Our second world- book one: Past beginnings

Chapter 3

Falling.

That was the first thing he felt when he opened his eyes. He couldn't see Grace through the inky darkness that shrouded them, but he could feel her arms clamped tightly around his torso, likely for fear of being separated.

Without warning, the darkness vanished; there was a bright flash of light and a heavy sounding thump as the two of them landed on something hard.

"--aren...w.k..p...H...rn..."

His ears rang from the force of their landing, and, when he opened his eyes, he saw a blurry version of Graces' face above him.

"Hey, are you ok? Haren, wake up!" She shouted clearly this time, shaking him lightly by the shoulders.

"You're really heavy," he groaned, realizing she had landed on top of him.

She gasped loudly and scrambled backward to get off of him," I am not!" She huffed in annoyance." But, sorry. I didn't mean to land on you. Is your arm ok?"

"It's fine," he said, struggling slightly to sit up with only his right arm for support." Are you ok?"

Grace nodded," you broke my fall. Are you?" She replied, crawling back over." I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Haren shook his head," I'm fine."

Grace frowned, and, before he could argue, she was looking him over for any signs of injuries possibly caused by their fall. When she seemed satisfied that he was, indeed, fine as he said, she sat back on her heels and glanced around.

"Where are we?" She asked, her voice echoing through the empty space.

Haren looked around as well.

The two of them were sitting in a large room with a tall ceiling. It was made entirely out of a caramel colored wood, and a large stone statue in the shape of a four-legged dragon with antlers sat on a slightly raised platform in the middle of the room. There were two doors on opposite sides of the room, and a few windows sat on the other walls where a small amount of sunlight seeped in from outside; they were too high up, and too small to be able to see anything out of them though.

"Not sure. It could be a shrine of some kind considering that statue," Haren replied, leaning back on his hand." Doesn't look like anyone's been here for a while though." He added, taking notice of the visible layer of dust that hung on every surface.

"Well, what do we do now?"

Haren sighed and stood up, dusting off his pants," wait here," he instructed." I'll go take a look outside. Once we figure out where we are, we can decide what to do from there."

"Sounds good," Grace nodded." I'll take a look around in here then. See if I can find anything that might help us."

Haren nodded and walked over to the door that led outside. Opening it, he shielded his eyes from the sudden brightness of the sun. It only took a few moments for them to adjust to the drastic change in lighting. When they did, the sight made him gasp.

The area around them had completely changed!

Instead of the open yard behind the small, gray house, he was surrounded on all sides by tall oak trees. The building they had landed in was situated in the middle of a small clearing, and the trees went on as far as the eye could see in every direction.

We're definitely not in the shed anymore, he thought. Wonder where we are now? I don't recognize this forest.

He turned to go back inside, but as he made his way back to the steps, he tripped over something. He managed to catch himself before face-planting on the steps, though the object he ran into fell over with a loud crash. After righting himself, he quickly picked up the mystery object. The moment his hand closed around it, he realized it was a sword. It had a golden colored hilt and a dark leather grip on the handle. Other than that, it looked as plain as an average longsword, and, judging by the weight of it, it was safe to say the blade wasn't just a renaissance cosplay prop. He also noticed that the design of the guard and shape of the blade were similar to European style swords when he pulled it from the leather sheath. Even knowing it was real, it wasn't as heavy as he thought a sword of this particular type would be, but he shoved the thoughts away and stuffed the sword back in its sheath as he walked inside.