Chapter 3: A Dream Come True

"...hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

I started to cough, practically gasping for some air from screaming for so long. Luckily, whatever that monstrous chicken thing I saw had long run back into the shrubbery. I was still severely panicking, but I drained myself just enough that I wouldn't do anything rash until I calmed my nerves entirely.

I stood up and brushed the dust and dirt off my clothes but stopped when noticing I was no longer in my uniform. I walked up to a large puddle near me and used the water's reflection to examine myself.

I let out a deep sigh when I saw that nothing else had changed much. I still had my dark hazel eyes and black hair. I seemed to be a bit taller, about six feet, likely thanks to the thick boots I wore than growing the inch or two needed. I touched my arms and legs as they were more toned than before. I lifted my shirt up as far as I could and saw I had more defined abs than usual.

My uniform was the most radically different. It had shifted from the blue and white palate my school was proud of to a somewhat dirty black and brown. I also had a bit of armor, a thin chest plate strapped on tightly that made it hard to lift my shirt and guards on my shoulder and kneecaps.

I couldn't help but let out a quick laugh when I realized I looked like some generic level one protagonist out of the fantasy novels that Lulu—

"Lulu! Lulu, where are you? Lulu, answer me!"

I was so occupied with making sure I was okay that I didn't even think about Lulu. But I knew she was close as I could somehow sense her even better now.

"Ash..." her frail voice came from behind me, "...I'm over here."

I rushed towards Lulu's uneasy voice. She was on her back when I found her. Her petite hands clenched together over her stomach. I quickly glanced over her to see what was wrong. But other than her uniform changing as mine had, with the only real difference being that she had shorts and long knee-high socks instead of pants, she appeared fine.

"Lulu, what's wrong?" I said, placing my ear near her mouth.

"I-I'm not sure, Ash. I woke up and felt strange. I even started to hear an odd sound coming from my body."

I tried to stay calm, but it was difficult with Lulu involved. I ran through everything I could in my head to find a reason why Lulu seemed to be in pain when I heard her stomach growl loudly.

"Lulu...was that the sound you were talking about?"

"Yes! And it gets louder each time and makes my whole body shake."

"Lulu! You're just hungry!"

I stood up right away, turning away from her, annoyed that I had worried so much that tears had begun to welled in the back of my eyes.

I glanced back as Lulu sat up. She kept mouthing what I just said, and I felt the gears start spinning in her mind just as mine started, no longer fogged by panic.

She hesitantly extended her hand out to a pebble on the ground, and gently, as if it was alive and could kill it if she applied too much pressure, picked it up.

She looked up at me with an immense smile as tears streamed down her face.

"I-I can touch things. Ash, I can feel it in my hand! I picked it up!"

I was so stunned that I froze in place. But I didn't stay upright for too long. Lulu leaped right into me, knocking me down as she tried to bury herself deep within me.

I felt her on top of me, her soft skin, the long silky hair I treasured, and her sharp tears on my chest. But most of all, I felt the one thing I had always wanted: I felt the genuine warmth of her body for the first time in sixteen long years.

I wrapped my hands around her quivering body tightly as tears began to flow out my eyes. I don't know how long we stayed in the middle of that forest, undoubtedly surrounded by animals ready to eat us, crying our eyes out, delighted that our long-shared dream had finally come true. But, reality gradually sank in, and I knew it was time to get going.

"Hey...we can't stay like this forever, Lulu. Your stomach has been growling for a while, and I think mine will soon. We need to find some food and understand what's going on."

"No!" she yelled into my chest. "What if I let go and lose the ability to touch things again?"

"Lulu, you won't be able to touch anything if you die of hunger. You have a physical body now, so it needs things to work: water, food, a place to rest when it gets too cold or hot. If we stay like this for too long, we won't have the strength to collect food."

"And just how are you going to get food! I explored a bit before I collapsed from that hunger thing you said, and I didn't see any place where we could go and buy meals."

"Well, yeah, that's obvious. I doubt we're even in our world anymore—"

Lulu jumped off me with sparkles in her eyes.

I had somehow forgotten just how much of a fantasy dork Lulu was and just how much she loved stories about going to another world. Guess that love is even more potent than the fear of not touching things.

"Are you being serious! Are we in some new world? I'll hit you if you're lying, and this time I mean it! And I can actually do it now!"

I stood up, grabbed her hand, and gave her the pebble she first held to reassure her that she could still touch things. But she did not care anymore, shoving the pebble right into her pocket. Lulu's mind had already moved from that fear to the desire to know if we were indeed in some fantasy world or not.

"Well, I thought I saw a chicken, but when it got close, it had three hands and eight legs. So, yeah, I think we're in some fantasy world now."

"Magic! Ash, are we going to be able to use magic?"

Lulu grabbed me by the shoulders. She started shaking the very soul out of me. I somehow managed to stop her, but not before I saw like eleven of her—a nightmare of mine—but freed from her grip and ensuring I wouldn't puke, I told her we needed to devise a plan.

"Where do we even begin?" Lulu said, sitting on a tree stump as I looked around for items to make an animal trap.

"Well, you're the expert here. How do your stories play out? Maybe we can make some plan out of them."

"I doubt they would be any help. Those are just stories, and most of them don't have two people working together. And, most importantly, they usually die first..."

"No, Lulu, I don't think we died."

"Well, guess that's good. But, let's not rely on fiction all that much. First, let's talk about this Terra girl. She teleported us here and likely came from this world. She seemed to know my mother, which means I was born and didn't just come to be. So, that answers that long-standing question about my existence. And she also seems to know your biological dad. But that's all I got. She didn't talk with me much before sending me here. What did she say to you, Ash?"

"She said about the same. But she also went on a brief and bizarre rant about duty and then must have used magic," Lulu's eyes sparked again, but she got serious when I glared at her, "to bring me here. She did also say something about a keeper link? I don't know if that is important, but it sure sounded like it."

"Keeper link? Like a guardian or something?"

I just shrugged and positioned the last piece of my trap. Pops showed me how to make one when he took me hunting, but time will only tell if I made it good enough to catch anything.

"We need to get back home quickly. Pop's will worry," I added.

Lulu let out a bitter smile and agreed. Neither of us said it, but not only did we not know how to achieve that goal, but we understood that achieving it may lead to Lulu losing her physical form again.

I sat down next to her on the stub, and she rested her head on my shoulder while we waited. We were both tired, scared, and didn't entirely know what to do next. But when our stomachs synched growls, we burst out in laughter and felt the fatigue pass for a moment as our morale grew.