Mila's World, Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Hey $17-and ups!  The other 3 August chapters will be posted in the next few days!  Thanks for your patience!  I'll be posting the September schedule next week, so look out for that as well -- The Witches of Kappa Gamma Delta is coming back this month!  So excited!  Enjoy the next Mila chapter! <3 <3 <3 

Chapter 3

“Wow, so…this is cute!” Adam exclaimed amiably, looking around as Mila shut her door behind him.

“Heh, well it’s…it’s just my little nest,” Mila replied, turning the lock.  She took a couple extra moments to stare down at her doorknob, as her wet hair dripped onto the metal.  Her stomach lurched uncomfortably.  Why had she brought him back here to her place?!  Why hadn’t she suggested they go to his apartment?  It was all well and good to daydream about Adam actually being there, in her living room, but now that he was actually here, Mila felt a crushing wave of anxiety threaten to overwhelm her.  What would he think of her place?  Did she have nerdy, tacky taste?  Would he feel trapped?  Did it smell ok in here!?

“Well it’s totally you!” Adam declared, going up to the posters Mila had on her wall.  “Mmhm, loving the Studio Ghibli poster…and with the Japanese letters too!  Is that, uhm…hold on, wait, let me guess…is that My Neighbor Totoro?”

“Yeah it is!” smiled Mila, feeling a strange rush of reassurance.  She hadn’t expected him to guess correctly…and in any case, he wasn’t making any faces, or seeming like he was straining to stay positive.  She figured that meant her place probably smelled ok.

“And of course you’ve got The Hobbit here,” Adam continued, going on to the next one.  Mila stole a glance at his butt, which was looking quite shapely in those stylish jeans he had on.  She felt a pang of longing, but easily held herself back, almost laughing  internally at the brazenness of her arousal.

“I actually thought, uhm, that the first two movies were pretty good!” Mila said, “And I really liked that poster there – Gandalf next to Bag End, you know?  With the dark clouds on the horizon.  Like, calming and ominous at the same time.”

“I totally get it,” nodded Adam appreciatively, moving on to yet another poster.  Mila was beginning to think that he was just humoring her now, but she played along regardless.  “Aaaaand it goes without saying that no Mila residence would be complete without some stylish anime!”

“Heh, well you know me,” Mila chuckled, trying to sound casual, “I love my anime.”

“What’s this of?” asked Adam, stepping closer to look at the image of a strong, spiky-haired young man staring intently at the viewer.  “I don’t think I’m familiar with this one.”

“Oh yeah, it’s…kind of obscure,” Mila answered, blushing a little.  “It’s Kongō Banchō, by Nakaba Suzuki.  I really like his style.”  She had just remembered the four beers she had in the fridge, and was looking for an opportunity to offer one to Adam, so she could drink one too.  Her nerves were starting to get to her.

“Huh, cool…” pondered Adam, looking at the poster, “I like it too.”

A few silent moments passed, and Mila began to feel increasingly anxious.  She didn’t know what to think – did Adam think things were getting awkward already?  Or was he just cool checking her place out?

‘He’s just chilling, Mila…just chilling,’ she told herself desperately.  That reminded her of the beers, and she spoke up, a little louder and more abruptly than she had intended to:

“Hey!  Uhhh, I got a few beers in the fridge!  Want one?”

Adam turned around from the wall to face her.  His eyebrows had gone up, and Mila had to deal with the horrible thought that she had just made an awful mistake.  Was it suggestive, bringing up drinking with him?  Was it basically the same thing as her saying, ‘Hey let’s get rid of the inhibition so I can make a pass at you?’  She felt herself tensing up inside.  This kind of anxiety couldn’t go on for much longer without her visibly showing it in her appearance and behavior.

“Hmmm, a beer…” Adam mused out loud, putting his hand up to his chin.  “Haha, you know, it’s funny…I know we’re in college and everything, but I…I haven’t actually had a drink yet since I’ve been here.”

“Oh…y-you…really?” stammered Mila, getting red in the face.  Now she felt like some of delinquent; and she was shocked that someone as sociable and popular as Adam hadn’t been drinking.  Sure, they were both technically “underage,” but no one really paid attention to those rules, especially in college.

