Running.

That’s what he felt his life was mostly composed of right now. Running with some dodging thrown in for fun and the occasional, but memorable, blood chilling moments of utter panic. He didn’t have one of those for what felt like a few minutes now, so he figured he was due a session of wetting his pants.

Not that he wore any. No, he arrived here dressed in his birthday suit, exposing his bits and pieces for all the world to see. Thankfully, there wasn’t much ‘world’ around, as in people, but there certainly were enough things wanting to get a closer look at him.

Yet, perhaps we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. This entire day started out quite normal. Our hero… for lack of a better word, did what he always did. He followed a general routine, with very few modifications.

Wake up, have breakfast. Cereal? Cereal. Check the news, end up scrolling mindlessly for a few minutes, remember nothing. Get your laptop ready, check battery. Full? Eh, almost. Mentally prepare yourself for the day’s courses. And the walk. Today’s building is half-way across campus. Last minute check. Forgot something? …the smell. Shower. Right, yes, very important. …damn it. Sight, grab phone, walk inside the bathroom. Phone, music. Get undressed. Pull the curtain way, turn on the water, pull the curtain back. Enjoy!

And that’s pretty much where the normal stopped. He was out of it enough that he noticed he stopped feeling the water on his skin a good few seconds after it happened. He opened his eyes, while mentally cursing his plumbing. And he finally noticed that the plumbing wasn’t the problem here. No, the room he was in seemed to be the problem. Since… it didn’t really resemble his bathroom, if he was being honest.

Nor did any bathroom, in the history of bathrooms, resemble this. He stood inside a chamber, almost as wide across as his bathroom, only the walls were lined with chiseled stones. The floor seemed to be made of marble. The ceiling… he didn’t see the ceiling, so he guessed it was quite high. And the only source of illumination came from a sconce on the farthest wall, holding what appeared to be a ball of light.

It was all quite unnatural. Therefore, he did what he considered normal when one found oneself in such situations, as it often happens. He panicked. A few minutes of screaming, begging and threatening no one in particular, our dearly beloved calmed himself down enough to suspect a high-level prank.

I mean, it had to be a prank. Right?

“Why else would it happen while I’m naked?” he asked out loud.

If asked, he would have said that he spoke like that so that, whoever was playing around, knew he was playing along. Truthfully, the sound of his own voice brought him a small measure of comfort. Small blessings.

Moving on ahead, he looked at the ball of light. It was yellowish, pale and pretty bright. Enough that he didn’t see the outer line of it perfectly.

“Is this one of those mag-lev things?”

The ball was levitating a couple of inches above the sconce.

Reaching out, he tenderly touched it.

Two things happened then. One was that he saw his fingers pass through it. That assured him it was a hologram. Whoever was playing this prank on him wasn’t pulling their punches.

The second thing was that a door materialized in one of the walls. Already having learned that this was all hologram based, he confidently moved towards it and kicked open the door.

“Brad, you asshole! I’ll be late for class just because you wanted to record a stupid prank and post… it…”

It should be said that whoever he thought was behind it all… wasn’t.

Instead, he got to see a suit of armor, taller than he was by quite a bit, staring down at him. Well, staring is a bit of a misnomer, since the thing’s visor was opened and there was nothing inside to do the staring.

There was also a long stone corridor behind the moving suit of armor. Too long to have been part of a prank. Lit up by the same holographic balls of light. Only… there weren’t holograms, were they?

I… might have made that up so I wouldn’t freak out.

Yet the suit of armor letting its visor drop and reaching for something on its back was an even bigger reason for a freak out.

“Uhm, please, w-what’s going on? Sir?” he asked, trying politeness as a last measure.

The armor stopped, seeing to consider his words. It didn’t freeze for long, apparently having decided on an appropriate answer as something on its back clicked and its hand came back grasping a really long axe… thingie.

Bardiche.

Him knowing that wasn’t something he would ever thank his choice in studies for, since it only served to terrify him.

The weapon came close to his throat and the armor’s other hand made a single gesture, pointing down the hall. Now, it must be said that our hero technically did comply. He went in the general direction the metal monster pointed. It’s just that… well. Appearing in a completely new setting that what you were used too… in what looked like a dungeon or castle or hollowed out mountain… and coming face to face with an armed, animated, suit of armor? That… really gets people into that fight or flight decision making process. And since his naked body was completely useless against a hulking metal man?

