It was a boring day like yesterday and the day before, and you get it. My day only escalated however and I never thought anything that weird would happen on such an average day. It started when I fell down a pothole and into a broken pipe onto a giant mushroom.
Let’s start from the beginning, when I almost fell down the stairs, but an arm grabbed my wrist and I heard, “Good thing I saved you from one of your daily clumsy induced injuries; we pay enough medical bills.” I huffed and stuck my tongue out at my annoying twin brother. “Well at least I wasn’t up till 3:00 am playing D&D Am’s,” I responded. He basically shouted, “CALL ME BY MY NAME, AMBROSE! STOP CALLING ME AM’S!” I ignored him and remembered I got up early because I wanted to go hang out with my friends before school. I kissed my mom and dad on the cheek, said bye to my mom and signed bye to my dad. He’s deaf so I’ve known sign language since I was six.
Before I continue, allow me to introduce myself. I am Olympia, I am in eleventh grade and so are my best friends.I have pale skin, black long hair, green eyes, 5 foot 7, and all my friends say I dress like I’m homeless, but I don’t see it. I might also have a very clumsy streak and hospital bills more than your student loans.
I started walking to the bagel shop a few blocks down to meet my friends for breakfast. It was 7:30 when I got there, so we had about an hour before we had to go to school. I better hurry so I can actually order and eat before school starts.I got there and realized it was closed. I immediately opened my group chat and typed : I AM GOING TO DIE, IT’S CLOSED!
Charlie : We know; we texted you like 5,000 times; meet us in the front of the school. I started to head over there and then I remembered I have a test first period, I slowed down after that. The whole day was nothing less than annoying, barely passing a test and one kid got a nosebleed so bad they almost fainted. Oh and guess who the teacher chose to help him get to the nurse? I was also having a weird feeling of dread like something was looming over me.
Anyway my friends are Charlie, Theo, and Nico. Charlie has bright orange curly hair; he had a buzz cut on the sides of his hair, brown skin, brown eyes, he’s 6 foot 3, he is tall but not that strong and he has a lot of freckles. He said it took like five tries to bleach his hair light enough to have neon orange hair. Theo is a 5 foot 4 gremlin; he has black short messy hair, blue eyes, and he plays basketball. No one understands how good he is while being that short. I knew him when we were kids till he moved away, but a few years later he came back. Nico is Theo’s adopted cousin; they are blonde and their hair is a little longer than their shoulder, usually in a small bun; they have glasses, gray eyes, and they love to argue about everything.
We were all walking back from school after an exhausting day. Charlie was rattling off about goblins when I tripped on a rock and the pothole thing happened. Once I realized I wasn’t impaled by a rock, I sat up and looked around. There was a weird bunch of tunnels looking to be an old rock structure. The tunnels were all around me like I was in the middle of a labyrinth, which I kind of was. There were boulders in really weird spots; it looked unnatural. I tried to walk in the direction I thought I came from, but something weird happened. When I walked up to a tunnel, a translucent wall appeared in front of me. I walked around testing each tunnel and close to the end one let me in, but I wanted to try each tunnel. There was only one tunnel that let me in and at this point nothing was making sense. It looked like nothing was there, but I had already run at it, pushed, walked into it, and tried throwing things at it. Only one let me in, so I accepted it and walked in.
After a pretty short walk I got into a room with a lot more boulders than before. In the middle of the room in front of the biggest boulder with cracks all over it, there was a blue rock on a pedestal. It made me feel like it was pulling me in, so I went up to it only out of curiosity but I stopped; I didn’t know where I was. I needed to find a way out, so I started walking around to find an exit. Something seemed weird when I went the opposite way I came and I still ended up in the same room. I finally had enough of the blue rock making beeping noise, it started after the fifth time I turned up in the same room. I walked up to it and threw it on the ground; then the beeping stopped and it shattered along with the weird feeling I was having all day.
After that a lot of things happened very quickly and I think my brain may have broken. All the boulders started to shake and soon I thought there was an earthquake; the rock slowly peeled away from the green bumpy skin and old battle gear. I was shocked that the boulders were green monsters, with axes and swords all bowing to a monster who was in the big rock that had already been cracking. Soon the rocks under my feet started to become clearer and the walls turned to wood. The whole structure and outside was a castle and a village of seven foot green monsters with weapons. Now the person who seemed to be their leader was sitting on a plush chair and was dressed in a robe and crown.
He pointed at me and made a ton of clicking noises. When I didn’t say anything, he looked annoyed, but then I started running. I guess they thought I was an enemy since two monsters grabbed me before I could get anywhere close to the tunnel that was now a door. They made more weird noises till one made a very loud noise and I was put in handcuffs. I was dragged through the hallways till the walls and the floor slowly started to be more stones than wood. I was thrown into a cell and that’s when I realized they looked just like the goblins Charlie talks about – really tall, two tusks hanging out of their mouths, bumpy green skin, no hair, and unusual colored eyes.
After a few minutes another guard came in and told the guards in the room something and they all ran out the room. I didn’t know why, but I put the pieces together; when sleeping, Charlie was tossed into the cell soon followed by Theo. Apparently I fell down the hole two hours ago and the weird magic from the stone must have messed up my sense of time. Once I fell, they tried to get down to where I was and they finally got there. When Charlie got out one of his many goblin and ghoul books, we didn’t believe it until today. Charlie started talking in a mix between clicking and English, but they were all shocked when the pothole I fell down came to life and swallowed them all whole. I was so confused; so many things were happening that I had only thought were real in story books. I tried to recall if Charlie had said anything on how to defeat a goblin when one appeared at the cell door. It made more clicking sounds before he looked like he lost patience and signed Why are these humans so difficult? I was shocked and signed You know sign language, how? The goblin immediately opened the cell, grabbed my hand and started walking. I was in the big room again and I was pushed in front of their leader.
He signed Hello I am Capo, I am the leader of my kind. What is your business here? I gulped and I was about to sign with slightly shaking hands but a bang of the door opening went through the room. Nico was there with a burning lighter and they yelled “HOW DARE YOU TAKE MY FRIENDS, I WILL SET THIS PLACE ON FIRE IF I DON’T GET THEM. I’M WARNING YOU!” I looked on in horror while I looked at their face. That seemed brave but I could tell they were horrified. I had none of them long enough to tell; the thing that scared me was the determination in their eyes. I knew they would do it, as they were about to drop it the leader Capo yelled a high pitched screech. There was a spear to my friend’s neck in the next two seconds, then two goblins left and returned with Charlie and Theo. Capo signed fast and harshly. You have two minutes to explain before your friends end up in the bare lands. You better have a good reason for this arrogance. I quickly signed. I’m sorry, I fell down here; then there was a weird rock and I broke it and what is happening. What are you? How is this possible? Oh and please don’t throw my friends in the “bare lands!” Whatever that is it sounds like somewhere- I realized I was ranting, but he just stared; a few seconds later he put up a hand.
The guards didn’t let go of them but they did stop holding weapons to their necks. What year is it and how did you break the rock? He signed, I was really confused on why that was his question, but I slowly answered. “It is 2024 and I kind of just picked it up and threw it at the floor.” All the goblins stood in shock; some broke out in a chant and one guard who seemed nice, signed. They want you to be tested and if you fail they’re going to throw you and your friends into a hole to rot. So I guess he wasn’t that nice, but at least now I know what is going on. I looked at him in horror as another one picked me up and dragged all of us off to wherever they’re going to “test me”. All of this sounds like a nightmare, but by the way, things looked somehow real and failing meant death.
