New Faces

The boy and girl are both looking at me, as if they are looking at a creature they’ve never seen before.

‘Sis, have you seen this guy before? Because I don’t think I’ve seen him around these parts!’ The kid asked his sister, while pointing one of the limbs of his bow at me.
‘No, I don’t think so!’ The girl responded. ‘But more importantly Casper, why did you run ahead of me? The forest can be dangerous!’

The girl sounded worried when she said that.

‘Come on sis! You were more than close enough and besides, I have my bow with me and had to check out the source of that bright light and why all those birds started to fly away!’ The kid said.
‘What if you ran into a feral animal… Or something worse!?’ The girl sounded angry. ‘I could’ve been too late to protect you!’
‘What could possibly be so bad that you need to prote-!’

The kid started to get angry at the girl, but as he was about to finish his sentence, I could see his eyes starting to widen. Now slowly replacing the angry expression he had, with a face filled with terror. Tears started forming in his eyes. Eyes and head looking downward, he walked up to her and started to hug her tight.

‘I’m sorry sis, I wasn't thinking! It won’t happen again!’ *Sniff*
‘It didn’t turn out to be dangerous this time, but please reconsider when you do something like that again, okay!’ The girl responded softly while patting the kids’s head with one hand and hugging him back with the other.

I could hear the kid is crying. I don’t know what they were talking about, but at the moment, I don’t have the courage to ask them what’s going on. I think it’s best if I don’t say anything until both of them have calmed down a little.

---

‘I’m sorry about that!’ The girl said to me. ‘That couldn’t have been too pleasant to see!’
‘It- It’s okay!’ I responded.

There is a soft expression on the girl’s face and the kid was still looking a little teary-eyed, but overall the atmosphere seemed to have calmed down a little. When the girl was consoling the kid, the two of them sat down at the root of one of the trees. I sat in front of them shortly after.

‘I can imagine it being kinda hard to look after someone!’ I told her while giving an awkward hearty laugh. Trying my best to come across as understanding.
‘Yeah, you can say that again!’ She responded while also giving me an awkward hearty laugh.

An awkward silence fell between us.
Come on, please say something. I never know what to say in these situations.

‘Uhm… can I ask you something?’ The girl broke the silence.
‘Uh… yeah sure!’ I responded.
‘The only way to get here is through our village! So how did you get here?’ She said.

She said village just now. Does that mean I’m in a more rural area? That’s quite far away from where I live, but not impossibly far. It’s possible that I might be closer to home than I first thought. This girl does seem genuinely concerned about me being here. So I should at least answer truthfully.

‘Honestly, I don’t know! I was making my way back home and before I knew it… all of a sudden I-I was just here!’ I said to her while stammering over some of my words.
‘I find it hard to believe that you would just… be here all of a sudden!’ She responded.

I understand where she is coming from, because it sounds completely insane. Someone appearing out of nowhere is not something that ever happens. For now, let’s try to avoid that question and at least try to find out where I might be.

‘Uh… Can I ask you a question next?’ I said to her. ‘But where is “here” exactly?’
‘We’re in Emmerberk Woods! Our village Emmerberk is close by!’ She responded.

Well there goes the idea that I might be close to home. I’ve never heard of that place before. At best, I’m then probably on the other side of the country.

‘Uhm…’ This time it’s the kid who is speaking. ‘I’m sorry for pointing my bow at you.’
‘Oh, it- it’s okay!’ I said. ‘I’m just happy you didn’t actually shoot at me!’

It seems that perked the little guy up a bit. I think having his sister get angry probably scared him, but at least he started smiling again. Showing both me and the girl a big toothy grin.
At least it seems that he now trusts me. Even the girl seems to be smiling.

‘Oh yeah, stranger’ The kid asked. ‘Why do you look so weird?’

Did I hear that correctly? I know I’m not the greatest looking guy, but I certainly don’t look weird. I think.

‘CASPER, you can’t say that!’ The girl said.
‘But sis, look at his hair and clothes! I haven’t seen hair that dark before and his clothes also look unusual!’ The kid said to his sister.
‘Even so, you shouldn’t be saying that to someone!’ The girl quickly retorted.

I hope she’s aware that what she said can also come across as rude. Not that I can say anything about it, since the both of them look really weird to me as well. For the same reason that that kid called me weird for.

‘No offense with what I’m about to say, but I do agree with my younger brother, you do look unusual!’ The girl said to me. ‘You said you were suddenly here and now that I think about it, there was also this strong light that came from your direction!’

Before the kid started crying, he mentioned a light as well. Last I remembered before passing out, was a strong light too. Could that be related to my current situation? My only guess so far is that that light might’ve come from a car driving off. But a carlight can’t be that blinding with the sun still out.

At that moment, there was a thought that permeated my brain.
Could I be…? No, there’s no way. That only happens in fiction. There’s simply no way that that’s case. Let’s not think about that for now and go along with them.

‘*Sigh.* Whatever might be the case, let’s get out of here for now! Being this deep in the forest for so long isn’t exactly the smartest thing to do! You can come along with us! We’ll show you the way out!’ The girl said, while slowly standing up.
‘Thanks! That would really help a lot!’ I said to her.

The three of us got ready to leave.

‘Now that I think about it, we never introduced ourselves have we?’ The girl asked.
‘You’re right, I guess there was a little too much commotion for us to do so!’ I jokingly said.
‘Pfft, yeah I guess there was!’ She laughingly said. I think she liked the joke.
‘My name is Micheal, nice to meet you and thanks for helping me!’
‘This is my younger brother Casper and my name is Maya! Nice to meet you!’