Fall Thru

If I had any lingering hope that I was at the convention center still, it was squashed instantly. Marble floors gave way to patterned brick work, and the high ceiling shrunk down to elegant archways with geometric craftwork inlayed in the stone. Sunlight streamed in on all sides as the walls faded away, replaced by a fragrant garden with vegetation as unique as its curators.

Oh my freaking god. I stopped, heart racing, and walked to one of thick columns of the archway.

My jaw dropped. That's a minotaur pruning a flower. The flower's on fire. Is that—I think—Yes, he is putting out the flames with air from his nostrils.

The sky was a pink, blue, purple haze. Like the colors in a permanent sunset. A bright blue sun, sapphire-colored, hung in the sky. My eyes scanned the fluffy white clouds, the only thing Earthlike on the planet. The giant beige, emerald, and burgundy dragon flying over and settling onto one of the whipped-cream clouds ruined the effect.

Earth had its wonders, but this placed seemed to be made of nothing but 'em.

A gentle hand settled on my hip and I turned to Blondie. He looked at me patiently as if he knew I was awestruck. "Is this Earth?"

Not even sure why I asked the question; he didn't understand me and I didn't understand him. Plus, LA was jungle hot, but this place was balmy, laying on the beach weather. The temperature was different, the environment had changed, and the inhabitants looked like movie monster extras.

Blondie said nothing. He nudged me with his hand and I pulled away from the column, continuing our walk. Patterned brick faded again, seamlessly giving way to the marble I recognized. We were back in the hallway—well, not the exact one if the blown up noir-esque photos had anything to say about it.

I looked behind me, maneuvering my eyes through tails, claws, feet, and . . . not feet. Reflected on the divide of brick and marble was a shimmering barrier that looked like scattered pixie dust. I turned back around when my foot slipped.

Monsters and magic. Seemed about right. I couldn't go to a world with E.T. style aliens, I went to one with magic and elves. At Comic-Con no less. "Oh, the irony," I moaned as I reached up and scratched my hair. It itched bad, and I wondered about asking Blondie for a room with a shower. I'd been hibernating in my room at the Lerou mansion for almost three days. Redbulls and beef jerky had been the only things keeping me alive.

I turned my thoughts away from my lack of hygiene and poor diet to the photos lining the hallway. They were all stills, black and white, set in forests and cities I'd never seen. A few looked to be taken from a high place, the buildings smudged slightly like the photographer had been inflight. There were no humans in the photos.

Blondie navigated us down a hallway away from the photos and the marble gave way to light, bamboo floors, worn and bumpy. This time I was looking for the shimmery demarcation line, and noticed it extended up the walls and to the ceiling, completely allowing the room to transform.

It was like the building was comprised of Lego blocks masquerading as hallways. Bamboo floors now with swooping sheet-like ceilings with short, silver electric chandeliers every ten feet. Sliding paper doors on my left opened onto a valley with a giant waterfall in the distance and red tents surrounding it.

I desperately wanted to stop, soak in yet another miracle. You just didn't see things like this on Earth, or if you did they were perfectly captured in National Geographic. The hallway went on longer than the marble one and my legs started to hurt.

How long have I been walking? I wondered, sloughing beside Blondie. I felt heavier, like I was carrying all my weight plus ten extra pounds. I knew I was crashing, coming down from the adrenaline of falling through time and space and walking with a group of mythical creatures.

Blondie tapped a finger on my shoulder and I stopped and looked at him sideways. He pointed to a olive green tapestry scattered with random mushroom-things hanging on the wall. I nodded at it, "Mushrooms."

I bit my lip. God that sounded stupid.

He lifted a brow, regarded me for a second and then shrugged off whatever he'd been thinking. Blondie reached out and slid the tapestry across the wall on invisible tracks. My eyes widened at the bedroom displayed. The doorway was narrow, the room was not.

I looked back at the blond. "What is this?"

He gestured to me and then the room and said two words very slowly. I guessed he said, "Your room."

I pointed to myself then the room and back to myself. "Mine?"

He nodded resolutely, though his expression was still vaguely puzzled. His voice rumbled through the hall, making the sheet ceiling move like waves. The black scaly serpent slithered to his slide again.

