I don’t believe I’ve ever been this angry.
Ever.
Snoring.
My upper lip curled into a snarl, and I glanced back at that bastard.
He was in his bed, knocked out after drinking several times his weight in wine.
I could still hear the other monkeys celebrating outside the window.
After all, this was quite a day to celebrate, wasn’t it?
Their king had brought home a new queen.
Nevermind she’d been kidnapped.
Now we were up in his room, celebrating our “marriage.” With him passed out asleep.
With me.
Big mistake.
I felt into my necklace, a blue teardrop made by my father.
Inside was most of the possessions I had left.
Including the sword he gave me for my one hundredth birthday.
Lonely Moon.
I wrapped my chi around it and pulled it from the storage space within my necklace into this strange new reality.
It practically glowed in the soft light of the moon from the window, wickedly sharp, and it was broad, with a large hilt.
I’ve only ever ridden on it to fly, but my father made sure I knew how to fight with it.
How to cut.
My eyes locked onto my new husband.
He was still in some worn leather clothes, with a pathetic red cloak wrapped around his shoulders.
I took a step forward, the stone floor cool under my feet.
Lonely Moon hummed at it hovered forward, controlled by my chi flowing through its channels.
It hovered over him, over his chest.
I trembled.
And drew Lonely Moon away, vanishing it back into my necklace with a sigh.
I wasn’t sure I could kill this monkey.
I closed my eyes, layering my chi into them, and when I reopened them, I saw the world as blue and yellow.
Blue for resting chi, yellow for active chi.
The monkey who kidnapped me lit up like the sun.
He had more chi than I thought it was possible to contain.
If I attacked him, but he didn’t die, I’d just make him angry.
And that was a bad idea considering my situation.
Instead, I went to the window.
A moon.
Big, bright, full.
It wasn’t my moon.
It wasn’t Lunus.
But it was the closest thing I’ve seen in… decades?
Maybe even centuries?
I had no idea.
The last time I saw Lunus, I was with my father.
We prayed to it together.
I stared up at the moon, my eyes drinking in its beauty.
It felt like I had gotten a piece of my old life back.
Below, the party was finally beginning to wind down, the monkeys either finding a comfortable place to sleep or passing out drunk where they were.
I pushed out a breath, running my hand through my fur.
How did I even end up in this situation?
I was just dancing under a tree I didn’t even want to, but Lady Ethereal made me go and dance, stating I needed to get out of bed and exercise.
Then some drunk guy showed up, declared he was going to marry me, slung me over his shoulder, and hauled ass through the portal as Lady Ethereal tried to kill him without hurting me.
Then to top it all off, he destroyed the anchor point for the portal.
I had no idea where another one was.
Now our “marriage” was being celebrated by the hundred or so monkeys that called this island home.
Maybe I really should try to kill him.
I mean, I wouldn’t know if I could until I tried right?
I glanced back at his sleeping form.
No, think sensibly.
This guy was an idiot, but he was clearly strong.
He fought off Lady Ethereal’s guardians like they were nothing, while being drunk.
First, I should try to disarm him.
His weapon was a staff which he held loosely in his hand as he snored, it was black with golden bands on each end.
I snuck closer and grabbed it.
Now, just to slip it away… It wouldn’t budge.
I tightened my grip on it and tried again.
Nothing.
How heavy was this thing?
I abandoned any notion of sneakiness and did everything I could to drag it away.
Well, I didn’t succeed in moving the bar, but I did succeed in getting him to let go of it.
Bad news.
He let go of the staff and grabbed onto me.
He dragged me into bed and now was cuddling up to my back while he slept.
I struggled in vain, kicking, clawing, I even tried to bite him once.
He was as immovable as his staff.
“Let go of me, you bastard!” I yelled, and wriggled, trying to slip out of his arms, but he just mumbled something and pulled me closer.
Fuuuuuuuck.
At least he was asleep and didn’t drag me into bed while he was awake.
