True Words

Gwendolyn was not in the least interested at all in the folder and its contents. She simply wanted the results, after all if those people couldn't figure anything out then neither would she. The former scientist wasted no time to produce a pen and clipboard from her doctors coat pocket, and began writing down everything they found out, which honestly wasn't much.

June 17, 2024,

The results of an entire night's analysis from yesterday's gathered writing was inconclusive. They said it was the 'words of the insane'. Perhaps there is some way we can figure out what these words mean. Perhaps we are simply missing the key. However, finding said key would be a issue dealt with at another time.

"So, are we turning this in now?" Gwendolyn asked, eager to finish this assignment and return to her office.

"The words of the insane? Couldn't be... there's no way. He responded... as if he understood yesterday."

Adelina looked over the sheet with a frown. How could they not find anything when she had clearly seen the man could understand them? Had they even bothered with Bryan suggestion of looking at Mr. Hesway's books? Maybe they just couldn't find anything... mentally sighing, she nodded at the other two who had chosen to speak.

"I believe getting these to Dr. Meakley would be the way to go."

"Yeah, that'd probably be best. Dr. Meakley might be able to come up with...something," Bryan agreed, walking down the hall gesturing for the others to follow. The whole situation was disappointing. He was expecting a breakthrough, but...they literally got nothing. He ignored the report and instead glanced over the page that had Hesway's frantic and incomprehensible writing upon it. He moved his finger over the words, the finger stopping over one phrase that was circled for some reason. Did they know what it meant? No. It must have been the closest they could find to something that made sense.

"What does it even mean?" Bryan said aloud, his finger on the phrase in question. He was getting frustrated. It looked similar to some of the other languages and codes Hesway had created for his works, but it obviously wasn't. "Usirus, condu vene ital lorina rjna ola na uduo tyrjha. Sounds like something Hesway would come up with. I'm a fan of his novels, as you all know, and--" Bryan never completed his sentence. Circles of light began surrounding the group walking down the hallway: on the walls, on the floor beneath them, in front, behind, on the ceiling. There was no escape. There was a brilliant flash and they were gone.

A nurse at the end of the hallway saw them and screamed. She dropped a stack of files she was carrying and rushed towards where they had been standing. There was nothing but ashes scattered around, for in the brilliant light, the report and page of Hesway's writing had been incinerated. The nurse knelt down and ran a finger over a phrase that had been scorched into the tile floor of the corridor.

Fallen ones, knowledge has been passed and tears shall cease to fall.

Other workers began forming a crowd around the area. The nurse that had seen them disappear looked up worriedly at the others. "Th-they're gone..." She was speechless along with the rest. The corridor was completely silent.

* * *

The air was chill, and a constant breeze was blowing. Bryan opened his eyes. He was lying on his back on the cold, hard ground. What he saw confused him. A sky. It was a sickly yellow in color with green clouds that were far from fluffy; they were more of a haze or fog. His body wasn't hurting, so he ventured to sit up and his jaw dropped. He was in a large ravine, on both sides trapped by large cliff walls leading up quite a ways. The area in the ravine itself was rather barren save for boulders...and the rest of his companions lying about nearby.

"D...dreaming...I must be dreaming..." he said and fell back against the ground, staring up at the sulken sky.

Gwendolyn stared up at the sky, pinching herself on the cheek lightly to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. Then to make sure of that, she took off her glasses, rubbed her eyes, and then opened them again. This place was real, at least real enough to her and her fellow three co-workers anyway. She took a few deep breaths and pinching the bridge of her nose. From the color and shape of the clouds as well as the sky, Gwendolyn could have sworn she was in some sort of Dr. Seuss book gone demented. Now all that's left were some indigenous people that looked like humanoid ostriches a rhyming narrator.

"Right, it would be best to find shelter, if not civilization, as soon as possible." Gwendolyn agreed, after sitting up and fixing her glasses which fell slightly crooked when she got up.

Gwendolyn picked herself off the ground and brushed the dirt and dust off of her white lab coat. She reached into the coat pocket and dug around, looking for her clipboard. It was the one thing that she always had to have around, it provided a sense of familiarity to her previous field of work as a scientist. Gwendolyn took out the clipboard and detached the pen from it, immediately beginning to write down descriptions of her surrounding world.

As was usual for such circumstances, everything happened so fast and yet in slow motion. Too quick for one to make sense of the situation, but too slow to come to terms with it when they finally did. When Adelina's eyes opened only slightly, her inner consciousness was in disbelief and forced her eyes shut again. What happened to the hospital? They were outside somewhere now on cold stone it felt like. How could that have happened when they were just walking down the hallway?

Opening her eyes once again, Adelina's consciousness took it in this time without forcing her eyes closed once again. She blinked several times, unable to grasp what had happened completely. Had to be a dream right? This couldn't possibly be real, they were all just in a dream. . . . No they weren't. She could feel everything and the others were consoling each other, they weren't in a dream. This was all very real.

