Hostility

I sat up so quickly the nausea came back, but I was too excited to care.

“It worked!” I shouted, causing the green-haired woman standing over me to step back in surprise. “The machine worked!” I took in my surroundings. A stone room like something you’d see in a castle, rough wooden shelves filled with mysterious beakers of liquid, a table covered in paper—no, parchment—with neat handwriting of runes straight out of a fantasy setting. No doubt about it—I was not in the laboratory, and if my hunch was true, I wasn’t even on earth anymore. “It worked,” I repeated, a bit foolishly.

Actually, as I thought about it a little more, ‘worked’ was perhaps the wrong word. The machine was supposed to contact another world, not transport me there. I shook my head. That was a problem for later. For now, I couldn’t contain my excitement. I was inside a real fantasy world!

The woman gave a little shrug. “He seems right enough,” she said. She waved through the open doorway. In walked a man covered in fur with a dog’s muzzle and ears on his head, dressed in light armor, a sword strapped to his belt. A real fantasy, I thought once again.

The woman addressed the dogman. “Escort the alchemist to the infirmary,” she ordered.

“Yes, your highness,” he rumbled in return as the woman began walking away.

Highness? Could this woman be… “Um, excuse me!” I called out to the woman. “Your…highness?”

She paused, looking over her shoulder with those piercing grey eyes. “What is it?” she asked.

“Um, forgive me, but are you the princess?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized how dumb they must have sounded to her.

“Yes,” she answered cooly, raising one eyebrow. To the guard, she said “it seems our court alchemist’s injury was worse than I thought.”

“He hit his head!” the boy’s voice from earlier piped up. Right, I had forgotten about him in the confusion. Turning to him, I did a double take. The boy beside me, perhaps 12 or 13, was the spitting image of my cousin. Scrawny frame, curly black hair, olive skin, gangly build—the two were identical.

Before I had time to worry about it, though, the dogman guard made gestures to follow him. I was in no mood to argue with a person who looked like he could snap me in half without breaking a sweat. Besides, however I had come to this world, it seemed I really had hit my head. I would need all my wits about me in this new situation, so getting checked out by whatever passed as a doctor in this place couldn’t hurt.

The dogman didn’t talk so I drank in my surroundings. Stone passageways led outside to a courtyard full of carefully maintained plants and gardens, illuminated by a full moon. The moon looked odd, somehow, like it was too big, giving the uncomfortable illusion it would fall out of the sky at any moment.

My guide didn’t stop but led me across the courtyard and through a gateway in the outer wall. This new section was also guarded by a wall, but much more distant. All around was packed with wooden buildings. Most were dark, but a few had lights burning from inside the windows. There were a few other people about, mostly other dogmen dressed in similar uniform.

“Here,” my guide grunted, indicating a large building that was one of the most well-lit buildings I had seen. I entered, followed closely by the escort.

We were greeted by a matronly human woman wearing an apron, grey hair tied tightly in a bun. “Alchemist,” she said to me, in a tone that suggested no surprise. “Have you finally poisoned yourself with all those nasty liquids you use in that laboratory?”

The dogman answered. “Fell. Hit his head. Cuts from glass.”

“I see. Come here, alchemist, let me examine you.” As I did so, the dogman wordlessly returned into the night.

The woman, who I took to be a nurse of some kind, was quick and thorough in her investigation. As she bandaged a few of the more painful cuts the shattered glass had given me, she said “you’ll have a bump for a few days, but nothing threatening. How do you feel?”

“Fine,” I said. My headache was almost gone. She nodded and prescribed bedrest here in the infirmary just in case, but she expected I could be discharged next morning.

As she led me to a room I caught sight of myself in the reflection of a window. There was no doubt about it: this was my face. Same eyes, same hair color, same facial structure. The only difference was on my left cheek I had a scar I recognized as a chemical burn. I knew I had never had a burn mark like that before, and this scar looked several years old. An odd combination of circumstances, but I was too tired to figure it out. No sooner had I changed into a nightrobe and lain down than I was fast asleep.

I awoke the next morning refreshed, headache completely gone. As I sat up in bed I noticed a figure sitting beside me. Looking at her, I locked eyes with the sharp silver eyes of the princess. That startled me enough to dispel any lingering sleepiness. “Your highness,” I said, trying to relax.

“You sleep late, alchemist,” she replied.

“What time is it?”

“Three marks after sunup.”

“I see.” Her statement didn’t help much as I didn’t know how long a unit of time a ‘mark’ was.

“You are well enough, then, I take it?” she asked like she almost wished I wasn’t.