“Haha yeah,” chuckled Adam, almost apologetically, “And it hasn’t been because I’ve, you know…turned into some kind of puritan or something, haha…I just, I guess with all the soccer practice and training and all, I haven’t really had the stomach for it.”

“Oh right, right, all your training!” exclaimed Mila, nodding her head quickly.  “Haha wow, I forgot…you’re probably on a strict, uhm…you know, diet or whatever, especially since you said your uhhh…your season’s about to start.  And here I am, trying to make you drink!  I’m sorry, Adam, forget I ever said anything.”

“Haha, no, no, it’s not that big of a deal, actually,” he laughed good-naturedly, holding his hand up.  “Our season doesn’t start until next week and…well, even though our coach warned us that he better not be hearing about us going out to bars, I think…heheh, well, this is a little different.  We’re just here at your apartment!”

“Y-Yeah…yeah…” Mila replied.  She was just going along with whatever he was saying at this point.  Being reminded of Adam’s athleticism had caused her eyes to go up and down his body again.  God, he was just so…so nicely put together…such nice arms…tasty muscles…broad shoulders…she badly wanted to see his bare legs, but his jeans prevented that…still, though, she could see the outline of his perfect butt…a big butt, especially for his frame…she felt herself getting a little weak in the knees, as she felt a tingle of electricity between her legs.

“And anyway, what better way to pop my, uhhh…my alcohol cherry than with Mila Rainsly over a nice little game of D&D?” Adam finished, smiling broadly.  Mila felt a wave of euphoria pass over her, and she matched his broad smile with an even broader one of her own.  Her torso jiggled as she felt herself starting to laugh.

“Hahaha…al…haha…alcohol cherry!?” she exclaimed, clutching her sides.

“Ha!  I know, I know, I’m a big dork,” Adam replied, nodding his head self-deprecatingly through his smile.

“No!  I just…heh…takes one to know one, I guess,” Mila laughed.  She had been trying to reassure Adam that, in fact, he wasn’t a dork, but her words got caught and tangled up in her throat, and she ended up just going for the humorous approach.  It seemed to have worked, because Adam was laughing with her now.

“Well we are playing D&D on a Friday night,” he quipped.  A few seconds of silence passed by, during which he appeared to realize that Mila could have taken his comment as a sort of backhanded dig at her, so he quickly added, “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Nerds for life, right?”

“Haha, totally!” she laughed.  There had been no reason for Adam to worry – Mila was still basking in the relief that her beer offer hadn’t fallen flat, and in her excitement that all of this was actually happening.

“So…I’ll warn you,” she grinned, going into the kitchen, “I’ve only got High Life…nothing fancy.”

“You say that like I’m gonna care,” chuckled Adam, walking into the kitchen behind her.  “I’m, like…the opposite of a beer connoisseur.”

“Me too,” nodded Mila, opening the fridge and fishing out two bottles of the golden beer.  “And I hope you don’t think I’m some kind of…I don’t know, alcoholic or something, haha.  I literally just bought this six-pack on a whim the other day, no idea why.”

“How’d you buy it?” asked Adam, accepting the cold bottle from Mila.

“The beer?  Oh…haha, it’s easy,” she laughed.  “Jay’s Package Store doesn’t really check ID’s.”

“Huh, imagine that!” Adam grinned, looking impressed.  “I think you’ve got a hang of this “college thing” a lot more than I do, Mila!”

“Oh nooo, no, that’s not true!” she replied immediately, blushing.  “You’re the popular one – and I’m just…the, uhm…the lucky one who’s your friend.”

“Aww, you’re too sweet,” Adam smiled.  He held up his bottle.  “How about we drink to that, huh?  Still friends!”

“Still friends!” repeated Mila happily, clinking her bottle into his.  In her heart, she wanted more…so much more…but for the moment, she was actually able to shove down her amorous desires and just enjoy the time she was spending with Adam.  Two days ago, would she have thought that it would be possible that she would be hanging out with him, in her apartment, on a Friday night, drinking beer and playing D&D!?  No…no, of course not…and so she didn’t have much trouble reminding herself to savor this time, without letting it be tainted by the knowledge that they would always just be friends.

