The crowd parted as they walked into the campus. There was a gentle murmur among them. All eyes were on Celsia and Jack as they moved through. He had always liked some attention but this was far too much, not to mention it didn't seem to be the good kind. He burned with embarrassment as he avoided their gaze. Celsia on the other hand seemed fine.

“How did you mess up this time, Celsia?” said one among the crowd.

“How should I know?” she snapped.

It seems she had a reputation here, and not a good one. Many of the students sneered at the other’s remarks. She kept her composure though, she seemed used to it. Jack sighed.

At least it's directed towards her. He thought.

“Hey animal boy!”

Oh god.

He spoke too soon. Jack snapped up and locked eyes with the person who questioned him. He put on the most deadpan look he could.

“Animal?”

“Yeah! How could you be anything else, you were contracted!”

He stared at them intensely and didn’t react in the slightest. They looked confused by his response, either his tactic, if you could even call it that, worked or his accent confused them. Not that it mattered, it worked one way or another, but goddamn did he hate doing it in person.

“This is gonna be fun, so fun,” he said under his breath.

* * *

He followed Celsia into one of the nearby buildings. It was one of the largest ones in view, made of stone with what was probably a wooden roof, much like the others

“Where we headed now?”

“There is some time before dinner, I am going to my room.”

Up the stairs they went, to the third floor. The building was fairly simple, it was the exact kind of average you would expect from college housing. Jack inspected the masonry as they weaved through the halls. He was surprised to find that the walls looked to be one solid sheet of stone, not a single obvious seam. He figured it was thanks to these “arcane arts” that this school is apparently known for.

The duo stopped in front of a door. There was a plaque attached at eye level. It was inscribed with text unreadable to Jack. Their spoken language was understandable, but their written language was not. It didn’t surprise him though, he expected it at this point. In the future he might have to learn it though. He sighed at the thought. She opened the door with a small key, they walked in.

“Am I staying here?” he said, examining his surroundings

“Naturally, where else would a companion stay?”

This slightly concerned him.

“Ya know, I might be an animal but I’m still a man.”

“And?”

“Y-You’ll be living with a man.”

She started going through a short dresser at the foot of her bed.

“I don’t see that as a problem. You are a pet first and foremost, your presence does not bother me.”

Celsia, with a set of clothing retrieved from the dresser, walked behind a panel in the corner.

“Don’t move even a bit, I’m changing,” she glared at him from around the panel.

“You’re acting sorta like my presence does bother you,” he said. “Anyway, I’m not that kind of guy.”

Jack further examined the room from where he stood. It was fairly large, certainly larger than his dorm room, and she got the whole thing to boot. There was the changing panel in the corner, a table with two chairs, a book shelf with a handful of books, and a simple bed complete with a nightstand and a small dresser at its foot. He turned around, behind him was a sword leaning against the wall.

“This sword yours?”

It wasn’t small by any means, a proper straight sword, sheath and all. Celsia stepped out from behind the panel, now in a slightly different outfit.

“Yes, don’t touch it, that is not for pets.”

She came over and picked it up. She hooked it to her lower back, where it sat diagonally on her waist.

“It is about time for dinner.”

Jack realized he was quite hungry, he hadn’t eaten anything that day so far.

“Nice, I’m a bit hungry myself.”

He went for the door but she stopped him.

“Companions aren’t allowed in the dining hall. I will bring something back when I am finished.”

“O-Ok.”

“Stay here, and do not do anything stupid,” she said sternly as she walked out.

He stood there for a minute then took a seat at the table setting his backpack to the side. Surprisingly no one had questioned it or what was held within. He’d keep its contents inside for the time being, he had no need for them at the moment. Anyway he’d like to keep a low profile. The Colt came to mind, but he shook his head.

“I’m not in any immediate danger,” he mumbled.

He’d keep it in there for now. Until he needed it, if he needed it.

“I’d like to keep my K/D as close to zero-zero for as long as possible.”

He didn’t like the thought of having to kill anyone in self defense but if he had to, he would. If death happened, it was on his terms. His train of thought left that station as quickly as it arrived. He pulled out his notebook. He decided to occupy himself with a blank page:

After a while, he finished writing notes and put his notebook away. He yawned, it had been a long and confusing day. He put his head on the table and quickly drifted off, taking the first train to the dream realm. After a rather uninteresting trip, Jack was awoken by a kick. It was Celsia. She had returned with a plate and bowl which she dropped in front of him. Upon the plate was some bread and in the bowl was what appeared to be soup.

“This ain't a whole lot ya know.”

“It’s enough.”

“Is it?”

She shot him a glare.

“Are you questioning me, pet? This meal should be enough for any companion.”

Jack crossed his arms.

“As a matter of fact, I am. Where I’m from, we at least make some effort to take care of our pets.”

“Well, where your from sounds like a silly place. How much do you waste on your pets?”

“Enough to keep them happy,” he scoffed.

Celsia smacked him upside the head.

“Shit! What was that for!”

“Talking back. Now eat.”

He grumbled as he began to eat. The food was plain but he’d have to deal with it. Celsia grabbed a book from her night stand and took the seat across from him. The table was fairly large giving them plenty of space. Jack figured that was the reason she even considered sitting there. She pulled out a small pair of glasses from her pocket, put them on, and opened up the book.

