Stranded in New World

***

Zetia Village, Kingdom of Vainthor.

Year 543 Vainthor Calendar.

"Is he really being treated at Master Balashi's house?" asked the villager.

"It seems so. Balashi's daughter can use healing magic," revealed another villager.

It wasn't just one or two villagers who surrounded the stone house owned by the man named Balashi; there were dozens more. 

Children, women, men, and the elderly gathered at the house to see something they had never seen before.

A man without a curse line, that's what the villagers said when they managed to save a man from an iron blast.

A white-bearded man with a short stature —about 100cm— walked out of his stone house. He was Balashi, who cared for the human without the curse line.

"How is he?" one of the men asked.

"It will get worse if you guys keep crowding my house. Leave quickly, or I'll banish you with my magic!" threatened Balashi, stretching his hand forward to bring up a white magic circle.

"A-All right."

After being threatened, the other villagers slowly began to walk away from Balashi's house. However, their high curiosity made them choose to peek from a distance.

Shala, Balashi's wife, walked up to her angry husband. She handed him a bottle of the Zetia village's specialty alcohol, Cillo. Balashi took the bottle roughly and gulped it down.

"They're curious as it was their first time seeing a High Human," Shala replied, staring outside.

"Still, it pisses me off. Don't they know their breath is making my house heat? I could die of heat stroke if they keep crowding in."

"So, you're angry because you feel overheated?" asked Shala. Balashi took a swig of Cillo and ignored his wife's question.

"It's been three days since that human fell into a faint. Is he okay?" asked Balashi.

"Ninsunu is restoring his energy. It may take longer to recover," Shala replied.

"I don't want him to stay here for long; our stone house is not enough for him," Balashi complained.

"He will wake up soon."

As the two dwarves talk about the human, Ninsunu comes outside the house to tell Balashi and Shala something important.

Ninsunu's arrival caught the attention of both of them; they immediately turned their heads back and looked at their daughter.

"What is it?" asked Balashi.

"That human... he's awake," Ninsunu replied.

"Really?"

Balashi and Shala hurriedly walked into the room. The other dwarves who saw Balashi had returned inside, began walking again toward the stone house.

Sam opened his eyes and saw him lying in a narrow room with walls and a roof made of stone.

His eyes wandered around, noticing the strange furniture in the room, mostly made of animal bones and fur.

'Where am I?' Sam asked himself.

When Sam was about to move his body, there was an excruciating pain in his abdomen. He opened the blanket covering his body and saw his stomach was tightly bandaged, blood still oozing from the stab wound in his stomach.

'This hurts,' Sam complained.

The door to the room opened, Sam spontaneously shifted his eye focus to the side. He could see three strangely dressed people approaching him, two women and one man.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Sam, of course in English that the dwarf race couldn't understand.

"What did he say?" asked Balashi, looking at Ninsunu.

Ninsunu shook her head. She was as clueless as Balashi. According to Ninsunu, the language Sam spoke was one she had never heard in her life.

"What language are you speaking?" asked Sam, equally confused.

"Can you attach translator magic to him?" asked Shala.

"I'll try," replied Ninsunu.

The woman of about the same height as Shala stepped closer to Sam. Sam was terrified that the person would try to eat him like a cannibal.

Both of Ninsunu's hands stretched forward, but Sam quickly swatted them away with his left hand. Ninsunu was annoyed, so she asked Balashi to chain Sam's body.

The iron chains were taken from the house's warehouse. Sam, still in pain, found it difficult to escape the shackles. In the end, Sam gave up and let Ninsunu do what she wanted to do.

[Spellcraft: Language Interpretation]

A white magic circle appeared in front of Ninsunu's two hands. The woman tried to speak to Sam, but the magic circle did not work properly. This confused them.

"What a waste," stated Balashi, his hands clasped together in frustration.

"Looks like we'll have to teach him our language. Then we can talk freely with him," Shala explained.

"The dwarf language is complicated. He can't learn it in a short time."

"What if we teach him Valor? I'm pretty good at it, and humans commonly speak it," Ninsunu explained.

"How long will it take for him to speak Valor fluently?" asked Balashi.

"If he's an intelligent human, he can understand it within 2-3 months," Ninsunu revealed.

Balashi stared off to the side, watching his wife intently. Shala nodded. Ninsunu's idea wasn't entirely bad. Ninsunu would act as his translator if the human could speak Valor.

"This is really troublesome. I'll build a human house for him, a simple one," Balashi explained, irritably waltzing away to call the other dwarves.

Ninsunu was still near the frightened Sam, His face pale with pain and anxiety. Ninsunu was kind enough to remove the iron chain that restrained Sam's body, his perception about them changed.

The two began to get along by communicating using hand gestures. Ninsunu raised her hand and moved like someone eating; Sam knew what she meant.

Sam shook his head, indicating that he wasn't in the mood to eat. The man moved his hands to mimic a helicopter falling down.

Ninsunu took a while to understand Sam's hand gestures; she showed Sam the black iron.

The man in front of Ninsunu nodded; he wanted to be led to where the iron was. Ninsunu smiled broadly, helping Sam step out of the house.

Arriving outside the Balashi residence, Sam stopped his steps momentarily when he saw dozens of people with one common characteristic: short height.

Not only that, Ninsunu could also bring out a white circle in front of her hand. Everything that happened was confusing to Sam.

"Where exactly am I?" asked Sam sadly.

Ninsunu moved her hand again, pointing in the other direction where the iron fell. Sam agreed and took another step without ignoring the strangeness that was happening.

Ninsunu had to step slowly to balance the speed of her steps with Sam. Sam kept bracing himself to keep going.

He needed to know where the helicopter was and what condition the others were in.

In the distance, the black metal that formed the charred frame of the helicopter was visible to Sam.

Sam released Ninsunu's grip and stepped quickly towards the crash site of the helicopter; the bodies of Natasha, Lewis, and the pilot were nowhere to be found.

"Where are my friends?" Sam asked.

Ninsunu held up three fingers, Sam nodded in reply that there were three friends. Ninsunu again demonstrated the index finger that seemed to be slashing the neck; Sam widened his eyes.

"They're dead? Did you kill them?!" Sam snapped.

The short woman waved her hand again, inviting Sam to step towards the area where the dwarves buried Sam's friends.

Sam followed Ninsunu and saw piles of stones on three mounds of dirt.

"That can't be. Why am I the only one who survived?" Sam asked, unable to believe what he was seeing.

ROAR!

A mighty roar sounded in the sky. Sam raised his head and witnessed a red dragon with a large size flying freely.

Sam was speechless, the red dragon flew freely with no one bothering it. He turned his head to the side, Ninsunu's face didn't seem to be surprised by the existence of such a dragon.

Ninsunu seemed to bow her head with her hands clasp together as if she were praying. Sam squinted; it looked like he was stranded in another world, not Earth.

"Hey," called Sam, inviting Ninsunu's attention.

Sam pointed down, his hands pointing around him like he was questioning where he was. Ninsunu smiled and nodded, not explaining anything in her hand gestures.

"Zenica!"