The first thing that Finn thought of when they arrived at the other side of the portal was that the air was clean. After days of dry air, salty air, and then the stench of that dark, wet, winged-thing, the air here was just… normal air, cool and faintly earthy. Finn stood inside a cave and breathed it in for a moment. Beside him, Ciri did the same.
The cave was temperate, neither cold nor hot, with enough light filtering in from somewhere ahead to see by. There were stalactites overhead, and some smooth stone underfoot. He could hear the distant sound of water somewhere deeper in.
"Better," Ciri said. "Definitely better than the last world…"
Finn agreed silently.
They started walking to explore the place.
The first thing that is interesting appeared about fifty paces in, it was some kind of writing, cut into the wall at eye height, running in a horizontal line that followed the curve of the rock. Finn slowed and raised his hand to it, fingers tracing the shapes. Letters, or something close to letters, arranged in a way that suggested language rather than decoration. And in between the characters, recurring, a circular symbol that was almost an eye, a pupil at the centre with lines radiating out from it.
He stood there for a moment with his fingers near the wall and the feeling of almost knowing something sitting right at the back of his head. He could almost read it, it's like a latin alphabet, just with the weird circles put in the middle of each letter.
He'd seen this before. He was certain of it. He just couldn't quite place where he'd seen it right now.
A sound from behind them. Something shifting in the dark further back in the cave.
Ciri's hand was holding her sword before the echo of it finished. "What was that?" she questioned.
"Exit," Finn said quietly. "Let's find the exit."
They moved again. The cave branched twice and each time Finn followed the light, which grew gradually from a grey suggestion into something warmer and more concrete. They found stairs cut into the rock, definitely man-made. More writing ran along the walls beside them. Finn's almost-recognition kept pace with him the whole way up, nagging.
The mouth of the cave opened onto a hillside.
Greenery. Actual greenery, in every direction. Trees of the Pine kind were everywhere, with long grass moving in a light wind, and a sky that was an uncomplicated blue with a few clouds. Ciri stepped out beside him and tilted her face up toward the sun.
To the west, smoke rose in a thin column. More than one source, spaced apart. A definite sign of a settlement.
"Finally," Ciri said. "A nice world." She was already moving. "Come on, let's find where that smoke's coming from."
They came down the hillside and followed a path that ran roughly westward through the trees, the settlement smoke growing more distinct as they went. After a while the trees thinned and the path widened and the buildings appeared in the distance, and Finn slowed.
Modern buildings. Not some sort of Medieval-like, nor is it futuristic either. These were contemporary. Glass and clean lines and roads.
It was then that something moved across the path in front of them.
It was a small creature. Moving with the particular unhurried confidence of a creature that didn't think of itself as prey.
It looked, at first glance, like a bonsai tree. Then the glance adjusted and it was clearly a rock. A rock that was shaped like a bonsai tree, with three rounded protrusions on top that approximated leaves, and small stubby limbs, and eyes that registered their presence and went wide.
It froze.
They froze too.
Then Finn laughed, short and involuntary, the sound of a man arriving at a conclusion he hadn't expected.
Ciri's sword hand twitched. "What in the hells is that?!"
"Don't." Finn put a hand on her arm. "It's fine. It's completely fine."
The small creature turned and scurried off the path into the undergrowth at a considerable speed.
"What was that?" Ciri asked.
"A Bonsly," Finn said. He was already looking at the buildings again, at the roads, at the particular shape of the settlement ahead. The writing in the cave. The modern construction. Now this. Now he remembered.
"A what?"
"It's a pokemon." He said it mostly to himself. Then, louder: "I know where we are."
Ciri waited. "Go on…"
"It's a long explanation." He turned and started pulling at the laces of his coat. "First things first. We need to change our clothes."
"Why?"
He gestured at himself, then at her, then at the clean modern buildings visible through the trees. "Because we look like we just walked out of their history book, and the people here will have questions about it if we don't change."