Ashley was 23 years old at the time. He was an energetic man who enjoyed walking in the forest near his town. And there was barely nothing he didn't know about it, he could tell you which tree would come after which turn, which path would lead at which place, and so on. It was like a secondary home to him, where he would come when he needed time alone. He nearly always took the same path and rested pretty much every time at the same place, under the same tree, and thus since he was in his early teen.

Which is why he immediately felt something wrong as he opened his eyes and didn't recognize the where he was. He was still laying against a tree, but this one was a lot taller than the one he fell asleep on, such as every other tree around him. He jumped up and looked around him franticly.

"Huh... What- ?" He asked to himself, questions raising in his head.

How tall are those trees ? Did I shrunk ? He frowned as a ray of orange sunlight struck his eyes, and blinked a few times to adjust to the light. Whatever happened, I don't like it.

He took another look at his surroundings. He was surrounded by trees all at least three times the size he was used to. The nature around him was wild and large, filled with dense greenery, and the scene showed to his sight bight colours with multicolour flowers on the ground.

"Well, this is colourful , but it doesn't quite answer my questions."

He turned around two or three times and finally shouted, "Hey ! Whoever did this ! Show yourself !" He stood there a few seconds, not hearing any response, he wasn't even sure if this was someone else's doing. Surely he would have felt it if he had been carried, right ? It just felt like something... wrong had happened.

He looked back at the tall tree and noticed his own backpack. My bag is still here. Did they stole anything ? Why didn't they just take it, though ?

He walked to it and took a look inside, going through his stuff. Everything his was still there, even his phone. He picked the device and quickly checked his position, but was only welcomed by a loading screen, and he wasn't picking any signal either.

His confusion did not stopped when he looked again and saw that there were also other things in his backpack that he hadn't brought with him originally.

What in the hell ? Now he was growing some serious concern.

His head shot back up, looking around. "Hellooooo ? If this is a joke, please note that I don't find it funny !"

No one answered, again.

He looked at his feet, noticing a book on the ground. He picked it up.

Oh yeah, I have this too. The book's cover represented a brownish dragon flying in the clouds. 'Wings of Fire' was written in stylized golden letters. Ashley had taken for habit to read when he was alone, it was a nice way to disconnect from the world, even just for a few moments. So, he always carried a book or two with him. He would take any book, really, he didn't have especially high standards when it came to the stories he was reading. But this one held a place of nostalgia in his heart, and it was always fun to read.

He stored the book in his bag, which he closed and putted on his back, still on edge.

This place feels so... out of proportions, I need to get out of here. His head started hurting, or did it already hurt and he was just noticing it now ? It didn't matter anyways, even if it wasn't really the right time to have a migraine.

I don't understand, what the fuck is happening ?

His respiration became uneven, a wave of panic started to take him from his chest, he ended up slapping himself to get back to his senses. And talked to himself, trying to make more sense out of it.

"Alright, now is not the time to panic, I need to figure out a way home."

Stolen novel; please report.

He looked around once more, and saw nothing but leaves.

"But where the hell do I go ?"

Having no visibility, he ended up choosing a random direction, taking the one which seemed the easiest to navigate through, and started walking.

The forest was calm, few birds were singing, and a small breeze were waving the trees. He was expecting it to be pretty dark, but it was surprisingly lightened despite how tall all those trees were, and how dense their foliage could seem at some places.

The atmosphere was tense, or maybe it was just him, because the forest looked rather peaceful. He felt like being watched, if this was the same forest he usually went in, then he never went to this part of it.

He walked for longs moments, slowly, the ground seemed to clear up a bit more, and the vegetation became more sparse, and the forest floor covered itself with leaves. He eventually found a small stream. The water seemed clean enough, so he pulled his bottle to fill it up, and drank some of it.

Peak survival moment. he laughed to himself, taking note of the area, water was a first necessity, so it was good to know where he could find some. He didn't had any idea of where he was, and had been walking for hours, which should simply not have happened in the small forest nearby his home. But he didn't want to think more about it more, he was worried enough.

He looked up for a brief moment and noticed a group of red birds flying in formation high in the sky. He starred for a moment, the way they were flying was weirdly more reminiscent of raptors, and their shape too.

And then he saw it, a huge mountain peaking up into the sky. In fact, multiple mountains, each piercing the clouds. It somehow looked like sharp teeth, and a vague of disbelief took over his mind.

Now this is certainly NOT home. He thought as his eyes widened.

He starred at it for long minutes without moving, before shaking his head and getting back the control of his mind. He started to make his way toward the mountains, figuring this was probably the best way to get a better look at his surroundings. To say that he was startled would have been an understatement.

The more he walked, the more an uneasy feeling grew in his chest, like he wasn't supposed to be here. This was the same feeling he had earlier, but multiplied about probably a dozen times. Of course, there was no denying it wasn't where he should have woken up, but he felt as a stranger in an unknown land where he hadn't been invited. The mountains seemed already close, and they were getting taller and taller as he was approaching them, casting their large shadows on him.

That looks- ominous. He shuddered.

After a long march, which he guessed to be about one or two hour long, he finally stepped out of the forest. The landscape in front of of him was now very rocky, as the land started to go up and form a mountain. There was patches of rocks pocking from the grass, and the more you looked up, the more it turned into stone. But while those mounts were really high in size, they didn't seem to have any form of snow at the top, at least not that he could see.

He didn't know exactly what were all the requirement to have snow on top of a mountain but he wouldn't bother trying to find out why now. He looked back up at the peak and noticed the Moon pocking behind its side.

Oh ! I know what I can do now !

He searched the sky, one hand on top of his eyes to not be hurt by the Sun. Once he would know its position, he would be able to locate where the West and East were, and get a better sense of his directions. He located the Sun, halfway into the sky, and the Moon next to it.

Wait- what ?

He had to think again for an instant after that. He looked back at the top of the mountain were the Moon was right before, and was surprised to find it still here.

Is there two Moons in the sky ? Am I going crazy ?

He glanced at the first one, then the other, and went back and forth four more times.

I'm not just not near my home am I ? He shivered at this idea, incredulous. I'm literally not in my own fucking world !

HOW ?

He lost his balance for a moment, and had to sit down. His sight becoming all blurry for a few seconds. His brain tried to process it but had a hard time accepting the situation.

He finally shook his head and looked up the side of the mountain.

You know what ? Just shut up and do what you're here for, you'll think about it later. He thought, not wanting to get off the tracks.

He proceeded to climb up, it started easy, just like walking a hill, however, it soon became a lot harder and he had to zigzag between rocks ponds of mud.

He had to climb, nothing really hard, there was lots of takes he could use for it. Eventually, he found a flattened area where he was able to sat and rest for a few minutes. He stood up, and looked down, and was welcomed by one of the most beautiful sight he ever saw.

"That is a very... vibrant landscape." He whispered, amazed.

He wasn't particularly high, having barely climbed the mountain, but high enough to see everything below.

There was no human constructions in the horizon, no skyline of a city, no house, no roads or anything.

And no planes either. He thought.

He looked around him, there was tall mountains, a huge forest, an apparent crack a few meters away from him, and a small column of smoke coming from a small hole in the side of the mountain.

Wait-

He ran towards it and stopped before he could fall off the edge of the platform he was standing on.

There's someone here !