“Fuuuuuck!”

That is how our hero found himself running around hallways, trying to stay one step ahead of the now running suit of armor. It hadn’t been hard at first. The thing was heavy and slow. But every so often, he’d turn a corner or head down a flight of stair and suddenly, there it was. Another suit of armor.

Which just happened to jerk into motion while he passed it by and start chasing after him as well. His horror turned to simple fear after the fourth suit of armor did the same thing. Had he been in one of the dungeon-crawling games he loved so much, he would have found this incredibly amusing, in a ‘look at this idiot’ type of way, since the armors weren’t perfectly oiled and were causing a huge metallic ruckus while running in tandem.

No. Scratch that. Had he been playing one of those games, since, for all he knew, he really was in a game. Physically. And it didn’t look like he had any ‘Save’ button.

Wait… that’s it! I’m in a game!

“Save!” he yelled out.

Nothing happened. Well, a of things kept happening, like the armors continuing to run or his legs continuing to shake, but nothing new happened.

Shit.

“Menu!”

Still nothing.

“Data!”

“Cheat Codes!”

“Pause!”

“End Game!”

All that yelling took the wind out of him. Enough that the metallic posse drew closer. So, he did the only thing he could. He kept on running. See, he wasn’t much of a runner. Nor was he really into sports. Contact sports or otherwise. He was a ‘lover, not a fighter’, as he loved to say, not that he got much ‘loving’. Still, all this meant that his legs were getting tired. He had to do something… and fast.

Perhaps it was providence, perhaps it was coincidence or perhaps he actually was the hero of this… whatever. But no matter the case, he noticed something. While he had been running, he noticed irregular alcoves, set in the wall. Now, he didn’t think much of them, since they were pitch black. Darker than the walls around them.

But he noticed that for some time now, they kept getting lighter. Right now, after who knows how much time he had spent running, the background of those alcoves was even lighter than the walls. Could it be… could they actually be windows?

There’re no stars… which threw me off at first, but who says there have to be stars? I mean… if this is a different… world…

That last though made him dizzy, but he had to know. With a last dash of stamina, he pushed on and added a little more distance between himself and his chasers. Distance that would translate to time, once he stopped. And he would stop, the very next second he’d reach a new alco- window.

“There!” he exclaimed, seeing what he wanted and dashing for it.

Reaching it, he didn’t even stop to draw his breath. He simply pushed his hand into it and felt his eyes adjust. It was like he mentally switched from trying to focus on a near object to a far away one. It caused him some amount of confusion, which only increased when he thrusted his head inside the window and took it all in.

What he saw gave him pause. There was sky almost all the way around him. He had seen pictures taken from the top story of that skyscraper in Dubai and it still didn’t look halfway like it. He actually had to look down to see the horizon. Which was… not that far away, oddly enough.

Sea met air some distance away, but it looked like it was cut off. He could see the curvature of said horizon. That… yeah, saying it wasn’t normal just became repetitive.

So, I know two things. I’m really high up and… well, either this is a very small planet or this place is cut off from the wider world… somehow.

That last thing he noticed was after he looked straight down. The walls kept going down for what seemed to be forever, but he did notice that they stopped at some point. And the farther down he looked, the more the building seemed to widen. Its base had crenellations and towers. It stood on an island hardly larger than it itself was.

One more thing learned.

“Ha! Castle, not dungeon. Called it.” he grinned.

That was normally better, since a castle had less threats than a dungeon. In games. Which is where our hero seemed to have been transported. Of course, in games, whether you found yourself in castles or dungeons, you should always keep your wits about you.

Clonk!

Realizing he had spent too much time in one spot, he looked back and saw the suit of armor standing mere feet away from him, his bardiche implanted into the stone floor. Its buddies were right next to it, a menagerie of weapons on display.

“I’m not a threat.” He frightfully said. “Really. I have no idea how I got here.”

The armors just looked at him, without eyes and raised their weapons as one.

In so far as ways of dying went… yeah, no, this wasn’t good. I mean, sure, maybe that bardiche would behead him and get it over with quickly. Not likely, going by how it was angled. Or, maybe that war-hammer would crush his skull. Not as fast, but acceptable. But there was a spear there too. And a simple axe. And what looked to be a trident. The last weapons he thought was a morning-star, but double-headed.