She sat up.

"What... what happened?"

Bryan was perfectly content to just fall back asleep and then wake up in his nice comfortable bed, but as Kim made her way over to him and spoke of getting the others to wake up, he knew that would never happen. Reluctantly, he sat up and took in his surroundings. Scaling the cliffs was impossible; they had no equipment and he had never been rock climbing in his entire life, though he was athletic enough to figure something out. It would be easier to go in one direction or the other in the ravine. Of course, he didn't know which directions they were heading. He stood up shakily and looked at the cliff face. One path left down the ravine, the other right. He made a mental note of that and turned to Kim before realizing the others had stirred.

"Rousing them doesn't seem to be an issue now, Kim," he said lighthearted despite the situation. It was better than completely falling apart. Kim had a good head on her shoulders and so did the others. They could survive wherever they had wound up. "Looks like everyone's okay. I don't know what exactly happened, but it happened and here we are." He paused and blinked vacantly a couple of times. "Somewhere." It seemed that as soon as someone stopped talking, a deathly silence would settle in the area. It was unnerving.

Bryan pointed in each of the directions he noted. "If we're going to get away from this spot, which seems like a very vulnerable point, then we've got a couple of choices: left or right. Which is it going to be? I wish I could put some logic behind it, but we're going to have to go on dumb luck for this one which is probably extremely dangerous given the circumstances, but we really don't have much of a choice," he explained, sighing wearily at the end. He had just been roused from unconsciousness, yet was still oddly tired.

"I'll just follow you guys." Gwendoly blankly stated.

Left or right, the choice doesn't really matter. With absolutely no knowledge of this world, each choice was just as reasonable as the other. She'll go where the others go, splitting up would be a horrible idea, there was no telling what kind of dangers were in this alien world. And unless someone suggests going right, that just leaves one last question, whose left do they follow?

"Sticking together is the only way to go. With that in mind, I'd say left is the best option."

Adelina spoke up rather quietly, obviously still stunned by everything that had happened. Though she was not in the best condition mentally, she still tried to think logically. Separating was not a good idea in this situation. If one party went the wrong way, then only one party would live. In an unknown world, with knowledge that the only people you know may be dead, one would not be able to survive. They had to stay together, it was the only way.

Gwendolyn might have been stoic to the whole idea of picking a direction, but when Bryan had spoken before...he had said something that seemed to cause a slight resonance in her soul. But there was no way for her to know what it meant just yet...

So it was decided. The group would proceed down the ravine to the left. Bryan mentally cursed that the path seemed to just go out for a long time such that they couldn't see what lied at the end, but he figured they'd figure it out when they got there. "Okay then. I know we probably weren't planning on a good hike today, but it seems we have no say in the matter. If we can find a good place to rest, we'll stop, even if it's not in a place with people," Bryan relayed to the others, turning to the left and looking straight down the path. He couldn't shake the bad feeling he kept getting about this place. "Something just tells me that anywhere is safer than here." With that, he began to walk. Having already come to an agreement, the others were surely walking along as well, with everyone voicing that it would be best to stick together in this unknown and possibly dangerous land.

An hour or two passed along as the doctors trekked along the ravine. The bottom was no longer flat and was instead starting to slope upwards. The end could finally be seen: the path would eventually slope even more, but would lead up and out of the ravine. On the ground above, deciduous trees could be seen that most likely made up a rather large forest. A ravine and a forest. Bryan tried to think...to probe his minds of any knowledge of such landmarks and yet found nothing. He desperately wanted to know where he was, and just grasped at straws to find some sort of realization, but no realization would come. He turned and looked at the others walking alongside him. They had been walking for a while. If they could just continue on a little farther...

"How is everyone holding up?" Bryan huffed, asking the others about their conditions. He was fairly fine for he was used to such vigorous exercise, but he wasn't sure about everyone else. If they had to stop to break now, that would be fine, even though they were still in the ravine. Bryan felt it was safer here than it was back where they had found themselves.

It was a good thing Adelina had been a dancer. Though she had not danced in a long time, she still had the energy from it. Not to mention her long daily walks to work made her better prepared for a hike such as this. Although, while her body was ready, her mind was not. This entire situation was just a little to much for her to handle; It was only the others keeping her from freaking out.

Adelina was not as thirsty as Kim was, but she had to agree with her colleague. Water was an absolute necessity, followed by food, though the human body could go longer without food.

"I agree. Water should be our top priority."

Gwendolyn stayed silent the entire time, her clipboard and pen out as she continued to take note of their surroundings, as well as how the group was faring so far.

This location is very strange, as I cannot recall any place with the land being quite like this. And neither can the others. The large ravine we are currently does seem like it has an end, leading out to a forest of some sort. Hopefully we come across a source of freshwater there. One of my colleagues requested we find water soon.

