Mistake

Kiran anxiously raised her trembling hands in front of her, thinking it was a universal sign for "I surrender" or "I'm not a threat" since the gesture had been used several times in movies and shows she had watched growing up. "I…I come in peace!"

The young man's glowing silvery blue eyes narrowed.

Kiran gasped. He clearly looked more displeased than he did moments ago. He was speaking a different language so she wasn't sure how to tell him that her throat wasn't worthy of being slit. "Friend!" she exclaimed, praying to everything that was holy that the term wasn't a curse word in the young man's language. She gingerly pointed at her chest and tried to smile. "Me…Friend," she said, gesturing her left and right pointing fingers to meet side-by-side in front of her.

The young man then threw what seemed like a small, silver flask toward her. "Dirokhom," he ordered as the flask landed on her lap.

Kiran blinked confused at him for a moment before gingerly picking up the flask. "Y-you want me to drink this?"

"Balhiri!" the young man snapped.

Kiran quickly fumbled with the cork sealing the flask and downed its contents. She winced as a thick bitter brew filled her mouth. It drew a line down her throat like a strong liquor. Kiran coughed against the blade and cringed as the taste slowly faded away from her tongue.

"Who are you?" the young man asked as the blade tapped the bottom of her chin.

Kiran stared wide-eyed at him. "What did you say?!" The rude young man could speak her language?! Had he been making a fool of her this entire time? Or did the drink make her somehow understand him? She had read about potions that healed people and changed people's heights, but those were all in fantasy stories. It couldn't be real!

Then again, the young man's eyes didn't seem real either. It looked like glowing sapphires in the darkness of the night. Was she dreaming? Or was she really somehow transported into another world where potions saved people from grueling hours of learning a language?

"Do not waste my time!" the young man impatiently snapped, pressing the blade deeper against her throat and making her yelp in pain.

"Kiran!" she quickly answered. "M-my name is Kiran! Kiran Wedella. I'm a friend. I come in peace! I'm not going to hurt you."

"Obviously," the young man snorted.

Kiran stared incredulous at him. "Then why the hell are you holding a sword to my throat?!"

"Where is Alessa Dia?" the young man asked instead.

Kiran's eyes went wide. "Alessa!" The events before she lost consciousness rushed into her senses. "The sinkhole! My arm! Wait!" Kiran stared at the young man's arm again, remembering the limb that dragged her into the dark abyss that the cracks on the ground opened. "It was you!" she accused though frankly, she still wasn't sure if it was him since all she remembered was the sensation of a hand painfully gripping her wrist and dragging her to her death.

"Answer my question!" the young man insisted, pressing the blade closer to her throat again. This time, the blade bit her skin and drew blood.

"Then take that blade away from me, kidnapper!" Kiran angrily snapped, ignoring the pain on her throat.

The young man bitterly clicked his tongue and withdrew his sword. "Talk!"

Kiran anxiously glanced around as her hand reached for the small wound on her neck. They were in the middle of a meadow with white flowers staring at the night sky. Giant stone pillars arranged in a circle surrounded them as if they were in a sacred place where religious rituals were performed. She had seen something similar in the comics she had read, especially the ones with fantasy parallel universes.

"Well?" the young man prodded.

"I think I pulled her out before she could fall into the sinkhole," she muttered, recalling the incident while trying to figure out what exactly happened to her. "Then the ground I was standing on crumbled. She was able to grab my arm to help me but a hand pulled my other arm down, and I fell into the sinkhole instead." She then narrowed her eyes at the young man. "Was it really you? Were you the one that pulled me into the sinkhole? Are we at the center of the earth?"

The young man cursed under his breath and turned around. "Why did you help her?!" he snapped, glowering at Kiran.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Kiran snapped back. "I should be rewarded for saving someone in the middle of a crisis! Not that I did it for recognition, of course. I'm not even sure how I managed to save her but I fortunately did and now we're here. WAIT! Were you trying to take Alessa? You were, weren't you?! But I was sure I fell into a sinkhole so why am I..?" Kiran gasped as realization dawned on her. "Did I die and got reincarnated here?! Did I just get isekaied?"

"Ise-what?" the young man asked, confused.

"Is this another world? A parallel universe? Or did I journey into the center of the earth? Did I just prove the hollow earth theory?!" Kiran anxiously asked. She then surveyed her clothes and noticed that they were the same clothes she wore to school that day. "I look like myself and I don't seem to have any broken bones so I guess I was summoned here. Did you summon me to your world?"

"Huh," the young man muttered, impressed at Kiran's musings. "At least you have enough brain cells to figure things out on your own."

Kiran glowered at the young man. "So am I dead..?" she asked. She had read stories where people's souls were transported to another world while their physical bodies perished.

"Do you want me to stab you to verify it?" the young man replied, smirking deviously at her.

Kiran turned away in thought. "So I didn't die in my world," she muttered. "That sinkhole was probably a wormhole that just teleported me into this world." She then looked around to see where the bag she took to school was. "It's not here. Did it fall into the bottom of the sinkhole when the wormhole closed?," she mumbled, realizing that nothing other than the weeds and the grass was on the ground.

"What's not here?" the young man asked.

"My things," Kiran answered, looking up at him.

"You're the only one taken here," the young man confirmed.

"So you did kidnap me," Kiran said. "That arm was yours and you were planning to kidnap Alessa. Did you cause the earthquake too?"

