A gentle breeze whooshes past Lioan's face. He steadily opens his eyes, realizing he's lying down. He quickly sits up. Where am I? Is this Earth? Questions flood his mind, unanswered. He scans his surroundings: a round straw table holding a cup, a lonely desk in the far corner with scattered papers, and a file. Once steady, Lioan rises and moves to the desk. The room is messy—paper balls, pencils, and mysterious red balls like clown noses are strewn about. Lioan picks up a paper from the desk. The title reads, "Properties of Magic and Silenisis Volume II." Magic? That's seriously awesome! But what's Silenisis? Intrigued, he tries to read more, but the text is strange—runes, some resembling English letters, others unfamiliar. He wonders why he can read the title but not the rest.
The door creaked behind him, and Lioan immediately turned around to see who was going to enter. A man around 5'9 entered the room and gasped in shock. He wore a brown, torn-up, ragged shirt with black shorts that went down to his knees. He looked to be in his 40s, and his face reflected struggle and fatigue. Lioan spoke first, "Who are you? Where am I? Wh-why am I here?" The man responded, "Oh, I see you've woken up. I was getting some food and water for you..." The atmosphere was drab and cold. They both looked at each other, no words exchanged. Lioan breaks the tension and says, "What should I call you?" The man replies, "Call me Ulis, please."
"Ok, Ulis, would you know where I am?"
"Yes, of course, you're in the Keylia empire. The best empire in the world!"
"The Keylia empire? Yeah, I'm definitely not on Earth," Lioan says, facepalming.
"Are there any other empires?"
"Yeah, from what I know, there are the Pylisch, Riix, Lwax, and Blinte. But enough about me, where are you from? I saw you lying on the ground unconscious. What happened to you?"
"Yeah, well, the last thing I remember was that I saw this weird-looking beast. It had four legs dressed in white and red fur. Its head was especially strange. I passed out after that."
"I see, young man, you've encountered a Telipxa. Those ravenous beasts are a danger to Linals like us, so I advise you, don't go trying your luck again. It's a wonder you came out of such a dangerous encounter alive."
Lioan absorbs the information, Linals? Maybe that's what they call humans here. His focus switches to the papers on the desk. The strange illustrations on the papers hypnotized him. He put forth his courage and scrutinized Ulis about the papers.
"Ulis, if you don't mind, could you tell me what those papers on the desk are exactly? I'm guessing since this is your house, these are your papers?"
"Yes indeed, they are my papers. I use them to study magic and other related processes. I haven't touched them for quite a while, though, I've run out of inspiration, you could say."
"So you can use magic?"
"Yes, but it isn't as spectacular as the regular folk in the town. I'm not too talented in the magic arts."
"I'm a bit new around these parts. Could you show me the magic here?" Lioan said inquiringly, though inside he was brimming with excitement.
"If you insist, then fine, follow me."
Lioan follows Ulis to the front door of the house. This was his first time seeing what the empire looks like. Lioan couldn't stop himself from shaking. He was about to see something that broke the rules of physics on Earth. Lioan stared in awe once he left the house. Valleys of assorted flowers of all species, some he'd never seen, mixed in to create a majestic sight to behold. Behind the flowers stood grand buildings that touched the sky.
"Why do you have such a shocked look on your face, young man?"
How could I not be shocked? The flowers are so beautiful." Lioan continued to stare; this feeling made him reminisce for a little while until he snapped back and continued to follow Ulis.
"These pesky flowers, they invade all the space for the cattle and livestock. I wish there were a way to get rid of them. My life is a living hell cause of them."
I see so in this world, flowers are equivalent to weeds on Earth. But how could they see such beautiful colors and patterns as mere weeds? I guess it makes sense when it interrupts everything else that you'd want to do with a piece of land.
Usil and I walk to his barn. The barn was the same as any barn you'd see on Earth. Rounded top with red painted walls. We enter the barn and again, animals I've never seen. This area was particularily strange since there were some strange particle-like things floating around the place. Usil walks up to a chest and opens it up. Inside a variety of different cards, each colored uniquely. Usil picks up a green card and shows it to me.
"This is a naturis magic card. It has the strongest effect because mana and the world have the strongest connection to each other."
Usil closes his eyes and stands there for a good 6 seconds. Usil states in a monotone voice, "This is called bonding. You must first bond with a mana card before you can use it. The longer you bond, the stronger the mana's effect." Usil then takes me outside the barn, where he holds up the card in front of me, around 12 feet away. "Then to use it, you must throw it to the appropriate area for it to bloom." Usil remarks. Usil throws the now glowing green card at the ground with quite the force behind it. The mana card hits the ground and sticks to it, standing vertically. The card then gradually starts being sucked up by the ground, and after a few moments, the card has completely vanished into the ground. Immediately, the ground starts quivering under Lioan's feet, and a tall 60-meter tree awakens from the ground. Lioan stares up at the fully leaf-woven tree that erupted from the ground, just a minute ago, it wasn't there. Lioan, from seeing the use of the mana card and the spectacular view of magic, renews his sense of invigoration to go back to Earth.
"Can I also use those magic cards?" Lioan asks politely,
"Yes, everyone can, but be careful, everyone has a different amount of mana in their bodies, and some of the cards in the chest use more mana than one could have stored. If you were to run out of mana, you'd die an excruciating death."
"I see, ok, let's go back to the chest and perhaps you could help me use a mana card?"
"Of course, but I didn't get your name."
"The name's Lioan!"
"Alright, Lioan, come with me, let's show you how it's done, I've got back from work and I'm feeling good."