NOVEL WEB Chapter 2: Tellara
Brian
I awoke to the sound of surf crashing against the shore and the distinct taste of cheesesteak and sand in my mouth. My head was pounding like I’d just finished a back to back double shift and my body felt like I’d run a marathon. I opened my eyes slowly, rubbing them with my hand, and spitting out sand. The view that greeted me was one of a black sand beach with a brilliantly colored forest in the distance, all blues and greens and pinks. I panicked for a moment as I remembered how I got here and I started looking around for Lin. He had to be okay; I didn’t know what I would do if he was hurt. Stupid Brian, didn’t even think before dragging your best friend through a weird portal.
I stood up and started scanning the surroundings only to hear a soft groan from behind me. I turned around to see Lin sitting up and checking his glasses. He looked okay, which was good.
Lin caught my eye and smiled, putting his glasses back on. “I can’t believe this is real. I thought that portal might have been a hallucination or something, but we are really in another world, aren’t we?”
The wind picked up, carrying the salty scent of an ocean breeze intermixed with…berries and cinnamon perhaps, and blew Lin’s long hair this way and that. While he busied himself with tying it back, I found myself looking all around and taking in the strange new sights. The ocean seemed to glow with a soft cerulean light, a little like a glowstick. The light corresponding to swirls of that brighter color intermixed with the slightly deeper blue of a tropical sea, the swirls glittering as they crashed against the beach. I hesitantly reached down and dipped my hand into the wave, feeling a tingling sensation run up my arm and a little bit of my soreness seemed to fade. I thought I could hear the faintest sound of humming, a gentle melody at the edge of perception, but it faded as I tried to focus on it.
Shaking my hand to dry it, I looked back at the island to see a large mountain in the distance, a volcano maybe, covered in verdant green and blue foliage. Closer to the shore, there was a smaller hill ending in a sharp cliff with some kind of building perched atop it. The building was composed of some sort of bright white material, almost like pearl or seashell, and had an organic feel to it with gentle curves and rounded edges in a terraced dome shape. A tower of the same material, banded with veins of black, gracefully rose from the center of the dome, with spiraled branch-like shapes jutting from its surface and glowing, green flowers sprouting from the tips. The top of the tower held what looked like a beacon, a lighthouse, though it was dim in the noon day sun.
My eyes widened as I looked up, past the tower, and glimpsed the faded shapes of moons hanging in the sky, faint, but present. Seven moons of various colors, from the familiar white of Earth’s moon to cerulean, red, green, indigo, gold, and silver, sat in a glittering band in the sky, only partly obscured by puffy white clouds. I felt a mixture of excitement and fear as it really sunk in just how far from home we were now. But it would be okay, I wasn’t alone. This would be an adventure, and hadn’t I always wanted one of those? It beat closing out a retail shop while trying to explain to Mrs. Jefferson that shopping hours were over and she could come back tomorrow, gently ignoring her demands to speak to a manager.
I turned back to Lin, who was watching me with a curious expression, and I smiled as I patted his shoulder. “Yeah! We really are! I can’t believe it, it is almost too good to be true!” I took a deep breath, savoring the smells and the clean air. On a whim, I reached down and pulled off my shoes and socks before walking into the water and shivering with the pleasant tingling feeling running through my legs. “Lin, you’ve gotta try this, I don’t know what is up with the water here, but it feels amazing!”
He smiled back and joined me and I watched as some of the ocean glow ran up his arm as he dipped it in, making him chuckle. I yelped in surprise as he flung some of the water at me and I started splashing him back, the two of us laughing like we were kids again. I hadn’t felt this good in a long time. We eventually both sat down at the edge of the sea and watched some birds soar in the distance, their quartet of wings beating periodically as they rode the thermals.
Lin spoke up after a while. “I really like it here. Just you and me… finally free of that horrid little town and getting to see a wondrous new world. I don’t know how we got so lucky as to find that book, but I’m really happy about it. Who knows what this world is like, what kind of people we can be here… I’m eager to find out. Even this shore is so pleasant.”
I felt at peace for once in my life. Maybe it was the fact I was so far from home or the fact that I was with my best friend, but I felt like I could set aside a weight I always carried and simply be myself for a while. “It really is. I know we should probably explore, find shelter, something… but if I’m being really honest… I just want to sit here for a while, with my best bro, like we used to do.”
