by Jennifer Torres
“Fuck.” The whisper escaped her.
Phoebe Briarwick had always thought that if she ever made a terrible decision at work, it would involve yelling at a customer, giving a very public two-minute notice, or finally telling the district manager exactly what he could do with his labor budget.
Instead, it involved her assistant manager’s nails dragging slowly down her back.
“Oh, that’s not fair,” Phoebe breathed.
Mara laughed against her neck. Not loudly. They were in the storage room, after all, and the walls were thin enough that Phoebe had once heard an entire argument about expired yogurt from three aisles away.
“Fair?” Mara murmured. “You pulled me in here.”
“I said we needed to check the overstock.”
“We are.”
Phoebe made the mistake of looking at her. Mara’s hair was coming loose from its bun, her cheeks were flushed, and she had that awful, smug little smile that made Phoebe forget she had ever been a functional adult.
“You’re very bad at your job,” Phoebe whispered.
Mara leaned in, teeth grazing the side of Phoebe’s throat. “You keep saying that like you want me to stop.”
Phoebe’s hand tightened on the metal shelf behind her. A box of instant mashed potatoes wobbled dangerously over her shoulder.
“I have a conference call in twelve minutes.”
“Then we should be efficient.”
“I don’t think that means what you think that means.”
Mara bit her.
Not hard enough to hurt. Just hard enough to make Phoebe’s knees forget their responsibilities.
The sound Phoebe made was embarrassing. Worse, it was honest.
Mara’s smile softened. Her fingers slid beneath the hem of Phoebe’s shirt, warm against her spine, nails tracing the sensitive line between her shoulder blades.
“There she is,” Mara whispered. “You are so easy to find when you stop hiding.”
Phoebe wanted to make a joke. She had three ready. Something about workplace conduct. Something about OSHA. Something about how there were probably security cameras and she was too tired to become a training video.
None of them made it out.
Because Mara kissed her again, and Phoebe’s brain, traitorous little thing that it was, decided that cleverness had never done anything useful for anyone.
For a few seconds, there was only the storage room.
The metal shelf cold against her back. Mara’s hand warm beneath her shirt. The faint chemical smell of floor cleaner and cardboard and overripe bananas. The low, steady hum of the walk-in cooler vibrating through the wall beside them.
Then Mara’s radio crackled.
“Manager to register three.”
Mara froze against her.
Phoebe opened one eye. “That’s you.”
“I heard.”
“I'd be a bad manager if I let you ignore that.”
Mara sighed like the entire world had personally wronged her, then rested her forehead against Phoebe’s shoulder.
“I hate customers.”
“You work in retail.”
“I'm a complex creature.”
Phoebe laughed, breathless and shaky, which was annoying because she was trying very hard to seem unaffected. She failed at that often around Mara. It was one of the many reasons this was a terrible idea, right up there with “corporate policy,” “cameras,” and “they had both agreed this could not become a thing.”
Mara drew back just enough to look at her.
Her lipstick was slightly smudged. Phoebe tried not to be proud of that.
“You good?” Mara asked.
Phoebe and Mara were not dating. They'd never been dating. Rather, they had a lunch break, habit for making bad decisions at work, and Phoebe's well-documented weakness for any man or woman who knew how to bite her just right.
Friends, by all accounts. Friends with very specific benefits.
Phoebe swallowed.
“Yeah,” she said, a little too quickly. “I’m good.”
Mara’s eyebrow rose.
“I am,” Phoebe insisted.
“Mm-hm.”
“I’m extremely good.”
“Clearly.”
Phoebe pushed lightly at Mara’s shoulder, mostly because she needed something to do with her hands that wasn’t pulling her back in. “Go save register three before Mrs. Hampton starts explaining coupons to a teenager.”
Mara groaned. “Cruel.”
“Efficient!”
Mara smiled at that, quick and wicked. Then she leaned in, close enough that Phoebe forgot what efficiency was actually supposed to mean.
“One minute,” Mara whispered. “Cooler. Get the oat milk case before I come back.”
Phoebe blinked. “That sounded suspiciously like an order.”
“It was.”
The warmth that moved through Phoebe at that was deeply unfair.
Mara noticed, because of course she did.
Her smile sharpened.
“There she is again.”
“Go,” Phoebe said, but there wasn’t much force behind it.
Mara went, leaving Phoebe alone in the storage room with her shirt half-untucked, her back tingling, and a bite blooming hot against the side of her neck.
For a moment, she just stood there.
Then she covered her face with both hands.
“Get it together,” she muttered.
The walk-in cooler hummed beside her.
Right. Oat milk.
Normal task. Normal job. Normal life.
Phoebe straightened her shirt, smoothed her hair, and grabbed the cooler handle without looking. The metal was colder than usual, cold enough that it bit into her palm.
She pulled, the door opened, and cold air rushed over her.
Not refrigerated air.
Night air.
Phoebe stepped through before her brain caught up with her body.
Her sneaker came down in wet grass.
She stopped.
The cooler door clicked shut behind her.
For a second, she did not move.
