Light faded in and out as I fitfully slept, bringing with it waves of intense pain every time it did. It came periodically, invading my confused mind for what felt like an eternity before creeping back into the corner it came from, allowing me to return briefly to my unsettled rest.

Occasionally, when the pain was so intense it managed to clear my mind enough, I could feel the broken bones within me setting themselves right again, sliding back into their rightful places with wet squelches. The darkness would again claim me not long after.

Finally, after what was surely years of sleep and torture, I awoke properly, the impenetrable fog of before slowly lifting from my mind. My eyes fluttered open, slowly focusing as they took in the streaming golden light of the sun and the faultless blue of the sky.

My mind booted up lazily, taking its time as it slowly processed everything. I was lying on my back, my limbs sprawled out wide. My body was pressed into something soft, the substance moulded exactly to my outline.

I passed my senses through my body, surprised when I realized I could feel every part of my limbs. I wasn’t exactly sure why I was lying out here, in a place I didn’t recognize, but I had the sense that I should have been horribly injured.

I didn’t understand why, but I didn’t question it much, either. It was good news, and that was all I needed to know.

Turning my attention back outside, I swept my gaze as wide as I could without turning my head, trying to make sense of where I was. Unfortunately, all I could see was the expansive sky, stretching in each direction seemingly endlessly. The blue was perfect, unfractured and faultless. No fluffy dots of white marred its canvas, and it was crowned only by the brilliant gold circle of the sun.

I slowed my breathing as I took in the peaceful sight, knowing that once I got up, I’d have to deal with a whole host of problems that I had no wish to deal with at the moment. So, instead, I took my time, stilling myself as I soaked in the serenity.

I lost track of time as I lay there, my eyes gently closed as I breathed softly. Memories of how I ended up where I was slowly wandered back into my mind, unbidden and sporadic. Eventually, however, the sequence of events that led to me lying on the beach all clicked together, like a puzzle of memories in my mind. I remembered the spaceship, the pirates, the bats. Getting sucked out of the ship, hitting the Saint Realm Bat in the mouth.

That solved the mystery of why my face and clothes were caked in some sort of crusty, smelly substance.

Then came the memories of floating in space for a little while, in that strange bubble that had saved my life. And the rest followed quickly.

With a deep sigh, I forced my eyes back open, knowing that I had to get up eventually. I was on a strange beach on a strange land, on a strange planet. I was completely unsure of the dangers that I could face, and running into some kind of enemy before I could gather my bearings could be fatal.

With a rough groan, I pushed myself up, pulling myself out of the reluctant grasp of the beach. Sand rained off me as I got to my feet, the gritty feeling all over my body combining with the dried blood everywhere to make for an incredibly uncomfortable sensation.

I stretched my arms as I stood, my muscles and joints groaning in protest. My eyes were opened wide as I drank in the sights around me, trying to get my bearings. I stood in a crater of some sort, no doubt made by my landing. It was circular, a few meters in radius, and about half a meter deep all around, which really drove home how hard of a landing I’d had. And how much of a miracle it was that I’d survived.

Moving my gaze beyond the crater, I found the ocean that stretched out in front of me, so far into the horizon I couldn’t make out any other landmass anywhere, no matter how far I looked. I stood there for a moment, captivated by the sight of the sparkling clear blue water lazily lapping against the shore of the beach. The wide expanse of the ocean was a breathtaking sight – especially for me, since I’d been born and raised in landlocked cities my entire life.

Eventually, I tore my gaze away from the ocean and looked behind me. The sight was decidedly less pleasant. A lush jungle greeted me, lined with shrubbery and green plants of varying heights. Palm trees occasionally rose up past the dense undergrowth, reaching up high into the sky. But as picturesque as it looked, I couldn’t help but shudder as I peered into the darkness that blanketed the depth of the jungle. The dense vegetation obstructed all light, and an ominous feeling rose in my chest as I looked at the dark underbrush.

Shaking myself out of my paranoia, I looked to my right and left, but there wasn’t much to see on either side. The dusty yellow of the beach stretched out in both directions, eventually curving inland and out of sight.

