Shaking out of fear and confusion due to this situation, Noah looked at the forest clearing around him. He didn’t remember anything like this place near his hometown. Sure, there was a small pine forest, but that was it. There indeed weren’t any trees like this around here.

But nonetheless, he had to orient himself somehow. And then, Noah stared up at the night sky, and his body completely froze up.

“That’s... That’s a joke, right..?” He whispered quietly, clearly in disbelief at what he saw. Noah pushed his hand behind him and tried to shake Ayden awake. Slowly, the young, frail man opened his eyes, “Noah...? What’s up...?” Ayden asked, quite disoriented.

“Yo... Erm... Is it normal for that to happen around here...?” With a shaking arm, Noah pointed above him. Slowly, Ayden’s mind caught up with his friend’s. The memories of what happened just now flowed into his mind as the sky stretched out above him.

And there, right in the center of the sky, stood two moons instead of just one. Ayden’s mind raced, but he didn’t know what was going on. He thought about any possible reason why he and Noah could possibly be seeing two moons up there. But he couldn’t find any solution to that question.

Quickly, Ayden looked around, holding his throat as he still felt the pain of being stabbed. There was no wound, but the sensation of bleeding out was fresh in his mind. And then, Ayden spotted something else that was quite unusual. He crawled on the wet grass and soon pushed himself off it, approaching that unique flower that he saw on the other side of this forest clearing.

It was shining in dim light, the same brightness as the moon. At first, it looked like a puddle was just reflecting the moonlight onto some white flowers, but soon Ayden held one of them in his hands. That was when he was able to confirm that this was really just a glowing flower.

“The hell is this supposed to be?” Ayden quietly muttered to himself. He turned around and looked at Noah. For a moment, the two friends were staring at each other in utter confusion.

“I-“ Noah slowly opened his mouth, trying to say something, when a loud howl interrupted the two of them.

“A-Are there wolves around-“ Noah asked, quickly interrupted by Ayden.

“Nope...”

“Are we still at-“

“I don’t think so...”

After this brief exchange between the two friends, Noah turned toward the direction that the howl came from, “Let’s go!” Noah grabbed his stunned friend’s arm and pulled him away from the howl as quickly as he could. They had to enter the dense forest, but some more of those glowing flowers were growing here.

They lit up this place that would usually be impossible to see anything in. Ayden pushed his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone, “It’s not working...”

“What, no reception?” Noah replied, trying to act as normal as possible.

“No, my whole phone isn’t working. I guess it broke while... whatever just happened, happened.” Ayden whispered out. Noah was barely able to understand his muffled voice.

“Let’s just get out of here. We can figure out what’s going on later. Are there any spirits that could help us out around here?”

Ayden carefully looked around as his nearly black eyes flashed up and turned silver for a moment. The part of the dense forest they were in was lit up by a bright silver-blue hue. But just a moment later, that hue faded away, and there was nothing left of it.

“No... There’s nothing around here. Most animals don’t hold onto strong emotions when they... when they die.” Ayden muttered quietly as his eyes returned to their black color. He was shaking in shock after what he experienced only a few minutes prior, something that Noah took clear notice of.

For just a moment, he stopped trying to push through the thicket and stared into his friend’s eyes, “Ayden. I promise that I’ll get us out of this forest and find out what just happened.”

The moment that Ayden heard his friend’s words, he felt somewhat relaxed. He knew that Noah would do anything he could do to make this promise come true. That’s just the kind of guy he was. Ayden managed to relax and slowly nodded his head.

“Then take the lead... I’ll try to figure something out as well.” Ayden replied with newfound determination. The two best friends locked eyes for a moment and quickly kept on running through the forest.

And soon, Noah spotted something in the distance from between the trees. It looked like a large fence from this distance. And where a fence was, there would be people.

Pushing the branches in front of him and Ayden out of the way, Noah tried to rush toward this place. Where they would be able to get at least a bit more information on what was going on. Right now, they had not even an ounce of it.

But once Noah stepped out of the actual forest, he was once more hit by extreme confusion. This wasn’t a fence. It was a wall made of thick logs placed up right next to one another.

“What the..?” Noah whispered out before Ayden tapped his shoulder, “I think that’s a watchtower over there...”

“Holy shit... The fuck is going on?” Noah started walking toward the watchtower that was built into this wall with a deep frown, “Hey! Is anyone up there?” He exclaimed.