I turned to look at Lin just in time to see him wincing before he caught me staring and gave me a weak smile. Wriggling his toes in the black sand, he responded in a quiet voice. “I missed those days. And I am really glad to be here.” He looked up at the sky, his gaze thoughtful. “I don’t know how long the days are here, but it looks to be about mid-day, I think we’ve got some time before shelter is a concern. There is also that building up on the hill, it couldn't be too hard to reach, right?”
My eyes felt heavy as I laid back on the beach, mumbling my response. “Yeah, it’s…probably fine…to rest a little bit. Haven’t really rested in so long, it’s nice.” The sun was pleasantly warm, but not too hot, with the ocean breeze cooling everything down and making me drowsier and drowsier. Not the most glorious start to a grand adventure, but somehow it felt right.
****
The sound of water in my ears and the heavy thud of something nearby pulled me out of my nap, shredding the remnants of a dream I was having where I had figured something out… something to do with Lin perhaps? And it was important that I tell him; I remembered that, but the details frayed as I tried to grasp them. The thudding intensified, getting closer. I opened my eyes, noting that the tide had come in and the two of us were partly submerged in the shallow waves. That pleasant sound and tingling sensation was present, but subdued. My limbs felt light and I was invigorated by the short rest.
Lin was still sleeping and I turned away from him to look at the source of the thuds. A large glowing mass plodded towards me, its scarlet flesh shimmering in the evening gloom with black, jagged striations surging through its body like the beat of a heart. It was the size of a dog, one of the bigger breeds, and seemed to shift through various shapes as it moved, forming limbs to walk only to absorb them back after taking a step. Within the center of the creature’s form, there was a round black orb that was covered in six white spots that moved to and fro, eyes tracking the surroundings. The orb pulsed the striations out like the beat of a heart.
Something about the creature felt wrong, a little part of my mind gibbering in primal fear as I looked upon a thing which should not exist. The thought came from nowhere, yet felt right; I just knew it somehow. We needed to run, and soon; it was getting closer and I didn’t want to see what would happen when it reached us. I grabbed Lin and pulled him up, shaking him to wake him up. He murmured and tried to slide out of my grasp and back to sleep, but I kept shaking him as I pulled his arm around my shoulder and started to walk us away from the creature.
It kept its slow, menacing pace, seemingly unaware of our movements. Lin stirred a bit as we limped along, moving slowly since he was taller than me and I wasn’t the strongest guy around. His eyes opened hesitantly and he reached his other hand up to wipe the sleep from them as he struggled to focus.
“Brian? Wha– what’s going on? I was having the most pleasant dream… you were there and something was different, but you were so happy and kept saying nice things about my dress–”
Oh jeez, he was really out of it. Lin had always been a heavy sleeper and it took him ages to wake up. The creature had reached the depressions in the sand where we had been sleeping, little tendrils forming from its body and probing around, following the trail we were leaving. Its eyes narrowed and a surge of striations emanated from the core as it reshaped into a sleeker, dangerous form, almost like a wolf. The core sat in the center of its ‘head’, white eye spots glaring with hunger and malice.
Shit, I needed Lin to be awake now… c’mon, Brian, think! Maybe splashing some water on his face would work, but did I have time? A sharp sting in my leg alerted me that I definitely did not have time, as I fell to the ground with Lin rolling out of my grasp. I looked back to see the creature had wrapped a tendril around my foot and begun pulsing with an eerie light, the sensation in my foot feeling like a painful mirror of the ocean-water tingling. My entire leg started to feel a little numb, like it was falling asleep. This was bad, this was really bad.
The creature continued to slowly approach, other tendrils reaching out to grab Lin and myself. I reached down and tried to pull the tendril off, but grabbing the smooth surface increased the painful feeling and numbness. Some kind of toxic secretion? I looked around, trying to find something to use as a weapon, but the beach was clear of any driftwood or rocks, just sand as far as I could see.
“What the fuck is that?!” Lin’s voice was groggy with sleep.
“G’mornin, Lin, so nice of you to join us. Me and the little beasty back there are just having a nice chat. They noticed we just moved into the neighborhood and wanted to get to know us.”
