Both man and beast walked together silently through the quiet forest. The beasts feet thumping loudly against the dry ground as it stomped noisily through the overgrowth. Contrastingly, the mans footsteps were dead quiet, as though he weren't there at all. As They walked, the dull of the trees around them slowly started to fade away, light began glinting off the bark as it solidified even further than natural wood. The leaves above them slowly began losing flexibility and started to stiffen, picking up a dark grey coloring. Far ahead a mountain poked its peak over the skyline.

Jeck noticed none of this as he strode confidently forward. What he did notice was the nervous glances his unwilling guide shot him when he thought he wasn't looking. Now what were those for, he wondered? No better way to find out then to ask. "So why do you keep looking at me like that? Is it because I called you ugly? Because if it is then I apologize, I just wanted to get you angry." He asked not expecting an answer.

"You scare me."

Jeck whipped his head around to stare at the lizard, who shrunk under his gaze.

"What."

"....What?"

"You can talk?!" Jeck asked incredulously.

"Of course I can, why wouldn't I be able to?"

"Ummm, because you're an animal? You weren't talking earlier."

"Cause I was scared shitless, besides, we're both animals aren't we? Actually, I'm probably more machine than you, so you're the animal here."

"That's....not wrong. Anyway, why do I scare you?"

Big Ball was beginning to think this guy may not be the sharpest guy around.

"You could have killed me back there. You caught my wrecking ball like it was nothing! Not just anyone can do that. That's scary man. You could kill me so easily right now."

Jeck scoffed. "Oh come on, I'm not a psychopath I don't...always kill everyone I fight."

"You hesitated."

"I fight a lot of crazy people, most of them don't just surrender."

Big Ball rolled his eyes, confidence he wouldn't be killed rising. "Wow, that's very reassuring - wait, did you call me ugly earlier?!"

Jeck deliberately avoided eye contact.

".....No?"

Something pinged off his senses. Oh good, a distraction "Hey are we almost there? I can feel a lot of life forms up ahead. I think I can see 'em too."

Big Ball narrowed his eyes at the Wraith beside him and thought about pursuing the argument but winced as he remembered the punch to the face he took. "Yeah, we're almost there. I'm gonna let you make your way from here. If you really can sense a lot of life over there then I'm gonna be out of my depth."

Jeck raised his eyebrow. "How so?"

Big Ball looked back at the man and shuddered. "Let’s just say me and those folk don’t get along. I fight for food. They fight for fun and blood."

Giving what Jeck assumed was the Lizard version of a salute, he camouflaged himself among the trees and disappeared.

Jeck turned back to the life forms he sensed and the mountain that loomed over them.

'Did he have to be so ominous? Fun and blood? Sounds like a party to me. Plus he said I could get hot food!'

'It's not like you need to eat anyway.'

He flinched, his body instinctively going into attack mode before he realized who was speaking and relaxed.

'I still like the taste of it.'

'Why bother with food when you don't need it? '

Determinedly ignoring the voice in his head, (and wasn't that concerning?) he pushed it to the back of his mind.

'You’ll see. Just wait.'

Speeding up, He started to run through the forest. The trees growing thinner and thinner as he did. Finally, he broke through the tree line. Coming to a stop, He surveyed the area in front of him. Flat, orange, dusty rock stretched out in front of him for miles, coming to a halt at the base of a large cliff. The cliffs were the biggest he'd ever seen. Definitely larger than the Cliffs of Moher he visited when he was younger. Two hundred and sixty eight meters, his mind supplied him. He often wondered where those numbers came from.

The forest picked back up on top of the cliff and spread for miles to his left and right. The mountain he had seen from the forest sat on the edge of the cliff, it's sloped edge bleeding into the sheer rock surface. What really piqued his interest wasn't the quarry with the giant cave just off to the right of where the mountain met the cliff, nor was the large congregation of various animals all gathered around its entrance. What really captivated him was the small machinery and scrapped trucks even further to right, at the edge of the quarry.

'Machines? I haven't seen those in a long time.'

He narrowed his eyes, leaned forward and stared over the miles of rock that separated him and the looming cliffs. Looking closer he traced the gouges in the metal with his eyes. Some of the machinery appeared to have huge chunks taken out of them.

'I just hope whoever was running this place left in a better shape than this mess'

A deep rumbling shook the ground beneath his feet. He glanced over to the mouth of the cave where the wild animals he had seen earlier were now in a frenzy. Deciding that the machines could wait for the time being, Jeck took a few super powered jumps and landed on a large pile of rubble. He raised an eyebrow at the scene before him.

The animals below were some of the strangest creatures he'd ever seen in his time on this new world. Biology met mechanics in a stunning fusion of flesh and metal. A giant ants carapace was coated in a sheet of metal. A few Scorpions with buzzsaws attached to their tails lurked in the shade provided by the cliff. An extremely tall spider with metal hydraulic legs stood off to the side. All these unique animals congregated around the mouth of the cave. Why weren't they fighting each other though? Or at least interacting in some way? Another rumbling shook the ground. The sound of metal scraping against metal started to get closer and closer. The animals shifted uneasily but otherwise did not move, every gaze was focused on the cave.

'They must be waiting for whatever’s causing the rumbling to come out, but what is it?' He remembered his fight with the Lizard from that morning. He snorted. 'Yeah stupid question, it's a fight. That seems to be the only way things get resolved around here.'

