ROBIN WASN’T SURE how to comfort the girl, nor did he really think it was his place. Still, he wasn’t about to wander off into the woods alone again, so he decided to give her some time and sat down to wait, resting his back against the stone altar.

It didn’t take long for the sniffling to stop, but it was some time before she deigned to speak to him. Then, all the questions seemed to burst out of her at once. “What happened? Who are you? How did you get here? Do you know the date? Why are you naked?”

Robin stood up with a grunt, dusting the dirt off his ass and turning to face the girl. She kept her eyes firmly planted above his waistline, though whether that was out of respect or embarrassment was hard to say.

“Robin Sinclair.” He offered a hand, which she eyed with a healthy dose of suspicion and pointedly chose not to grasp. He rescinded the offer with a shrug. “No idea what happened, how I got here, or where here is. No idea what the date is. No idea why I’m naked. You?”

She just sat there for a minute, staring at him. “I don’t care for your sense of humor,” she said, finally.

Robin chuckled. “You’re not the first person to tell me that. But I’m not joking. In fact, if you could point me to the nearest… uh… civilization, that would be great.”

She stared a little longer before shaking her head and shuffling to the edge of the stone altar. Her hand slipped before she could slide off, sending her tumbling face forward to the dirt. Robin reacted quickly, plucking her out of the air with surprising ease, setting her down on her feet. She was much lighter than he’d expected.

The girl stood directly in front of him, craning her neck up, the top of her head barely reaching the middle of his chest. She must’ve been in her late teens or early twenties—around the same age as him—which he supposed made her more of a woman than a girl, really.

“…Thank you,” she said, quietly, and moved to walk around him. It was clear she intended to leave him and the clearing, behind. Though when she realized he was following, she stopped. “It’s dangerous here,” she said. “You should go back to wherever it is you came from.”

Robin laughed. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”

She nodded, possibly missing the sarcasm lacing his tone, and continued on her way. A few minutes later Robin let out a mumbled curse as he stepped on a particularly sharp branch, and she whipped around, somehow surprised to find him there.

“You’re still…?”

Robin sent her a baffled look while he balanced on one foot, nursing the other in his hands. “What? I assume you at least have an idea of where you’re going. That’s a hell of a lot better than what I’ve got.”

“Ridiculous,” she scoffed. “You expect me to believe you bumbled your way in here?”

“Honestly… I don’t really care what you believe.” His eyes scanned their surroundings, still seeing nothing but trees and more trees. “But I’m not interested in freezing to death or being eaten by bears or something. So if you don’t mind, I’m just going to follow you for awhile.”

“There are no bears in the—” She paused, shaking her head with a sigh. “Never mind. Do as you wish.”

“I will, thanks.”

With that, the nameless girl marched ahead through the brush while Robin gingerly followed behind. Some time later, the trees began to thin, indicating they’d reached the edge of the forest. Beyond was a rocky crag that blocked much of his view, a stone wall that spanned as far as Robin could see in both directions. It rose high above, extending until it blended with the darkness of night, becoming indistinguishable from the inky black void.

The girl paused for a time at the edge of the woods, tilting her head curiously at the surroundings before continuing her course, following a winding path leading through the crag. Unfortunately, the path was even less kind to Robin’s feet than the forest floor, and finding shoes quickly became one of his highest priorities.

The girl’s determined gait seemed to quickly falter in the face of the rough trail, however, and soon enough Robin turned a corner to find her resting with her back against the crag wall, sucking in deep breaths. He took a seat across from her, still nearby but hopefully far enough she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. Well, any more uncomfortable than she likely already did being followed by a strange, naked man. It was a wonder she hadn’t ran screaming, really.

She shot him furtive glances every now and then while she caught her breath, but averted her eyes quickly each time. Robin tried not to smirk as he very deliberately crossed his legs. That did seem to help her relax a little, though Robin found himself thankful there weren’t any cops around to arrest him for public indecency.

“So… where we headed?” Robin asked.

The girl risked a glance back at him, automatically gazing at his lower half before quickly flicking her eyes upward. “…Tarthos, of course. Where else?”

“Tarthos… of course.” His voice was flat. “You gonna make it?”

“I’ll be fine,” she huffed. “I just… haven’t moved in awhile.”

“I get it,” he nodded. “I’ve woken up in some pretty strange places too. Must’ve been a wild night.”

“What does that mean?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nothing, nothing,” he laughed, holding up his hands. “Don’t worry about it.”

The girl narrowed her eyes. “Well now you’ve gone and piqued my interest. Tell me.”

“Listen,” Robin began, shaking his head. “Explaining a joke takes all the fun out of it. You’ll understand when you’re older.”

“More of your humor then,” she said, shaking her head. “In poor taste, considering the circumstances.”

That was fair. Unfortunately for her, humor was a good buffer between him and having to think too deeply about whatever the hell was going on—especially when he’d yet to find a pair of pants. Still, her demeanor and tone were giving off serious end of days vibes, making it rather difficult to avoid facing the truth… he had no idea what the hell was going on.

Robin let out a long, heavy sigh. “And those circumstances would be…?”