“Oh wow!  God, this board has had an upgrade since I saw it last!” exclaimed Adam a few minutes later, when Mila brought out her own customized D&D board and laid it out on her dining room table.

“Heheh, well I’ve been getting more and more into it,” replied Mila, blushing, partially from pride, and partially from embarrassment, “Just kinda as a…um…a pet project…and stuff.”

“Just look at all this!” continued Adam, sitting down in a chair and admiring the whole layout, “You’ve made a perfect little medieval village!  You’ve got the tavern…the blacksmith…”

“Haha, yeah…” Mila grinned sheepishly.

“The armory…the monastery…the castle…” continued Adam, “And a little forest over here. Some mountains over there…Haha, geez Mila, this is amazing!  How did you make all this stuff!?”

“3D printer,” she answered quietly, feeling her face get even hotter with her blush.  She hadn’t expected Adam to be this impressed.  “And the scenery on the, uh, on the board itself I just painted myself…you know, the grass, the roads, oh, and the tar pit over here in the corner…haha, thought that would be a fun obstacle to navigate, or maybe even there’s something we end up needing, like a…I don’t know, a key or something, that’s stuck in there…or whatever…”

She finished her explanation feeling slightly lame, like she had started strong but then steadily deflated as she spoke.  But a quick look up at Adam told her that, once again, she had no reason for feeling such anxiety.  He was nodding his head over and over, his wide eyes going around the whole board, drinking it in, and clearly enjoying it.

“Oh yeah…yeah, this is…this is incredible, Mila,” he declared, raising his eyes up to look at her across the table.  “It’s really taking me back, haha!  Back to middle school…early high school, when we played all the time.”

“It is!?” Mila asked, leaning forward and nearly knocking her beer over.

“Totally!” Adam smiled.  “Haha, you’re making me wonder why on earth I started doing all this other stuff…soccer, football, parties with all those boring people…haha, this totally beats all that!”

“Aww but you…you, uhm…ehheheh, well, thanks!” Mila stammered.  She didn’t know what else to say.  Was he just being nice?  It would be like Adam, to say all these things to make her feel good, to make her feel at ease.  It must have been obvious how nervous and awkward she was…but even if he was just saying this stuff, it sure sounded nice coming out of his mouth.  Mila resolved just to run with it, and enjoy it.

“Ok so…characters!” Adam said, rubbing his hands together, as he looked down at the assembled 3D-printed little figures, “What’ve we got here?  Let’s see…an elf…that’s a dwarf…some kind of warrior…a human, maybe?”

“Mhm, that’s a ranger,” Mila explained, “And…uhm, you’ve got your mage here, and then a huntress, a sorceress…”

“Oooo, she’s pretty tall compared to the other ones!” remarked Adam, picking up the sorceress and examining her closely.

“Heh, yeah, I…I kinda wanted to make her that way,” Mila murmured, “I always thought there was something cool about a big tall powerful lady…like the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia…even though she was evil, haha…you know what I mean?”

“Yeah…yeah I think so,” Adam replied, though Mila felt that perhaps he was just humoring her.  He put the sorceress back down.  “And a few more…damn, Mila!  So many to choose from!  Do you have a preference for who you’re gonna be?”

“I…well, maybe the sorceress, actually,” Mila smiled.  “Since I’m pretty tiny in real life, and why not indulge the, uh…the fantasy of being bigger, right?”

“Haha sounds good!” Adam laughed good-naturedly, “So you wanna be bigger, then?”

“Oh!  Haha not, like…actually,” Mila backpedaled quickly, “Just, you know…in the fantasy world.”

“Really?” asked Adam, leaning forward over the table a little as he scrutinized her with feigned seriousness, “You sure about that?  You don’t want to be one of those amazon warriors from the Wonder Woman movies who just totally hulks out on the bad guys?”

