It was over. I had given all I had to give and more.

Even if one ignored how exhausted I was from my prison march earlier, I was in no shape to carry on. Hell, I could barely breath at this point, and I was pretty sure I had a rib puncturing one of my lungs.

I coughed feebly, sending a spray of thick foamy blood across the dirt in front of me. The movement caused me to writhe in pain, but I didn’t have the energy to scream or yell.

I looked at the pool of blood coagulating in front of me, and then to the bird coming to finish me off for good. Upon closer inspection, the bird was a lot like a seagull in some ways, but very different in others.

Instead of a beak, the avian beast had an elongated jaw with powerful neck muscles attached to it. Its torso was covered in short and stubby feathers that behaved more like hair. Its body was a blend of white and grey with streaks of red blood all throughout.

A low rumble emanated from its throat as it vibrated its jaw and approached me. It was using its wings as support as it made its way to me. I met its eyes, two vibrant yellow stars that burned with hatred and vitality.

I wish I could say I had many regrets, but I had none. I had lived my life with no aspirations and little desires other than living and breathing. I felt a spark of inspiration when I saw the Altum man’s magic, but that spark could only carry me so far.

As I am now, I have no reason to fight back against the beast before me. I gave everything I had and more and still couldn’t come out on top. I let the tension I had held onto evaporate as I readied myself for death. The relaxation seemed to cause my body to give up as well, as I felt a new torrent of blood begin to pour out of the wounds on my shoulder and sides.

The bird was close, only a meter or so away. I could feel the heat from its heavy breathing as it closed in on my neck. My vision began to fade, and I saw a shadow loom over me and the creature before me.

If I wasn’t dying, I might’ve noticed the hatred in the bird’s eyes be replaced with fear as it tried to scurry away. Whatever it was acted mercilessly as the severed head of the bird rolled to the ground. I didn’t care, though. If whatever it was could best the bird, then it deserved to kill me as well.

I closed my eyes and waited. I waited for the last vestiges of my strength to leave me and felt my body relax as I welcomed death.

Death didn’t welcome me back.

I felt a surge of pain rush through my body as a heat began to flow through me. The heat kickstarted my breathing and caused me to inhale deeply, ignoring the rib piercing my lungs.

My eyes swung open as the light of the space around me blinded me momentarily. I felt my body moving without me, contorting into strange poses and shapes. My arms shot out from my body and began to groan and crack under immense pressure. The fire shooting through my body moved from my head, down my back, and through my legs.

I began to wail and scream to the forest around me. It felt like a pack of wolves had found me and begun tearing into my body. My breathing quickened as I felt the blood rush to my head in powerful heartbeats. In between flashes of pain, I began to notice the feeling of the blood flowing from my body slow down to a trickle and then eventually stop.

The waves of pain continued but lessened over time. It was either that or I was getting far more used to pain than I was supposed to. It eventually subsided enough that I was able to focus on my surroundings and see what had happened.

I was still on the ground, but I had moved slightly from where I had been, likely from writhing in pain. My arms were laid out in front of me, and I could see that they were straight, with no bends or breaks present anymore.

There was a massive pool of blood beneath me, dyeing my skin scarlet. The shadow from earlier was still above me but was shifting around slightly. I couldn’t see it behind the glare of the sun, and squinted my eyes to try and see who it was. The figure, seemingly understanding my issue, moved to block the sunlight.

Painfully, I craned my neck to see what had killed the flying beast. I looked up and up, and eventually found a humanoid face staring back at me.

Surprisingly enough, it was Scalisth, the man who had forced us all into a cave and through a magical portal. He had a smug look on his face as he looked down on me, seemingly enjoying the sight.

I didn’t like the look in his eyes, so I coughed up some blood in his direction. Some of it got on his fancy dark bodysuit, and his smug grin turned into a grimace. Seeing his face fall like that made me smile uncontrollably, which led to me chuckling to myself. Each giggle caused me immense pain, but it was worth it to spite the man who caused this.

“You know, in our culture, we are generally respectful to people who save our lives,” Scalisth said as he continued to look down on me.