There were no shelves. No stacked crates. No buzzing fluorescent light. No pallet jack wedged badly in the corner because Trevor from produce never put anything back where it belonged.
There was only a field under a black sky full of unfamiliar stars.
Phoebe turned slowly.
Behind her stood no door.
No grocery store. No brick wall. No dented metal handle.
Just a dark line of trees, shifting in the wind.
“…Mara?”
The word vanished into open air.
Something howled in the distance.
Phoebe’s hand flew to the bite mark on her neck.
"What the fuck was that!?"
Phoebe stood with one hand still lifted to her throat, fingers pressed against the warm sting Mara had left there, and stared at the place where the cooler door should have been.
The air felt different here, denser and rich with the scent of earth and something sweeter she couldn’t quite place. Phoebe squinted ahead, where the forest loomed like a fortress, its trees stretching shadows into the moonlight. A luminous green moon hung impossibly large in the sky, casting an eerie glow over the clearing.
Phoebe hesitated, a silly reaction considering ominous dark forests that appear out of nowhere generally aren't seen as "inviting". Still, something inside her, however small and foolish, had her wanting to investigate.
"Hoooowwwwlllll!!!"
Phoebe leapt back from the trees as guttural, bestial howling pierced the dense woods. She quickly spun around, opting for the more open, and slightly better lit grasslands behind her.
"O-okay Phoebe, calm down, we've had this dream before, we can manage this… It's simple, really, Maybe Mara made me orgasm so hard it sent me into another world? Yeah, obviously! And if I just wait here, I'll wake up and-"
Phoebe stumbled back, her shaky breaths melding with the scream of another howl, closer now, the sounds of snapping branches and rustling leaves uncomfortably close. Her heart was racing. She laughed, a short, high thing without humor.
"Definitely dreaming…" she murmured.
One half-step back and her foot met something solid. A rock. She toppled, landing hard on her elbow, pain sharp and real. Too real.
“Shit!” She gasped, fingers curling into the damp grass, her pulse quickening at the certainty that this was, in fact, not a dream.
Somewhere behind, the underbrush parted.
Phoebe lurched upright, instinct overriding the pain of her bruised limb. She ran without direction, the cool air cutting her face, tall grass whipping at her ankles.
She didn’t know what pursued her, or even if she was being pursued at all. Her lungs burned, muscles strained, but fear drove her faster, until at last she she felt safe enough to slow and catch her breath. She bent forward, resting her hands on her knees as she gasped for air.
As her pulse began to steady, Phoebe dared a glance back, her mind a frantic puzzle of questions and images, looking for any kind of orientation under the green moon’s surreal glow.
"Okay, let's work through this… I was in the storage room at work. Mara chomped me," Phoebe felt at her neck again, a brief surge of pleasure running down her spine, "and then I had to grab something from the cooler. I miss Mara… I opened the cooler door, walked through and…"
Phoebe let that thought linger, there really wasn't any reasonable explanation she could come up with.
"Survival first, then we'll figure it out. What did he always say?"
She thought back to one of her favorite characters from one of her favorite sci-fi audio dramas.
"Start by taking inventory. So, let's see…"
Phoebe felt around her body. Her pockets were all empty, and a now useless walkie-talkie hung off her belt. To that end, she was at least wearing comfortable jeans and shoes.
"In most of the fantasy books I read, the protagonist is transported to a dangerous world without any shoes, so, at least I don't have to worry about that. Ugh, I couldn't imagine… No phone though, and I doubt the radio's going to help at all." She looked up at the alien sky "Belt, plain t-shirt, didn't even bother putting on makeup this morning."
She reached into her apron pocket, pulling out her favorite purple Sharpie pen. "Oh good, at least I have you! Suppose I don't need to worry about anyone stealing you anymore… what's this?" Reaching back into her pocket she felt something she wasn't expecting. Smooth, cool, broad, like a playing card.
"Hm? Shit, did I bring Magic cards to work again on accident?"
It was definitely some kind of game card, but not one she'd recognized. It looked familiar, in the sense that there was a card name at the top, an image of what looked like… muscles? And some illegible text in a box beneath the art, not text, so much as some kind of intricate runes.
Even in the darkness, she could somehow clearly read the card name.
[Lesser Stamina]
"What's this? It looks… so cool!" Phoebe focused on the card, trying to make sense of it while the gamer in her got excited at seeing something like this, momentarily forgetting the incredible situation she'd only just found herself in. As her grip tightened on the card, the runes in the text box started to glow. Her eyes narrowed, and then, poof!
"Woah!"
The card shattered into multicolored sparks that fell gently around her hand. Then, warmth filled her body, starting in her ankles, up to her calves, her thighs, and through her entire torso. Her breathing became steady, easy even, and she suddenly felt like she'd just woken up from the most rejuvenating nap ever.
"The card's gone! The card's gone, and now I'm not even a little tired… I did just run for gods know how long, didn't I?" She looked behind her, searching for the tree line. "Lesser stamina, huh…"
Another distant howl snapped her back to the situation at hand.
She spent the next minute fidgeting with the purple Sharpie pen in her apron pocket before taking a deep breath and looking around in earnest. She'd have to figure out the whole magic not-Magic card thing later.
