Two Worlds at a Time

Aric didn’t immediately run to the place where the scream came from but rather to the the tall and thick trees on the sides and made his way slowly towards while keeping his movement as silent as possible. This was where the lens and his communicator actually came into play. It gave an optimum ways to step forward while making the least amount of sound.

It even showed where there could be twigs and the fallen leaves making sounds. It was not always accurate as there was no actual AI connected but it was doing its best with the processor that it had.

Soon he reached the edge of the small forest and finally got to see. Aric had seen many things in life but he had never seen or been in a situation like this. He could easily make out that it was a village. And not the kind of village he had known or was that he would come across in his world.

But rather a village where houses were constructed from timber harvested from possibly the same forest he was hiding in, their roofs thatched with golden straw or covered in moss. From far, he could also see a weathered stone fountain, its waters flowing from the mouth of a mythical creature carved in exquisite detail. Even though it was a village, the fountain was working.

He wasn’t that taken aback by the village but the thing that was happening at the moment there. There were screams and shouts, children and women running around shouting. There were men dragging people out of their homes and throwing on the gravel stone path itself.

Many houses were on fire and some were already destroyed. These men looked like bandits with masks on their faces. From the dress the people of the village wore, Aric was sure that it was some kind of old times. Tunics, dresses, and trousers were common, dyed in earthy tones like moss green, deep brown, or sky blue.

And the bandits wore a little more fancier. They wore more rugged and thicker cloth, with embroidery on the edges. And among these bandits, there were two men which gave the biggest surprise of Aric’s life.

Much more surprise than the one in Echorysia One man was holding his hand horizontally and his hand and on the palm of his hand generated a small ball of fire, smaller than a tennis ball and the ball shot out and struck a home. The house caught a bit of fire and the man repeated the things a couple more times before the whole house caught fire.

And another man did a similar thing. He put his palm on the ground and small shards of gravel shot out from underneath and hit the ones who were running and screaming around. These small shards were very random and most of them missed the mark.