Scott has a brief sense of vertigo, enough to drop his soda, then everything spins and blurs and keeps spinning and spinning...

...he finds himself on a forest floor a couple of feet away from his spilled soda can. The trees are ridiculously tall and definitely not any species he can recognize.

Without a couch to sit on, he falls on his ass. 

Brushing himself off, he stands and looks around. Any sign of a house? 

Yes! To his right he can see some colorful buildings at the distance, maybe less than a mile away. To his left... there is a large concentration of gray stone buildings, maybe a large town, half a mile away.

Okay, that's...fine.

He walks to the colorful buildings.

The buildings are really colorful, and of an architectural style that Scott will find unfamiliar.

This is a small village of some sort, not a single car in sight, but plenty of horse-drawn carriages. And the horses are large, some are at least ten feet tall. People are going about their day in colorful clothing, that Scott also doesn't recognize, most don't give Scott a second glance, but at least one looks at him with vague recognition and smiles politely.

Are any of the carriages stopped? He looks for one. 

There is a fellow by a fountain, his gargantuan horse is drinking from it while the man is eating an unfamiliar fruit. If Scott gets closer he will inquire something in an unfamiliar language then "Asheville? English?"

"English, yes, I speak English." 

The man looks arounds and calls. A boy comes and they have a brief exchange.

"The ride is about ten copper leafs to Asheville, more if you want him to go beyond the bridge." The boy translates in accented english.

"Where is Asheville? What are copper leafs?"

The boy looks confused. "Did you just found Elsewhere? Copper leafs is money."

Then the boy pauses and smiles, he is missing a front tooth. "Did you just found Elsewhere?"

"Yes, just found. What is Elsewhere?" 

"This world is Elsewhere! So you is-are a sorcerer. Can you do magic already?"

"I am not a sorcerer. No magic." 

The boy stares at him with a look that would've been take seriously if it wasn't coming from someone that was still losing baby teeth. "But you found Elsewhere!"

The man inquires the boy what is going on and they talk.

"He says he will take you to Asheville because you just found Eslewhere and they know English."

"Okay. Thank you."

He follows his lead.

They hop on the man's carriage. There is a brief discussion between man and boy that is apparently about the merits of the boy being allowed to come or not. The boy loses.

The carriage runs along a wide and long road,the buildings get scarcer, but no completely absent. The man doesn't speak a word.

They cross over a bridge made of pretty white stone, it doesn't go over a river, but a chasm so deep that Scott won't be able to see the bottom. There are a couple of signs one says "Welcome to Asheville" while the other is not even written in a recognizable alphabet. The buildings and fashion styles are much easier to recognize, looking downright American.

It doesn't take long until they stop on a building with a sign that says "Ashenville City Hall" the building is rather small for a City Hall, but the rest of the town isn't that big too. The man asks Scott to get inside where they find a older lady. "Did you just vanished from where you came from and found yourself in Elsewhere?"

"I don't know how I got here. Vanished is a good word for it." 

"It happens some-" The lady says before being interrupted by the man, "Excuse me," she and the man talk, and she pays for the fare. The man departs without even a goodbye.

"Sorry. Anyway, Elsewhere is a world that sometimes catches people from other worlds. It's possible to get you back where you're from, but it might take a while. We no longer have a gate conveniently nearby and we haven't updated the protocol to send people to other places. But we can house and feed you while that is sorted. Also, you're a sorcerer and that is why you found Elsewhere, this means more lifeforce and easier time doing magic, you might even have a power or two. Depending on your natural talents it might be possible for you to arrange better expedience on returning home by doing magical favors or you might even get a sorcerer to pick you as apprenticeship."

"Okay. How do we find out what my...natural talents are?" 

"Oh, I can't do it, but we can get you in touch with people that can. I will call them and then we can register you for housing if you don't mind."

"That sounds fine. Why do you give everyone housing? It's not that easy, back home." 

"Well, you are covered because that is the protocol for sorcerers that find Elsewhere. But we had to relocate the entire village recently and many lost their houses, so we're better prepared."

She makes the call. "The sorceress herself is out of town, but one of her apprentices will come by soon."

And then she takes Scott's general information, full name, birth, nationality (he is lucky he landed anywhere near an english speaker), education level and other things. She also asks if he prefers to be housed in a small but private unit or if they should go straight to find a family that will have him. She explains the system for meal tickets and how to acquire donated clothes, necessities and so on. It's so efficient that it is hard to believe it is any sort of government.

"Private, for now. I don't really want to live with someone I haven't met."

"This entirely fair," the lady says agreeably. and after taking the rest of his data she instructs for him to wait in the front hall for a man wearing a purple belt with a golden star.

It doesn't take too long until a tall, blond young man walks in wearing the relevant belt. He spots Scott and double takes. "Hi?"