It probably wouldn’t have ended with cuddling then.
I stopped struggling, just completely done.
Fuck my life.
What was even the point?
I was just tired.
I already had a bad day.
And now, I’ve been kidnapped to one of hundreds of different worlds to be the wife of the strongest yet dumbest monkey I’ve ever met.
I lashed my tail in frustration.
I wanted to go home.
Not back to the in-between.
My real home.
But I couldn’t.
I could never go back.
Ugh, forget it.
I was stuck, tired, and I just couldn’t bring myself to care anymore.
At least I could watch the moon from here.
Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever.
The moon eventually vanished from the window and was replaced by the light of morning.
This world seemed to have a day-night cycle similar to my old world, except the sun was far cooler.
It seemed simply warm rather than scorching.
It rose higher in the sky, and the morning was far quieter than the night was.
I guess everyone but me was sleeping off all the booze.
The stone room gradually lightened, allowing me to take in details I hadn’t noticed before.
The room had been carved from the mountain, just like the palace.
Stone walls, stone floors.
As for the furniture, what could be made of stone was, sometimes it was carved directly from the mountain, like this bed or a table along the wall.
Furniture that wasn’t made of stone was some type of wood, and it was old.
Old enough to be falling apart.
The mattress on this bed for example.
It did not do a good job of cushioning the stone underneath.
The sun rose higher in the sky, and I tried escaping twice more, but it was hopeless.
It was about mid-morning when he finally stirred.
I felt his arms shifting around me, and I would have whooped when they drew back, except now exactly what I didn’t want to happen was happening.
This bastard was waking up.
He shifted to sit, and I did as well, slowly shifting back from him as he yawned and stretched.
He blinked sleepily.
His eyes woke up a little when he saw me.
“Who?” He blinked at me and rubbed his eyes.
He stared at me again.
And smiled smarmily.
“Hello there pretty lady.
What’s your name?” I sudden burst of rage made me forget all common sense, my hand bursting forward of its own volition.
A loud crack rang through the air as I slapped him clear across his cheek.
He yanked back, holding his cheek in stunned silence as I berated him.
“I don’t know my name because you fucking kidnapped me and married me without introducing yourself!” I jumped out of the bed, and quickly crossed to the window, slipping my chi into my necklace.
I could summon Lonely Moon and fly out through the window if he tried to get violent with me.
I just hoped I wouldn’t get burned too badly in the sunlight… “What?
No, last night I went through the portal to have some fun with…” He trailed off as last night’s memories came back to him, and he grimaced.
“Fuck, um, well, sorry about that.
I can just take you back through to home, and we can call it even, right?” He was just laying in his bed, not moving towards me as he finished rubbing his cheek and moved on to his temple.
I growled at him, fed up.
“How?
You destroyed the anchor point!
We can’t make another portal!” “Uh, I did?” He zoned out for a moment before wincing again.
“Oooooh, yeah, I guess I did.
I, uh, didn’t do anything bad to you last night right?” “Besides claiming to all the monkeys out there that you married me and ordered a feast?
Besides throwing me over your shoulder and dragging me to your room?
Besides grabbing onto me and refusing to let go all night?!” I crossed my arms, and if I was closer to him I might have even slapped him again.
“Uh, yeah, besides that.” “If you’re asking if you raped me, no, you didn’t.
It’s the one thing you didn’t do.
And if you try to change that, I will find a way to kill you.” My threat went right over his head as he began looking around the room.
“Fair enough.
Ugh, this hangover is killing me.
Is there any water around?” I growled, taking a step forward.
“Seriously?
Your hangover?
My life!
You kidnapped me, and now I can’t get back!” His eyes flashed towards mine, annoyed.
They were a deep chocolate brown.
“I know that!
But I’m not going to come up with any good solutions while my head’s pounding.” I hated him so much.
There was water in one of the pots on the table.
