As we drive through the busy roads, I look outside at the signs on the doors. Most of them simply have writing on them, but a few have pictures accompanying the words.

One has a picture of a book on it. Another looks like it’s a picture of a pile of bricks. A third has a few strange symbols arranged in a circle, with what seems to be some sort of powder in the middle. That last one confuses me. Maybe it’s some sort of religious thing?

And speaking of things that are confusing, I really have no idea what’s going on here. Before I thought this was some sort of kidnapping situation, but clearly that’s not what is going on. If the strange animals weren’t enough to tip me off, the four separate moons certainly are.

So, what could have possibly happened? Because I’m beginning to think that the strangely underdeveloped nature of the town I’m in isn’t some sort of outlier. My first thought is that this could be somehow far into the future, and I was somehow preserved through some sort of apocalyptic scenario which - judging by the stone and wood building materials being used here, and the use of candles as a light source - set humanity back a couple thousand years in technology.

That could explain the new animals, which would have had time to evolve, as well as the new language, which could have developed over time as well. As for the separate moons, those could have somehow split off from the main body after a meteoric impact - or they could have simply flown in from space by simple chance.

One thing that I can’t seem to rationalize is the moments directly when I got here. I understand why, according to the theory I just gave, the people seemed excited. Maybe I was one of the only ones to ‘wake up’ from whatever preservation was in, or I was the first one, or whatever. There are lots of ideas as to why they would be excited.

But where was the apparatus I was being held in? I obviously wasn’t in some sort of cryo-stasis machine, but that would be the only device - to my knowledge - that could preserve someone through time without them being aware like that. When I woke up, I woke up to being dropped on the ground.

But there was nobody nearby who could have dropped me, and there were no ropes or anything that could have held me up and dropped me from that height. And what was up with the cult-like ritual with all the people missing limbs or with other serious injuries surrounding me? I didn’t even see any detached limbs, so they had to have been taken away by someone for some reason, too. It just doesn’t add up.

I don’t think this is some sort of hallucination or dream. Dreams lack many senses and details that I feel right now; they’re generally mainly visual and auditory, and lack smells and haptic feelings. Same goes with hallucinations.

But that doesn’t, however, completely clear all suspicion that this is ‘fake’ in some way. For example, this could technically be some sort of simulation run by a high-budget entity such as the US government, or a multi-billion dollar company. I have no idea why they would simulate it - maybe this is some sort of test for new technology - but it is technically possible.

Honestly, I feel like I could sit here guessing specific scenarios and explanations for why this happened and I’d never reach the answer. I simply don’t have enough information. I do, however, think it’s important to try and think of broad-strokes theories about what happened, so that I can use information from those theories to make decisions.

In loosest terms possible, there are two possibilities. Either this is real, or it’s fake. Fake could mean what I said before, with some sort of government simulation, or it could also mean that this is a secluded area that nobody has found before somehow, and the rest of the world is what I remember. Simply put - either the entire world has changed, or somehow, only this one area has.

Seeing those two possibilities, there are two main goals. Either to survive and thrive in this new environment, or to escape.

Attempting to escape when the entire planet has changed is quite literally impossible; instead, if the entire planet is changed, I need to make connections, learn the language and culture, and live my life here.

On the other hand, if this is one specific area, then I need to escape. Judging by how different this place is from the ‘real world,’ it would likely be unstable and unsuitable for long-term life, so I would need to find a way out.

Considering the fact that these two possible goals aren’t capable of being done simultaneously - they’re quite mutually exclusive - I will eventually need to choose one or the other to focus on.

This means that, for now, my main goal needs to be answering that one question. Everything else is secondary.

My thoughts are interrupted by the man - Itor - saying something to Magna. She responds, then turns to me. She points at the stone road we’re driving on.

“Leis.”

Then she points down at the floor of the carriage.

“Gilia.”

She begins to looking around, I assume for something else to point at, but Itor yells back at her, seeming irritated. She responds back angrily. Itor makes an exasperated-seeming comment, and Magna gives back a one-word reply. She stops looking for things to point at.

I think she was making an attempt at teaching me the language? Itor seems to be interested in teaching me, and Magna began saying those things to me once prompted by him, so it makes sense that that’s what happened.

As for their conversation just now, I have a feeling that Itor felt she was doing a lackluster job, according to him, and he criticized her for it. They seemed to have reached an understanding, though.

Eventually, as we continue down the road, the smaller buildings with the signs disappear - as do many of the people - and I begin to see some new types of buildings. These are larger and seem to be made of better materials.

They have the first glass windows I’ve seen in the town, and are largely made of some sort of reddish material that reminds me of cobbled together brick, with a lighter color. The doors and roofs are still made of wood, but this wood has been painted - or colored in some way - as opposed to the simple browns of the area before. This place is clearly more high-class.

The people here aren’t wearing the clothes the others were wearing. Whereas most of the clothing I saw before was brown or green, these people have all sorts of colors on their clothes. There are still no complex designs, but I see reds, blues, yellows, and all other colors of dyes on their clothes.

It still seems like a lot of them are made of the same base green material - the texture looks to be the same, and I can see on the frayed edges on some of the more worn-out clothes the original green color coming out - but these clothes have certainly had more care poured into their creation.

There also seems to be some sort of law enforcement here. There are some people walking around in a uniform; they’re wearing what looks to be some sort of chainmail shirt made of a metallic substance with an insignia on the cloth being worn under it.

They also look to be carrying either spears or longswords - no sight of close-range finesse weapons, such as daggers. Good to know. There aren’t many of these people, either. I only see one of them wandering around about every ten or fifteen minutes. The longer we go, though, the more frequently I see them.

Eventually we arrive at a building much larger than any other I’ve seen. This is the first one I’ve seen with more than two stories, and the two-story ones were rare to begin with. It’s made of the red brick-colored material and has some sort of white stone embedded into the walls at points, forming designs.

Directly above the gigantic double-door, I see the insignia that was printed on the shirts of the law enforcement people, and above that insignia is another design that I believe was one of the symbols on the religious storefront I saw before, the one with the different designs arranged in a circle with the powder in the center.

On the walls directly to the left and right of the double-door are two stained-glass windows, both with that same pattern; the law insignia on the bottom, and the religious one above it.

There are two guards standing by at the doors, with a few more I spot patrolling the direct perimeter. This building dominates the entire area. Since it’s the tallest building here, it towers over all the others with a looming presence, and it’s incredibly wide as well, with offshooting square rooms and tall towers here and there giving off the impression it's more of a maze inside than a house.

The patrolling guards take notice of our arrival, but do nothing to stop us. It seems they recognize the face of Itor driving the cart. The carriage stops and Itor demounts, followed by Magna, who drags me out of the carriage as well. I believe we have arrived at our destination.