Chapter 10

       My surroundings started to frantically bounce up and down, as if the ground beneath me were shifting angrily. It was dark, and I could barely see my surroundings. A sliver of light framed the white object, but not wide enough to actually see anything out of it. I came across a hard surface in front of me, and no matter how hard I pushed against the other side, it wouldn't budge. Extremely loud roars filled the air, sounding like feral monsters. The aggressive roar was deafening and seemed louder than any other beast I've encountered. Several other distant roars sounded off, seeming to come closer for a moment and then fade away.

       I've wanted to go to the Human Realm so badly to get rid of my magic, so the thought of deadly predators there never occurred to me. Of course humans had predators too. Doesn't everyone? Suddenly, I wasn't sure if I was really ready to do this.

       I had to be brave. I wouldn't hide out in this thing just to wait for something to devour me. I've already made it this far.

       Using as much strength as I could muster, I shoved the door as hard as I could. When that didn't work, I reared back and shoved once more. The portal began to rock against my force. I shoved and shoved, feeling my surroundings start to move. With a final shove, the portal tipped over, sending me face down. My body crashed against the bottom, and without warning, the portal started to slide off of our original position. I was free falling moments before we slammed into the ground with incredible force.

       I screamed as the door suddenly opened, and I tumbled out on the other side. The ground was hot, black and stung badly as my body slid several feet on top of it. An angry roar suddenly trilled the air, coming closer to me. It sounded like a vicious monster.

       A flash of green met my eyes as one of the monsters suddenly saw me just as I saw it. It raced towards me with incomprehensible speed. No creature in my world could even compare to this speed. I screamed and covered my eyes. There was no chance of running from the beast. It was far too fast.

       In the distance, I could faintly make out someone shouting towards me over the sound of the angry roars. Feeling terrified, I warily glanced at the approaching beast. With ghastly eyes glowing a brilliant light as bright as the sun, and a snarl more ferocious and terrible than anything I've ever heard before, this creature was absolutely terrifying.

       “Woah, you okay?” I vaguely heard a concerned voice over the roar of the beast. I watched warily as a human hopped off the green creature. He held it steady for a moment before kicking it. The beast responded to his touch, and a curious silver bar came out on the side, supporting the beast's weight. How strange that it can reach blinding speeds with ease yet couldn't stand on it's own.

       I've never seen a human before, but have heard plenty of descriptions. Somehow, I didn't imagine their heads to be that large. The human coming toward me had a oversized gray face with large shiny black eyes. It had a bright white streak going down the front, reflecting the sun.

       I watched with horror and fascination as the human reached for his head to lift it off of his shoulders. A much smaller, and more reasonable face appeared underneath. I realized with much chagrin that the human was wearing armor. It was some kind of gray head piece.

       “Hey, are you okay?” The male human asked once more. I blinked several times, stunned to see that he was talking to me. He looked very similar to a wood elf, with dark brown hair and matching brown eyes, except he was well groomed. His skin was pale like mine, and of course, his ears were rounded at the tip like a troll.

       He glanced down on my body with concern before his eyebrows puckered together in confusion. He stared at my black cloak for a long time before his eyes flickered towards the white portal.

       “I watched you fall out of the refrigerator on the back of that truck.” He suddenly held out his hand. I backed away from him out of impulse, glancing warily at his hand. “Sorry,” he muttered apologetically. “Do you hurt anywhere? I can drive you to the hospital if you don't mind motorcycles.” He gestured towards the green creature.

       “I'm fine.” I somehow found my voice. Several of his words confused me, but I could understand enough to decipher that motorcycles meant the loud roaring creature. This human seemed gentle enough, but I wasn't comfortable riding on that incredibly fast animal just yet.

       “You sure?” He asked me. I pushed myself off the ground and stood up straight. My body felt sore, but I was positive that I hadn't broken any bones from the fall.

       I faced the human and smiled. “Yes. Thank you.” He was shorter than I anticipated. He was nearly the same height as me. The human smiled back. He seemed very friendly.

       “It's no problem,” he said with a grin. “You, uh ... was there a reason you were inside of a refrigerator? You weren't kidnapped or anything, were you?” His eyebrows puckered once more, and a frown formed on his face. His eyes were cold and serious.

