His first awakening thought was that the shelter was sliding down the hill. Then that the walls must have crumbled and there was a fire. It wasn't the case. He wasn't in his mattress anymore. Not even at the shelter.

People.

He blinks.

Or not? It can't be?

The light are not bright, but he still blinks and waits for his vision to adjust. Then he blinks a few more times and waits for his vision to adjust some more.

They give him the summoned man a few moments to adjust.

He is in a room with a very tall ceiling, archways of blue-green stone looming above.

Also, looming: several humanoid beings with very non-human heights. Averaging on eleven feet tall, one of them is a blond man wearing a dark-blue tunic draped over his body. He is the most human-looking one.

Another is just as tall with wings.

Yet another is tall with four arms.

The fourth tall person is... she has breasts, covered by a glorious golden beard that even from a distance looks very silky and soft. The fabric only starts right below the rib cage, forming a skirt covering going down her ankles.

And those are the most human-looking, there are twelve other beings in the room, three of them are outright animals. One has the body of a horse from the waist down.

Seeing all of that and the goddamn unicorn does not inspire any sense of clarity or enlightenment.

The memory of the last time he saw this many people is not helping.

"Greetings. We are terribly sorry for the disruption-" The four-armed eleven feet tall man starts saying.

Vitek crumbles to the ground. He... was planning to raise his fists and put up a fight.

But words, non-recorded words from another person. And his vision is going blurry. Damn it, he probably has no self-control around people anymore. And why he cares? They are probably still going to try to rob him.

No one is aware of that internal monologue, but they probably would have Opinions if they were.

"I am sorry." Pherikles says slowly. "Is there anything urgent where we took you from?" He asks to get out of the way.

"No." Vitek croaks.

He probably should try to rescue some dignity. His mind is a bit off-center at the moment.

He tries to stand up. "Where am I?" He blurts out. It took him this long to realize this is something he should be asking.

"Trying to explain that," next time he will aim for a less interruptable tone of voice, "we took you from your world. Ours recently underwent a disastrous event that left it largely inhospitable and thus we are currently searching for a new world to put our refugees in. Our currently plan to find such world is to summon inhabitants and interview them about the state of the world and possibility of taking people in."

"None."

(Through the doors, barely visible and certainly not in the Vitek's line of sight there is someone squinting at him.)

"Oh."

"None? Do you mind to elaborate?"

"There was a war when I was little. With bombs that made mushroom clouds. It poisons everything for a long time."

His vision blurs, is that tears? Huh, oddly enough the answer is "no", but his heart is beating really fast and that is the longest sentence he uttered in the past forever.

None of this makes dealing with this any at easy.

"We can try somewhere else in your world? We can even relocate you and some other people to safety."

"I have not seen another person in... at least thirteen winters." His head thrums. "And everywhere is poisoned. I live- I live in a place that filters the poison, but it's faulty and I don't think there are other places like it."

"Oh, do you want to stay?" the giant asks.

"We can't keep another mouth to feed," someone else protests.

"His world might not be as bad as he says," yet a third points.

"You can just check?" blinking heavily.

"We can non-trivially check. It may take an hour or so."

"Should we send him back then?"

"Up to him. I think."

"What will happen to me?"

"We can't keep another mouth to feed." Protests the same person.

"We can keep him for a few days. We should, if only to investigate his world."

"There is stuff that needs repairing," Vitek comments without much energy.

"We send someone to help you repair while also investigating your world."

Vitek nods...

...then he starts to think about what it means to talk to people again and he collapses. 

There are ways that could've gone better.

It was an interesting first try. One could say.

They rush to figure what's wrong and if it's something contagious and how to treat it.

The fact that the bed is so soft, startles Vitek awake once he realizes it. And the hand holding his foot more so.

The hand is larger than a human hand. The person who belongs to is also larger than a normal human. She fights for the hold on his feet.

"Don't! This is helping you."

"Gentle," Another tall person admonishes.

The two appear to be going through some loose pages, reading them.

