Leonidas tumbled out of yet another portal with a growl of frustration, and hit the ground atop a hilly overlook. The smell of clean grass, and clean air, hit him like a truck after the comparatively heavy atmosphere of Miami, and he sighed in relief. He wasn’t sure where he’d been dumped, other than the names ‘Dawnhaven’ and ‘Unclaimed Sector 117’, but it certainly seemed like a marked improvement to the hellscape he’d initially been returned to.

His fingers brushed through the grass underhand, and he took a moment to calm himself down.

In Elatra, he’d developed a habit of speaking out loud to ease his anxiety.

He saw no reason to divest himself of a tool that had worked.

Leonidas dusted off his jeans and stood up to take in the area.

“Small hilltop, maybe about one hundred feet in diameter. Clear sightlines in every direction. Forest stretching out across the… well everywhere, based on the rising sun, and that looks like a… town? Is that a castle? Huh. A town and a castle to the west. Judging from the fact it looks like the path to it has been cleared of trees, I guess that’ll be ‘Dawnhaven’.”

He glanced up at the sky, noted the vibrant starlight above, and what looked to be no major changes to the sky. Dawn would dispel the majority of the view in time, but the sheer multitude of stars—something he’d seen only rarely while going to University in Miami—reminded him that he was, for sure, back on Earth.

Mainly because he both recognized old constellations, and didn’t see ones he’d gotten used to in Elatra.

“Definitely somewhere in the country,” he muttered while looking around, “and definitely not anywhere easily recognizable.”

Nothing around him spoke to his admittedly unreliable knowledge of United States geography, and he grimaced at realizing it. A thought occurred to him then, and he very nearly slapped himself in the head at not thinking of it sooner.

“World Map.” he said as clearly as he could.

Obligingly, a new System screen titled [World Map] appeared in front of him, and showed… nothing. Well, not nothing: it showed the hill he was, the landscape around him he could see, and a small blinking dot for ‘Dawnhaven’. The detail though, he realized immediately, was precisely as informed as he was. Even when he tried to pinch the screen and zoom in, he saw exactly as much detail on the map view as he’d seen with his own eyes.

Zooming out wasn’t much better. It just showed darkness all around him.

“Seriously?” he demanded irritably. “Fucking Fog of War? What is this, Fallout?”

Leonidas waved a hand irritably and closed the World Map screen.

His eyes swept the hilltop again, and he clicked his tongue at the fact he was still alone. The System had confirmed his invitations to his family, and the nominations had clearly shown them to be alive. The fact they weren’t present, yet, left some room for concern—but he chose to believe that it was likely more due to some sort of delay than anything else. They’d been able to accept the invites, after all. Perhaps they were preparing themselves.

That thought, of course, led him to think about what the reunion would even consist of. It’d been five years, and he’d vanished seemingly without a trace. A faint sense of anxiety filled him at the thought of trying to explain everything, and he took in a steadying breath while speaking out loud to calm himself.

It helped somewhat.

“Okay.” he said to himself bracingly. “You know what’s going to happen: mom’s going to smother you, dad’s going to demand information, pops and g-ma are going to yell at you for vanishing, and Kairi’s probably going to deck you, and then crybaby again.” he smiled wryly at the thought, and idly shook out his hands to divest himself of some nervous energy that came from thinking about reuniting with his family again, at last.

The last time his family had come back together after an extended time apart, it had been when his grandparents had moved back to Texas when he and Kairi were still young teenagers. Florida had become unbearable during the Summers, and after the latest wave of Hurricanes had hammered the State, his grandparents had finally said enough is enough and returned to their State of origin.

The following months, and then years, had been rough.

He’d managed to see his grandparents over the following summer, but Kairi hadn’t been able to come due to her dance camp—or something like that, he couldn’t remember—and had been heartbroken. The whole situation had started affecting both his mental health and his sister’s, until their parents had finally thrown in the towel and moved the whole family to Texas as well following the next Hurricane.

The fact he’d ended up returning to Miami for College was an irony that stuck with him. So was the fact he’d been transmigrated during his second-to-last year.

“No idea when they’re going to get here, though, so stop being nostalgic and focus on the now.”

Leonidas settled himself back down onto the grass, crossed his legs, and let out a calming breath.

“System,” he said with a glance at the air around him, “I would like to claim my Unique Class now.”

The moment he finished speaking, a System screen appeared in front of him.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.