The world dissolved into a blinding vortex of golden and violet light, the air whistling violently in their ears.
"Hold on!"
Kagen shouted over the roaring wind.
He tried to keep a firm grip on his mother's hand and his sister's arm, but the magic circle cracked apart mid-transit. A sudden wave of spatial turbulence ripped through the tunnel, wrenching their hands apart.
"Kagen!"
Mrs. Walker screamed as she was pulled backward into a blue rift.
"Mom! Mellisa!"
In a flash of light, the portal spat Mrs. Walker and Mellisa out onto a grassy hillside under a wide, blue sky.
"Mom?... Did we make it?"
"I think so?" Mrs. Walker looked down at herself, but her body felt foreign and lightweight.
Beside her stood a young woman with brown curly hair and a slim figure like a fragile doll. She was adorned in a tattered, jeweled gown, heavy enough to be a medieval ball gown.
"Mellisa?"
"Who are you?..."
"Wait, Mom, is that you?" Mellisa gasped, looking up and down at the woman standing across from her. Her hair was brown and her skin was fair, but both of their dresses were slightly torn and dirty, as if they had been rolling in the mud.
Silence settled over the open valley.
Mellisa groaned, pushing herself up from the grass and wiping the dirt off her dress.
"Mom? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, sweetie, but what the hell happened to us?... Did we possess this world's bodies?" Mrs. Walker wondered, looking around the open field where they had woken up.
Just then, two maids rushed over to them, seemingly panicking frantically.
"Baroness and young Lady Zelda, you survived!"
Mellisa and Mrs. Walker looked at each other and then back at the maids.
"What happened?, why wouldn't we survive?"
"My Lady, have you already forgotten?, the Baron ousted you and the young Lady for his mistress. They fed you poison and dragged you here into the veld to die. Thank goodness you survived by the goddess's miracle! We truly had no idea what we were supposed to do with you."
"In the end, even in this life a husband leaves me for a younger mistress. How ironic,"
Mrs. Walker sighed, getting up from the grass and looking around briefly.
"Mells, it seems like Earthlings can't cross over here with their actual bodies. But items are an exception."
Mrs. Walker pointed out their luggage scattered on the ground.
"It seems like we needed to possess dying corpses in order to cross over. I don't know what will happen to our original bodies on Earth, but this is our new life now. So let's survive this and go find your brother immediately."
"Baroness—"
One maid chimed in, but Mrs. Walker raised her hand in disapproval.
"Call me by my name, I am no longer the baroness, now am I?"
The maids exchanged looks and then nodded.
"Yes, Lady Fransia."
"Fransia..." Mrs. Walker repeated and then sighed, kicking past the heavy clatter of the rolling suitcases and Mellisa's oversized backpack tumbling down the incline beside them.
Mellisa checked her phone immediately—no signal, no service, and the battery icon flickered at forty percent. It was truly a useless piece of garbage in the world of Edrath just like Kagen said.
Mrs. Walker continued to look around at the towering, ancient pine trees and the distant, snow-capped mountain range. She took a deep breath of the crisp mountain air.
"Well... we certainly aren't in our living room anymore."
Mellisa looked around, scanning the open fields.
"The spatial shock separated us, just like he warned."
"Then we stick to the plan," Mrs. Walker said firmly, grabbing the handle of her heavy hard-shell suitcase.
"Kagen said to head west and look for Duke Arden's castle. If Lucien is there, Kagen will be heading that way too."
"According to the novel's descriptions, those snow-capped peaks belong to the Western Borderlands. If we head down this dirt path toward the treeline, we should hit a main trade road. Maids, I'm certain you know the way around here, so lead the way to the capital—we have a family reunion waiting for us."
The maids looked at each other one more time their head gears turning frantically.
'The madams have been talking and behaving strangely for a while now.'
'And what are those things scattered on the ground?'
Mellisa, seeing their reactions, cleared her throat and elbowed her mother. "Since we already understand their language, we should use these bodies' memories to talk the way they do, Mother. We seem very suspicious like this."
"True, let's definitely try that. And while we're at it, we discard our Earth identities and live as the fallen nobles we supposedly are."
The two of them nodded at the same time and then they began walking down the winding trail, Mrs. Walker wheeling her luggage over the bumpy dirt road while Mellisa kept her eyes peeled for any signs of local travelers, with the maids helping them wherever they could.
"My Lady, perhaps we should find you a change of clothes first," Fransia's maid pointed down at their dresses, and they all agreed to change into simpler wear suited for light travel. Thanks to the maids' pocket change, it was a great help.
"My Lady, I dare not mean to be rude, but from here on, where do we even turn?, the nearby territories won't be able to help us as they have close ties with the Baron."
"We are heading to the West, we have close ties with Lucien Arden."
The maids gasped.
"What?, the Duke?"
"Yes, so just be patient for a little longer, and your patience will be rewarded greatly."
The maids nodded without any further doubt as they followed behind their two masters.
After an hour of walking, the sound of wooden wheels and clopping hooves echoed down the road. A merchant wagon drawn by two large, shaggy oxen approached them. The merchant, an older man wearing a wool tunic, pulled the reins to slow his beasts to a stop, eyeing the two noblewomen walking on foot and their wheeled boxes with absolute bewilderment.
"Good day, travelers," the merchant called out in the local tongue, which the magic portal had somehow translated into their minds immediately.
"Where are you headed to with such strange cartage?"
Mrs. Walker stepped forward, giving him a polite, warm smile as if she were speaking to a neighbor back home. "Good day to you! We are looking for the West Duke's estate—Duke Lucien Arden. Could you tell us if we are heading in the right direction?"
The merchant's eyes widened slightly at the mention of the Duke.
"The Arden Estate? You're on the right road, ma'am, but it's a half-day's travel on foot. Follow this road straight through the valley until you see the black stone gates."
"Thank you so much!" Mrs. Walker replied cheerfully.
Mellisa smiled, adjusting her backpack as they continued marching down the dirt road.
"See, Mom? Not even two hours in Edrath and we're already navigating like locals."
"Of course we are,"
Mrs. Walker smiled, pulling her suitcase along.
"Now let's hurry up. Lucien and Kagen are going to be very surprised when we arrive."
"I am so excited!!!!"
*****