I tried to bring up another mix of spit and blood from my throat, but my mouth was dry, and I was too weak to do it again.

“This would go a lot faster if you didn’t get so beat up. You hybrids definitely inherited your physiques from your human parents.” The Altum moved his hand above me, and that weird blue light began to weave between his fingers.

He continued, “Be lucky I am sworn to protect you until you reach the stronghold. Otherwise, I would let you die here like a fortuth.” The light flew from his fingers to my head, and I immediately felt the searing pain alleviate. Somehow, the alien man was healing my extensive wounds.

He let the energy flow for a few seconds more before he turned around to walk away. I felt my muscles tense up as the healing energy flowed through me. Unlike before, this energy was cool and refreshing, like a cold water after a hard day’s work outside.

I began to feel my limbs come under my control again as I wiggled my fingers and toes to check for movement. After a few minutes, I regained enough energy to move my head freely and breathe without pain.

I decided now was the time to speak, “W-why?”

Scalisth was doing something to the body of the bird, but he stopped when I spoke.

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“I told you,” he began, “It’s my duty to protect you. Unless you were referring to why you fell from the sky? Or is it why we brought you here in the first place? You really need to expand your vocabulary, Suni-Kes.”

“Jeez, what a dick. He didn’t even answer any of my questions.” I continued working my limbs around, trying to regain full movement before I did anything else.

It took a few minutes, and a few embarrassing attempts to stand, but I had eventually made my way up to my feet.

The forest around us was quiet, eerily so. There weren’t any birds or crickets chirping, and there especially weren’t any animals moving around nearby. The trees weren’t even swaying. That last one was probably because there was no wind, but it still added to the unsettling atmosphere.

Now that I could stand it, it was time to ask some questions. I walked over to the Altum man, feeling the stress that had built up in my legs slowly release. My back straightened as I readied myself to confront an otherworldly alien demigod.

“Hey,” I began. That caught his attention, and he turned his head around to look at me.

“I have a lot of questions. The first, where the hell are we?”

I’m not a geography expert, and certainly no biologist. Hell, I haven’t even been in a forest in years. Even with all of that against me, I knew for a fact that a normal forest didn’t look like this.

The trees were generally normal, with grayish-brown bark and limbs that reached the sky. The difference was that, instead of green leaves, there were orange and yellow bulbs growing in their place. They were organized in bundles as hung front only the topmost branches.

The dirt was red, and there wasn’t any grass. In its place was a thin layer of a natural felt that was soft to the touch, but stiff and resistant to movement. It was the color of straw and covered a large portion of the ground nearby.

I heard Scalisth sigh as he looked me in the eye, his pale white orbs reflected the red ground around me.

“We are on the home world, the seed of life and the centerpiece of the Altum empire. If you want me to be more specific, we are approximately two hundred kilometers south of our destination.”

“Bullshit,” I said loudly. “You’re telling me that I’m now on a planet trillions of kilometers away and I don’t even remember any of it?”

“You and your compatriots seemed a little out of it, so I suppose it’s not impossible for you to remember the transfer gate. I find that hard to believe, though, as it was a rather striking event.”

“Yeah, I remember the glowing thing, but that doesn’t explain how we went from hundreds of meters underground to falling from kilometers in the air!” I was flustered, and my fight or flight instincts were still activated from earlier, which gave my words a sort of panicked bite when I responded.

“Your lack of understanding is not a valid reason to reject my statement,” Scalisth said with contempt. “What matters is that it is true, and you have to deal with it.”

“This guy…” I didn’t know what to say to that. Sure, some strange things happened, but that doesn’t explain everything.

“Who says I have to deal with it? Are you going to take me as a prisoner again?” At this point, I was losing my patience with the giant’s attitude. Mainly though, my provocative words were meant to probe his true intentions while confirming why we were kidnapped in the first place.

Scalisth thought for a moment. “I suppose you could go out on your own. I am obligated to see you to our stronghold safely, but I couldn’t be blamed if you waived your right to safety yourself.” Suddenly a smug smile appeared along his sharp face.

