Latrea: Sucked into a Whole New World

The light from the sun shone through the blinds as Erik Hopkins turned away from the shining light peeking through his window shades. But that did not stop the shouting from his mother, which no amount of turning would fix as she bellowed his name to get up and get ready for class.

Erik was a senior in high school, he had an early birthday based on the school year rather than the calendar, so he generally was older than the other kids, however, he was typically smaller, thinner and less popular. Not due to his inability to interact with others as much as he himself had a hard time talking to other people. He never felt comfortable speaking to people and always kept to himself. He was often seen as the “quiet one”.

Erik had dirty blonde hair of medium length hair that appeared messy, not just because he currently was laying in bed, but he normally had messy, dirty blonde hair with hazel colored eyes. Standing roughly average in height and weight, Erik would normally seem to fit in. He worked out, so he had muscle density, which gave him a normal weight, but he appeared skinny due to his build.
He rolled out of bed and groaned loudly as he looked for his jeans. “Mom, where did you put my jeans?!” He shouted loudly as he got up.

“In your closet, honey,” she replied in kind. He noted she was getting closer, probably to make sure he for certain got out of bed. Erik got dressed and made his way to his car, which he found out was broken and would not start despite everything he tried. He normally got up early and left early to play on the computers at school, however, he was now forced to take the school bus to school. He hadn’t ridden the school bus in two years, so he was annoyed about having to do it again.

As Erik stood at the stop, he saw the faces of the underclassmen. He got on the bus and made his way to the middle, never sitting too close to the front or the back. As he did, he noticed a girl he liked, Samantha Moon, who was only 17. She personally rode the bus due to it saving her money on gas, but she too was a senior in his class. She had bright red hair that was smooth, shiny, and well taken care of. Her makeup was on point, her eyes were attractive and she had the voice of an angel. But she didn’t know he existed, not anymore. They used to be friends as kids, back in elementary school. Since then, she grew to be popular and Erik suffered from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, making him not socially awkward, but hard to handle social situations.

As he sat down, he looked at her from behind, wanting to talk to her, but his heart started to race. He felt himself breathing heavier and heavier by the minute. That’s when she turned around from a friend she was talking to and glanced at him with a smile before turning back to her friend as if seeing who was looking at her.

The bus eventually arrived and the day went on as per normal. Erik attended his classes, learning about advanced mathematics, physics in AP honors, and going to the gym, where they played dodgeball.

The day went by and he went home, his mother was making dinner when he was upstairs doing homework. He had a final coming up and he had to study all night to be ready for it in the coming days. He didn’t mind it, he enjoyed his studies, he loved knowledge and hoped to one day do something of importance.

Suddenly, there was a shake of the house as he fell to the ground followed by a loud boom outside and a crash in his closet.

“Shit!” Suddenly he stopped panicking as he heard his mother opened the door.

“Dear, what in heaven’s name are you doing?!” She looked perplexed.

“I didn’t do it,” he shouted back.

His mother looked at him and assumed he must have dropped something, but had no idea what it might have been. “Just get dressed,” she told him.

He was left confused by the peculiar event as he stood up and walked over to the closet, sliding it open as he looked inside. He saw a hole in the roof leading outside, he looked down to a strange object on his pile of clothes, the object burning through them.

“What the hell?” He reached to touch it, instinctively curious but knew it must be hot. This did not stop him as he thought it must be some space object or something someone threw. Maybe it dropped from a plane, for all he knew.

As he touched it, he couldn’t feel the heat from it, however, he felt an odd tingling in his body as his very perception around him began to alter. The markings on what he assumed was a dinosaur egg of some kind moved and turned on the object before hastily moving up the arm making contact with it. This time he felt the heat, sizzling his skin as he cried out in anger and pain. Everything he looked at seemed to move away as if his perception was altered by this object. Everything was far away or elongated. All color had faded from reality, and as if time had stopped, no one seemed to come upstairs or call for him as he cried out in pain.

The markings wormed their way up to his right arm. As they burned into his arm looking all to the world like veins on his body, the symbol on the egg-like object began to spin rapidly as it faded and instead he found himself screaming out in pain as his right shoulder began to have an intense burning sensation. He ripped his shirt off to find the sun-like symbol burned onto his arm as he fell to his knees and passed out.



