Lost In Realm-Chapter 1

Lost in Realm
1

"What is this? A cat?"

A beautiful, clear Autumn afternoon. Brown leaves, drizzled with smatter of red and green, framed the road, the woods and the clear sky overhead. The air was slightly cool. There was a brief shower earlier today, dropping the usually humid temperature to a tolerable level. A caravan loaded with cages and crates stopped on the side of the highway. It was a common practice at the edge of the major settlements. Traders or merchants who could not afford the rate of hiring a stall would often do their business this way.

He did not react to the voice at first. Hiding at the furthest corner of the cage, he was waiting for his time to come. His weakening senses could feel every bit of his energy seeping away. Parts of his organs had shattered. His wounds, though bandaged, were oozing with blood and throbbing. But really, none of these mattered when the unavoidable was coming.

So was this the end? He had been here before. It wasn't as terrifying as others had said. It was rather peaceful. He just didn't expect it would be this quick this time around. And in this body. Tsk, tsk. It looked like he would be back to the Wall of Faithless once more. Honestly, why was he even in this creature's body, if he was going to go back there soon?

Pfft.

"The cat is not good, ma'am." He heard the raspy grumbling voice echo near his ears. He had heard it a few times. The pet merchant, he vaguely recalled, was now talking to someone:"He's badly hurt, you see, those wounds.... I've been trying my best to patch him up, but for some reason they wouldn't close. He's dying. Best get the pupper."

For a while, there was nothing. He started wondering if the customer had left. Then he heard some fabric rustling and felt a soft hand reached close, gently pulled him toward outside. Then he had a feeling he was being inspected.

"He is very young." The female voice again. It was the customer.

"Isn't that the fact."

"Rare. A Displacer Beast Youngling."

"A what?" The man sounded surprised, as well as mildly confused. Funny, that; he sounded like he had never heard of such a thing before.

* * *

Nhilva snorted slightly but did not explain. This Hawker just called himself a beast expert, and here he did, not even know what a Displacer Beast was? Yes, they were rare to common folks. But surely for someone who had traveled a lot and been in this business for some time, surely he would have heard of them? There were scammers everywhere, no matter where she was.

She had been in this world for the best part of the past year, before waking up and finding she was in a strange bed and inside a strange thatched house. Before that, she was in the operating theatre, waiting to be operated on for the tumor inside her head. It had taken her a bit of time to get used to; no, she wasn't unfamiliar with this world, quite the opposite. This was the Forgotten Realm, fictional world renowned to many since it was introduced generations ago. Having played the one on one tabletop role-play games with her grandfather since she was small, she knew this new world like the back of her hand. Still, it took some mental adjusting when seeing an actual Dragonborn appear before her.

Not to mention upon seeing her own reflection.

She was a Drow.

A Drow Priestess who was on exile from the Underdark.

Her memory had told her prior to her taking over this body, the original Nhilva was cast out by her house because she had fallen in love with someone of 'lower status' and refused to kill him when confronted. Both of them were tossed out of Menzoberranzan, the major Drow city-state in the Underdark. They spent almost three years in exile underground. She eventually reached the surface, but without him. Not only that, her magic power had been stripped to the bare minimum.

She was in a strange world and strangely new to a lot of things.

"I will take this one." She eventually said to the Merchant.

"He's one of those whachoumacallits, you said?" The Male asked. Nhilva could see his eyes gleaming and his brain ticking. She swore he was going to toss the wee thing away, maybe into the nearest river, or his next stew, and considered it a loss if the creature died. But now suddenly there was hope earning some coins.

Greedy bastard.

She nodded, saying nothing.

"It's rare, you said?"

"And nearly dead. Wounds won't heal, according to you." She would like to point out the flaws.

"... 1 Platium."

"25 Gold."

Suddenly there was a haggling going on.

"Looky here.... 70 Gold."

"30."

"65," the man snapped. "And no more."

"35." She began to put the kitten back into the cage.

"Oi-oi! Alright... 45. 45 bloody Gold!"

"40."

"Deal," sighed the merchant. "... Pleasure doing business with yeh, ma'am."

She had to try very hard not to laugh. It was the first time in her life, both in this world and one she came from, she had bargained with somebody.

The coins were exchanged and she carefully picked the cub up before cradling it in her arms as if she was the most precious baby. She stood up, tugged her hood over her head, and started to walk away.