The first thing Kellen noticed was purring, and a small, warm weight resting in the middle of his chest. He groaned and blinked awake.

A pair of large, cat-like green eyes stared back at him.

“You’re alive!”

Kellen screamed and flailed his arms. He knocked the creature off his chest and scrambled into a sitting position, scuttling away through the tall grass in an awkward crab walk.

“Hey!”

Kellen’s heart pounded in his chest as he stared at the thing that had been resting on his chest moments ago. 

It looked like someone’s stuffed animal brought to life: downy cream-colored fur covered a football-shaped and sized body. The thing had no neck, like a baby seal, with four stubby paws, too-big pointed ears and a short foxlike tail. 

Kellen would have felt an overwhelming urge to pick it up and squeeze it, if the creature hadn’t been talking. Apparently, he wasn’t awake.

“What’s the big idea?” It said, tiny paws kicking in the air as it struggled to right itself.

“I’m dreaming,” Kellen said out loud. It was always easier to wake up from a dream when you realized you were in one.

“You’re not dreaming!” The little football-shaped fox bounced up and down over the tall, golden grass. “I’m your Mana Beast!”

“I’m dreaming,” Kellen repeated. But he was less sure of himself this time.

Nothing made sense. The last thing he remembered, he’d hit a rock while cutting grain in the harvester and…

The blood drained from Kellen’s face. Memories flooded back. That wasn’t the last thing he remembered.

The last thing he remembered was Allison disappearing into that bright blue light. Then he followed her.

Coyote Lady watched the poor young man from Earth try to make sense of what just happened to him. Even she, a Primeval tasked with observing the ley lines and portals between Oras and Earth, was surprised when the stone in Idaho came to life. As the Fourth Noctun approached, the portals had grown less active, but more erratic.

A shout of alarm caused Coyote Lady’s lips to curl back from her two canine fangs in a smile. She chuckled to herself as Kellen ran from his Mana Beast, still unnerved at the concept of a talking creature with a personality. He only made it a few feet before his feet tangled in the tall, dry prairie grass, and he fell hard. His new Mana Beast was on him in an instant, oblivious and ignorant of why his presence upset the young man. They both had a lot to learn.

At her side, Raccoon Boy snickered. “He’ll be dead in a day.”

Coyote Lady shot her companion a sidelong glance. “I’ll take that bet.” She held out a hand.

The smaller Primeval, resembling a bizarre cross between a raccoon and a boy, just as his name suggested, eagerly reached to seal the deal. He paused at the last moment, eying Coyote Lady with suspicion. “You’re meddling.”

Coyote Lady put on an expression of fake shock. “I am not… yet.”

With their presences veiled from Kellen and his Mana Beast, both Primevals were close enough to hear a small groan when Kellen rolled over. The fox kit Mana Beast jumped on the young man’s chest once more. Coyote Lady thought she could hear Kellen hyperventilating but pretended not to when Raccoon Boy gave her a knowing smirk.

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“Come on,” she said, waving an irritable hand at Raccoon Boy. “We’ve got places to be.”

Raccoon Boy glanced from Kellen, then back to her. “That’s it? You’re not going to give him any help? Not even going to say anything?”

Coyote Lady shook her hand. “Not yet. We’ll see.”

With that, they vanished.

Kellen’s mind struggled to comprehend… well, anything. Ignoring the incessant questions from the talking animal perched on his chest, he tried to piece the day’s events together.

He’d woken early that morning to start cutting grain. Allison had wanted to ride in the cab of the harvester with him and their parents gave her permission to tag along. They’d been out for about an hour when he hit something. He’d backed up, discovering a flat-sided rock about the size of a mini fridge sticking out of the ground. 

That alone made no sense. He felt certain the rock hadn’t been there when they’d planted the field the previous spring — it wasn’t like you could miss it when the grain wasn’t tall enough to cover it. Even stranger, however, the rock started to glow. That was the blue light he remembered. 

