As quickly as the text had appeared, it vanished again, leaving Max glancing around at the surrounding trees in bewilderment. He reached up to his face, expecting to feel some VR goggles or something else that might explain how he had been able to see floating text pop in and out of his vision, or at least some earphones that could explain how he had heard the music, but there was neither. How could he possibly have been able to see and hear what he had without any devices?

Max was jolted out of his thoughts as he noticed there was a creature sat at the base of one of the nearest trees, staring up at him with puppy-dog eyes. It was around the same size as a cat, but it had long ears, fluffy white fur patterned with green spots, and… six legs.

“What the hell are you?” Max said. “Was it you licking my face? It was, wasn’t it?”

The creature cocked its head, seemingly not understanding him but looking very interested in what he was saying nonetheless. Despite its bizarre appearance, it seemed harmless enough.

“I apologise for swatting you away,” Max said to it. “I thought you were… someone else.”

He bent down and rubbed his right forefinger and thumb together, something he did to call Larry for treats sometimes. The creature immediately rushed to his hand and buried its nose in his palm.

Now that it was so close to him, Max could truly see how strange it was. He had lived in the UK all his life, and he had never encountered anything like it before in the British countryside. He hadn’t even seen anything like it on TV, at least not anything outside of fantasy and sci-fi shows and movies.

The text had told him he was in an “Alryn Forest.” It wasn’t a forest name he recognised. Was he even in the UK? At this point, he wouldn’t have been surprised if someone told him he had woken up on another planet.

And what had the text underneath it been about? +1 Exploration Orb? It was almost as if he had gained some kind of experience; the kind a player might gain in an RPG.

“That’s some super soft fur you’ve got there, my friend,” Max said to the animal as he brushed his free hand through its white and green tufts. It chirruped at the compliment.

When it was finished rubbing itself all over Max’s other palm, leaving his fingers slightly wet, it began scuttling around the clearing and doing the occasional backflip.

Max watched and chuckled to himself at the creature’s odd but endearing behaviour.

Once it was finished doing its display of acrobatics, it began sniffing around in the grass before picking up what appeared to be two bright purple berries with its mouth.

It trotted back to Max hurriedly on its six little legs, placed one of the berries in front of him, and the other in front of itself.

“You’re giving this to me?” Max asked it.

In response, the creature nudged it closer to Max with its nose.

Max picked up the berry and examined it. It was too large to be an elderberry, but too small to be a plum. Was it maybe a bilberry? He concentrated on it and tried to recall the advice on identifying berries his dad had taught him and James when they were kids, and he had a fright when a new bit of text appeared, this time hovering next to the berry.

Horlip Berry

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Max moved the berry from side to side, and the text followed it.

“This is surreal,” Max muttered under his breath.

As he lowered his hand and his focus shifted, the text vanished.

The creature stared up at him expectantly.

“I’ve never heard of or eaten a horlip berry before,” he said, “and I once spent two nights in hospital when I was a kid after eating an unidentified fruit I found in the local woods, so I might resist the temptation to try one of these right now, but you go ahead and have my portion as well.”

Max placed the berry beside the one in front of the creature, and watched as his new friend gleefully nibbled on both.

Then he had a thought - he had been looking at the creature for a while, but not with the same brain-wracking intensity he had given the berry. If he focused on the creature and tried to pull information from somewhere using his mind in a similar way, would text appear telling him what species it was?

It was worth a try. As he focused all of his attention on the creature and tried to pull the information from somewhere inside his own brain, text appeared beside it that read:

Common Willowdalian Nibbler

A Willowdalian nibbler? Definitely not a species Max was aware existed. There was a very high possibility it didn’t exist, and this entire scenario was some lucid dream.

“Nibbles the nibbler,” said Max. He hadn’t been planning on naming the little guy, but it just seemed right.

Nibbles didn’t appear to be listening to him. It had finished both berries, and was now sniffing around in the grass again.

“You want more?” Max said. “Wait here, I’ll go get you some.”

Max scanned the area. He was sure he could see a few purple dots growing amidst the leaves of a tree to his left.

He paced over to it and reached out to pull a handful of the berries from a low-hanging branch, but stopped mid-motion. He had noticed something else.

Lying in the grass at the base of the tree was what appeared to be a spear. It was a simple spear carved from a long tree branch, but a spear nonetheless.

He bent down and picked it up, focusing his attention on it in the same way he had with the berry and the nibbler.

Crude Spear

Attack: 5

Max was becoming more and more concerned about his mental state by the second, given that this was the third time he had been able to make a label like this appear, but he was more so becoming concerned as to why a spear would be necessary for anyone in these parts. He was also concerned as to why it had been abandoned. What other creatures lived in this forest?

Max didn’t have to wait very long to find out. As he reached for the berries once again, there was a deep growl behind him.

It was a sound that in no way could have come from the little cute creature he had made friends with.

Slowly he turned around.

“Oh… my… god.”

Behind the small animal, slowly emerging out of the dark forest, was a beast the size of an elephant, with three yellow eyes, a red leathery hide, and viciously sharp-looking horns running from the back of its head down its spine.

It was another animal he didn’t recognise; something that surely couldn’t be real. Either he had been slipped some hallucinogenic drug, or some mad scientists had been mutating animals in a lab.

“Nibbles,” he said cautiously. “Nibbles, I think you should-”

The poor thing had no time to run.

Without hesitation, the gnarly beast opened its gigantic jaw and snapped its set of razor-sharp teeth shut on the little guy, squelching him into a splatter of blood, guts, and limbs.

“Nibbles!” Max shouted.

The little creature’s dismembered body parts began to turn into tiny blue glowing particles that drifted into the air before dispersing into nothing.

Even stranger than that, a slab of meat suddenly materialised in its place. Not the torn flesh of a mangled animal, but a prepared cut; the kind you’d get at a butcher.

What the hell was happening? Was he in some kind of alternate world where the laws of reality didn’t apply?

He didn’t have time to consider it further. The monster had gobbled up the meat as its appetiser, and it looked ready for its main course.

With three hungry eyes, the massive monster looked up at Max, saliva drooling from its bloodied fangs.

Max was scared, but there was something else overpowering that feeling; a burning rage that he hadn’t felt for a long time.

He had only known Nibbles for a few brief moments, but he had felt strangely attached to the little fella. He knew he should probably run for his life, but he couldn’t help it - he wanted revenge.

Max’s heart was hammering away in his chest. He could feel long-lost adrenaline firing through his veins for the first time in years.

He shrugged his suit jacket off and pulled up his shirt sleeves.

“Come and get it, you ugly, three-eyed son-of-a-bitch!” he shouted, and readied the spear.