By the time Marcus reached the gorge, he was wasted.

His limbs, although armoured, were still very weak, and he had tripped and fell numerous times, gaining various bruises all over his torso.

In the end, he had to use a fallen branch as an improvised crutch, but even then walking was a very tiring enterprise, as the undergrowth obstructed his advance and thorny plants scratched him.

Moreover, he was feeling both hungry and thirsty, more than he had ever felt in his life.

Really, the only things that kept him going was his stubbornness, and the fact that if he stopped before reaching water he didn't know if he would be able to continue.

But finally, after what it felt like an eternity, he arrived at the gorge and saw a small stream of water in front of him.

He immediately rushed to it, dropping to his knees in front of a small pool, and put his face in the water, drinking like an animal.

He kept drinking until he was out of breath, and then he finally raised his head, gasping for air as he collapsed at the edge of the pool.

"Aaaaaah..." he sighed, having finally sated his thirst "This was absolute bliss. I'd have never thought that simple water could taste so good..."

He simply laid there for a while, watching the sky and listening to the sounds of the river and the forest, resting his weary body.

It was only after a few minutes that he noticed something moving under his back. He immediately jumped away, fearing that it could be a snake or some other animal, but when he looked at the ground he couldn't see anything.

"Weird. " he murmured "I could have sworn that there was something there. Maybe I just got something attached to my back?"

He turned his head. What he saw was a short, stubby tail sprouting from just above his (surprisingly big and round) butt.

"What the hell!?! Why do I have a tail!?! How come I didn't notice it before!?! And why the hell is my butt so fucking big!?!"

The tail was reptilian looking, with some chitin plates covering its upper part. As far as Marcus could see, the plates extended also to his back, covering his spine up to his neck.

"Wonderful. I got a tail and a tiny bit of useless armor in my back. What next? Do I have the face of an insect too?"

He was actually afraid of that being the case. He looked at the pool of water, which was probably the only reflective surface in miles. Well, no time like the present to find out.

Fearing what he could about to see, he looked at his reflection.

The face that was staring back at him was a rather feminine and young one, framed by wild, dirty long brown hair. It had gray skin like the rest of the body, but the most striking detail were the eyes: big and vaguely insectoid, with no pupils and shining with a purple glow. In the center of his forehead, right above the eyes, there was a small, sharp horn. He also had no nose, just two barely visible nostrils, and his mouth was a jagged line with no apparent lips. When he opened it he could see that he had a disturbing set of very sharp teeth. His tongue was also weird, being bright green and unnaturally long.

He then tried making some weird expressions at the pool. He made sad faces, he smiled, he even tried to make a “duck face” (a difficult undertaking since he had no lips) before being satisfied.

It could have been far worse. His face was clearly not human but it wasn't nearly as monstrous as he had feared. Actually, he thought, it was kinda cute, in a creepy way. It had a childish quality of some sort, due to its shape and the size of the eyes. It wasn't his old face, but for the time being he was glad he wouldn't have to wander around with the head of a mantis or something.

A sudden noise coming from the forest took him from his thoughts.

Marcus raised his gaze, and saw a huge deer looking at him from the other side of the river.

It was a majestic creature, at least 2 meters tall with a collar of flowing white fur and incredibly beautiful antlers that seemed made out of crystal, shining in the sun like a crown.

Marcus couldn't help but stare in awe at the sight of such a magnificent creature, but as he was soon to find out, that was a terrible mistake.

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The deer gave him an angry look with his prideful eyes, and kicked the ground with annoyance.

Then, without warning, it lowered his head and charged at him.

Marcus was taken by surprise but he reacted instantly and dived away, dodging by a hair breadth those majestic crystal antlers that up closed looked very sharp and deadly.

He hit the ground but immediately picked himself up before running away.

His heart was beating like crazy, but Marcus tried to ignore it, looking behind himself to see the deer that was charging at him again.

Marcus tried to dodge, but this time he was a bit too slow and the antlers grazed him. Luckily, they hit him on the arm, where he was protected by his chitin armor, so he was just sent flying away.

The young man hit the ground hard, but he ignored the pain and jumped on his feet, resuming his run for the forest. If he managed to hide behind the trees, he thought, maybe he could hide from the deer...

