Stumbling?

“Uwaaaaaaah…”

For the past thirty minutes, she had been laying there with her head propped up onto a single wooden table with not a whisper escaping her. He wasn’t even sure if she was alive at some point, but the constant sniffles and whimpers assured him that she was fine. Who in their right mind could cry for twenty minutes and not lose an ounce of breath or tears?

It seemed impossible.

Then again, it was just as impossible as the fact that he wasn’t in his world anymore, so could he really talk?

“I’m such a failure. I couldn’t even summon the right person. What kind of magus am I? People aren’t going to call me a magus, they’re going to call me an apprentice who didn’t know better…”

Yeah, she was still going. Honestly, it astounded him that someone could find a way to lament over their issues for about half an hour. Regardless, he needed answers and Erlana wasn’t going to be very helpful with her head smashed against the hardwood of their table. After cozying up next to a small shop, the owner was kind enough to let them sit outside as long as they didn’t cause a stir, Fumihito had spent his time trying to figure out what had happened.

So, he wasn’t in Japan.

Or on Earth at all.

‘I can’t believe I’m actually saying that with such a straight face. Oh, yeah, I was just sitting at home and taking a rest before I suddenly wound up in a graveyard with a woman who can’t even stop crying. I’d say I’m losing my mind, but…’

His eyes drifted off to the side and back to some of the inhabitants. With the sun up, he could finally make out the vast town that made up this place. It certainly looked like something from a history book, almost slightly advanced. Buildings were placed right by each other, there were groups of people walking back and forth through the streets, and he could make out businesses.

Fruit carts, stalls offering books and various trinkets, and then the unnatural people. He could see more of the green-skinned hulks and there were even a few people with pointed ears. It felt so surreal. As if staring at some kind of mirage. The only problem was that the mirage was real.

“Erlana, can you please get it together? I need answers and you can’t spend all your time being…”

How did you word useless without it coming off as mean?

“W-What? Being a what? A FAILURE?”

The poor woman dragged her puffy-eyed face from the table and sobbed at him, sniffling all the while.

“...Well, I wouldn’t have said that exactly, but…”

Erlana’s face slammed into the table once more and he was pretty sure she must have gotten a fracture at this point in time. No person could make that kind of ungodly sound with their skull every time. If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought her brain was split in two with how many times she banged her skull into the wood.

He reached over and hesitantly patted her head, as best as someone with zero social skills could do. The sounds Erlana made were soft, almost pathetic before she raised her teary-eyed face from the table once again.

“A-Anyway, could you please explain to me where I am? This Shepherd thing and the rest?”

That seemed to have finally gotten through to her once her eyes softened and she took a closer look at him. More so the clothes that clung to his body from the bits of mud and grass that had rolled up against him.

“Well, if you’re telling the truth, then you arrived in Mythos. The land of the gods and magic. Though, I’d say that the first part isn’t so important… Not like the ritual worked anyway…,” she mumbled that last part beneath her breath before she continued. “I’m not sure what’s normal for you, but magic is pretty commonplace. It’s what I used to summon you in the first place and it’s what I used to make that potion that you decided to run away from.”

“Potion?” What exactly did that mean?

“A potion, a brew with an effect. For example, the one I had fetched wasn’t poisonous. The only reason it smelled so bad was because of the ingredients I used. If you had taken a sip, it would’ve just relaxed your mind. Enough to numb that concussion you got. It’s nothing special. Potions are a basic form of magic,” she even dug into the pouch on her lap before lifting up a bright glowing one in hand. This one, however, was a bright orange.

“For example, this little puppy here could set an entire forest ablaze in the right conditions!”

How exactly was she so proud of that? In his world, setting a forest ablaze was pretty much akin to a crime. Sweat rolled down his brow before he coughed into the palm of his hand. So, magic was a thing here… That was odd. He could get used to that, surely. It wasn’t like it could get any worse.

“A-Alright, so magic exists. Can we focus back on the Shepherd part? What does that have to do with me being dragged from my world?”

The young woman seemed embarrassed by the question before she grabbed the edges of her hat and pushed it down. Even though he couldn’t see her eyes anymore, he could make out the hot red flush growing on her face.

“About that…”

He narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. That should not have sounded as suspicious as it did, but it most certainly did.

“I was t-trying to summon another figure. One of those so-called gods? Well, I thought it’d be a great study of research if I contacted one of the primordial deities related to death. I would have gotten so much credit for contracting a familiar like that.”

Once again, Fumihito leaned even more over the table until he was gripping the sides, his face nearing the brim of Erlana’s hat.

“And what exactly caused you to grab me then?”

She stammered on her words and was hyperventilating before she pressed a hand to her chest and took a deep breath. Her head lowered once again so she could avoid his judgmental gaze. Which, at the moment, was merciless with the way his right eye twitched. Almost violently.

“The ritual was going a-according to plan, but I m-may or may have not s-stumbled on some of my words. Now any s-sane person would have restarted the entire r-ritual all over again, but I thought… Well, this ritual takes four hours to do anyway, the moon was out, a-and surely a slip of the tongue wouldn’t make it so bad, r-right?”

And there it was.

The entire reason for him being dragged here. The entire reason why he was dragged from his life, assailed by a constant stream of new creatures and people, and met with a night in jail was that…

“The entire reason that I was here wasn’t predetermined, predestined, or even intentional, but because you STUMBLED ON YOUR WORDS!?”

Erlana blankly stared at him through the tears pooling in her eyes and the quivering lip she possessed. Her poor frame scooched into her seat with how close Fumihito had gotten. The young man was about ready to lose it. He almost did. However, losing himself and going wild on a woman wasn’t exactly a very sane thing to do, much less even the right thing.

Still, there was one more thing that didn’t add up.

“Okay, I understand all of that, but what about that weird purple stuff from my hands?”

His companion seemed confused.

“Purple stuff? What are you talking about? What purple stuff?”

Did she really not know? He raised his brows and pointed back down the town’s road over to where the graveyard was.

“When I was running away from you. I almost slipped before something pushed me back up. It felt like something was just running through me. Wasn’t that your magic or something?”

She almost seemed insulted before the look on her face had calmed. Erlana raised a brow once more and brushed a hand across her right arm, almost in shame.

“I… I can’t do anything like that. Fumihito, I honestly don’t know what you’re…”

But all of that was soon cut off by the loud blaring voice of one of the villagers.

“THERE’S AN EMERGENCY! THE FOUNDING GRAVE’S BEEN DEFILED!”

This day just seemed to get worse and worse, didn’t it?