Taylor took one look down as he heard shouting behind him as well as the clanking of armor. The drop was massive, much too far to survive, or at the very least if he was lucky he would get away with only breaking all the bones in his legs.

He felt something, it was similar to when he casted his own magic. ‘Are they charging spells?’ He wondered, ‘screw it, here goes nothing’ and he jumped.

He had been falling for all of one second before he started trying to feel the magic again just spewing words out in a rush, “feather falling, halt, stop, fuck fuck fuck fuck.”

Only twenty feet from the ground now, “Break! Slow! Cushion!” With his hand facing down the last one seemed to do the trick as a large gust of wind blew up and slowed his fall to a near stop before dropping him when he reached only ten feet above the ground.

As he landed he felt a stinging in his feet, ten feet was still a decent fall. Looking back up he saw the hole he made and the princess was standing in it gesturing wildly. A bolt of green energy slammed into the ground near his feet.

No time to think, he turned and ran away from the castle as fast as he could. He knew a search party would be after him soon enough. First things first, lose the tail. He turned left and ran along the city, he figured with running away from them they would assume he’d continue that way. Looking up he noticed the sun was at its highest, noon.

He took a glance at his shadow and noted its position. If this is like earth he can determine the cardinal directions based on the suns movement. It isn’t the best option but the best he had at the moment.

Looking down he noted his unusual appearance once more. He was taller and skinnier. His stomach completely disappeared replaced by abs. ‘Talk about a tummy tuck’ he thought to himself. He still had his clothes from earth, blue jeans a floral patterned shirt and a Carhart jacket. He definitely needs to get some clothes to not stand out too much, but that will wait until he can get to another town.

With a glance at the town a thought comes to him ‘maybe going to a town isn’t the best idea, I’ll just camp and move until I find a good place to stay in the woods. I can always build my own place there, no risk of being caught plus I can focus on my magic to get my family back.’

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

With his plan of action firmly in place he picked up the pace, ‘man running wasn’t this easy before, kinda happy I went through that now’ he thought as he realized he had been running for a good five minutes and was barely even winded. It felt like he has been walking at a brisk pace. ‘Let’s keep this momentum going’

• • •

After more than five hours of running Taylor finally came to a stop to catch his breath. He stood up straight and clasped his hands above his head and just breathed. The surroundings were much the same as they had been for a while now, the only difference was the trees were a little thicker here. Focusing on sound he could hear many things around him, a snake like creature in the grass nearby, a few rodents it seemed to be targeting close to it. The rustling of the leaves and the gentle breeze doing wonders.

Now that he had time to relax he realized the air just felt fresher than at home, maybe because of there being no cars? But when he looked up to see the sun setting in what must be the west based on earth science, meaning he had been running southwest the whole time, he got to see the wonderful colors and just enjoy the majesty of it.

As much as he worried for his family he needed to focus on finding a place to sleep for now. He didn’t exactly bring his camping gear with him. He pulled the two things he had with him out of his pocket. A phone and his wallet, luckily with no cash in it. He was glad more than ever now that he never carried cash, he didn’t want to take anything from his family when they needed it the most.

Turning on his phone he saw it had only sixty percent battery left and no service at all. “How am I supposed to catch up on all the HFY stories from Aggro Squirrel if I can’t use YouTube now?” He grumbled to himself, he had really been into that one story, the nature of predators, but not much he can do now.

‘I guess that’s the easiest option’ he thought as he began to climb the tree, ‘a night on a tree branch isn’t the worst place he’d slept anyway.’

* * *

Virginia sat with the police watching to footage of the camera at the book store, her eyes still wet. Her husband disappeared the day before and the book store had contacted the police due to a vehicle being parked overnight that turned out to be registered to her husband.

She watched as her husband flung his keys, the idiot and just before he could grab them a bright light shone and he was gone. The police rewound the footage to see it again and she noticed something.

“Is there anyway you can go frame by frame?” She asked.

The manager that was controlling the playback nodded “yeah we just recently got new ones and that was one of the features along with this complicated thing where it can recognize people, not facial but something about recognizing human bodies or something.” And she played it back frame by frame.

Virginia watched, her eyes glued to the ground under her husband, she could’ve sworn she saw it. She didn’t even need to call it out, as soon as it showed up the manager stopped it.

The managers mouth was open “ I can’t believe it.”

The cops were giving each other questioning looks, meanwhile Virginia was a mix of mad, sad, and jealous, “there’s no fucking way.”