The young man sighed and turned away. He slipped the sword into a wooden sheath strapped to his waist and walked away.

"Hey!" Kiran snapped, shakily rising to her feet. "Where do you think you're going?! Are you leaving me here?"

The young man glanced back at her. "You already know you're not who I need," he answered.

"That doesn't mean you should just leave me here! I'm not from this world! How am I supposed to survive this place on my own?!" Kiran protested. "Can't you send me back to my world?" She knew from reading isekai stories that returning to her own world could be impossible. But since the potion let her learn a language instead of healing her, she figured it wouldn't hurt to try and ask her kidnapper to send her back home. This was real life after all. Things could very well be different from the fantasy books and comics she burned the midnight oil to read.

And if she was just dreaming, this would be the perfect time for her to wake up.

The young man bitterly grumbled and looked away from her, which wasn't good.

"Mr. Kidnapper!" Kiran insisted.

"Shut up!" the young man snapped. "I need to think."

"About taking responsibility for your actions?!" Kiran snapped back. "What kind of a man are you?!"

The young man turned to glower at her. He then took a deep breath and sighed. "Do you see that stone pillar over there?" he asked, pointing one of the stone pillars behind Kiran.

Kiran gingerly turned around and nodded.

"Go to the pillar," the young man instructed.

"What?" Kiran asked, confused.

"Go. To. The. Pillar," the young man insisted.

Kiran bitterly grumbled and walked to the pillar as instructed.

"Press your forehead against the pillar," the young man said.

"You're making fun of me, aren't you?!" Kiran snapped, glowering at him.

"It's a sacred pillar, you ignorant fool!" the young man retorted. "You said it yourself, you know nothing about this world, but I do so do as I say!"

Kiran bitterly pouted and pressed her forehead against the cold stone pillar.

"Now count from one to a hundred," the young man said.

"Is this going to take me back home?" Kiran anxiously asked, glancing back at him.

"Are you going to disobey the only person here who knows what all of this is?" the young man asked.

Kiran narrowed her eyes at him for a moment. "I'm may not be an expert at Hide and Seek but I will not give up until I find you if you try to hide from me," she warned.

"Are you going to do as I say or not?" the young man asked.

Kiran pressed her forehead against the pillar and began to count. Quietly.

"I can't hear you!" the young man snapped.

"You didn't say that I should count out loud!" Kiran argued.

The young man rolled his eyes. "I can't exactly know that you're counting if I can't hear you from where I am, can I?"

"One! Two! Three!" Kiran began, shouting out the numbers. When she reached ten, she glanced behind her to see if the young man was still there.

He was there. He raised a brow at her. "I said a hundred, not ten," he deadpanned. "Do you need me to teach you how to count? Start from one!"

Kiran bit back a growl and turned around again. "One! Two! Three! Four! Five!" When she reached fifty, she turned around to check if the young man was still there.

Just as she feared, no one else was there with her.

Panic surged through her veins. "Mr. Kidnapper!" she called out. "Mr. Kidnapper, you scammer! Come out and take responsibility!" She gingerly scanned her surroundings and winced as a cold breeze blew her way. Kiran decided to walk toward the direction that the young man likely took. "Mr. Kidnapper!" she called out as she approached the edge of the meadow that seemed to overlook a sea of stars. Judging by the icy temperature seeping into her clothes and drying her lips and nose, the meadow was situated at a high altitude - possibly a mountain or atop a really tall hill. It was a good thing that she decided to wear a cardigan that day.

"Mr. Kidnapper, I'm sorry I foiled your plan of kidnapping Alessa!" Kiran called out again. "Please just send me back to my world. I promise I won't tell anyone about what happened. No one would believe me anyway! I mean, who gets isekaied in the twenty-first century, right? Mr. Kidnapper?" She wasn't really begging for his help at that point. She knew that he had abandoned her, and the possibility of reuniting with him again was close to nil.

He might not even be real. What if he had been a figment of her imagination all along?

But she called out to him to assure herself that she wasn't alone. She pretended that she was looking for someone so that she could keep all the fears and loneliness creeping into her senses at bay. This was no time for her to crumble and cry after all. She had to think straight to figure out a way to survive at least until she found a way to return to her world.

She picked up the empty flask on the ground just in case she could use it, and slipped it inside her pants pocket.

Kiran then focused her attention at what she might find at the edge of the meadow. If the place was indeed at a high-altitude, it meant she would have to hike down to a place with some form of civilization where she could ask for help. It also meant she would have to suppress her fear of heights somehow.

"Please let there be a trail," she muttered, hoping to see a forest path that could lead her down the mountain or hilltop that she was on. "Or stairs. Stairs would be good too. Please let there be stairs."

A strong icy breeze blew past Kiran making her stumble slightly back a few steps from the edge of the meadow. Her jaw dropped as the starry night sky confirmed her suspicions.

The edge of the meadow overlooked a sea of clouds.

Kiran's knees trembled and her teeth chattered as she looked over the side of the cliff that served as the edge of the meadow. Instead of a forest path, she found a set of stone steps protruding from the cliff wall. It would have been good if each step wasn't roughly three feet in height, and only had room for one person. It also didn't have a railing that could protect anyone who took it from being blown away by the howling wind to their death.

Kiran felt her heart sink. "Stairs were a bad idea after all."