Then she smiles at Vitek. "Hi! I am Phaidra Whitepath. The situation was overwhelming and you passed out."

Well, that's embarassing.

"I mean, it was very overwhelming. Also you were sick."

"Are. You are sick. He is sick. I have three distinct powers, and I have to use all of them to help you."

Vitek eyes the feet that she is holding. "Thank you." Because that sounds like the thing to say when a giant woman is helping you with three distinct powers.

She makes an agreeable noise. "I am Megaera Whitepath. You?"

"Vitek."

"Nice to meet you. So, what are you doing with your life that it got you this sick, but still capable of walking?"

"Fixing things and breathing poisonous air?" Heh, he can still do sarcasm.

"...Why?"

"Something about bombs. Nasty bombs, just by the feel of what I am fixing. Which is... honestly, everything."

Nod. "If you can clean me, can you clean my world?"

"Not quite cleaning. And not fast enough by the looks of it. We need a place where we can just put people."

"I... can clean things, but not a whole world, not like that. And we do need a place."

"Figures. This is pretty magical already." He glances at the loose pages. "What are you doing?"

"Checking, counting things, figure out how many people we have, what they need and if they can provide work."

Vitek tries to take a look. Phaidra shows him, but it isn't really that informative. "How many people do you have?"

"Thousands."

Well, that sounds both good and terrible. "Sorry, for, uh, adding more."

"Not your fault, in many, many, so many ways."

Shrug.

"Do you want to talk? Or ask questions?"

"How long I was out? And... how long do I need her thing?"

"I think you're out for an hour and to get the full effect I need eight days of contact. Doesn't have to be all in one go."

"And no one else needs it?"

"Of course. But, see, I sometimes get unpleasant to be around and trying to touch eight people at the same time doesn't help."

"I guess so would I, and I have not seen that many people in a decade."

"Oh. I am so sorry."

Shrug. He doesn't know what to say.

They can be quiet for a few moments, while organizing their notes.

Elsewhere, people are talking.

"It was just the first try."

"Well, if you see it our way, every single time we tried to summon someone you wanted to keep them around."

"That's not entirely fair. But I am more concerned with how sick he was."

"Megaera is confident that she should be able to cure him. And depending on how fast it sets in we might have a temporary back-up world." Pherikles argues.

"Very temporary," someone says a bit sarcastically.

Pherikles shrugs.

"Maybe he was wrong about the state of his world."

"Or it was a lie."

"I doubt it was untrue, but worth checking." Pherikles proposes. "And this still is worth trying a second time."

"Fine, but I don't care if it's a sick innocent orphan girl, no more people."

"Maybe she can go with scar guy."

"His name is Vitek," Pherikles reminds them. "Depending on the state of the world it might not be a bad idea to transfer Vitek there or someone from there to Vitek's world."

The meeting continues.

At some point, Vitek feel asleep again. A short doze off.

The girls are gone, but instead there are couple of men. One giant, one not.

They are both holding Vitek's feet. "Hey, there. Our girls had to go, but we are sort of replacing them."

"Your girls?"

"Our daughters. Those girls are our daughters."

"Oh, okay?"

"You have a question."

Vitek thinks for a moment to compose his question. "They each look like one of you. And both of you look too young to have daughters that age?"

"Oh, we had them with each other. Sevet is a shapeshifter. He can take a form that's capable of child-bearing."

Sevet looks closer to Vitek's reaction.

Vitek just blinks and looks Sevet up and down.

"Curious about something?"

"No..."

"Don't make him uncomfortable."

"It's okay, but thank you." He starts squirming.

"Are you uncomfortable?"

"I am... a bit too comfortable."

"We can drop the topic if you want."

"I think he meant physically."

"Yeah, I think this bed is too soft for me."

"We could just go out for a walk."

"That sounds good."

"Would you rather avoid people or meet them?"

"Meet them."

"Is there any specific you would want?"

Shrug. "Friendly people?"

"Everyone is friendly."

Sevet doesn't contradict that, instead he offers. "We could take him through the garden and see who we meet there?"