Einar Agnarsson

  “SIGURD-!!”

  Even as we land in the clearing in the middle of the forest, surrounded by trees that stand taller than those we were familiar with back on earth, luscious plants that harbor berries, and fruits that are all but a fairytale, I only have one thing on my mind.

  “FUCK!”

  I turn to Sebastian and Albrecht, the pair catching their breaths as they each share the same expression, “WHY?! WHY DIDN’T YOU GO FOR SIGURD!”

  “I thought YOU were going for him!” Albrecht turns to Sebastian.

  “I thought Einar and Sigurd were holding onto each other! We could have pulled both of them! Plus, he was farther away than Sigurd! I had to reach for him!” Sebastian shouts, “I took a gamble and it failed okay?!”

  “And now look what happened-!” I stand up and grab Sebastian by the collar. There are other people around us. Most of which are seniors from our school. I even spot Helena Brown looking lost between a group middle aged adults; They turn to me, watching, as I barely keep my cool in. I’m shattering their perfect image of me, but fuck I couldn’t care less,

  “Sigurd’s gone! GONE! God knows where he is, and I can’t do anything! Because of YOU! I-”

  “Woah woah woah!” Sebastian grips me, “You can't just put the entire blame on me-!”

  But he’s soon interrupted by Helena who, like the snake she was, had slithered up to us at some point, “Einar…just calm down-”

  “Shut the FUCK up!” I had found someone else to blame, “You…! What the hell were you thinking?! Kissing me in front of everyone?!”

  “I…” She looks down, a frown appears on her face as she thinks over what to say. Her cohort of friends chime in.

  “Hey! Don’t yell at her like that!” NPC A says

  “Right listen! It’s the last day of high-school. She wanted to leave with a bang! So we dared her to kiss you okay?!” NPC B adds on.

  “And fuck consent right?!” I snap, “You should’ve taken the hint when I rejected you before! Why do you think I was even there in the courtyard huh?!”

  “To sign our books? Like everyone else?”

  “NO! It’s so SIGURD can gather up his courage to speak to YOU!” I point at Helena, “Four years damn it! Four fucking years! And it meant nothing to you!”

  Before I can continue on, someone grabs ahold of my hand, pushing it away from Helena, “Hey. Back off kid.” A middle aged man, about thirty years old had stepped in between us, “Did your mother not teach you how to respect women? Now’s not the time to ramble to people like this. It’s particularly rude.”

  “And you sound like a fucking pervert, don’t ever mention my mother again.” I snap at him, prompting him to take a step back.

  “It doesn’t matter…And learn to mind your business, balding shit.” Sebastian speaks for me. A few of the seniors and some elders gasps at his comment.

  “What did you say-?” I can see his expression change for a second.

  A sort of switch turn in my head, I immediately straightened up, tensing my body and clenching my fist tight, as I step in front of the two of them, “Come now. You want to go?”

  “Watch your tone. Child.”

  “Woaaah. Very scary.”

  I easily tower over him, with all those training in football, I could easily tackle him to the ground with my sheer brute strength.

  Before the two of us can get this over with, another man actually stepped in between us, “Alright! That’s enough! Stop it, both of you!” He pushed the two of us away, he was stronger than he looked, even though he’s shorter than me, I can respect it. Only slightly though, “I want you all! ALL OF YOU! To take a good look around! Right now!”

  I spin my head around, eyeing the trees that stood way taller than ones I’ve ever seen before, flowers that I had never seen before, blending in with colors I thought weren’t possible before. And this calm…energy. I can almost grab it with my bare hands before it slips through my fingers. This soothing energy that permeates the air around us. So miniscule and small yet leaving a lasting impact.

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  “You think we’re in the proper place to argue like this?! No! We’re in a different place all together!” He shouts, “We don’t know where we are, we’re lost in some…weird world! Damn it! Does any of you know where we are? Mountains, rivers, anything?!”

  No one speaks up, they are just as lost as everyone else, “Well shit! Will you look at that, We’re all a bunch of clueless bastards in the middle of nowhere! We need the basics first okay! Food, water, shelter! That’s what we must prioritize! Over some…meaningless argument!”

  “Meaningless?! My brother could be dead for all I know!” I feel a vein ready to burst in my head.

  “Well, we can’t do anything now, can we?! It’s done! No point in trying to change the past!” The man spits, “So focus up! We’ll need to work together, so we can even stand a chance here-”

  As he finishes his sentence, the ground rumbles ever so slightly. The sound of a stampede encroaches closer to us as everyone turns around, trying to search for the source of the galloping.