"Okay so, I'm almost positive I ran in a straight line from those trees, putting them in… that direction?" Phoebe pointed in the direction she came from, realizing she had no idea what direction that actually was. The grasslands had completely opened up, and in the darkness there were no notable landmarks.
"What's that? A light? No…"
Far in the distance, Phoebe could just barely make out a glint of light from a cluster of shadows. Not like a lamp or a fire, but a reflection as if something would move in the wind and catch the moonlight just right. She looked around, weighing her options.
"I guess I can't just stand here all night, alone, in another world… where there are definitely wolves…"
Phoebe's legs started moving.
Not quickly, at first. The howling had faded behind her, and now that she had something like a destination, panic subsided just enough to let her think. She twiddled her Sharpie between her fingers, finding some comfort in the familiarity.
"Stepped into the cooler, cooler was Narnia, we never really liked Narnia… feels like Narnia should have more snow. Probably not Narnia, plus I doubt I'm their demographic, haha." Phoebe scoffed a little as her hand returned to the bite Mara left on her neck.
"Besides, if the cooler was a portal we'd have lost a lot more of our clerks by now, and I'm sure I'd have heard Mara or Trevor screaming behind me. Guess I'm just lucky?"
She picked up her pace, noting how light and energized her body felt now.
"And that card! What the hell was that? I know I didn't have it on me back at the store, and I haven't run into anyone here who could have slipped it into my pocket. Sure wish I had a few of those for work. Focus Phoebs! Okay, no point wasting time on the how or why of it all. The insane reality is that I've been, what, magically transported to another world? Sure, fine, we've watched anime before, we know how this works."
Walked Through a Grocery Store Cooler and Got Transported to Another Dimension with My Sharpie
She chuckled at her own stupid joke, then jumped at the sudden chill on her neck, then her arms.
"Rain? Fuck! When did the clouds start… there aren't any clouds. Why the fuck is there rain and no rain clouds? Why the fuck am I arguing with myself over fantasy weather conditions!"
Thunder cracked in the distance. Phoebe broke out into a run.
As the rain started to pick up from a light drizzle to a steady shower, the far off shadows started coming into focus.
"That's a house! The light must have been the moonlight reflecting off the windows whenever the wind blew those tarps out of the way. I really hope whoever lives here is friendly…"
She didn't have time to weigh her options. The rain was now pouring down, soaking her to the bone. The situation became clearer as she got closer, finding some refuge from the rain beneath a wooden awning in front of the…
"There's no door. Wait, there it is." Phoebe looked down at the floor, a broken wooden door lay useless off its hinges. "Sure, okay, I guess I don't have to worry about anyone else living here… hopefully…”
Phoebe stepped inside, groaning as she lifted the detached wooden door and leaned it against the empty frame before looking around. The room was larger than expected with a long wooden table in the center of it, some chairs in various degrees of disrepair, and a dark brick fireplace on the back wall preceded by a sturdy stone hearth.
“That fireplace is beautiful. Is this some kind of inn? Maybe a B&B? Seems a little small for that.”
Off to the right, an archway opened up to a wide hallway-style kitchen, counters covered in various pots, pans, and utensils. A wooden stove acted as the kitchen’s centerpiece, while a small stack of firewood and what looked like a couple sacks of flour sat on the wall opposite it.
“The kitchen’s nice, maybe this was some kind of bed and breakfast? Oh, another door!”
Thunder rang again, closer this time as the sound of heavy rain echoed through the building. Phoebe cautiously opened the door at the other end of the kitchen, revealing a small room with a single window on the wall opposite the door. In the corner was a badly damaged dresser, missing drawers and with large cracks running along its sides. Across the room was a pile of rough blankets and more flour sacks.
“A bed? Oh gods I hope no one’s in there…”
Slowly, Phoebe moved through the dark room lit only by vaguely green tinted moonlight. She anxiously pulled back the top blanket to reveal bare floor.
“Oh thank fuck. I could not handle a…”
Her knees softened.
“…handle…”
The rest of the thought slipped away.
Phoebe dropped onto the flour sacks, dragged the rough blanket over herself, and curled up with one hand still wrapped around the purple Sharpie in her apron pocket.
The room smelled like dust, rain, and old wood.
It was cold. It was filthy. The door was broken, the bed was covered in dust, and she had absolutely no idea what world she was in.
But there was a roof over her head, and for now, that was enough.
[Property Acquired: Hearthseed Farmstead!]
Phoebe opened her eyes, just a little, ignoring the voice in her head, and drifted back to sleep.
Phoebe was warm.
The most comfortable kind of warm. The kind of warmth that came from soft blankets, lazy mornings, and another body pressed against yours.
She was smiling.
Toby's arm was draped across her stomach. His chin rested against her shoulder. The noisy box fan in the corner of the dorm room rattled against itself.
"You're stealing all the blanket again," Phoebe mumbled.
"I bought the blanket."
"Your parents bought the blanket."
"Should I get them in here?"