“Ehhhh, I don’t know much about Wonder Woman,” Mila admitted timidly, “I’m kind of a Marvel girl, remember?”

“Hahaha riiiight, right!” laughed Adam, leaning back away from the table in his chair, “I forgot about that.”

“But now that you mention it, yeah, I guess it would be cool to be a little taller,” Mila continued, glancing down wistfully at the sorceress figurine.  As soon as she had spoken, though, she felt a wave of self-consciousness.  ‘God,’ she thought, ‘I sound so pitiful.’

“But…but this is the body I’ve got!” she added, smiling as she looked up and gestured down to her figure, speaking louder and trying to rally herself.  It seemed to work, because Adam was chuckling appreciatively.

“You look good, Mila,” he said genuinely, “Really, you do.”

“Aww you’re just saying that to be nice,” she smiled dismissively, waving him away as she took another swig of her beer.  Adam didn’t reply; he just shrugged a little with his lips pursed in a kind smile, as if to say, ‘Well, what’s wrong with being nice?’  Mila didn’t know what to make of his reaction…whether he was admitting that he was just hummoring her, or whether he had just decided not to further engage her insecurities.  The two possibilities clashed in her head, and she pushed them all away, taking another healthy swig of beer.  She was so tired of always stressing out about all this stuff.  Jesus, she had Adam here – why not just enjoy it?!

“Ok so…so yeah, I’ll be the sorceress,” she continued, barreling ahead, feeling the brave kick of the alcohol in her brain, “And how about you?”

“Hmmm, good question,” mused Adam, looking from figure to figure.  “So many good choices here…haha, look at the detail on these!  You carved little runes in the monk’s staff…the knight has a little kerchief wrapped around his neck…”

“From his courtly-love princess in a faraway land,” explained Mila proudly.

“Haha of course!” laughed Adam.  “And look – you even gave the ranger a perfect little green cloak…with a hood and everything!”

“Heh, yeah, I made that out of this, like…special fabric I got at the store,” Mila replied.  “It kinda took me a minute to get the dimensions right, since I can’t sew for shit…I–I mean…yeah, I can’t sew.”  Mila had stopped herself for a moment after saying “shit,” since she usually didn’t use that kind of language.  But she was drinking a little, and was feeling more relaxed by the second.  Why not let loose a little?  Besides, Adam obviously didn’t mind.

“Well you could’ve fooled me!” he declared, picking up the ranger and examining it closely.  “This thing fits him perfectly!”

“Yeah, it’s supposed to be a waterproof cloak that protects him from the rain, the wind…you know, the elements,” Mila nodded.  “Which is important because he’s outside all the time, snooping around the dark forests, carrying out all kinds of…um, all kinds of…”

“Missions?” offered Adam helpfully.

“Yeah!  Missions and…you know, reconnaissance and stuff,” Mila continued.  She leaned slightly into the table, looking across to Adam.  She knew he hadn’t asked for the backstory, but he really did seem to enjoy her D&D set, and after all, she had spent a lot of time on it.  So why not show it off a bit?  This was Adam, after all!  She didn’t need to hold back – he wanted to hear it.  She shoved down the little chattering, misgiving voices making a racket in her mind, and plowed on ahead.

“I actually have this whole backstory for the ranger,” she explained excitedly.  “Like, he’s a…well he’s kind of like Aragorn, from Lord of the Rings.”

“Haha remember, it’s me, Mila,” chuckled Adam, taking a swig from his beer and admiring the bubbles in his bottle before looking back at her humorously.  “I know who Aragorn is.”

“Oh, psssshh, of course, silly me!” she exclaimed, smacking herself on the forehead with the palm of her hand, “And I…uhh…yeah…what was I saying?”

Adam laughed and held up the ranger figurine.

“Oh right!  Ha, so…the ranger’s kinda like Aragorn,” continued Mila, getting a little red in the face, both from the alcohol and her stumbling over her words.  But she was still enjoying herself.  “In that he’s…well, he’s technically in line to be king, but he’s chosen exile instead, because the land is ruled by some sort of evil force that’s keeping him from the throne, you know, that’s um…that’s ruling in his place.  And so he sneaks around, dispatching, uhh, y’know, bad guys here and there…hangs out in dark taverns in the corner…mysterious character…that kind of stuff.”