       I didn't know what a refrigerator was, but I definitely wasn't kidnapped to the Human Realm. I sent myself here.

      “No,” I replied.

       “Good.” He seemed relieved. “Need me to call any relatives for you, or do you have a phone?”

       “My family lives far away, it is fine. This place is very new to me,” I told him, trying to alleviate his worry. Who knew humans could be so caring and concerned about a total stranger? He shoved his hand in his pocket for a moment before he brought a tan object about the size of a hand. Inside, he pulled out something black and handed it to me.

       “Here's my card if you ever want to hang out or something. I'm Matt by the way.”

       “My name is Aurelia.” The human bit his lip and looked away. I could see that he was struggling to keep from laughing. He wouldn't meet my eyes.

       “Are you into some kind of role playing thing?” He asked me.

       “Excuse me?”

       “Just your warrior princess outfit and your pink-blonde wig. What are you supposed to be, some kind of elf?” My eyes widened in utter shock.

       “You know about elves?” I asked him, surprised. Humans knew about us? I wasn't sure how I felt about that. If he knew about my kind, perhaps he knew how to rid myself of magic. “Do you know anything about turning magic finite?” The human sighed and gave me an annoyed yet polite look.

       “Right. You seem pretty cute and all, but I'm not into that whole fantasy-role-playing-thing. See ya, Aurelia.,” he told me. He pronounced my name like it was some kind of joke.

       The brown haired human turned on his heels and headed for the green beast. He kicked the silver rod once, shoving it underneath the animal and hopped on. The green creature suddenly let out a deafening roar. They both headed towards the hot black ground and then sped off away from me.

       I brushed myself off and glanced around my surroundings. Excessively large buildings that were the color of silver glistened against the sun. How did the humans construct things that high? It just didn't make any sense. And there was so many of them! Every direction I faced had glistening buildings somewhere in the distance.

       The black ground beneath me was surrounded by flowing green grass. I was welcomed by the familiar plant life, happy to see items that are similar to those in Azrain. Minus the huge buildings, the Human World didn't seem too terribly different from my own land.

       Of course there were major differences like the fact that their animals traveled with incomprehensible speeds. There was no denying that. What had Matt called them? Motorcycles? All of the motorcycles were moving towards the giant silver towers. Some motorcycles carried multiple humans, whereas some only held a few. Most of the motorcycles were much larger than the green one I saw earlier.

       It didn't take me long to figure out where most of the humans were. If I wanted to get any answers, I'd have to travel towards the tall silver towers.

      A blaring sound suddenly roared from behind me. Startled, I jumped to the side, narrowly missing a black motorcycle. The human riding inside yelled angrily, “Get off the road! Freak.”

       I blinked several times, watching the motorcycle speed off away from me. More and more motorcycles were on the same path, quickly moving towards me. They'd swerve at the last moment and barely missed hitting me.

       I learned something new. The black ground was not meant to be walked on. It was strictly for motorcycles and their riders.

       I casually crossed over and continued my journey on the grass. Moments later, a bright yellow motorcycle suddenly drifted to a stop right in front of me. The human leaned over and waved, trying to get my attention.

      “Do you need a ride into the city?” A brown skinned human asked me with a thick accent different than the one from Matt. He gestured towards the tall towers in front of us.

       “I'd like that very much,” I said, smiling. With the fast speeds of motorcycles, I'd be in the center of the humans in no time.

       The dark human slid out of the motorcycle and walked around to meet me on the other side. He gripped the side of the animal and pulled it towards him, like opening a door.

       “Does it hurt him?” I asked, feeling remorse for the yellow creature. I stroke the sides of the motorcycle, feeling its silken skin against my palm. It was so smooth.

       The brown human gestured for me to crawl inside, not commenting on my question. With a heavy breath, I slid in the seat and pulled my cloak around my body. This was too weird. Humans travel inside of motorcycles.

       “Where in the city are you going?” He asked me.

     “Where all of the humans are,” I replied, glancing outside. The guy pressed his eyebrows together and frowned.

       “You must be in that anime convention. I've already had to pick up two of you weirdos today,” he mumbled under his breath.

