Outrealm

“Wh-where am I…?” I muttered as I sat up. I knew I was out for a while, but not for how long. Also, this place felt far warmer than where I remembered being before. I opened my eyes and looked at my surroundings.

The area was covered in sand. Even if it was a place I knew about, I would not recognize it. Nor would I have gone to sleep in a place like this. In the distance were some tall rocky hills. Closer were some cactus-looking plants, but they had gray spikes instead of the light green spines I thought cacti had. I couldn’t see any animals on the ground, but there were a couple birds flying in the distance, too far to be identified for sure.

Then, as if out of nowhere, someone tapped my shoulder.

“Hello? What are you doing here?” they said, as I turned to face them. I practically did a double take at their appearance.

It was a girl. She looked to be about my age (17 years old - about now I’d be going to my last year of high school) and had purple hair and wore a blue T-shirt and brown pants. This wasn’t the unusual bit. That was her features. Instead of normal ears, she had cat ears. They were similar in color to her hair. She also had a tail, the same color as her hair but with a white tip. She wore a quiver (yes, the kind archers use) and was holding a bow.

In other words, I was staring at a half-cat archer. And it was actual staring, because she then said “Can you speak…?”

“Aaaam I in some sort of anime world?” I finally managed to get out. The only time I had ever seen stuff like this was in fantasy TV shows, particularly of the animated variety.

“Eh? What do you mean?” the cat girl asked. Her voice didn’t have any catlike qualities. If I wasn’t looking at her, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

“You know. A world with magic and kemonomimi and stuff.” I said I was 17. I did not say that I was a colossal weeaboo.

“Well, I dunno what the second thing is, but I might have some ideas about the first...What is your name?”

It took me a bit to answer. Not that I was gonna make up anything (I totally wanted to, but if I’m physically inside this world rather than being in a video game or something, what’s the point). I guess I was also still a bit groggy from waking up. Or maybe dehydrated from the sun. Or all sorts of things wrong with waking up in a desert when you went to bed in, well, a bed.

“I’m Yue,” I finally said. The name may seem fake, as it’s the Chinese word for moon, but it’s my actual name. Seriously.

“I see...My name is Noelle.” The cat girl smiled. What? Why is her name so normal? I thought.

“Look, it’s a bad idea to hang around here. Quick way to get yourself in bad health. Town’s not that far, come on.” She turned and walked in a certain direction (east, assuming the sun was rising). Even though I didn’t want to follow her, my survival did depend on it, so I did so anyway.

We must have walked for at least an hour. I could tell because it was swelteringly hot. The most physical activity I’d done before now would be a physical education class last year. Plus, I wasn’t exactly dressed for success in my long sleeved shirt and pants. At least the shirt was light in color. That must have helped.

Either way, we neared and then were almost into a town of some sort. I was worried about what I’d find there. Especially if it was a village of cat people. That would make me the odd one out.

Well, as we entered, I was happy to see that that wasn’t the case. The townspeople were rather diverse, I could count at least three different kinds (species?) of humanoids walking around. Mainly, normal humans like me and people with big ears, kinda like if Mickey Mouse and the cat lady I was following had a baby. Oddly, there weren’t others of Noelle’s kind in the area. I guess I expected it to be more common.

Another thing I noticed was that the town itself didn’t look very technologically advanced. The houses were mainly clay, and I saw no phones or other electronic devices. Based on the fact that Noelle used a bow and arrow, they probably didn’t have gunpowder either. It was weird, like I had stepped into the past.

At the same time, things didn’t line up perfectly with that picture. For example, there were poles every so often. They were made of a dark material with a light colored crystal at the top. It didn’t really look like one, but I thought “streetlight” upon seeing them. Little things like that would tell me that this...wherever I was, was not what it seemed.

“It seems like this stuff is new to you,” Noelle stopped and noted, disrupting my gawking.

I turned to her, but it took me a bit to process the information. “Oh, uh...not entirely. I’ve never been to this town.” I tried my best to hide the fact that yes, this world was a new experience. That would probably put me squarely into Crazy Town (assuming I wasn’t already there).

“I see...Trying to memorize the town, huh?”

She believed it. I nodded.

“Makes sense...Well, anyways, we’re almost to where we need to go.” With that, she continued walking. I followed.

“And where is that?” I asked.

“You’ll see,” Noelle said vaguely. I was unsatisfied, but any way to get home would be through her, so I stuck with it.

Unlike last time, she wasn’t kidding when she said someplace wasn’t far away. She stopped in front of a building, not much different from the other ones, except for two major differences. Firstly, the building was a darker yellow than the other ones. Secondly, there was an emblem on the front of the building, above the door. It was a large painted circle that looked like a starry sky with a large crescent moon.

“What is that?” I said, pointing at the emblem.

“A marker,” Noelle said simply. “Come on.” Then she walked inside, me two steps behind her.

Inside the building was...not much, actually. It was a large room supported by pillars, with several benches off to the sides. Around each pillar was a dark green vine of some sort, some of which had little purple flowers on them. There was a statue in the back center on a pedestal. The statue was made with a different material than the building; the materials must have been imported if the clay stuff was what was found in the area. The figure the statue was depicting was a woman with short hair, wearing a wavy dress. Her hands were touching her heart and she was looking down. It reminded me a bit of ancient Greek statues, though this one was in better condition.

“Who is that?” I asked, walking toward the statue. The statue didn’t have much color, but I could tell that this wasn’t anyone I knew of.

“I...How...I guess it’s possible you don’t know her, actually…” Noelle sighed. My cover was becoming less believable, I guess. “This is Selini Shen. One of the deities. She doesn’t like decoration that much, if you can tell.”

“Deities…” Guess this place was polytheistic. And based on Noelle’s reaction to my mentioning magic, I wouldn’t be surprised if the figure depicted in the statue actually existed somewhere in this world.

“Yeah. Selini Shen rules over the moon. Well, the night in general, but especially the moon.” Noelle looked up at the statue’s face, then down at her feet. I didn’t realize earlier, but underneath the statue was a bowl. The bowl had some coins in there. Not that they were quarters or anything, they weren’t marked like that and they were thicker. But what else would they be but offerings to the goddess?

Either way, Noelle took off her quiver and opened another pouch on the bottom. The pouch was empty. “Oh…” Noelle said, as if realizing something a bit less important than forgetting her money at home. She muttered something under her breath that I didn’t quite get, then turned to leave…

Just as someone entered through the doorway.