“Well now I’ve gotta be this guy,” Adam announced, placing the ranger down next to the sorceress, “With a backstory like that.”

“What?  Oh, n-no, no I…I wasn’t trying to box you in,” said Mila quickly.  “You can be anyone you want!”

“I know,” smiled Adam, tapping the figurine on the head, “And I’m choosing the ranger.  He seems cool.”

Mila stared down at the two figurines, both of them standing next to each other.  Her sorceress rose up, tall and proud, clothed in an orange tunic and orange felt boots, with her brown hair tied up in two large, stylish pig-tails.  Mila had wanted to give her a slightly-playful, girlish look, designed to disguise her true power.  She reasoned that, in the dangerous world of her D&D landscape, most characters would want to “fly under the radar,” so to speak.  But, of course, her character could only disguise herself so much, being as tall as she was.  Especially compared to Adam’s cute little ranger, she looked huge.  The ranger, though, just like the sorceress, had enormous power potential, and Mila had specifically constructed his figurine to look “ordinary.”  Being a D&D purist, she wanted the real drama to take place within the game itself.  She hadn’t wanted to draw too much attention to the artwork on the figurines.

‘Besides,’ she thought to herself, as she looked down at the two figures, standing side by side, ‘I’m not much of an artist anyway.’  Still, though, she couldn’t help but think that there was something about the way the sorceress and the ranger looked together…something that warmed her heart.  It was the two of them – her and Adam – standing together, in a fantasy world, with all these obstacles and challenges in their way, with no one but each other to rely on.

‘Us against the world,’ Mila thought wistfully.  But she suddenly registered that Adam had been talking, and she perked up and refocused her eyes on him, shaking her head slightly, like she was awaking from a trance.

“Uhhh…s-sorry, what were you saying?” she asked, a little frazzled.  “I…heh, I kinda zoned out there for a second.  Getting tipsy I guess…”

“You and me both!” laughed Adam, holding up his bottle and “cheersing” her again.  They both took another long gulp, and once they had both swallowed, they looked across the table at each other, grinning.  In an instant they burst into laughter.

“Whaaaaat?” chortled Mila, feeling her face go red.  “What were you saaaaying?”

“I were saying…” joked Adam, with purposefully bad grammar, “That we should roll some dice to determine the, uhm…the…oh what are they called again?”

“The ability scores?” Mila offered, turning her head slightly askew at Adam, like she was interrogating the fact that he had forgotten such basic terminology.  Internally, she actually felt a pang of sadness, even though she was able to ignore it and pass it off as the alcohol toying with her emotions.  It really had been that long since he had played…he had moved on…to bigger and better things…

“Hey, hey, it’s been a minute!” he replied, with feigned indignation.  “But anyway, I…I uh…”

Mila looked down and saw that Adam had lowered his hand to his side, like he was about to put his hand in his pocket.  That reminded her about dice…specifically, that special purple-glitter-resin 20-sided dice that she kept in her nightstand drawer…the dice they had both used dozens, probably hundreds of times, when they played back in middle school and early high school.  Her heart thumped in her chest as she leapt up out of her chair.

“Wait, hold that thought!” she exclaimed.  “I’ve…I’ve gotta go get something…you’ll enjoy…”

Mila stumbled into her bedroom and opened her nightstand drawer.  She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t thought this far ahead yet.  Maybe she hadn’t really believed that she could get Adam into her apartment.  But he was here now, and now it was clear to her that they definitely needed to play with her special purple dice.  It would bring back all those memories of that wonderful time when they had been best friends.  After a little rummaging, Mila finally found it and closed her hand around its smooth, pointed edges.  And then, without even thinking, she held her hand up close to her mouth and whispered into the die, almost like a prayer:

“Let him remember…please let him remember…”

Mila didn’t even give herself time to feel pathetic or ridiculous because of this sudden, strange, and private gesture.  She didn’t really even know exactly what she meant by it, but she felt somehow that every second she lingered in her bedroom would dilute her intention.  Wiping her mind clean, and taking a deep breath, she strolled back into the dining room, turning the die around and around in her hand behind her back.  Adam smiled expectantly at her as she sat down.

