Irrational Summoning

As we made our way to the village with the dusk sky lingering above us, we discussed the differences between our kingdoms. Strangely he seemed to accept my fate of randomly waking up in a field of a kingdom unknown to my part of the world. Even if my part of the world was fake his calm acceptance of my story almost made me feel like strange occurrences like mine happen all the time. "Say," I began, "Is the event that happened to me strange to you?"

Georgis looked deep in thought for a minute before responding, "Yes, strange it is. However, many wild events happen all the time through magic and potions, which are all similar to your own." 

"Magic and potions!" I blurted out in unbelief unable to keep a non-reactive profile. Do magic and potions really exist in this world? My head was racing with the sudden information that had been dumped onto me like a bucket of cold water. If magic could really exist in this world I had to wonder what other things were possible. With the sudden revelation, I realized absolutely anything could exist in this world. My mind wandered to a possibility that made my stomach churn with uneasiness. What if portals were a common occurrence and I had been summoned here? 

If I had been summoned here rather than this being a cruel trick of the gods to flip my life upside down, then to what end would I have been summoned, and why in an orchard of apple trees? It made zero logical sense. If I really had been summoned to this fantastical land why am I not with the summoner involved in any plan or scheme he has? 

Dwelling on these thoughts Georgis was staring at me the entire time. He seemed to give off a look that said I was a very strange fellow. " Is there no magic where you are from?" he asked me after my surprise at the phrase magic and potions.

" No, there is, it is simply we typically as a kingdom stay away from magic and do not usually get into such practices," I answered giving the safest response about magic I could give without revealing my lack of knowledge about it.

As we walked along the road dusk quickly turned to night and all the stars could be seen in the sky. "What is that!" I shouted in surprise looking and pointing up. Right above us, the biggest thing seen in the sky seemed to be a planet that appeared so close it looked as though I could just reach my hand up a little further and touch it. Based on how close this planet appeared there were two possible answers. 1 it was a ginormous planet the size of a sun and so looked extremely close, or 2 the planet was very close and right next to ours. 

Again, like before, Georgis gave a strange look at me shouting and pointing up above. His expression this time seemed to say why are you shouting at our never-changing sky? "Why are you so shocked over the demon world?" he asked me very confused over my sudden actions.

" Demon world?" I said a little frightened of just what that might entail.

"Yes, demon world," Georgis repeated. " Or I suppose that is what everyone calls it since the demon king and his people inhabit that world," he said adding on to how the planet seems to have got its name.

With the new information of a planet of demons in the sky right above me, my fear and intrigue of the world grew. " I suppose you know demons live there because they have been to this planet or people from this world have gone there?" I made an educated guess on the history of these two planets.

"You're correct about both. We have indeed warred with the demons in the past and are still very much on bad terms. However, we currently have no means of reaching each other as we have long ago lost the art of portal-making," 

"Portal-making huh," I whispered as a cold gust of wind blew across the landscape. The more I learned about this world the more I began to realize that a lot more than meets the eye is most likely going on behind the scenes in my summoning here. " But how come I can only see the planet at night?" I asked curiously recalling that during the day the sky was completely blue besides the suns. 

" Have you never seen the demon world from your kingdom before?" he asked me a little taken aback. 

Ah, yes the fabricated story that I live on this planet was still a belief held by him." No, actually we can't see the demon world from my kingdom because of where we are positioned. Our sky is always completely clouded over at night."

Georgis gave me quite an interesting look at just what kind of land I come from. "Your kingdom sounds like a unique place to live," he commented to me thinking over all the facts I told him of this made-up land. 

"The reason you can only see the demon planet at night is that the sunlight hitting our atmosphere blinds everything beyond our atmosphere from being seen," he said to me answering my initial question.

"Interesting," I commented softly learning that this looming planet is entirely masked during the day. In my mind, I thought about it deeply. I supposed that double the sunlight with a potentially different atmospheric makeup could cause such a blinding effect on the heavens above us. 

As I was thinking this the village came into view, and another gust of chilling wind hit me. The village was a fairly good size with about 12 public buildings surrounded by maybe 50 houses. The buildings seemed to be alive with the flashing lights shining out from behind their white and tanned colored walls. Moving forward taking in the landscape the dirt road turned to cobblestone under my feet. I could smell delicious food coming out of all the open windows. Joy and laughter seemed to be in the air as people moved about on the main road. 

Surveying the town, I observed that the people look exactly like the humans from my planet. "Welcome to the town of Billings," Georgis said to me as I was taking in the whole thing. 

Truly it seemed to be a beautiful, mild place to live away from the crazies of the world. And this planet seemed to have more crazies than I could ever imagine. "We are a town of simple craftsmen and farmers. We are not like the knights or people who practice magic. Everyone in this town is just trying to live as quietly and peaceably as possible," Georgis would say to me as we continued to walk to his property.

"Well, it certainly is a very nice-looking area to live in," I responded to Georgis. While we passed the center of town my stomach began to growl softly. I was quite hungry and tired after living two very long days in a row and not sleeping for a good 30 hours or so. 

"Are you hungry?" Georgis asked of me as he heard my stomach growl from beside me.

"Yes, I am," I replied instantly not being able to hide it. 

"Well, I'll say I am also hungry myself. Why not stop in the tavern just around the corner over there," he said pointing to the left of me where a road came to an end and merged into another. At the end of the road, I saw a sign that read The Billings Tavern.

"I would love to," I replied quickly hiding as much of my enthusiasm as I could. With that, we headed over to the tavern at a brisk pace ready to eat before heading to his house and my shack for the night. 

Standing in front of the tavern it was a quaint little building shouldered by a flower shop and bread-making shop on either side. It had nice large windows showing off the interior design and the people chatting happily inside. The actual building itself was made of an elegant dark brown oak that seemed to give off a welcoming vibe. Smoke rose out of the chimney sticking out of the hay-thatched roof and lively upbeat music that sounded a lot like "The Entertainer" was played inside. "What a cheerful little place," I spoke as we looked inside.

"Indeed is," Georgis said, "'Tis quite the favorite spot to hang out around here." 

"I can understand why," I responded mesmerized by the hypnotic vibe this place seemed to protrude. My hungry and tired body was drawn to go inside.

We walked up to the building and pushed open the doors. As we walked inside the crowd paid almost no attention to us. However, I did get a couple of interesting glances at my clothes. That was to be expected I guess as I was still in a full set of complete black pajamas. We found a nice place to sit down and waited to get food. When options for food came out, I decided to get a cut of the roasted duck while Georgis got a turkey leg. Looking at the options for food it was very similar to my own world with slight differences, probably accounting for a different variety of animals. 

After our food was ordered I took the time to observe the inside of the tavern. It was a bright place with a big chandelier hanging in the middle of the room. Instead of tons of different seating options, they had circular, wooden tables covering the main floor with hard wooden chairs that were surprisingly comfortable. The walls were decorated with beautifully painted pictures of many different landscapes. The smell of cooking meat took up every corner of the shop making your mouth water in anticipation to eat.

Lastly, though, the people, getting a better look up close none looked vastly different than the people in my world. However, people's sizes seemed to vary a bit more in this world. People of massive size could be seen in the tavern as well as people smaller than me. I imagined genetics could create more widespread results of characteristics here, which made sense since the survival needs are vastly different. But, besides any of that, the people seemed to be chatting away in banter showing their unity and connection to each other. I wondered if I would ever have such a connection to others as these people. Perhaps this planet was the reset I needed to gain experience in having relationships and changing myself for the better. Since do-overs don't come around often, I decided that I was going to grab this chance by the horns and develop my skills in making meaningful connections to others.