“Sarcasm, really, Brian? Hold on, I’ll get you free, just hold on.” Lin scrambled back from the tendrils and pulled a taser out of his pocket. Where the hell did he get that?
I clawed at the ground, trying to get away as he dodged and wove his way through the beast’s appendages, jabbing his taser into the monster’s head. The monster shuddered and its glow intensified as it grabbed the taser with newly formed claws and devoured it with its toothy maw.
“Oh no, I think this fucker might eat electricity! Shit, shit, what do I do, what do I do?” Lin backed away as the creature writhed with delight, sparks shooting from the taser still visible in its translucent flesh. He fell to the ground as the creature smashed him with a series of tendrils, the sound of breaking bone echoing loudly through the quiet beach. The tendril holding my leg loosened and I was able to get free and pull Lin away as that faint humming noise reached my ears again. I frowned and looked down; I wasn’t in the water, so where–?
A faint cerulean glow surrounded the monster, growing in intensity, as pillars of sand rose up and encased it in a smooth dome. The dome shimmered and the sand turned to crystalline glass, revealing the monster wrapped in white, silken bonds. I stared in confusion, my leg and arms feeling increasingly numb and my thoughts wrapped in a growing fog.
A soft voice speaking unfamiliar, soothing words reached my ears as I felt myself gently picked up. A smiling face framed in silver hair appeared in front of me and it was the last thing I saw as unconsciousness claimed me.
****
Soft purple light greeted me as I came to. Had I crashed at Joe’s again? His sister was fond of that pink and purple LED lighting trend…I forget what it is called. Lin would probably like it; he was always trying weird decorations out back when we shared a dorm room. Hmm, if I crashed at Joe’s, I should be more tired than this…I felt pretty good actually.
My eyes finally started to focus and I gazed up on a pearly white ceiling strung with silken threads from which purple, glowing crystals hung. As I looked around, I noticed intricate circles and symbols decorated the ceiling and walls. I was laying on a comfortable table, like a doctor’s table, and I was missing my sweater. I felt a little naked without it, though I was otherwise fully clothed. Guess I wasn’t at Joe’s. Sitting up, I noticed a sink nearby, jutting out from the walls. I stumbled over and fiddled with the taps until I was rewarded with a gentle stream of warm water, which I used to wash my face and clear my head.
It was all coming back to me: the portal, relaxing with Lin, the weird monster, our mysterious savior…the last being the one who presumably brought us here. I checked all over for any injuries, but I appeared unharmed save for a slight discoloration on my arms that faded even as I watched. Looking around the rest of the room, I marveled at how familiar yet strange this place was. I appeared to be in some kind of medical examination room, one that wouldn’t look out of place back home, apart from the bizarre decorations. I noticed a doorway covered in a soft purple curtain and, peeking through, I was rewarded with a large, comfortable looking room with gently curving white walls and a shallow pit in the center, covered in comfortable cushions. Glittering onyx slates were stacked in depressions along the walls (this world’s versions of books, perhaps?) and there was another doorway, this time with a sliding door that was slightly ajar, through which I could glimpse a bathroom. A guest room, for long term patients… that’s the vibe I got from this room. Familiar, yet strange.
The whole place felt a little like those projections of the future that you would see in old magazines, from a few decades back. Predictions made right before radical new technology emerged, so while some things would look futuristic, there was a retro vibe woven throughout. The effect of this place had me feeling oddly at peace. After all, it was strange, but traveling to a new world was always going to be strange. I was sure that any minute now, some kindly old woman would walk through the door–hang on, no door out…how did I get in here? Well, no matter, she’d appear and declare that Lin and I are the heroes they’ve been waiting for to save the world from the mighty demon king or something. I let out a soft chuckle. Lin would give me such a stern look if he knew what I was thinking. Reading a bunch of fantasy novels as a kid did not make one an authority on other worlds, he would say.
I sat down on one of the piles of cushions as I waited to see if anyone had noticed that I was awake again. Hopefully Lin was waiting for me in another room; I was a little worried after hearing those awful sounds when he got hit. Did this world have medicine? Healing magic, perhaps? They had running water, which implied some level of technology, I guess. A wisp of a memory flickered through my mind, Ms. Lavender’s voice bemusedly telling me that running water and interior plumbing was a far older piece of technology than most would assume.
