samurai-ashes
Synopsis
After rushing to her dying aunt's beside in Sioux Falls, Vivienne accidentally opens a strange, dark hole at her aunt's behest -- it's the falling in that was accidental. Upon waking she's greeted by gibberish-speaking peasants using magic like it's no big thing. It's not until she meets an artist who specializes in dead languages that she starts to understand just how far she is from home.
Excerpt
The trucks rumble through the camp in the morning; Vivienne wakes from a heavy night's sleep to feel the ground shaking beneath her. She pushes herself to her feet, her whole body creaking in unaccustomed stiffness. A couple thousand years ago her boyfriend is sprawled out on their queen-sized mattress and loving the space. She's wearing a thin linen nightshirt that Kachja had lent her, and it does very little to block against the morning chill. "Hello?" There's no response, and Avent is nowhere to be seen. She makes her way to the door of the hut and pushes the curtain aside. Heavy metal beasts that barely resemble trucks lumber through a large central patch of dirt that probably works as a road. Several children look up from tending the gardens around Avent's hut and rush to shove her back inside.
"What is that?" she asks. They frown at her, and make shushing noises. "What?" she repeats, pointing to where the trucks are squealing to a stop. One child makes some gesture with his hands, and they all rush back outside, yanking the curtain shut. She creeps forward and opens it just enough to see what the fuss is about.
A soldier is a soldier, no matter what the time period. The men that climb out of the vehicles that might be buses and might be tanks hold themselves with the rigid assurance that soldiers have always carried. She can't make out if they are armed from her distance, but the one that comes up the walkway and addresses the children is only holding what looks like a hand scanner. The children respond politely, subdued with their heads down and their hands clasped behind their back.
The soldier gestures toward the hut. The children look over; the oldest panics and starts to say something, but before Vivienne can get into some hidden place – where, there's one room and no closets – the soldier pulls the curtain aside and addresses her. She sees one of the children run off, and the other steps forward reply to whatever the soldier had asked.
Vivienne can't quite make herself seem confident in sack nightgown and her socks, so she instead settles for cowed and examines the soldier's face. He's an older man, and he seems as bewildered by her as she is of him. Thankfully Singer interrupts the staring contest. A few words, and the soldier is gone again. Singer looks her over with some disdain, and walks right back out.
The children look relieved.
