Where Is This?
There's a line people are always reaching for — the so-called unfamiliar ceiling. Every time I ran into it in a novel, I thought it was hopelessly stale. How little did you have to say for yourself, to fall back on something like that?
Then the situation was right in front of me, and I understood exactly how those protagonists felt.
An unfamiliar sky...
It wasn't a ceiling. It was the sky — and once I saw the two red, moonlike planets hanging up there, nothing like the sky I knew, I couldn't think of anything else.
Two moons. Did that even make sense? Drop the science kids into a world like this and they'd foam at the mouth, convulsing over how impossible it was.
Out in this forest, though, there wasn't much I could do about it. A modern person's dignity only existed when you were sinking into a warm bed back home. Alone in a strange, frightening wood, I was nothing but easy prey.
I walked through the trees with the odd sense that my line of sight had dropped. Dark as it was, I could see the forest strangely well, and the wrongness of that only unsettled me further.
Rustle. Rustle.
Something brushed through the undergrowth, low against my ear. An animal, or a monster — it had to be one or the other. My steps quickened.
In a world where getting caught meant being torn limb from limb, I drove my pace even harder. For all that effort, I wasn't getting much speed.
I have to run!
Fleeing the unknown was new to me. I had no idea which way to go, and all I could manage was a clumsy, stumbling flight while the rustling drew steadily closer.
Whatever was coming closed in until it was right on top of me — and then, at the last moment of that crisis, it was there. Not a monster. Not an animal. By some mercy, people.
I let out a breath of relief and opened my mouth to beg them to save me. A closer look killed the hope. The strangers carried knives stained with blood, and not one of them had an ordinary face.
Terror broke me. I burst into tears, spun around, and bolted — but short legs against bodies that huge never stood a chance. They caught me.
Please, spare me! I didn't do anything!
"Ah... ah-uh-ah..."
What should have come out as proper Korean spilled from my mouth as sounds I couldn't even name. At least they didn't seem intent on killing me. One of them caught me around the waist, slung me against his side, and set off somewhere with me in tow.
"Aah-aah!!!"
I screamed for them to let me live. All that left my mouth were more strange words, and my voice was nothing but an empty echo.