Day 1 (Part 1)

For a few seconds there was chaos.

Wind whipped by Jess’ ear, deafening him as he fell. Just as it started, however, he came to a stop. Jess had instinctively tensed his legs and bent his knees in preparation for impact, but the landing came softly, as if he’d only jumped an inch into the air. The world came to a stop beside him, and he could see again.

The sounds hit him first.

All around him suddenly a universe came to life, and Jess realized he was dropped into what sounded like the middle of a city during rush hour. Talking, honking, yelling, laughing, all aspects of verbal communication exploded into existence. In the midst of all this noise, Jess found himself standing in front of a dimly lit cart, a street vendor, whose sole worker behind the counter was reaching inside some cabins to grab something. Before he could register what was happening, the worker stood up, a purple bottle in hand.

The dim light then cast itself on the worker, and Jess saw no human, but the head of something else. It extended an arm to Jess. With skin shriveled and brown like an old raisin, a single large eye stared, unblinking, at Jess. A slit opened below the eye, and it spoke.

“Well? Hurry up, it’ll get warm.” Jess understood this was no language he understood. The sounds were wholly alien, but for some reason he knew what it meant. The creature shrugged (or it seemed like it did), and left the drink on an open table top.

Jess quietly grabbed the drink and walked away,

Turning around, the context of the noise became clear. Between giant, decorated walls was a massive, crowded bazaar. From where he stood, he could see hundreds of shops, none matching the others' looks. Some shops were huge, more like buildings, with several floors with lights and moving shadows inside them. Many were smaller, alleyway street vendors, and some shops were clinging to the sides of the walls, planted with some mysterious force.

Among the shops one thing was abundantly clear. He was not on Earth anymore.

Customers flowing in and out of shops were of different shapes, sizes, and species. A dizzying variety of beings weaved between the stores and streets. Jess stood still, mouth agape. He didn’t realize he was forgetting to swallow until he felt a drop of drool drip down his chin.

Nobody looked at him, or spoke to him. Jess scanned his surroundings, and found what looked like a fountain, except instead of a marble structure with water, there was a floating cube spewing crimson liquid in an impossible pattern.

He made his way there, eyes focused solely on an empty spot he could sit at. There were others at the base of this fountain, sitting down and doing something. Between their strange appendages and squelching noises, he could only assume they were eating. Hopefully not humans.

He sat, catching his breath.

“Hey, you can’t sit here buddy.” A shark with legs came up to him immediately. “Read the sign.” It pointed its flaps at a sign nearby, with strange letters that Jess strangely found himself understanding. 25 Per Hour.

“I- I didn’t, I didn’t mean to, sorry.” Jess stood up, a wave of panic rising.

“Sorry! He’s with me.” A voice behind the shark spoke up. The shark grunted, took some coins from the being behind it, and walked away.

Behind the shark was a human girl, who couldn’t have been any older than he was. She had hair the color of fall leaves, wearing a leather bag and a mischievous smile.

“I hate paying for something I won’t use, but there’s somebody who needs to see you right now.”

Jess followed the girl, weaving between stores and people. At some point, the pair stopped to let a store on legs pass on above them. The trip lasted no more than 10 minutes, during which Jess had seen more strange things in his life than in all of his movies, games, and books combined. They stopped in front of a large sphere floating slightly above the ground.

The girl tapped the side of the sphere, and a door slid open in front of the sphere, with a ramp stretching out from the bottom. It felt like a large movie prop from the 90s; a strange geometric alien ship. They walked inside where the space seemed much larger than it looked on the outside. The sphere from outside couldn’t have been taller than 10 feet, but he found himself inside a fully lit, spacious store with two floors. The ceiling looked well over 20 feet above him.

“Welcome! Is there anything I can help you with- oh it’s you.” A familiar voice reached out across the store. Behind several shelves a large man, beast, man-beast came out, wearing a black suit and tie. “What took you so long? Where was he?”

“At Minnow’s spot. Classic newbie trap, but I didn’t think he’d actually fall for it. “ The girl grabbed Jess’ arms, and pulled him between the shelves.

Close up, he could see the man-beast clearly, and he knew exactly who it was.

“You’re late,” said the grizzly man from the funeral. It was difficult to describe him as grizzly, as it seemed fairer to call him that as a noun. The hairiness he had before had become a thick, brown fur, and it covered every inch of his skin. Dark beady eyes watched Jess as he nervously took a step back. He suddenly growled, and Jess flinched. The man then burst out laughing, a strange, clear laughter that seemed uncharacteristic from the guttural sound he had just made.

“Sorry, I did the exact same to Marcy too when she first came here. Let me introduce myself. I’m Yhorn, no last name, and this is Sora, my daughter.”