In a coffee shop just downtown, past the post office and next two the drugstore, across the street from the court house, sitting in the seat farthest from the window yet with a good few tables between himself and the rest room, sat a man. Now, this man was the definition of normal, save perhaps for his lack of that little instinct that all sentient beings posses that warn them of danger or his fascination with everything ending in -ble, particularly adorable. There is also the issue of his height, a goodly six foot eight, and his skill at finding something to eat where previously there was nothing of the sort.
Yes, extremely normal.
Now, it is with this exceptionally normal person that our story begins. Dan, for that was his name you see, had just sat down at his favorite table and ordered his favorite drink, and was just about prepared to take a sip when he noticed something odd. There, sitting innocently on the table just where his cup had previously been sitting, was a scrap of parchment with a few neat rows of strange and foreign words.
"Excuse me!" He called to the waitress, a young women named Rosa who had a wonderful personality and moonlighted as a personal defense instructor, whom he had grown used too during his many visits to the establishment.
"Yes? Can I help you?" Rosa asked genuinely confused. She had seen Dan come in many a time before hand and had never once had to come over to his table for any reason before a good twenty minutes had past after he had received his first beverage. She had just served him a minute ago.
"I think you left this here by mistake." Dan replied with half a smile, handing the strange piece of paper over to the woman who took it curiously.
"Lalinga wogreus marwold reigor? What in the world?" Rosa shook her head and handed the piece of paper back, "Sorry Dan. Never seen it before in my life. Looks like something my kid brother would write when he was just learning. Anyway, enjoy your drink!"
"Hmm, thanks, I will." Dan distractedly replied, head bent over the paper as warm brown eyes scanned the paper, searching for answers. For a moment, just as Rosa said that last word, Dan had thought he had understood what she was saying. But that was impossible as Dan had never heard the language before. However, as previously mentioned, Dan had a fascination for things ending in -ble. He stared at that single piece of paper all day, paying for three more refills and a ham sandwich. And, even though it made no logical sense Dan was convinced that if he could just focus on the paper hard enough it would reveal it's secrets. And, amazingly, it seems to be working.
"Any luck, Dan?" Rosa asked him for the fifth time that day. She had been curious about the paper ever since Dan had shown it to her, in the same way one finds the news of ones coworkers upcoming wedding interesting. Enough to get one to ask a few polite questions, but not enough to wish to actively engage in the activity. She didn't have a clue what the paper could say, nor did she believe she had the skills to decipher it, but she was curious enough want to know what it said before she went home. Sure she could ask him next time he came in, but she knew it would bug her till then.
"Yes, actually." Dan said in mild amazement, it had just now become clear to him what the no longer strange words said, as though a fog had just been lifted from his eyes. "I do believe I've figured it out!" Dan couldn't keep himself from nearly shouting as he grinned wildly.
Rosa couldn't keep the surprise from her voice, "Really? That's great! Mind sharing? I kinda want to know what that paper you've been obsessing over all day actually says before I leave."
Dan frowned at the waitress. "I was not obsessing."
Rosa raised an eyebrow, "The growling at people that got too close says otherwise." She jerked a thumb at the dark sky. "And the nine hours you spent hunched over that thing."
Dan sighed, rubbing his tired eyes as he did so. "Yeah, I guess I was. Still, I'm sure it's worth it!"
"Alright, then lets hear it!"
"Okay, okay." Dan cleared his suddenly dry throat.
You, betrayed by time and space,
Born without your proper grace . . .
As Dan spoke it was as though the world around him had begun to loose color, starting with the world outside and moving ever closer towards him, though Rosa failed to notice this, she was distracted by the swirling gold energy swirling around Dan.
To a world befouled and base-
Feel your proper form and case,
Recognize your homeland's face.
The world around Dan continued to lose it's color, the area farthest from him nothing more than a great expanse of white and even Rosa had begun to lose her color, though she still failed to notice as the energy had become wild and swirled faster and more aggressive. To Dan it was as though he was in a tempest, the swirling energy, which those in the know call magic, was moving at such a speed as to create a harsh wind, forcing him to shout the final verse.
Cross the void of time and space!
Seek and find your proper place!
As the final syllable past his lips, Dan was whisked away from his home dimension, leaving the energy behind to explode, returning color to the world. Rosa just stared at the now empty space for a good minute before passing out.
"Bye the Huntresses great left talon, what was that!" A young griffon shouted in surprise at the sudden sound of the universe belching out a full grown adult human male. It was quiet the sound. Deciding to investigate, the griffon crawled out of bed and made to leave the safety of her room to investigate the strange noise, which wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do all things considered, but Gilda was confident she could handle anything that came her way. And if she couldn't, well, that's what guards are for.
"Tamon, Shei, follow me. We're going to investigate."
"Princess are you sure that's wise?" The one named Shei asked worriedly. She had taken the princesses night shift to avoid action, not to go off investigating strange sounds in the night. "It could be pony spies." For a good few years the pony and griffon kingdoms had been at constant war with each other, a war which the current king, Dicorg, had started as a bid to expand his newly formed small kingdom and also to show the strength of his people by toppling the superpower known as Equestria.
"All the more reason to investigate, don't you think?" Tamon quipped while opening the rooms door and quickly exiting, followed by Gilda and finally a fairly reluctant Shei.
Dan, after recovering from his bout of nausea most beings get from traversing dimensions, looked about his surroundings with awe. Great obsidian pillars rose from a floor of marble. At the far end of the great room he stood in was a platform upon which rested a great silver throne with veins of gold running through it. Benches were laid out on each side of the raised platform, each covered with a silver sheet. From each pillar, and on the wall directly behind the throne a silver banner with a black griffons head superimposed over a great white castle rested. It was all very impressive, and also all very unfamiliar.
A huge glass door, with an appropriately large balcony was close to Dan, who decided it would be best that, given the circumstances, he had a look outside to gather his bearings. Upon stepping outside, two things became overly apparent to Dan. One, he was in a very large and imposing building over looking a very large and imposing medieval looking town, and two, he was most definitely not on earth if the griffons in the sky were in fact real.
It became overly apparent that the griffons were in fact real and not some hallucination when he turned around to find himself face to spear point with two armored griffons and a third one that looked like it had just crawled out of bed, what with the ruffled feathers and disheveled look and all.
"Alright, I'm only going to ask this once." The griffon, who was definitely female, asked in a language that sounded like what the scrap of paper was written in. Dan was surprised that he understood what Miss Bedhead was saying, almost like she was speaking English, yet it was all in that same strange language. "Who are you and what are you doing in my fathers palace?"
Dan, true to form, answered in a rather cheerful voice for someone with two spears pointed at his face, "Hello! My name is Dan Zacherle. And I am currently trying to figure out just why poetry hates me." He held out a hand with a smile, "What's your name?"