They laughed as Phoebe shifted closer, feeling the familiar weight of him beside her. Outside, someone was yelling in the hallway. A door slammed. College life powered on and for once, she didn't care.
Phoebe purred in Toby's ear, "I don't think you'd want them watching what I'm about to do to you, my dear."
She pulled him in for a deep, passionate kiss as her fingers traced along his collarbone, down his chest, and stomach, before finally finding her prize.
"Oh! Looks like we had the same idea…"
Phoebe closed her eyes as she slid down under the blanket.
Then the fan stopped rattling.
The warmth vanished.
Phoebe's eyes snapped open staring up at dark wooden ceiling beams and dust particles dancing in the bright sunlight.
"Huh, hadn't thought about Toby in years… They were so nice…"
There was a flicker of disappointment as she remembered the dream she was having, replaced quickly by the memory of last night. Mara, the cooler, the forest and the huge green moon.
"The card..." Phoebe rubbed her eyes. "I guess that all really happened, huh?"
She lay on the floor for a few more minutes, listening to the sounds of nature through the window. She noted the absence of the tweeting of birds or buzzing of insects.
"No birds or bugs? That can't be right."
Despite that, the world outside still felt alive somehow. The wind rustling through the trees, the grass blowing, the distant sound of a stream. There was an energy to all that Phoebe couldn't remember feeling back home.
"Home…" Phoebe rolled her eyes as she pushed herself up off the dusty floor. "At least that's something I won't miss."
She stood up, raised her arms high about her head and stretched, her back cracking as she did. Now that it was light outside, and both the rain and the terror she'd experienced last night had subsided, she could finally take a proper look around.
"This room's about as empty as I remember. That dresser looks pretty fancy, I can put all the clothes I brought with me in there." She scoffed into the empty room. "I'd kill for something softer to sleep on, though. First thing's first! Let's get a better look at things."
Phoebe finished looking around the small room, which she decided was definitely a bedroom despite there being no bed of which to speak. In the corner sat the older wooden dresser with its missing drawers and damaged panels. She looked out the window that sat above it.
"Blue skies and green grass, at least that's normal enough, not that normal really counts for much here. Not a cloud in the sky, either."
She looked around for the river she heard, but found only open fields of tall, green grass. In the distance, she could barely make out a dense tree line, with snowy mountains towering even farther away. Phoebe turned, exiting the bedroom through the closed door.
"And here we have our galley kitchen, complete with… um…" She allowed her train of thought to derail as she more closely examined the space. Along one wall ran sturdy wood and stone cabinetry and countertops. In the middle rested a wood stove made of rusty cast iron, with a few pieces of firewood leftover in the firebox. Scattered pots and pans sat on top of the counters.
"This actually looks like a pretty nice kitchen… no clue how to start a fire, though. Maybe there's something I can use in the cabinets that definitely aren't full of spiders…"
Phoebe cautiously opened the first cabinet, relieved to find that there were, in fact, no spiders. Instead, she was greeted with stacks of clay plates and bowls. In the cabinet next to that, cups and serving ware. The cabinets to the right of the stove contained forks, spoons, knives, and various cooking utensils.
"Dirty, but, at least it's got all the fixings. Still, nothing to make a fire with…"
Behind her, on the wall opposite the stove, shelves for storing food and ingredients sat beneath another window looking to the front of the building. The shelves were mostly bare, save for a couple flour sacks and a basket full of what Phoebe suspected may once have been potatoes. She leaned over the top shelf, looking through the window.
"Oh wow! Is that like, a farming field? Like that's straight up Stardew Valley out there!"
Outside, Phoebe could see a mostly broken wooden fence surrounding the entire property. Directly under the window she was looking through, which would effectively be her front yard, sat a large, tilled field. The years of neglect were evident - broken barrels and farming tools, overgrowth of weeds and roots, and of course the disaster of a fence - but that had little impact on the rich, dark soil that seemed to almost glow with fertility.
"I wanna play in the dirt!" Phoebe blurted out excitedly before embarrassment took over. "U-um, I mean I look forward to examining that field," she spoke into the air as if to impress some imaginary guest. She looked out through the archway at the far end of kitchen, into the main room she'd first entered through last night.
"It's… a shit show. Like, fuck!"
She didn't notice last night, but this room was an absolute mess. The sturdy table in the center was the only piece of furniture in the room that seemed at all intact. A couple of the chairs were… usable, but only just. A large brick fireplace above a beautiful stone hearth made for the centerpiece of the back wall, but it was full of debris and Phoebe couldn't imagine getting a decent fire going any time soon.
"Ah, and there's the door."
The front door, completely detached from its frame, leaned haphazardly in place. Phoebe took a deep breath before heaving it up and setting it against another wall.
"We'll deal with that better later. Ooohhh, the weather today is perfect! Not at all humid, and the breeze is fantastic!"
Phoebe enjoyed the weather just a moment before turning her attention to the field. She hurried over and squatted in front of it, reaching her hand out to examine it.
"Oooh, it's so soft! This feels like the potting soil you could buy back home. How has it not all dried up by now? I know it was raining last night, but," Phoebe looked around the area, noting the dry dirt path leading up to the entrance of the farmstead, "it doesn't look like the rain settled anywhere else. Has someone been taking care of it?"
