We Are

Once I got back to the paths-room, I quickly set off on another path, and was interested to see what it would have to offer.

Sure, this whole thing had to be a dream, but it was quite a fascinating one that had turned from an average run-of the-mill nightmare into an intriguing sci-fi sort of dream that I wanted to experience more of.

I didn’t see any creatures on the cave’s walls, as I walked, but did begin to hear bubbling sounds in the distance after a while.

Once I reached where the noises were coming from, I saw a female troll who looked like she was conducting various science experiments that could go wrong at any second and kill us all.

I watched her at work for what must’ve been at least 20 minutes before she noticed me and said, “A guest! I assume that you’ve already met my husband Maximon? I’m Poppy! What’s your name?”

“Nice to meet you, Poppy, I’m Storm.” I said, cautiously, suddenly realizing that I could get potentially roped into being a part of some bizarre science experiment by her.

And, sure enough, her next words were, “I’m trying to transport people who don’t have the power to other livable planets! I think that I’ve got it this time, I swear! Ya wanna give it a try? If all goes well, then you’ll be gone for a day and then transport back here automatically. Come on!, it’ll be fun!”

Since I was surely just dreaming, anyway, I accepted her invitation; and she immediately pressed a button that caused several different tubes to swivel about until they’d all connected and had soon produced a strange mixture of liquid into a cup that Poppy promptly handed to me.

“On 3!” she cheered, “1, 2, 2.5, 2.7, 2.9, 2.97, 3!” she counted, trollfully, and I guzzled down the strange liquid, and was immediately staring up at 3 moons; which had to mean that the potion had worked and that I was now on another planet.

Whatever planet that I was now on seemed to be a pretty nice place.

I found plenty of trees with food on them, the climate was great for living in, no animals attacked me, and the animals who I did encounter seemed really friendly.

However; as the minutes turned into hours, the hours turned into days, and the days turned into weeks, it seemed as though Poppy’s potion had only partly succeeded in its goal. That’s right. It got me onto another planet spectacularly, but had failed to get me back to Earth after 24 hours. Perhaps, it would transport me back belatedly, but every passing day made that seem less and less likely to me.

It also began seeming less and less likely to me that I was dreaming. Hell, perhaps this was an afterlife? Hmmm… Or, maybe, “Heavens, perhaps this was an afterlife?” made more sense, considering that my new home seemed a lot more heavenly then it did hellish so far.

But, yeah; it now seemed that the rest of my life would be spent on this seemingly paradise-like planet, which I ended up deciding was fine with me.

No more explosions, no more trackers, no more threats, no more people popping over to where I was; just me, myself, and-

Suddenly!, I saw two people appear next to me who were kissing each other!

“Who’re you two?” I questioned, to which the girl responded, “I’m Khin!” and the boy responded, “I’m Diago!” as they both looked around in wonder at our surroundings.

Khin and Diago… Those names seemed familier… Wait!… “You two’ve visited that mystical cave before, haven’t you?” I asked, to which they gawked, and Khin responded, “You’ve been there?!?”

“Yup.” I said, “Maximon mentioned you at one point. He seemed to think that it was funny that you two thought that Kahuna had escaped from the cave when they actually hadn’t.”

“Ha!” Diago said, smugly, “See, love?, I told you that Kahuna probably never even got out of that crazy cave! No more need for you to keep on beating yourself up over it!, not that it ever made any sense for you to feel bad over it in the first place, mind you.”

“It is quite a load off to hear that they’re still in the cave, after all.” Khin admitted, and then asked me, “How exactly did you get here? Is this place even on Earth??? We’ve been trying to transport to your location for a while, and finally succeeded after many many failed attempts. Hopefully, we can get back…”

“This isn’t Earth.” I responded, “Maximon’s wife Poppy transported me here with a potion, and the potion was supposed to transport me back to where she was after 24 hours but never worked. It could theoretically still transport me back at some point, but it’s been long enough that I doubt it.”

“Whoa!…” Diago said, in awe, “And, now that we’ve been here, we should be able to transport back here with no problem. It’s probably a good idea to try to transport more people up to here so that a colony can get started!”

“That makes sense to me.” Khin agreed, and asked, “Have you encountered anything here that you think might prevent a human colony from thriving here?”

“Naw,” I answered, “it seems a lot like some sort of paradise, so far. I haven’t even traveled through 1% of the planet, though, probably; and there could be dangers here that I’m unaware of.”

“Sounds like a mostly-green light to me!” Diago said, with a grin, and kissed Khin; and the two of them immediately disappeared.

“Hmmm…” I said to myself, “A human colony might be about to join me here, eh?” and I wondered how I felt about that. Did I want to be joined by others, or would I prefer to remain in solitude?

My question became irrelevant a few minutes later, because I was suddenly standing in Poppy’s lab again, and she immediately saw me, and said, “Back in 24 hours! Wonderful!” which prompted me to quickly respond, “I experienced it as weeks, which would seem to suggest that time operates differently there.”

“Of course, of course.” she replied, dismissively, but then added, “Oh!, you didn’t know, did you? I could fib, and say that I just forgot to tell you, but I’ll admit that I was being intentionally trollish by not telling you that time often operates differently in different places.”

“Fair enough.” I said, shrugging, and decided to troll her in return by not spilling the beans about how I’d met Khin and Diago on the planet that her potion had transported me to.

“Happy colonizing, my friends!…” I thought, with a grin, and hoped that they (and whoever else they might transport to the planet with) would have just as heavenly a time there as I had…