As Erik awoke, he found himself lying on the ground outside in some forest. The sounds of birds chirping, some very unnatural sounding to him. Nonetheless, he opened his eyes to see a bright blue sky above with some clouds and warm air flowing through the area like a nice spring or summer day. He rolled over on the grass and pushed himself up, finding his shirt gone, but he still had his pants on and no shoes. He looked at his arm to find the strange marking being in absentia, however, he saw the sun symbol on his right shoulder.

“Wh-what happened?”Erik looked around at the trees surrounding him, looking all to the world as a sea of trees. He stood up and felt his head begin to hurt, a powerful headache followed by his legs functioning like jelly. He placed his hands on a nearby tree to pull himself up as he looked around more. Where was he?

There was a sound of carts and wooden wheels moving along in the distance as Erik moved to investigate. Managing to barely walk, his legs getting stronger as he moved, he made his way through the bushes and peeked through, skeptical of his safety. As he looked, he witnessed a sight he was not prepared for.

There were large creatures, hulking with dark brown and green skin with dirty hair or bald. They also had armor on. They had medieval weapons in hand and were leading a cart with someone inside. There were two carts, one with humanoid felines. They looked like humans besides the cat ears and long nails. If he were to guess, they looked like some anime girl and boy that he often read about in manga.

The other cart came into view and he almost yelped in surprise. It was Samatha, and her shirt seemed to have been burned on the bottom where a symbol of a leaf or some sort of plant encased in a circle marking was burned directly onto her lower right abdomen.

“Samantha!” He quickly ran out trying to stop them, maybe these people thought she was a trespasser. As he ran out in front of the caravan of soldiers and shouted at them to stop with a plea of forgiveness for interfering.

“Wait, please!” Erik panted slightly. “I-I’m sorry, but I noticed you had someone in your cart that I know.”

“Who is this boy?” A guard asked. One man clad in silver and shiny armor walked forward and drew a wavy bladed sword. He looked Erik in the eyes then he eyed the marking through his blue bangs, his yellow eyes piercing through the skin and almost into the soul.

“He’s one of them, take him in,” the man said as he turned around.

“One of… I’m sorry, I don’t know who you people are!” Erik shouted.

The wavy sword was then swiftly pointed towards Erik’s neck as the man faced his right side towards Erik like an expert fighter. Erik was unsure what to do, he had never had a blade put to his throat before.

“You’re wanted by Lord Damon for the transgressions you have committed in Latrea,” the human man said as Erik felt the tip touch his neck, feeling a drop of blood begin to come out.

Latrea? That was not a state, country, or city Erik had ever heard of prior. Erik himself gritted his teeth, this could be some joke, right? He smacked the side of the blade away with his hand and stared at the man in the eyes.

“Just who the hell do you think you are?!” Erik bellowed loudly and defiantly. “I’m not role-playing some game, now let Samatha out!”

The man was stunned by the courage of this young man, but he had no time to waste on trivial matters. “No, I will not let her go, and you will be coming with me.”

Samatha watched on in the cage as she awoke from a daze, seeing her childhood friend Erik trying to get her out. What was going on? She stood up in the cage when suddenly a horn was blown in the distance. The sound of yelling could be heard as a horde of what appeared to be workers and regular civilians with tools and other assorted weapons appear. They charged in hastily.
“For Latrea!” They all shouted in unison as they charged the small caravan. The man in the armor and wavy sword flung his sword forward demanding his soldiers attack in response.
“Leave no survivors,” he shouted.

Erik leaped back as a crowd of people who looked nothing like soldiers dashed forward past him. A battle ensued as Erik was left perplexed and unsure of what to do. He quickly ran and shouldered the armored man to the ground and ran past him as he made a beeline dash for Samatha’s cage.
“Samatha,” Erik began. “Are you OK?” He looked for a way to open the cage but found no means to do it. He eyed her and then back to the cage, looking for something, anything to open the cage as he began to shake it violently.

As he attempted to break her out, the armored man stood up and looked for Erik, knowing he was a top priority. He could not afford to lose him to these village idiots. He turned towards Samatha’s cage and saw Erik trying to pry it open, but failing as he shook the cage. He quickly made haste towards Erik with the tip of his wavy blade dragging in the dirt, scaring the terra he walked on with ease. As he approached the two, he swung the blade towards Erik’s head.