Even though she didn't say anything, Gwendolyn was just as thirsty as the rest of them, and even more tired. She wasn't used to much exercise, if at all any. The only thing remotely close to exercise that Gwendolyn has been doing is walking to work and back home each day. She was likely the most frail out of the entire group. Gwendolyn was so tired, in fact, that she didn't try to reply to her co-workers with words, only a nod in agreement. They needed water.

Having only had coffee earlier that morning, Bryan couldn't help but agree with everyone else. They would move on for the sake of finding some good water. "Damn...just thinking about that reminds me of how serious this all is," Bryan cursed, letting out a bit of a sigh before continuing on. It wouldn't be long before they were finally out of the ravine. "It would be great if we knew where to look specifically for water. At the least, if we can't find any, there might be some juicy fruits in the forest and we can make do with that. I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty intent on finding some civilization as soon as possible."

Without even thinking, he let out a laugh. "It would be pretty bad if we landed on some uninhabited place," he said nervously, though it was probably a stupid thing to say at such a time. "Just a bit worried. No signs of people yet, but we've been in the ravine the whole time. We'll get a better view when we get out of it."

In her absentmindedness, Adelina followed Kim, letting her natural instinct take over for her. It would take some time for her to actually grasp that they were not at home any longer. Until then logic and habit would keep her going to keep her colleagues' spirits up. Unlike Kim, however, she was not tired, at least not physically. She could keep going for a little while longer, hopefully in that time they would find water and maybe civilization as well.

Iltan had been watching the strange party's slow ascent from one of the trees near the ravine, casually hanging a leg from one of its many boughs. Poor guys looked like they hadn't hiked a day in their lives. Even then, they were drawing closer, two in particular not far from the tree he occupied. He sighed, knowing they would need help but a little apprehensive at meeting these strangers. Iltan swung his other leg over, but paused as something occurred to him. 'Maybe they'd know more about . . .' He thought as he glanced down at his feathered appendage.

He put it aside and hopped down quietly from his perch, boots a whisper on the grass, then grabbed his worn staff from where it lay against the trunk. Resting it on his shoulder, he moved forward to greet the strangers. Hopefully they wouldn't react too badly to seeing him. Like try to kill him or something. You could never tell with people these days. Approaching the two females, Iltan smiled. "Hey there, greetings! You guys need some help?" He shifted his winged arm, trying to inconspicuously move it from their line of sight.

Adelina blinked several times upon seeing the bird-like humanoid, her mind forced back into the situation. She tried desperately to process this anomaly, continuing to blink as her mind raced. A bird-human? How? Why? Was it even possible? She shook her head and rubbed her eyes, but he remained in her line of sight. He was real. She blinked several more times, trying to understand how such a thing could happen. Her heartbeat began to pick up rather wildly, sweat forming on her brow almost instantly. She started to sway slightly, her blinking slowing along with her breath. Finally her eyes rolled up to the top of her head and she fell forward.

The man simply watched the woman almost fall to the ground. Though he hadn't made a move to catch her, he felt sorry, almost used to the reaction by now. So with a concerned frown, he nodded and rested on his heels as he waited. With her words and their reactions however, he was disappointed. Obviously they couldn't tell him anything he didn't already know. 'Shouldn't have gotten my hopes up."

Bryan watched as Kim went off a bit ahead, which was fine. She didn't seem too intent with wandering too far off. In a place like this, there was no telling what would happen. Wiping a bit of sweat from his brow, Bryan kept marching forward alongside Gwendolyn until something caught his eye. Was it...was it another person?! That's when he noticed Adelina, who had followed Kim on ahead, fell to the ground, though Kim was fast to react, catching the woman and setting her down gently. By this point, Bryan was dashing up the slope as fast as his fairly tired muscles would let him go. Coming to a halt, he looked down at the fainted Adelina and then to the new arrival on the scene.

"Oh, woah...," Bryan marveled, raising an eyebrow in question. He rubbed his chin for a moment. "We're not in our own world anymore, are we?" he finally said after a few minutes. It was hard to tell what emotion was in his voice. Despair. Bewilderment. Anxiety. He took a deep breath. "What happened to her?" he asked, gesturing to Adelina. As if he had needed a response. The sight of this...person...surely must have scared her.

"I must be going crazy..."

Gwendolyn stared at the man in front of the group in slight disbelief. She remove her glasses, wipe them clean with a piece of cloth, and then put them back on. Then Gwendolyn almost dropped her pen and clipboard. The odd growth that was in place the man's arm was in fact not a hallucination. But how could something like this happen? Surely this wasn't scientifically possible.

"Right, before we continue this conversation, I suggest we go somewhere safe in case there are wild animals about." Gwendolyn said while pinching the bridge of her nose, she was getting a headache from all the crazy things that's happening today.

Now the situation looked even more like a demented Dr. Seuss book.