The pair spoke for a second, a strange cacophony. I realized that they weren't speaking the same language. Not exactly. Blondie's voice had halting notes, sounds that could stop and start at the tip of his tongue, changing on length, intonation, and formation. The serpent chittered, contradicting the hissing I expected to hear. It sounded more like a bird, long and short whistles between its words.

Blondie smiled and touched the corner of his mouth with side of his pointer finger, tapping twice. The serpent's scales clicked, rotating around and becoming a pinkish color. It chittered, scales shuffling like cards. The vampire-elf laughed and spun on his heel. He cast me a look over his shoulder, made a gesture for me to go into the room and stay there, and left.

I watched the horde of monsters walk back down the bamboo hallway and disappear around a corner. I looked up at the serpent whose scales were back to black. The thing looked . . . uh, sullen.

I crossed my arms and cocked my hip. "I don't want to be here either."

Arm like appendages peeled out from the scales in a sticky mess, and the serpent mimicked my gesture. Well, at least we understood each other.

I looked out the sliding paper doors to the village in the valley. How big was this place? What kind of world was this? It had magic and dragons and satyrs, what else did it have?

I blew out a hot sigh and dragged my feet through the narrow door to the room. It looked like a suite a person might see in Vegas. A giant TV hung above a fireplace on wide side of the room, adjacent two vermillion couches and a dark stained coffee table. I couldn't help wondering if the place got HBO as my eyes continued to wander around. A circular, floating bamboo staircase was on the other side of the room with a mysterious tapestry beside it. I looked up the floating staircase to the landing above, but couldn't see what was on it. I shrugged, stepping fully into the room and letting out a low whistle.

I turned at the sound of a slither and a woosh of air behind me. I caught a glimpse of black scales before the tapestry moved back into place, shimmered the same iridescent color as the stuff connecting the corridors, then blended into the wall paper like a chameleon. I reached for the place a door should have been, but it was all wall, no seams.

"Hey!" I yelled, pounding on the textured wallpaper. "Open up!"

No answer.

I pounded harder, screaming my head off for them to let me out. Stupid, stupid, Tilly! I berated myself, tears burning hot behind my eyes. I shook my head, refusing to let them fall. It was my own fault. I knew one day my adventurous side was going to get me into trouble.

I'd been lucky moving from Washington D.C. to LA without a moment's notice. Finding an apartment and a job at the same time. Finally getting my acceptance letter to UCLA's Masters program. Lucky, lucky, lucky. I lived my life with luck in mind.

Sure there were consequences every so often, a bruise or scar here and there but nothing to deter me. Damn do I wish something had deterred me.

I swung in a wide circle, searching the room for a window. There were none.

"Shit, shit, shit," I mumbled, tripping over my feet to get to the other tapestry.

It slid aside soundlessly, the same way the other one had, and for a brief flicker of a second I thought I'd found a way out. Nope—I stuck my head into the room—I'd found the bathroom. Basin in the middle, shower heads sticking out at angles from a corner, and a toilet thing in the corner with a short pane of frosted glass.

It looked modern, like the TV and the chandeliers I'd seen. So, the creatures had been to Earth. That was good. It meant they could speak English, right? Some had to.

I took a few calming breaths in, using the breathing meditation techniques my therapist mother taught. I hated when she sat me on the couch and pointed out my fears and insecurities with the same ease she read a grocery list, but she had her good moments. Teaching me to deal with the stress of finals and life changing decisions with mediation instead of anxiety was one of her best points.

I stood there for long minutes, listening to my heart, breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth. After a while I felt better. My bladder chose that moment to demand the bathroom, and then the shower called my name, and . . . . Well, an hour later, wrapped in the same blue cloth as the blond vampire-elf guy, clean, and with hair scented like a candy store, I was doing great.

Yeah, being kept in a windowless, doorless room wasn't fantastic, but it could be worse. I settled on the cream couch, crossing my legs. The blue towel suit was weird, especially since I'd wrapped it around my body like any normal towel and them it had stretched, wrapping around itself and my hair until it looked like blue bandages on my body.