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The sound of combat, which had steadily been getting closer, fell silent. Then, with a roar like a fork being dragged down a sheet of metal and a large clang, a figure flew out of the entrance, bouncing across the gravel and kicking up dust. All the mechanical animals (Henceforth called 'Mechanimals' by decree of Jecks very bad imagination) turned to follow the poor sods flight path. Jeck could see the Mechanimals deflate as they turned back to the cliff. Heavy footfalls grew louder and louder, until a huge, hulking body plowed through the cave entrance, scraping against the walls as it widened the hole by at least a foot.

'Holy cow that thing's big.'

Standing at seventeen feet at the shoulder, what looked like a cross between a wooly mammoth and a gorilla stomped forward. It walked on all fours, Its front legs were actually thick arms. It walked on its knuckles, dragging them across the ground. It stood up on its two hind legs and pounded its fists on its chest. It let out a cry and Jecks attention was drawn to its tusks. They looked to be covered in metal. Pretty par for the course as far as the rest of the Mechanimals, until they started whirring. Looking closer, he noticed the metal teeth sticking out of them.

'Ooooh, they're chainsaw tusks. That's pretty damn cool.'

Opposite to the chainsaw mammoth thing, the dust was suddenly sucked in toward the figures tail. There, attached to the base of its spine by a thick rope of bio-mechanical steel wire, was a massive, rotating drill. The animal was roughly humanoid, standing at about five foot and four inches tall. It was hunched over on all fours like it was about to pounce. Brown fur with streaks of blue covered its flesh, matted with blood and dust. Four tendrils, two on each side of face blew in the wind caused by its drills rotation. Finally, it stopped spinning, letting the dust it gathered fan out behind it dramatically.

'Oh. My. God.'

"That is so fucking cool!" Jeck exclaimed. A big grin split his mismatched face. His words were lost on the animals below as the two combatants darted forward and slammed against one another. The two growled at each other as they tried to overwhelm the other, the mammoths bulk pressing down on the mongoose, slowly inching forward. Leaping back the two clashed together over and over again.

"Come on drill-rat, fight the power!" Jecks cheers went ignored by all.

The mammoth roared in annoyance at the resistance of the smaller fighter. Why did this tiny creature put up such a vicious fight? It had been defeated by him multiple times. Any other creature would have bowed before the strongest and yet this one kept challenging him again and again! It would have to use its newest trick. It reared back its fist and swung straight for the center of mass. It was easy to dodge as the gorilla-mammoth abandoned subtlety in favor of power, telegraphing the heavy blow. The mongoose twisted to the side, dodging the blow with surprising grace, or more accurately, it should have dodged, space twisted and warped, allowing the ginormous fist to slam into the mongooses diaphragm. Right before the fist impacted the smaller fighter, Jeck heard a quiet "What?-" leave its lips. The force of the blow lifted the drill beast off its feet, up over the lip of the cliff, through the mountain and out the other side.

Jeck, who had been pissed his favorite lost and was about to jump into the ring himself, froze upon seeing the gaping hole in the mountain. A supernatural wind whistled eerily through the now silent quarry, catching the attention of the menagerie below and sending shivers rippling down his spine.

'Uh oh. This is bad, this is really, really bad!'

He would have bolted, but it was too late, far too late. There, just in front of the mammoth, forming out of the dirt, was a monkey, seemingly made out of the same materials as the forest above the cliff. Steel leaves decorated her body. Her appearance different from when he saw her last. Changing to match the local fauna he would later hypothesis. Jecks breath caught in his throat and he began to sweat. Was it going to slaughter them all? Caomhnaigh raised her hand and pointed a single finger at the hole in the mountain. Her single, multicolored eye sat in the middle of her skull. The mammoth was petrified, paralyzed by fear.

After what felt like an eternity but in reality was seconds, Caomhnaigh slowly slid her finger from the destruction to the mammoth, then shook her head. Everyone present got the message. ‘No senseless destruction.' The hole in the mountain rapidly filled itself back in. Satisfied her orders would be heeded, she disappeared. Here one second, gone the next.

Jeck let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off his brow. They were lucky, real lucky. 'I guess the wildlife get some leniency on their territorial disputes.' The ambient sounds of nature returned to his ears, reminding him he wanted to go check if the drill guy survived or not. If it could really talk then he might have a new lead. He leapt onto the side of the cliff and ran up its surface, once he reached the top he mentally calculated the unwilling projectiles arc and ran to the crash site.

'Now if I'm right, and I usually am, he should be somewhere over here...Bingo!'

Lying in a crater, unconscious and eagle spread on the ground, but still breathing, was the drill guy. He mentally calculated the hours that had passed. This sun should be starting to set. Not wanting him to freeze to death in his weakened state, Jeck quickly set about making a fire. He planted a hand on the ground and lifted it, wood growing from the spot. Once he had enough for a decent fire, he brought two fingers to his lips and blew bright flames on to the arbor, setting it ablaze. He stooped down and hefted the creature over his shoulder.

'Heavy bugger aren't ye?'

Setting him down close enough to the fire, Jeck grew a decent sized stump, sat on it cross-legged, pulled his cloak around him tighter to keep the chill out and then dove into his mindscape.

Water came up to his toes, glowing a dim luminous blue. The light only provided light in the immediate area, darkness surrounded him otherwise. Inky, pitch black darkness. Then it opened its eye.

'Yo.'

'Hello.'