She sure did teach us all sorts of interesting little facts, back then. Also teased me a lot about how frequently my mind wandered. Not like I could help it, I could focus on things if they were interesting, like the stuff she would show us, but schoolwork? Stuff like that? Slipped past my mind so easily.
I was startled from my thoughts by that soft, melodic voice speaking to me again, though I still couldn’t understand any of it. Looking up, I couldn’t see anyone in front of me and I wondered where it had come from before I nearly jumped out of my skin at the feeling of someone tapping me on the shoulder.
Turning around, I had to stop myself from jumping again. Before me stood a pale, silver-haired woman, slightly shorter than myself, with vivid red eyes (a set of human ones and two more pairs on her brow), and four arachnid legs emerging from her back, the black carapace glittering in the soft purple light. Her human arms were clad in similar carapace up to her elbow and what I could see of her legs showed carapace there as well.
She waited patiently as I took in her appearance, feeling oddly distracted for a moment as I marveled at the intricate silver designs on her black dress and the beautiful moon and teardrop necklace she wore. I gathered up my courage and waved my hand, hesitantly. “Hello, are you the one who saved us on the beach?”
The woman tilted her head to the side, pondering, before responding with a stream of unfamiliar words. Noting my confusion, she walked over to one of the shelves in a smooth, gliding motion, her steps incredibly graceful. Pushing the onyx slates aside, she pulled out a slightly worn paper pamphlet and handed it to me.
I was startled to find that the pamphlet was in English of all things. It informed me that the world I had been transported to was known as Tellara, same as the book. The pamphlet encouraged me not to panic and to trust the locals, as Tellara was familiar with otherworlders like myself, and that the language barrier could be overcome with a bit of magic. I noticed the spider woman watching me as I read through, nodding as I looked up and pointed to the section about translation magic. She poked at another spot on the pamphlet with one of her extra limbs and I read through a section that talked about needing clear consent to perform such magic.
I’d already eagerly jumped into a portal because a mysterious woman asked me to. What was a bit of mystery magic in the face of that? Hell, it was magic! Who wouldn’t leap at the chance? I pointed at the section and back at myself, indicating my consent in the fashion the pamphlet recommended. The woman smiled at me and stepped back, her eyes glowing with a soft blue light as her arms wove through various patterns, a sigil of cerulean energy forming before me. The sigil floated gently towards my head and I felt a soothing coolness spread out from my forehead. I shivered in response as the symbols throughout the room started to make sense. I couldn’t read them, per se, but glancing at them let their meanings become clear.
“There we are; now we can communicate. Welcome to Tellara, Brian. I am Ellya, a doctor and researcher.” She gave me a gentle smile, her eyes closing in unison.
“How…how do you know my name?”
“Your friend woke up a little before you did and we’ve been having a lovely chat. I’m sure you have many questions for me. How about we join your friend and I can give you two a proper welcome to Tellara?”
I nodded and followed Ellya over to one of the curved walls, watching as she waved her hand over a section, making it shimmer and vanish, opening to a hallway that led into a large, circular room. Crystalline skylights allowed the light of the moons to filter into room, casting everything in soft rainbow hues. Lin was seated on a couch inset into the floor, similar to the pit in the room I had been in before. A table in front of him held small cups of steaming liquid and bright-colored sliced fruits on a little tray. I sat down next to him as Ellya sat down across from us and took up one of the cups, breathing in the fumes with a contented sigh.
I leaned over to whisper to Lin. “How are you holding up? Are your ribs hurting? You got hit pretty hard back there, on the beach.”
He responded with a reassuring smile. “I’m okay, whatever this lady did to fix me up worked like a charm. I could have sworn I had broken ribs, but I feel fine now… just a little sore.”
I nodded and sat back, waiting for Ellya to speak.
She took a brief sip from her cup before motioning for us to try it ourselves. “It has been a while since any otherworlders have shown up, but I hope our understanding of you is not too out of date. Travelers from Earth aren’t common, but they do show up regularly enough that education about them is a part of our curriculums. Particularly if you are a doctor like myself.”
Lin looked down at his drink before taking a tentative sip. His eyes lit up and he took another sip, looking over at me. “Wow, this is pretty good!”