I tapped into my chi and used it to manipulate the chi in the water, lifting it up, and dumping it on the bastard.
He sputtered at me, soaked and shocked as I stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind me.
Fuck him.
Fuck my life.
Fuck these monkeys.
I didn’t know where I was going, just away from him.
Soon I was surrounded by smaller cubs, who clambered around me.
“Queen!
Queen!” “I am not your queen!” I stomped my foot, and they scattered.
But only to the edges of the hallway, away from my feet.
They still circled around me, laughing.
“Queen is cranky.
No sleep!” Ugh, I was not in the mood for this.
“Go away!” They began tugging at my clothes again.
“Queen, food, bath!
Follow us!
No longer cranky!” Food?
My stomach rumbled, reminding me the last good meal I’ve eaten may very well have been centuries ago.
A proper bath too.
I reluctantly let them tug me along the stone hallways inside the mountain.
They were lit by embedded jewels in the walls that sparkled with enough light for me to see clearly, plants crowding around these miniature suns.
It was just down the hallway when I smelled the steam.
They pushed open a set of rotting wooden doors, revealing a bath that was still operational.
It was set in the ground with a step slash seat carved into it, halfway down.
A metallic tang hung in the air, plants abundant around the picturesque pool, but the edge was kept clean for lounging, along with the pat to the door.
Faded stone carvings had calcifications on them.
The little monkeys jumped around, gathering fruit from the nearby plants and trees.
Bringing it to the edge of the pool for me.
One little one tugged on my dress and smiled up at me.
“Royal baths.
For royalty!” Hmm.
Not bad.
With one last withering glare, they disappeared, rushing back through the door.
Why were those kids even here?
Where were their parents?
I was alone now.
I activated my chi sight just to be sure.
Fine.
A nice warm soak sounded nice after everything I’ve been through.
I slipped my clothes into the storage space of my necklace and lowered myself into the water.
Ah.
My muscles slowly unclenched at the hot water I rolled my shoulders, and stretched out, letting out a little moan at how good the water felt.
This was exactly what I needed.
I reclined back, finally taking a moment to breathe.
My stomach rumbled again, and I reached for the fruit and grabbed some kind of reddish-yellow fruit.
Hm, crunchy, a little sweet and a little sour.
I finished it and grabbed another.
This one was yellow, and long.
Hm, this one was mushier, and sweet.
Oh.
There was a fruit that looked similar to one in my home world, but it was pink instead of blue.
I grabbed it, hoping it would taste similar.
Hm, not as crunchy, but the sweetness was similar.
If I closed my eyes, I could almost pretend I was home, relaxing in the river in the shadows as the sun warmed the water.
I finished the fruit too quickly.
I had to open my eyes again.
I wasn’t home.
I was in a strange world, with no hope of ever going back.
Now even the in-between was gone to me, along with Lady Ethereal.
What was I going to do?
I sank into the water, fully submerged.
I stayed there as long as I could before surging back up for air.
I gasped.
As I caught my breath again, I made my decision.
I was trapped here because of that bastard, so he’ll have to help me find a way back.
And if he showed any sign of turning on me, I’d use everything in my power to make him regret ever coming through the portal in the first place.
I probably shouldn’t stay here for too much longer.
I didn’t have any soap to really get clean, and I needed to try and pick up the pieces of what my life has become.
I ate one more piece of fruit before climbing out.
No towels to dry myself off.
It seemed like this world was extremely primitive.
Only monkeys of high importance wore clothes, like that bastard earlier.
From the amount of chi inside that bastard, there were some chi manipulation techniques, but they seemed limited to collecting chi inside oneself to amass power.
And it seems limited to important figures, so it wasn’t well-known among the population.
Maybe on purpose?
I don’t know.
I used my chi again to manipulate the water and draw it off of me.
I was dry in a few moments and activated my necklace and dressed in a flash.
Bath time was over.
Time to go throttle that bastard.