Chapter 4: Captive

Tristan, who still did not understand the situation he was in, could only stare around him in bewilderment. What place is this? Various thoughts swirled through Tristan's mind as he tried to make sense of the crazy things that were happening.

Everything that happened earlier felt like it had come straight out of those fantasy books or movies he used to watch. However, Tristan knew enough and was not that naive to think these things were mere fantasy.

The intense pain he felt from his shoulder, which the grip of the giant monster had crushed convinced him that this was not a dream. Tristan firmly believed that if he acted wrong, death would come for him in the blink of an eye.

Tristan was then thrown into a dark basement-like room together with all the others who were also dragged. They were like 40 of them and most have such a terrified face while the others were just an utter shock.

The moment Tristan spotted Leyla, he quickly ran towards her.

"Tristan.. that damn monster!! They.. they kill everyone.." said Leyla frantically.

"Yes. I know. Calm down Leyla. Calm down."

In fact, Tristan himself also found it really difficult to calm in such a situation. However, he truly needed to keep his bearing together, especially in front of Leyla.

A moment later, a group of creatures came with the one with white hair.

"Alright.. Let me see who among you will be the lucky one." the white-haired creature said while playing with its fingers.

"You, and you!"

The big creatures beside it immediately went inside the cage and took the two people who were picked. They then locked the cage again before leaving.

"What are they doing? What do they want with us?"

Tristan was trying to be calm and think about his current situation. He realized among the 40 inside the cage, other than him and Leyla, there were a few more people who wore clothing he could recognize.

Tristan then decided to approach one of them. "You.. Do you understand me?"

A man in his forties who looked like a businessman with his ties and blazer and a beautiful woman in her thirties both nodded their heads.

"Do any of you understand what's happening here?"

"No.. no.. We don't know anything"

Tristan shook his head. The two of them clearly looked terrified, thus unable to cooperate.

Not long after, the group heard screams. The people's faces turned paler than before as they all could guess it came from the previously taken people.

Several minutes after the shrieking screams, the group of green creatures came back again. But this time without their leader.

When they went inside the room, most of the people inside already understood they came to take more people for god know what. The remaining forty people became even more terrified, as most of them ran to the corner of the room.

Surprisingly, Tristan noticed there was one young man around his age standing in front. As expected, the creature quickly took him as the one they chose. After that, the creature walked deeper to the room, trying to take more people. Unfortunately, they were walking toward Tristan and the group from the airplane.

Tristan quickly stepped in closer to Leyla to protect her. However, when the creature was a few steps in front of them, he was surprised that someone pushed him from the back. Glancing to the back, Tristan saw the middle aged businessman pull his hand back.

The green creature quickly welcomed Tristan with a strong grip and could only see his sister crying out calling him, but unable to do anything.

Tristan and the previous young man then being dragged away and brought to a different room. Tristan's eyes continued to look around as he was dragged into a room. He could faintly see the place looked like a laboratory. It was filled with strange machines and giant tubes filled with a red fluid.

'Is that blood?' though Tristan as he looked at the giant tubes.

He was put into a metal cage in the corner of the room along with the other men who were taken with him. As Tristan was still angry for being pushed by the middle aged man, he quickly became perturbed when he noticed the other man approached him. The man was scanning Tristan's body from toe to head as if trying to judge him.

The man then whispered to Tristan, "You, you can understand me right?"

Upon hearing that, Tristan turned his head and looked at the man. Although he was quite relieved that the man could speak his language, Tristan quickly became suspicious as the men wore a unique black clothing that looked like a uniform.

The instinct honed from his time in the prison told him that this man was not from the airplane. Probably not even from Earth.

"Who are you? How could you speak my language?" asked Tristan.

The man showed a strange circle symbol in his left hand. But when the man noticed Tristan's weird look, he quickly explained, "It's a magic symbol. It can help me translate my words to any language."

"Magic!" Tristan could only take the man's word for it. After such a crazy, bizarre event happening earlier. Magic probably one of the new realities he needs to cope with.

The man then continued "Tell me. Did you see a purple storm before you arrived here?"

Tristan remembered the purple storm happening in the sky, the one he saw from across the airplane's window before he was in this place.

"Yes, I actually did. Do you know what that was?"

"It must be one of the greatest forbidden spells. Their leader there surely is not an ordinary goblin." muttered the man.

Tristan was confused as he heard the man's words. It was because he couldn't understand more than half of what the man said.

"Goblin?" asked Tristan, puzzled by the unfamiliar word.

Goblins were creatures that were only mentioned in fantasy books or in Hollywood movies. Also, if he compared this creature in front of him with the 'goblins' he knew, even though they had roughly the same shape, they had different skin color and different faces.

Seeing the puzzled expression on Tristan's face, the man suddenly slapped his head in realization. "You must have been taken from a lower world." the man said casually. He didn't realize how puzzled Tristan was when he heard this.

Before Tristan could ask what he meant with 'lower world', the man continued speaking. "You know nothing about the war between the human race and the elves, don't you? Those goblins and orcs were creatures created by the elves, to act as a force against humans."

Tristan's expression turned more disturbed the more he heard from this man.

Not caring about Tristan's state, the man asked. "Can you fight? Can you wield a weapon? You have to be at least able to fight if you want to survive."

Still shocked by the discovery that orcs and elves were real, Tristan answered, albeit delayed. "Yes, I can."

"Great." the man said. "Later, you need to follow my lead and we might be able to survive this. By the way, call me Desmond."

Tristan was silent for a moment before he opened his mouth.

"I am Tristan," he answered.

"Ok Tristan, you will help me breaking out of this hell hole"