Chương 15: Chapter 14- A Stranger’s Tale

Eli chuffed a short laugh, "Yeah, it has been a rough couple of days for me too. Well, I would like to think I have already shown I'm not opposed to a little danger, I guess it depends on what kind of trouble." Elias scratched the short stubble shadowing his chin after days without a shave." Besides, what I need at the moment more than anything is a friend, and what kind of man would I be if I didn't help a friend?" Looking back up at Eli, Astra gave a small smile.

"Friends it is then, how about you start us off then?" Leaning forward with a smile playing across her lips.

"To begin with, what in the seven realms is a youtube video?" Eli laughed and heaved a large sigh.

"That's going to take some serious context. Where to begin?" Looking up at the ring crossing the sky Eli fixed Astra with a steady gaze.

"I am not from around here." Chuckling Astra waved at his clothing, "Clearly, I doubt you crossed the Dragon's Spine in those, especially barefoot, do you come from the other side of the Verdant Reach?" Elias shook his head.

"No, I'm guessing that's this forest? No, much further, I'm from another world, possibly another universe, I come from a planet called Earth." Astra frowns, "Dirt? You mean Verdalis, the Earthen Realm?" She leapt to her feet in excitement pointing at the green orb in the sky, "Scholars have been talking about it forever, in the old histories that say that it's inhabited by the mortal races just like here!" Eli shook his head again.

"No much, much further, seventy percent of my world is covered in water, it looks nothing like your moon, also the sky back home has vastly different stars. You may not have a frame of reference for it. Here let me show you what I mean." He dropped two pebbles on the ground pointing.

"If this is your entire world, and this is the sun, and the gap between these two pebbles is the distance between where we are standing and the sun in the sky." Elias jerked a thumb over his shoulder to the eastern mountain range behind him." The pebble representing the world I come from would be somewhere beyond those mountains.

In my home we call a collection of stars in the sky like you see here a galaxy, millions of stars just like your sun, and the galaxy I come from is fairly distinct, I have seen pictures of it all my life." He pointed up to the night sky, "That is not my galaxy, and these are not my stars, I know them very well." Elias took the butt of his spear and drew the shape of the milky way galaxy in the dirt while continuing his explanation."

To start with, my home does not have a ring in the sky, instead imagine a shape like this streaking across the sky made of millions of stars." Frowning Astra plopped back down.

"How is that even possible? I've heard stories. Old, ancient tales, of people coming from places beyond our world, but no one has ever had definitive proof of such a thing, at least to my knowledge."

"These stories were always assumed to be just stories, tales to entertain children. I know it's a little rude since we just met, but do you mind if I [Identify] you, my skill isn't very high but it might tell me something?" Now it was Eli's turn to frown.

"Sure? I don't know what that means honestly. To be fair we've barely left our world either, you are definitely the first nonfictitious encounter with a being from another world for me too." Astra looked intently at Eli and with a slight flex of her eyelids, Eli shivered as he felt as if someone ran an ephemeral finger down his spine while Astra recoiled and let out a gasp.

"By the ancients! You're born of the void?"

Eli looked at Astra in confusion as she gaped at him before snapping her mouth shut and scooting forward to inspect him with an inquisitive eye as if he was a particularly unusual insect.

"How would I know? And what was that? I could feel something brush against me, but I didn't see anything?" Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. She wrinkled her brow in confusion before a deluge of questions tumbled from her in a rush as she inched forward getting closer with every question.

"Do you mean [Identify]? Do you not have the skill? I thought almost everybody had it even if only at a low level? Also don't change the subject. Why are you tagged as a [Child of the Void]? You look human, not like some weird abyssal monstrosity? Also exactly how old are you?! I've never seen an adult with a child class before!" With the final question Astra leered at Eli hovering inches away as if examining his features more closely would result in the answers she desired.

Scrambling backwards Eli only made it a couple more inches before his back pressed against a rock halting his attempt to gain some distance, before rolling his eyes with an exasperated sigh.

"All right, all right, relax, one question at a time!" Chuckling under his breath he held up a hand while ticking the answers off with the other" No, no, did not know that, probably since I'm from a different planet, as far as I know I am still human, 23 years old, and what the fuck is a child class?""

