I used one hand to tap my pencil on the other. Then one hand to tap my pencil back on the same hand. Shifted the pencil to the other hand. Then back. It was difficult to pay attention to the lecture.

I didn't know why I had this itch, this longing to get back in the car and go back. Out in the bright daylight of a classroom at UBC, it all seemed really ridiculous. There were cars outside, people jogging by. The internet, trade disputes, rumblings of war in the Middle East. That was the real world. The whole existence of the Gate place, the Clearing, Fleuve Clair, all ridiculous.

...Right?

And yet, it was all I could think of. My own little world, far away from any troubles on Earth. I had no idea if I'd get anything out of the experience. Maybe I'd even be hurt by trying. I knew so little. But I had to go. Something called me.

It was like crushing on someone and they wink back.

I didn't like feeling like my mind was out of my control, and in the light of Earth's day, all those MacKenzie warnings came back to me as serious things, my premonitions the first time I went into the Gate.

I'd go see her after class. The club would probably be out there.

Sure enough, several of them were sitting on the grass with their books. I ambled over, and a few metres away, MacKenzie called out to me.

"Hey Alyx. Wow, you look like shit." She chuckled. "You okay?"

She didn't really have any filter, but honestly, I sort of liked that about her.

"Hey," I said, sitting down on the grass and dropping my backpack in front of me, sticking my tongue out at her. "I just did a lot of hiking last weekend so I'm tired," I continued, pulling out a late lunch.

"Nice, where'd you go?" another girl asked. "Such good weather for it right now."

Jen was more of a hippie pagan. Less about any particular tradition, more about just vibing and living with nature. Her outfit showed it today, all homespun-looking earth-tone fabrics, and a big pentacle necklace. She came from a big family of Hong Kongers who had emigrated to BC, but her parents didn't seem to be having much luck making her "proper".

"Oh, just up to Eagle Bluffs," I replied distractedly around a bite of sandwich.

"It's not just the look-like-shit thing," MacKenzie said after squinting at me for several moments. "Your energy is all weird, too. What kind of wildness did you get up to while you hiked, and why didn't you invite me?"

I snorted, trying my best not to inhale any bread crumbs.

I shrugged. "I've been having a lot of weird dreams lately. Maybe it's just filtering out here now."

"Sometimes dreams are trying to tell us stuff," she replied. "Anything you want to talk about?"

I shook my head. I didn't feel like sharing the one about the terrace in a city - it felt too personal, somehow.

"I guess," I started slowly, "it's just seeing myself in what looks like the forest around here, but it's... different. Planets in the sky and auroras and stuff. I don't know. Is that crazy?"

"Nah," Jen replied offhandedly. "Maybe it's like, your patron deity reaching out to you from their own space. Hmm, did you even have a patron?"

"Not a patron nor a matron," I said somewhat jokingly. "I don't think I'm really even pagan, you know. I just like hanging out with you all."

"Aww," MacKenzie crooned.

"And," I continued, "hypothetically, say you had a spooky premonition about something having to do with a dream place like that. What would you do? What if you ignored the premonition and led to something really amazing? Count yourself lucky? Run the other way?"

"Sounds like wildness to me," MacKenzie said. "Anyway, it depends. Are we talking amazing-amazing, or angler fish amazing?"

"I mean, obviously one would prefer the amazing-amazing. But let's say, hypothetically, we don't know yet."

"Hypothetically," she replied sarcastically.

"Hypothetically," I repeated.

"Nah," Jack said, shaking his head. "No way. That's your inner self, or maybe your patron gods, trying to tell you something. Or the universe. I dunno. When it seems like it's amazing after all, after the spooky, I trust it least."

"Cynic much?" Jen asked with a little smile to take the edge off the comment.

Jack shrugged.

"I dunno," MacKenzie replied to my question. "You should just listen to your heart, and your intuition. What are they telling you?"

I paused a moment. "Complicated... but I think positive."

"Well, there you go," she said. "Listen to what's in there."

After all of the swirling thoughts and feelings, and the conversation at school, I thought maybe I'd split the difference and stay home that Friday night, try to ground myself a little, maybe do some language studies and research. That would be my diligence; then I'd head out Saturday with an excuse about going camping with friends. The remainder of the weekend would net me up to two weeks in the Gate place.

Thinking back to the experience of watching the comings and goings of the residents of Fleuve Clair, I wondered how one would go about making a foothold in a new culture. But first, I needed to puzzle out the mystery of the road sign so I even knew what to ask. I opened an AI search on my laptop.

"What is An Gleann?"

I had to read the text off the photo of the sign that I took. Which was honestly still pretty weird... staring at a photo on my Earth-world phone, from Earth-world, of a place in another world.

I wasn't really expecting much, but it delivered anyway.

"An Gleann (or An Ghleann) translates from Irish and Scottish Gaelic to mean 'the glen' or 'the valley'. It is most commonly used in Celtic languages as a geographical descriptor, a component in rural place names, or a reference to a serene, natural locale."

Huh, I thought. French and Irish.

What did that mean, anyway? Wouldn't some other world have a completely separate language?

Fleuve Clair looked more or less like French, and I knew at least a little bit of that. So that might be the right place to start.

On the other hand, I grew up in western Canada; French was not nearly as present as in the east. Mine was more of the "I can say hi" and the "read an occasional street sign" kind of French. A lack I was starting to regret.

I started a new search.

"If one were dropped into an alternate reality, how would one go about getting established with the people there? How would I get money and food, and a place to stay?"

I felt ridiculous even typing it, but a surprisingly helpful response came back to me, having to do with the steps anthropologists would take. Making myself useful, for labour if nothing else; offering help at food vendors and asking for a meal; starting with the most useful language words and working my way out to more complex ones.

I chuckled when, of course, it followed it up with, Are you writing a fantasy novel? What do you need help building? But it still gave me useful info.

I spent a little time looking at Irish, quickly feeling like that was a lost cause for the time being, though I did look at some of the basic words (like an, "the"). I spent a little time with the spiteful bird to try to remind myself, crash course style, of the basic French I'd once learned.

At the end of it all, I loaded up my phone with a French dictionary and an Irish dictionary. I thought maybe I shouldn't show the people in that town my phone and other tech until I'd learned more about them, but the reference could still help me when I was alone.

I checked all of my gear, made sure everything was plugged in and charging, backed up my photos just in case, and went to sleep.