Why am I here?
Arthur could still hear the voice whispering in his ear, resonating in his mind—the sounds of a distant echo. As he slowly seemed to awake from a somber dream, the voice grew louder, clearer but there were also...multiplying.
It wasn’t anything like what he had heard down the well, those were clearly human voices. He couldn’t quite understand what they were saying but he could tell there were several people. Saying it was only a few whispers would be an understatement—a crowd would be more correct. It was so much more lively and loud than it was just a moment ago
The feeling of wetness all over his body was also incredibly uncomfortable so Arthur couldn’t help but wake up as it just didn’t make sense to keep lying down in such a state.
What he found was quite unexpected though.
Not only was it still (or already?) daytime but he was somewhat lying down on the wet floor, with many curious faces staring at him.
Wouldn’t it be common sense to bring an unconscious person who suffered from a fall to the emergencies, though?
Well it didn’t matter, he woke up and, except for the dizziness and stiffness of his body, he seemed fine. Arthur sat up and coughed a few times, startling the people around who stepped back and started discussing among themselves. Arthur was about to adjust the glasses on his face but quickly noticed they were missing. Fumbling around, he tried to find his belongings the best despite not being able to see very well and still feeling numb. The more he looked for them, the more he noticed the things that were missing.
First of all, his glasses without which he won’t be able to read any street sign. Then, his sandals that must have slipped when he fell or got stuck to the mud. Then, his bag that seemed to have not only been ripped, but missing a few items—although to be fair, they could have fallen off as the bag got torn pretty badly. It even looked like he had only attached a sloppy piece of heavy fabric on strap and wore it as some strange fashion item rather than a bag.
Grabbing the edge of the well—or at least what he thought it was, he propped himself up and looked down. Yes, indeed, it was a well. A well full of water. He was lucky he didn’t die by drowning if he fell down there. However, that also means that whatever fell down there probably won’t be retrieved anytime soon.
He sighed as he could already picture the bill of a new pair of glasses. Those really were not expenses he had planned, especially after such a trip.
“At least I’m alive”, he thought, “I should thank whoever got me out of there”.
Before he could fully turn around to give his thanks, a woman pointed at him yelling some incoherent words. Arthur barely had the time to be surprised that a tall and strong-built man came to face him. His overall figure wasn’t what surprised Arthur the most though, it was his outfit. Actually, it wasn’t only the man’s outfit, it was everyone’s outfits.
The person standing in front of him had quite peculiar garments, wearing what looked like a long tunic with a pair of pointy boots as well as a hat made out of fabric. He was also holding onto...a spear?!
The people in the crowd were all, in a similar fashion, wearing robes of various colors and sandals, or being barefooted. Surprisingly enough, most of them—if not all of them—had long loose hair. No matter their gender. That’s quite surprising.
Ah. Did he perhaps accidentally ran into an historical movie or period drama filming set? That would explain why the streets he had been lost in looked so unfamiliar and why so many people were wearing traditional costumes. At least that’s what Arthur assumed it was, since it was similar to what he saw in wuxia(1) video-games, albeit not as fancy or complex—it was both alike and different. Well. If that was the case, then he had messed up by falling into a well there, especially if it’s part of the set. He glanced behind him, to inspect it the well discreetly. It was made out of stone and didn’t look damaged so at least that’s one less issue to think of...but he could still be in trouble. He sure looked like he was, anyways.
“Who are you and what were you doing down there?”
Oh. Okay, at least they were speaking Vietnamese but their accent and words were quite hard to catch for Arthur, who wasn’t used to the language to begin with. Actually, he didn’t quite understand the whole sentence but he could hear the words “who” and “you”; that was a beginning. Now, he had to explain himself.
“I...Pham Hai Long.”
Pham Hai Long. It was his Vietnamese name. If there was one thing he had learnt in Vietnam, it was that Arthur was a bit difficult to pronounce properly, especially for the elderly. If there was a second thing that he had to remember, it would be that the very cool meaning of his name could be misinterpreted by mispronouncing it with the wrong tones—which often brought either surprise or laughter, until someone pointed it out to him (thankfully)(2). His father had explained to him once, when he was still a child, that he was named after legendary figures. Arthur was—fairly obviously—taken after the King Arthur. “Hai Long” meant “sea dragon” and it was supposedly inspired by the creation myth of Vietnam, as it was told that Vietnamese were children born from the union between a mountain fairy and a dragon king. It was also convenient because he was born in a coastal city. That’s what his father had told him.
However, Arthur didn’t fully reply to the man who looked seemingly annoyed by the lack of proper answer as he repeated his question once more.
Before Arthur could even ask him to please speak slowly, both of his arms were grabbed by men in similar outfits as the one questioning him. He was in quite an uncomfortable situation.
“Can’t understand, can’t understand!” Arthur exclaimed in panic.
He stopped trying to communicate in his broken Vietnamese and instead switched to English, hoping they would perhaps understand a few words. In any case, it was better than staying silent and let his body get dragged away!
“Me! Before, shwaaaah, rain! Me, aaaaah, fall! In! There! Accident! Accident!!”
He moved his arms around in frantic movements as to mimic what had happened, pointing at both himself and the well. It didn’t quite seem to work since everybody grew silent but at least, they weren’t glaring at him anymore. Or maybe they still did. One of the strong men muttered something in his buddy’s ear and started dragging Arthur away, despite trying to explain himself as best as he could. They didn’t understand, damn it.
1. Genre of fiction (usually literature) involving martial arts set in Ancient China. Usually low-fantasy so it doesn’t always involves cultivation or mythology
2. Vietnamese is, like Chinese languages or Thai among others, a tonal language hence the way you pronounce words and their pitch can change their whole meaning. “Hai lòng” means “two-faced” but Arthur’s name is made up from the Sino-Vietnamese names “Hải” (海) and “Long” (龍) which is similar
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