the arrowing direction, Dylan noticed what the orbs were now pointing at - a small stream of flowing water at the edge of the clearing. Dylan had not noticed the stream before, which was probably a combination of both the streams small size as well as the fact that he was just taken to a new world-
No time to dwell on that now... that can come later. Right now, its best if I just do what's laid out before me, then later I can sit and think... don't want to get overwhelmed now, do we Dylan?
Thinking so while taking a deep breath, Dylan refocused on the stream.
The stream was only about two or three feet in width, although for its length, it with onwards in both directions out of sight of any orbs in the area, so Dylan couldn't tell where it started or ended; most likely, it went on for a while. Using the light from the arrow however Dylan could tell that the stream was slowing flowing, with its current moving to the right.
"Do you uh... you guys want me to... drink the water?" Was the only question Dylan could think of. Reasonably, while else would they point towards water. At this time, Dylan was not dehydrated nor particularly thirsty, buts that's not to say he would deny water were it given to him. Through their exanimation of Dylan's body, the orbs may have figured that he was in need of water and in an act of kindness, guided him to the nearest water source.
While Dylan knew that flowing water meant that it was likely safe to drink, and he trusted these orbs enough to take their advice here, the main issue was-
I'm not from this place... so is it safe for me to drink this water?
"I- uh... I'm sorry little orbies... but I think I'll pass on the water."
As politely as he could muster, Dylan declined the water.
In response to Dylan's denial the orbs' lights dimmed slightly before each began to flash rapidly alongside each other, the noises produced from them sounding like little-
"...are you guys laughing at me!?"
Oof... guess I misinterpreted what they were going for...
Putting his head down and placing a hand on his forehead, Dylan couldn't help but smile himself at this rather humorous misunderstanding.
As quickly as the laughter started, it quickly ended, and the orbs procced to realign themselves back into a proper arrow, but this time, facing to the right.
"Right now? Uh... guess you just want me to follow the stream?"
The orbs give a bright flash of approval.
"Alright then, lead the way little orbies!"
Saying so while pointing a finger out forward the orbs quickly followed the order, moving down the stream at a speed much faster than Dylan's walking speed.
"Gah! Hey, wait up!" Dylan shouts as he jogs after the orbs.
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"Huff What is this, gym class?!... you little orbies were really making me run." Dylan says as he stops before the now at-rest orbs. He plants his hands on his knees, breathing heavily for a moment.
If there was one area of physical fitness that Dylan needed to improve on, it was definitely cardio.
While the orbs moved as if they knew the forest perfectly, Dylan had to make sure to keep up with the fast-moving orbs while also avoiding running into trees or tripping over rocks or himself. Additionally, sometime along the path - maybe half a mile back - a mist began to overlay the area. It was not thick enough that it hindered breathing, but it was also not light enough to not cause viewing problems; while Dylan could still see a good deal in front of him as well as the light of the orbs the mist definitely added to the anxiety that Dylan had been trying to repress since encountering the orbs. After a decent bit more travel through the mist the orbs slowly came to a slow stop in what appeared to be another clearing, this one from what Dylan could tell was not as open as the original one he found himself in.
Well, they stopped... I wonder why they took me out here. Guess it wouldn't hurt to ask.
"Hey, orbies, why did you guys take me..." but his question trailed off as the orbs suddenly began to flash brightly and dim rapidly.
Soon, they abandoned their arrow formation and once again began to circle Dylan, this time at individual paces and spots.
"Orbies... what's this about... it's starting to worry me."
The orbs seemingly ignored Dylan's remark, instead opting to continue circulating around Dylan much to his confusion. After what felt like a few minutes of this behavior the orbs suddenly moved in front of Dylan and created a circular shape. If one where to connect the dots in their new pattern, you could draw out a star, an edge ending at each orb. After forming the orb circle, they began to spin counterclockwise from Dylan's perspective; as quickly as it started, the orbs suddenly moved out in all different directions from each other and rapidly flew behind Dylan.
