I blinked, my eyes slowly adjusting to the dim light around me.  Where was I?  The last thing I remembered was the explosion in the hollow, but I seemed to be in a…actually, I didn’t know what this was.  A building of some type, I assumed, but I didn’t recognize the materials that the room was made of.  I was lying on a bed, but I didn’t recognize the materials for the bed, or even for the clothing I was wearing.  This was creepy.

Slowly, I sat up, then swiveled around to place my feet on the floor.  I was kind of surprised at how soft the floor was, but then I got distracted as I went to stand up and realized the floor was further away than I thought it should be.  What was happening?  None of this made sense.  Was I dreaming?  Everything was all messed up.  Was I in another world somehow?

On somewhat wobbly feet, I stumbled over to a door and found that it led into a small room that had a tub and a sink and a toilet, all indoors.  And incredibly fancy ones, at that.  I decided to just ignore that for a second and focused on the mirror, where I hesitantly took a peek at myself – only to be surprised, yet again, by the face looking back at me.

That wasn’t a 15-year-old’s face.  Maybe that explained why the floor was further away, maybe I’d grown?  I looked like an adult.  Or, well, older at least.  Or had I just lost my memory and that was why I couldn’t remember anything after the mountain fell?

Confused, I decided to go back and sit on the bed.  I looked around the room and decided someone else must be looking after me, because there was no way I’d just survived like this for years, apparently, on my own while unconscious.  Well, unless the lost memory thing was correct.  Maybe I’d just thought I was someone else all this time?

I was just working up the courage to check the other door and see what the rest of this odd world presented me when said door popped open and someone came through.

She was looking at a pad of paper, it looked like, and wasn’t paying much attention until she looked up and saw me.  Then her jaw dropped open and she stared at me for a long moment while I tried to figure out how to respond or what to say.

As it turned out, I didn’t get the chance.

“Mama!”  The girl screeched at an extremely loud level, making me wince and cover my ears.  “Mama!  He woke up!”  Without another word, she dashed out of the room, returning shortly after with a flustered-looking woman.

“Calm down, you’re going to freak him out,” the older woman murmured to the younger, who was still staring at me with wide eyes like she couldn’t believe I was real.

Then the older woman took a step forward and gave me a tentative smile.  “Hello.  I’m Dana.  Lola here,” she motioned towards the younger girl, who looked like a teenager, “and I have been looking after you for a while.  A long while.”  She paused ever so briefly.  “It’s been about 250 years since someone first found you.  I don’t know how long you’d been sleeping before that, but honestly, I didn’t really think you were going to wake up.”

This time it was my turn to be shocked.  250 years.  Or more.  No wonder the world seemed so different.  But what…how was that even possible?

“Hi!”  Lola popped out from behind the other woman, her eyes intent and curious.  “I’m guessing you have tons of questions.  I can tell you all about stuff!  About TVs and cellphones and all.  Do you read?  Not everyone read back then, I think.  Wait, do you even understand us?”

“Yes,” I responded automatically, but my voice was deeper than I expected and rusty from years of disuse.

“Sweet!  Maybe it’s because we’ve been talking to you all this time?”  She mused out loud.  “Maybe your brain still understood some of it, enough to translate the language.  Who knows, maybe you’ve actually learned some stuff while you were out!”

“Lola,” Dana gave her a warning look, “don’t overwhelm him.  First thing we need to do is make sure he’s okay, then we can ease into things.  This is a lot to take in, I’m sure,” she gave me a compassionate look, “but don’t worry, we’ll get you caught up on what’s going on in the world.  It’ll probably take a while, but we’re in no rush.  For starters, what’s your name?”

I didn’t answer immediately, my mind going quickly to all the questions I had.  What had happened to my town?  My coven?  Mother?  What happened to the fight that was occurring that night?

And most importantly, how on earth did I survive the collapse of the mountain and then sleep for hundreds of years?

I didn’t know if they had all the answers, but it appeared I was going to have to understand this world before I could probably get some of them.  Hopefully sooner rather than later.

