I was an alien in a foreign place. Stranded. Alone. My own world had forgotten me. This place was oddly familiar yet distantly so. The language seemed to be close to my own native tongue so I attempted to engage one of the locals, to figure out where I was and how to get home. Surprisingly, I understood her directions, or so I thought.
I ended up lost in the woods. Surely, this must be where they send sacrificial offerings to their undoubtedly terrifying god-deities. Or maybe they eat my kind and I was sent to the slaughtering fields for harvesting and such. I eventually found my out, only to be standing in the EXACT SAME SPOT I had started in. Oh heavens.
Flummoxed and seeking accurate directions home, I decided to dash into what resembled a general store. The cashier-type-entity accepted the currency of my world, no questions asked. A refreshing swig of carbonated beverage (you know what they say: don’t drink the water!) helped me to contemplate my current predicament with clearer senses. I couldn’t understand it. I wasn’t that far away from home. In fact, the twinkling lights of my world’s cityscape were sparkling and dancing in the distance, calling to me like a beacon. My body felt the siren call of home. Every fiber of my being wanted to be there.
I tossed my beverage into a waste receptacle and plopped back into my small, sleek silver transporation device. There had to be a way back home. Well, that is, another way, as the portal by which I had originally travelled was no longer an option. So I summoned an Elder who was familiar with this land, one who wouldn’t scold me too much for being so far off mission. My dear friend chuckled at me and gave me the accurate directions I so desperately needed. As it turned out there was a very simple trick to getting myself back to where I came from, one that I had known all along but had forgotten in my panic.
As I headed down the pathway to my homeland, I glanced up at the portal from where I emerged into this land shook my head at the sign that posted at its now-defunct entrance,
“PROCTORVILLE BRIDGE CLOSED.”
I snaked and swooped and looped my way along the alternate route I had been given and once I found my way back into this Town of Hunting I breathed a sigh of relief and comfort. And prolly more than a lil coal dust.
Ahhhhh, home sweet home!
