Short Story

What if you had to take 10-15 vocabulary words and turn them into a cohesive short story? That's what I had to do, here it is . . .

Lost in Time

The sun setting behind the formidable castle sent a chilling shiver down my spine. Where was I? How had I gotten here? Just five minutes before I’d been sitting in the commons of my High School eating lunch with a group of at least twenty people. Now I was standing in a dirty village in what looked like medieval times. I looked beside me and there was Galen. He had been sitting across the group, so how were we the only ones to be here?

At the same time he looked at me, the same look of confusion that had to be evident on my face, was on his face. We had literally crossed centuries of time, how was this even possible? What power could have done this?

“Dacia?” I was jerked to the present as Galen said my name.

“Yes?”

“Where do you think we are?”

“It looks like a city described in a romance narrative.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too.” As he was talking, I finally looked down at what I was wearing. What was this? I’d left home this morning wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. Now I was wearing a rich full length dress in the medieval style. I looked at Galen again. He was dressed in a rich tunic and leggings. We looked like nobles of the time. What was going on?

“Lady Dacia? Lord Galen?” I whipped around with Galen doing so a second later. There stood a man with head bowed and clothes that showed he lived in poverty.

 “Yes?” Galen asked

“Do you require assistance?”

“Yes” I answered, “do you know how we came to be here?”

“No, ma’am you seemed to appear out of nowhere.” The man answered, head still bowed.

“Why don’t you raise your head?” I asked. The Man gasped.

“That would be a serious affront milady. I could be put to death for that.”

“Oh, All right then. Can you show us the way to the castle?” I figured that that would be where we needed to go. The man was very compliant and showed us where to go. As Logan and I trudged up the hill we discussed our situation.

“I feel like we’re in the middle of a legend containing a Knight Errant and the Holy Grail. You know, like Lancelot or Perceval” Galen said.

“Yup. That’s exactly it, but it seems like those stories were one giant hyperbole, already it doesn’t seem as great.” I answered.

We walked a little farther, my skirts constantly in the way. Finally I had to let it all out.
                “Ugh!” Galen looked at me strangely.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, ever chivalrous.

“My skirt! Why did they wear these things so long! They get in the way. And this corset makes it hard to breathe!” He looked at me strangely again.  I don’t think I’ve ever seemed so frustrated around him before.

“Would it help if I carried you?” That suggestion was so quixotic it made me smile, but there was no way I was going to seem the damsel in distress.

“Thanks, but no thanks. I think I’ll make it.” He smiled; he knew what was going on. Then there was the castle. It was juxtaposed with a large oak tree that was so large it almost overshadowed the turrets on the castle. As we approached the broad castle doors we glanced nervously at one another. What was behind those large doors?

Galen put an arm around my shoulders and gave me a brief hug. I looked up at him. He smiled wanly at me and didn’t release me. He reached up with one hand and rapped on the door. We stood there for a few seconds waiting for an answer. His arm squeezed harder. Once again I looked into his face, he looked apprehensive and my face must have been showing worry.

One question was constantly crossing my mind. What were we going to do in a medieval setting, we don’t know how to speak, how to act, how to . . . anything! Just as the gates began to open I blinked and the next second I was once again sitting in the commons at the school. I blinked a couple of times and then turned a full circle looking for anyone. There was no one around me. But as I came full circle there was Galen across the way.

He, too, was looking bemused. I walked toward him and he met me halfway. He pulled me into a hug.

“What just happened?” I asked as he released me.

“I don’t know Dacia, that was the strangest experience of my life.” He answered.

I looked around wondering where everybody could have gone.

“How long do you thing we were there?” I asked. Galen glanced at his watch.

“I think we disappeared at about 12:30. Right now it’s 5:30. We were gone for 5 hours.”

I ran to where my backpack should have been. And then I stopped up short. It wasn’t there. Strange. It should have been there. I turned around slowly and looked at Galen.

“Is your bag gone to?” I asked slowly

“Yes”

“Hmmm . . .” I contemplated this, preoccupied in my thoughts.

“Dacia?”  Once again Galen pulled me out of my thoughts. I looked at him questioningly.

“Do you think that there were a Dacia and Galen from that time that looked like us and we just switched places?” He asked.

“It makes sense. That peasant man knew exactly who we were. How else could he have known? So if they took our places, where would they have gone?”

“I don’t know, because they wouldn’t know how to drive or how to get our homes.”

I sighed, “Well we might as well look for our stuff before we figure out how to get home”

So off we went. Juxtaposed we walked down the hall searching for our bags, searching for answers, searching for sanity.