Tramslavania: The Tale Of Despair

Chapter 1: Atal The Outcast

The man took Mike to his home that night. The more Mike thought about it, everything seemed to only get worse and worse. 

"Come here, boy..." The man gestured Mike to join him in a cup of tea.

"Hm..? Oh.. um... a - are you sure, 'master'?" Mike asked him, as he got up from his spot on the floor.

"Haha.. oh, no.. you see, I tend to buy slaves from the stage, and try my best to return them to their original homes..." The man said, as he grabbed his teacup.

"Y - you can't do that! I still need to free my sister..!" Mike said, letting the words mistakenly slip out of his mouth.

"You have a sister? Oh no.. this could prove quite troublesome..." The old man said calmly, as he took a sip from the teacup. 

"I.. I suppose it could..! Anyways.. um... what's your name, anyways..?" 

"Ah, right.. my name is Atal." The man said, putting down his teacup. Atal seemed humble, as if he meditated every day.

 "O - oh.. Atal? That's a strange name.." Mike said, not realizing how rude it was until he said it aloud. Atal faced towards Mike with what seemed like an upset expression.

"I.. I'm so sorry, sir, I.."

"Bahaha! You really think that'll upset me? No, with me being fairly well known around here, there's bound to be people who hate me and my name!" Atal said, laughing to himself. Mike was astounded. People hate him for saving slaves? Why..? Mike's thoughts accidentally slept through his mouth.

"Well, uh.. whatever your name is, you see, this city has a scheme that keeps it surviving. The mayor advertises the city as a place of freedom and safety, but when new citizens such as yourself arrive, they separate them from their family and sell them as slaves. Many citizens are forced to live here, so the mayor uses that to his advantage to keep everybody from speaking out about it." Atal explained.

"Wh - what!? So they're just gonna stay here and do nothing?!" Mike jumped out of the chair, knocking his teacup off the table, breaking it. 

"Yep.. nobody likes me because I'm the only one who rebels, and they all know, if one person rebels, they all fall."

"We have to change this! We can't leave the city like this! People are being forced to lose their children as random people do god knows what to them! This isn't even a safe city to live in!" 

"Believe me sonny, I've tried. It's pointless. You try, you'll get your family killed." Atal seemed sure nobody could be saved from this "mayor's" scheme, but Mike still had his doubts.

"Is there any way? I'd go to a different dimension if I had to safe my family from this stupid scheme!" Mike said, determined on his decision. 

"..I suppose there is one other way..." Atal seemed dazed now, afraid, almost. 

"Aha! I knew it! So.. um... what is this other way..?"

"It's a very difficult thing to pull off sonny, so don't go expecting this to work.. but if we were to go to an alternate timeline where Tramslavania is free of slaves, we might just be able to see if it was another person, and if so, how they did it." 

"W - woah.. how would we do that?" Mike asked, questioning the amount of effort this would take.

"We could build a machine, although that's highly unlikely for us to pull off.. or we could go far across the desert to try to find the magic well."

"The magic well..? What 'magic well'?" Mike thought to himself aloud.

"The magic well. It's a well that grants anybody any wish, with no exceptions. It's commonly thought of among the public here. Though nobody's ever been able to find it."

"Do.. do you have a car..?"

"I think I do, yes. Now, are you sure you want to do this? Once we start driving, we're not going to be able to go back."

"...Let's do it." And with that, Atal and Mike were getting ready for a long drive to the supposed magic well.