“So, for the dice tonight,” she began, her heart hammering away in her chest, “I thought we’d use…this.”

She deposited the brilliant purple die down on the table.

“Look familiar?” she quipped, trying her hardest to sound casual.  But her voice was shaking a little.

Adam blinked down at the die, and his mouth dropped open.  Mila felt a flood of hot emotion rush over her.  He recognized it!

“Oh my god…” he murmured, shaking his head as his mouth twitched into a grin, “I…this…Mila!  Haha WOW, this is just…just too crazy!”

He picked the die up and examined it, turning it over and over in his hand, like he was seeing an old friend.  Mila watched him, biting her lip and clenching her stomach, willing herself not to tear up.  She hated how emotional this was making her feel, but at the same time, it was all for a good reason – it was because she was happy.

“Long time no see!” Adam laughed, glancing over at Mila before staring into the die again, holding it up to the light so that its opaque purple depths were illuminated.  “God, how many times we rolled this guy together, huh?”

“I…I know,” Mila nodded, her voice sounding far away as she struggled not to choke up.

“So…” Adam continued, putting the die down on the table in front of him as he looked squarely at Mila, “You’re not gonna believe this, but…after I parked my car near Louie’s this afternoon, you know…I was walking up to the restaurant…and this is, like, just a minute before we met up…I looked down in the ivy by the sidewalk, and…something caught my eye.”

Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out something and put it down on the table next to Mila’s die.  Mila’s mouth dropped open, and she felt her eyebrows creasing towards each other as she blinked blankly down at what she was seeing.  It was another die…another 20-sided die…that looked exactly like hers.

Mila looked up at Adam, her eyes wide.  “No…” she began, a little shakily, “No…no way…”

“I know, right!?” Adam chuckled, nodding earnestly.  “Like…what are the odds?  Crazy coincidence…haha, I actually thought that you were already at the restaurant and had, like, accidentally dropped it in the ivy on your way inside.  I was gonna mention it to you, but…heh, well, we kinda got caught up in conversation and I was so glad to see you and I forgot to bring it up, until now.”

Mila looked back down at the dice, and she reached out and grabbed both of them, turning them around and around in her fingers, examining them closely.  It was eerie how similar they were – she actually had to make a conscious effort to remind herself which one was the original.  From the golden etchings of the numbers, to the ethereal purple glow, to the little deposits of glitter suspended inside…they looked identical.

“This is just…holy shit, this is crazy,” Mila muttered in amazement.  “I wonder…eheh, damn…I wonder who dropped it there.”

“I mean, like, the odds,” Adam emphasized, gesturing with his hands, “The odds of someone just happening to drop a 20-sided die like that in the ivy, right in my path, on the night that you and I are gonna play D&D.  And it’s not like they make a ton of dice like that!”

“No,” Mila replied, shaking her head, “They’re super-rare.  I bought this one special off Ebay…ha, Ebay…the days before Amazon…”

“And I guess I just assumed…heh, yeah, now that I’m thinking about it, I just assumed it was yours,” Adam said, repeating himself.  “But I guess…I guess not.”

The two of them shared an introspective moment of silence, as they stared down at the identical dice that Mila had put back on the table.  Outside, the storm continued to rage, with torrents of rain coming down, and the wind whipping through the trees.  Inside Mila’s apartment, though, the two friends felt warm and cozy.  The shock of this strange die had distracted Mila from her own insecurities, and the intimacy of the moment washed over her, making her feel as happy as she had felt in a long, long time.

“Well, it’s ours now!” she laughed, breaking the silence.  She pushed it over to Adam, as she took up her die in her hands.  “And it’ll make it easier for us to roll our ability scores – we can do them at the same time!”

“Perfect!” smiled Adam, scooping up his die.  “So we roll first to determine…um…strength, right?”

