Lost in Time

 Part 1: Lost Lands

Beware of the neon god, the baleful bringer of doom,

Dressed in the gown of gold, his cancerous claws fester in a bloom.

Sweat, beads of it sprouted on Nia's forehead. She felt hot, her heart toppling over in her chest like she'd been racing. Something seemed to be swishing about in her mind. Not the unsettling wriggle of a worm, no. Something warm, gentle. She had missed that feeling ever since she landed here in this crumpled up page of the olden tome of time. She'd yearned for it. Her immortal companion.

Noin.

She was in a bed, sheets of burgundy and cream sprawled all over her legs. Some baggy, woolen shirt with short sleeves clung over her body like a worn-out peeling of paint on a street wall. She yanked away the covers, the spring bed protesting in repeating squeaks. She had on some kind of shorts, raven black, with stripping of white on the sides. She wouldn't go so far as to say they were decent, but they looked clean.

Her eyes, the glamorous glow of hazel that they were, skirted over to her surroundings. She was in a room, gentle cerulean paint tangled with the walls in a tight embrace. Light off-white blinds swayed in the gentle stir of a breeze, drawn in beautiful curls halfway across the window. A portrait of someone, a silver-haired man with the eyes of a lion hung on the wall next to a calendar.

She hauled herself up from the bed and waltzed over to the calendar, her attention drawn to the large font of the title marked in black bold Cambria. SEASIDE INC. A 2019 SUCCESS STORY. The conspicuous heading read. Okay, so it was really 2019 then. All this time she had been hoping maybe the chronometer aboard the shuttlecraft was broken. That they'd crawl their way back to civilization and found they were still in their time.

Well, it had been a while since she saw that- a calendar on paper, or anything on paper really. She ran the heels of her fingers over the surface of the light paper. It wasn't vintage vellum like some of the olden-time animated scrolls in the Federation archives that could respond to summons and read themselves aloud, but she liked that it was something new.

She turned about to see a chest of drawers, mahogany furnished with chocolate cream. A basket of fruits sat atop it, their bright ripe glow inviting her to take a deep bite. Mamey fruits, bananas, she thought she could make out a couple of pears and a passion fruit. There were some she had no idea what they were supposed to be. Her stomach grumbled at the sight of such riveting treats. At least that was one thing that wasn't trying to kill her in this wretched time-or so she thought?

She walked to the window and pulled the blinds back, a myriad of light invading the small room with sharp shards of photons. She averted her eyes as needles of light stung her retina with malevolence. When her cons had kicked in, she slowly turned her head and looked outside. Well, that was new.

There was what appeared to be a well or borehole outside her window, marked with curved stonework. A truncated cone bucket was suspended above the open hole, secured with a rope that disappeared into the abysmal descent of darkness. Whatever this place was, it was pretty primitive. A well told her to lower her hopes on running water. Absence of fluorescent bulbs in the least told her there was a healthy chance they didn't have power either.

A couple of wooden houses dotted the distant stretch of green land. Simple, unremarkable designs seemed to be the norm here. Rectangular walls with a tapering roof and a triangular gable were the majority. And there weren't a lot of structures around.

Beyond the well there was a round-shaped structure, its belly suspended from the ground with strong wooden stands. It bewildered her for a while, her gaze drawn to it, wonder and a wild wash of thoughts getting the better of her. If that was the belly of the beast where they would cook her and Walter, she'd really be pissed. Then she saw a man come out of its high entrance, a sack of something on his shoulder as he carefully made his way down the short staircase.