Four elephants, a turtle, an Alex, and a Cal

[between_worlds]

Alex hits the ground with a thump and groans.
He is somewhere, he has no idea where.
A thin, wide-eyed man wearing a tall, pointy hat is leaning over him.
The man says, "Umm, Archchancellor, I think we got the wrong one."
A deep voice off somewhere to Alex's left says, "Well, get on with it then Stibbons. Do it again."
Alex blinks several times and realizes the thin man is tugging on his arm, "Sorry, sorry, you need to get out of the circle."
Alex stumbles to feet and to the side of the circle, still dazed.
"What-" he starts to ask, but the man wearing the very strange hat is already chanting.
There is a flash of bright, almost-purple, almost-green light and the taste of smoke fills Alex's mouth.

Comments

[hearing_shadows]

"--not a child," Cal says, but somehow he's on the floor, staring up at a ceiling made of stone. There are strange men peering at him with undisguised interest, and possibly disappointment. He props himself up by the elbows, looks around.

He doesn't think he's in the city anymore. His city, anyway.

"Where the fuck am I?"

[between_worlds]

The men in the pointy hats are inspecting the new arrival.
The one named Stibbons is mumbling something under his breathe and tilting his head at odd angles to get a better look.
Alex's head has cleared and his thoughts are beginning to move again, he says "I have absolutely no clue."

[hearing_shadows]

Cal's attention swivels to the speaker. He seems to be the only other person in the room not wearing strange, impractical clothing. If he were to guess, the man had most likely been brought here, too. Wherever here is.

In any case, the man's useless to Cal. He probably can't answer any of Cal's questions. Instead, Cal stands up, blinks at the sudden headrush, and then snaps at one of the men in the odd hats. "What did you do?"

[between_worlds]

"Yea, seriously, what did you do?" Alex asks.
"Identify yourself," a large man booms, ignoring Alex and pointing a meaty finger at Cal.

[hearing_shadows]

Cal glares at the man jabbing a finger at him. "Why should I?"

There's an itch in his fingers now, and a throbbing pain in his temple. He doesn't know where he is, but it's not his city and he's not sure that's such a good thing.

He wonders if killing any of the men here will count against his good behavior streak.

[between_worlds]

Stibbons sighs, "I think we got the wrong one again."
Finally, he turns to Alex and Cal, saying "We were attempting to perform a summoning and you two somehow got tangled up in it and were brought here. Sorry."
"Can you send us back?"
Stibbons shakes his head, "No, no it doesn't' work like that. You can't just reverse a summoning and you two could be from any of thousands of millions of worlds."

[hearing_shadows]

"You'll send us back," Cal says flatly. He starts pacing in an attempt to shake his feeling of restlessness. The shadows are hovering at the edge of his mind, laughing at him.

They'll be with him until he dies, he thinks.

[between_worlds]

"I can't," Stibbons laughs nervously, "But we could give you a stipend or something, right Archchancellor?"
Ridicully nods, "Fine, fine."
"This is a great place, really," Stibbons says. "You'll see."

[hearing_shadows]

Cal opens his mouth to retort, but pauses. Why does he want to go back? There's nothing there for him anyway.

But his city is his. He doesn't want to be stuck in a world with men in nonsensical hats.

He stops. He can feel a coldness at the small of his back. His knife came with him, he realizes.

The shadows threaten to pull his mind sideways. He considers letting them.

[between_worlds]

"Fine," Alex says sharply. "I'll find my own way home."
He walks to the door and throws it open and glances back at Cal. "Coming?"

[hearing_shadows]

Huh. The other man isn't as cowardly as he'd assumed he was. Cal reevaluates him, and his statement, as he walks towards the door. "You're used to this, aren't you?"

[between_worlds]

"Yep, this happens to me all the time. I think the universe might hate me."

[hearing_shadows]

Cal decides he doesn't need to know why the man has an affinity for world-hopping. And continuously calling the man "the man" in his head is getting on his already-worn nerves. So, he says, "What's your name?"

[between_worlds]

"I'm Alex. I would say nice to meet you, but, well-" Alex makes a wide gesturing possibly indicating the stone hallway, the world, or life in general.

[hearing_shadows]

"Cal," Cal says in return. His gaze flickers over the hallway. He hasn't seen buildings completely made of stone in a long time. "What do you have in mind for us?"

[between_worlds]

"We see what kind of place we're in, try to find an area with less ambient magic, then use this to get out of here." Alex lifts up a green polished stone hanging from a chord around his neck.

[hearing_shadows]

"Magic," Cal repeats. Magic doesn't exist, he thinks, but here he is anyway. "What does that do? Take us to another world?"

[between_worlds]

"Any world you know the location of, but we should be able to find yours without too much trouble."

[hearing_shadows]

"Hmm." Cal scratches his back, and surreptitiously checks that his knife is still there. They go down yet another corridor, and he asks, "You sure you know the way out of here?"

[between_worlds]

"I'm assuming we'll eventually find a window or a door or someone not wearing a pointy hat."

[hearing_shadows]

Cal considers the stone walls and the fact that all the corridors they've gone down so far have been identical. "That's a big assumption."

Now that he's had some time to calm down, the shadows have retreated back into the rift in his mind. He's glad for once--he doesn't want to kill Alex before he can bring him back home.

[between_worlds]

They turn a corner, a window lies open letting a warm, slightly rank breeze into the corridor.
Alex flashes Cal an I told you so grin.

[hearing_shadows]

Cal peers out the window. The sky, he notices, is blue.

He considers the ramifications of this phenomenon briefly. Then, he looks down. "I don't think we're getting out this way."

[between_worlds]

Alex sticks his head out the window and looks around.
"I think we're four stories up and I guess you would be unmodified. So probably not this way. But we have a better idea of where to look."

[hearing_shadows]

Cal narrows his eyes at Alex's words. "How are you modified?"

He thinks of metal flashing, of people writhing and dying in alleyways. Alex doesn't look like he's one of them. Then again, appearances can be deceiving.