“Yes, thank you.” She glared at me like I had said something wrong, so I added “Er, thanks for coming to check on me?”

“It was my grandfather’s order. Who dares deny the king?” The last sentence contained even more venom. As I had nothing to add to that, she swept out of the room without another word.

The nurse discharged me a few minutes later. I knew I should return to the alchemy lab eventually, but for now I wanted to explore this new world. I spent the rest of the morning exploring the extensive castle grounds.

Around midday I got hungry. In the outer yard, next to the main castle walls, I spotted a group, mostly dogmen and a few humans, doing sword drills. As I watched, a voice called out something inaudible. The group put away their swords and lined up at a pot which wafted a smell across the courtyard—some kind of stew. It smelled delicious.

By the time I reached the pot, all the swordsmen had already been served, so I was the last one. The dogman (well, dogwoman in this case, I noticed) holding the ladle eyed me. I didn’t know enough about this species to tell what she felt, but she served me stew without a word.

I planned to wander off and eat alone, but I noticed a single human figure sitting alone. Blinking, I realized it was the princess. She wore trousers and a simple tunic suitable for exercise.

I sat next to her. “Hello, your highness,” I attempted with a friendly smile.

“Alchemist.”

“So, you’re practicing the sword?” I couldn’t think what else to say.

“Oh no, you’re quite mistaken. I’m training with the sword so I can better swat bugs.” Her tone dripped icy sarcasm.

Ok then. I took a bite of the stew. I couldn’t identify the taste of the meat, but it was well seasoned and rich without being overwhelming. “Stew’s good,” I offered lamely.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed. My ears were so busy with nauseating sounds that my tongue must have assumed the same.”

It took me a moment to get it. “Am I the nauseating sounds?”

“Would a princess say such an unkind thing?” she said in a tone that told me this princess would definitely say such an unkind thing.

Although her bowl was still half full, she rose to leave. I felt I should give friendliness one more try. “Are you finished? You still have some food left. Don’t you need the energy to train?”

“Your concern is noted, alchemist. I will give it exactly the amount of attention it deserves.” She returned the bowl to the cook and took up her practice sword again, going through the same drills as before.

I wasn’t really sure what to do. I mean, in my previous life, I hadn’t been especially popular with girls or anything, but I wasn’t used to outright hostility. I watched the training for a few minutes more before leaving.

I spent the next few days wandering the castle more, using the alchemy lab as a base, getting used to my new home. The castle was a large complex, more like a little town than a single building. Surprisingly, despite its size, the palace had only perhaps two dozen humans, with all the other servants, guards, and managers being dogmen. In fact, from what I saw, the princess was the only human near my age. The next closest was Kyn.

Which…led me to the princess. During my exploration, I discovered her name was Arnya. Not from her, of course; she remained just as hostile as ever. And yet, it seemed she only acted that way toward me. From the glimpses I caught of her interacting with anyone else, she seemed rather pleasant. Under other circumstances, I’d just ignore her, but again, she was the only person my age in the whole castle. I couldn’t read the books, I didn’t understand the dogmen, and since Kyn apparently regarded me as his alchemy teacher, I tried to avoid him so my lack of knowledge wouldn’t be discovered. Frankly, I was bored, and having someone to talk to would help a lot.

She avoided me, but finally I got a chance one day when she was strolling in the garden with an older female dogman that seemed to be her personal servant. I approached the pair and bowed. Too late, I realized I didn’t know if they used bowing as a sign of respect in this world. “You highness, could I beg a few minutes of your time?” I put every ounce of classical formality I could into the words.

“As you can see, alchemist, I’m really quite busy,” she said sarcastically.

“I won’t take much time.”

I could tell she was about to say no, but her walking partner gave her a look. It was hard to tell on the dog face, but I thought it was reproachful. “All right,” the princess sighed.

Step one complete. “I couldn’t help but notice you, ah…”

“Dislike you, alchemist?”

“Yeah. I mean, indeed. And if it is something I have said or done, I wish to apologize.” Well, the action would have been from before I took over, but I couldn’t explain that.

She sighed in return. “It’s not anything you’ve said, alchemist. It’s what you haven’t. Why, I think we’ve spoken more in the past few days than we have in this past year. We barely know each other.” She eyed me, but I noted that she seemed more curious than hostile now. “What has changed?”

“To be honest, I feel like a new man.”

She laughed. “Well then. Maybe our engagement won’t be so unpleasant after all. You understand I still don’t love you, but—”

“WAIT.” Birds flew startled from a nearby bush at my suddenly raised voice. “You and I are ENGAGED?”