Stories from RhyDin & The Rings

Kyle had invited her to go romping with him for a reason. Gin knew better than to think that he would venture into the woods on his father's land with her unless it was important for him to have her alone. They had been thick as thieves their entire lives and had dated for three years. No one saw it coming whenever the pair split up 11 months ago. Gin had transfered to Pennsylvania University clear across the country to escape the closeness she always felt about Kyle whenever she was at home.

Today he had asked her to go paintballing with him. She had agreed realizing that whenever Kyle asked her to go and do anything with just the two of them it meant he wanted advice.

Today he did not want advice.

As the two darted over the second hill in the series of rough landscape Gin's ankle weakened and she went tumbling down into the valley below. She was not hurt nor truly distracted by this fall. As Kyle rushed down the side of the hill he was bombarded by a colorful array of blue and green. The look on his face was priceless as he settled to the ground next to her.

You okay, grace?

Gin srunched up her face at him.

Looks like I'm doing better than you, sweetheart.

Eooh... rough, princess.

Shut-up, Kyle. They ultimate conversation ender.

So, are you going to tell me what you wanted or not?

Kyle became visibly uncomfortable. Gin rolled her eyes at this display. She threw a light punch to his left arm.

Speak, prince charming. Ain't got all day.

What dulcent tones, princess. The glare he received in reponse prompted him to stop messing around and get down to business.

Alright, fine. I asked you here today because I need to talk to you about something and I didn't want you to find out from anybody else.

Kyle... are you pregnant? A chesire-cat grin surfaced.

You're not making this any easier, ya know.

Gin took note of the severity and decided to shut up.

Look. I-uhm I met someone. I've been out doing my training on the cost and I ran into this girl who is studying in the same field. We've been going out for a little while and --

Gin held up a hand.

Look, Kyle, you don't owe it to me to tell me this. I don't care if you've got a girlfriend.

Gin, we're getting married. At this she flinched.

Sure am happy you took your time with it. Nice to know that you're not rushing into this.

Gin rose up from the grassy hole she had rolled into. She brushed off her paint-covered clothes. Was she mad? Probably. Was she jealous? A little. Was she hurt? Yeah. It was the last thing that bothered her. Here they had broke up no more than a year ago and he moved on and wanted something so intense so fast.

As Gin Harker took hold of her paintball gun and stepped away she felt the world collapse around her. There was darkness and pressure and the most strange feeling of uncertainty. It was whenever she opened her eyes that she realized she was in a different place. Gone were the woods and the sky and the man who stood behind her. Gin now stood frightened in the midst of a city surrounded by tons of people going about their everyday activities.

What was this place?

A good Samaritan decided to take five seconds out of his life to greet the confused young woman.

"Don't freak out. This is RhyDin. All the answers you want and some help are in that direction. There's a building with a red spire and the word 'Welcome' spelt out in big letters. It's hard to miss... about four blocks down, okay."

The man finally paused to give Gin a chance to respond. She realized that nothing was coming out of her mouth.

"Well, I gotta get to work now... good luck."

The man had a puzzled expression on his face as he turned.

Thank you. Gin managed to get out before the man had left.

He nodded and waved over his shoulder as he continued about his merry little way.

A building. She repeated to herself quietly. With a red spire and a 'Welcome' sign. Gin's wide, brown eyes caught site of the passing crowd and she looked in the direction the man had pointed. Without a second thought on the subject she began walking in that direction.

The oddities never seemed to cease. There were cat-people and beast-people and horse-people. There were green, blue, and red people with strange black tentacles. Gin felt the need to smile and greet almost every human she saw along the way. It was some inner complusion she supposed. Surely enough, after a few blocks and 3 near heartattacks, Gin arrived at the building with the huge red spire and the sign.

Gin gritted her teeth and walked through the large double doors. The front desk was located directly infront of the entrance. Two people stood there waiting in line and Gin followed suit.

This place is just so... weird.

Twenty minutes standing in line with only two people ahead of her. That being said the free twenty minutes had given her plenty of time to inspect the strange clothing of the guy in front of her as well as the bizarre clicking language of the guy in front of him.

