Hello New World!

Okay I’m leaving a journal as an account to my experience in this “magical and wonderful” world.
I believe in leaving a trace or a record in what we’ve been through this land in case other people find themselves lost or worst case scenario I die, I guess I just want to get things out of my chest and according to some psychologist this is a way to do this, like a burn book of some sort.

I think first I should introduce myself and how we arrived to this place, now mind you this wasn’t caused by some wormhole in reality, or some magical near death experience with a truck accident or some strange military experiment, other wise my taxes are...were being misused on something else other than public services.
Anyway I’m getting off the subject, my name is Michael Keener, I’m 32 years old and I arrived in this world with a group of people with me, many of us can speak English while others can barely understand basic words and only speak native or other languages rather than English.

We don’t know how we appeared here, one moment we are in our homes or going out the next moment we just appeared in a spot in a foreign forest all together. We almost turned on each other until (after a couple of not so friendly shouting competition) we came to the realization that NO ONE brought us there, some people were dressed like they were going to work, returning to work or just got teleported by just going to the kitchen (food and drinks not included, dammit I could go for some snacks).

Many of our belonging arrived here with us, now for what I can understand is that the majority of us come from the US, while others come from the mainland of Europe (heard a couple of guys speaking in French, other girls in Italian and I think that there are some Slavic folk. Don’t ask me who set the regional preferences, normally considering what we have seen through our stay in this forest we believe it is mythological related, some girls saw jackalopes and some guys a Manticore.
Yeah just wrote that, a creature that is part of one of those Greek classical books, here’s to hoping that the Gods of the Pantheon aren’t real, if I recall my history lessons they were or at least most of them were a bunch of dicks. Still a maticore and other magical creatures is a big hint that according to a girl and her dog “wE aReN’t In KaNsAS AnYmOrE”.

Thankfully we are armed and really prepped for the worst case scenario, I guess what was going around with the situation in Eastern Europe some people took precaution, which is kinda useful considering that it’s better to be prepared rather than wait for the help of the authorities....just didn’t expected that our Euros cousins to adopt the ideology of staying strapped.
I guess the internet was wrong in that regard, but it really leaves a question someone or something just took a whole bunch of people armed and put it in one place, I believe that’s the case otherwise the universe has a morbid sense of humor or there is a Newton law of reality that we don’t know about....

Anyway many of our folk are armed with the basic hunting weapons of our families (hunting rifles,shotguns and revolvers) other people are armed with more guns the like you find in military museums like Great War firearms, the rest all handguns legal and illegal like one of those 3D printed 9mm carbines...I’m not a gun savant but I know my way around one, so to those who are more knowledgeable around guns, please forgive my mistakes when naming parts, and I promise not to bring the “it’s called magazine and not clip” subject.
Now mind you we are closed to being roughly around 14 people so far, We don’t know if there are more folks out there or somewhere else.....poor unlucky bastards.

OK back to the beginning, we appeared in a forest armed, scared out of our minds and almost made a hail of bullets fly, how did we calmed down? well we began shouting in different languages and kinda sort off started to comprehend each other through noises and hand gestures, people in the groups began roughly translating and soon we made a circle separating ourselves in nationalities just to get a look of how many we were and if our version on what we were doing at That moment brought us here.
After 2 or 3 hours of talking we came to an invisible wall, I mean no one was or were doing anything strange like I don’t know summoning a demon or something like that.

Our belongings were part of our everyday carry or we were close to them at the moment along with some other belongings like phone charges, bags and in some cases pillows and notebooks, kinda like me I was watching some videos of a guy ranting on about Ace Combat and then puff I’m here with my furniture my notebook and the rest of my stuff (I will describe them shortly) like someone just draw a Cube encasing me and threw me in another world, next thing I know people are pointing guns at me while shouting ”!!!ON THE FUCKING GROUND ASSHOLE!!!!” I never react well under pressure and almost ALMOST pooped myself, but having a group of guys and girls pointing guns at your head can make anyone shit themselves or cause a heart attack.
We decided that even though we aren’t friends or not know each other, staying together is the best option and being in the same situation some form of camaraderie could be arranged, I mean we are all in this situation together and with creatures of myths and legends surrounding us, sticking to the good old “united we stand” would be the best way to protect ourselves.

So the first 3 night we were making camp, and thanks to a lot of people who spend more time outdoors we found all types of mushrooms and roots that could be eaten without being cooked, not great flavor, but hey it beats starving to death, plus some of us did "fell down here" with some food so we got some variety...for now. I didn’t sleep that well those nights the trees were bigger than those back home and the constant sounds around us gave me the creeps and I swear that I got that feeling that we were being watched.

After 3 days of walking around we found ourselves in an open field with a well traveled road leading to civilization, now mind you we didn’t recognized the terrain or you know any landmark that would tell us that we were on Earth, we believed that we were on Earth because if you see a mythological creature by some logic someone could put 2 and 2 together and come up with the idea that we were in a magical part of our world or fall into the hollow earth theory, we discussed all theories, logical situations and cover almost every topic.
And still found squat in what place we were, a girl in the US group said something about a local story in her town that a girl and her siblings disappeared and came back with stories about their “friends” but the more she talked the more it felt like she was explaining a children TV show, still it made me think that by recognizing some monster we could figure out in which part of the world we were in, we could go full Bilbo Baggins on this journey, just hoping that Orcs and dragons aren’t real.