Marcus had finally reached the first tree when he heard the galloping of the beast coming from behind him. He dived for the cover offered by the tree's trunk, crouching behind it to shield himself from the rushing deer. But then he felt the vibrations of an incredible impact, accompanied by the sound of wood being torn apart and by a rain of splinters.

The deer passed right next to him, and when he looked up he saw that, just above his head, a huge chunk of wood was missing from the trunk.

Are you kidding me!?! How strong is that deer!?! It's more like a monster than an animal!

Anyway, the animal was now shaking its head to clear his antlers of the remaining wood, and Marcus used this momentary pause to sprint for the depth of the forest.

He kept running, but now he couldn't hear the noise of the deer's clopping. He didn't stop anyway, just to be sure, and he didn't even dare to look behind his shoulders. It was only when he was out of breath that he left himself fall behind a tree.

He looked behind him, but he couldn't see the deer. Apparently the beast had decided that he wasn't worth the effort. Or maybe he was now out of its territory.

Whatever the reason, Marcus was glad that he had managed to survive.

It took some time before Marcus felt rested enough to move, and when it happened the sun was about to set.

The young man looked up at the alien sky. The red moon had disappeared, but now two other had taken its place, one small and white and the other medium sized with a yellow hue.

It was a magnificent view, but Marcus was too crestfallen to take notice of it. He felt incredibly hungry, tired and scared. He was stranded in the hostile wilderness of another world with a weak, weird body that wasn't his own. And to make things worse, he couldn't even have some fucking coffee.

All in all, it was enough to break someone's spirit.

That state of self-pity lasted until Marcus slapped himself in the face.

His hand was hard, cold and armoured, and the slap did hurt quite a bit, but it served its purpose, shaking him out of his depression.

"Ok... staying here and whine won't help you, Marcus!- he said to himself -So stop being such a pussy and get yourself together! You're not dead yet, and if you intend to survive there are things that need to be done!"

He picked himself up, standing with his back against the tree. He felt a little dizzy, but after the rest he was relatively ok.

"I need a shelter." he murmured weakly "Food can wait for now, but I absolutely need to sleep. And for sure I can't do that in the open... what if there are some other animals like that deer around!?"

He looked around. He could only see the forest around him, no source of lights. Where could he find a shelter?

"I could try to build some kind of hut... but that'd take time, and the sun is about to set." he thought out loud "Then should I try to climb one of these trees? It'd be relatively safe up there, I guess." he looked up, gauging the height of those plants, and discarded that plan "Nah. They are too high and difficult to climb... even with a proper equipment, I don't know if I'd manage to do that right now."

He then sighed.

"Well then. I can't hide on the ground or above it. The only thing to do is hide under it.- he made a sad, sarcastic smile -Guess is fitting for an insect, or whatever I am right now, to crawl under some rock."

He started wandering around, looking for a suitable hole in the ground where he could have slid into.

The search took about an hour, during which the sun completely set down, leaving the forest plunged in darkness.

Luckily for Marcus, his new eyes seemed perfectly capable to see in the dark, so that didn't hampered his search, although he was most wary now. Now that the sun had set, the forest was even more noisy. He could feel many creatures moving around, crawling, walking and flying. He even heard the howl of a wolf in the distance.

He trembled and tried even harder to find a suitable shelter.

After some time, he did indeed find one, but its suitableness was up for debate. It was little more than a hole in the ground, dug by erosion under the roots of a huge, dead tree.

Before entering, Marcus checked the inside for the presence of any previous occupants, but all he could see were some tiny millipedes, worms and spiders crawling around.

He shuddered, but hey, sharing your living space with insects beat ending up as food for some hungry predator, doesn't it?

Also, he was kind of an insect too right now.

So he kept his disgust under check and crawled in the hole.

The inside wasn't really comfy. The hole continued in the earth for about one meter, and the roof, made of dead roots, was only about 80 centimeters tall. It was more than enough to accomodate Marcus's quite tiny body, but not to let him be comfy, especially since the ground under him was damp and crawling with vermins.

"Ew! Ew! Ew ew ew ew!" Marcus lamented when a particularly long millipede somehow fell on his face "This is just the worst! I need to find a better place soon!"

But this was his only choice for now, so he'd have to grin and bear it.

He let himself lie against the ground in fetal position, trying to be as comfortable as possible.

"Well then... goodnight, shitty new world. I sincerely hope that you'll go fuck yourself and when I wake up I'll be back in my home!"