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The elf woke in a dark and cold room, a small slit the only source of light. It clearly wasn’t anywhere close to the luscious green plains that he called home, and he wanted out. He stumbled to his feet and fell against the door, trying to raise himself higher on his jelly-like legs. He only sunk farther from the slit in the door as his knees buckled and he crashed onto the concrete floor.
He looked back at the room, his eyes now more adjusted to the darkness. He saw three figures; one much larger than he, one around his size, and one smaller than he. He crawled towards the smallest, and hopefully weakest, creature.
“Hey.” He rasped out, he only now realized how dry his mouth was. He cleared his throat. “Hey.” He said a bit louder this time, his hand now on the smaller creature’s shoulder. It still didn’t wake, didn’t even stir. “Hey!” He said, shoving the creature this time.
“What?” It slurred. It rolled on its side, clearly not wanting to wake up.
“So you are alive, that’s relieving. Do you know where we are?” The elf asked, sitting on his currently useless legs.
“The fuck?” The smaller creature asked as it rolled over to face what woke it. It stared at the elf for a few seconds before it tried to scramble away from the elf, screaming at the top of its lungs.
“Oh dear,” The elf mumbled. “Please don’t scream! You’ll wake the other two! Please, calm down! My name is Haraque, I’m a horned elf from planet Suun, I don’t mean to cause you harm! Now please stop screaming!” Haraque said, hands waving frantically.
“You-you’re a-a what? From where?” The creature said breathlessly.
“I’m a horned elf from planet Suun. What’s your name?” He asked calmly.
“J-Joe. Joe, a-a human from Earth,” Joe looked around the room. “Where the fuck am I?”
“I have no idea, Joe. I was hoping you knew so I didn’t have to bother the other two in here,” He nodded towards the other two creatures, both of which were now starting to wake. “Oh, well, looks like I didn’t have to bother them.” He kept his voice level, but he felt his heart racing in his chest.
“Who the hell are they? Oh shit, that guy is huge, ok, I’m gonna die,” Joe flung himself behind Haraque. “Please help me! I don’t wanna get beat to death!” He sobbed, clinging to Haraque’s shirt for dear life.
“Who’s getting beat to death?” A female voice said. The creature closer to Haraque’s size sat up, two antennas protruded out the top of her seemingly bald head. She stared at the two men in silence for a few seconds, looked around the room then gasped. “I’m back on Blackout? How? I was just here last month.” She said to herself. She shrugged. “Oh well, fighting is always fun!” She said cheerfully. Joe screamed, his shriek scaring everyone in the room.
“Joe! Stop screaming like that!” Haraque yelled, his calm demeanor now shattered.
“Joe? Oh! Hello Joe! I’m Zennea! It’s a pleasure to be on a team with someone with such a loud voice!” Zennea scooted towards the men. “Oh, and hello to you too! What’s your name?” She asked as soon as Haraque came into her sights.
“I’m Haraque, and where did you say we were?”
“On planet Blackout! The planet that pits creatures from other plants to fight against each other! It’s a lot of fun!” She said with a smile.
Both men were silent. They stared at Zennea with confused looks a child would give to their teacher.
“Don’t worry, they always have a big speech to explain things.” Zennea looked over at the other creature and pointed. “That’s Ex, he’s mute, but he’s really strong! My planet and his were once at war, but now we trade supplies and help defend other planets. The creatures on Blackout love to have him participate because he’s really strong and throws others around.” A large hand then stuck up in the air and waved at the trio.
“That guy is the size of two of me.” Joe cowered behind Haraque even more, merely peaking his eyes over the elf’s shoulder to see the large creature.
“Don’t worry, he won’t hurt his teammates!” Zennea waved off Joe’s concerns. “So I know you’re a horned elf from planet 908, and you’re a human from planet 137. This is going to be a great team!” Zennea said, completely unfazed by Joe’s terror.
“I’m gonna die here, I’m gonna die alone, I don’t wanna die alone, I was happy with my life, my job, even my apartment, but I’m gonna die alone with three alien creatures that I’ve never heard of or seen before and probably get my corpse eaten by some dragon-looking thing, never to see the light of day ever again.” Joe whisper rambled behind Haraque, the elf was lost in his own thoughts instead of listening to Joe’s woes.
“Hey, you’re not alone, you’ve got us! Besides, Ex and I have never lost! Well, if we lost we wouldn’t be here, we’d be dead.” Joe only screamed quietly in response. “You sure like to scream, huh?” Zennea asked with a chuckle. She knew the odd team would make it out fine, as long as Haraque could pull Joe’s slack.