“Regardless, I would stay with me if I were you. This pathetic beast would’ve killed you if I weren’t here.” He looked down on me contemptuously as he spoke.

“Hey, I almost killed it, and I wasn’t even trying. It would’ve also died with or without your intervention, oh gracious savior.” The sarcasm was practically oozing from my words as I spoke. Yes, the oversized bird might have killed me, but I was injured mainly from the fall, not the bird directly.

The Altum released a staccato chirping sound as his eyes squinted and his smile grew bigger. “You should know that a Cirphis like this is just a newborn, likely younger than an Earth year old. My youngest great grandchild could likely kill it, and he’s seven.”

“That thing is just a baby? I definitely don’t want to meet an adult…” I frowned at his provocation but said nothing. The uppity bastard was right about one thing: I needed to understand was that I was on a different planet now, and humanity might not be at the top of the food chain anymore.

Scalisth gave me an appraising look but turned around without adding anything else. He reached down into the corpse of the bird, which was mutilated nearly beyond recognition. It seemed he had been busy while I was finishing my recovery.

The Altum bent his giant frame down to pick up something from the carcass. A small piece of glossy black stone was removed from what remained of the bird’s head. He stood back up and placed the pebble into a pocket on his chest.

“If you are healed, then you should come with me. That is, assuming you will go with me at all?”

As cool as it would’ve been for me to blow him off and march into the woods, I knew I was hopeless without him. Regardless of his strength, his knowledge of the local flora and fauna would help avoid many problems we might encounter on our travels.

“Fine, where are we going,” I said aloud as he stared at me waiting for an answer.

“First, we will group up with the others. After that, we will be travelling north by foot until we reach our destination.” He didn’t wait for a response before he walked away in the direction I had first fallen from.

I thought about what he said for a moment. “Who are these other people? Are they the other prisoners, or more of the Altum?” Either way, I wasn’t excited to meet them.

///

Master Scalisth had lived for a long time. His wealth of experience and proficiency in world speech made him an excellent candidate to perform the complicated gate ritual to bring the half breeds to the home world. A lesser honored or even other masters might’ve had trouble performing a ritual for so many, but Master Scalisth wasn’t normal.

He wasn’t thrilled about his position in the slightest. Those idiots who crossbred with humans were bad enough, but now he had to treat these mutts like full-fledged Altum despite their tainted heritage. If it were up to him, they would’ve all been executed to clean the tainted blood from the history books. That way, everyone could forget it ever happened and go about things as usual.

Unfortunately, things never went as Scalisth wanted. He was even sworn to protect the humans, which was turning out to be much more work than expected.

The woman, who’s name Scalisth had not bothered to learn, had already forced him to expend a lot of breath just to keep her alive. Slowing her fall down wasn’t too bad, but healing was a high-level verdict that was going to take days to recover from. It might even take longer depending on how stupid the humans act during their travels.

The most perplexing thing about this situation was why the woman had fallen in the first place. It wasn’t a problem with the pre-ritual component, as that was executed perfectly. The gate might’ve had some flaws due to the poor framing materials, but that wouldn’t explain how she fell out of the sky at all.

The gate spell was supposed to lock the spatial positions of everyone who entered it until the operator, which was Scalisth, released them. This allowed the operator to withdraw them if things went wrong, or at the very least be prepared when they did.

For some reason, though, the human woman hadn’t been locked, and instead began to fall immediately. If the inter-world gate ritual didn’t exit at such a high height, then she would’ve been a stain on the forest floor before I realized anything was wrong.

All in all, the woman was unreasonably lucky. She landed on that Cirphis, which slowed her fall just enough for me to realize what had happened and slow her down. Even then, she almost died from the fall.

Scalisth didn’t particularly care if the humans died, but he wanted to try and fulfill his obligation to keep them alive if possible. It might reflect poorly on him as a master if he were unable to protect a few half breed humans.

Scalisth decided not to think on the topic any further. Regardless of her luck, the woman was alive and mobile, so they needed to move before nightfall. He also needed to brief the humans on the local wildlife, or else they might not even make it to nightfall.

///