And even after all that… there was still the whole dying business. Not great.

“Please?” he tried, raising his hands for an ill-fated attempt at shielding his face.

He felt the ‘whoosh’ of wind rush past him and heard voices. It wasn’t like before. He actually felt himself being transported this time, his inner ear telling him he was a right bastard and that he deserved not knowing which way was up.

Swaying, he collapsed in a heap. He had just managed to open his eyes again, when a cloth-like material landed on him, obstructing the light again.

“Cover yourself, lad!” a man’s voice sounded.

The murmur of voices increased in volume, and though still dizzy, he thought he heard… humor in their tones?

“Bri, take him easy!” a woman spoke hurriedly, her voice increasing in volume. “I was the one who brought him here. He was in the upper floors!”

The murmurs increased in volume yet again, while the man diplomatically answered.

“Bullshit!”

“I assure you, it’s a fact.”

While this happened, our disoriented fellow clothed himself. Since the fabric which landed on him wasn’t a simple piece of cloth, but a …robe, of sorts. Black, with grey edges. As soon as was fully covered again, he looked around himself.

He seemed to be in a great antechamber. Great as in impressive looking, but great as in huge too. The chamber was massive. It looked as if it had been sculpted out of a cave. An open set of doors stood on one end and through them you could see the docks and the sea. On the other end, another set of doors stood, only these were closed.

There were other details to take in too. Fireplaces set in the stone walls. Alcoves, real ones this time. Windows too. But a very important detail was the crowd of onlookers, standing not even fifty feet away from him. They were all wearing the same type of robe, only they had clothes underneath it too. Pants and shirts and skirts and what have you. And they were all staring, muttering or giggling.

Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.

“Lad, you alright?” the same man from before asked.

He looked at the man and noticed… he wasn’t exactly a man. In that, he was only half a man. And no, that wasn’t a sorry-ass type of insult. ‘Bri’ was half a man, standing on half a horse. A centaur, to be more exact. Somehow, this seemed to be even more shocking than the suits of armor.

At least the woman coming hot on his heels seemed to be human. He hoped.

“Kindness isn’t your strong suit, is it?” she asked, before turning to him. “Please excuse my colleague. And please excuse what happened as well, I assure you our spell-circles are usually nothing less than perfect.”

“Spell… circles?”

The woman gave the centaur a ‘get in here’ look and Bri stepped forward.

“My name is Brither, young man. I’m the |Student Advisor| here. This is Amnea, one of our best |Student Assistants|.” He said, while the woman muttered ‘the best’. “Could you tell us who you are?”

“Michael. Michael Becker. Why can I see the brackets in your titles?”

“The… brackets?” the man asked.

“Yeah.”

He gave Amnea the side eye.

“Do you know where you are?” she asked.

“A… castle?”

She eyed him sternly, like she expected him to laugh at a joke, before raising her eyebrows, looking concerned.

“Oh, no… Bri, I think he’s telling the truth.”

“This is a castle, Michael.” He said. “It’s also a magical academy. Does that ring any bell?”

Huh. Ok, so this isn’t a game, it’s a book. A fantasy one, I guess.

“Oh! Oh, yeah. I remember that.” He lied, hoping they didn’t call him out on it. “I just don’t remember… much else.”

“Well, you did land in the upper floors. Perhaps something there… we’ll see. For the moment, you look healthy. Please join your fellow students. We’ll keep a close eye on you, but first you must all pass through the opening ceremony.”

“Right. Got it.”

So saying, Michael got up and walked towards the group of staring busybodies. Which is when he started noticing something. They were both males and females, and these exact terms are used because there were of more than a single species. Michael preferred not to think of that right now.

Yet, with a few glaring exceptions, they all looked to be rather young. Like, not even adolescents. It was then that the thought struck him. Perhaps it was tiredness, perhaps it was fear. Perhaps it wasn’t real and he so dearly wished that it wasn’t. But he still thought it.

Wait. I’ve been magically transported into a fantasy world. In a magical castle. Where I’m about to join my ‘fellow students’. Who all look like they’ve yet to conquer puberty.

…

Oh, shit. This isn’t a fantasy book. This is a young adult one!