"Wh-what?" Ethan stammered as he felt his stomach turn. He looked at the darkness in front of him and tried to pull himself together. He hadn't witnessed too much death in his life, most of his grandparents were gone before he could even remember. There was Tabitha, but that funeral was already strange enough. Her casket was closed, and somehow only four pallbearers carried her. This, what was in front of him now, was more than was prepared for.
He could feel the acid in his stomach bubble. Miranda looked at him for a moment, and then she smirked.
"You should see the look on your face right now," She said, holding in her laughter, she continued "My family lives on the other side of the clearing, so calm down."
"Oh, thank God!" Ethan sputtered out.
"Yeah man, these were just the neighbors," Miranda responded as she started off across the clearing. It took a moment for Ethan to grasp the reality of which of Miranda’s webs were honest. Once again, he found himself taking a light jog to catch up to her.
“Can you please tell me what the hell is going on here?” Ethan begged. Miranda kept on, straight ahead, and crossed the clearing only to enter back into another treeline. This one, however, had a clear cut-out path that weaved into the brush. The trees seemed to almost bend in, bowing toward the path.
“Yeah, so… A while back, Lady Tabitha was a Traverser who came in, lead this giant freaking army against a really bad dude, and won. Well, we thought she won. Apparently, the really bad dude actually went into some kind of sicko dark hibernation, and then started training in some kind of dark arts bullshit. Now he is like a really bad dude. He has been building up his army, and now he is out and about turning everybody to sand. Meanwhile, we are all over here wondering where the hell Tabby has been, and then you come dropping in like some kind of lost third cousin. Now that I have you following me, I figured we should get back to my parent's place and come up with some sort of plan.” Miranda spilled the words out in what seemed like a single breath. In honesty, Ethan was dazing in and out during her monologue, but he did get enough of it to ask one simple question…
“Where the hell are we?!” he shouted.
“Earth… well, not your Earth. Same basic principle applies; humans and animals and plants and all that jazz,” she responded.
“Then, what year is it?” Ethan asked, his eyes obviously gesturing toward her clothes.
“2022, dumbass. It is a parallel world, not time,” she said sarcastically.
“But you know English?” He asked.
“No, but your ring knows how to translate… did Tabby not share a single thing with you?” she questioned. Her face started to turn red, not that Ethan was able to see it from behind her.
“Oh, I very much doubt she would have had the time to do that.” A low voice said from behind them both. Ethan and Miranda spun around, causing them to crash into each other and fall into a mangled mess of limbs. They looked up, shuffling to try and regain their footing and stand; only to see a large black horse step out onto the pathway. It huffed loudly as its rider pulled back on its reins. Their eyes moved up the creature to find a man in a full black cloak staring down at them.
“What are you doing here?!” Miranda screamed. The man paid her no mind, and instead, he led his horse to walk in a circle around the two terrified people beneath him.
“You must be Ethan. The way that Tabitha described you, I thought you would be taller,” the man said.