What the hell is going on? What's up with the orbs, why are they going behind me-
Before he could finish his thought, as Dylan himself spun around, he cut himself off in shock at the sight be saw.
Sitting upon a large rock, clouded by the forest mist, was the figure of a man; no - not just the figure of a man - there was definitely a man sitting there.
Analyzing the figure, Dylan surmised a few points of interest:
• The man, along with his clothes and other accessories on him, were all a bright, golden-yellow color.
• The man was somewhat transparent looking, although Dylan didn't know if this was an effect of the mist surrounding everything or something else.
• The man was taller than Dylan, about six feet tall, perhaps even a bit taller. His hair was tied back in a bun behind his head. He had a light amount of facial hair, with the most notable part being a faint mustache a bit thicker than Dylan's own. He had no shirt on and as Dylan could see he was built quite well. His tattered pants were similar to something you would see warn in a karate or just general martial arts class, with a rough looking belt tight around his waist. On his feet were sandals.
• The man had a large, intricately designed sword sheath holstered on his right side, although there was no sword within.
and lastly
• The man was staring straight at Dylan.
The orbs that had guided Dylan here and had flown past him only moments prior were now floating in place around the man. For the first time, the man took his eyes off of Dylan and looked towards the orbs. He smiled and held out his left hand in front of him, causing the five orbs previously intertwined with Dylan to now switch sides, as they all entered the mans out starched hand.
Why would they all enter his hand so easily...? unless-
"Hey... do you control-"
Dylan began to question the man on the rock but cut himself off and slightly backed away as the man stood up and jumped off the rock with the orbs still in hand. Now leaning against the rock rather than sitting on it, the man with the orbs in his hand once again looked towards Dylan and smiled for the first time towards him. Looking back at the orbs, the man brought his hand close to his month and, while Dylan could not hear what was said, saw the man mouth something to the orbs; the orbs reacted by glowing intensely before quickly floating away from the man's hand and stopping at different points all around the two, as if given the task of lighting up the area.
"Wh- who are you... what do you want from me...?!" Dylan said with a shacky voice, backing away slowly.
The emotion he was feeling was hard to describe but - despite the man's sheath being unarmed - Dylan could still feel an impending sense of dread that this man, even if unarmed, was a true threat.
This is probably the same thing Subaru felt when he encountered Reid in the tower... crap... is this the end?
Dylan did not want to think of such an outcome, but he had to think realistically. He was fully positive that he was in a different world from his own; how he ended up here, he did not know, nor did he have the time right now to think too hard about it, as his fight or flight response was beginning to kick in.
As he prepared for an attacked from the golden man who seemingly commanded the orbs, Dylan steadied himself and took a fighting stance. Knowing his own strength, and the fact he had not taken a self-defense class since before COVID, Dylan himself was not all too confident in his fighting capacities.
Better something than nothing, right? I need to figure out what's happening and get home... I don't think my isekai syndrome has kicked in yet, so I don't have any special powers... but still, I won't go down without fighting!
Taking a few deep breaths, Dylan hardened his final resolve to fight till the very end, even if he is out matched tenfold.
Looking at Dylan, fighting stance at the ready, the golden man simply smiled.
"What?" said Dylan, looking back at the man perplexed. He had expected some sort of impact or remark, not a smile.
Maybe it's a pity smile, a "I feel sorry for how quick I'll wipe the floor with you" type deal... but it just... feels so... genuine.
With that thought concluded, Dylan slowly lowered his fighting stance, which caused the man's smile to grow even bigger. Then, as Dylan finally let his guard down-
"Huh? Your... not gonna attack me, right?"
Looking into Dylan's eyes, the smiling golden man shook his head as if to confirm that he was not here to hurt Dylan. The man then waved, as if greeting an old friend, and started walking towards Dylan.
Once he reached Dylan, the golden man held out his right hand in front of him, eagerly waiting for Dylan to reciprocate the gesture.