Serendipity (Karlnapity Fantasy AU)

Chapter 35: The village called Serendipity

May we meet again in another universe

The first thing he felt when he woke up was the soft rays of the sun shining on his face. With his eyes closed, Karl stretched in the new place he found himself in. He smelled the earthy forest floor beneath him and the resin of the surrounding trees. However, before he could calmly take in his new surroundings, he was disturbed by a prick and a quiet croak on his arm.

He heard the leaves swirling on the forest floor and sounds beside him. With open eyes, he turned his head. Some crows had gathered around him and one, the biggest of them, had dared to nudge Karl. Now they all looked up at him with tilted heads and narrowed eyes.

The most astonishing thing about the crows was that their eyes all glowed a poisonous green as they eyed him. But the sharp green that shone at him lost its effect the more time passed until the eyes of all the crows shone again in a simple black-brown.

"What?" called Karl out to them, his throat dry. As he stood up, the birds jumped back, cawed in unison, and hopped across the forest floor onto a path. Feeling slightly dizzy, Karl took in his surroundings. He was in a wooded area, not far away he could make out a lake in the distance. The sun was slowly setting and the dark reddish colors blurred with the deep blue of the water.

The crows had moved further away from Karl, but still, a few of them cawed and attempted to tell Karl something, stubbornly remaining on the path.

"I guess you want me to follow you," Karl said with an amused look as he stepped onto the trail and the crows fluttered their wings in excitement.

"But first I'll look around," with a grin he turned in the exact opposite direction and immediately heard the angry cawing of the birds behind him.

With an amused expression, Karl walked around the part of the forest where he had woken up.

Everything in this place felt familiar, and he recognized large mushroom trees growing out from among the normal deciduous trees in certain places, but this was not one of the forests Karl had walked in before. This was a new place that seemed strangely familiar to him on so many levels. He was about to turn back to the crows when something in the corner of his eye stopped him.

Among the moss and foliage, Karl recognized a structure. Curious, he approached the strange concrete block, overgrown with moss and hidden among leaves. As soon as he found the first concrete block, it didn't take him long to recognize the debris that peeked out from between the thickets all over the forest.

What kind of weird world was he in right now?

Eventually, Karl had enough and he set off back along the actual path. The crows had disappeared from the path, watching the boy instead, dwarfed by the trees that snaked along the path. The forest was beautiful and seemed so untouched even though it contained traces of human destruction. So nature had reclaimed its way and adorned the icy concrete with beautiful greenery and colorful flowers that flashed between concrete. As he got closer and closer to the lake, he spotted people sitting on the lakeshore in the distance. They were far enough away and far too engrossed in their conversation to notice the brown-haired.

A settlement doesn't seem to be far from here, Karl thought, and at the same moment he could make out shallow puffs of smoke and soft light from the distance. He continued to follow the scattered crows along the forest path until he stopped in front of a sign. It marked the entrance to a small village. The small brick houses were laid out in a sort of circle and everywhere sprouted flowers and cluttered weeds. With a gentle smile, he slightly craned his neck as he deciphered the writing on the sign.

It was an old wooden sign and with light, moss gnawing at it and small carved symbols it said:

Serendipity