Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Pov: Elsewhere
A young woman in her early teens, with violet eyes, beautiful long silver-gold hair, and pale skin, watched as three winged creatures fed on some charred meat. Her name was Daenerys Targaryen, the recently widowed wife of Khal Drogo. She would be quite the beauty if her features weren't so gaunt, and her body as lean and hard as a stick. With every piece of charred meat, her three dragons prospered. They gulped down several times their own weight every day and began to grow larger and stronger. But her own small khalasar that followed her into the Red Waste withered and died.
Currently, they were resting in the shade of a small ruin, consisting of only one building with one wall halfway intact. Her worries were visible on her beautiful visage. The deeper they moved into the Red Waste, the scarcer anything forageable became. It had been days since they last saw a usable water source. Any wine and clotted mare's milk that the horselords loved better than mead had run out. They only had a few drops of water left.
But currently, something else was worrying her even more. Doreah, her loyal handmaiden who taught her secrets so that Drogo might love her more, had taken a fever and grew worse with every league they crossed. Her lips and hands broke out in blood blisters, her hair came out in clumps, and she lacked the strength to ride a horse. They had to bind her onto a saddle.
When she was about to accept that she would lose another person she considered a friend, something strange in the wall caught her gaze. There was a peculiar shimmer in the light. Touching it with her hands, she could feel something spherical. It felt hard as she squeezed it. A doorknob.
She gave the handle a slow turn, pulling back as she did so.
The wall peeled back, revealing a wooden door with a golden symbol at the top. She recognized that symbol as a scale, one of those apparatuses she remembered from her childhood in Braavos. Braavosi merchants used them to weigh and calculate the cost of their wares.
As she pushed the doorknob, a mixture of curiosity and trepidation filled her. The door creaked open, revealing a scene that left her bewildered. It shouldn't exist in this desolate wasteland, where all signs of life had withered away.
What she found on the other side was unexpectedly small. In the midst of nothingness, stood a tiny store. Its size defied logic, barely more than a wooden countertop with no shelves or tables to showcase its wares. It seemed utterly out of place, like a forgotten fragment from another world.
Behind the counter, a teenager with dark blond hair sat, seemingly lost in his own world. He appeared to be around Daenerys' age, his expression a reflection of profound boredom. With his head resting on his arm, he gazed blankly at the entrance.
However, the instant his sky-blue eyes caught sight of Daenerys in the doorway, a spark ignited within him. Boredom was instantly replaced by a glimmer of excitement, as if her presence had injected life into his monotonous existence.
"Welcome to my shop. What can I get for you?" he spoke with a kind smile on his face, his voice calming, making her stop for a brief moment.
After a few moments of his eyes observing her, they grew wide.
"I-I need help, ser," Daenerys said with a raspy voice, hesitating for a moment before stepping inside. She closed the door behind her, and as the suffocating heat of the Red Waste dissipated, she felt relief in the cooling climate of the small shop.
Exhaustion gripped her weakened body, causing her to almost stumble as she closed the door. Concern laced the young man's voice as he asked, "Are you okay?" He quickly jumped over the counter, standing beside her and providing support to keep her on her feet.
"Yes, ser. I am just exhausted from the long journey through the Red Waste. How can you live in this desolate place, empty of all life?" Daenerys whispered, her gaze scanning the modest shop.
"The Red Waste?" he repeated, his voice filled with confusion but tinged with recognition. "You seem to misunderstand, my lady. I am no ser, by the way, just the owner of this humble shop. And this shop isn't located in the Red Waste; it is merely connected to it. Look!" He opened the door himself, revealing a completely different place beyond.
Before her eyes lay a bustling area filled with people wearing clothes she had never seen before. The buildings were unlike anything she had ever encountered, with metal tubes running along their sides and roofs crafted from various types of wood, some in unfamiliar colors like brown-orange or reddish hues.
"What..." She watched him close the door again, her mind grappling with confusion. Opening it in a panic, she saw only the desolate sandy emptiness of the Red Waste and the small ruin where her khalasar rested.
"If you open it again, you will return to the place you were before," the young man calmly explained, recognizing her agitation.
This presented an opportunity for her people to survive. "How is this possible? Is it magic? Did the birth of my dragons cause it?" she asked, wonder and hope intertwining in her voice. "Can you help us? Is it possible for my khalasar to travel to that other place? Where is it?"
"Slow down. Let me answer one by one. I have no idea how it works. I myself only recently woke up here and became the owner of this store. It may involve magic, but I don't think your dragons are the main reason. They may be a small part of it, but only for this connection," the young man explained calmly, unfazed by the fact that she had dragons.
"Theoretically, I can somewhat help you. However, my abilities are limited. How many people are part of your khalasar?"
A hint of sadness flickered across her gaunt yet still beautiful face as she replied, "A bit less than a hundred."
