The single strangest thing about this place -- room? world? -- wasn't the featureless gray-white sky and floor that stretched to the horizon as far as I could see. It wasn't the lack of a visible light source or even of a shadow underneath me.
No, the strangest thing was the fact that for some reason, I seemed to have been plugged into a telepathic feed of my own observations. Including the observation of the feed itself. It was like my own finished account of this universe had gotten transported back in time to the present and was being read to me.
For want of anything better to do, I headed for the only object I could see apart from what I'd brought. It turned out to be an irregularly-shaped patch of land -- and as though things weren't bizarre enough, it was less than four meters long, about twice my own height. Not to mention the small humanoid figures clustered together on it, having a heated discussion.
"...said 'about twice my own height'!" I heard one of them -- what looked like a living doll made from grass, small enough to fit in the palm of my hand -- say as I drew near, its back facing me. "It has to be a human! What's a human doing here? There hasn't been one since Barnacle-"
"Uh, Zadok?" interrupted what looked like, of all things, an eyeball with fangs. "Have you stopped listening to the narration?"
The eyeball wasn't looking at the grass doll. It was looking at me -- as, I realized, were most of the other figures.
The grass doll turned and looked up at me. "Uh," it said. "Hi."
So they could hear the telepathic signal, too. That settled it.
Dammit. Unwalled worlds could be a pain.
Pronounced "shy guy."
No, the strangest thing was the fact that for some reason, I seemed to have been plugged into a telepathic feed of my own observations. Including the observation of the feed itself. It was like my own finished account of this universe had gotten transported back in time to the present and was being read to me.
For want of anything better to do, I headed for the only object I could see apart from what I'd brought. It turned out to be an irregularly-shaped patch of land -- and as though things weren't bizarre enough, it was less than four meters long, about twice my own height. Not to mention the small humanoid figures clustered together on it, having a heated discussion.
"...said 'about twice my own height'!" I heard one of them -- what looked like a living doll made from grass, small enough to fit in the palm of my hand -- say as I drew near, its back facing me. "It has to be a human! What's a human doing here? There hasn't been one since Barnacle-"
"Uh, Zadok?" interrupted what looked like, of all things, an eyeball with fangs. "Have you stopped listening to the narration?"
The eyeball wasn't looking at the grass doll. It was looking at me -- as, I realized, were most of the other figures.
The grass doll turned and looked up at me. "Uh," it said. "Hi."
So they could hear the telepathic signal, too. That settled it.
Dammit. Unwalled worlds could be a pain.
Pronounced "shy guy."