“Duck!” Samatha shouted as she pulled him by his neck through the bars and pulled him down, they both watched the blade slammed into the bars, leaving a small cut in the metal pieces that caged the girl.

Erik got to his feet as the man walked ever closer. He was not sure what to do as the blade was raised above and brought swiftly down towards his head. Erik, scared for his life, his legs shaking and body sweating, raised one hand up and shouted, “leave me alone!”
Suddenly, as if by some uncommon magic, his hand was touched by the blade by a light formed at the palm as the fire blew out in a medium-sized explosion and sent the leader flying away.

“E… Erik?” Samatha asked stunned. The man lay on the ground trying to get back up as Erik looked through his other hand that he used to block the oncoming attack, shocked at what had just happened.

Some of the foot soldiers and many of the civilians that were attacking them looked on as the civilians began to chant and sheer, praising the young man. “It’s come true,” some said. They cheered again as their resolve grew exponentially. They began to drive the forces back as the armored man was surrounded by civilians. Erik, during all this, was shaking, his hands trembling as he looked at the hand that did the damage, smoke smoldering from his palm. Did he do that?
The new forces of civilians welding tools and makeshift weapons ran over as the hulking creatures ran off, surrounding Erik as a young man appeared with green eyes and purple hair. He knelt down before Erik as the others followed in kind.

“You have arrived, as prophesied.” The man looked up as Erik as a few began to work the cage, freeing the Neko people and Samatha. She herself walked over to Erik to check on him.

“Are you OK?” Erik nodded in response, still perplexed by the entire situation.

“Mhmm, yeah. Thanks, Samatha,” he told her with a smile, thanking her for saving his life a second ago.

“Come,” the young man with purple hair began, “you must follow us to the village. Neither of you are safe out here on the roads.”

Samatha and Erik agreed, nodding to the man as the civilian people, made of workers, farmers, and other types of people began to stand up and walk back. Erik and Samatha followed as they eventually came upon a village that looked to house roughly a few hundred people. The mountains in the distance were astonishingly beautiful, the sea of trees leaving them behind as they walked across a small creek and a river and officially entered the village.

The young man introduced himself to Erik and Samatha as they walked. “My name is Vulen Newt,” he began, “I’m in charge of the defenses for this village.” He smiled at them as he walked. He was the only one who looked like a genuine soldier, with silver armor and a fancy looking sword that had a red gem at the hilt. The man had pointed ears and a very youthful face. He could not be any older than 18 or 20.

“Where exactly are we?” Samatha asked. “And why are they after us?”
“Also,” Erik started, “who were those people?”

“In due time, for now, I think you should see the village elder, Hagred.” He led them to a building where the roof was covered in wood with stones on top to hold it together. He lifted the string of woven material acting as a door and ushered them in. Inside, the three walked in what was a small room with a fire at the center of it all. Vulen knelt to the ground like a soldier bowing before a king.
“Master Hagred, I have brought two of the chosen ones,” he said.

Behind another curtain, a shadow could be seen of an elder being. He walked out, showing himself. He had pointed ears and wrinkled old sin with a large mole on his nose. His eyes were purely white, like a blind man.

“Leave us, Vulen,” he said with a gruff voice. “You have done well, but the village needs you to help them out there. I will take care of things from here.”

Vulen seemed to be taken aback by the comment but needlessly lowered his head and replied: “As you command.” Vulen stood up and walked out, placing a hand on Erik’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you are here. You can find me five houses down after you’ve finished your talk with the elder.” With that, Vulen left as the sunlight from the curtain he pushed away faded, being covered once more. Only the light from the fire was left as the elder man sat down on his butt and crossed his legs. He was pouring tea when he offered some to the two young adults.

“Tea? It’s herbal, made from the finest flowers found on Mount Abby.”

Erik and Samatha looked at one another before taking the offer. They sat down as they looked at the man in the eyes.

“Who are you?” Samatha asked. “Why are we here and…” she was cut off.

“I will explain everything I can, young one,” Hagred replied with his hand raised up to silence Samatha. “First, tell me where you come from.”