      The yellow creature suddenly broke out into a sprint and lurched forward. My back pressed against the seat as we moved.

       The towers grew closer and closer as we approached them with blinding speeds. This method of travel was very efficient. More and more humans made their appearance. There was so many of them! I didn't even know where to start. Could any of these humans help my condition?

       Several of them were walking on the sides of the black ground with an urgent, quick pace. A few were slower and held on to ropes that were tied around creatures that looked like miniature wolves. I frowned at that. Wolves were not meant to be controlled. Even small ones like those.

       “Are you paying in cash?” The dark human broke through my thoughts. We slowed to a crawl and then stopped altogether.

       “Excuse me?” I asked, not understanding what he meant.

      “Your total is thirteen fifty-eight. Are you paying it in cash or card?” He grumbled, clearly annoyed.

       “I don't have any of those things. I'm not from around here.” I muttered apologetically. I gave him a small smile.

       “You don't have any money?” He turned around in his seat to glare at me. “You realize that this is theft, right? I have to call this in,” he said, pulling out a black object and placing it against his ear. The front of the object glowed white on one side.

       Without warning, the door beside of me opened, letting a gust of wind rustle through my hair. Standing outside was a tall figure in dark clothes. He leaned forward so that he could see the human who gave me a ride.

      “There's no need to call the police. How much is her fare? I've got it,” the stranger said as he reached in his back pocket. He pulled out several green items and handed it to the brown colored human.

       The human inside of the yellow motorcycle looked immensely annoyed as he shoved the slender black object back inside of his pocket. He snatched the green items from the stranger and quickly departed. I almost didn't have time to exit the yellow creature before they sped off away from us.

       “Oh, Aurelia. What am I going to do with you?” He asked, grinning down at me. Startled, I glanced at the stranger, wondering how in the world a human knew my name.

The man in front of me had dark skin and a sharp face. His eyes were rather large for a human. He was a great deal taller than I was. He looked utterly unfamiliar.

       “Do I know you?” I asked him tentatively.

       “Nope.”

     “You know me?” I tested the words, glancing up in his confident eyes. Eyes that I couldn't quite tell which color they were. It was as if his figure blurred, changing shades. Now that I really looked at him, his skin toned seemed to blur as well, as if it couldn't quite decide what color it wanted to be.

      “I know you.” He agreed. A cocky grin pulled the right side of his lips up into a smile. “And you need to change out of those clothes. You aren't in Azrain anymore sweetie,” he said condescendingly.

       “How do you know about Azrain?” This man was human. His rounded ears confirmed as such. Humans have never been to our world before. How could this man know so much about my land?

       “Princess, I know many things. I know what you seek, and I know you will not find what you are looking for,” he said confidently. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at me.

       “You know nothing.” I said, feeling irritated with this stranger. His arrogance was starting to bother me. This human knew nothing about my life.

       I broke away from his stare and started to head in a different direction.

      “I beg to disagree,” he said happily. He pulled on my arm, stopping me in my tracks. I felt a quiet hum pulse through my body as our skins touched. I gasped as I glanced into his eyes. Eyes that suddenly pooled violet. A shade slightly darker than Zame's. His already dark skin suddenly faded, turning dark gray before my eyes. His black mane completely disappeared, revealing short, bone white hair that gently moved against the breeze. His rounded ears elongated, sharpening at the tips.

       This stranger wasn't a human. He was a darkling.

       “You're a drow?” I could barely contain my surprise. What were the odds?

       “Thank you for noticing.” He smirked. He suddenly reached out to place a strand of my untamed hair behind my ear. He watched me with knowing eyes. “And you're a magi elf.”

Reviews

[InsanityWriter]

:D This. Is. Awesome. I love the refrigerator part... XD Update soon!!

[Strigoikillerr]

Why thank you! Me too :p

[Daydreamer54]

it was amusing to see how she reacted to our world and she came here through a fridgerator? Well that's something you don't see everyday. XD

[Strigoikillerr]

haha.. I was literally trying to think of the most random object that a person could fit through. A refrigerator was the first thing that came to mind :P Plus, the guy who made it is pretty wacky