Touji quickened his steps as he could now see a light ahead of him. The steps finally stopped and a trap door stood directly above him carved into the low ceiling. He slid the latch to one side and crawled himself through.

  "Phew! Made it!" He exclaimed, wiping the dirt from his forehead.

  He reeled himself out of the hole and onto the dew covered green grass which lay around him. The sun was spreading it’s arms of light over the dances branches of trees, and the birds sang loudly with the songs of spring.

  "Ok, so where am I?"

  Touji dragged himself out onto the grass. He stood up and surveyed the area. He was standing in a small clearing, surrounded by a lush forest. No planes or helicopters were in site and the forest ahead appeared relatively untouched by civilization. The unfortunate conclusion he was forced to come to was that he was lost in the middle of nowhere. No paths or tracks could be cognized on the forest floor, except for the occasional pair of rabbits footprints in the grass.

  -It's fine. I'm ok. I'm probably dreaming and I'll wake up just in time for dinner.

  He sat down and began to dust off his black pants and dark green hoodie. He could hear the sound of running water nearby, not far from where he stood. Following his ears, he stumbled upon a small stream, only a few feet wide and about a foot deep, running quite shallowly below the trees.

  -Well, this isn't deep enough to bathe in, but I can wash off my clothes at least.

  He flung off his hoodie and shirt and began vigorously rubbing the dirt out.

  "Man, I'm so glad I changed out of the collared shirt and tie early today. This would have sucked."

  He glanced backwards, towards the trap door. The building was nowhere in sight and the door to the tunnel he’d just exited was no longer visible behind the many bushes and shrubbery which grew over it’s wooden lid.

  -Man! I really was underground huh, he thought to himself while throwing a handful of water over his face.

  Suddenly he heard a loud yelp. He turned back his head to see where the noise had originated, when his eyes met with a sight quite far from what he had been expecting. A girl stood on the other side of the river carrying two large, empty metal buckets.

  "Who-who are you?" The girl asked, with a still very surprised expression on her delicate features.

  Touji knelt there in a loss of words, wondering what a girl was doing in a place like this. The female in question appeared pale-skinned with dark golden eyes and a soft complexion. She was slightly shorter than Touji by the looks of it and wore a long, brown dress with white sleeves and a lace trim. The final and quite shocking attribute which her features exuded was the odd color of her hair. The light velvet and pink strands fell far past her shoulders and down to her waist, but were gracefully lifted up by the quiet breeze. Touji examined the buckets she was carrying.

  "Oh! I know what you’re doing. You’re gathering water, aren't you?!" He meant this as a joke, but she appeared to react strangely to his observation.

  "Um... Ah... Yes, I am. What are you doing here... Sir..."

  -Sir?

  "Washing my hoodie. You see, It's dirty."

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  "Hoodie? I-I can see that."

  A very awkward silence followed. Then Touji spoke up abruptly.

  "Oh yeah, I have some questions for you."

  "W-what questions?” She stuttered while still at a loss for words for the current situation, “I'll answer them if I can."

  "Good. Well, I guess my first question is, why are you wearing those clothes?" This of course was not something he should have been concerned with, much less his first question, but Touji failed to feel any sense of urgency and in fact it felt more like a prank to him, so he continued the small talk out of amusement.

  "E-excuse me? Why would it be weird to wear clothes?"

  "No, not to wear clothes, but to wear those clothes in particular. Look, I know you might be Amish and I'm sorry if I'm offending you, but seriously. It's a little late in history to be wearing peasant clothes, don't you think?"

  "I don't understand. If you’re saying my clothes look off, then you’re the one who looks out of the ordinary. I’ve never seen someone dressed like that."

  "Really? I never noticed. Is my taste in fashion that bad?"

  "I'm not sure what that means, but please put your shirt on." She pleaded, as her tone changed to slightly flustered.

  "But it's wet. Can't you see I'm washing it?"

  "I'm sorry for asking." The girl turned nervously away.

  Touji raised an eyebrow confused as to the reaction.

  "Oh yeah, I have a few more questions for you. Where are we?"

  "At a riverbank." She retorted.

  "Thank you for the honest answer. Now tell me where exactly we are. Like what prefecture. That's a good place to start."

  "I'm sorry. I still don't understand. Are you asking what the nearest town's called?"

  "Nearest town? Hold on here, let's start with the country of origin please."

  "Country?"

  "Bro... Like you know, the thing that presidents and kings rule over."

  "Oh, a kingdom."

  "Um... Sure, I guess."

  “Which?"

  “I don’t really care. No, wait, this one please."

  "The kingdom of Millivion."

  "Eh?! What's that?"

  "It's the land that your standing on."

  Touji scratched his head.

  "Ok, so, nowhere with that question either. By the way, is it bad to breath in that black stuff floating in the air inside of dungeon like structures? Cause I inhaled like, a ton earlier and I'm wondering if I'm going to die because of that?"

  "Black stuff?"

  "Yeah."

  "I'm sorry if your asking if it's alright to breath in dirt then I should advise against it."

  "Probably yeah." Touji replied.

  He rang out his shirt and hoodie and awkwardly slipped into them. It felt pretty gross wearing wet clothes, but he had some important business he had to attend to, so the sacrifice was necessary. He crossed the stream and grabbed both of her buckets from her hands, then proceeded to fill them to the brim with water.

  "Let's go." He said as he turned in the direction he assumed she had come. Touji could see the girl looking extremely jittery in response to his abrupt gestures.

  "Where are we going?" The girl asked, as she reach out her hand to retrieve the buckets. But Touji pulled them away.

  "Don't worry about it. It's fine, I'll take care of these. Just take me to your father and we'll settle things."

  -Hopefully, I can get something useful out of him other then who’s the king.

  The girl's face turned red at the mention of her father.

  "He's going to say 'no'."

  "I don't know about that, but there's always a chance he'll tell me what I want to hear. Now show me where we're going."

  The girl nodded obediently and began to walk quietly ahead. She led him down a small dirt path, without exchanging a single word with him. Touji wasn’t sure if she was just scared or something else was bothering her, but nonetheless he was beginning to feel threatened by the continual silence. After a few minutes of walking, Touji decided that it was to much for him to bare and tried to strike up a conversation.

  "What does your dad do for a living?"

  This question also seemed strange to the girl for some reason, but after a bit of consideration she finally replied.

  "He's a farmer. Like everyone who's not of a noble family."

  "Heh. Really interesting. Guess you really are Amish."

  The girl then looked at him again in dismay.

  "I still don't understand what you mean by that."

  "It's fine. I won't judge. Also, what time is it?"

  "Time? Well, the sun's at its last quarter so..."

  "Excuse me?"

  "The sun. It's got a quarter of the sky left until sunset."

  "Oh. Um, interesting way to tell time."

  -I personally think my stomach would be a better judge of that, but I mean, suit yourself.

  "I don't know of any other way to tell it." The girl answered with a hint of exasperation.

  "I could tell you the exact time it is, but I don't have my phone with me, so I'm sorry."

  "I don't understand. Why are you apologizing? And what's a phone?"

  Touji scratched his head for what he hoped was the last time.

  -Oh boy, this is taking the word sheltered to a whole ‘nother level.