The local birds singing their songs woke Taylor up from his sleep. Seeing as the sunrise was fairly visible he could assume he had a decent amount of sleep. As to how much he could only guess, but he felts great, well besides his back being sore from not having a bed anyway.

Hopping down off the branch he took a look around to reorient himself. ‘Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, I was running south west so’ he turned south west and did a little hop ‘run forest run’ and off he went.

A few more hours of running and he was getting very thirsty. ‘I really should’ve found a river or something’ he mentally chided himself. He slowed to a stop and held his hands in a cup and tried to feel the mana inside again “water” but nothing happened. “Water ball?” He tried but still nothing.

He focused now, thinking about water, about what it is. Two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, a compound in a way. He wasn’t a scientist by any stretch but he knew a little bit. H2O, I need enough to fill my hands like a small puddle. He focused on that image and the process needed to make water. “Water”

Slowly a puddle formed in his cupped hands, a fairly cool puddle of pure water. He smiled widely but drank quickly before he could spill it.

He kept his hands cupped, “water” he did those two more times until he felt sated. ‘Ok next up on the list is to find a place with a river, I don’t want to have to rely too much on magic. I don’t understand nearly enough to rely on it like that.’ He thought to himself and he started running again, only this time keeping a sharp ear out for the sound of running water.

It was another two hours of straight running before he heard it. A small gurgle of water off in the distance. He stopped and focused on his ears. Bugs crawling, birds chirping, leaves rustling, a small deer like animal not too far from himself. But further out, further to his left, he heard it, a river. He turned left and began to sprint.

He was flying! He had never run this fast before in his life! ‘Is this why it feels like to be the fastest human runner in the world?’ He wondered ‘oh wait I guess I’m an elf now’ he suddenly remembered.

Sooner than he thought he came across a river, it wasn’t especially beautiful but he thought it was the most beautiful river he had ever seen. The water was clear enough to see some fish swimming in it and he happily took a few handfuls of water to drink.

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‘That might’ve been stupid’ he thought ‘but damn is that some good water.’

Deciding to slow down the pace he continued along the river, but now at a simple jog to enjoy the scenery. He saw mushrooms growing on a fallen tree, creatures that seemed like a mix between moles and squirrels that had a nest in the roots of one of the large trees. And the trees, the trees were getting much bigger. These trunks were big enough that he would need four or five people to connect their arms to reach around it. And they were tall too, their height reminding him of the forests with giant trees on earth.

The further down stream he went the bigger they got until he happened upon the rivers end. The river flowed out into a small lake, well relatively small anyway. IT was still on the bigger side of lakes that he had seen but he lived in Michigan on earth and Lake Michigan was so big it was like an ocean unto itself.

The size of the lake wasn’t the surprise however, it was the island in the middle with the biggest tree he had ever seen. The top of it reached the clouds and the trunk was so big you could probably fit half the castle in it.

“Well hello there” he said out loud to the tree, “hope you don’t mind but I think I’ll have you be my home until I can figure out how to either get home, or bring my family here”

He began to wade into the water but before he could get past his knees stones making a small path he could hop across appeared out of the water as if to invite him over.

‘This could be bad,’ he thought, ‘or maybe it’s actually giving me permission to stay for a while’

He decided he had been pessimistic enough on earth and to trust this ancient tree. Stepping on the stones to find they weren’t even slippery. He hopped across them and once on the other side the stones sank back into the lake.

He looked back at the tree and gave a bow, “I don’t know if you can hear me or understand me at all but I humbly thank you for allowing me to stay here with you.” Standing straight he looks straight up at the trunk of the tree not knowing quite where to look to try to see it’s metaphorical eyes, “you see I’m very far from home, a whole planet or more, so I need to study magic to find a way back, or to bring my family here. I know they would love it here if I could manage it.”

Tears started to well up in his eyes as his thoughts turned to his wife and daughters. He missed them so much. A gentle breeze blew in as if to tell him it will be alright.

Wiping his eyes he said “yeah I suppose I should get started.”

He took off his shirt and sat down on the grass and closed his eyes. He focused on the blue energy called mana and did his best to see if he could feel it anywhere besides his body.

It was faint but he could feel something similar behind him, where the tree was. He opened his eyes which unbeknownst to him began to glow blue with mana and he turned to look at the tree which shone brightly with a mix of gold and blue. At the base of the tree was a person clad in brown robes. It raises a white withered hand and waved at him and spoke, not out loud but directly into his head.

“Hello young one,” it said in a voice that sounded old, but oddly not male or female, “I did hear your request and you are free to stay here with me for as long as it takes for you to figure out your problems. It has been lonely this past few hundred years without anyone to talk to I suppose.”

He blinked and the figure was gone, as was the blue glow in his eyes, now brown again.

He only had one question “What was that?”