Just a moment later, a tired head peeked over from the edge of the watchtower onto the two friends, “Eh?” The middle-aged man exclaimed, “Oi, the fuck’re you kids doin’ out there in the middle of the night? Come in already! I’ll open the gate for ya!” The man immediately seemed to climb down the tower, while Noah and Ayden looked at each other confused.

“Did he just say ‘Gate’?” The two of them walked further along the wall, into the direction where they could hear some noise from. And there it was, a thick wooden gate that acted as an entrance to this place. Whatever this place was.

The gate slowly opened up and revealed the man that was on the watchtower just now, “What are ya doin’ out there in a night like this? Can’t ya see Silvia’s tear up there?”

“Silvia’s tear?” Ayden asked with a deep frown. The middle-aged man, dressed rather weirdly, let out a deep groan and grabbed both Noah and Ayden's arms. He pulled them both through the gate and then closed it up.

Now that he was able to relax, the man took a closer look at the two young men that he just forced into this place, “Aight, seems like you two ain’t from ‘round here. Ya don’t look like it, at least.”

“Ah, yeah... It’s actually a kind of weird situation. We just kinda woke up in the forest. Our phones stopped working, so it’d be great if we could maybe use yours to call an uber or something.” Noah explained quickly, incredibly relieved that they found someone here.

But before the middle-aged man could reply, Ayden pulled his friend around, “Noah... I don’t think we’ll be able to get any help here...”

The two of them looked at the place that they just entered. And what they saw shocked them. It was a village. Dirty, without proper roads, entirely surrounded by walls. The two moons were still high in the sky, with another smaller mass floating right between them.

These moons that were the only source of light in this village made it even more apparent... This place was not normal in the slightest.

“Hey, sorry... Forget what my friend just said. They’re terms from where the two of us are from... Could I ask the name of this village? And the country we’re in, just to make sure we didn’t accidentally cross a border...”

The man stared at the two suspiciously. He placed his hand onto his hip, his fingers rubbing over one of the small bags attached to his belt, “I’d be surprised if ya crossed borders randomly... This is Wellkran, and we’re on an island, obviously.”

“...Island?” Ayden asked with a wry smile. He was starting to freak out. His suspicions were getting more and more validified, “Sorry, but I have to ask again... What is this country called?”

“Why’re you askin’ about somethin’ obvious like that?” The man asked with a deep glare, his hand slowly being pushed into the bag at his hip.

“Just fucking answer me already!” Ayden yelled out in a loud voice, starting to freak out again. In response, the middle-aged man pulled something out of the pouch at his hip and tried to throw it at the young man.

It was just a random rock, as far as Noah could see. Just before the stone left the man’s fingers, Noah shifted his weight forward and hit the man’s hand out of the way, “The fuck do you think you’re doing? Did you just try to throw rocks at us?”

Noah’s eyes instinctively flashed up in an emerald light, something that happened when he became agitated sometimes. However, this also activated his ability.

And what Noah saw was surprising. In front of the man’s eye, there was something like a monocle with a crosshair inside of it. But something felt different. It disappeared again as the man let out a deep sigh and let his arm drop. But Noah’s ability was still active; he could see the cracks all over Ayden’s skin.

“Then explain to me what’s goin’ on, or ya kids are gonna have to leave again.” The man said with a growling voice, and shivers ran over Noah’s body. He had no idea what was going on, but it seemed like Ayden did.

“Please... We don’t know where we are... We were just on some trip and fell unconscious... We woke up in the forest and don’t know where we are. All we know is that we definitely weren’t on some island before!” Ayden explained in a pleading voice, while Noah stayed confused about what was going on.

The man raised his brows, “The two of ya aren’t ‘Lost Ones,’ are ya?”

“Lost ones? I mean, we’re lost, sure, but...”

“Nevermind...” The man groaned, “There’s no way you’d be ‘Lost Ones’...”

Nervously, the man looked at the two in front of him and started to walk forward, “Come with me, and don’t ya dare step out of my sight. I need to get back to my station soon, so I’ll bring ya to the chief so that he can take care of ya.”

“Chief? What the hell is goi-“ Noah exclaimed, but he was interrupted by Ayden, who lightly tapped his friend’s stomach. Noah realized that Ayden had some kind of plan, so he figured he should stay silent. Even though the man in front of them was still nervously holding a small rock in his hand. Ayden followed along with everything in a surprisingly composed manner, although that was just the case outwardly.

Inside his mind, Ayden was still confused and trying to figure out the exact situation and if this was just some sick prank.

Could it really be that these two best friends had been transported to another world?