“Haha, you’re starting to remember!” teased Mila, swiping up her own die.  The two of them started shaking the dice in their hands, with Adam blowing on his playfully for luck.

“C’mon!” he whispered to his die, loudly enough so that Mila could hear, “C’mon!  Remember?  Remember how you used to always give me high strength!  Let’s go…15 or higher!”

“Haha, that one doesn’t remember!” laughed Mila, shaking her own die.  “But this one does!”

“Heheh, I don’t knowwwww,” replied Adam, cocking his head to the side, “I’ve got a funny feeling about this little guy here…”

“Alright so…we roll together…” said Mila.

“Together,” nodded Adam.  They smiled at each other, enjoying the moment.

“Ok,” breathed Mila.  She didn’t know why, but her heart hadn’t slowed down – instead, it had sped up.  Something seemed to be hanging in the darkness above them…a strong sense of foreboding.  It felt almost dangerous…and exciting.

“On three,” she heard herself say.  “One…”

“Two…” Adam added.

“THREE!”

Their voices echoed off the walls in unison as they rolled their dice.  The sparkly purple plastic clattered down on the table…and both dice smacked directly into one another, in the middle of the table.  Adam’s settled down on a “1,” and Mila’s, teetering on the edge, rolled over into a “20.”

In an instant, the room was lit up by a flash of brilliant white light.  Both Adam and Mila shut their eyes tightly and instinctually lifted up their hands to shield their faces.  An immense whooshing sound roared in their ears, and they both experienced the sensation of dropping off something, like they were stepping off a cliff and falling down into a deep and boundless chasm below.  They were too shocked to make a sound.

And then, almost as soon as it had begun, it was over.  With a sudden start, their apparent, catapulting movement came to an end.  They both felt damp earth beneath them…damp grass.  Something soft and cool was blowing into their faces…a cool, delicious wind.  It smelled like they were outside.  The only thing they could hear was each other’s heavy, panting breathing.  Neither of them had dared to open their eyes yet.

“A-Adam…!?” Mila spoke first.  She was scared, and her trembling voice reflected this fear…but the strange thing was, her voice sounded deeper, fuller, larger.  It was still certainly feminine, but just…more than it had been before.

“Mila?” Adam’s voice came in response.  “I’m…I’m here.”  He sounded shaken as well, and his voice was also different.  There was no doubt that it was him, but his voice was somehow smaller…fainter.  Mila had the sense that it came from somewhere below her.

She opened her eyes.  She was standing on the edge of an immense forest of thick, gnarled trees that expanded off to her right for as far as she could see.  To her left was a rich, verdant, green plain, dotted with the occasional pink and purple blotches of wildflowers.  In the distance, beyond another array of gnarled trees, she could just make out the shapes of some pointed spires and thatched roofs…a village…and within it, in the distance, a huge stone structure with turreted battlements…a castle.  The sky was overcast, and once again, Mila felt that cool breeze on her face.  She raised up her hand to brush her hair out of her face, but she realized she didn’t have to.  Her hair was tied up in two pigtails behind her head.  Looking down, Mila saw, with a sense of bewildered shock, that she was dressed in an orange tunic, with orange felt boots wrapped around her lower legs, reaching up to the middle of her shapely calves.

Not knowing what to think, her mind totally paralyzed, Mila turned to her left, in an attempt to seek out Adam.  An ancient oak tree hung down low over her, low enough to where she could easily reach up and grab its branches.  It occurred to Mila, in a strange and impromptu moment of musing, that this must have been a small tree…though it was odd that such a small tree would look so old.  Weren’t old trees usually much bigger?  But her mind suddenly focused to a razor-sharp point as she saw something emerging slowly from around the oak’s trunk…a tiny little person in a green hood…walking gingerly, cautiously.  Mila felt herself tense up a little at this new form, but she relaxed almost immediately once she realized how small this person was compared to her.

And then, the figure threw back his hood, and Mila gasped.  It was Adam.  The two of them stood stock-still, gaping at each other, completely stunned.  Adam’s head was no higher than Mila’s hips.