I took a little drink and was rewarded with the taste of hot chocolate mixed with cinnamon, or something like it. “You’re right, this is delicious!” I looked back at Ellya. “So, this world… I don’t even know where to begin to ask questions. I suppose the first question would be… is everyone here like you, Ellya?”
She tilted her head. “Like me? Human, you mean?”
“Erm, maybe the translation thing you did isn’t working quite right. Lin and I, we’re human, but you’ve got a few… key differences from us. Does human mean something else on Tellara?” I felt nervous, hoping that I wasn’t being incredibly insulting to our host.
Ellya took another sip as she looked at me and at Lin, her eyes fixed in an unreadable expression. Running her hand over one of her spider limbs, she chuckled softly. “Ah, I understand now. To answer your question, no, I don’t mean something different when I say human. The key differences, as you put it, that I have compared to you two are not something I was born with, but something I became. There are but one people on Tellara. Humanity. We all begin looking similar to you, though there is a vast ocean of diversity in that origin. But, as you’ll find, many Tellarans do not remain unchanged from what they were born with.” Lin fidgeted a bit next to me as she continued. “I am a Daughter of Sharlat, a mage in the tradition of spiderfolk, transformed by my arts and service. My extra limbs and eyes, my silver hair, all of these are marks shared among my sisters. There are many mages in this world, wielders of old magic from the time before the Cataclysm.” She paused, letting her words sink in. “My apologies, this all must be a lot to take in. It is difficult to know where to begin, to know how to explain things. Perhaps it is better to let you ask the questions, guide the discussion. Otherwise I’ll ramble on tangents for hours if you let me.”
My mind struggled to parse everything. Mages… spider folk… a Cataclysm… what a wondrous place. And the way she emphasized old magic, implying there was a new form of magic?
Lin spoke up, quietly. “You said you were transformed by becoming a mage. Is… is that something that sets you apart from other Tellarans? Do they treat you differently?”
Ellya thought for a moment before responding. “I think I know what you are asking, based on my readings of Earth lore. Yours is a world of conflict, of discord among its various peoples. When I say that Tellara has only one people, I mean it. We do not view changes or differences among us as a point of division, but something to be celebrated. It was not always this way: our world was much like yours for most of its history. But the Cataclysm shattered the old ways and those who survived realized that we are stronger together than we are apart. Make no mistake, our unity is not perfect and disagreements happen. But our conflicts tend to be those of ideas and actions rather than who or what we are.” She speared a fruit slice and nibbled on it for a moment before continuing. “To be more specific, mages such as myself are treated with respect for our service. To become a mage is to be changed in a fashion you do not entirely control. Bodily autonomy is a sacred concept on Tellara and the willingness to trust in old magic to reshape yourself is respected as a noble sacrifice. Mages serve society, wielding magic that no others can, and provide a variety of benefits to our people. The marks of my service are celebrated and I can expect kindness no matter where I travel. Especially as a Daughter of Sharlat; our order is ancient and revered for our work.”
I ate a slice of something orange (it was sweet and salty and tasted a little like a blueberry, which definitely messed with my head a bit) as Lin looked over at me and back at Ellya. “I… I have a specific question for you, about Tellaran culture… could I speak to you privately, Ellya?”
Fear coiled around my spine as Ellya nodded and the two of them stood up and walked over a little ways away and continued to talk in hushed tones. What did Lin want to talk about that he couldn’t talk about in front of me? I sipped my drink, letting the warmth of the beverage calm me as I decided to reflect on what Ellya had told us already. A world united…what a wonderful thing. It sounded a little too good to be true, but if there really had been a world shattering event in recent memory, it made sense that everyone would be more inclined to band together than stand apart. Well, I suppose it was equally as probable that something like that would drive people into warring groups. Still, maybe the Tellarans were more inclined to cooperation than us.
I ate another of the mystery fruits as I watched the two of them talk, Lin’s face shifting from extreme nervousness to absolute joy. Suddenly Ellya hugged him and spoke in a louder voice.
“Oh! Gwen! It is so nice to meet you! I’m so happy to welcome a fellow sister to our world.”
Lin returned the hug, tears falling on Ellya’s shoulder.
What. What the hell?! The cup slipped from my hand and shattered as it hit the ground. My best friend looked over at me, happiness turning to fear at my reaction. What was going on? Sister??