  “There!” Albrecht points to something in the distance. As everyone turns their body to where he is pointing at. Multiple towering shadows flicker through the shade as they approach us rapidly.

  Many of the seniors, elders, and even small unfortunate children runs up to us; forming a circle as we watched the shadows surround us from the trees. Their galloping caused a kid to cry from the sheer volume of their stampede.

  Sebastian and Albrecht groups up next to me, we exchange looks of dread and confusion. There’s people here, finally. But the real question is: are they friendly or not? A gut feeling inside me says the latter.

  Before we know it, they halt their stampede. Effectively surrounding us all. If I could count our heads real quick, I would end up with thirty people. The man who spoke up for us stands in the front, watching as one of the horseriders emerged from the shadows.

  “What the…”

  For a second, I pinched myself, hoping to see if all of this was a dream. To my horror, I feel the jolt of pain in my skin. This figure easily towers over most of us. His skin a sickly green with golden tusks protruding from his lower jaw, bulgy eyes that stared deep into the man’s soul. And piercing or chains embedded on his skin. But his face was more…normal than the others behind him.

  There are more emerging from the shadows. One of them bore the same green skin as their leader, except they had a more porcine face with smaller foreheads.

  Oh right, and uglier teeth.

  I have remembered these types of beings before. When Sigurd and Albrecht rambled on about their fantasy books and video games, and it appears that Albrecht and Sebastian has recalled as well.

  “Orcs…?” Sebastian mutters quietly, “And the leader’s a half orc…”

  “How do you know?” I ask him.

  “He’s less uglier than the others, and his ears…look at his ears.”

  I finally manage to get a glimpse of the leader's pointy and sharp ears. Ah of course, his face was far too smooth and ‘normal’ than the others. A half-orc. Maybe mixed in with an elf. What kind of mad elfman or girl would ever procreate with an orc? Not me, that’s for sure. Holy shit, they’re hideous.

  “Hmm…” Their leader says, “So…this is what we found?”

  “Okay, so! We both know English! Good!” The man spoke up.

  “And they can speak common…” He nods, the leader jumps off his horse and I spot his axe dangling in his waist, and I’m sure the man sees it too, “What are you…? Answer me.”

  “I’m…I’m Norman Grey. Pleasure to meet you-”

  “I do not care for your name, just yet. What. Are. You?”

  “Uh…I’m a human being? Is that what you wanted?”

  The leader holds his chin, “A human…? Huh, let me test something.” I spot his hand moving to his axe.

  “Oh shit…”

  Norman tilts his head, “Test what-”

  SPLACK!

  “Huh. Not as durable as a scaled monster.”

  Norman’s arms goes limp, his head hangs low as blood seeps from his forehead, the leader yanks his axe out of his head with a sickening CRACK! Letting Norman’s body drop to his knees and fall forward to the ground motionless.

  A girl’s screaming was all it took for the chaos to insinuate. As the leader raises his axe, “Capture all of them alive! Maybe then the Baron will allow all of you to see your offsprings again!”

  The horses around us charges in. Their riders wielding bolas that they spin in their hands. The chaos forced everyone to run off in their own direction, none of us were able to think properly, leading to the horseman’s to easily catch their prey.

  “Shit! We gotta go boys!” Sebastian grabs Albrecht and I, pulling us away from the madness.

  Something came hurling at us, aiming for Sebastian as we desperately tried to run. He didn’t have time to react.

  But I do.

  I shove Sebastian away, letting the Bolas wrap around my chest, the rocks striking my back like a dagger as I cry out in pain, “Agh-!”

  Before Albrecht or Sebastian can do anything, two orcs jump off their horses and charge at the two of them when they’re distracted; tackling them to the ground without remorse as I fall to my knees, groaning helplessly as the man who threw the bolas approaches me.

  “Feels like I just captured a wild beast.” The leader’s voice cuts through the air, he grabs my neck and inspects my face, “Nice face…Sadly, I’ll have to ruin it.”

  He pulls his head back, before slamming his forehead against my nose.

  ***

  [Will you look at that ladies and gentleman, they are not handling well right now. Especially this small group over here. In this tiny little island. Now set a timer for one hours. Everything will change. What will it be? We do not know. All you could do is watch in anticipation as your beloved friends and family struggle under the grasps of the worlds inhabitants.

  One hour. And the ‘surprise’ will arrive. Right now, grab your popcorn, hop into those forums, cheer for your favorites. And buckle up. This is just the beginning.]

  [Total Count Of Humans: 500,000]

  [Currently Alive: 499,999]

  [Deceased: 1]

  [First ever recorded death: Norman Grey.]

  [Search for someone special?]