Manan sighed as a particularly cold wind blew past him, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He was glad he was on his way back to the house; it was getting chillier with every passing moment. He had gone out for a short run, too frustrated to deal with his cousins visiting them for the holidays. It wasn't like he hated the holidays; in fact, he loved them. However, he didn't always enjoy the ones he spent it with, who kept bickering and involving him in it. By now he figured they would be done with their arguing and be onto whatever else catches their interest.
He crossed the street, making sure to go slower than normal. Even if they weren't arguing, it wouldn't hurt to walk leisurely. He was only three minutes away from being at his house, after all. In the meantime, he took in his surroundings, allowing himself to succumb to the peacefulness.
Each of them would feel a strange tug in their stomachs, like there was a hook attached to their belly buttons and it was being pulled. Everything would go gray, and then they would appear on top of a mountain. There wouldn't be any familiar landmarks, and they would all be wearing strange clothes, like robes and armour combined.
Ember yelped and then glanced around him, surprised. He instinctively drew two of his knives and looked around. A chill breeze echoed out the mountaintops, and he looked out to find that mist and clouds blocked his view. He grabbed for his scarf only to find it had been replaced by robes with armor attachments. It was like one from the Middle Ages, or whatever.
Three others were next to him. He singled out one of them. "Who did this?"
Sid halted mid-step once he felt the tug, and then suddenly all was grey. And then it wasn’t. But this wasn’t his city. This was.. a mountain. What the fuck. His clothes were odd, weirdly medieval and.. peasant-y. Major Ren Faire vibes.
“Dude, where the hell am I, like?” He sat up, rubbing his eyes. He whipped around to meet the other person’s voice. His voice had a thick Irish accent to it. “What, you think I had somethin’ ta do with this?” He would’ve gotten up, but his long legs felt about as sturdy as coffee stirrers.
Manan froze as the world became grey around him, though before he could do anything else it was all gone. Gasping, he looked around, only to see he was on a mountain. There was no sign of where he previously was. Not to mention he was also in strange light and ragged clothes with armor.
He turned as he heard voices, noticing others who had similar clothing as he did. “Oh no. No, no, no, this can’t be happening, not now,” he buried his hands into his hair, groaning. “This is bad.”
Glancing at the others, he asked warily, “Who are you all? Do you know what’s happening?
Ember glanced around again, and then sheathed his knives. "Not telling you that." He started to go down one path but then paused. He tried to trace a way down the mountain, but there were patches of smooth rock that would prove impossible to keep foot on.
He looked around once more, and now he found a better path to head down. Starting down the rocky slope, he said, "I'm getting out of here is what's happening."
When Adrielle appeared, she was startled. She shook her head, confused. What was going on? But when she saw the four other people around her, she snorted. Of course she would be stuck in a strange place with complete strangers. .It was just her luck.
She shook her head. "If he's not telling you his name, maybe he really knows where we are." She spoke to the other two, her voice quiet, but cold. "I, for one, have no idea where the fuck we are, but we should probably find shelter somewhere. You never know, come night time, it could be dangerous." She shrugged,
Ember muttered a curse under his breath. "Get out of here." He started the long trek down to the bottom of the mountain. "You don't want to be caught in that snowstorm at the top of a mountain." He pointed up to the west, where clouds were brewing and moving slowly towards them.
"How do you know it's a snowstorm? Maybe it's a thunderstorm," Adrielle challenged. Something about this guy pricked at her, in a way she didn't like at all.
"We're on top of a fucking mountain. You don't think that water will freeze up here?" He slid down a few more feet, controlling his descent with his hands so he wouldn't fall off.
"It's not that cold," she said, rolling her eyes. She waved mockingly down to him, and turned to the other two, the nicer two. "What do you two want to do?"
“Nah, boy, he’s right. Mountains get too cold, like. We’ll be freezin’ if we stay up here.” Sid got to his feet, stumbling slightly. “Don’t matter what those clouds are, they’re bad news, you know?”
He shrugged, running his fingers over his buzzed hair. “Ehh- maybe he coulda phrased it nicer, like, but I think maybe he’s right.” He rubbed the dried blood from his nose, watching it flake off. “Also, what’re your names? Jus’ wanna know who I’m stuck with.”
“Yeah, we should find a way to get to lower ground,” he told them, eyeing the rocky trail nervously; he didn’t like the thought of going down that. “And I’m Manan. I don’t know why or how we’re here, but I’m going to do my best for everything to go back to normal.”
“Ditto. I’m Sid. Nice to meet’cha, boy.” Sid nodded to Manan, then taking a moment to look for other possible paths down the mountain. “Eh- it looks like we’ll be takin’ that path down, I think, unless any of you kids are wantin’ to go rock climbin’ today.”
"No, no, I'm good," Manan said quickly, cringing at the thought of rock climbing. Regaining his composure, he continued, "We'll have to careful though. Doesn't look entirely stable."
"Do you not like climbing?" Adrielle asked, tilting her head curiously. "That's sad." She shrugged. "Well, I'll do whatever you guys do, as long as I'm not stuck with him." She made a face at the first guy who had spoken. "I'm Adrielle, by the way."
"I'm not the best at it— usually end up getting hurt," Manan admitted, smiling sheepishly. "A pleasure to meet you all though. Would've preferred it to be in a different situation, but eh." He crossed his arms, looking to his two new acquaintances. "So, we're in agreement to taking this way down?"
Sid shook his head. “I never tried climbing, like, but I know it's not my bag.” He looked over at Manan when he asked his own question. “I think so, yeh.” Sid took a few tentative steps towards the pathway, watching Ember’s descent. “Let him finish goin’ first. See what we’re gonna be workin’ with in terms of safety.”
Ember looked at the stretch down below him. He could see that there was a lot of loose dirt and rocks; not good. He took a single step and moved it forward. There was no resistance. Fortunately, loose dirt would hold his support if they went deep enough. He pulled out two of his daggers and stabbed them both into the top part, wincing at the noise. it would take forever to get them cleaned, but it was worth it.
Lowering himself down, he grabbed the two hilts and slid on his stomach down to beneath his daggers. Now, with great effort, he pulled one out and put it back into the soil, slightly lower this time. Then he did the same with the other.
"Showoff." Adrielle snorted. "Seriously, why does he get daggers? Well, and you," she said, nodding her head to Manan, whose strange clothes held a variety of weapons. "Why don't we get weapons? It's not fair."
"Because some people actually use them." Ember reached the bottom of the loose patch and cleaned each knife quickly with a wipe down and then continued the trek downward. There was a narrow path between the cliff face and the edge, and he shuffled along with it, making sure that he was ready to hold himself steady if need be.
"Don't look at me, I don't know," Manan threw his hands up, then paused as he considered it. "Maybe we need it more for some reason?" He checked out his outfit, noting the placements of the weapons. "Either way, I feel pretty great right now."
“Aye, no, I agree wit’ her. Adrielle. Neither of us are armed, isn’t that a bit weird or somethin’?” Sid shuffled his feet a little, eyeing the slope. He paused to consider Manan’s words. “Maybe. Are either of you lads trained in ‘em? No use havin’ a weapon you can’t use, like.”
"Yeah." Ember looked up at them. "You guys should really start moving."
"I'm trained in some of them, but not all," Manan admitted. He looked off toward the pathway, taking a few steps onto the path and testing it. "It seems pretty stable so far," he told the others.
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