“Nicolas.  My name is Nicolas.”

~~~~

I sat on the edge of the pond, dangling my feet in the water while I attempted to master the cellphone Dana had given me.  It had been nearly two years since I’d woken up, and I still wasn’t entirely used to this world.  Lola, the teenage banshee who I still thought of as being about my age – though in reality, I had grown while asleep until I reached my adult body and then stopped aging, as many supernaturals do – had been eager to tell me all about modern technology while Dana had attempted to start with more of the basics.  Like making sure I could read and understand, well, things that most people did.  Math and spelling and making change from modern-day money – basic stuff like that.  Everything had changed so much since I was a kid.  Everyone went to school now, universities were open to anyone who wanted and could afford it, and books were commonly owned by everyone.

Near as we could tell, I’d fallen unconscious about 400 years ago, based on the information I was able to provide Dana.  She had no idea about whether any residents of my town had survived, but she’d promised to get records checked at the supernatural library to see if anyone had any idea of what had happened back then.  So far, no success.

Dana, as it turned out, was a hybrid.  Half vampire, half dryad.  She read like a vampire and had to drink blood, but all her magic was dryad magic.  She’d informed me, a little wryly, that she’d been bitter about this when younger, frustrated about how she was half dark magic and half light and both sides hated each other.

“No one would ever accept me,” she’d explained.  “Vampires saw me as having nature magic, light magic – and being useless with vampire magic.  Dryads saw me as a vampire, regardless of what my magic was like.  It was hard, finding a place to fit.  I started studying medicine because I thought maybe then my being part light magic and part dark would actually work in my favor – people might be willing to trust me more if they knew I could relate to their side, no matter which side it was.  It still wasn’t easy, though.  Then eventually I met Lola, who had no family, and I became her family.  I’ve had her since she was seven – just over 11 years now.  It’s been good.”  She’d smiled softly.

“I can relate to being excluded,” I had muttered in response.

Dana had given me an understanding look.  “Male witches have it hard.  I imagine it was even worse back then than it is now, but even now…they’re at the bottom of the coven pecking order, usually.”

Well, it was great to know one thing hadn’t changed in all these years.

We were at some kind of supernatural hospital.  Sort of.  It was some facility that dealt with supernaturals who couldn’t be cared for in human hospitals but needed long-term medical help.  Like, say, a supernatural who was in a coma or unconscious or sleeping or whatever you wanted to call it.  For centuries.

Dana might officially be my caretaker during my recovery – she’d explained that the facility also helped people reintegrate into society if need be, especially like in my case, so I was welcome to stay as long as I needed – but I’d had to talk to several other doctors since I woke up.  Mostly they were just curious, some asking more probing questions and trying to figure out what was going on.

Because one thing no one seemed to know was why I had been asleep that long.  I didn’t have the kind of magic that would protect me against the mountain collapsing and I didn’t know of any witch that could sleep for years on end like that.

“Maybe you’re not all witch,” Lola had suggested when I’d said as much.  “You said your mother never knew who your dad was, right?  Some kind of one-night stand kind of deal?  For all you know, you’re a hybrid.  Maybe you’ve got some other kind of supernatural in you that would explain it.”

Dana had looked thoughtful at that suggestion – ignoring my shock – and had said she’d add that to the list of things for the library researches to look into.  Whether there was – or ever had been – a species that could sleep for hundreds of years if needed.

Meanwhile, I just wondered why I’d needed to sleep that long.  From what Dana had said, by the time I was found 250 years ago in a small cavern in the side of the remains of where my mountain used to be, I was fully healed of any injuries that had occurred – assuming some had.  If I was sleeping just to protect myself and heal, shouldn’t I have woken up long before now?  That was a question no one seemed to have an answer for.

I poked at the phone again, then sighed.  Talking of confusing things, modern technology was overwhelming.  This tiny little thing could somehow do things magic couldn’t even do – like talking to people on the other side of the world, instantly.  It was kind of mind-blowing.

Lola plopped down next to me, startling me so much I nearly dropped the phone.  “You should come with me to the city this weekend,” she announced.  “You’ve spent two whole years here, never going out.  I get that it’s all a huge adjustment and stuff but you can’t stay here forever.”

I had actually been out of the facility a couple of times, but with Dana, not Lola.  Dana’s calm, no-nonsense approach to my shock over seeing cars and skyscrapers and everything in person – not just pictures or movies – had helped a lot.  If it hadn’t been for her, I’d probably have been run over by a car during my first trip to the city.

“It’s a big adjustment,” I tried to explain.

“Yeah, yeah, but you’re not really trying to adjust all that much!”  She complained.  “You’re still here, in your safe zone.”

I got what she meant, but I also thought she underestimated the shock it could be to wake up and find nothing about the world familiar.  During the past two years, I’d been trying to crunch 400 years’ worth of knowledge into my head.  Or at least enough for your average late 20-something year old or early 30-something year old, whatever I was supposed to be now.

Even that was part of the shock.  That physically, I was twice the age I had been.  I had memories up through age 15, so sometimes it was still hard to realize I wasn’t still a kid.  Two years was a while, but it wasn’t enough to account for everything that had changed for me.

Lola fixed me with her large brown eyes, a pleading expression filling them.  “Please?”  She begged.  “Dana doesn’t like me going into the city alone and I want to shop for some new clothes!”

I didn’t know why she needed new clothes – she had far more than I’d ever owned growing up, but apparently that was one of the changes in this world.  Sighing a little, I reluctantly agreed.  “Fine, but keep it short.  I’m not sure I can handle much.”

She squealed happily, making my eardrums hurt a bit again.  Sometime she didn’t understand the power of a banshee voice.

“Yes!  Thank you, Nicky!  I promise, we’ll come back as soon as you start feeling overwhelmed.”

I hoped she wouldn’t forget that promise.  Even more so, I hoped I wouldn’t get overwhelmed too quickly.

Lola was right about one thing – trying to get used to this world was important.  Eventually I had to accept that I lived in this era, now, and the sooner I got used to that fact, the better.

I needed to figure out who and what I was in this current age.