The girl scowled and leapt to her feet, startling him. “Do you take me for a fool? Did you not see the mad titan free of his bonds, just as I? Why, I’m quite certain you couldn’t have missed him flying right over our heads! The seal has failed! I have failed!” After her small outburst, she plopped down again, dropping her head in her hands in defeat.

Well, that didn’t sound good. In hindsight, the giant flying lizard did seem like a bad omen... it was just one of those things that was too far outside of the norm to truly process. At least until he had a minute to stop and think.

Apparently, time was up.

“So when you say mad,” Robin raised both hands, holding them out in front of him like a scale. “Are we talking unresolved anger issues… or unresolved insanity issues?”

That earned him an exasperated look. “Does it matter?”

“I don’t know,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Does it?”

She pressed her face into her hands again, rubbing circles on her brow. “…Talking with you is infuriating.”

Robin smiled. “You’re not the first person to tell me that, either.”

His new friend reached her limit for his shit and climbed to her feet, setting off on the path once more.

“Hey,” he called after her, moving to catch up. “What’s your name?”

With a twist of her hips, she glanced back at him while she walked. “…Medea.”

“Huh. What is that, Greek?”

“Medea of Tarthos,” she clarified. “I am unfamiliar with Greek.” The look on her face indicated she was perfectly serious.

Robin opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it. Until that point, he’d been trying hard not to let his mind take him straight to fantasy-land, but the evidence was starting to mount up, and it was getting harder and harder to deny the fact that some weird shit was going on.

“Possibly a silly question,” Robin said, feeling like an idiot. “But I feel the need to ask… what planet is this, exactly?”

Medea’s violet orbs bored into his own, giving him another chance to inspect the ethereal symbols engraved beneath the surface. Spooky. “More of your humor?”

Robin frowned. “Not this time.”

She paused for a moment to contemplate his words, then shook her head. “I will answer your question, though it make me a fool. This star is called Gaia,” she said, eventually.

The crag walls suddenly seemed so very suffocating.

Gaia.

What were the odds she was talking about Earth? He’d heard the word in association with Earth before, but whether Greek or some other language entirely, he’d never learned its real meaning. Still, he somehow got the feeling she wasn’t talking about his Earth.

“While we follow this madness to its inevitable conclusion,” Medea continued. “I would question how exactly it is you don’t know that.”

The answer was simple enough… though strangely hard to admit.

Before he could respond, a deep roar split the world once more, followed by a thunderous impact. They craned their necks up and saw the sky had been cracked open, forming a hole in the air some thousands of feet above. Up until that point he’d just assumed the darkness above was the night sky… but the sunlight streaming through the hole in the ceiling proved otherwise. Apparently, they’d been underground from the start. Why there was a forest beneath the earth, he didn’t know—just one more thing he didn’t have the means to explain.

The light coming through did little to light their surroundings, but did allow them to see the truly colossal serpentine beast slithering through the hole amidst the falling rubble. Robin worried for a moment they’d need to run for cover, but it seemed far enough away they wouldn’t have to worry about any rocks landing on their heads.

Medea stared at the opening above, mouth agape. “What…? This is wrong…”

“Certainly doesn’t seem right,” Robin agreed. “That thing is way too big.”

“We’re… under the mountain?” Medea continued, ignoring his quip. “But how…?” She sped off up the path with newfound determination, and Robin hurried to follow. A few short minutes later they emerged from the enclosed path onto a cliff overlooking a gargantuan cavern.

Seated on the cavern floor far below was a city. Monolithic structures resembling pyramids stood alongside towering spires reaching for the heavens, each interspersed throughout a city borne of gray stone. There were other structures too, great buildings carved of stone and wood and glass, and while even the tallest spires paled in comparison to the height of a steel skyscraper from his world, there was something fantastical about the architecture and geometry of it all, in the way the stone flowed from one design to the next or how seamlessly it blended with other materials to form something greater.

His world?

The thought jarred him out of the trance the old city had placed upon him. At some point, he’d apparently internalized the idea this world was not his own. That seemed significant, and yet… Robin was having trouble finding it in himself to care.

So what if this wasn’t Earth? Was that such a problem? Who would miss him? His mother, maybe—when she wasn’t busy drinking herself to death or falling into the arms of another abusive cretin, and even then it was doubtful. It’d been over a year since the last time he’d seen her; she hadn’t bothered to call even once. Aside from her, there were few others who’d tolerate his presence, or whose presence he’d tolerate in return. The truth was his disdain for others had left him with more enemies than friends.

Robin was the typical trailer trash kid who’d dreamed of getting out, but reality had a way of crushing those aspirations. Worse, such dreams were seen as hopelessly naive by those around him; even an outright betrayal to many. They sneered at him for wanting more for himself, thought his desire to be free of the spiral of poverty some kind of moral superiority to rub in their faces. To them, higher education and financial independence weren’t things to aspire to—they were snubs to their way of life.

Time and time again he saw them crush the same aspirations he held out of other children just like him, dooming them to repeat the cycle, and Robin couldn’t help but despise them for it. His mother had been the worst of them, holding out hope some day he’d come around. He never had.

And now he supposed he never would.

“What is this place?” Robin asked, glancing at the Medea out of the corner of his eye.

“Tarthos…” She spoke the word in barely a whisper. “My kingdom. My home.”