"This is a trick, right?" Adriel asks, bending down and touching the grass. "How'd you do it?"

"What makes you think I did something?" Julias looks around, only seeing grass and flowers around. "I don't have the time or energy to pull off something like this!"

"Well then what would you say happened?" Adriel stands up and glares at Julias. "We got magically transported to a completely different world?"

"I'm definitely leaning towards it!"

"You are absolutely ridiculous," Adriel announces, turning around and walking away.

He doesn't get more than four steps way when he feels a tug on his shirt.

"Don't leave me," Julias begs. "I didn't do this, Adriel. I don't know where we are and even though I hate your guts you're the only person here for miles."

"And no matter what the hell exactly happened, we should stick together." Adriel sighs and turns around. "You're right."

Julias sighs in relief.

"So, which way should we start walking?" Julias turns around and squints, trying to see further than he did before. Adriel looks around and shrugs.

"There's no smoke in the sky to lead us towards a fire, and there's no noises from any direction."

"Which means we could pick a direction and walk the complete opposite way of civilization."

"But we do have that." Adriel points to his left at a creek a little ways away. "If we follow it we should find some sign of life soon."

"We should mark this spot." Julias crouches down, digs his fingers into the ground, and carves out a J and an A.

"You done yet?"

"Only you could find a way to irritate me while we're stuck God knows where."

"I'm sure we'll find out if we start walking." Adriel points over at the creek. Julias nods and stands, walking next to Adriel towards the creek.

"So if we're not in a fantasy world, where do you think we are?"

"The middle of some really elaborate prank."

"And we just somehow rolled our way into it?" Julias snorts. "Right. Definitely plausible."

"Excuse me, mister I-think-we-went-somewhere-magical, at least I didn't propose an answer that involved something that doesn't exist!"

"Blah blah blah." Julias opens and closes his hand, mocking Adriel. "How many books have you read?"

"Quite a few, actually."

"And this doesn't feel like the plot of some book to you? Two people who hate each other are thrust into a situation where they can only rely on each other?"

"No, it sounds more like an anime, actually," Adriel laughs. "Or a comic. I'm not quite sure which yet."

"What it sounds like is some silly kid's cartoon where everyone becomes best friends in the end and the moral of the story is teamwork."

"That's so true! Some crappy kid's show Netflix made, that's what this is like."

The duo snickers.

"Do you think we should go upstream or downstream?" Adriel questions. Julias shrugs.

"I guess it'll depend on how fast it's flowing," he answers. "If it's flowing fast, there's probably nothing happening to it upstream so we should go downstream. "But if it's flowing slowly, then we should go upstream because that means something's messing with it."

"I hate how smart you are."

Julias stops in his tracks and blinks a few times. "You hate what about me?"

"How smart you are." Adriel glances over his shoulder. "Hurry up or I'm leaving you behind."

"Right." Julias starts jogging and quickly catches up with Adriel. They reach the creek just a few short minutes later.

"Current's fast." Adriel crouches down and sticks his hand into the water.

"So downstream we go?"

"Downstream we go."

"I bet it'll be past sunrise by the time we find any signs of life."

"I bet in just a few short hours we'll be sipping clean water in someone's home."

"I'm willing to bet two hundred I'm right."

"I'll take that bet." Adriel stands and holds his hand out to Julias, who shakes it. "Do you even have two hundred? I know you don't have a job."

"I've been helping out some relatives and they give me money whenever I do, so yes." Julias nods. "I have money."

"Is that why you're never home on weekends?"

"And here I thought you hated me."

"I do!" Adriel looks straight ahead, cheeks tinged pastel pink. "It's just useful to know when I can go off and do whatever I want without running into you."

"So you've been stalking me."

"No!"

Julias shoves Adriel's shoulder playfully, snickering.

The two, surprisingly, manage to keep the conversation between them light for hours until they spy a few wooden structures.

"Look!" Julias grabs Adriel's arm and points, a grin on his face. "A village!"

"And it's still not sunrise." Adriel smirks as Julias lets go of his arm. "Guess who wins the bet?"

"Not you," Julias answers. "Not yet, anyway. You said we'd be sipping clean water in someone's home. While I might've lost the bet, you still haven't technically won yet."

"But we know I'm going to win."

"Do we?" Julias speeds up his pace.

"Julias!"

Adriel quickly catches up with him. "If you admit right now that I won the bet, I'll let you keep your money."

"You won the bet."

"Wow." Adriel blinks twice. "That was a lot easier than I thought it would be."

"Giving you money is last on my list of things to do."

"But you came up with the bet in the first place."

"Because I was confident I'd win!"

"One of these days your confidence is going to stab you in the back."

"Like it did when we fought and ended up here?"

"Did your confidence stab you in the back then?"

"I mean, I was saying some stuff about how I could beat you even with the use of only one hand."

Adriel blinks slowly. Julias lets out a yawn, sighing immediately afterward.

"Hopefully they have something like a hotel here," he remarks. Adriel nods in agreement.

They stay quiet save for the two instances Julias sneezed the rest of the way to the village.

"Woah." Julias stops in his tracks and looks around at the bustling streets.

"Woah indeed." Adriel looks around. "We can't get any food. Look."

He points at a popular food stand selling what looks like an assortment of fruits. The person at the front of the line sets a few pieces of something shiny on the counter. The vendor takes it and drops two smaller shiny pieces on the counter.

"Which means even if we find a hotel ro something similar, we might not be able to afford it."

"Push comes to shove, we steal food to survive."

"We can't do that!" Julias smacks Adriel's arm. "We don't know where we are. We don't know what anything is. How would we know what exactly to steal and from who?"

"You're in the way," a voice calls behind Adriel and Julias. They each take a step away from each other, stuttering out an apology. A person with silvery wings walks by and over to the fruit stand they had been watching earlier.

"Are those actual wings?" Julias breathes. Adriel's mouth falls open as the wings flutter a bit.

"You were right."

"Sorry, what was that?"

"You were right." Adriel takes a closer look at the folk around him and notices there's no plain humans. "This is a fantasy world."

"Great." Julias throws a hand into the air. "So not only do we have to figure out how to get back, we have to survive in a world we know nothing about filled with beings we don't know?"

"We're dead."

"Oh we're so dead."

"At least I'll be taking you down-"

"Hey, look!" Julias pats Adriel's arm excitedly, his attention dead set on what looks like a carnival game. "That girl took his money, set it aside, and is now dodging his hits."

"So?"

"So that means I can make money from it!" Julias grabs Adriel's hand and pulls him towards the game.

"You're just gonna get beat up."

"Maybe, but you won't know unless you try."

"No, I'm pretty sure I know."