Set in a German college/university, I live and spend time in my brother's prof. room. I'm helping him clean it out for his use, the man before him left a lot of books that I am sorting through.
While looking through the shelf of encyclopaedias one catches my eye. Written by P.Pan it is titled 'an Encyclopaedia of Beasts and the Supernatural' I flip through and am blown away by the illustrations. Beautifully detailed and with great composition. A little frustrated by my own failed attempts at illustrating I envy the artist.
The following days I continue to clear out the office, I get a very annoyed at the double door that is either refusing to stay shut or leans over and somehow ends up being 20cm off the ground. But whenever anyone walks past it slips back to being an ordinary door.
Next to this strange door is a part of the wall that juts out creating a strange box in the wall, I push at the walls a little and one folds in as if it were meant to. I cautiously try and lift it back to its original position but I can't grip it and pull it up because my hand is always in the way. It ends up flipping out onto the floor and I see strange writing on the floor of the weird wall box. I lean forward and try to get a better look but the writing is tiny. I step inside the box and peer at the marking, behind me the wall lifts off the floor and shuts soundlessly enclosing me in the box. I get a little fright and push it out again.
At first, I am a little confused because it is the same room... however all the furniture is different and all the books I had stacked on the floor are gone. Turns out I am now in the same building but in the middle ages.
Venturing out into the corridor and down into the big communal kitchen, I am intrigued and deciding I quite like the people and the way of life. I offer to stay on and work in the castle library.
I settle into life in the middle ages and meet lots of interesting people. There is a large mess hall/room next to the kitchens where everyone eats together at large tables. It is here that I meet most of the castles inhabitants and people that live nearby or are passing through town.
I enjoy talking to those that come to study philosophy or other sciences, in particular, I enjoy the company of a group of naturalists that are trying to collect all specimens of plants and create encyclopedias of flora and fauna.
After I've been at the castle for about 3 weeks a new man sits with the naturalist group. He is a little shorter than me, with whispy orange hair that floats around his ears. When I go to join the group a friend introduces him as Pan and I instantly liked him, he is conducting a study on mythical or unknown creatures.
Over the next few weeks I often listen to him talk about them, I’m one of the few people that seem to be interested. We become friends and I eventually tell him about the time travel box because he gets too curious about where I’m from and the fact that I seem to be schooled in mathematics and have a weird way of talking. He believes me but doesn't push me to demonstrate or prove what I am claiming.
One of the other men at the castle gets suspicious too and wants to gather others to declare me mad. Possessed by the devil, all because he wants my position as a library assistant.
Pan meets me outside the mess hall one evening and takes me outside. He tells me that there is a group gathered that are worked up and want to have me thrown in jail, he says I don’t have many options, and the best is to go back to the future. I place both hands on the sides of his head feeling the wispy red hair there and plant a small kiss on his pouty lips. I tell him I prefer the other option where I stay and become his wife. He smiles and says he was very much hoping the same but didn’t want to make presumptions.