Gin marveled as the woman at the front desk spoke into a strange little communicator that allowed her to speak whatever language she wanted. Not only was the woman speaking into a communicator but she also had red fur, ears, a tail, and a number of other strange attributes. Gin couldn't help thinking she looked like somebody Bugs Bunny might want to bang in his spare time. Someone sitting in a chair nearby chuckled and Gin quirked a brow. It was as the time passed and she found herself next in line that she had her first lesson in telepaths.

After she felt a door close in her mind she approached the counter with a smile. The fox-lady smiled back showing her pearly white, pointy teeth.

"Welcome to RhyDin, my dear. Mind telling me your name and country of origin?"

Gin paused to contemplate this question. She wasn't even aware there was life on other planets let alone a whole other dimension to be mucking about in.

Ginny Leilia Harker. That's G-I-N-N-Y. L-E-I-L-I-A. H-A-R-K-E-R. Gin gave a sigh of relief had having gotten it all out. I'm from the United States of America.

"Ah, yes." The fox-lady grinned. "Earth. We get quite a few teleports from there."

Gin actually took some relief in the fact that there were other people from her home planet located here.

"Well, I'll need to know what your human age is and what trade you were involved in back on Earth."

Gin frowned a bit at this query. She was hoping to have things explained first, but she understood that paperwork was apparently necessary on every planet.

I'm 21 years old. I was born December 7th in-- Gin paused realizing that they might not use the same calendar system here. She decided to carry on with the rest of the interrogation. I was a student at the University of Pennsylvania studying to be an architect. I would have had only one semester left.

The female fox creature entered the information into her computer. Gin took the time to fidget.

"Alrighty, dear. Looks like out next Welcome Seminar is in about 45 minutes. Here is your identification tag."

Furry fingers passed over a little clip-on I.D. tag. Gin attached it to her shirt.

"There are free refreshments around the corner. Your I.D. tag will let the servers know which foods to give you. Other than that just make yourself at home here in the lobby until it's time for the seminar, okay?"

Gin nodded her head like any good bobble-head doll and walked over to grab some food before plopping down about three seats away from the telepath she had been chatting with earlier. Together the two tried to piece together this strange puzzle of their dislocation until the start of the seminar.

Do you suppose this is where missing persons go? A rather large chunk was bitten out of her turkey and cheese sandwich. The telepath she sat with (Zane was his name) seemed to give a shrug.

"I guess I don't know. I've heard things about this place, but I just figured it was a fantasy place... something that wasn't real."

Gin swallowed the bit in her mouth and chased it down with some water. She crossed her legs and laid back a bit in her chair.

Are you scared at all? Brown eyes peering over at her new friend.

He seemed to think about this for a moment. "No. I'm really fairly calm about it all things considiered. I wonder if that's what they want."

Gin sat up. What who wants?

The telepath nodded his head over to the men standing close to a wooden door which looked like it was the entrance to a conference room.

Gin understood. She was about to comment whenever an announcement came over the loud speaker in a series of different languages. English appeared to be third on the list.

"Ladies and Gentlemen... please gather your things and prepare to attend your welcome seminar. If you need assistance refer to one of our welcome associates in red. Thank you for your patience."

The announcement switched over to another language. Gin looked at the men now holding the wooden door open with their large 'Welcome' logos and what appeared to be red polo shirts.

Gin grabbed her paintball gun and headed for the door. Zane followed close behind with a slight smile.

"Don't get too worked up over it, alright?"

Gin snorted. Me? I'm fine. You'll see.. I'm pretty tough.

Zane laughed at this display and Gin responded with a chesire-cat grin.

The two walked through the door together and found seats on the edge of an aisle somewhere towards the middle of the room. Gin had thought the benches they sat on were rather odd considering what was typical for these types of rooms, but when she saw some of the various creatures from different worlds arriving something clicked and she understood.

Gin and Zane sat silently for about five minutes before a strange little being that Gin recognized as a pixie flitted to the podium and landed close to the microphone to greet everyone and try to add some understanding to the strangeness which was their predicament.