Lahnthean Aria

3

Kiran anxiously raised her trembling hands in front of her, thinking it was a universal sign for "I surrender" or "I'm not a threat," since the gesture had been used several times in movies and shows she had watched growing up. "I…I come in peace!"

The young man's glowing silvery blue eyes narrowed.

Kiran gasped. He clearly looked more displeased than he did moments ago. He was speaking a different language so she wasn't sure how to tell him that her throat wasn't worthy of being slit.

"Friend!" she exclaimed, praying to everything that was holy that the word wasn't a curse word in the young man's language. She gingerly pointed at her chest and tried to smile. "Me…Friend," she said, gesturing her left and right pointing fingers to meet side-by-side in front of her.

The young man then threw what seemed like a small cold, silver flask toward her. "Dirokhom," he ordered as the flask landed on her lap.

Kiran blinked confused at him for a moment before gingerly picking up the flask. "Y-you want me to drink this?"

"Balhiri!" the young man snapped.

Kiran quickly fumbled with the cork sealing the flask and downed its contents. She winced as a thick bitter brew filled her mouth. It drew a line down her throat like a strong liquor. Kiran coughed against the blade and cringed as the taste slowly faded away from her tongue.

"Who are you?" the young man asked as the blade tapped the bottom of her chin.

Kiran stared wide-eyed at him. "What did you say?!"

The rude young man could speak her language! Had he been making a fool of her this entire time? Or did the drink make her somehow understand him? She had read about potions that healed people and changed people's heights, but those were all in fantasy stories.

It couldn't be real!

Then again, the young man's eyes didn't seem real either. It looked like glowing sapphires in the darkness of the night. Was she dreaming? Or was she really somehow transported into another world where potions saved people from spending grueling hours to learn a language?

"Do not waste my time!" the young man impatiently snapped, pressing the blade deeper against her throat and making her yelp in pain.

"Kiran!" she quickly answered. "M-my name is Kiran! Kiran Wedella. I'm a friend. I come in peace! I'm not going to hurt you."

"Clearly," he snorted.

Kiran stared incredulous at him. "Then why the hell are you holding a sword to my throat?!"

"Where is Alessa Dia?"

Kiran's eyes went wide. "Alessa!" The events before she lost consciousness rushed into her senses. "The sink hole! Something pulled my ankle and-wait!" Kiran stared at the young man's arm again, remembering the ghostly limb that dragged her into the dark abyss that the cracks on the ground opened.

"It was you!" she accused though frankly, she still wasn't sure if it was him since all she remembered was the sensation of a hand painfully gripping her ankle and tugging her to her death.

"Answer my question!" he insisted, pressing the blade closer to her throat again. The blade bit her skin and drew blood.

"Then take that blade away from me, kidnapper!" Kiran angrily snapped, ignoring the sting from the wound.

The young man bitterly clicked his tongue and withdrew his sword. "Talk!"

Kiran anxiously glanced around as her hand reached for the wound on her neck.

They were in the middle of a meadow with white flowers staring at the night sky. Giant stone pillars arranged in a circle surrounded them as if they were in a sacred place where religious rituals were performed. She had seen something similar in the comics she had read, especially the ones with fantasy parallel universes.

"Well?"

"I think I pulled her out before she could fall into the sink hole," she muttered, recalling the incident while trying to figure out what exactly happened to her. "Then the hole grew larger and I pushed her away before she could fall back in again. She tried to keep me from falling but I felt something…"

Kiran glowered at the young man. "Someone grabbed my ankle and drag me down! I fell into the pit instead. Was it you? Were you the one that pulled me into the sinkhole? Are we at the center of the earth?"

He cursed under his breath and glowered at her. "Why did you help her?!"

"Are you out of your mind?! That's what you do when someone's in danger. I should be rewarded for saving someone in the middle of a crisis! Not that I did it for recognition, of course. I'm not even sure how I managed to save her but I fortunately did and now we're here.

NO WAY! Were you trying to take Alessa? You were, weren't you?! But you dragged ME into the sink hole!" She gasped as a thought hit her. "Did I die there and got reincarnated here?! Did I just get isekai-ed?"

"Ise-what?" the young man asked, confused.

"Transported to another world. This IS another world, right? A parallel universe? Did I fall into the center of the earth? Did I just prove the hollow earth theory?!" She surveyed her clothes and noticed that they were the same ones she wore to school that day. "I look like myself and I don't seem to have any broken bones. Was I summoned here? Did you summon me to your world?"

"Huh," he muttered, seemingly impressed at Kiran's musings. "At least you have enough brain cells to figure things out on your own."

Kiran glowered at him. "I'm not dead?"

"Do you want me to stab you to verify it?"

"So I didn't die in my world," she muttered, turning shyly away from him. "That sinkhole was probably a wormhole that just teleported me into this world."

She scanned her surroundings again. "It's not here. Did it fall into the bottom of the sink hole when the wormhole closed?"

"What's not here?" the young man asked.

"My things! My bag. My notebooks. My wallet. My phone!"

"You're the only one taken here," the young man confirmed.

"So you did kidnap me. That arm was yours and you were planning to kidnap Alessa. Did you cause the earthquake too?"

He sighed and slipped the sword into a sheath dangling from his waist. He then began to walk away.

"Hey!" Kiran snapped, shakily rising to her feet. "Where do you think you're going? Are you leaving me here?"

"You already know you're not who I needed."

"That doesn't mean you should just leave me here! I'm not from this world! How am I supposed to survive this place on my own?! Can't you send me back to my world?"

She knew from reading isekai stories that returning to her own world could be impossible. But since the potion let her learn a language instead of healing her, she figured there might be a chance that her kidnapper could send her back.

This was real life after all. Things could be very different from the fantasy books and comics she burned the midnight oil to read. And if she was just dreaming, this would be the perfect time for her to wake up.

The young man just ignored her.

"Mr. Kidnapper!" Kiran insisted.

"Shut up! I need to think."

"About taking responsibility for your actions? What kind of man needs to think about taking responsibility for that!"

He turned around to glower at her again. "Do you see that stone pillar over there?" he asked, pointing one of the stone pillars behind Kiran.

Kiran gingerly turned around. "Yes?"

"Go to the pillar."

"What?" Kiran asked, confused.

"Go. To. The. Pillar."

Kiran bitterly grumbled in response, but eventually obliged.

"Press your forehead against the pillar."

"You're making fun of me, aren't you?"

"It's a sacred pillar, you ignorant fool. You said it yourself: you know nothing about this world and I do, so do as I say!"

Kiran bitterly pouted and pressed her forehead against the cold stone pillar.

"Count from one to a hundred."

"Is this going to take me back home?" Kiran anxiously glanced back at him.

"Are you going to disobey the only person here who knows what all of this is?"

Kiran narrowed her eyes. "I may not be an expert at Hide and Seek but I will not give up until I find you if you try to hide from me. I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you," she finished, recalling a famous line from a movie she watched.

"Are you going to do as I say or not?"

Kiran pressed her forehead against the pillar and began to count. Quietly.

"I can't hear you!"

"You didn't say that I should count out loud!"

"I can't exactly know that you're counting if I can't hear you from where I am, can I?"

"One! Two! Three!" Kiran began, shouting out the numbers. When she reached ten, she glanced behind her to see if the young man was still there.

He raised a brow at her. "I said a hundred, not ten. Do you need me to teach you how to count? Start from one!"

Kiran bit back a growl and turned around again. "One! Two! Three! Four! Five!" When she reached fifty, she turned around to check if the young man was still there.

Just as she feared, no one else was there with her.