A physicist gets teleported to a fantasy world and loses his mind trying to figure out how magic works.
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Nope. No. Nononono. This was all wrong. Lara was pretty certain of that. She had been absolutely certain of it a couple of hours ago, but had grown increasingly uncertain the more she had seen of this... this... land? Island? World? She didn't even know where exactly she was.
First of all, and this was a pretty basic one, matter does. not. simply. disappear. It can be broken down into its smallest components, transformed into energy or moved. But it does not simply disappear into nothingnes. And yet, when she had woken up on the clearing of the forest she was now walking through, a small furry creature that might have been a cat had been sniffing at her. When she moved it just... disappeared. One second she could almost touch its hair, the next there was just - nothing. Well, not nothing. It might have shocked her less, if the cat-like thing had left a vacuum. Still inexplainable, but at least congruent with the laws of physics. But instead it was replaced with a pocket of warm summer air, in which pollen and dust particles floated as if they had always been there. "What animal?", they seemed to say, "We've been floating here for hours in this very spot since the blooms released us this morning."
Secondly - and more egregiously - gravity was supposed to be dependent on the mass of objects. And that usually doesn't fluctuate as much, at least not within minutes. Yet here it seemed to be constantly changing. Every few meters a normal step would catapult her off the ground, floating through the air. For a good hour or so she tried to find the laws that governed her floating. But the number of steps or strength with which she put her foot down didn't seem to matter. Neither the speed at which she walked. There was nothing visible on the ground. Eventually in exasperation she tried thinking happy thoughts and then sad thoughts, but noted no discernable difference in the frequence, speed or height of her floating.
Not knowing what else to do and being pretty certain that she wouldn't be able to tell a strawberry from a face-eating goblin in this place, she kept walking straight ahead, hoping to eventually come across another human. Or be eaten by a bear. A nice normal bear that eats humans, as bears are supposed to. However, despite the forest humming with the sound of living creatures, she did not see any other animals. Maybe they also disappered when she came near.
Her smartphone was just a useless brick in her pocket and her smartwatch also stayed black, so Lara had no idea how long she had walked. But eventually the forest cleared. In front of her a valley meandered in between hills covered in woods that seemed just like the one she was stepping out of. Nestled in between those hills next to a blue glittering riv- no, nope, right next to the purple glittering riv- the purple trees? The purple - the red herd of cattle moved towards the village. City. Castle.
Nope. No. Nononono. This was all wrong. Lara was pretty certain of that. She had been absolutely certain of it a couple of hours ago, but had grown increasingly uncertain the more she had seen of this... this... land? Island? World? She didn't even know where exactly she was.
First of all, and this was a pretty basic one, matter does. not. simply. disappear. It can be broken down into its smallest components, transformed into energy or moved. But it does not simply disappear into nothingnes. And yet, when she had woken up on the clearing of the forest she was now walking through, a small furry creature that might have been a cat had been sniffing at her. When she moved it just... disappeared. One second she could almost touch its hair, the next there was just - nothing. Well, not nothing. It might have shocked her less, if the cat-like thing had left a vacuum. Still inexplainable, but at least congruent with the laws of physics. But instead it was replaced with a pocket of warm summer air, in which pollen and dust particles floated as if they had always been there. "What animal?", they seemed to say, "We've been floating here for hours in this very spot since the blooms released us this morning."
Secondly - and more egregiously - gravity was supposed to be dependent on the mass of objects. And that usually doesn't fluctuate as much, at least not within minutes. Yet here it seemed to be constantly changing. Every few meters a normal step would catapult her off the ground, floating through the air. For a good hour or so she tried to find the laws that governed her floating. But the number of steps or strength with which she put her foot down didn't seem to matter. Neither the speed at which she walked. There was nothing visible on the ground. Eventually in exasperation she tried thinking happy thoughts and then sad thoughts, but noted no discernable difference in the frequence, speed or height of her floating.
Not knowing what else to do and being pretty certain that she wouldn't be able to tell a strawberry from a face-eating goblin in this place, she kept walking straight ahead, hoping to eventually come across another human. Or be eaten by a bear. A nice normal bear that eats humans, as bears are supposed to. However, despite the forest humming with the sound of living creatures, she did not see any other animals. Maybe they also disappered when she came near.
Her smartphone was just a useless brick in her pocket and her smartwatch also stayed black, so Lara had no idea how long she had walked. But eventually the forest cleared. In front of her a valley meandered in between hills covered in woods that seemed just like the one she was stepping out of. Nestled in between those hills next to a blue glittering riv- no, nope, right next to the purple glittering riv- the purple trees? The purple - the red herd of cattle moved towards the village. City. Castle.
Lara sat down and cried in frustration.
very creative! I really liked this one