After about twenty minutes of walking, Shawn and Oliver approached a small village.
“Maybe someone here will give you pants,” Oliver said as they walked through an empty, cobbled street. There were no buildings, aside from houses. A small woman with wings fluttered past them. One look at Shawn sent her spiraling into a fit of giggles.
“You wouldn’t happen to have any pants that’ll fit my friend, would you?” Oliver asked.
The fairy shook her head, cackling as she flew away.
“This is so humiliating,” Shawn muttered.
“She’s just one person.” Oliver spotted a food stall up ahead. The smell of baked goods wafted through the air. His stomach growled. They hadn’t eaten since they entered this world.
“I think I might be hungry.” Shawn put his hand over his stomach as he eyed the stall. “My stomach is doing this weird thing where it hurts. But also it doesn’t hurt. Am I hungry?”
“Probably.” Oliver’s stomach actually hurt from hunger. “We haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday. I feel like I’m dying of starvation.”
The two walked up to the woman at the food stall. Pastries were laid out on a cart. Oliver stared at them longingly.
“3 loti each,” the woman said.
Three what? It must be this universes currency. “My friend and I don’t have any money. But we haven’t eaten in a day.”
“I don’t even have pants.” Shawn clasped his hands under his chin, widening his eyes. “Could you please-”
“This isn’t a charity,” the woman said. “Pay up or leave.”
“That’s mean, Melinda.” A short woman with pointed ears appeared behind them. Oliver guessed she was an elf. “That man looks pathetic. Spare them a pastry or two.”
“I can’t afford to give away food to every pathetic man who walks by. I’d be out of business if I did that!”
“How many pathetic men walk by here?” Oliver asked.
“Just you two, I guess. I still can’t afford to give out food. Times are hard.”
“I’ll pay for theirs.” The elf pulled out a few bills, and handed them over to Melinda. Shawn, Oliver, and the elf each picked out a pastry.
“You wouldn’t happen to have any trousers to spare?” Shawn asked. “I kinda lost mine.”
“Nothing that’ll fit you. I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay. Thanks for the food.”
“Yeah, thank you,” Oliver said.
“You’re welcome,” said the elf. “I hope you find your trousers.”
They parted ways. Oliver and Shawn ate their pastries as they walked the streets. It wasn’t long before they had gone through the village. They only ran into another elf, who wolf-whistled at the sight of Shawn. Neither bothered to ask him.
“This is hopeless,” Shawn said, once they left the village. “I’m doomed to wander this world in my underwear.”
“You still have your shirt.”
Shawn rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“At least we got something to eat,” Oliver said.
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They continued walking through some sort of meadow in silence. Though they’d only been walking for an hour at this point, Oliver’s feet hurt. How had he managed to carry on so well the previous day? “Can we rest for a minute? My feet are killing me.”
“Mine too,” Shawn admitted. He nodded towards a cluster of boulders ahead. “We can sit there.”
“I wish we had water,” Oliver said as he took a seat on one of the boulders.
“Maybe we’ll come across a stream soon.”
Their minute of silence was disturbed by the sound of horse hooves striking the dirt. Oliver looked up and saw a woman on a brown horse approaching them. The woman pulled the reigns on the horse to stop it, then climbed down.
She turned to face the two men with a smile. “I was wondering if I’d ever see you again.”
"Jessica?" Oliver grabbed onto Shawn's arm for support. He hadn’t recognized her at all. She wore a dress that clearly belonged in this universe. Her hair had been partly braided into some sort of half-ponytail. She even had a cloak tied around her neck. Oliver didn’t know what question to begin with.
“Do you have any pants in those saddlebags?” Shawn nodded his head towards the horse, which indeed had saddlebags.
“No.” Jessica scrunched her nose at the sight of Shawn’s pale, hairy legs. “What happened to yours?”
“I’d rather not talk about it.”
“What about water?” Oliver asked.
Jessica folded her arms. “I’ve been running all over the place trying to find your sorry asses, worrying that I’m gonna have to break you out of fantasy jail. Then, I finally find you. And the first thing you do when you see me is ask for things. Not a ‘how have you been?’ or “are you okay?’ or ‘what happened?’ or ‘sorry we lost you’ or even a god damned ‘hello!’”
Shawn gaped at her. “You’ve actually been looking for us?”
“Of course! What, you think I’m just gonna ditch you here and go home?” Jessica raised an eyebrow. “Or is that what you’d do if the roles were reversed?”
Shawn and Oliver stared at their feet, silent.
“You selfish arseholes!”
Shawn frowned. “Arseholes?”
Jessica groaned, and turned around to walk back to her horse.
“Wait.” Oliver stood up. “We’re sorry. After we got split up, we tried looking for you, but, the cops were still looking for us so we had to get away. We were gonna come back, but we got lost…”
“I don’t believe it.”
“It’s true,” Shawn said.
“Now I really don’t believe it.”
“What happened, after we split up?” Oliver asked, before Shawn had a chance to retaliate.