He shouted for Allison to get away from it, but the light grew brighter until he couldn’t see her anymore. She’d screamed. He jumped out of the harvester, ran blind toward her, and…

And there he was, in the middle of who knew where, with a talking plushie fox. Maybe he’d fallen and hit his head.

He didn’t think he was dead. At least he hoped he wasn’t dead, if this was what heaven was. He sat up, gingerly lifting the fox from his chest in case it tried to bite him. The creature’s fur was every bit as soft as it appeared. It seemed friendly, but it also shouldn’t be talking, so Kellen didn’t want to take any chances. Heart pounding, he sat it down next to him.

“I’m not going to eat you,” the fox said as if reading his mind. It opened its miniscule mouth as wide as it could, revealing a pair of tiny fangs. “How would I even do that?”

Some part of Kellen decided if he didn’t reply and pretended the fox didn’t exist, it might go away. To distract himself, Kellen examined his surroundings.

The sky above was blue, but marred by the brown haze of wildfire smoke. At least Kellen assumed it was wildfire smoke, based on the smell in the air. Like home, it seemed to be late summer, a hot and dry one at that. Unlike home, tall, crooked pillars of red rock jutted up randomly all across the endless expanse of grassy hills.

There didn’t seem to be another living thing in sight.

“Lissy!” Kellen stood and yelled from cupped hands. “Lissy!”

He shouted while turning around, hoping to hear her reply or see her running toward him. In every direction, the scenery looked the same: empty.

“Is Lissy another human like you?” the fox asked after several moments passed. Before Kellen could answer, it started yelling his sister’s name on repeat. More concerned about finding his sister than addressing the unexplainable creature at his feet, Kellen resumed shouting too.

He didn’t know how much time passed, but eventually his throat grew hoarse and sore. Lissy, nor anyone else responded.

Sinking to his knees, Kellen fought against the panic rising within him. His sister was nowhere to be found — he was nowhere to be found. And even if by some miracle Lissy appeared, there was no harvester, no rock, nothing that might prove a clue on how to get home from wherever they were. 

As Kellen’s chest tightened and his breath came in quick gasps again, the football fox drew closer and nudged his hand with its tiny nose. Rather than freaking him out further, Kellen found the feeling strangely calming. His anxiety eased a fraction.

“Hey, you doing okay? You don’t seem so good.”

A nervous breakdown. That’s what it was. Maybe heatstroke. He was hallucinating. Kellen ran through the logical explanations.

He clung to the small hope he really was dreaming. If so, everything would be fine when he woke up. It was probably still the night before and he hadn’t actually gone out to cut grain with Allison after all.

“This isn’t real, this isn’t real, this isn’t real.”

“Seems pretty real to me,” the fox’s voice sounded like a preteen boy, meaning it wasn’t at all comforting.

“Don’t talk to it,” Kellen said to himself. “That will only encourage it.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them, the little round fox sat right in front of him, looking up at Kellen. “Maybe we should start over,” it said. “My name’s Vex.”

Kellen decided to play along in the hopes he would wake up soon. “I’m Kellen Lars. It’s… good to meet you?”

“It’s great to meet you too!” The football fox — Vex — jumped forward and Kellen extended his hands and caught the creature out of reflex. He winced and fought the urge to hold Vex out at arm’s length. Vex stared up at him with those big green eyes expectantly.

“Uh… any chance you know where we are, Vex?”

“This is Oras,” Vex said. “You probably didn’t know that since you’re from Earth. But don’t worry, you’ve got me to help you out with things like that.”

“Oras,” Kellen repeated. Aside from the fact he was talking to a fox, everything Vex said only confused Kellen more.

“Yeah!” Vex said, sounding like this was the greatest thing ever, like Kellen had just won an all-expense paid vacation. “Now that you’ve finally arrived from Earth, we’re going to be awesome together!”