She looked around at the overgrowth slowly reclaiming the entire farmstead.
"Hm, not likely. I wonder…"
As Phoebe let her mind explore the possibilities, her hand started to idly explore her apron pocket in search of that purple Sharpie to fidget with. Instead, she once against felt smooth card stock under her fingers.
"Wait what? It's back?"
Sure enough, she pulled out the Lesser Stamina card from last night. An image of flexing muscles sat above illegible glyphs. Unexpectedly, behind the Lesser Stamina card was a second card. This one had the same set of unreadable glyphs beneath an image of a hand dropping motes of energy into the ground. The name of card began to reveal itself.
[Magical Sowing]
"Magical Sowing? Like seeds? Like crop seeds!? Oh I'd kill for a juicy tomato with some eggs right now…"
Her grip on the card tightened, and the glyphs began to dance with light before the entire card scattered into dozens of glowing green lights, all burying themselves just under the surface of the soil in front of her.
"Woah!"
Before her eyes, small green saplings started popping out of the ground, each growing nearly two or three inches, some sprouting a leaf or two, before settling into place.
"Holy shit I just planted seeds! Magic seeds! Hahaha! This is so cool! I'm like… hold on…" Phoebe reached out and touched the ground the seeds had all planted themselves in. "It's bone dry now. Do I need to water these? I need to water these!"
She started frantically searching the area for some kind of watering can.
"Um, let's see, let's see… Ooohhh, no! Broken shovel, broken crate, broken… farm… thing…"
Phoebe made her way down the entire perimeter of the structure, checking every crate and box and barrel and finding mostly dirt and spare wood. She turned, spotting the well at the corner of the fence line.
"Obviously Phoebe…"
She stood up straight, wiped the dirt off her apron, and took a deep breath.
"Breathe girl, why are we even panicking? Plants look healthy enough, day's early. Let's not burn all our calories on running around like a crazy bitch. Breathe."
Her stomach rumbled.
"Speaking of calories… One thing at a time."
Phoebe, having regained her composure, walked calmly over the well. While just as overgrown as everything else on the farmstead, the well was still standing and in fairly impeccable condition. The stones all held firmly in place with only small cracks along a few of the rough bricks. If there was ever a well house or even a bucket and rope, they were long gone now.
"That looks deep. Don't see any water down there…"
She found a small rock in the brush, then dropped it down the dark well. Seconds after it disappeared into the darkness, Phoebe heard a wet thud.
"Mud. That's good, right? I think it's good… It's not water but it's still wet, and that's something, right? I don't know wells… well. Right, watering can!"
Phoebe turned her attention from the well to the thick brush surrounding it, running her hands through the dry grass and bramble until they hit something solid and metal.
"Yes!"
With a bit of effort, she freed what she was relieved to find was a rusty, dinged up watering can. It was in rough shape, to be sure, but there was no reason it couldn't hold water and distribute it somewhat evenly across soil.
"That solves one problem," Phoebe closed her eyes, listening for the running water she'd heard earlier. "but I'm still missing the actual water. I guess we're going for a walk…"
Phoebe stood up and turned around to really face the farmhouse for the first time since her arrival. In the light of day, without rain, and thunder, and wolves, it actually looked… cozy. Yes it was in desperate need of all sorts of repair, it would take days just to clean up the yard surrounding the field, but for all intents and purposes, at least for the moment, Phoebe felt a kind of connection with this place. It wasn't quite home, but it was something she could count on.
"What I wouldn't give for a woodworking lesbian right now… Ugh, Sheena would have had a field day here and could have… watched… hm…" Phoebe had to stop her mind from wandering too much. That fling with Mara in the storeroom would have been the first time she'd been laid in weeks, and even under these incredible circumstances her dry spell was still managing to affect her.
"Right, about that walk. There's gotta be water nearby, otherwise what's a farm even doing out here? I really wish I knew what direction I came from, cause, you know, wolves…"
Phoebe decided it was time to wrap up her externally presenting internal monologue and start moving. She tightened her grip on the watering can and followed the ruined dirt path towards the entrance of the farmstead. Examining the fence here, she could tell there might have once been a sign, and probably a gate. "I don't think I'd put a gate here." She thought about farm designs she'd used in various farming video games she'd sunk hundreds of hours into back in her world.
She pressed forward. "As long as I keep the farm in sight I should be fine. Everything around here looks mostly flat so that shouldn't be an issue." Her stomach growled again. "Ugh, then there's that problem. If I can find that water I should be able to do something with the flour back inside, long as it's still good. Does flour even go bad? Jesus, we worked in a fucking grocery store, was I this bad at my job?"
Phoebe decided to walk in a wide arc around to the back of the farmstead, in the direction she heard the water coming from. She stretched her arms wide, enjoying the cool breeze and the warmth coming from the… sun?
"Woah, that's so cool! It looks so… weird!"
