Chiron Academy

Strange Tales Issue# 29: Friends in Strange Places

Gary spent the next few minutes walking silently behind the black thing. Harvey. It seemed to know its way around the ragged landscape, leading him in a different direction than he'd been moving before. The new direction seemed to lead them directly into the wind. Its chill seemed to cut directly through his inadequate t shirt. He had his arms folded tightly in front of him.

His light garb had made a lot more sense that morning. It had been so hot back home, he had practically been baking all day. He'd practically had sweat dripping on the sidewalk as he'd walked home from the school bus. It wasn't freezing here or anything, but compared to the heat back home, it was frigid.

If he'd known he was going to get sucked into another dimension, he would have packed a jacket.

I believe we are now clear of any dangers, Harvey announced, coming to a stop.

They stood at the edge of a cliff Harvey had been leading them across the side of. The view was spectacular. The country seemed to stretch in front of them forever, mostly flat but with a few jagged corners stretching up into the sky.

If it were at home, Gary decided, it would have been a national park. He'd never been to one, but he'd seen pictures: they were always wild landscapes, challenging you with what wonders you might see around the next corner. This place seemed to fit that description well.

I apologize to you for stifling your questions earlier. You seemed to have many, but I wanted to ensure your survival before we conversed further. It is terrible manners to allow your guests to be eaten.

"Well, I definitely appreciate it," Gary responded. "For saving me, I mean."

There are places where beings take such very seriously. I have tried to learn a thing or two from them in my time. But tell me, Harvey continued, what further questions do you have?

He had about a million questions, all sorts of questions coming to mind from the moment he'd arrived here. Each moment walking beside Harvey, he'd thought of another hundred questions. How did he come here? Where was here? How could he get home?

"Well, I have been wondering..." Gary started, picking a question he'd thought during their silent walk.

He swept his gaze over the great panorama in front of him.

"How did you find me? I've been walking around here for a while and I haven't seen anyone but those slug things and you. How did you know I was there?"

A very good question. It was the wind. The air in this realm has been still for eons. I am not the only creatures to perceive it. It is throwing all the creatures here into disarray. Further, I observed the smell of the mortal reAlm on the winnnnd. Air from the High Realm has a certain bombasticness to it, a strength. It has been a long time since I last smelt it, but it is unmistakable. So yes, it was... the smell on the winnnnnd. And in the wind. But tell me, young planeswalker, I must inquire what brings you to this desolate domain?

"I don't know. I was just sitting in my apartment. And then..." Gary started, trying to draw his memory back to the last things he could remember. "There was a wind there too. But it was much stronger. Everything was getting blown around the room. I was... I'm not sure, pulled by the wind?"

He wasn't sure that made any sense, but it almost seemed like he had been sucked in like people are by tornadoes in movies.

"And then the next thing I remember is," he finished," waking up here."

Harvey's black form shifted into a new shape: a series of concentric circles with a seven-pointed star behind it. Gary wondered suddenly if he was a gas of some kind or maybe liquid. He almost reached out his hand to touch it, but he wasn't sure how Harvey might take that.