flipside

You wake up in the grass in a, bright, sun-soaked plain, confused and somewhat achey. You fell asleep waiting for your sister to come home from the Magic tourney you passed on because you needed to study for your med exam, but she never did. This sure isn’t the desk you fell asleep at, that’s for sure.

Your eyes hurt like hell. It’s way too bright here. Your sunglasses lay on the ground, and you’re very thankful that they managed to come with you. With your vision restored from its flash-blinded status, you’re able to see around you a flat, windswept grassland, with a few small villages in any direction. You stand up, and begin walking toward the one that looks the largest. Ordinarily you would be freaking out, but there’s no one out here to hear you.

Internally, you are still freaking out.

Where the hell did your sister go? Why didn’t she come home, and where are you? Why do you feel so sore? There’s no medical reason you should feel like this. Besides maybe falling asleep in that chair. That could be it. But your own health isn’t important compared to knowing where she went.

Wherever you are, maybe someone can tell you if they’ve seen the short little brown gremlin with the fluffy red hair. She sure isn’t hurting for looks people will remember, you know that for sure.

Eventually, you see someone walking down the road in the opposite direction.

Walking isn’t exactly the word.

Limping is more like it.

Your doctor’s instincts kick in, and you break into a full run toward what you know to be an injured person. You lose your breath long before you actually reach this person, and everything your sister said about exercising begins to sink in more than it ever did when she was saying it to your face. You stagger the rest of the way toward them and wave them down without ever registering what exactly they look like until they don’t even look in your direction.

Limping past you is a cat.

A bipedal, person-sized black cat, with a blindfold and a head of human-like hair whose long bleached bangs covering her face. She’s wearing a torn red blouse through which you can clearly see a worn out binder, and jeans that may as well be shorts. One of her legs is bent in a direction you didn’t want to think was possible. She’s covered in scars that make your skin itch just looking at them.

You, without thinking, rush to her side and get shoved back in response.

“Th’fuck you think you’re doin!” She yells in shock. You explain that you’re a doctor, and that you’ve noticed her condition. She insists that she’s fine and demands to know why you just accosted her without even making a sound.

You realize that you’ve acted before you think again. You apologize. You explain that if you help her to a hospital, you can re-set that leg and have it in walking condition before she knows it.

“What’re you, some kind’a healin’ magic prodigy?” She asks.

Despite the fact that you’re talking to a giant cat, that catches you off-guard. She, again, catches you off-guard as she asks why your aura looks so damn shocked.

You manage to stammer out that you’re not from here, but you just wanted to help. That only serves to confuse the cat more.

“What on Divixus are y’talkin’ about?”

What’s a Divixus?

“… Oh, y’gotta be kiddin’ me.”

You, without thinking again, ask if she’s seen someone somewhat short, with fluffy red hair despite her brown skin, covered in tattoos. When you realize what you said, you cover your face in embarrassment. Something about this cat is already making you trip over your words. She looks like she would be staring you down if you could.

“I can’t see anythin’. Tell y’what, if you’re lookin’ for somethin’, one of th’churches might have a line in on what you’re lookin’ for- why d’ya look so uncomfortable?”

You explain that you and religion don’t get along, that you have no problem with people who practice their faith in peace but the people who don’t have spoiled the experience for you, as well as the many holes you can pick through the Bible.

“Th’fuck’s a bible?”

...Right, fantasy world, somehow. You reluctantly agree to follow her into town if she’ll let you re-set her leg. You aren’t convinced that you’re not dreaming.