“Damn, y'all invented glasses?

She looked up.

“Was that even english?”

He sighed, he couldn’t even talk like himself half the time.

“I am surprised you have glasses.”

“Ah… why might that be?”

He rubbed his chin.

“You’re old fashioned.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“No more old fashioned than you, forest dweller.”

Jack decided to leave it at that. The two of them sat for a while. He looked past Celsia out the window, it was rather dark out now. A single candle was the room’s only source of light now. He got excited, he’d been wanting to see what the night sky looked like here. He got up and moved his chair to the window.

“What are you doing?”

“I want to sit by the window,” he pointed, “Its dark, I want to see the stars.”

“Have you never seen the sky? How much time do you spend looking at the ground?”

He frowned, it was actually quite a lot. Ignoring most of her question, he slid the chair up to the window.

The stars sparkled above in the black sky, it was clear that night. It had been a while since he had seen a sky this vibrant with stars, light pollution is something hard to escape in modern times. His attention was drawn to the moon, it wasn’t white-grey like Earth’s but an off white. Off this moon’s northwest corner was a smaller object. He turned to Celsia.

“You have two moons?”

“Moons?”

“You know, the large circles up there?” he pointed out the window.

She thought for a second.

“Oh… You mean Luna and Celeste.”

“Are those they’re names?”

“Yes, the largest is Luna, the smallest is Celeste.”

Celsia closed the book and put it on her nightstand along with her glasses.

“I am convinced you have not ever looked up in your life.”

“I have. I just haven’t looked up to this sky before.”

She had gotten a new set of clothing from her dresser and went behind the panel to change again. Jack turned his chair a bit to face away.

“How far have you traveled to find a different night sky?”

“Well, from a completely different world by the looks of it.”

Hysterical laughter came from behind the panel.

“You might be insane but your ramblings are very funny.”

She came from around the panel dressed in a plain nightgown rubbing tears from her eyes.

“Thank you, I needed a good laugh.”

He sat up and walked over to his bag and began to rummage through it. He pulled out a flashlight and held it up to her.

“Tell me, do have these in this world of yours?”

Celsia inspected it with an eyebrow raised.

“What is it?”

In one swift motion he took it in his other hand and while pointing it at her face, flicked it on and off. She yelped, clearly he caught her off guard. Jack laughed.

“Don’t scare me like that!” she yelled. “What is that!?”

“It’s a flashlight,” he twirled it in his hand.

She came to inspect it but he pointed it back at her, she flinched.

“Relax, it's just a light.”

“What sort of arcane is that device imbued with?”

Jack put back in his bag.

“None, it's called science and engineering. Something you people evidently lack.”

She scoffed.

“Nothing like that could work without arcane.”

He considered showing her the other things but he figured she’d have the same response. Clearly he wasn’t convincing her any time soon. Maybe he’d have better luck with someone else later down the line. He shrugged.

“Whatever. You look like your ready for bed.”

“I was going to read a bit in bed before sleeping.”

“That's fine, there's somethin’ I wanted to do anyway.”

Jack spun around, looking.

“Wait, where do I sleep?”

“The floor.”

She said this without the slightest hint of sarcasm.

“I got a few old blankets for you, make yourself comfortable.”

He looked where she was pointing, then back at her.

“Oh for God's sake.”

Grabbing the blankets he laid them out in the corner by the door. One on the ground, another as a bunched up as a pillow and the third to cover himself. He leaned against the wall and while Celsia read, began writing in his notebook:

Day 1, May 6th, 2019.

I've decided to write my experiences day to day as well as my thoughts in this notebook for the foreseeable future. Today I find myself on another planet by the looks of it, judging by the 2 moons and unrecognizable constellations it certainly seems to be the case. I managed to stumble through a sort of rift in space and ended up here. Shortly after it dumped me here, I came in contact with a local girl named Celsia Seliota (that's how I imagine her name would be spelled). Through a series of unfortunate events I became her companion, a pet of sorts. She claimed it was some sort of traditional rite that those among them who practice the “arcane arts” performed during their training. Apparently, it’s only supposed to work on animals. I appear to be an exception to this and they certainly treat me as such. Maybe it’s due to me not being from a world with magic. Speaking of, I’ll have to see what other kinds of magic (arcane as they call it) these people are capable of, I’ve seen very little of it so far.

I wonder how these people ended up here? Clearly they aren’t part of the fossil record here, they speak a unique dialect of English. I haven't heard any obviously unique words so far but there are certainly parts of my vocabulary they don't understand. Their speech is mostly devoid of any contractions and is fairly long winded as a result.

On another note, did I mention they’re fairly well established here? I currently reside in a large stone building which serves as the dorms for the “Ester Academy of the Arcane” (for future reference I’ll refer to it as EAA). Ester being the nation it resides in presumably. All of the above leads me to believe that these people came here long ago similarly to how I came. This is the only explanation that I can think of that makes sense of all of this. I’ll try to find out more about them as I spend my time here in this new world.

As Jack finished writing, Celsia blew out the candle. He shifted to lay down.

Welcome to your new world, Jack.

He drifted off to sleep.