Above her, high up in the cloudless blue sky, was a bright yellow sun. Only it wasn't a sun. Rather than a familiar blinding orb, Phoebe squinted her eyes to see a shapeless, rippling wave of energy that would occasionally flick off wisps of energized vapors to fade into the atmosphere. It was less like a solid body, and more like a radiant wave of light that would stretch and compress and ripple ever so slightly.
Phoebe looked down, noting that shadows were still being cast and wondering to herself if this "sun cloud" would move across the sky over the course of the day as the sun in her world did. "I'll have to remember to keep an eye on that. For now… looks a little above my pay grade." She continued walking toward her destination.
"I was never a huge fan of the outdoors but man, it's gorgeous out here."
As she walked, Phoebe took in the sights. Tall, ankle-high green grass went on for miles around her, with distant tree lines acting to contain her large clearing. High in the sky, flocks of creatures that resembled birds flew towards unknown destinations. They had wings, and perhaps feathers, though it was hard to tell at this distance, but they also had tails and made no calls or noises as they glided through the air.
On the ground, Phoebe could squint to see roaming herds of what looked like deer far in the distance near the trees. She would have been fine just thinking of them as regular deer, no different from her world, only they were different. Vibrant flowers bloomed on the antlers of the larger bucks, and the smaller does had tan coats that faded into shades of blues and greens towards their hindquarters. They moved in an almost ethereal way, reminding Phoebe of the High Elves in the fantasy books and movies she'd loved so much back home.
"Oh! Oh! There it is! Oh my gods it's gorgeous…"
Over a gentle hill, Phoebe found what she was looking for. Several yards ahead was the bend of narrow river that flowed across the grasslands. The water glistened under the wafting sun cloud. It didn't look deep, only a few feet towards the middle, and smooth stones lined the riverbed. She could see more of those elf-deer far upstream, drinking from the waters. Filled with excitement and relief, Phoebe quickly moved down the hill towards the riverbank.
She slowly crouched down to her knees, settling between some of the stones along the edge of the water and placing the watering can next to her.
"It looks so clean… If it's good enough for those deer, it should be safe to drink, right?" She hesitated, knowing full well that logic didn't quite hold water and laughing at the pun. Still, she cupped her hands into the water. It was cool, cold even, cold enough that a swim might not be very comfortable right now but perfect for a drink. Phoebe brought the water to her lips, and drank.
"Oh… Oh that's so good! It's a little minerally, but it's no worse than the tap water back home. Better even!"
Phoebe took a few more sips, in part to help stave off her hunger, then filled her watering can nearly to the top.
"This place really is magical. The colors are so vibrant, and the air and water are so clean and comfortable. It's like I'm in a story, or a dream!"
She spun around, taking it all in, the smile never once leaving her face.
"That deer just pooped in the river."
She started walking back to the farm.
Phoebe wiped the sweat off her brow. It wasn't particularly hot today, but the day's activities had started to catch up with her. Looking up, she saw that the glowing cloud of sunlight hadn't seemed to have moved at all from its original position.
"Hm, really. I'm sure I've been out here for at least an hour… I need a journal or something to log my findings!"
She smiled as she twiddled the purple pen still in her apron pocket.
It was time to go, she had what she came for, was adequately hydrated, and was eager to give her little seedlings some love. She groaned as she got to her feet, lamenting her aging body, before bending down and picking up the watering can and looking around.
As far as she could tell there was plenty of daylight left, so taking a longer route back to the farmstead to do some exploring couldn't hurt. Phoebe followed the river downstream so as not to bother the deer she'd seen earlier. As she walked, the grass started growing taller, progressing up to her knees, then past her waist.
"Ah, itchy grass! Where's my sword? Why don't I have a sword? What random cave or abandoned mine do I need to wander into for someone to give me a sword!?"
Between the steady flow of the river to her left and the increasing struggle with local vegetation, Phoebe barely noticed the rustling in the grass off to her right. She froze, remembering that despite a few similarities this was definitely not her world. Slowly, she turned her body.
"H-hello? A-are you a snake? I really need you to not be a snake…"
Her low voice didn't seem to have an effect on the rustling one way or another. It was light, and whatever was causing it didn't seem to be moving towards her nor away from her. Phoebe slowly moved forward, parting the tall grass with one hand and the spout of the watering can.
"Oh my goodness! You're so cute!"
In a small clearing sat a nest of grass and twigs and small stones, and in that nest sat three tiny, fluffy, bird-like creatures. They had short beaks and black eyes, and their bodies were covered in both colorful patches of fluff, as well as nearly one inch long thorns. They looked a little bit like chicks from Phoebe's world, aside from the size and colors and thorns.
"Well don't you all look… slightly dangerous. Oh hey, is that…"
Nestled behind the creatures was a single, unhatched egg. The chicks didn't pay Phoebe much mind, too preoccupied with hopping around making little "popping" noises with their mouths and pecking at the dirt and grass around them. For a moment, she thought she just might be looking at a free meal. Phoebe knelt down, carefully reaching into the nest while trying to avoid the creatures' spines. Then, she heard it.
Snap!