My surroundings were similar to what I had seen as I had been falling, so it didn’t take long for me to place myself. However, what had begun to nag at me was the fact that I hadn’t seen where Ren had landed, and I hadn’t spotted him anywhere I looked around either. A dreadful thought crept into my mind, but I banished it before it could even take form. I had to trust that Ren would be able to survive the landing; he was more than capable enough. It would be an insult to his ability if I doubted him.

Casting the idea from my mind, I shook my head and quickly decided on a course of action. The number one priority was obvious: I needed to clean myself off. There was no getting used to the feeling of blood coating my skin, nor the smell of it. Not to mention the gritty sand that had managed to get everywhere.

My first step forward, however, landed on a strange, hard and slim object buried shallowly in the sand. Curious, I bent over and picked the object up, pulling it out to find my pole. I narrowed my eyes as I studied it in disbelief, unable to understand how it had gotten there. It had been in my hand when I’d been sucked out of the ship, but it certainly hadn’t been in the bubble with me. There was almost no way I wouldn’t have noticed it beside me in such a small space. But try as I might, I could not remember when it had left my hands, nor how it could have landed anywhere near me.

Eventually, I gave up trying to understand it, instead shelving it with the rest of the mysteries I didn’t care to try and unravel. It had happened; that was all I needed to know.

Keeping the pole by my side, I made my way out of the crater I was in and into the ocean. I entered the water slowly, cautiously, unsure of what dangers lurked underneath the sand. The water was thankfully clear – remarkably so – but any number of lethal animals could have been hiding in the sand just under the water. Waiting for me to step on them.

Using my stick to stir up the sand, I slowly made my way in. However, by the time I had gotten knee-deep into the water, I threw all caution to the wind, running in till the water reached my neck. The water was blissfully, deliciously warm, and all thoughts of potential danger flew out of my head as it washed over me.

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I had no way to mark the passing of time, but I was sure it had been at least half an hour by the time I walked back out of the water, fully cleaned and dripping wet.

I wasn’t too worried about my clothes being drenched, since I was sure that the blazing sun would take care of it soon. And in the meanwhile, the clothes provided a cool refreshment against the rising heat.

Making my way back onto the beach, I sat down on the soft sand, pole in hand, and started thinking through my situation properly. I was in the most typical survival story situation – although the way I had gotten into the situation was quite atypical – so I called up every piece of knowledge I could remember from all the survival stories I’d ever read in my life. Admittedly, there weren’t many, but I had read enough in the library to get the gist of them. I needed shelter, food, water, and maybe warmth, depending on how cold it got in the night. Although, based on the kind of plants I could make out in the jungle, I guessed that the temperatures wouldn’t drop very much. Still, that was an assumption made on Earthen logic, which wouldn't necessarily hold up where I was.

I wasn’t very hungry or thirsty yet, so I settled on making some kind of shelter first.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t a clue on how to go about doing that.

In most of the stories I’d read, they’d only mentioned that they had built the shelter; likely because the authors themselves probably didn’t know much about it either. And in the few that had explained in some measure of detail, I’d skipped over their explanations in boredom. After all, I’d never known that I would end up on some random beach somewhere on another planet.

With a deep sigh, I forced myself up to my feet again, deciding that the first step would undoubtedly be to gather some wood. However, just as I got to my feet, I heard a rustle come from the jungle. I immediately froze, stilling my breath as I strained my ears and eyes, not wanting to miss any signs of whatever lay hidden in the underbrush.

I rallied the power in my veins, getting ready to ignite the Flux at any moment.

It was slow, excruciatingly slow, but the thing in the forest eventually began to reveal itself. Its shadow extended out past the line of the trees first, revealing a strange, humanoid form.

I gripped my pole tight as I waited, covering my other fist in swirling flames.

Then, suddenly, the thing burst out of the thicket with a loud racket. Immediately, without even bothering to see what kind of animal it was, I launched the fire I had gathered in my fist at the thing, lobbing the basketball-sized fireball at the thing.

“What the-” came a surprised yelp from the attacker, before the dark, lithe form of the talking animal ducked under the fire with the swiftness of a cat. Immediately, the animal countered with its own attack, leaping at me with its hand brandishing a long, singular claw.