I'm sorry but as much as I would like to answer you, most of those questions make little sense to me, and while I am 23 years old back home I have no idea how long a year is on this planet, so I doubt that is very meaningful. Look, there are clearly some major differences here and we won't make a lot of progress unless we lay out some common ground." Eli waved at the forgotten jerky pouch still clutched in her hand.

"How about this? You're obviously very hungry, why don't you eat your fill and in the meantime, that will give me a chance to explain a bit about what happened to me, and you can save up any questions for the end?" With a sheepish grin at her intense reaction, Astra slapped Eli's shoulder with a quick, "Deal!" before retreating back a few steps to the other side of the fire and descending on the jerky ravenously while looking up with an excited and expectant expression.

Eli proceeded to give the highlights of Earth's history as best he could, and honestly he found himself very bemused at the breadth of Astra's reactions.

From the silent gasps at the description of the towering skyscrapers and mega cities, to the sparkle of wonder in her eyes as she gaped up towards the moons in wonder at the prospect of manned spaceflight, to a grim and knowing look at the description of our many wars, and Eli found himself quickly changing the subject at the dark and serious expression at some of the horrors wreaked during some of them.

He decided to keep the technical aspects light without knowing more about the capabilities of the world he found himself in, only briefly touching on surface facts as well as avoiding a deep dive into his personal history, but true to her word Astra refrained from pushing for details until his tale began to come to a close as he narrated his arrival on this world.

"... and when I stopped for a break on my run, I looked up only to see a flash, and I had assumed I had died in the explosion until I woke up here with a ringing head in a dark cave, dressed in clothes I've never seen before. That was approximately three days ago…" With a sympathetic expression Astra placed a hand on his arm and with a gentle tone,"To lose so much in such a violent way can not be pleasant, I can't say I have ever heard such a fantastical tale."

A grin slowly spread across her face as she gave Eli's arm a light slap.

"But take heart, if such an event can happen once, then it surely has happened before." Elias gave her a grateful smile as he continued the tale." Maybe, in all fairness though I did not have much tying me down anyways. While it would be nice to see my sister again, there really was not much else that I miss at the moment. To be honest your world has been pretty exciting so far, and it would be nice to see more of it!"

Astra arched her brow with a smirk, "Oh, and what excitement could you possibly have encountered in all of three days?" Eli grinned," Well to start, you should have seen these crazy green monkey things I ran across. So after waking up in a puddle…" Eli had to hand it to Astra, she made for a great audience. She scowled at the goblins, laughed at his excitement at discovering the system, and jumped to her feet to cheer on his victory over the boars.

Elias was almost sad to see the genuine delight sparkling in her sky blue eyes dim, a grim expression taking over her countenance, as he described coming across a wayward camp in the woods and following the trail of corpses to her fight. Elias's tone became deadly serious as well." I had my suspicions after realizing I came across five men chasing a lone woman through the forest. The hooded man's words were the nail in the coffin for me, or I guess him rather.""

My world is a pretty nice place for the most part, but we have our own bad apples. There are only so many reasons five men would fight to death over one woman and none of them are pleasant." Astra looked Eli over with another sharp appraising look, cracking a small smile as she apparently approved of what she saw." Aye, slavers the whole lot, but that's part of my story." She sat back as she watched him for a moment."

I'm surprised that you would jump to the defense of a stranger so readily, especially when faced with a foe of unknown power." Eli shrugged, " Back home I was in my Nation's military for a time, a kind of soldier stationed on naval ships to protect the crew, a service that went around 250 years back in our history. In more modern times we were often the first force sent into a war zone, we were trained to fight with little notice, with whatever we had on hand.

Besides, I still remember one of the first things I was ever taught by one of my instructors." Elias broke out into a savage grin as he leaned forward, "It doesn't matter how tough you are if I stab you in the neck first." Astra cackled with laughter, " I guess he was right." Wiping a tear from her eye she leaned back." I meant what I said. I doubt I can do much out here in the woods, but I am sure my family can help if I can make my way back to them.

The Emberholdt clan may not be one of the most illustrious families, but we pay our debts. If helping you find answers will provide recompense then I'll gladly do so." Her face softened to a gentle smile, "It must feel very isolating being so far from home, but you're not alone any longer, that is what friends are for, right?" She looked into the fire with a conflicted expression containing a hint of anger, "Well at the very least, that's what they should be for, I guess it is my turn."