A chill ran up her spine as a loud crunching sound came from just behind her, then a kind of clicking noise from behind her head. She turned, slowly, to face a creature nearly as tall as she was, covered tip to talons in green and red feathers, and long thick thorns.
"E-easy now… I was just… u-um…"
The creature, clearly the chicks' guardian, somewhat resembled the chickens from Phoebe's world, save for the fact that it was about five feet tall and covered in spikes! It looked at Phoebe, only for a moment, before spreading its huge wings and opening its short beak making a terrifying unearthly noise like something out of The Grudge.
"F-fuck me!"
Phoebe turned around and ran as fast as she could. The creature, for all its size and horribleness, didn't have particularly long legs. Even still, as the grass started to thin and shorten, it started to gain speed, and with every slip and stumble from Phoebe, it got closer. Finally, her feet came out from under her.
"Oh shit! Fuck fuck fuck fuck…"
As the giant spiked bird closed in on her, her only instinct was to roll into the river in the hopes that it wouldn't be too compelled to swim after her, or be able to fly. She hit the water with a splash and allowed the current to pull her down a ways before pulling herself to the other bank. She continued to run for several more yards, soaking wet, before turning to see that her pursuer had indeed given up the chase.
"Fuck! That was… Fuck! And I was having such a good day! Shit, the watering-" Phoebe quickly realized she was still holding the watering can, though it had since lost all the water it once held. "Oh good… Ohhh good… Okay Phoebe, what now? Monster chicken isn't trying to eat us anymore, that's great. We have a vague sense of where we are still, that's also good. Our clothing is sopping wet… that's less good. You know I think we're good for the day. I think it's time we get back to the farm, wring our clothes over those seedlings, and maybe just call it today, yeah? Yeah."
Phoebe walked along the river, the breeze now a biting cold against her soaked clothing that she knew she'd just have to get wet again when she crossed back over.
"To trudge!" She mused to herself. "The slow weary something or other… fuck this sucks."
She looked up at the sun cloud, still holding the same position it did earlier, seemed dimmer than earlier, almost "less solid", Phoebe thought. She refocused on her task at hand, finally reaching a point along the river she thought she recognized.
"Alright socks, just when you thought the day was done fucking SUCKING…"
Phoebe pointed her chin towards the sky and marched through the river, shuddering as the cold water rose up above her waist. As she started to reach the other side of the river, the world around her started to darken, as if clouds had just blocked out the sun. Instinctively, Phoebe looked up.
"Oooohhh, that's weird."
The cloud of sunlight that had been wafting in the sky all day had started to rapidly dissipate, almost instantly darkening the sky. Once the wisps of light were completely gone and Phoebe's eyes could adjust to the abrupt darkness, she saw it. That same, giant, green orb that hung low in the sky when she first arrived.
"Just like that? The sun just, like, disappeared and poof, giant green moon?" Phoebe began yelling into the darkness. "And right when I'm up to my tits in freezing water and have to fucking hike back to a rundown piece of shit farm with nothing to eat!? I'd ask if it could get any worse but then it'd start to fucking rain!"
Phoebe stared in silence as floating deer pellets slowly flowed downstream in front of her.
"FUCK!"
The trip back to the farmstead was quiet, save for Phoebe's labored breathing and the sloshing of her wet clothes. With the sunlight gone but the breeze still in place, she began to shiver. Mostly on autopilot, she quickly watered her new seedlings before stomping into the bedroom, watering can still in hand. She set it next to the dresser and started to strip.
Her wet, naked body shimmered in the moonlight pouring through the window as she hung her wet clothing off the edge of the dresser. Despite her exhaustion and the stress of the evening, she still took a moment to examine her own body. Phoebe tilted her head to the side, wringing her wet hair into one corner of the room, then gliding her hands down along her soft body, brushing away the debris that accumulated from the day. Her stomach was soft and round, but she insisted she had a cute belly. She never heard any arguments to the contrary. Relieved to be back indoors, if not thoroughly worn out, she pressed her cheek against her flour sack pillow and reached for the blankets.
Phoebe passed out, naked, half covered by an old blanket under the light of a green moon.
"Hey."
Phoebe jerked her head to the side trying to roll over.
"Mm… sleep…"
"Fucking… What? Get up!"
"Five more minutes, I'm so tired." Phoebe closed her eyes tighter in protest.
"Bitch I said wake the fuck… UP!"
Phoebe felt herself pulled to the ground as if she'd fallen out of bed. She moved her hand around the floor and felt soft carpet. As her eyes slowly opened, a pair of red feet inside of black stilettos immediately snapped her upright.
"Where am I!? Who are you? FUCK I'M STILL NAKED! What's going on!?"
A tall woman stood in front of Phoebe with an exasperated expression on her face. She was dressed in perfectly put together office attire - a skirt that fell just above her knees, a white blouse beneath a blazer that matched the skirt, and of course the aforementioned heels. Her raven black hair was pulled back with straight bangs framing her face. Most notable, however, was her skin. Her bright, crimson red skin. She placed two fingers to her temple.
"Girl, I'm gonna need you to shut the fuck up a little, like just a little, for me? Please and thank you."
