Arablest/ Prototype

I woke up the next morning to someone shaking me awake. Well, morning wasn’t very accurate; it was still very dark outside.
“What time is it?” I asked, still refusing to get up.
“It is about 2 hours before the day breaks. You are accompanying Leona out now, however, so get up!”
I groaned, and rolled over away from the village elder. “Move.” I said.
“What?”
“I said, move. You’re in the way.”
Brixus moved to the side, and that’s when I rolled off, almost leaping off. I landed on my feet, and grabbed some clothes to put on, and readied myself to go within a minute.
"Hmph. Too slow." I mumbled to myself. Then again, these were clothes I weren't used to. Although I didn't have much to put on, seeing that I slept with my tunic still on, it still took longer than I would have liked. I know that this was the first time wearing something like this, putting on a cape that I used as my blanket, a belt, the rapier which couldn't have been mine, these leather boots... But still. If I wasn't strict on myself, then I'll never finish this any faster.
“That was… fast.” Stuttered the man, surprised. "Almost like we're under attack."
“I’ve had practice, almost being late to school everyday. Even then, I thought it was too slow.”
“School? What kind of school did you go to?”
“Never mind. Let’s go. Are you sure I don’t need any training?”
“What kind of training? You two are protecting each other. Your swordsmanship is not bad either—“
“Yeah, it’s not bad because it’s actually horrible. My skill level is probably lower than an amateur! I had absolutely no training! I don’t want to kill anyone either!”
“Really? If that is so, you seem to have talent for it. You were able to hold off some bandits… Although your eyes... you're right, they’re not the eyes of a killer, yet. That’s good; children your age shouldn’t be killing. You’re a tactician after all, not a mindless soldier or warrior. But it’s your quick mind that I’m looking for, to keep you and Leona alive, okay? Leona is the one who will fight for you. She should be good enough, I trained her myself. Leona told me you promised to keep each other alive, too. And besides, you’re going to rendezvous with more people at the next village you reach, so there should be more people who will accompany you two. All you need to do is use that brilliant mind of yours.”
The old man was pretty smart too. I couldn’t argue against that; it was all true. Well, maybe not the ‘talented swordsman’ part, and the ‘brilliant mind’ part.

We had already reached Leona’s house, and was reaching for the door to knock when Leona stepped out, wielding the same lance as she had yesterday.
“I am ready to go.”
"You're not going to wear any armor?" I asked, curious. If she was the one fighting, than why no armor?
"I am. See?"
She lifted her clothes— Hey! What are you doing!?!? I'm guy, you know!
I instantly turned my head to look away.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"I don't need to see under your clothes." I responded, trying to stay calm.
"Hey, it's not like I'm showing anything unnecessary. I have more underneath, see?"
I looked because she said she was wearing more, and yes, fortunately she was. It just wasn't noticeable earlier. And there was leather armor, too. But wouldn't you put armor outside of the clothes, not inside? Strange.
The three of us walked to the gate, where the old man saw us of, but not before bringing us to the stables to give us horses, to travel faster. I had only ridden a horse once, but it was only cantering. I hope we wouldn’t have to have the horses gallop. And why weren’t there any cars? Time travel was technically impossible, so where was I?
“Where are we going anyways?” I asked.
“Our final destination is Gravius, the capital city of Thrycia. It’s pretty far.”
“How far?”
“It’s about… 1,625 kilometers. “
I was more familiar with miles, so I pulled out a pencil I found in my bag, and a book for paper, and did the math. Fortunately for me, I remembered how many kilometers were in a mile.

1 kilometer = 0.62 mile, and 1 mile was about 1.6 kilometers...

I did the math. 1,625 kilometers was about 1,010 miles. This was going to be a very long journey.
Wait, how did I remember the conversion rate between kilometers and miles? I never bothered to remember these things. But that's not important. And maybe I was wrong with the conversation rate, and that it was actually a lot shorter than I thought.
“That’s really far. Are you sure we have enough provisions to last on a journey this long?”
“I have some money, but I just hope we can hold off any thieves and bandits along the way. Otherwise, we should be fine. We’re also going to rendezvous with other… friends along the way, so it should be fine. First stop is the city Kuassana.”
I never even heard of Gravius, Thrycia, Raalte, or Kuassana. They all sounded strange. Well, I heard Raalte once, but it came out of Leona’s mouth the day before. So I was entirely lost as to where in the world I was.
“You know how to get there, right?”
“I know how to get to Kuassana, but that’s about it. But according to Brixus, we have some allies waiting there, and they should be able to talk us to Gravius.”
“Do you have a map?”
“…No.”
I wondered if it was a good idea to agree with the deal I made with Brixus the night before. Sure, I was desperate to get home and leave all this behind. But to escort Leona for over a thousand miles to some city first? On horses? Without a map or a guide? Seriously?
The horses were already loaded with supplies, as well, so I guess Brixus was quite prepared to send us off.
It would have been much faster to fly by plane, though. Wasn’t there an airport nearby?
Then again, it was too quiet for an airport to be nearby, or any sign of a city.

Maybe that’s why we were going to Kuassana first, because this was only a village. Maybe there was an airport there.

But then, why was everyone here equipped with old medieval weapons? And why would Brixus send only me to accompany Leona?

“You know,” said Leona, breaking my chain of thoughts. “I wonder why the village elder only sent you to accompany me to Kuassana.”
I was just thinking about that! I decided to change the subject.
“I don’t know… What kind of lance is that anyways? I’ve never seen a lance that could cause a house to explode into flames.”
“This lance? Brixus said that it was passed down the family for generations… So I kind of inherited it. I didn’t really want to use a family weapon, but this is the only weapon I can use right now. I thought it was an ordinary but reinforced bronze lance, but now, I suspect it to be a flame lance. I heard they were quite rare.”
“That… would explain a lot.” I replied. It also raised quite a few questions, but I didn’t say anything.
Flame lance? What kind of weapon was that? Her lance was not ablaze right now.
And in that fight, there was red electricity or something like that flying out of the lance. Maybe it’s called a flame lance because if it was moved at high speeds, the friction with the air could get hot enough to ignite. If the air was flammable.

Well, oxygen was flammable, so I guess so... But still. the idea of it was ridiculous.

Besides, how would that explain the explosion, then? And there were sparks that burned as it flew past,as well… So my theory was most likely false.

I don’t really believe in magic either, but I didn’t know what to expect after seeing the bandit’s axe do amazing things. So, I decided to tell myself to expect the unexpected.

And where did the axe go, anyways?

Since I’m likely to be in a completely different place with completely different laws of nature, I had to believe that anything was possible.
But what I hoped for most, was that I wasn’t in another world, because I wanted to get back home.