I reached for the remote on the coffee table and clicked on the TV. A re-run of Dance Moms flickered to life.

I looked at the wall where the door should have been and called over my shoulder "Dance Moms is on. Wanna watch it?"

I doubted the serpent would want to, but it couldn't hurt to ask. And besides, maybe if the thing became my friend it would have less incentive to eat me. A few seconds passed by before the wall shimmered, turning back into the tapestry, and then whooshed aside.

The point of the serpent's tail waved from the doorway. "Come on in," I invited.

A brief chitter, which I took as a "Thank you," and then the serpent came into the room and settled on the couch across from me.

I stared at the open door for a second. There was freedom if I wanted it. I looked back at the serpent who was regarding me with wide black eyes that reflected hints of cobalt in their inky gaze. To run or not to run. I looked back at the TV; Abby was yelling at one of the girls, a brunette child near tears.

I cast one more glance at the open door, turned to the serpent, shrugged, and settled in for the show.

Halfway through the third episode of Dance Moms Blondie reappeared sans entourage. Instead, he had two orange and green robed people beside him. They were ridiculously tall and wide, with marshmallow fluffed white hair. Their skin shimmered like the stuff in the hallways and on the door, making me think they'd constructed it.

I got up from the seat and approached them, serpent dude hot on my heels. Actually, I still wasn't sure if the serpent was a guy or gal, but from the chittering like snorts of the TV show antics I assumed guy.

The vampire-elf had changed, and was now dressed in a crisp black suit. His collar was opened, revealing pale skin and a light dusting of gold hair. He'd braided his mane of corn in a fishtail and thrown if over his left shoulder.

I waved at the trio. "Howdy."

He nodded his head and turned to the people beside him, gesturing from them to me as he spoke. They responded with voices that rumbled like thunder, looked at me, looked back at him and frowned.

I couldn't tell the creatures' gender. There were no real defining male or female characteristics. Their lines were flat, mouths wide, cheeks plump, and eyes a few centimeters too wide for their faces.

The other creature spoke, same rumbling thunder voice that was neither high nor deep. I frowned. Am I just going crazy, or does everyone sound different? I swear they aren't speaking the same language.

Another few minutes of talking and one of the marshmallow-haired creatures turned and glided toward me. I looked down to find feet, but robes covered it. When I raised my head, the creature was in front of me, both hands extended our. One hand wrapped around my throat while the other covered all of my ear and most of my head.

The thing couldn't have touched me more than five seconds, but it was five freaky seconds. Oh, god, they're going to kill me. It was bound to happen, just a matter of time.

I raised my hands, and scratched at the creature holding me. Its eyes narrowed, and it hissed. A second later, the hand was gone, leaving a tingly burn in its place. My brain, ears, and throat hurt, like I was hung over.

I covered my sensitive ears when the serpent chittered beside me. "Not so loud," I whined in a raspy voice. I swallowed hard, but it didn't help the pain.

"Take this," a cultured voice screamed at me.

A cold hand brushed my shoulder and I flinched back. "Stop freakin' screaming. It's going to bust an ear—"

Wait. I looked up, locked eyes with the vampire-elf. "I heard you."

He smiled, and I think it was supposed to be reassuring, but it wasn't. "I also heard you. And I'm not screaming, your ears are taking a while to adjust." He extended his hand. "Duke."

I was expecting something hard to pronounce that wasn't like a human name at all. I extended my hand, grasping his. "Matilda. Everyone calls me Tilly."

We shook hands and I was thrown off by the gesture. It was hard enough to get foreigners to shake hands and recognize it as a Western thing, the fact that he did it automatically only cemented my thoughts that humans were here. "What do you mean my ears? And is there a human I can talk to, like an American one?"

He shook his head, braid falling behind his back. "No humans here, I'm afraid. However, I studied at Yale in '79 and spent more than five years on Earth. I am accustomed to human habits should you need to speak with someone."

I was beyond confused, and skating the edge of freaking out. I rubbed my forehead, hang over effects fading away. "Go back, go back. Let's start with how I got here and where here is before we go into anything else."

The marshmallow-haired people nodded. "Our sentiments exactly."