Anyway we arrived in a main road leading to what looked like a German town in the distance, so we gather what left of our strength and ran like crazy people towards the town, yelling, singing, laughing all the way thinking we were saved or that we could find help.
All of that stopped when a group of vultures began flying in formation, only that they were not those giants birds, but Griffons, small in height almost reaching our chest when they were in all 4 but when the landed with their back legs they looked like they could reach your neck.
What in the actual Fuck, right?, they were fully armed with Halberds and Spears, Steel plate armor that you would find in a museum or a fantasy movie set, with banners displaying a colorful emblem of a noble house and some sort of crest near the left side, the way knight used to have in medieval times as a form of distinction or something I don't know I'm not an Historian, they just landed in front of us in a professional way,the way trained soldiers do, never breaking eye contact and keeping a distance just close enough to make a stab o a sweep with their weapons. Meanwhile we were stuck in place not making a sound or moving, worse not knowing what to do and keeping our hands up in a non violent way, hoping that they wouldn’t rush at us.

It was a couple of minutes of silence until one Griffon landed behind the phalanx, made his way between the lines, his steel clawed gauntlets making the sound “click click click” as he approached us, how do I know he was a he?, well it looked like a guy, big wings that could cover you in a hug, big frame that intimidated anyone, and those huge claws enveloped in armor that would make even a warrior think twice before fighting it, if he was a she then that misconception would cost me my life.

He was wearing a full plate helm that covered his face kinda like that owl movie “Guardians of Gahole” or something like that. He spoke in a clear English language “My name is Cpt. Silver Feather member of the 33th Talon company of royal guard of his majesty King Grover beloved by all, who are you?, what are you? what is your business in our kingdom? why are you running and screaming like a bunch of raiders? ”.
I panicked, thankfully to some quick reaction of a french girl in our group spoke to Silver Feather in a formal way. It went something like this.
Monique spoke ”Greetings Capitain Silver Feather, we are but a small groups of creatures that are called Humans, we got lost trying to get out of that accursed forest and found the way out after spending 3 days in there, we are lost, hungry and almost abandoned all hope of finding civilization.
That’s when we saw the small city we though we were close to our Home. We thought we could find help or at least shelter for a day or two, it wasn't our intention to look like barbarians to you, and we are most sorry if our actions and appearance cause some sort of distrust to you and your company of Noble Gentlemen".
That introduction and the way we were dressed was more than enough to tell this noble that we weren't your typical raider or barbarian, still a thousand question ran through my mind, Raiders? what sort of medieval shitstorm did we got ourselves into?

The Captain responded "Young Lady if you came from the Edelweiss Forest with just dirt and scratches, you are more than lucky than most of our peasants, reports bandit activities and monster sightings has reached the high court and our king cannot ignore it no longer, me and my fellow knights were sent to deal with the situation, on the other claw, you and most of your retinue can enter the town, just report to the guard station and wait for us there so we can get a full report and clear any doubt of your situation.
But let me clarify that if you or any of your group don't follow my instructions, the full force of the law will befall on you and your companions. Do you understand?".
"Yes my Lord, we will do as you ask and wait on the town garrison, thank you for your time and your help, it's great to see that noble griffins just as you are part of the King's finest".
Man that was nerve wrecking at the middle, but with a little sugarcoating in her speech from our girl Anne a baker from the best Boulangerie of Paris (according to her), we saw some of the griffins guard chests puff out in pride.
And with that the Captain and his knight took off only one remained just enough to give us indications were to go and a seal of his belt to show the town guard that we were coming on their behalf.
We didn't started talking until we were out of earshot of them and began planning how should we introduce ourselves next time or should we keep an identity as the retinue of a noble girl.
We decided that it is better to remain silent until we find the garrison and the captain knows that we come in peace once he returns from his patrol. One thing is clear, even though we stood together in the forest no one like the idea of being a servant of other, and in that moment of silence being a traveling merchant band or foreign diplomats or explorers were all good options that we kept to ourselves in case someone got cold feet and the future interview doesn't transform in a interrogation.

Man I'm beat I'm going to sleep now, I'll continue the rest tomorrow.
I just remember that I have to do my best to recall those memories before I forget any important details, even though whomever is going to read this don’t forget I’m making a recollection of events from my point of view so is not 100 % accurate. Doesn’t matter anyway I think we all have an infatuated egos and that sort of mess the details of some stories.
Oh almost forgot to tell you guys my inventory, meh maybe tomorrow.
Until next time Folks.
Michael Keener.

Author's Note

Hello FiMFiction, just trying new ideas on a story I had around in my head, it's my first story so mistakes and changes are common.
Criticism is welcomed. May post the 2nd chapter this weekend.