An Eye-opening Encounter

“Hello? Can you hear me? Huuman! Are you there?”

The cyclops was waving their huge hand in front of Lile’s completely blank face. The shock had abruptly halted every thought and feeling that crowded their mind just a minute earlier. Seeing no response, the monster tried grabbing their shoulder and shaking it. It may have been intended to be a gentle nudge, but it felt like a hurricane passing through Lile’s body.

“Hey, hey! Stop!” - they managed to verbalize.

“Oh, you speak! I thought you might be an automaton of some kind, I was starting to feel stupid for talking to you!”
“No, what, I’m not a… what? I’m just, uh, I-I… uh…”
“You don’t know?”
“No it’s just… sorry I… well, my name is Lile? And I’m… I’m a human”
“Well, duh, I could see that, no way you were actually an automaton. Like who could have built you. Anyway, nice to meet you, Lile! I’m Nathía, a world-class blacksmith! Oh, and, in case you weren’t aware I guess, I’m a cyclops.”

Yeah Lile, it’s obvious, come on, why are you acting all surprised… – “Uhm, sorry, you said… Nafeea?” – Sure, the most pressing issue is *definitely* wether I got their name right or not.

“Hmm, you’re close, but no. Just touch your teeth with your tongue instead of your lips: Na-THEE-a. Try it!”
“Na-thía.” – Am I just OK with this conversation now??
“Yeah, you got it!”
“Cool, sounds like a Greek name.” – What kind of comment is that!!
“Greek? What’s that? You mean like, a great name?”
“No, Greek, like… from Greece. Just… nevermind.” – how am I just casually talking to a cyclops!?
“Never heard of it, where is that?”
“Well, I don’t… know really… if you’ve never heard of it, then... it’s likely that… well…” – That’s it, I’m done, I can’t make small talk no matter what universe I’m in.

“Could you speak up? I can’t hear a word you’re saying!”
“Sorry, uhm, I’m just… confused I guess?”
“You seem to say sorry a lot, are you a criminal or what?”
“A criminal? Wha… why would I be a criminal?”
“I don’t know, why else would you feel guilty all the time.”
“Well, I’m not a criminal!”

“Alright alright, if you say so. So anyway, I kinda have… stuff to do? I thought you might need help since you were crying like that, but you seem all better now so if you don’t mind I’d just… go my own way?”

“What, no, wait! I’m not all better, at all! You’d just leave me here in the middle of nowhere?”

“I mean, we’re hardly in the middle of nowhere, Crabano is like, right there – they gestured vaguely towards the woods – but if you’re lost you could’ve just said so, we can go together, no need to panic.”

“Crabano?”

“Come on, you’re kidding? Did you come flying on that bed or what, there’s no way you don’t know Crabano, it’s the most important city in the kingdom!”

“Well I-I don’t know, I told you, I’m very confused.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed. Perhaps you got hit on the head? Where are you even from, do you remember that?”
“It’s not a matter of remembering, it’s just… I’m pretty sure… I’m not from here at all.”
“...Yeah. That’s why… I asked you. Where you’re from. You definitely need to see a doctor my guy, you don’t seem to understand a thing.”
“No, no, I mean, I’m not from this world, this planet, I’m not from anywhere you would know! I’m from a city in Liguria, Italy, but I’m sure that doesn’t mean anything to you! Does it?”
“Hmm, yeah, doesn’t ring a bell. Well, it must be really far, no need to get all dramatic like that, just say you’re from far away, no big deal.”

The cycl– no, Nathía – was starting to get on their nerves. Which was still better than eating them alive like Lile had instinctively feared at first. The speed at which their brain had just accepted that Nathía, the seven-foot tall cyclops, was a person, with a unique personality, thoughts and feelings not unlike themselves, was astonishing. Lile took a brief moment to congratulate themselves on their open-mindedness for judging their interlocutor by their behavior rather than what they looked like. They were always relieved when they could prove to themselves that they weren’t racist, though this also begged the question, would they even have thought of being racist in that situation if Nathía’s skin weren’t black? That they didn’t know, but they decided to ignore the matter: there were way more interesting issues to address related to the cyclops’s appearance, like their gender.

Of course, they would be the last person to assume someone’s gender, but Nathía did indeed, from a human perspective, have a traditionally “female” body shape and… bits. Their frizzy, black hair was also quite long, and tied in a messy ponytail on the upper back of their head – though hair length wasn’t really evidence towards anything given the context. Would a concept of gender even exist where they were? Did cyclopes in that world have binary genders that mirrored their world’s human’s? Gender stereotypes? Did they reproduce like humans do? Did-

“Are you coming or not?” – asked Nathía, interrupting Lile’s derailing train of thought.

“Uh, yeah, sure.”

“…And do you think your bed is gonna move on its own?”

“No, no, of course not, it’s just… uhmm…”

They didn’t have much of a choice, following Nathía was clearly their best chance at the moment, yet the idea of setting foot out of the bed still terrified them. It would mean leaving behind the last thing that made sense to them, the last thing that belonged to the same world as they did; to accept this unknown reality as their own moving forward. And let’s just say that accepting reality had never been their best asset.

But time was running out, and they didn’t want to risk losing their only ticket towards that crab-something town. They took a deep breath, closed their eyes, and – slowly, embarrassingly slowly – moved their feet towards the ground. Their sole reached the grass, sank into it. The earth underneath was somewhat cold, and Lile felt a chilling sensation travelling from their feet all the way to the head. It was real, way too real. They felt strange, uneasy, yet eager to move, to run, somewhere, anywhere, explore that whole world at once. Their heart was pounding again, it was like an electrical surge had filled their body. It wasn’t just fear this time. It was the unbridled excitement that comes with the beginning of an adventure.

“Ready at last?” asked their newfound companion, somewhat derisively.

They smiled: “I think... I am. Let’s go!”