"As I feared, I don't have enough food to feed all of you. But I do have enough water to refill your waterskins. However, this presents another problem. I am a store, and these are all the goods I have. I will need something in exchange. As much as I want to help you out of the goodness of my heart, my own resources are limited," he said, his voice tinged with regret. But he still handed her some kind of container filled with water that she used to quench her burning thirst.
She nodded, understanding the situation, as he truly didn't have much to offer in his store. "Perhaps you could allow us to pass through your store then?"
He shook his head, "That's also not an option. That's the part I am not sure how to explain properly. Do the terms 'world' or 'universe' mean something to you?"
The only thing she could do was shake her head, as she had never heard those terms before.
"Well, let's try it this way. Essos, Westeros, and Sothoryos are continents that are split by large bodies of water. All these places are located on a world or planet, and yours is called Planetos. Do you follow me so far?" he explained bit by bit.
After seeing her nod her silver-blond head, he continued, "But your world isn't the only one that exists. You probably read stories when you were a kid, and each of these stories could really exist and connect to this store at some point, but they don't need to be stories that your world knows of. It could be literally anything. There are an unending amount of worlds existing out there. Worlds that you and I couldn't even imagine."
"And the place you showed me is in another of these worlds? Not on one of the continents of Planetos?" Daenerys tried to confirm as understanding dawned on her.
"Exactly, you would leave your world behind. The legacy of your family, everything. Which probably isn't the worst thing if one has an adventurous spirit, but there are other problems. I can only connect to worlds I have traded with before, and you are my first customer. The only world I can connect to right now is my own, and that place isn't simple."
"What could be the problem?"
"Well, my home village is controlled by a military government. Everyone entering the village is inspected upon arrival from the outside. If suddenly a hundred people were to appear, it would attract the attention of undesired individuals. They would get captured and interrogated, which would lead them to me, attracting attention that I don't need right now as I am far too weak. My world is filled with strong warriors called Ninja, many of whom are able to defeat whole armies in your world. So, you see my problem. Also, you don't speak their language. The two of us can only communicate through a skill of mine."
Cold sweat ran down Daenerys' back as she remembered Drogo leading his khalasar, and one person being able to kill a whole army. That was indeed not a place she wanted to end up in. "So what could we trade? We don't have much. I have a small amount of money left over from my wedding gifts, some spare horses we are using for food, and some weapons that the dead left behind."
"Hmm, are some of the coins in your world made of gold and silver?" he asked, interested.
Nodding, she pulled out her pouch, revealing its contents. She only had 2 Meereen Gold Honors and 12 Silver Honors, with more copper coins mixed among them. Not much to feed her whole khalasar.
"Can I see them?" he asked as he took one of each coin into his hand, carefully observing them. "Okay, I think we can make a deal. What is it that you need exactly?" he asked with a happy smile on his face.
"Food and water, but most importantly, a healer!" she said as she remembered the critical condition Doreah was in. If she didn't receive treatment, she wouldn't survive the night.
"A healer? I am not really a healer, but I have some medicine that is much more effective than what's available in your world. Who needs treatment and what exactly are their symptoms?" The young man watched her seriously with a calculating gaze.
Daenerys quickly told him about Doreah and the different symptoms of her wasting disease while the young man listened attentively.
"Okay, I should be able to help her, but I will need to take a look at her. So let's complete the deal first, and then I will examine Doreah. For one of your gold honors, I will give you all the food in my stock. For the second one and 6 silver honors, I will refill all your waterskins, including those of the khalasar and enough for your horses. How does that sound?" He made her an offer. It might be a bit expensive since one gold honor could feed a commoner's family for a year, but she didn't have much choice.
Also, she considered this an investment. The connection with this young man from a different world could help her in the future to regain the power of her family. "I agree. What do you want for the treatment of Doreah? And is there anything else that could help me?"
"Hmm, I will take the spare weapons you have as payment for Doreah's treatment, and I will also include this lighter. It's a tool that allows you to ignite a fire whenever you need it, as long as it still has fluid inside. If it's empty, you can visit me again to refill it." He showed her a small tool that she could see had some kind of fluid inside. It created a small flame when he spun the wheel.
She nodded, agreeing to that deal, as she didn't have anybody who could wield the weapons anymore, as their previous owners fell to the Red Waste. Before she realized his other statement, "How am I supposed to meet you again? I don't think I will ever return to the Red Waste if we survive it."
"Ah, I didn't explain that yet. Once you have visited the store, you gain the ability to find the next door if you want to visit it again. There should be multiple doors spread around your world. Well, now that we have a deal, let's take a look at Doreah. I will help you carry your goods, Miss..." he said before stopping. "Oh, we didn't introduce ourselves yet. I am Enma, the owner of Cosmic Crossroads, the Omniversal Store and Pawn Shop. Who do I have the honor of talking to?"
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