The claw was incredibly quick, far too fast for me to dodge. So, instead, I brought my pole in front of me, blocking its razor-sharp edge with a loud bang. The force of the collision blew away the sand below us, but I hardly noticed as my entire focus was on overpowering the surprising strength of my attacker.

However, it soon became apparent that I wasn’t going to beat the animal with pure strength. But thankfully, that wasn’t all I had. Reaching my senses outward, I gathered Flux around my pole, getting ready to ignite it. Then, just before I did, the animal suddenly spoke again.

“Ruby?!” it asked in a suspiciously familiar voice.

Caught off guard, I leapt backwards and angled my pole at the attacker, studying it with narrowed eyes. “How do you know-" I began to ask, before finally recognizing the attacker."-Ren?!”

"Ruby!" Ren answered with a wild smile. He looked exactly as I’d last seen him. He’d taken off the hood, letting his inky hair fall down just past his ears, but he still wore the same dark cape, shirt, and pants as before.

"You're alive!" I responded in surprise, the words escaping my lips before I could stop myself.

Ren scoffed at my words. "Of course, I'm alive. You think I'd check out just when things were getting interesting?"

I stared at him blankly for a moment, before the both of us simultaneously fell into laughter. I fell to the ground as the tension of the moment fully passed, robbing my knees of their strength.

Ren followed me to the sand, sprawling out comfortably on the warm sand.

“Anyway, where are you coming from? Where’d you land?” I asked finally, after a peaceful moment of silence.

Ren shrugged. “I dunno. I just landed in some random place in the jungle. I only woke up a while ago, and after I figured out what was going on, I made my way here.”

“How’d you know where the beach was?” I asked in amazement. If I had landed in the jungle, I’d have had no idea what direction anything was in.

Ren shrugged again. “It was lucky. I took a gamble, and it worked out for me.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “A gamble?”

“When I saw that I was going to land somewhere in the jungle, I aligned myself so that my head was pointed in the direction of the beach,” Ren explained. “It was a long shot, but it worked out. ”

“Wow,” I said. “That’s impressive.”

Ren waved off the compliment. “It was more luck, to be honest,” he said. “But anyway,” he continued on, “what’s the plan? What have you been doing?”

Now, it was my turn to shrug. “I have no idea, honestly. I was planning on trying to make some kind of shelter, since I wasn’t that hungry.”

Ren smiled at that. “Do you know how to make a shelter?” he asked.

I laughed. “Oh, no. Absolutely no idea. But I figured I’d manage something. All I need is some wood and some…leaves, maybe?”

“Well, that sounds like a great idea, but before that, why don’t we eat first? I’m absolutely famished,” Ren responded.

“Eat what?” I asked. “We’re going to need to hunt something, right? Since I have no idea what kind of plants we could eat. And then someone is going to have to, like, skin the animal, right? And…gut it, and stuff, right?” I shuddered at the thought. “Do you know how to do that stuff? Because I sure don’t.”

Ren grinned at me. “Well, you’re in luck then, Ruby. I just happen to be great at all that stuff.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Are you joking?"

Ren didn't respond to my question, only giving me an insulted look before carrying on. “And also, I just happened to be attacked by this weird deer-looking thing on my way here, so I killed him," he said. "I’m pretty sure I know where I left him, and he looked like he had quite a bit of meat on him. Why don't I go and drag him back here, and you can get a fire going in the meantime? Then we can cook and eat him, and then we can focus on shelter. How does that sound?”

“A deer? Why would a deer attack you?” I asked, my mind snagging on that one piece of information over everything else.

Ren shrugged. “I said deer-like. It looked like a deer, but it had crazy sharp teeth and antlers, and claws that came out of its hooves. It was the weirdest thing. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Well, I guess that makes sense. We can’t expect Earth logic to work here,” I said quietly. The full weight of the fact that I wasn’t on Earth anymore had yet to settle in properly, and Ren’s words were an uncomfortable reminder of the fact that I was trying to ignore.

“Anyway, that sounds like a good idea. I’ll get some wood for the fire,” I said, shaking myself out of my thoughts. There was work to do, which meant there was no time to waste moping around about things I had no control over.