The Requiem Begins

And the voice was gone.

People started to panic, screams tore the stillness apart like claws through paper. A man dropped to his knees, retching. Someone tried to run, but the wall of bodies turned the effort into a pitiful stumble. Next to me, a girl doubled over and vomited into the grass.

I couldn't move.

My heartbeat slammed against my ribs, fast and clumsy. My hands trembled at my sides, and my tongue felt like sandpaper scraped across stone.

Six months? Unite?

Was that a god? A machine? Or did I go crazy?

What the fuck had happened back on Earth? What the hell did I just witnessed? And where the fuck am I? This is like straight from an Anime. 

"No, no, no this shit can't be real."

I thought of my parents.

Are they here?

Are they alive?

In an instinct I was forcing my way through the crowd in an attempt to find my parents. I screamed "Mom, Dad!", but no one answered. At that moment my brain didn't even work normally. I didn't have a single thought in my head. It still had to process what just happened.

Then something moved.

Not in the crowd, but something deep inside my head, a thrum of pressure at the base of my brain, like a thought that didn't belong to me trying to force its way in. My ears popped. My eyes watered. Then, all at once, I understood.

Words.

But not from a language I could already speak. Just... meaning. Injected directly into my thoughts. I looked to my left. A man in military gear, mid-forties, squared jaw, that stiff posture that said he was used to giving orders muttered something under his breath in a language I didn't recognize. Except I did.

I understood every word.

Then I looked right. Two elves, tall with armor that shimmered like moonlight, whispered something to each other in their own language. One of them glanced toward the humans with narrowed eyes. Their words should've sounded alien. Instead, they slipped straight into my brain, clear as if they'd spoken them in my ear.

I wasn't speaking their language. They weren't speaking mine. But I could understand every single one of their words.

And that's when people started to freak the hell out.

"What the hell did it do to us?!"

"Are we cursed?!"

"This is an abomination!"

"Shut up!"

The crowd burst like someone had struck a match in a room full of gas. Shouts, screams, arguments, and threats flew over each other in pure panic. I felt like my heart was a drum beating in my ears. I stood in the middle of everything and had no idea what to do. By instinct I grabbed my phone from my pocket and opened a social media app. Of course it did not load, because there was no signal, let alone internet, on this strange planet, which honestly wasn't even surprising.

Shit, my phone is probably useless here.

I stepped off to the side of the whole crowd and sat down on a patch of grass that looked clean enough. I tried to think about what I should do next.

Let's say everything that just happened was real—and I really am on some alien planet with goddamn elves and dwarves or whatever. Then the first thing I should probably do is... socialize? Because yeah, there's no way I'm surviving this crap alone.

So I looked around. To my right, a group of elves was standing together. I could tell by their body language that they already knew each other. It would be weird if I just walked up and inserted myself there like some clueless human. More to the left were humans, dwarves, and elves talking together. From a distance, I heard them exchanging stories about how they got teleported here. Yeah... I should probably go to them.

I stood up and started walking toward them.

That's when someone screamed from far away, "Water! There's a water source here! I found a stream—might be drinkable!". Not even three seconds later, everyone rushed toward the voice. Even the people I was just about to talk to.

Goddammit. Guess I'll have to postpone the whole making-friends thing. Besides... low-key? I am thirsty as hell.

So I followed the others. As I kept walking, I noticed the crowd in front of me suddenly stopped. That's when I realized I'd arrived. But I still couldn't see the damn stream. Too many people were standing in the way.

I decided to go off to the left and walk up a small hill so I could maybe spot it and get a drink. When I reached the top, it didn't take long to find it.

I was in a forest. The trees and plants didn't look any different from the ones back on Earth—at least, from what I could tell. It was almost eerie, how normal it all looked.

I got down on my knees and leaned in to drink from the stream. But before I could, an elf suddenly spoke to me.

"You shouldn't drink too much of that. It might be bad. Try a little first, and check after a few hours if your body can handle it," the stranger said.

"Shit, yeah, you're right. I seriously can't think straight after everything that's happened," I replied, rubbing my eyes.

"You wouldn't be the only one who made that mistake," he added, pointing at a dwarf who was currently gulping down mouthfuls like his life depended on it.

The elf had short, light-gray hair and looked like he was around my age. He wore a dark blue tunic with short sleeves and silver, swirling embroidery on the chest, sleeves, and hem. His outfit looked straight out of the Middle Ages, but it had this weird elegant vibe to it. Like some RPG-ass noble skin you'd have to pay real money for.

"My name's Aleksander, but you can call me Aleks. And thanks again for earlier—I can't even imagine what kind of hell my shit would've been tomorrow without your help," I said to the stranger.

"My name is Cealith. Nice to meet you," he replied.

Seriously, how the fuck did I end up here?