I woke up to a musty smell, kind of like a wet dog with a hint of crunchy leaves. You know that smell that only comes around Fall? Yeah. That one. It’s a cozy smell, although it contrasts too sharply with the temperature and humidity of the air to provide the normal feeling of comfort associated with the smell’s presence.

This was alarming for a few reasons. The first is that until a moment ago, I was in school, trudging my way through the last semester of my junior year of high school. The second is that I could feel shackles on my arms and legs, which seem to be bolted to the floor by a very short chain, because despite struggling, I couldn’t move at all.

For some as of yet unknown reason, I was acutely aware of the smell and taste of the air around me, as well as the temperature and humidity. It’s dry. I make a bit of a clicking noise, and from the sound I can tell its a very large area. Where am I?

An unknown thing brushes across my face, prompting me to open my eyes. It’s odd. Despite the fact I can tell it’s dark, I’m able to see quite well. I peer at the thing in front of my face, and see it’s a tail, black and fuzzy. Is there a cat in here? Well, if there is, cool I guess. I’m tired, and this is a chance to sleep, which if you’re a high school student in constant sports, you know you have to take advantage of.

Before I get too far into my thoughts, a voice rings out among the silence, and I’m snapped from my illusions. “Oi, ye disgraceful heretics, roise and shoin yeh nasty bastards.” Ok, ouch. I’m kinda just vibin here, and you come up with that? I’m not opposed to a fight, if I’m in the right shape, but even if I was feeling good enough (I’m not), the shackles I have on wouldn’t exactly help me in my efforts.

Looking for the voice, I spot a man, wearing what appears to be either cosplay or a really terrible bathrobe. “Where are we?” a person mumbles. That light and entrapping voice can only belong to Vena, who is my best friend, and person I hang out with most. “Shut yer trap yeh fuckin’ slave! I sehd rise and shoin yeh fucks!” “Christ dude, chill!” another voice proclaims.

This one belongs to my other friend, Tobias, which I know because of his high yet masculine voice. Leave it to Vena and Tobi to be the first two awake and yelling. Something cracks, and I hear a thump on the floor, accompanied by a cry of pain, almost more of a whimper, from Tobi.

“Enuff a this. Up.” Lights turn on, but they aren’t attached to anything, it’s almost as if they’re simply floating there close to the ceiling, although in this cave, I still can’t quite make out where the ceiling is. I yawn and stretch myself into an upright position. Even though I was aware of what was happening, I’m a bit too lazy and apathetic to really open my eyes and take in the sights around me.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I finally open my eyes to a world of blotches and spots. Shit, where are my glasses? I have terrible eyesight, to the point that I can’t see something unless it is less than three inches away. I look around and see them on my neck. Thank god, if I lost these, my parents would be pissed. I shove them onto my face, but they fall off again. Weird, it’s like I missed my ears.

Actually, where are my ears? This sounds weird, but as a human being on planet Earth, if you reach for your ears and they aren’t on the side of your head like usual, where are they? I hold my glasses to my face, and hear the man snicker. “Hah, yeh think yer a human boy? What a fuckin’ mess.”

What’s that supposed to mean? Guess I should probably ask him if I want to know. “What do you mean?” I say, tripping over unfamiliar teeth and an odd tongue, until I get the words out. “Well, I suppose yeh shood no, considerin’ ye’ll be like that forever.” I take a step forward and hear a whimper from the person I seem to have stepped on.

Looking down, I see Jace, someone from my class, but somehow different, a pinch of obvious weird overtaking the features of my easily recognizable classmate. That little pinch of weird is the cat ears and tail I see on his body. No ears where they should be, on a human at least, and a childlike body. Suddenly I’m awake, and loudly scream “d’ah, fuck!”, which prompts the rest of the children around me awake, who slowly stand, one by one.

I look around me, at the childlike animal people around me and then at myself. “Ah, you seem to have noticed”, a new voice, sounding old and caring. This new man enters the cave, the other one moving out of the way to allow him, and says “Welcome to this world my friends!”

Well. It seems that my class has been transported to another world as beastkin. Here’s something you don’t often hear from the protagonist of a shitty Isekai web-novel: “What in the actual fuck is happening?!?”