She motioned to the sofa behind Phoebe, which she quickly scurried over to, using one of the accent pillows to cover herself.
"O-okay, right, so this is a dream then."
"Am I the kind of girl you dream about, babe?" The woman placed a hand on her hip as she put on an incredulous expression.
"I mean… Kind of absolutely yes all the time? Why?"
The woman rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. So okay, few things. First, not a dream," she shrugged, "at least not really. Like you're here, but you're not here here, make sense? Second, hi, my name's San'twansi, not my fault, please call me Tawni that'd be great."
Tawni narrowed her eyes.
"Third, and the reason I'm super trying not to stress out right now… I don't know why the fuck you're here babe. Like, you super fucking shouldn't be here. Like I know you can't tell 'cause I'm being like, so professional right now, but like I'm kinda freaking out right now. Like I'm shaking, like feel my hands!"
She put her trembling, perfectly manicured hand in front of Phoebe's face, which she couldn't help but reach out and feel.
"You're so soft and smell like cinnamon…"
"Oh hells, like, thank you so much!"
Tawni took a deep breath, then sat on the edge of her desk.
"Okay, so… What do you remember from before you came here? Spare no deets please and thank you."
The woman took on a more attentive, serious tone.
Phoebe took a deep breath, collecting herself, then launching into whatever she could come up with in the moment. "Um, Mara and I, Mara was my assistant manager at the grocery store, were sort of, like, fooling around in back of the store, and then she had to go and I was sad but it was fine and then I went into the cooler and… um… Did I lose you?"
Tawni's bright yellow eyes had gone wide, mouth slightly agape revealing slightly elongated fangs in place of traditional canines.
"Grocery… story? Walk-in what now?"
Phoebe paused, then started over. "I walked through a doorway and ended up in this world somehow, that was, I guess, about a whole day ago? I ended up sleeping in this abandoned farm and everything's weird and I don't… I don't understand any of it… and I'm so hungry…" She steadied herself, only now realizing how overwhelming the entire experience had been.
Tawni put her finger to her lips in thought, unmoved by Phoebe's small emotional display.
"So like, you're not even from here? Fuck, I guess that explains why all our shit's been so fucky." She turned to the wall of files behind her desk and started shuffling through them.
It was only just now that Phoebe started taking in her surroundings. It felt like a high end therapist's office. The lighting was warm, the carpets were soft, and the only seating was a nice, plush sofa in front of Tawni's large wooden desk. Shelving lined nearly all the walls with thin, uniform books filling nearly every shelf. Tawni found the specific one she was looking for and turned around.
"Cool, so, first of all, so sorry. This should have been brought to my attention, like, right away. The little shit down in processing, fucking Grik'nary… Only got the job because his mommy threw a little bitch fit and now all he does is make everyone's life fucking miserable."
"Sounds like a Trevor."
"I don't know what that is but I already hate it. Okay babes, listen up because I literally can't tell you this again and like I need you out of here yesterday."
Tawni opened the thin book, turning to the first page.
"So let's say you're from a different world, fine, sure. In this world, everyone is given a Grimoire. Looking at our notes, yours has already started to develop. Better late than never, I suppose." Tawni's head bobbed along with the words.
Phoebe tilted her head. "You mean those cards?" Tawni ignored her and continued.
"Based on just a whole bunch of shit that I'm not going to go over with you, everyone's Grimoire eventually specializes. Good news babe, you're now officially a recognized Farmer. Huzzah!"
Tawni threw up her hand in mock celebration.
"Is that… good?"
"It's whatevs, but I'd consider it more of a starting point. Over time, a Grimoire can grow, evolve, and even respecialize. Happens all the time! Anyways, that's all I have for you, so…"
"W-wait! Seriously? First I get brought to some crazy world against my will, then I'm teleported to whatever the fuck this is, and then it's like 'kay thanks bye!?"
Phoebe glared at Tawni with utter indignance, which Tawni returned in kind before finally relenting with a heavy sigh.
"Look babe, I don't know how you got here, no one here would. Our whole deal is Grimoire processing and management. You being here at all is beyond weird, and I mean both here in this world and here in this office."
Tawni looked around, trying to hide her panic.
"Like seriously, no one from the outside should ever be in this office, and it's way past time for you to leave, so…"
Phoebe looked at Tawni, resigned. "Okay, I guess…"
Tawni stared at Phoebe intently, then sighed heavily once again before pulling out a quill from her desk and turning a page in the book she had open.
"Fine, whatever, I'll clear this with management later, not like they give a shit about anything else I do…" She scribbled in the book. "There, since you're new here, I've added a couple new pages to your Grimoire. One's permanent, one's more basic but doesn't come with the Farmer class normally, so, you're welcome or whatever."
The tall woman closed the book with a loud thud then leaned in close to Phoebe, almost touching noses.
"You're so pretty…"
"Bitch I know, now do me a favor and don't tell anyone about this, 'kay? Let's just say it was a dream and move on with our lives?"
Tawni raised a finger and pressed it into Phoebe's forehead. The world went white again, and Phoebe awoke to sunlight and a hard, dusty floor.