“Since you two ran off so fast, not even including me in your little plan, the cops were too focused on you to have noticed me. I would’ve ran after you, but I was wearing heels. Even when I took them off, I couldn’t keep up.”
Oliver looked at Jessica’s feet to see a pair of flat shoes. “You aren’t now.”
“No, I’m not. Because when I was running, I bumped into a couple of women. At that point, I didn’t even see you anymore. But the women asked me what my rush was. So I stopped to tell them.”
“Tell them what?” Shawn asked.
“Everything, of course.”
“You told them we were from a parallel universe, and that you were chasing after your friends who were running from the cops?” Oliver asked.
“Yep.”
Shawn shook his head. “That was stupid. They could’ve thrown you into an asylum or burned you at the stake for witchcraft.”
“They had a hard time believing me at first. Then, I showed them my phone. I went over to their house, spent the night. They gave me a complete makeover, which is why I’m dressed like this.”
“They did a good job,” Oliver said. “I didn’t even recognize you.”
“They did, didn’t they?” Jessica spun in a circle, causing the dress to twirl with her. “I’ve always wished I could dress like this every day. Now I can, and nobody looks twice!”
Shawn nodded towards the horse. “Did they give you that as well?”
“No. I left the women in the morning. They gave me a bag of goodies.”
Oliver wanted to ask what exactly the women gave her and if she could spare some for him and Shawn, but knew better. “Did they know anything about Wizard’s Point?”
“Unfortunately not. And I would’ve stuck around to ask more people, but I saw wanted posters with your faces on them. All over the place. I figured you must’ve gotten away. So I left town to see if I could find you.”
“And the horse?” Oliver asked.
“We should get going.” Jessica rubbed her hand against the horse’s neck. “Apparently libraries are a thing here. Maybe we can find books about Wizard’s Point. The women didn’t know of any specific libraries, but they said most cities have one.”
Shawn and Oliver got up from the rocks, and walked over to the horse. “How are we all gonna fit on it?” Oliver asked.
At the same time, Shawn said, “I’m not walking through a city in my underwear! A village was bad enough.”
“And I’m tired of seeing you in your underwear.” Jessica set her chin in her hand, moving her gaze towards the saddlebags. “I might not have pants, but there’s something else I have that you could wear. Except...”
“Except what?” Shawn asked.
“Knowing you, you’d probably rather go without.”
At that moment, Oliver remembered exactly what Jessica wore the day before. And knowing Shawn, Jessica was probably right.
The realization must have dawned on Shawn as well. “Hell no!”
Jessica smiled. “Didn’t think so. I knew your masculinity would be too fragile to handle it.”
“Too fragile?” Shawn scoffed. “Just because I refuse to wear a skirt, doesn’t mean I suffer from ‘fragile masculinity.’ I mean, we don’t know anything about this place. Everyone here could be transphobic. I’ll probably get my ass kicked, or thrown in jail.”
“Or both,” Oliver said. “Both sometimes happens.”
“See, Ollie agrees. And he’s an expert on these sorts of things.”
“You’re just making up excuses,” Jessica said. “I bet you’re just as likely to get thrown in jail for public indecency.”
“At least I won’t get my ass kicked,” Shawn said.
Oliver wasn’t so sure on that. “Didn’t Jasper mention the police here being worse than the police back home?”
Shawn chewed his lip, studying Jessica. “Would it even fit me? You’re shorter than me.”
“It goes to my ankles,” Jessica said. “And we’re around the same weight.”
“But your hips are wider than mine.”
Oliver found himself growing weary. He wanted to get moving. “Just try it on, Shawn.”
Jessica pulled her skirt out from the saddlebags, and handed it over to Shawn. He climbed into it, and pulled it up. It fell a few inches past his knees.
“See,” Jessica said. “You look fabulous.”
“It feels loose,” Shawn complained. “And if I get my ass kicked for this, you both better come to my rescue.”
“You’ll be fine. But your hair is a mess.” Jessica pulled her purse out from the saddlebags, and took out a hairbrush. “Here.”
Shawn took the brush, and ran it through his tangled hair. When his hair looked presentable, he handed the brush back to Jessica.
“Perfect.” Jessica put the brush back in her purse. “Now all you have to do is hold Oliver’s hand and everyone will think you’re his girlfriend.”
Shawn averted his eyes from both of them, face flushed. Oliver felt just as flustered. “Can we go now?”
Jessica climbed on the horse, and kept it going at a slow enough walk for Shawn and Oliver to catch up. It wasn’t long before they hit a crossroad.
The path to the left said “Orendia.” The path to the right said “Ordinia.” The path straight said “Ordonia.”
“Which way do we go?” Oliver asked. “Are all these cities? Which city has someone who can help us?”
“I have no idea,” Jessica said.
“We should go right,” Shawn said confidently.
“Why?” Oliver asked.
“Because it’s the right decision.”
Oliver suppressed a groan while Jessica groaned out loud.
“Well? What do you say?”
Oliver had nothing better to advise. And Jessica didn’t say anything.
“Ordinia it is,” Oliver said.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXCNulfHk6l
and then Add to home screen.